Tag Archives: Healing

Courage of Clarity

As a young boy I remember watching the Wizard of Oz.  While the Scarecrow was my favourite character, I remember being impacted by the lesson in courage that was delivered through the Cowardly Lion.  Courage, as the Lion came to learn, does not mean one has no fear.  Rather, courage is acting even though one is afraid.

Courage is when you make a choice, take a decision in the face of uncertainty.  Courage doesn’t necessarily guarantee an outcome, but it does help the process of obedience. Courage helps you face a fear and act anyway.  It helps you take a risk.

I remember the first time I prayed for the physical healing of someone outside a church environment.  I was beyond nervous; I was actually afraid.  My body went through the physical sensations of fear: shaking knees, dry mouth, stuttered speech, quivering voice … it was pathetic!!  But, what kept me going in that moment was the fact that I had heard Holy Spirit speak.

The man was limping and wincing in obvious pain.  As if from behind me, in my ear I heard/sensed “Pray for him”.  So, knowing I’d heard Holy Spirit speak, I pushed through the symptoms of fear and prayed for his knee.  God did something absolutely amazing. (see post , this will take you to another blog site).

I’ve often thought back to that situation and wondered how I may have handled things had I not heard Holy Spirit speak so clearly.  I was in the early stages of learning how to hear God’s voice.  I had never met the man before.  Our meeting was part of my job and we were in a warehouse.  There was no prayer line; no worship band; no atmosphere of expectation.  But I knew I had heard God speak.  He didn’t give specifics.  He didn’t promise any results.  He just said, “Pray for him”.

The clarity of having heard from God gave me the confidence to act.  But when the symptoms of fear started taking over I began to question if I really wanted to take the risk.  But I steeled myself, tried to control the violent shaking inside me while I squeaked out an offer to pray for his knee.  When the man looked at me as if I was some kind of alien – I had to rely on more than confidence, I had to find some courage.

I’m learning that courage is usually required because acting in faith almost always involves RISK.  Courage doesn’t mean we have less faith, it demonstrates we’re willing to act on the faith we have.  I sometimes wish we could live from a place of peaceful confidence where risk isn’t scary and courage isn’t necessary – but, that’s not the way things work.  What would Jesus have said to that idea after resolving that the cup of the cross would not pass by him?  What would the Apostle Paul have said to that as he lay prostrate for days while the flesh on his back healed from the whippings?  And the nameless faithful, described in Hebrews 11 who didn’t see what they hoped for; what would they say to that idea?

Faith requires action.  Action involves risk.

Clarity provides the confidence for action.  Courage helps us take the risk.

Jesus & God in Healing (part 2)

Back to those inconsistencies I grew up with. I remember thinking that somehow Jesus & God had different roles to play. I could read the Bible and see what Jesus did, but somehow that was separate from what God did.

When someone we knew was diagnosed with a disease or suffered a debilitating condition, I remember hearing older people say things like, “that’s the way life goes” or “God works in mysterious ways” or “I don’t understand it now, but there’s a reason for the sickness”. I did not grow up in a belief system that held out hope and faith that God is good and doesn’t want people to be sick. As a result, the belief system that developed in me was more the opposite: that God intentionally gives people diseases or, if he’s not giving them directly, he’s not able or willing to change the condition.

So much of Jesus’ life and activity was spent healing those who were sick, lame, blind or deaf. The gospels give several summary statements about Jesus ministry and how he healed the multitudes (Mt 4.23f, 9.35; Lk 6.18). He healed because he had compassion (Mk 1.40-42 ), he healed to demonstrate he had authority to forgive sin (Lk 5.18-25), he healed to release people from the bondage of sickness (Lk 13.11-13 ;Jn 5.6), he healed simply because people requested it (Mt 9.19; Mk 10.51), he healed to demonstrate the present reality of his Kingdom (Mt 8.5-13, 12.28; Lk 6.22-23) and Jesus healed because he and Father are one and the same (Jn 14.11).

I was always happy with the first few reasons – because this was Jesus and healing is just a part of what he did. But I remember the first time I heard the idea that God is good and doesn’t want people to be sick – I recall getting defensive, even argumentative. I could agree that God is good but I didn’t know what to do with the idea he doesn’t want people sick. Hadn’t I learned all along that people get sick, suffer with disease and people in the church simply put it down to God’s purposes? Wasn’t it commonly understood that all things happen for a purpose and if someone gets a diagnosis it will work out for their good?

These are the conclusion I had come to. But I was now being presented with a conflicting idea and the more I investigated Jesus’ life and what the Bible reveals, I realised that my conclusions were very far away from what I was discovering in the Bible.

It all boiled down to this question: If Jesus healed the sick, how could God be the one making people sick? Jesus said that one of the reasons for healing was to reveal the nature and heart of God (Jn 10.38), then how could God be the one who is making people sick? If Jesus is the exact representation of God (Hb 1.3) then it doesn’t make sense that Jesus would go around healing if God is the one making people sick.

If Jesus only did what he saw the Father do and only said what he heard the Father say (Jn 5.19), then that meant Jesus ‘saw’ that the heart of God was to heal the sick. Jesus even said on a few occasions that he healed so people would know God sent him (Jn 11.42). Never once did Jesus tell someone that he wouldn’t be able to heal them because the particular condition had been given to them by the Father. Jesus and God are not playing out a ‘good-cop, bad-cop’ routine. They are completely united and in total agreement. They are genuinely good.

Jesus & God in Healing (part 1)

Another image of God that I picked up somewhere along the way is the idea that people get sick either because God gives it to them or, at the very least, he allows it in order for them to learn something to make them better people. But, if the author of Hebrews is correct, Jesus is the perfect representation of God and no matter how hard I looked, I simply could not find anywhere in the life of Jesus where he told people that the sickness they had would make them better people. Again, I see the opposite.

Jesus actually healed everyone who asked him for healing. Everyone who asked. Not once did Jesus tell somebody that the disease they were suffering with was sent to them by God in order to build their character, help them be a better person, teach them patience, bring their family closer or to die with dignity. Yet, for so much of my life, I’ve heard Christians give reasons like these to explain why people get sick.

When we talk about healing from a Christian perspective I think its essential that we talk about it from the example and teaching of Jesus. Too often healing is discussed from our point of view – and that isn’t always the most biblical. It is important that we stop to consider from where we form our beliefs. Where do your beliefs about healing come from? Have you arrived at those beliefs through studying the Scriptures? Or are your beliefs about healing arrived at through your personal experience?

I’m not saying I have all the answers. In no way do I have it all figured out. But I am sure about one thing: Jesus healed everyone who came to him requesting healing – he even went to heal people who didn’t ask him for healing! Not once did Jesus turn someone away. Never did he tell someone to get their act together before he would heal them. Never did he tell someone to get used to the disease because it was the ‘cross they were to carry’ or that it would make them a better person. His only response to disease and physical ailments was to get rid of them by healing the person who was sick.

The Man With a Shrivelled Hand

One Sabbath day Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue and saw a man whose hand was shrivelled.  I’m not sure what a shrivelled hand looks like. The Greek word used in this sentence is Xaraino (Zay-ra-eeno) and its meaning is to dry up, to wither, to waste away.

I have a picture in my head of a hand with fingers somehow curled up and locked into an unusable position with the palm of the hand squeezed together with the base of the thumb forced inward toward the palm. Withered. Unusable. Wasting away.

All through the Bible, we see instances where Jesus healed the multitudes and all who came to him. In this situation he does something a little unusual. He doesn’t simply heal the man; he first asks a question of the religious leaders who were present.

“What is lawful on the Sabbath; to do good or to do evil? To save a life or to kill?” In their silence Jesus was angry and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts and told the man to stretch out his hand – which he did to the astonishment of everyone in the room. The man’s hand that just a few moments ago was withered and wasting away is now being stretched out, with life once again pulsating through the muscles, tendons, nerves and joints.

The context of the passage is dealing with the religious leaders who were more concerned with keeping their man-made tradition than they were concerned about the good of the people. By asking the question, Jesus exposed their stubbornness in front of everyone. But, his question did more than simply embarrass the religious leaders.

Everyone knows the answer to the question Jesus asked. To do good is always a better option than to do evil and to save a life is always better than to kill. These questions don’t even require consideration from any right-thinking person. So why did Jesus ask the question?

Through his question, he made clear that there is a connection between doing good and saving a life. To do good is to act in such a way that brings hope, invites promise or demonstrates righteousness. This type of action is life-giving in the spiritual sense as well as in the tangible, physical sense.

Conversely, there is a connection between choosing evil and killing. To do evil is to act in such a way that steals, inhibits righteousness or oppresses others. Even if there is no overtly evil deed, a decision not to act for good when you have the power to do so, is still an action. And this in-action is the opposite of goodness; it robs life and, over time, it kills.

To do good or to do evil? To save a life or to kill? Each action is a result of a choice.

But this question seems a bit too heady, too deep, almost over the top for the situation. The religious leaders had been teaching for strict adherence to their laws around keeping the Sabbath holy. Surely, they weren’t trying to kill anyone, all they were trying to do was keep people in line – even if it was through an unreasonable & overbearing approach.

But, in a way that only Jesus is able to do, he cuts through all the smokescreens and religious double-talk and gets right to the heart of the matter. To choose not to do good is just as evil as an overt act of evil.

Throughout his ministry Jesus consistently stated that one of the reasons he came was to do good and to save. He said that he came to give life in abundance, but the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy (Jn 10.10). When speaking to Cornelius in Acts 10, the disciple Peter made a statement about Jesus that summarises this point. Peter describes Jesus as going around “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil because God was with him” (Acts 10.38).

So the reason behind Jesus’ question becomes even more clear when we look at the context of Jesus’ teaching and ministry. Jesus came to bring life. Healing the man’s hand was a demonstration of goodness and life.

Another important element in the context of Jesus’ ministry is that he taught, and expected, his followers to continue in his mission.

Which is better; to do good and save a life, or to do evil and kill?