John 17: 25-26
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
A few years ago I spent some time at a school of Christian ministry. I trotted off to the USA to have some time out, to regroup and to seek God after a rough patch in my life. I was only ever planning to go for a year (I ended up staying for 3 years!), and I never expected to find myself in the healing rooms ministry every second Saturday morning. It was a little intimidating at first, but a lot of fun and such a privilege to stand with people before our Father and to seek the love, blessing, grace and healing that only flows from our Father's throne. Sometimes the presence of God is so totally evident; pain will disappear, people will weep or fall on the floor, and the peace can be tangible. Even things like hearing and eyesight can come back. But it's not always like this. God is not a puppet on a string, and it keeps me humble and in a reverential awe of God, as I seek to serve Him/ partner with Him in this way. It also makes me hungry for the stories of slightly more bizarre and crazy things I have heard.
In my first year of ministry school, I lived with 3 other girls and being a Physio, I found myself massaging out someone's neck a few times to relieve a bit of pain. With us all being on the same page in regards to supernatural healing (so to speak), it was easy to experiment a little. To just pray for the pain, to just massage, or to do a little of both. Needless to say, the 'bit of both' seemed to work the best. Which is not surprising, given the story of the feeding of the 5,000, where the food was multiplied only as the disciples gave it out. Also with Naaman being healed of his leprosy (2 Kings 5), as only as he was reluctantly obedient to the instructions of Elisha to wash himself in the Jordan river 7 times.
James 2: 26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Don't take my point the wrong way. Praying with someone, and in fact, praying at all is an act of faith. Sometimes, though, the answer/ miracle is not just hearing the voice of God, but in the getting out of the boat in response to the voice of God. It helps at times to get people out of their own issues by getting them to perform a silly prophetic act (such as turning down a pain dial, much like you would turn down the temperature on an oven), or at times it is the physically walking or running or doing something that they couldn't before (although I would never, ever put anyone at risk). It can also be us, the praying people, stepping out in speaking out a word of knowledge (this can be scary too - but it can really raise the faith level). Oh, to just hear his voice a little more clearly!
But sometimes the miracle comes gently, slowly and without any theatrics. We find in healing rooms that not everyone walks out with the miracle that they seek, but I firmly believe that you can't come before God and have nothing changed! Sometimes people find their healing later that day or the next morning. Sometimes people find it in small increments. We had a little 2yo girl with ? Cerebral Palsy once in healing rooms. She came with her Dad, and we sat on the floor and played with her as we prayed. That day she said her own name for the first time, and her father reported that they had noticed small changes at home as they brought her back every few weeks. Sometimes the answer is in the waiting.
Sometimes the answer is also in the natural. In the massage on the Physio table, or in simply finding the lost keys in answer to a short prayer. I was unemployed a few months ago, and I found the answer came through simply trusting God to provide and in putting in the job applications one by one. In the end I found myself in a position where I pretty much had a choice between 2 jobs in the same week. The one I chose was not the one I thought I would want / that I had been working towards. Open doors and closed doors. In retrospect I can see that I did indeed make the right decision, although it didn't make a lot of sense at the time. Oh, to hear His voice a little more clearly!
Sometimes the answer comes without me even knowing it.... I had a lady in the other day, and yes, all I did as a Physio was pretty much give her upper back a brief massage, and her comment was, "You have healing hands...". Really?? Yes, I can believe that something as simple as massaging out a knot can bring healing in ways that I am totally unaware of. I hadn't prayed anything. Maybe this lady was picking up on something (I think she is Hindu)? Or maybe she was just flattering me because she wanted to come back again for another massage? Either way it doesn't really matter. :) If she brings it up again, I might say something to her.....
I will finish this little blog with another favourite story of mine from healing rooms. Nothing very natural about this, though. The lady that came to our little team of 3 people was a Hindu lady with pelvic pain and depression (I don't think we were aware that she wasn't Christian at the time). We prayed a simple prayer and this lady's face lit up with a smile and I remember her walking around the room pain free. After we had celebrated a little with her, she spoke to someone else in the room and ended up giving her life to Christ. So beautiful to watch and to be a part of, even if we weren't super aware of where this lady was at when she first came to us. God is so good; He loves to bring people out of the Kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of light.
1 Peter 2: 9 - 10 (The Passion Translation)
But you are God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world. For at one time you were not God’s people, but now you are. At one time you knew nothing of God’s mercy, because you hadn’t received it yet, but now you are drenched with it!
God's ways are higher than our ways and His understanding is higher than ours. The pleasure is that we get to play our part. To play with His Spirit and to follow His ways. We can't take the credit ourselves at all - I personally can't heal anyone, but I know the one who can. All glory and honour and power be to His name in the big and little miracles! Jesus does still heal today.
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