How God Heals: Christian Approaches vs Wholeness and Healing - Essay Example

How God Heals: Christian Approaches Vs Wholeness and Healing Introduction Healing is one of the most frequent themes in the long and sprawling history in the religion of Christianity. Health is the ever-changing states of a person or a society’s well being of mental, economic, physical, political, social and spiritual, it encompasses the well-being of a person with others and with God (Church of England, 2000, p110). In the old times, healing came to men in very many different forms and ways. God communicated to men sometimes directly or through other men. He gave special powers to some men, in society, who would heal the sick. Coming in wholeness, with God Himself, was one way of bringing good health to your life. The Lord sent some Prophets to bring healing to the people. Miracles from God were rampant and obeying the Lord would bring healing. Reading the story of Jesus, it is notable that the most outstanding course of action he took, apart from teaching about the kingdom of the lord, greatly involved into the act of healing. He healed many people from the lame, blind to other members of the society who had leprosy. He healed people suffering from physical illness to those suffering from mental and spiritual illnesses, as well. He responded to people’s needs by offering healing and restoring wholeness to people’s lives. Brief History of Healing in Christianity The Lord himself, Jesus Christ, performed a lot of healing through miracles. In the 2nd century BC, St Ignatius became the first priest who described the Eucharist as the medicine of immortality. A 4th century Christian apologist and poet, Prudentius, celebrated St Cyprian’s tongue’s healing power. The 15th century legendary, Bokenham, reported St Agatha’s healing power that came from the milk of her breasts (Wilkinson, 1998, p42). In the 19th century Natal, Zulu’s prophets petitioned Jesus to cured diseases that were caused by restless spirits. Mary Baker Eddy came up with the Science of Divine Mind as a weapon against harmful animal magnetism. Healing has played a vital role in the development of Christianity as a religion. The history of healing, in Christianity, can be mapped through transformation in the ancient, medieval and modern times. Initially, healing of sickness and disease had its origin from the Judean belief that the latter came from or linked to evil and sin. They believed that the cure lied on prayer and repentance to earn Gods favor and divine forgiveness (Wilkinson, 1998, p68). Jesus’ activities that portrayed Jesus as an exorcist and a healer included his disciples carrying his combat against evil and sin and the manner in which he was compassionate for suffering into different new cultural perspectives, from the ancient worlds, to the modern America and beyond. There has been interplay between medical and Christian healing ever since time memorial. Today, the health sector is mainly characterized by biological findings. Humans have technologically advanced these days that new discoveries have sort to different solutions of curing or healing different diseases. Science is at its prime, and many diseases are cured at the hospitals unlike the older days when people used to seek divine intervention in the churches and through the profits. People of today’s generations will most probably think about God when they are sick, but will immediately seek the services of a doctor or any other medical practitioner (Gusmer, 1974, p 102). Divine intervention is currently no longer in the picture. Even though there are some few Christians who still believe in divine healing, they do not exist in considerable numbers. Some of the Christians who are constant churchgoers have lost touch with the reality that the Lord can perfectly heal upon trusting and having faith in him. This is the reason why future generation will even face tougher times as far as illness is concerned because God still posses as the ultimate and most satisfying healer (Wilkinson, 1998, p122). In Christian context, healing should not only apply to diseases, but encompasses other problems like natural disasters and security issues. Science may try to sort these problems out, but can never completely eradicate them; leaving the faith as the only option that can restore health to our societies. Christ and Healing Today Jesus believed in offering help to those in need to provide healing, and he encourages us to follow in his footsteps (Wilkinson, 1998, p117). Healing, in the contemporary society, involves contemporary measures like provision of medicine. However, as Christians, It is imperative to know that an individual’s health is not always about his physical well-being. Losing wholeness with God can render one extremely sick. Jesus brought people together into a fellowship where they could pray together and bring about healing in their societies. There is an element of this kind of healing in the world today, when Christians come together, they experience healing by praying together. Christians currently restore healing, among them, by praying for one another (Gusmer, 1974, p 56). They also love coming and praying together with the members of the society that are going through difficulties, in their lives. Like in the old days, some Christians still believe and practice the anointing with oil as a way of bringing healing upon their lives. Sharing the blood and body of Christ is very fundamental in the healing process of this contemporary society. Holy Communion, in this respect, can restore health, especially spiritual health in people’s lives. When the spirit is healthy, the body will definitely be healthy. Mental health begins by respecting God, which we are told in simplicity by Jesus “it is by respecting and obeying your neighbor, you are respecting and obeying him” (Gusmer, 1974, p36). The incarnation of God, in Christ, confirms that the power of God’s healing does not save us from this world alone, but does continues to deliver us even above the realms of this physical world. Jesus Christ did not only practice healing, but also had something special to deliver to men. He advised his disciples to continue working. He believed in one thing that would restore everlasting healing among men, and that could only be achieved through the restoration of unity between God and men, which was his sole purpose for coming (Wilkinson, 1998, p63). Heal in Christianity at one point rose, but has ever since fallen over the years. Central to the Gospel is healing. Healing makes a connection between God and men in the essence of Jesus’ work in his entire life, he died, and he then resurrected. During his ministry, he healed leapers, the lame and blind men, he healed the hemorrhaging woman, the demon possessed, and Christ went as far as raising the dead. Christ deeply involved his own disciples in the acts of healing. The book of Paul accounts the act of healing as a gift from the Holy Spirit. Throughout the book of Acts, gifted with the Holy Spirit, the disciples of Jesus went all over the world performing the act of healing. For an entire 300 years, physical healing was an integral part of Christianity and faith was as a sign of God’s compassion, care and love (Gusmer, 1974, p97). The essence of this kind of healing has gone from being a central activity of the Church to being perceived as a curse from God or God’s use of sickness as a punishment, discipline and penance for the sins of men. It, therefore, appears as though the Church anoints people for death instead of healing. Wholeness is achieved when we come together in harmony and peace with God, which we can only achieve through faith in Jesus Christ. Believing that he has healed you through your troubles, in reality brings, true healing to your life. Degradation of the Healing Process Western theologians, in the 4th Century, influenced Christians to believe that illness came to men as a form of punishment from God, instead of a manifestation of something evil or opposed to Gods perfect will to humankind (Gusmer, 1974, p101). This gradually disintegrated or divided the physical health from spiritual health, and they became compartmentalized. During the Dark Ages, Christians developed an attitude towards faith as an intellectual rather than an experimental exercise, and this diminished the spiritual ministry of healing, in the church. Modernity has reformed the very essence of faith and healing and reformers view salvation as health for only the soul and not the body. In spite of all these trends, individual Christians who practice the Gospel well, and retain faith are still receiving healing from God. Additionally, their testimonies have echoed through history. In the middle of the 19th century, people began reaffirming the relationship that exists between the mind, body, emotion and spirit, and between faith and health. While a holistic and integrated view has emerged in medicine. Today, a renewed church is opening arms up for the faithful to have the space for the Holy Spirit of the Lord to enter powerfully into their lives and provide health in the ministry of healing. Healing by Faith Healing by faith entails healing through spiritual means, which come to those with faith in the Lord and his ability to restore wholeness in men. Christians believe that healing can be brought forth to an individual through prayer and faith that eventually stimulates the divine power of God towards the disease or disability that a person is suffering from men. It believes in the divine power of God’s ability to restore health. Faith healing is still practiced by many Christians today. A group of people can come together, hold hands and pray together in order to stimulate healing among them. Whenever people come and pray together, there prayers become even more powerful as Christ Jesus had instructed. The prime of healing or the primary requirement of healing, in Christianity, is faith. Faith means surrendering all your needs to the lord and believing in him. Letting all upon the hands of the Lord and faithful about it provides complete healing (Gusmer, 1974, p 121). However, this is not always an immediate process where an individual can expect an instant answer. God has his own perfect way of doing things. We cannot approach and judge God with the wisdom of men. Being patient with the Lord is crucial in the course of healing. In addition, Christ had taught that another man’s faith can positively contribute to our emotional, physical, mental and spiritual healing. This practice can be observed in the contemporary Christians when they move around the houses of the faithful fellowshipping together while praying and asking God to bless the household. This has also been practiced, by the Christians of today, when they move around hospitals praying for the sick, and during the prayer and thanksgiving at the Christian Churches. Today, they pray for various issues that affect the world like war and terrorism. All these are examples of seeking for healing within the Christian Church of today. Some Christians today, especially the Roman Catholics, perceive or consider faith healing as giving an intercessory prayer to a saint or an individual with a gift of healing (Church of England, 2000, p84). They pray for miracles to happen just like in the older days of the past and first Christians. The miracle of healing is not usually a gift for the healed alone, but for God and the society, for it provides an evidence of God’s perfect love and strength. The ultimate healing in salvation is “by inviting Christ into your life and believing in him, believing that he died for you and believing in his resurrection” (Church of England, 2000, p107), and that because of this you are forgiven all your sins. Christians believe, that through this, they have achieved ultimate healing and can never fall for any evil or sickness. Conclusion Christians of today need more healing than ever as we are living in the end times. The world is full of illnesses of social injustices like corruption, terrorism, war and violence, food crisis, poverty and hunger, discrimination just to name a few. In contrary, past generations were never subjected to such at the same intensity as the generation of today experiences. God’s presence is really needed, but the ways of men, has diminished the healing of the Lord that once existed. Corruption and sin have invaded to the extremes of the very Church that once provided healing to its people (Gusmer, 1974, p77-78). Having known that God is the ultimate answer to all the adversities faced by humans today, Christians should come together and restore wholeness. They should bring themselves together and work towards the realization that science alone can never heal the society from the wrath of the end days, but through faith in the Lord and trust in his omnipotence, can surely deliver humankind from all suffering. Diseases like HIV/ AIDS has no cure regardless of all the attempts that humans have made. Many resources have been spent, in a bid, to discover the cure for HIV/ AIDS, but all has ended in vain. This is a clear indication that the wisdom of men alone is not enough without the power of the Lord through His Holy Spirit. Recognition of the power of the Lord that has diminished overtime ever since the Dark Ages should be a priority of the church, because restoring this wholeness that once humanity had with God would mean curing the society at large of all the evil and pain. Bibliography Church of England (2000). A Time to Heal: A Contribution towards the Ministry of Healing. London: Church House Bookshop. Gusmer, C. W. (1974). The Ministry of Healing in the Church of England: An Ecumenical – Liturgical Study. Top of Form Wilkinson, J. (1998). The Bible and healing: a medical and theological commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich, Wm. B. Eerdmans. Bottom of Form Read More