Healing Prayer (fifth installment)

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Claudia Dickson Greggs

“If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”(Mark 5:28)

In the fifth chapter of Mark’s gospel we are presented with two stories about healing.  We can learn a lot from them about calling on Jesus today to heal, so in this post I am writing about the first story, in which a woman suffering from a discharge of blood is healed,  and in my next post about the second one, in which a young girl is raised back to life.

I begin by acknowledging that some people think such healings can’t happen anymore; that they occurred only while Jesus walked this earth.  However, I disagree with this conclusion.  Because Jesus was resurrected from the dead by his Father, he was set free, forever, from the limits of time and space.  He can be anywhere at any point in time — and in all places at once.  Furthermore, Scripture tells us he is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  So, the conclusion I’ve reached is that Jesus can just as readily heal today as he healed while walking this earth.

I turn now to the story about the woman who was suffering from a hemorrhage.   Her attempt to approach Jesus is made difficult by the fact that he is surrounded by a very

James Tissot, The Healing of the woman subject to bleeding; Date: 1886-96, Watercolor

large crowd – and they are pressing in from all sides.  She concludes that if she can just get close enough to touch the hem of his garmet she will be healed and when she does so she is healed instantly. Jesus realizes at once that something miraculous has occurred, because Mark tells us that he is “immediately aware that power has gone forth from him” (5:30).

This power that went forth from Jesus isn’t just any kind of power, though. Continue reading →

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Healing Prayer (fourth installment)

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Claudia Dickson Greggs

The Lord shall fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14:14)

In my previous post I wrote about how our openness to receiving God’s healing is an essential component when hands are being laid on us for healing.  The Lord heals on his own terms, not ours.  So we must relinquish our stipulations, demands and expectations and welcome his gift as he freely gives it, trusting God has our best interests at heart and knows best what we need.

In addition, unbelief, even though it may be unconscious, can blunt the full effect of God’s power.  Mark records in his gospel that when Jesus went to minister in his hometown, “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.  And he was amazed at their lack of faith.” (6:5-6)  For people in the medical profession, in particular, receiving God’s healing requires they be receptive to, and not dismissive of, the miraculous. Miracles can pose a problem for doctors, and others, who have been trained to think rationally and to make judgments based upon material facts.

Rembrandt; The Raising of Lazarus, C. 1630

However, God is not bound by natural laws.  He is Lord over creation and he can transcend any “laws” and established medical judgments about what is possible – and what is not.

God can raise the dead, rebuild tissue, organs, muscle and bone as well as cure diseases deemed incurable.  But those who think that the realm of what is possible Continue reading →

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Healing Prayer (third installment)

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Claudia Dickson Greggs

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…(Ephesians 2:8)

As I wrote several weeks ago, when I learned that at least two cancerous lesions had been detected in my lungs, I turned to the Lord for direction in how to pray about this attack on my life.  I sensed him saying, “Press in for your healing.”  Since “press in” is not a phrase I’ve used before, I was not sure what it meant, but I soon reached the conclusion that I was to seek with conviction the Lord’s healing.

I felt assured God would bring about my healing – and that I need not worry my healing would depend upon whether I was diligent enough in “pressing in.”  Paul’s words to the Ephesians, above, which are never far from my mind, serve as a continual reminder that my salvation – and restoration to health – do not depend upon my efforts.  Instead, I sensed that I was to ask for prayer from friends and family far and wide and especially seek out the “laying on of hands” from whomever God leads me to.

Hands are laid upon a person who is sick in a tradition that goes back to Jesus and his disciples.  Touch is an important component in this kind of prayer, as it is was in the prayers that were said over me when I was ordained twenty-four years ago.  One possible reason that touch is important Continue reading →

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