It seems to me that I have tried to explain my belief about the faith healings of Jesus multiple times. It started with an old book from years ago. There are a few such old books still on my shelf, but I cannot get rid of this book, no matter what! It was the source of a great breakthrough in my understanding. I am talking about a book by Fr. Louis Evely that has his insight on the faith healing of Jesus.
Father Evely makes the case that the phenomenon known as a “healing miracle” is simply an abnormal acceleration of natural healing processes that are triggered by faith. A “miracle” he says, does not occur from the outside in, but from the inside out. Christ did not tell those he cured, “My power has cured you.” Instead, he said, “Your faith has cured you.” In the previous chapter, we read about the cure of a woman with great faith, but earlier in this chapter, Mark reports that “Jesus could work no miracle there because of people’s lack of faith.” Today, we read that people were begging to brought to the marketplaces so that they might touch the tassel of Jesus’ cloak, and as many as touched it were healed. It was not, of course, a holy tassel that caused the cures in the gospel today, it was people’s faith that triggered their cures! Their faith triggered an acceleration of natural healing processes.
What about the miracles that have been recorded at places like Lourdes? Well, there have been miracles at every shrine of every religion, and most of these have been miracles of healing. Father Evely notes that the sole characteristic of a miraculous cure is the extraordinary acceleration of the natural healing process. That which cannot be healed by a natural process is not susceptible to a miraculous cure; an amputated leg or arm, he noted for example, has never been re-grown miraculously – not even a finger. So, it seems that such acceleration of the natural processes of healing can be triggered by faith. It’s not the sacred stone, the holy relic, the water from a mysterious water source or even the tassel of a Jesus’ cloak that causes the healing, but the intensity of faith of those who believe that triggers their extraordinarily rapid healing processes.
I believe in the possibility of faith healing us physically. When I was in the Home Missions, I anointed an old German man who had a deep, but simple faith. He had an ulcer on his hand that had not healed for years. He wanted it to be anointed, believing that God could heal it for him. I accommodated him without much hope on my part, but guess what? He came back a few weeks later and, sure enough, his hand ulcer was completely gone!
Even doctors will tell you that people have mysteriously gotten well when they are able to believe that getting well is possible, while they have mysteriously lost patients who gave up on their treatment.
How does healing work? How do these healers effect their cures? In a nutshell, their cures are due to the belief of the sick person that releases the healing power already resident in the subconscious mind. We know this from watching a wound heal itself without effort on our part. The belief of the sick person, encouraged by the “healer,” triggers an abnormal acceleration of a natural, God-given, healing power we all carry within us. The healer elicits belief from the sick person. That belief triggers healing power. Health is the result. This healing power was given to us when God created us. In that sense, God is certainly the source of all healing.
Faith is more powerful
than we realize! It can trigger healing of the body, healing of the mind and healing
of the spirit! We often say, "I will believe it when I see
it!" Actually, it is the other way around. "Believe it and then you
will see it!
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