Although raised in church, I grew up with an attenuated sense of God’s power. God was presented as a distant figure: somewhere up above. He was definitely concerned with my eternal destiny but not so involved with my day to day life. The age of miracles was over. The idea of a direct intervention in my life was a theoretical possibility but not easily imagined or expected. Prayers for help were no more than good luck charms. A rabbit’s foot might do as well. Prayers for healing were something we said, not in expectation of physical healing but in to comfort the ill.

One day I was praying with a sick woman. I was praying mechanically. When I had finished I managed to see the woman out and then I collapsed. For the first time in my life I understood the bible story of the woman with the hemorrhage. (Mark 5:25 ff) In the story the woman with the hemorrhage touched the edge of Christ’s clothes and was healed. Jesus, felt “power go out” and turned to see. I understood it, because as I prayed with that woman I felt power go out. So much power went out I could not keep my feet.

All of a sudden it occurred to me that the stories were real. Not just history, not just tales to comfort the ill, but real. I had felt power go out. A few days later I found out that the woman I had prayed with experienced a significant healing. I had experienced something that I thought was not real. I was forced to rethink how I thought about God and how He acts in the world.

In our day spirituality has been reduced to an emotion, or to a state of mind. Yet in the bible we find that the spiritual is talked about not as something internal but as a force that has a direct effect on the material. Elijah stopped the rain. The Red Sea was parted. Water was turned to wine. The blind were made to see, the lame to walk and the maimed made whole. And that is just a short list. These events are all God’s spiritual power physically changing the world around us. Indeed the bible tells us that God’s power will continue to effect and change the material world around us. John 14: 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Specifically we are told that the gift of healing will continue (1 Corinthians 12:9).

Today many Christians in the west have pushed away the idea of a God who interacts with the world. We have become comfortable with a distant God. One who is concerned with our “spiritual life” defined as our emotional and mental health in relation to His revelation. Perhaps this is why so many Christians today believe in a spiritual heaven and give almost no thought to the general resurrection to come.

Why? Why have we diminished the power of God and the witness of His word written? Could it be that the reality of God’s power makes us uncomfortable? If God actual heals in response to prayer, if God’s power is real and present today, if God can act in the world today just the way the book says He can – what else that the book tells us might be true?

If God’s power to heal is real maybe the idea of angels might be real. If angels are real, what about fallen angels? If fallen angels are real, is Satan real? Is hell real? Is the idea of sin real? Are we really in danger of falling short of getting into paradise?

If the gift of healing power is real, is it all real? Is the devil more than just a character in a horror show? Does Satan actual move about the world seeking the ruin of souls? Do we actually need to have a saving relationship with God through His Son Jesus in order to escape the consequences of our choices? What is the importance of Church? What is it power?

Could it all be real? Hell fire, demons, eternity, the need for salvation, the command to love and the directive to participate in God’s church as it witnesses to His love and mercy.

Perhaps it’s too much to take in. Perhaps it’s too frightening. Perhaps we would rather worship a distant God. Perhaps we would rather have a God that didn’t heal. Perhaps we would rather have a good who phoned in a message of encouragement every now and then rather than a God of real power and real demands on us.

Part of the grounds of disbelief in healing prayer is the fact that we would rather sit in church with our back pain then accept that God is powerful to work in our lives today. We would rather reject the power of God than let it challenge us.

A quick note about Healing Prayer. The first thing to remember is that healing prayer is not magic. God is not some impersonal force, or lesser being that we can manipulate into doing our will by the use of certain words, symbols, objects or force of will. There is no magic wand in Christianity. Neither is God some human like agent that we can nag into giving us what we want. Emotional blackmail will not work on the creator of emotions.

Healing prayer is both simpler than that and more troublesome. Simpler because healing prayer is not magic it is relationship. More troublesome because when we approach our Father God, His perspective is so much greater than ours.

Healing prayer as relationship. When we were young and got hurt our first reaction was to turn to mom or dad to make the hurt go away. Quickly we learned that mom and dad could not just wave their hands and make it all better. Still we trusted them to take our hurts seriously and do their best to assuage it; wash out the cut, put a band aid on it, a kiss and we were on our way once more. We turned to our parents not because they were magic but because they loved us and had more “power”, to cure our ills.

God presents Himself to us as King, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Messiah, but also as friend, brother, and Father. God is Family. For the purpose of prayer He is loving parent. One we, as His children, trust to take our hurts seriously and work in our lives for our good.

Matthew 7: 7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

That is all healing prayer is. It is us, the children of God turning towards our heavenly Father and trusting Him with our hurts and pains.

The troubling part is that God does not always answer us the way we want. We are fallen human beings, living in a fallen world. We want. Especially when we are hurting, we want and we want healing now. We know from hard experience that God does not always do that. This is not to say that God does not love the person praying. It is not that the person is somehow unworthy of healing. (No one is worthy of God’s love or grace. That’s why they call it grace.) What is going on is that God is Dad. He really is bigger than us, knowing more than us and capable of more than us.

For example: A young boy comes home from a little league game. His wrist hurts. He naturally turns to dad to put a bandage on it. He expects some Advil. Perhaps an ice pack. Dad will take care of it and the boy will return to play the next day. But Dad looks at the writs and sees something more. He takes his son to the Hospital, an X-ray is taken and the broken arm is set in a cast. The poor young boy loses out on the rest of the season. However his arm heals properly and the next baseball season is better than ever. The young boy did not get the answer he wanted. He got the answer he needed.

The hard part is that our perspective is too limited. Our understanding too small and our hurts sometimes so great. It is hard to imagine the greater good of pain. It is really hard to imagine that the greater good for our loved ones is not to heal in this world but to go on to be with the Lord.

Romans 8: God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Not magic. Not manipulation. Healing prayer is more complex, more troubling, more glorious than that. Healing prayer is God’s familial love for us in real action. God loves His children and will take care of them. We may not understand the process. We may not enjoy the ride. But we are loved. We are invited into the family. We are to trust God, stand back and watch His wonders.