Modern Miracles of Physical Healing

When was the last time you heard about someone who was physically healed through prayer? 

Have you ever witnessed healing yourself?

I recently had the honor to volunteer as a prayer minister for a retreat.  During the week three people shared with me about previous encounters they had when praying with someone and that personal was physically healed.  And I’m not talking about a body ache no longer hurting.  In every scenario the person had one leg that was shorter than the other (from a car accident, birth defect, or scoliosis).

 Each situation was a bit different.  In one there was a prayer team (you can read about it in this amazing book); another was during a prayer meeting; the third was during a football game when a player was sidelined due to another injury to his leg and the trainer, upon discovering that his injured leg was a couple of inches shorter than the other, asked the Lord to heal his leg.  All of the scenarios had the same result – a miraculous and full healing with the leg instantaneously growing to full length (the scoliosis and other football injuries healed at this time as well).

As we heard in the Gospel reading for Palm Sunday “One of them struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said in reply, “Stop, no more of this!” Then he touched the servant’s ear and healed him.” Additionally, there are numerous times in Scripture where the blind are healed to see and deaf are healed to hear.

But do you truly believe that physical healings can, and will, happen?
Do you believe they can happen to your friends, to your family, to you?

Honestly, when was the last time you prayed for physical healing? I know I’ll often ask the Lord to help me with my problems, pains, and struggles. I’ll offer up my pain and suffering to the Lord, but I rarely think to ask Jesus to heal me of my pains, wounds, and struggles. Whether I consciously realize it or not, I am binding the hands of God by not allowing Him full access to me. I accept the pain and suffering as a part of life and figure I just need to suck it up but Jesus will help me navigate it.  I forget that what I see as ‘normal’ is not, in fact, the way in which God created mankind – with a complete wholeness, totally void of suffering and pain.

“In the study of the Lord’s compassion we have a complete revelation of the Lord’s willingness to heal. During His earthly ministry He was everywhere moved with compassion and healed all [of] ‘them that had need of healing’” (F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer). The Lord desires us to be in complete wholeness, so what is stopping you from asking Him for it?  I’ll hear the Gospel of Mark 2:9 when Jesus asks the scribes, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk’?” and I think that choosing the interior healing is a greater feat.  But to be honest, sometimes it’s easier for me to believe that God can forgive my sins than to believe that He can heal my back pain, cold, or broken bones.  What if I asked for both?

 

As we journey through this Holy Week, I want to challenge you:

• Pray to the Lord, “Increase my capacity to receive you.”
• Ask friends and family members what intentions you can pray for.
  (You can even keep track of intentions and receive prayer reminders with this app.)
• If someone is struggling or suffering, ask if you can pray with them.
• When you or a loved one is sick, lay hands on them and pray for their physical healing.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”  -Jesus  (John 14:12-14)

Let’s start asking.