Expectation of Healing

Writer and editor Dee Dee Risher wrote for Sojournes on The Stumbling Block of Healing

One thing the research seems consistent on, though, is that while prayerful healings occur in every part of the world, they predominate in cultures that are less influenced by the scientific, rational, and technical mind. Which is to say that at the moment, more healings and more-dramatic healings seem to occur in the global South. It isn’t just that some of the “healing evangelists” from the North who go South testify that they heal many more people in that setting. Even smaller bands of ordinary Christians like those from my own church who have had the opportunity to travel and pray for healing in different settings have experienced a different receptivity in some of the cultures of the global South—with more dramatic healing results.

It is not coincidence, in my opinion, that many of these cultures also have a deeper belief in the spiritual, supernatural domain than do the North and West. I believe that the community’s expectation of intervention does affect the degree to which such intervention comes. While it in no way ensures such intervention, it creates a climate of expectation and openness that makes it possible. This is why the disbelief of the community—and its ultimate disparagement—noted in Mark 6 had such an enervating impact on Jesus and on his ability to do miracles there.

The question of disbelief is a question for the faith community—not the individual seeking healing. Individuals who had no belief in healing or Jesus or the existence of God have been suddenly and inexplicably healed. And individuals who have believed with their entire lives have not been healed.

WHILE IT IS A challenge, I do not believe that there is an inherent and irresolvable tension between embracing what science and technology offer while still maintaining a deep sense of spiritual power—and powers—in the world and a belief in the miraculous intervention of God...

Many contemporary U.S. Christians need to reclaim the tradition and possibility of miraculous healing in this ill and reeling world. We need to expect it and pray for it. We need to confess and repent of our skepticism. Expectation of healing does foster a climate in which healings are more likely.

Yet even deeper than Jesus’ message of healing is his message to love one another. Ultimately, the two messages are the same. In Jesus’ ministry, healing was both restoring the individual and bringing them back into the whole as a precious and loved member. In my own experience, I have never prayed for anyone’s healing without feeling a deep increase in love, compassion, and active commitment to that person.

The full text is found online at: The Stumbling Block of Healing.