Faith Healing
Dearest Lord Jesus,
I know You could heal while on earth and I know You can heal now. Some people perpetrate fake healings, but there are many true ones. However, first I want to quote some excerpts of stories of death by fear – the opposite of faith healing.
This past Friday, DanielleGoldberg, a 26-year-old Staten Island woman, was riding in her building’s elevator up to her sixth-floor apartment just before noon when her neighborhood suffered a blackout. For half an hour, she was trapped inside the small space, in the darkness, alone. In an effort to stifle a growing panic attack, she used her cell phone to call her mother, but it was no use. By the time rescue workers freed her half an hour later, she was unconscious. She died in the hospital a short time later. At first glance, the cause of her death seems clear: pure fright.
Jeff Wise, Psychology Today, April 7, 2010
The above author goes on to outline the chemical reactions that can cause death by fear. It can happen – not necessarily very often in our culture, but there are scientific accounts of such occurrences.
Martin A. Samuels, neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, says, “Can one be scared to death? Yes. There is unequivocal evidence that one can be scared to death under certain and very specific instances.” ABC News, Oct. 30, 2006
Another article:
A Charlotte, N.C., man was charged with first-degree murder of a 79-year-old woman whom police said he scared to death. In an attempt to elude cops after a botched bank robbery, the Associated Press reports that 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into and hid out in the home of Mary Parnell. Police say he didn’t touch Parnell but that she died after suffering a heart attack that was triggered by terror. Can the fugitive be held responsible for the woman’s death? Prosecutors said that he can under the state’s so-called felony murder rule, which allows someone to be charged with murder if he or she causes another person’s death while committing or fleeing from a felony crime such as robbery—even if it’s unintentional.
Scientific American Jan 21, 2009
In addition to such accounts, I have heard (and believe) that there are also occurrences of death by curse in some cultures. The person who has been cursed believes fervently in the strength of the curse, and dies.
What’s the opposite of fear (to a Christian anyway)? Faith. (Or perhaps Love can be the opposite of fear: Paul says “Perfect love casts out fear.” – that’s another musing.) So if a person who greatly fears something can die, why couldn’t someone who has great faith be healed?
I have a friend, Tom, who shares his story of faith healing:
When I was about 24 and already married, I started to develop black hard warts underneath all of my fingernails. I was working for a printing company as a “stripper” and platemaker. My job required manual dexterity. My wife had chronic eczema since birth and knew every dermatologist in Pittsburgh. I went to all of them and short of surgically removing my fingernails they didn’t know what to do. They had gotten worse over a period of 1.5 years. My wife even had to tie my shoes some days. I soaked, scraped and wrapped them. Nothing worked!
At a gathering of young couples and singles my friend Ray asked, “Tom, have you ever prayed about them?”
I said, “NO!”
Ray asked, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God; that He died for you; and was resurrected; is in heaven and makes intercession for you to His Father?”
I said, “Yes!!”
He said, “Then let’s pray!” So we did.
From Sunday evening to the following Sunday morning, I never treated them at all.
I was taking my shower getting ready to come to church when I noticed that I no longer had any warts. I told my wife and came to church as fast as possible to let everyone know of my healing. That was the start of my personal relationship with Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
Here’s another story about a Pennsylvania woman named Helene Casinelli Pileggi, from Reader’s Digest, June 9, 2022:
When I was three-months-old, I developed spinal meningitis. I was given my last rites and was told I would not make it through the night. The prayer chain went out that night and my parents, who maintain a strong Catholic faith, never left my side. The morning came and the doctors were amazed by my progress. Even though I survived, my parents were told that it would be a long time to see what the prognosis may be for my quality of life. I was never supposed to talk or walk, and potentially have mental impairment. My parents and family kept their faith and by the “will of God,” I survived and thrived throughout my childhood and into adulthood with minimal sicknesses.
Here is a story from a “faith healer,” Agnes Sanford. I know some “faith healers” are bogus, but numerous friends have testified to Your working through Ms. Sanford’s healing gifts. Here is one story (Sanford, The Healing Light, Macalester Park Publishing,1972, pp 86-89). (Here, the faith was not in the recipient of the healing, but rather in the healer. Either way, God can indeed work miracles of faith that overcome fear.)
Ms. Sanford was called to her neighbor’s house when he was near death from heart issues.
I found Mr. Williams on a chair in the living room, slumped over a table, unconscious and breathing in a very strange way. I could not see his face, as it was buried in his arms. I sat down on the arm of his chair, slid one hand underneath him and placed my hands above and below the heart. It was beating precisely as the kettle drum beats in Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration” – insistently, irregularly, terrifyingly. (I found out later that the heart had swollen until it filled almost the whole chest and that every valve had burst and was leaking like a sieve.) However, at the time I needed no doctor to tell me that his condition was serious, for my own fingers reported it to me.
As soon as my hands were firmly upon his heart, I felt quiet, serene, in control. Forgetting the heart, I fixed my mind upon the presence of our Lord and invited Him to enter and use me. Then, Mr. Williams being quite unconscious, I talked informally to the heart, assuring it quietly that the power of God was at this moment re-creating it and that it need labor no longer. Finally, I pictured the heart perfect, blessing it continually in the name of the Lord and giving thanks that it was being re-created in perfection. Soon I could feel the heart beats becoming more quiet and regular. I could even feel the strange inner shifting that reports the rebuilding of flesh and tissues….
He awakened as quietly and simply as a child, and when I said, “I’ve been saying a prayer for your heart,” he merely replied, “Thank you. It’s much better.”….
“Why, Williams!” cried the doctor two days later. “Why, Williams! What has happened? Your heart has gone back to its normal size!”
In this case, prayer with the laying-on of hands was the specific remedy for a wrecked heart. If there had been no one to administer that remedy, Mr. Williams would undoubtedly have died.
All of these stories are inspirational, but they pale before the miracles You, Lord Jesus, worked while walking on earth. There are many stories, but here are a few where You, after the healing, attributed the miracle to the person’s faith.
…and a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.” But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well. (Mt 9:20-22)
Then they came to Jericho.…a blind beggar named Bartimaeus…began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ….And Jesus stopped and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” And Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road. (Mk 10:46-52)
And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another ‘Come!” and he comes….’ Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel…. And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment. (Mt 8:5-13)
Add to these all the miracles of healing still taking place at pilgrimage sites such as Lourdes and Fatima.
So now I ponder:
Often, we fear in advance something that is not really going to happen. This is especially true in cases where a curse has been put on someone, but it is also true in other cases (even the poor woman caught in the elevator). Faith in One more powerful than oneself (namely You, who are God the Son) is faith in something real. So how much more powerful must faith be than fear!
Fear itself is powerful. Why not faith?
Praise You, Lord Jesus, for Your healing power, which is available to all who believe! Please increase our faith! Please help us turn to You when in need, to You who are powerful above all principalities and powers, even the fear of death. And when the time and circumstances are right, even give us the ability to be channels of Your healing power to others. We love You and put our trust in You.