Exploring the Healing Ministry I: My Story and Assumptions

This will, I hope, be the first in a series of Hubs about Christian Healing Ministry. I thought I would take some time to outline why I hope to write on this topic, how it affects my life, and what assumptions I am making as I approach this (sometimes controversial) subject.

I have Cerebral Palsy, a neurological disorder that affects motor control, from birth. Fortunately (and even miraculously) I have only a mild-to-moderate form that leaves me able to carry on a fairly typical life. I was raised in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, and around Pentecostal Christians. Both groups taught me from a young age that healing, physical, emotional, spiritual, is available to the believer, especially in the atonement of Christ. When I joined the Vineyard Movement for a couple of years, I learned that healing is part of normal "Kingdom stuff"--the ministry of Jesus demonstrates that healing is normal and is offered as a sign that God rules instead of the Devil, and that freedom and justice are the "normal state" of things when God is running the show.

Back when I was twelve years old, I met a Pentecostal healing evangelist named Billy Smith. He prayed for me to be healed of a heart murmur (which was healed instantly) and of Cerebral Palsy (which was not). He helped me to understand what praying in tongues was--I'd been doing it sometimes for several years without any understanding, or even the sense that it was odd! At the end of a long weekend, he pointed his big Texan finger at me and said firmly, "You start laying your hands on people and praying for them!" By fits and starts, I did.

I've served on healing prayer teams for many years, though I must admit I feel "out of practice" when it comes to healing prayer, as I've only just found a parish home. Team ministry often manages to avoid the flakiness associated with "big name" healers for many reasons, but the biggest one has to do with being in loving and accountable community. I know that many of my readers might be skeptical or "burned out" about healing ministry because, let's be honest, there's a lot of flaky stuff going on. So I wanted to offer some explorations--not because I have answers, and not because I have a principle or technique or formula--in order that Christians like myself can play and experiment with God's goodness--and perhaps find out the truth of the Psalmist: "Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who trust in Him!"

Healing ministry has caused a lot of pain in the Church, but also a lot of blessing. Here are some of the important assumptions that I will make as I approach the topic. Some of them might change as I continue to gain experience, but I figure it's important to lay down some markers. I invite comments, critique, and stories along the way from any source, especially if you, too, are exploring what it means to offer healing ministry in the name of Jesus. Those of you who have read my other Hubs know I have a very odd sort of journey in Christ--and maybe through these Hubs I will realise that "oddness" is the way God usually works!

1. The life of Jesus is ethically normative for Christians. What I mean is that the good news that Christians bring has to always be about Jesus and the Kingdom that he demonstrated in his ministry. Jesus made a regular practice of many things, but chief among them were proclamation of the Kingdom, freeing the destitute, healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits. The Spirit of Jesus (the Holy Spirit) currently empowers the Church to do the same kinds of things that Jesus did on the earth, even today. (This is a huge assumption and I will be dealing with it in several Hubs, I suspect.)
2. Scripture is inspired by God and always useful to the Church, but this does not mean that it is inerrant or infallible. I want to say this here in order to admit where I am. I want to be obedient to the voice of God speaking in Scripture, but I don't think it is necessary to believe that there are no scientific errors in the Bible, that the Bible needs to be interpreted literalistically (as opposed to literally--meaning in cultural/historical context and according to genre), or that Scripture never argues with itself. I do not believe that the purpose of God in inspiring Scripture was to make sure that the men who wrote it never got anything wrong by an extraordinary "zap" from the Holy Spirit. I do believe that God is always willing to speak to us in Scripture and that Christians must fight with Scripture until they hear the Word of the Lord--Jesus Christ.
3. After you take into account the "literal sense" of Scripture, the living Spirit of Christ can apply particular pieces of Scripture in particular ways at particular times that may not represent "good exegesis." I suspect that this is something like ancient Judaism did in the genre called midrash. In order to "hear the word of the Lord," the rabbis told stories and connected their comments to other places in Scripture in order to speak to the people of God in their day and develop a tradition of faithful interpretation. (Some people get annoyed with the meandering and seemingly random connections of some Pentecostal preachers, but I suspect there's precedent!)
4. I believe that the Gospels and Acts, on the whole, represent history both accurately and theologically. Put simply, the healing, exorcism, and miracle stories of all four Gospel had to have happened in order to be included in Scripture. Contemporary critical scholarship often disputes this for many reasons, but these reasons usually reduce to an underlying assumption that since the events of the story are scientifically impossible or unverifiable, they didn't happen. I would be more willing to hear historians who, on the basis of their study, argue that the original audiences of the Gospels would not have understood the stories as historical, but there are very few that argue this way. The historicity of the Gospels and Acts explains, theologically, why most of the Christian world claims a close correspondence between the experiences represented in the documents and contemporary healing ministry.
5. One of the best ways to approach healing ministry is playfully or experimentally. This kind of approach reduces both the dogmatism and the fear of failure that characterize most healing ministry in the Western Church. I've seen both: "You don't have enough faith," in Pentecostal circles, along with an almost "scientific" approach to "principles of healing", and an almost complete lack of conviction about God's ability to heal addiction or physical infirmity--never mind expelling evil spirits! But if we have a playful approach, a deep love for the people we whom we pray and an attitude of, "Why don't we try? We've got nothing to lose!" then we might find the Spirit taking us by surprise and leading us into a new obedience to Christ and his reign of freedom and peace.

I'm not sure how systematic my approach will be: this series will likely combine comments on Scripture passages, stories about experiments and playfulness with God, discussions of world-view, even sermons--and always questions. I hope you enjoy these Hubs and that you choose to walk with me on this journey. I hope that these reflections might stir us up to seek God for more of his goodness, because there are so many people who need to know that God loves them and is more powerful than the suffering, pain, and bondage that they can't seem to shake. It is up to us to look for what God is doing in their lives--and also to meet them with genuinely good news.

Lord Jesus, who prayed that he might find faith kindled in the earth,

give us the playfulness to risk new things in order to bring your power and healing to the world you gave your life to save,

because you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.