What is Spiritual Healing?
(See Bartow's HEALING HANDBOOK, Page 479)
The Purpose of the Spiritual Healing Ministry
- To proclaim the Good News that the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, heals today.
- To help the clergy and lay persons to better understand how to believe, appropriate, and release the healing power of the Lord in their own lives and in the lives of others.
- To take the message of healing to all the churches of the land.
- To help every local body of believers to begin and/or to maintain a meaningful and fruitful ministry of healing.
What Is Spiritual Healing?
Spiritual Healing is wholeness. It is the healing of the whole person. It is soundness and wellness of body, soul, and spirit.
Channels of Healing
The channels for Spiritual Healing include prayer, scripture, laying-on-of-hands, anointing with oil, confession, the sacraments, etc. All of these things become significant by the power of the Holy Spirit in response to faith in God through Jesus Christ.
No Substitute for Medicine
Although it may result in physical healings, Spiritual Healing is not a substitute for medicine or surgery. It makes no claims to prescribe in the areas of medicine, surgery, psychiatry, and psychology. It works closely with all involved in these allied professions dedicated to healing. Members of the allied professions of healing realize and appreciate the great value of faith in the healing process. All healing is of God. Individuals are but His instruments regardless of their profession in the area of healing.
Theologically Sound
Spiritual Healing is theologically sound and is in harmony with:
- Orthodox Christian theology,
- The teaching and life-style of Jesus Christ,
- The practice of the Apostolic Church.
It is an obedient response to the Divine Commission given by Jesus to "go preach and heal."
Based on God's Laws
Spiritual Healing is not magic, sleight of hand, or hocus pocus. It is based on God's laws of faith and love just as medical healing is based on God's physical laws. The many miracles of Spiritual Healing do not break natural laws, but are the result of higher laws which many times we do not understand.
The Term Spiritual Healing
Spiritual Healing is sometimes called Christian Healing because it comes from Christ and is centered and focused on Christ. Some refer to it as Faith Healing. This term falls short because often there is no clear understanding in whom faith is placed. This is not always made plain by some so-called "faith-healers". Spiritual Healing has by some been called Divine Healing. This is too broad of a term because, in a sense, all healing is divine. Spiritual Healing differs from Christian Science as it acknowledges the reality of pain, disease, and evil.
A Sane, Sensible Approach
The Church's healing ministry has often been in disrepute because of abuses by charlatans and those seeking their own gain. These individuals and experiences are deeply regretted, but are not the criteria to determine the validity of Spiritual Healing. Perhaps Churches have frowned on the healing ministry because of emotional excesses, the extreme theological views of some, and the over-emphasis upon physical healing to the neglect of the spirit. However, today an approach to healing is developing which is thoroughly based upon Christian concepts and acceptable to leaders of all major denominations.
Widely Accepted Today
Hundreds of congregations now conduct regular Spiritual Healing services. Each month many others begin this adventure of faith.
Benefits
Pastor Bartow says, "It has been my pleasant experience to discover that the practice of Spiritual Healing has four main benefits."
- It inspires individuals to greater devotion unto the Lord and unto the Word.
- It leads believers to deeper and richer spiritual experiences in worship.
- It deepens one's understanding of the Bible and how God wants to bless His creation.
- It helps bring and maintain a greater degree of wholeness of body, soul, and spirit.
