Francis MacNutt, Ph.D., Dominican Priest, 'Catholic Charismatic,' and internationally known authority on healing ministry says, �Many years ago, I first discovered in a personal way the amazing good news that Jesus still heals people when we pray with them, and that he would even heal people through my simple prayers�. Then, I started to encourage others to pray and saw them make the same glad discovery of the great love that God has for them!

From the introduction to The Prayer That Heals: Praying for Healing in the Family (1981).

I find this guy very lovable, loving, intelligent, and humble. Here are some points in this book that I want to share with you Shalom-placers:

1) Discomfort with praying out loud with others.

�When I first began to pray with people, a sense of spiritual inferiority was my main problem, too. I felt as if I were putting on an act, especially since no one else that I was closes associated with was praying with people. I was afraid of looking ridiculous or being labeled as overly pious�I find that even husbands and wives are hesitant to pray with each other. All these fears have robbed us of what Jesus bequeathed to all his followers.� P. 29

2) The exchange of love.

MacNutt says about praying for healing �The reward is so great! It�s not just that prayers are answered�as they are. It�s also that I seldom feel my love for other people as deeply, in a real, non-possessive way, as when I pray for them and see them change right before me. And I seldom experience the love others have for me as much as when I break down, confess my own weakness and admit to my friends that I need their prayers.� p. 31-32.

3) Why some are healed and others are not.

All the healers I�ve ever read have said the answer to why some get healed and others don�t is a mystery. But MacNutt observes: �My experience leads me to believe that the kind of person who most often receives healing is someone who is open and receptive to goodness and love and truth�The person who has a harder time receiving healing is a controlled person who has to think everything through before acting, a person who is filled with explanations and wants you to give them too, a person who has furrows in the brow and a critical spirit.� p. 84.

Do any of you pray with and/or for your family?

What has been your experience of praying for healing in your family?

Healing is a most mysterious phenomenon. Clearly, there are some like MacNutt who have a spiritual gift (charism) for healing. I do not, but have seen people healed in response to prayer -- my own and others.

I agree that it's important to ask for healing for ourselves and others, trusting in God's goodness and desire to make us whole. The "Catch-22" in all this is what to do if the prayers don't seem to be answered, as the tendency is to think one must not have asked or received in good faith. As your point #3 notes, this is indeed part of the mystery, but note that he also implies that those who are not healed must not have been open to it. That's a double-whammy for them; their affliction remains, with the implication of faithlessness.

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While we're on this topic, we might also discuss Christian Science and healing, which is very interesting, imo.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil:
[qb] Healing is a most mysterious phenomenon...
As your point #3 notes ...he also implies that those who are not healed must not have been open to it. That's a double-whammy for them; their affliction remains, with the implication of faithlessness.[/qb]

Misguided healing = Spiritual voodoo

Implying this sort of thing overtly or covertly can indeed be very harmful!

There are a whole lot of Christians in the world "who have not been healed" -- and are much the worse off for it. In addition to their original afflictions, they are burdened by the insinuation that "their faith was not strong enough".

If that is the effect in numerous cases, then something is very wrong with the would-be practitioner of "Christian healing".

I would go so far as to say that this evidences a lack of humility in the practitioner, who then is guilty of a most grotesque disservice. In fact, his or her immature practice risks becoming, essentially, a form of spiritual voodoo.

Dear Phil and HeartPrayer,

Just to clarify, MacNutt does not say that anyone with *sufficient* faith will be healed. He has noted that AS A GROUP, those individual who are open to "goodness and love and truth" are MORE LIKELY to be healed upon requesting it than those who appear to be more closed. This group observation does not make a prediction about any one individual's future.

(BTW, this observation of being open to healing is also evidenced in psychological interventions as well)

In addition, I want to point out that there are certainly people who do not receive the healing they expected, but they leave feeling loved by God through the prayer, comforted by the Holy Spirit, and more peaceful after receiving prayer. That is, while some do, not all who don't receive healing are embittered by an implicit accusation that their faith is weak.

Furthermore, some people are not threatened by not being healed, and they just accept it as a mystery or are strengthened in their resolve to continue seeking God's face (perhaps more than His favor).

MacNutt also talks about "soaking prayer" which is more long-term prayer for certain people with organic brain disorders. He has seen more gradual kinds of healing, not total cures, but recovery of functioning beyond what doctors expect through soaking prayer (e.g., autistic children gaining unexpected cognitive or physical abilities).

And he talks about more extensive prayer for "inner healing" which involves spending time with folks who have been deeply wounded and encouraging the work of forgiveness and repentence.

So, in my opinion, MacNutt does not present as a kind of healing 'magician' at all. He has a gift of healing, indeed. He has literally watched thousands of people be instantly healed or show great improvement in their symptoms through his and others simple prayers. But he certainly doesn't present this as 'his' gift and does not do it like a magic trick.

In his healing book, he said something like this (paraphrase): "It feels strange to me when people say I have a gift of healing because it is not for my benefit and also because it is not something I can turn on or off at will, but happens by Grace alone."

Because healing does happen so often (in his Healing book, he states that he sees about 50% of those who receive prayer experience at least some kind of noticable affect), he is compelled to avail himself to heal the hurting church.

Can you imagine this: because healing doesn't happen 100% of the time to everyone who askes, I should stop praying for healing? No, that would be ridiculous!

I appreciate that MacNutt is responding to the call to teach and encouage others to pray for healing, especially in thier families. To me, more than anything, it is an exchange of love that is good to model for our children.

much peace to you all,
in Christ,

Shasha

Thanks for your clarification, Shasha.

You make a totally convincing argument that MacNutt is not an example of what I am criticising -- quite the contrary.

He sounds like an author really worth checking out.

I agree, Shasha, that MacNutt has a good and balanced perspective on healing, along with decades of experience in healing ministry. His Dominican training has stood him very well, here. I wasn't meaning to pick apart his points, only to note one of the pitfalls of healing ministry. And even then, it is true that one must be open to healing. Jesus himself was unable to heal people who were closed to the gift he brought.

I've often wondered what kind of underlying assumptions we can validly articulate re. healing. Can we say, for example, that it is not God's will that anyone suffer illness? Christian Science holds to this, even going so far as to state that the illness is untruth -- an illusion. I'm not wanting to turn the discussion into a theological one, but it does help to know what we have a right to claim in faith. Jesus never refuses a request for healing, but neither does he go out of his way to heal everyone who is ill in Galilee. Are the Christian Science people correct in stating that illness is illusion? Does God want to heal every illness that everyone suffers? Are we supposed to live in good health all our days, then just die? Is it possible that there are lessons to be learned in illness and infirmity that cannot be learned otherwise? All big questions, I know . . .

- - -

In my own life, I generally wait to see if I am moved to pray for someone's healing. As I noted earlier, this is not one of my "habitual charisms," so I don't consider myself a healer. Nevertheless, there are times when I definitely feel moved to pray for someone who is ill, or for someone struggling with a difficult problem. I don't just pray that they can cope better and find God in their pain, but that they be free of it.

On one such occasion years ago, I was counseling a young woman who had just learned that she had a malignant tumor in her lungs. She was 21, pregnant, and distraught, as she had no intention of aborting the baby, and there was no way she could have chemotherapy while pregnant. As she wept in near despair, I was moved to ask if she wanted to pray together. We did so, mostly quietly, but I felt a strong surge of energy moving through me to her. She calmed down after awhile, we talked a little more, then she left. A week later, she came to see me convinced that she had been healed when we prayed. There had been no more coughing, no pain -- all the symptoms were gone. I encouraged her to see her doctor and request an X-ray. They did one the next week and there was no sign of the cancer. She gave birth to a healthy young girl and had no recurrence of the cancer in the years I knew her in Louisiana.

That's the only time I've ever experienced such a strong inner movement to pray with someone for healing in that way. The lesson for me was that the Holy Spirit can and does tap us on the shoulder at times to give extend healing and other gifts as the situation warrants.

Dear Phil,

I know that you were not 'picking apart' MacNutt. I also know that you ask deep questions because you have a good, critical mind, which is different than a critical spirit.
Thank goodness!
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Above you wrote:

I've often wondered what kind of underlying assumptions we can validly articulate re. healing. Can we say, for example, that it is not God's will that anyone suffer illness? Christian Science holds to this, even going so far as to state that the illness is untruth -- an illusion. I'm not wanting to turn the discussion into a theological one, but it does help to know what we have a right to claim in faith. Jesus never refuses a request for healing, but neither does he go out of his way to heal everyone who is ill in Galilee. Are the Christian Science people correct in stating that illness is illusion? Does God want to heal every illness that everyone suffers? Are we supposed to live in good health all our days, then just die? Is it possible that there are lessons to be learned in illness and infirmity that cannot be learned otherwise? All big questions, I know . . .
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I, too, have been perplexed here. The scientist in me, maybe more than the Christian, has groped for some underlying assumption about God's intent in suffering and healing.

It really is a deep mystery to me, too. Like the Christian scientists, I've heard world-renowned healers say it is definitely not God's will that anyone should be ill. Yet, I see so many turn to God, or embrace Him more deeply and even find a new level of surrender and peace in their suffering.

I met a man at a healing conference who reported that years ago his wife was healed instantly of some aweful cancer. Then, several years later, she contracted some other other terminal illness. This time, healing prayer did not work and she passed away. This man told me that when he asked God why He had healed his wife the first time but not the second time, God said something like this: "I cannot be used like a formula." I wish I had written it down, because there was a bit more, but I forgot.

I was very moved by your account of healing that woman, Phil. I had read this in your Holy Spirit paper a few months ago. It is very beautiful indeed what God did through you. Praise you Jesus!

When my 3-year-old neice was sick and needed surgery, I prayed and prayed for her healing. My prayers didn't 'work' as she went through the surgery. However, a few days after the surgery, she continued to have recurring fevers. I was alone with her one afternoon during her nap and I felt compelled to pray for her. This time, I distinctly felt a POWER go through my body and out of me and into her body. She stopped having fevers. Thank you, Jesus!

Now, I still feel moved to pray for healing, peace, God's protection, comfort, etc. for many people, but I don't feel power move OUT of me like that day. I do feel power move THROUGH me virtually every time I pray, but not OUT OF ME. Hmmm...again, the scientist in me wants find correlations, to figure it out!!

What I feel the Lord is teaching me at this time is to just keep praying, faithfully, non-stop for everyone and everything in my path. When this happens quite automatically is when I feel happiest and most peaceful.

I agree with MacNutt and other who feel that prayer and healing prayer is so vastly under emphasized by so many Christians. I sense that if more were encouraged to pray for healing, more would discover God's goodness.

much love to you all,
in Christ,

Shasha