Healing Prayer

In Luke 4:18 & 19 Jesus quotes from Isaiah as he begins his ministry and says,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

He goes on to declare to those in the synagogue that the scripture had come true before their eyes that very day!

In Isaiah the full passage says,

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, aznd with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Reading through the gospels we read how Jesus again and again performed the most incredible miracles:

In the midst of it all Jesus sent out the disciples saying,
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received.” (Matthew 10:8) Obviously, he fully expected that it would be the case and it was.

Incredibly, Jesus says in John 14:12(-14)

“The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father. Yes, ask anything in my name, and I will do it!”

The same works? And, greater? Yes, indeed!
Am I seeing it? Am I experiencing it myself? Not yet.
But, something inside me says that Jesus wouldn’t say something like that if it wasn’t possible. Frankly, I’m tired of seeing only little bits of healing here and there. I want to know what Jesus was talking about, to see the greater works happening in me, and through me.
It really seems to me that the greater works ought to be the norm of our lives!

In a Lenten meditation entitled “Temptations” Henri Nouwen says, “Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.”*

A lady I know whom I’ll call Bertha, had rejected her true self. She came to believe that the feeling, alive, able-to-feel-pain little person who was left alone in physical pain and terror, had to be rejected because she was in pain and expressing her pain in her tears and screaming. Her mother could not cope. Her mother could not calm her. Her mother abandoned her to her pain. As a result, self-rejection occurred and she lost herself, she became disconnected from the feeling little baby she had been, and in consequence she lost her emotions.

Bertha learned that the expression of emotion (pain) was not acceptable and if she expressed emotion she would be abandoned and left in her pain. So, that feeling/expressing part of herself was rejected and she became what she believed was acceptable. And this became so entrenched that even though she wanted to feel again she couldn’t. The journey out of this self-rejection has been long and arduous for her, like climbing up out of a deep deep straight-sided mine shaft. It’s a journey she had to pursue if she wanted to be free and able to feel again.

We prayed through many layers of the abandonment event where the self-rejection took hold. My sense has been that the event was so painful and the resulting trauma so great that Jesus in great mercy and compassion was very gentle and kind in his dealings with this wounded part of her heart.

*Neilsen, Mark. ed. 2003. Renewed for life. Daily meditations from the works of Henri J. Nouwen. USA: Creative Communications for the Parish. First Sunday in Lent. Meditation quote from Nouwen’s “Life of the beloved,” 1992. The Crossroads Publishing Co.

I come across a lot of sadness in people as I pray with them. On the surface they may put on a happy face but deep down there’s an incredible sadness. Generally, people aren’t dealing with their sadness, they’re just covering it up. They’re afraid to allow themselves to feel the sadness (to visit it, to look at it, to acknowledge how sad they are) for if they did they would start to weep much like rain in a downpour. They fear starting to weep and then never being able to stop.

Jesus wants to comfort the brokenhearted. That’s one of the reasons he came, sent by Father God (take a look at Isaiah 61:1-2). He wants to heal people’s sadness; all the things that bring deep grief — lost innocence, broken hearts, destroyed hopes, wounded bodies, wounded spirits — much of it locked away from our conscious awareness. Many people don’t know how sad they are, they’ve worn an safe exterior face for so long they just don’t know how really sad they are.

What to do?
1. Realise that whilever it’s locked away inside, that’s where it will stay; and it will pop out inappropriately when you least expect it.
2. Pray a simple prayer asking Jesus to go with you into that sad place and show you the root of why you are so sad.
3. If possible, allow yourself to feel the sadness. Don’t pretend about anything.
4. Pay attention to whatever Jesus shows you concerning the root of the sadness. He wants to comfort you and take the sadness to himself. Ask him to do so - it might even help you to hand it over to him.
5. Sit quietly and listen for anything he wants you to know about that root of sadness. You may experience a deep peace, you may have an interior picture of him doing something.
6. Thank him for what he’s done.

It is possible that the root of your sadness is too big for you to look at on your own. In such a case I’d encourage you to have a trusted friend with you who is willing to journey with you through the sad place. If your sad place is a place of much trauma you probably will need to seek help from an experienced and trained counsellor. Where this is the case, don’t put off seeking help.