Means of Grace, Means of Healing: A Wesleyan Approach To Healing Ministry

Means of Grace, Means of Healing: A WESLEYAN APPROACH TO HEALING MINISTRY

MEANS OF GRACE, MEANS OF HEALING A WESLEYAN APPROACH TO HEALING MINISTRY

By TIMOTHY LYN ASHCRAFT

ISBN: 9781648171437

Means of grace, means of healing: a Wesleyan approach to healing ministry.

By Timothy Lyn Ashcraft.

First Fruits Press, ©2023

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DEDICATION

In loving memory of my parents, Robert Merle Ashcraft and Elsie Virginia Ashcraft, who inspired me to trust in Christ the Healer.

All Bible references are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Introduction

In the beginning, there was healing. There was a Healer before there was an afiction and a Creator before a creation. There was divine grace before a human fall with Adam and Eve and a Savior before there was a sinner. Before there was a human need, there was a God who loved. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…” (Genesis 1:1-2). There was chaos in the formation of the universe. Yet, creative possibilities existed in the chaos. The Creator brought wholeness to the formlessness. God sang, and subatomic particles began to dance. The miraculous took shape, and it was good. As the heavenly Father spoke, the Spirit was the breath, and the Son was the Word. Even before the fall, healing and wholeness came about by the triune God. The same Creator who formed the cosmos sees creative potential in each of us. The same Healer who healed the multitudes is ready to bring wholeness into our lives today.

Though God is still the Healer, people today remain broken. Many hurting people desire a cure, but not always genuine healing. Authentic transformation includes changing one’s mind, heart, and life. The Bible refers to this change as repentance. But some people prefer prescriptions or surgery over making individual health adjustments. Even so, God’s desire is not to cure an illness. The Healer wants to bring wholeness

to the whole person in body, mind, and spirit. Sometimes the biblical texts seem foreign to contemporary suferers. Clergy scandals or judgmental attitudes in local congregations may alienate other people. There may be many contributing factors to a person’s lack of wholeness.

The claim of this book is that divine healing is still possible today because of Jesus Christ. Sometimes healing comes through miraculous means, and sometimes healing comes through natural means. As all healing is divine healing, faith and medical science can work together. There is a rich biblical, theological, and historical heritage of divine healing. This record demonstrates that the Creator-God is the same God of healing grace who is still at work today.

Many congregations emphasize preaching and teaching. Yet, the contemporary church should not miss the possibilities of divine healing. Some churches started with a vibrant practice of healing. But then, some church traditions pursued other ministry emphases. Sometimes the excesses of fraudulent faith-healers embarrassed believers. Those disciples lost sight of practical healing ministry in the church. Still, the need for healing in the world remains. Christ commissioned his Spiritempowered church to continue his ministry in the world. This mission includes healing as well as preaching and teaching.

The audience for this book includes mainly clergy, but may consist of laity and anyone interested in healing ministry. The practical theology of John Wesley infuenced many faith traditions, including the Holiness and Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. Many Holiness and early Pentecostal churches held connections to Wesleyan theological understandings. This

inclusion of Holiness and Pentecostal beliefs in the historical course of Wesleyan theology may surprise some. However, the Holiness, Pentecostal, and Charismatic movements continue beliefs and practices related to divine healing, which were important to John Wesley and the early Methodists’ ministries. The biblical, theological, and historical records of church healing ministry may surprise some. Yet, embracing Christ’s historic healing ministry will beneft congregations of various denominations.

Healing ministry focused on physical, emotional, and spiritual wholeness became popular in the twentieth century. Spiritual renewal extended beyond Pentecostal and Charismatic contexts. Some mainline Protestants, as well as some in the Roman Catholic Church, embraced deliverance ministry. Healing services became familiar in a variety of ecclesial settings, including liturgical churches. Some mainline Protestant churches transformed into venues of Charismatic renewal in the twentieth century. This dynamic movement of the Holy Spirit in time declined in many church contexts. Healing is now rarely mentioned in some contemporary congregations. The content of popular celebrity preachers and teachers draws much attention in the contemporary context. These books usually address issues related to Christian living and self-improvement. Yet, the need for authentic healing remains.

As a minister serving in the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church, I continually encounter humankind’s need for healing in various forms in the people I meet and serve. A Master of Divinity from Saint Paul School of Theology in Oklahoma City equipped me to better see

sufering in the world. But this book originated in my Doctor of Ministry project at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK. In my doctoral research, I discovered that the historical record of divine healing includes the Wesleyan tradition and Holiness, Pentecostal, and Charismatic settings. Some may claim that in this book, I over-emphasize the role of healing among the early Methodists. Yet, I merely highlight one aspect of John Wesley’s practical theology. Wesley included space for divine healings in the life and ministry of the church. Healing ministry is an essential expression of sanctifying grace.

Jesus knew in his public ministry that people needed sound preaching and teaching. The Nazarene also recognized the need for healing of the body, mind, and spirit. People today are no diferent. Believers every year buy bestselling books written by famous Christian authors. Some of these books acknowledge the emotional hurts of people. But many of these written works fail to ofer genuine healing and transformation. Some hurting people are afraid to acknowledge their inner wounds, and some feel ill-equipped to fght these internal battles on their own. When there is a lack of healing, some people walk away from the church. But Christ the Healer is ready to meet people where they are and make them whole.

This book proclaims a message of hope to the contemporary church. Rather than a reinvention, it calls for a re-imagining of what church ministry can be. This book promises nothing new. Yet, this book advocates reconnection with something ancient, something that the church lost sight of throughout its history. The hope of divine healing precedes both the Jewish people and the church. This hope found embodiment in the person of Jesus Christ. The church must

once again embrace the healing ministry of Jesus and his early church. It is a model that includes preaching, teaching, and healing. Christ sent his church to represent him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Christ’s commissioning for Spirit-empowered witness and service still applies to the church today. The same Healer who healed the multitudes is the same Healer who is present with healing power today.

Chapter One A HURTING WORLD

Jesus’ Kingdom-Centered Ministry

Much is often made of Jesus’ preaching and teaching. His mission centered in God’s kingdom as a present and powerful reality that would be at work in the world. Howard M. Ervin explains:

Healing, while essential to the ministry of Jesus, does not by itself defne his mission. His ministry is perhaps best characterized by the threefold rubric: preaching, teaching, and healing. His preaching announced the advent of the kingdom. His teaching described the nature of the kingdom. His healing miracles made present the powers of the kingdom. The ministry of Jesus is thus defned by his message: “the kingdom of God is at hand.”1

Wholeness in body, mind, and spirit was the focus of Jesus’ grace-flled ministry. But wholeness implies more than physical healing, as God cares about the whole person.

1 Howard M. Ervin, Healing: Sign of the Kingdom (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002), 1.

Salvation involves more than where one will spend eternity. Redemption is about God’s grace transforming and sanctifying the whole person. In this sense, salvation is more of a journey than an event. According to Cal Pierce, “Healing involves more than just physical healing. Healing applies to our mental and emotional well-being, as well as every other aspect of our lives.”2 Frank Bateman Stanger also believes that authentic healing relates to the whole person. Stanger argues:

Jesus healed persons rather than merely curing diseases. The individual is truly healed in so far as he recovers the possibility of the maturity of his entire person. The healed person is restored and set once again within his true destiny. Healing means wholeness, and such wholeness is dependent upon the Holy Spirit’s integration of one’s total being body, mind, and spirit.”3

But healing is not limited to curing afictions. Healing is about transforming a person by God’s grace within the present reality of God’s kingdom.

In the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he included the centrality of God’s kingdom. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The fullness of God’s kingdom may be a future hope. But the kingdom of God remains a reality that is available for transformation in the here and now. Preaching, teaching, and healing remain a practical model for ministry that ofers

2 Cal Pierce, Healing in the Kingdom: How the Power of God and Your Faith Can Heal the Sick (Ventura, CA: Regal/Gospel Light, 2008), 23.

3 Frank Bateman Stanger, God’s Healing Community (Nashville: Abingdon, 1978), 26.

wholeness. Healing ministry is still essential to the mission of Christ’s holy church.

The Self-Centered Church

Healing still takes place today. But healing may be only an occasional emphasis in some churches of various denominations throughout the United States. Congregations sometimes relegate healing ministry to a secondary status. Meanwhile, preaching and teaching often remain at the forefront of congregational life. Divine healing still occurs in the worship experience of the church, and healing services are not uncommon. But it seems that healing often holds a position that is inferior to preaching and teaching. The single greatest need is the healing of the whole person. Healing is physical, emotional, and spiritual. The need for wholeness arises again and again in the congregation as well as one’s community.

Instead of a presumption, the wholeness of body, mind, and spirit must become a joyful expectation. Christ did not commission his church to be yet another self-help resource. Various Christian writers ofer warnings about a self-centered brand of Christianity. David Platt writes, “…Somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We were settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.”4 A human-centered church may refect as well as drive specifc cultural trends. But only a Christ-modeled church can nurture genuine transformation in a hurting world.

4 David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2010), 7.

Platt goes on to argue that too often, “We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshipping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.”5 Jesus’ mission in the world was kingdom-centered, not self-focused. The transforming love of God fueled Jesus’ work. One may point out that Jesus ofered helpful life lessons. But a person may also argue that Jesus provided transforming power for the deeper needs of the human soul.

Nones and Dones

Some worshipers fnd fulfllment in a local church structure. But others are going elsewhere. Sociologist Joshua Packard has studied this current migration from the contemporary church. Packard writes:

You’ve probably heard of the Nones. That’s the name researchers have given to the growing number of people who now claim to have “no religion.” While stories about the Nones have dominated the media in recent years, I’ve focused on a diferent group of people. I’m a sociologist who has been studying dechurched people. They’re what I call the Dones. The Dones are people who are disillusioned with church. Though they were committed to the church for years, often as lay leaders, they no longer attend. Whether because they’re dissatisfed with the structure, social message, or politics of the institutional

5 Platt, 13.

church, they’ve decided they are better of without organized religion.6

Devoted to their churches for years, the Dones are leaving the church behind. Could one of many factors in their departure be a general lack of transformation in the church?

For many who have given up on the church, it is not that they do not believe in God. Neither is it that they do not profess faith in Jesus Christ. It is that some see the church as irrelevant to their daily existence. An absence of personal transformation may be a contributing factor. When healing does not accompany preaching and teaching, a void exists in the church. When the church, in many ways, refects the secular culture, danger is at hand. Meanwhile, the need for healing and wholeness remains.

Contextual Models of Ministry

Ministry models developed in larger churches can be useful. But some ministry models may prove to be inefectual in, for example, small rural congregations. Not every church setting is the same, and churches in a variety of settings need adaptable ministry models. One must consider denominational contexts. Some denominational structures may be more fexible than others. Programs developed in more autonomous settings may not ft churches in connectional structures. Yet, the implementation of ministry models can fourish in a way that fts unique contexts.

6 Joshua Packard, “Meet the ‘Dones,’” Christianity Today, (Summer 2015): n.p., http://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2015/summer-2015/meet-dones. html (8 December 2016).

In a sense, every activity of the church should be some expression of wholeness ministry. Healing should be a regular part of the language, as well as the activity of the church. Some congregations rarely mention healing. But the possibility of divine healing is ever-present. Healing potential exists in preaching, teaching, congregational care, and benevolence. Ministries that address social concerns such as clothing, food, addiction, and grief can also nurture wholeness. Every activity of the Spirit-empowered church holds the potential for healing and transformation.

Sometimes a church assumes that some form of healing may take place. Yet, both teachers and participants may rarely mention healing in worship services and Bible studies. It is not that no one prays for healing anymore. When specifc needs arise, the people of the church pray. But it seems that healing is often the exception and not the norm in some churches. Congregational energies tend to focus on preaching, teaching, and sometimes social ministries. These too can be avenues of potential healing. In kingdom-centered ministry, all ministry is healing ministry.

Theology of Healing

Every generation has a great need for healing, and contemporary contexts are no exceptions. If the church ofers only advice and self-help tips, everyone sufers. The world needs authentic, Christ-centered healing. When genuine transformation is absent, people will seek meaning and fulfllment elsewhere. People do not need more tips for getting through life. People need the new and abundant life found in the Savior, the Healer, Jesus Christ, the Lord. How may a

congregation reconnect with the ministry of healing that was so important to Jesus and his ministry? A vibrant theology of healing is essential. But do most churches value wholeness as much as they value the wisdom of preaching and teaching?

A restoration of healing begins with a fresh conversation about wholeness. Scripture is the foundation for a theology of healing. The Gospel texts highlight the ministry of Jesus. The Book of Acts describes the Spirit-empowered life of the early church. A healthy theology of healing begins with God’s concern for the whole person in body, mind, and spirit. Healing and transformation were the heart of Jesus’ public ministry. Healing and transformation should be at the center of the church’s life and ministry.

Jesus did not confne his ministry to a spoken message. Jesus included space for divine presence and power. This openness to divine presence and power led to the making of disciples for transforming the world. Lawrence W. Althouse argues, “We need to restore the healing ministry to the churches today because we are concerned about the whole man and have a wholistic faith. A church that is concerned only with the disembodied souls of men is neither faithful to the commission of Christ nor fruitful in its mission.”7 Pentecost birthed the church to be the visible and Spirit-empowered body of Christ. The Lord commissioned his church to continue his mission in the world. The church must rediscover Jesus’ three-fold ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing.

7 Lawrence W. Althouse, Rediscovering the Gift of Healing (Nashville: Abingdon, 1977), 126.

Healing ministry must be more than an occasional emphasis or a momentary fascination. Preaching, teaching, and healing proclaim, instruct, and prove the new life of God’s grace. “[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). According to Cal Pierce, “This is why we no longer have to accept sickness, disease, pain and infrmity from the enemy. We have been redeemed from every curse brought on by the fall of man and have been granted all of the blessings that come with the new Kingdom.”8 Because of Jesus Christ, those who belong to God’s kingdom do not have to be afraid of sickness. Jesus Christ embodies divine grace, and grace is more powerful than sin, disease, and death.

Ministry as Revelation

Wholeness is vital to the overall ministry model of Christ’s church. Healing ministry is a revelation ministry. In a practical sense, healing ministry reveals the sovereignty of God. The child of God always exists under the sovereignty of God. At its heart, healing ministry is about God and what God is doing. According to John Wimber and Kevin Springer, “God sometimes overcomes evil not by removing it directly but by accomplishing his purposes through it. He frustrates evil and turns it into his good intentions.”9 Though God does not will it, evil exists in a fallen world. But sometimes God overcomes darkness by working even through sickness. God will accomplish his divine plan and higher redemptive purpose as God wills. Healing ministry is not about the one who needs

8 Pierce, 34.

9 John Wimber and Kevin Springer, Power Healing (New York: Harper One, 1987), 17.

healing. Above all else, healing ministry is about God and what God is doing.

As revelation ministry, healing unveils God’s sovereignty and God’s love. God’s loving presence and power bring transformation, wholeness, and sanctifcation. Healing, along with preaching and teaching, reveals the unseen through the seen. Cal Pierce explains how God shows his power through Christ’s visible church. “God’s will for healing His people is to be seen on the earth. He wants His will to be visible in the world through seen vessels (you and me) by the laying on of hands so that the sick might recover. This is the purest manifestation of the existence of the love of God for His people on Earth.”10 Divine healing reveals divine love. God’s love seeks to transform the hurting and broken. The Good News is that God’s transformational love is still at work in a broken world.

Activism or Grace

Sometimes human activists seek to bring about social transformation by human eforts alone. Perhaps this happens when activism is ideologically driven instead of theologically driven. Too often, activism is human-centered rather than God-centered. When ideology feeds human activism, there is a fear of the other, and sometimes the oppressed becomes the oppressor. Yet, when God’s grace fuels human activism, there is ample room for forgiveness and reconciliation. A broken world often needs social change. But activism cannot replace contemplation. Politics is no substitute for piety, and legislation cannot displace divine activity. 10 Pierce, 95.

| A Hurting World

The church has its commission in the world as the visible body of Christ. But only God can change a person’s heart and save a sinner’s soul. God is the Healer. A good number of people are drifting away from the church today. Could it be that some see a church that is more concerned with politics than piety? Could it be that self-efort drives the church more than divine presence and power? The legislation of policies is often necessary. But passing more laws will not usually translate into wholeness. Changing social structures does not always lead to healed hearts and transformed lives. The need for wholeness continues. Authentic healing will not become a reality apart from the loving presence and power of God.

A World in Need

It is evident that the world still needs wholeness. But healing usually does not happen by accident. A church must be intentional about its healing ministry. The contemporary church needs reconnection with Jesus’ public ministry, which includes divine healing. Without realizing it, people still long for the power of God’s grace. The Good News is that there is new and abundant life for the present and for eternity in Jesus Christ. God’s sanctifying grace empowers God’s redeemed children to live in victory. In Christ, God’s transforming love is still at work in the world. Healing will not become a reality without the presence and power of Almighty God. The church must embrace and continue Jesus’ ministry that values healing as well as preaching and teaching.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible describes God’s redemptive work in the world. Human sin and brokenness still exist. But sin will not have the fnal word. Though mortal sin

is a reality, God’s grace is at work, and the hope of healing and transformation remains. The account of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis suggests a more signifcant theme found in Scripture. The God of grace is present with power in a world marred by human sin. God ofers healing and redemption in Christ to all who will receive it by faith. Throughout the Scriptures, one reads about the tragedy of sin and brokenness. But one also reads in those same texts about the triumph of God’s grace. The struggle between human frailty and divine power has existed throughout history. This confict continues into the twenty-frst century. Sickness, disease, and disability remain. Yet, even in a hurting world, God’s healing grace is still at work.

Personal Refection

When you hear the word healing, what comes to mind?

Chapter Two

PROMISE: HEALING IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES

Human Frailty

The Book of Genesis describes human ancestors who experienced a fall. This fall formed the existential crisis that brought sin into the created world. God warned the frst man and woman, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die” (Genesis 3:3). A kind of serpent deceived Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. As God spoke life at the creation, the serpent spoke doubt into the frst people’s minds and hearts. This serpent persuaded them to consume some of the prohibited fruit and rebel against God’s will.

In the Bible’s book of beginnings, human rebellion birthed a new reality. Brokenness entered the world because of mortal sin. The consequence of this brokenness would be weakness, tragedy, disease, and afiction. Michael Brown describes the struggle of humanity in a fallen environment. “As long as human beings have been on the earth, they have battled sickness, disease, accident, and calamity, ultimately

succumbing to the inexorable power of death.”11 Each generation of humanity has lived with the penalties of a single decision. Adam and Eve’s action was not about eating some fruit. It was about self-indulgence and rebellion. The fall of humanity introduced afiction and death into the world. But God would respond with healing and life.

Minor Injuries

Humans exist in a world marred by sin and its consequences. But the ancient Hebrew texts describe God as being present in the fallen creation. Humans must contend with their frailty and weakness as they exist in a dangerous world. So how did the ancient Israelite people address even day to day physical injuries? Brown explains, “Generally speaking, it appears that minor injuries such as cuts, bruises, and fractures were treated primarily by natural means, since the origin of these complaints was not hidden and the basic treatment could largely be determined by outward observation.”12 Much attention is generally drawn to miraculous healings in the Hebrew Scriptures. But one cannot separate the activity of God from natural treatments.

It may be understandable that miraculous healings get much of the attention in the Old Testament. Yet, God’s grace is also evident in the provision of natural treatments. D. C. Westermann explains, “It is a misunderstanding to think that healing from illness can have theological signifcance only when it is miraculous, or that only miracle healings bring one into contact with God. In the Bible, God’s healing power is

11 Michael L. Brown, Israel’s Divine Healer (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 39.

12 Brown, 40.

active in every recovery.”13 The ancient Israelites understood recovery from illness as the healing activity of God. Even natural remedies were evidence of divine action. The people of Israel considered all healing as divine healing, and all healing was an invitation. Recovery of any kind was an opportunity to enter into a relationship with the God who heals.

Natural healing remedies were common among the Israelite people (Exodus 21:19; Isaiah 1:6; 38:21). But the Hebrew Scriptures tend to emphasize healing through the prophets (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:8-37). Exodus 15:26 holds the fundamental premise for divine healing: “…I am the Lord who heals you.” In the Old Testament texts, healing is oftentimes linked to prayer (Genesis 20:7, 17). According to Keith Warrington, “The provision of health, including fertility and long life (Deuteronomy 7:12-14), was recognized as a gift of God and a blessing granted to obedient Jews.”14 The ancient Jewish people recognized God as the Provider of all good things. This divine provision would include good health. Jews of ancient times understood that God rewards obedience.

Obedience

An insistence on keeping the tenets of the law accompanied the giving of the law through Moses. This expectation forged a connection between human obedience and divine favor for the Israelite people. More than any other

13 D. C. Westermann, “Salvation and Healing in the Community: The Old Testament Understanding,” International Review of Mission 61, no. 241 (January 1972): 12. ATLA, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

14 Keith Warrington, “Healing and Sufering in the Bible,” International Review of Mission 95, no. 376/377(July 2006): 154. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

Hebrew texts, the Mosaic Law described a clear choice. One may choose the blessings of obedience or the consequences of disobedience. According to Brown, “There can be no doubt that obedience to God’s laws and statutes was understood to be the sure path to life and that the hygienic practices legislated in the Torah were certainly benefcial.”15 This presumption seemed evident to many ancient Hebrews. Obedience would lead to divine favor. Good health and fortune were the proofs of submission to God and evidence of divine favor. Poor health and misfortune were the evidence of disobedience and divine disapproval.

After their exodus from Egyptian slavery, the Israelites made it to Marah in the wilderness. It was there that the Lord said to the Israelites, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). Many of the Israelites related sickness and sufering to sin and divine disfavor.

The Pentateuch, historical books, Psalms, and Proverbs all include this connection between disobedience and sufering. According to Victor M. Parachin, “To be healed, we must submit in obedience to what the healing process requires.”16 2 Kings 5 illustrates the relationship between obedience and healing. Naaman was a distinguished military ofcer serving under the king of Aram. But Naaman sufered from leprosy. The prophet

15 Brown, 76.

16

Victor M. Parachin, “God’s Timeless Touch: What the Old Testament Teaches about Divine Healing,” Vibrant Life 24, no. 5 (September 2008): 17. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

Elisha instructed Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan River. If the general did so, he would receive healing. Naaman’s story ofers an example of obedience leading to healing. Naaman’s story also illustrates how healing is sometimes a process.

Discipline

Hebrew writers understood that God would discipline as well as care for his people. This acknowledgment required obedience to God alone. Failure to trust in God and follow God’s commands would result in misery for the Israelite people. Biblical examples include Miriam’s leprosy (Numbers 12:10-15) and the death of David’s son (2 Samuel 12:15-18). Ceremonial uncleanness was a concern for a people commanded to live by the Mosaic Law. Audrey Dawson explains, “Diseases and disabilities were particularly important for the Israelites, because of the laws preventing many disabled people from taking part in religious ritual; they were ‘outside the camp,’ according to the purity laws handed down in Leviticus 11-15.”17

The common Israelite theological understanding was that illness rendered a person ceremonially unclean. Labeled as unclean designated a person as a religious and social outcast. Not only was this alienation a spiritual concern, but it was also an emotional as well as a public issue.

The ancient Israelite people considered shunning to be a regular part of divine discipline. They associated this form of social distancing with divine love. The Israelites envisioned God as the loving Father and Israel as the child. A loving parent

17 Audrey Dawson, Healing, Weakness, and Power: Perspectives on Healing in the Writings of Mark, Luke, and Paul (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2008), 20.

24 | Promise – Healing in the Hebrew Scriptures disciplines one’s children (Deuteronomy 8:5; Proverbs 3:11-12; Job 5:17; Psalm 94:12). This image of loving divine discipline reminded suferers that present challenges produce lasting fruit. If a repentant person is obedient to God’s correction, God will bless that person.18 An example of divine discipline is the story of Asa. Though Asa, king of Judah, became disabled in his feet, he did not seek the Lord. Instead, he sought out the medical remedies of physicians. Because the king did not seek divine healing, the Israelites attributed Asa’s death to divine discipline (2 Chronicles 16:11-14). The people of Israel understood sickness as God’s chastisement of the wrongdoer.

Leprosy

An example of divine discipline found in the Hebrew texts was the onset of disease. But no other physical afiction captured the imagination of ancient believers quite like leprosy. It was a medical condition that brought ceremonial, communal, familial, and emotional alienation. According to Audrey Dawson, “‘Leprosy’ was especially feared because, as a condition with broken skin, it breached the boundaries of the suferer’s body, and so made others impure.”19 This health care concern caused great fear in ancient times. Leprosy in the Bible was a community fear as well as a healthcare concern. The diagnosis of the disease resulted in isolation from one’s family and community.

The more signifcant concern related to leprosy was a spiritual one. The Israelite people associated this medical condition with divine discipline. Israelites were familiar with

18 Brown, 145-146.

19 Dawson, 20.

the story of Aaron and Miriam who became jealous of Moses. The presumed consequence of this jealousy was Miriam contracting leprosy (Numbers 12:1-15). Another familiar story was that of King Uzziah. His disobedience presumably led to leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:16-23). The Israelites understood afiction as a warning that God will confront human sin. Divine discipline sometimes led to unpleasant consequences for the wayward person.

Perspectives on Sufering

It was common for ancient peoples to equate sufering with divine discipline. But it is also true that biblical attitudes about sickness varied. In any case, the Jewish people were no strangers to human sufering in its many forms. Warrington explains, “The Jewish nation knew what it was to experience sufering and sickness. In general, the Jews believed that sufering was part of their lot as human beings, but they also believed that God sent sickness (Deuteronomy 32:39) to test and to chastise them because of personal sin (Genesis 32:32; Exodus 15:26).”20 Various peoples throughout human history have experienced pain in many ways. The ancient Israelites understood that sufering is a consequence of the fall.

The Hebrew Scriptures record that sorrow has been a frequent companion of Israel. Yet the ancient Hebrew people held various perspectives on human sufering. Warrington writes, “There is evidence that some Jews realized that personal sin was not always the cause of sickness. The book of Job provides the clearest example of a righteous man (Job 2:3) who was nevertheless ill, the book being an exploration of the fact

20 Warrington, 155.

that sufering need not be the result of one’s own sin but due to other factors.”21 The ancient Hebrews recognized numerous reasons for human sufering. These explanations included correction for sin, sacrifcial sufering, and spiritual growth. Pain is the consequence of living in a world marred by mortal sin.

The Prophets: Repentance and Restoration

It would seem, in the Hebrew texts, that God will not overlook human sin. But sin does not have to be the end of one’s story. God allows for repentance and restoration. Dawson explains, “A sinner who repented was acceptable to God, and could become again a full member of God’s people, but the problem with sickness was that one was not fully acceptable before God until one was healed.”22 Hebrew prophets proclaimed messages of repentance and restoration. But disease and afiction still prevented full admission to religious and communal life. Ceremonial and communal renewal sometimes appeared to be a remote possibility. Those with various infrmities sufered emotionally as well as physically. Restoration and wholeness of communal life required remorse as well as healing. Yet, ancient Israelites desired acceptance by both God and the community.

The prophets of Israel associated divine discipline with the hope of restoration. They understood that God sometimes chastises his children for a higher redemptive purpose. The prophets longed for a time when God would bring healing and recovery to the people. The Hebrew prophets recognized that

divine healing is part of a divine plan of renewal. According to Brown, “There are four principle accounts of miracles of physical healing involving the prophets, viz., the raising of the widow’s son in Zarephath (involving Elijah, 1 Kings 17:17-24), the raising of the Shunammite’s son (involving Elisha, 2 Kings 4:836), the healing of Naaman the Aramean (involving Elisha, 2 Ki 5), and the healing of Hezekiah (involving Isaiah, 2 Kings 20:111; 2 Chronicles 32:24-26; Isaiah 38:1-8).”23 The story of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20) is a reminder that God values personal prayers for restoration. Miraculous healing demonstrates God’s concern for the lives of people. In ancient Israel, divine healing implies that God is working throughout history toward a hopeful future.24

The Hope of Wholeness

The hope of eschatological wholeness and restoration sustained seers in times of calamity. The Hebrew prophets understood that God would carry out a bigger plan. God would judge the wicked (Malachi 4:1-6), restore the righteous (Zephaniah 3:11-20), and renew the earth (Isaiah 65:17). In God’s timing, the divine kingdom will come.25 But until then, humans still exist in a world marred by sin and plagued by various afictions. God commissioned the Hebrew prophets for a difcult task. They were to turn the people from waywardness and sufering to repentance and restoration.

Elisha was a Hebrew prophet who confronted the social concerns of his time. He promoted cultural change and community healing. Elisha ofered a powerful voice against

23 Brown, 105.

24 Parachin, 17.

25 Brown, 202.

28 | Promise – Healing in the Hebrew Scriptures the social wrongs of his time. He was a disciple of the prophet Elijah. Elisha addressed the religious and moral decline of Israel. He even challenged the corruption of Israel’s monarchy. Royal disobedience to God led to the sufering of the public. The Israelite people endured famine (2 Kings 4:38-44; 6:25), war (2 Kings 3; 6:8-22; 6:24-33; 7:1-20), poverty (2 Kings 4:1-7), sickness (2 Kings 5:1-19), and injustice (2 Kings 6:26-31). Elisha refused to ignore the social suferings of his time. He became a prophetic voice on behalf of those who had no voice.26

The Hebrew texts include examples of individual healing as well as corporate healing. But divine healing was not always restricted to the Israelite community. Dawson writes, “God did not heal only corporately, and only the people of God; he also healed individuals, and foreigners. Like the restoration of Abimelech, a non-Israelite king, in response to Abraham’s prayer (Gen 20:17), there are recorded accounts of God healing individuals.”27 God’s healing was available to those who were outsiders to the Hebrew community as well. All healing is divine healing, and God’s healing advances God’s greater redemptive purposes.

The Psalms and Human Existence

The Psalms give voice to the joys as well as the concerns of ancient Hebrews. They ofer adoration and praise for God. But these texts also include the harsh reality of humans existing in a dangerous environment. According to Brown, “The psalmist

26 Lollo Zo Nantenaina, Joel Raveloharimisy, and Karen McWilliams, “The Prophet Elisha as an Agent of Change for Community Development,” The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership 9, no. 2 (September 2015): 11. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

27 Dawson, 21.

in his sickness speaks of his sense of alienation from God and of his desperation, frustration, and guilt. His healing, either as a historical reality for which he now gives thanks, or as a soughtafter blessing for which he will give thanks, is always perceived as a gift from God, a direct answer to prayer.”28 The Psalms are sometimes described as prayers. They can be honest and bold in their interpretations of human sufering.

The raw emotions of the Psalms express the struggles of human existence. In these texts, humans cope with the troubles of a fallen world and with God’s will. The Psalms express authentic cries for healing and expressions of thankfulness. They include the voices of ordinary people pleading for redemption. Brown explains:

In the psalms, the one aficted with a serious illness feels deeply that something is wrong; he knows (or senses) that he has sinned and that God is disciplining, correcting, and chastising him in his wrath. He sufers greatly in body and mind because of his physical pain, the anguish and frustration of unanswered prayer, the prospect of imminent death, and the derision of his ‘enemies.’ He weeps and mourns and may even wear sackcloth; his foes mock him and await his demise. Thus his healing is more than a physical recovery from impending death; it is a triumph, a vindication, a deliverance, a cause for jubilation and thanksgiving, a ftting testimony to the faithfulness of God.29

The emotional cries of the Psalms can be elaborate. A psalmist may cry out to God in the middle of sufering. Yet, a psalmist may long for healing and renewal.

28 Brown, 119.

29 Brown, 120.

| Promise – Healing in the Hebrew Scriptures

The poetic language of the Psalms describes the various complexities of human existence in relation to faith in God. The Psalms serve as reminders that divine healing includes the mind as well as the body. Parachin explains, “Often the wounds we bear in our minds are worse than any physical problem we must endure. The Old Testament assures us that God’s healing includes the emotional as well as the physical. Nowhere is this more evident than in the psalms.”30 Sufering and cries for spiritual, physical, and emotional redemption are expressed in many forms. One fnds in the Psalms contemplation of divine wrath (8:1-2) and divine chastisement (38:11-12), as well as confessions (41:4-5) and outright complaints (6:3-4; 13:1-4). There can be great lamentation as well as elements of worship contained in the same Psalm, such as Psalm 22. Frustration due to afiction (32:3-4), longing for rescue from enemies (41:7-8; 69:26), and references to death (13:3-4; 30:9-10) are all within the literary boundaries of the Psalms.

Though contexts change throughout the ages, the human condition remains the same. People still exist in a world of sufering. Sickness, injury, and loss remain. Relationships become strained and sometimes dissolve. Communication breaks down between people. Nations war against other countries. Murder, rape, and abuse remain too familiar. Humans too easily harm others. Sin still exists. As long as sin exists in the world, the need for healing remains.

From Testament to Testament

The Hebrew Scriptures describe the reality of living in a world marred by human sin. But they also represent God

30 Parachin, 18.

working out a redemptive purpose. These texts portray people struggling to comprehend changing world events and shifting communal circumstances. Sometimes the Israelite people wrestled with making sense of tragic events. Their conficts took place within the context of a covenant with God the Healer. This covenant was a relationship between Almighty God and frail humans. The ancient Israelite people existed in the tension between a fall and a promised restoration. Meanwhile, as described throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the need of healing for broken humanity was ever-present. This theme of brokenness and longing for redemption would continue in the New Testament.

All Believers Are Healing Ministers

Many Protestants have long believed in the priesthood of believers. According to this doctrine, all believers share in Christ’s priestly status. Christ is the high priest as well as the sacrifce for humankind’s sin. Some in the church serve as vocational clergy. But many Protestants believe that, unlike Old Testament times, there is no longer a special class of priests mediating God’s presence, knowledge, and forgiveness of Christ to others. All believers may read, interpret, and apply the teaching of Scripture to their lives. Therefore, all believers, laity as well as clergy, are healing ministers. Today, both clergy and laity should pray for a healing.

My parents were devout Pentecostal believers. A John Deere mechanic, my dad sometimes flled pulpits, preaching in independent Pentecostal churches. For a short time, he pastored a congregation. In our home, my dad usually took the lead in matters of faith. When I was a child, there was a

time when I was in bed sick with fever. Both my dad and mom knelt at my bedside and prayed for my physical healing. I recovered from that childhood sickness. I received physical healing, and yet the Holy Spirit touched me spiritually in that experience. Though I did not understand, even as a child, I sensed a connection between faith and healing. I also learned the importance of God’s people praying for healing. In the priesthood of believers, the work of healing ministry includes both clergy and laity. Christ is still the Healer, and all believers should pray for healing.

Personal Refection

Are there any hindrances to healing for you? What are they? Will you give these hindrances to God in prayer?

Chapter Three

PRESENCE: HEALING IN THE FOUR GOSPELS

Savior and Healer

The four Gospels included in the New Testament portray Jesus of Nazareth as the Healer. These texts also describe Jesus as announcing the advent of God’s kingdom. He revealed the reign of God in his preaching, teaching, and healing. Brown notes, “Anyone who has made a careful study of the biblical subject of divine healing, having systematically treated the OT material, cannot help but feel that the foodgates of healing have opened in the pages of the NT.”31 One should not underestimate the importance of Jesus’ deliverance ministry. Christ is the Savior of the whole person in body, mind, and spirit. Some argue that the Jews of the time sought a political deliverer to free them from the Romans who occupied the land of Israel. But Jesus announced a more profound deliverance in his preaching, teaching, and healing.

Some prefer to accentuate Jesus’ preaching and teaching over his healings. But the Nazarene’s healing ministry was essential in proclaiming the advent of God’s kingdom. Ronald Kydd explains, “Ministering to the sick was a major part of 31 Brown, 208.

34 | Presence – Healing in the Four Gospels what Christ did. Repeatedly he reached out to individuals, a paralyzed servant (Matt. 8:5f.), a woman with fever (Mark 1:2931), or he responded to groups (Matt 12:1-5). There can be no question about the importance of healing to Jesus.”32 These miraculous healings were part of something bigger. One cannot understand Christ’s healing ministry apart from its broader context. Jesus came to inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. His public ministry would lead to the age of the Holy Spirit. The Israelite people sought a political deliverer to free them from Roman oppression. But the people of Israel and the world longed for a greater liberation of body, mind, and spirit.

Matthew

Matthew’s Gospel connects Jesus’ public ministry with the Hebrew Scriptures. This relationship with the ancient Jewish texts included Jesus’ healing ministry. Harold Remus writes:

The evangelist also sets Jesus apart by citing what he sees as ancient prophetic (i.e., divinely inspired) testimony to Jesus, something other healers lack and that other New Testament evangelists often merely imply is true of Jesus. The author of Matthew, like a scholar searching the scriptures (cf. 13:52), fnds in them predictions proving that Jesus, in his birth, teaching, miracles, sufering, and death, is God’s chosen one.”33

32 Ronald A. N. Kydd, Healing through the Centuries: Models for Understanding (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), 1.

33 Harold Remus, Jesus as Healer (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 43.

Matthew’s Gospel describes Jesus’ healings as fulflling prophecies, such as that of the prophet Isaiah. Matthew cited Isaiah 53:4 when he wrote, “He took our infrmities and bore our diseases” (Matthew 8:17). Jesus’ healings related to ancient proclamations of the Messiah’s advent and reign. These prophecies described the dawning of the Messianic reign. In this divine kingdom, wholeness would be the norm.

The Matthew text describes a new creation coming about because of the Messiah’s work and reign. The Gospel of Matthew cites examples of divine restoration taking place through Jesus’ healing ministry. “Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:30-31). Jesus would cast out demons (8:16-17) and heal the paralyzed (8:16-17) through his three-fold ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and sickness” (9:35). Matthew emphasized Jesus’ compassion (9:35-36; 14:14; 20:34) for those in need of healing (9:27; 15:22; 20:30-31).34 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

The Nazarene’s healing ministry included casting out demonic spirits. Jesus also gave his apostles authority

34 John T. Carroll, “Sickness and Healing in the New Testament Gospels,” Interpretation 49, no. 2 (April 1995): 133. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

36 | Presence – Healing in the Four Gospels over unclean spirits (Matthew 10:1). He commanded them to proclaim his message, the Good News of the kingdom of heaven come to earth (4:17; 10:7). Jesus also commissioned his apostles to continue his healing ministry (10:8).35 Matthew’s account afrms that Jesus’ Messianic restoration would be a new era of God’s reign. This new period would bring wholeness and new life in the present.

Mark

As in Matthew’s account, Jesus’ healing ministry is vital in Mark’s Gospel. “That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons…” (1:32-34). These healings are essential to Mark’s text. But Mark portrays Jesus’ mission primarily as teaching and proclaiming God’s sovereign reign (1:38-39).36 Remus writes, “The healing stories, along with other miracle accounts, make up much of the frst nine chapters of the Gospel of Mark. There emerges a Jesus who fulflls John the Baptist’s proclamation that one mightier than he is yet to come (1:7): the miracles signal the reign of God that Jesus has announced is near at hand (1:15).”37 John the Baptizer’s message emphasized the kingdom of God. Jesus continued this kingdom-centered message. However, Jesus embodied the characteristics of God’s reign, including deliverance and healing.

The frst miracle of Jesus recorded in Mark’s Gospel is that of Jesus casting out an unclean spirit. This cleansing

35 Remus, 49-50.

36 Carroll, 131.

37 Remus, 13.

established Jesus’ reputation as the Healer. He was not only the Preacher and Teacher. This miracle illustrated that Jesus engaged in a greater war. Dawson writes, “Mark’s gospel is written from an apocalyptic world-view, where evil forces are very active, but where God is about to defeat Satan, and bring about the ‘day of the Lord’ (the Kingdom of God).”38 As this cosmic war rages, Jesus would not be absent from the sufering of humanity. Jesus’ healing ministry communicated that God is present with hurting people. Their pain would not be an inevitable reality. God’s grace is healing grace, and Jesus Christ embodies divine grace and healing. With those he healed, Jesus experienced the pain and sufering of human existence. He would experience the physical death that accompanies humanity.39 Jesus’ sufering demonstrated that humankind exists in a world marred by mortal sin. Jesus’ death on a cross would portray the reality of human sufering in a fallen world.

Jesus’ frst advent demonstrated his compassion for hurting humanity. He did not exhibit sympathy for sufering people. He came alongside and sufered with them. Mark’s Gospel describes a compassionate Jesus present in human sufering. “And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed” (6:56). Mark’s Gospel highlights Jesus as the sufering Servant proclaiming the kingdom of God. This proclamation included Jesus’ miraculous healings. These descriptions of Jesus’ miracles ofered a glimpse into Mark’s eschatological perspectives. The Son of Man’s miracles also described the role of healing within the context of an eternal

38 Dawson, 65.

39 Remus, 38-39.

38 | Presence – Healing in the Four Gospels kingdom.40 Jesus’ compassion proved that the Healer is present with hurting people.

Luke

Healing the sick and diseased, as well as casting out demons, are essential in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 4:40-41; 5:17) A woman recovered when she touched the fringe of Jesus’ clothes (Luke 8:43-48; Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34). Jesus healed ten people aficted with leprosy (Luke 17:19). These are two examples out of many. Jesus even granted authority and healing power to his disciples (Luke 9:1-2; 10:8-9). In time his Spirit-empowered ministry would become their ministry. Luke’s Gospel includes Jesus’ social concerns as well (Luke 6:20-23). In his text, Luke afrms that Jesus came for the poor and the oppressed so that he may set them free (Luke 4:18). Jesus’ public ministry valued divine healing as well as preaching and teaching.

According to Luke’s Gospel, at the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus went to the Nazareth synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. There he read from the scroll of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus explained, “Today this scripture has been fulflled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus would fulfll this prophecy in his public ministry. Luke’s Gospel makes it clear that the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus for ministry. This divine anointing empowered Jesus to preach, teach, and heal. Jesus would restore people who were aficted with both diseases

and evil spirits. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit were vital to the mission of Jesus in the world.41

A critical context in Luke’s Gospel is that of community. Remus writes, “As in the other gospels, so also in Luke Jesus’ healing is of the social body as well as of individual bodies. In Luke, however, such social healing fgures much more prominently.”42 Jesus’ care extended to tax-collectors, the poor, the blind, the oppressed, women, and outcasts.43 In Luke’s Gospel, the recovery of the person did not take place in isolation. Healing took place within the bigger context of a community.

Luke describes Jesus’ healing ministry as taking place in an even bigger setting. That is the cosmic struggle between good and evil. Those healed by Jesus were set free from oppression by the devil, as God is more powerful.44 Jesus’ public ministry was part of a broader salvation history. This history connects New Testament events with Old Testament prophecies. Luke emphasized Jesus as the Messianic prophet who heals.45 Jesus’ healing ministry was also salvifc. Brown explains:

The NT usage of the verbal root sozo (basically, ‘to rescue, save, deliver, preserve from danger, etc.’) evidences a similar inclusive meaning. Thus, in the space of less than two chapters in Luke, it is used in 7:50 with reference to being saved from sin (see 7:36-49), in 8:36 with reference to being saved from demons (see 8:26-39), in 8:48 with reference to being saved from sickness (see 8:43-47), and in 8:50

41 Francis MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening: Reclaiming Our Lost Inheritance (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 2005), 44.

42 Remus, 65.

43 Dawson, 113.

44 Remus, 68-69.

45 Dawson, 116.

40 | Presence – Healing in the Four Gospels with reference to being saved from death (see 8:49). Jesus is a soter who forgives, delivers, heals, and resurrects, both temporally and eternally.46

Luke’s Gospel emphasizes the fulfllment of Old Testament prophecies. This fulfllment implies that Jesus’ public ministry would be essential to a more extensive history of salvation.47 In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus’ healing ministry is part of his advent as the Savior who brings God’s salvation into the world.48

Luke’s Gospel includes many healing instances. These examples echo dramatic healings described in the Hebrew Scriptures. Luke proposes certain parallels between Jesus’ ministry and Old Testament accounts. The reversal of Elizabeth’s barrenness (Luke 1:7-25) recalls the healing of Hannah’s barrenness (1 Samuel 1:2-20). The raising of the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-16) reminds one of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:18-37). These are not arbitrary similarities for Luke. They are vital connections within a prophetic structure in which the Holy Spirit is present and active.49 The healings of Jesus related to the restorations in the Hebrew Scriptures. These associations inhabited the same salvifc history of divine redemption.

In Luke’s theological framework, there are physical, emotional, and spiritual components. God will redeem the physical body for eternity. Yet God also cares about a person’s physical health in the present. This concern for both the

46 Brown, 212-213.

47 Dawson, 105.

48 Carroll, 134.

49 Dawson, 105.

present time and eternity was evident in Jesus’ public ministry. This concern was also apparent in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Ryan A. Rush and Basil H. Aboul-Enein argue, “At the core of the Christian confession is the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, as evidenced by the empty tomb. Therefore even in an atmosphere of anticipation of a quick return of Jesus, the importance of the body was established early on.”50 The Gospel texts establish divine concern for the physical human body. This suggests that one should not relegate Christianity to an afterlife. In Christ, there is abundant life and wholeness in the present for the whole person in body, mind, and spirit.

In considering Jesus’ healing ministry, one should not dismiss the importance of prayer. Luke includes various descriptions of Jesus in prayer. It was in prayer that Jesus accentuated his relationship with his heavenly Father. Jesus’ connection with his heavenly Father was crucial to his ministry in the world.51 Luke describes a cosmic battle taking place between God’s kingdom and the realm of evil, and prayer is an essential weapon in this spiritual war. Jesus’ public ministry took place within the setting of a cosmic confict between good and evil. Jesus came to set free those held captive in various forms of spiritual bondage. Christ came to lift them up into a new and abundant life.

John

The structure of John’s Gospel is diferent than that of the other Gospels. John organized his account around seven

50 Ryan A. Rush and Basil H. Aboul-Enein, “Health, Healing, and WellBeing According to the New Testament,” ABNF Journal 27, no. 2 (April 2016): 45.

ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

51 Dawson, 110.

42 | Presence – Healing in the Four Gospels miracles that he portrayed as signs. John deemed these signs as signifcant to the record of Jesus’ ministry. According to John Christopher Thomas, “Briefy put, signs in the Fourth Gospel are miraculous events that point beyond themselves to faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Often the signs give way to an extended discourse where part of the sign’s signifcance is made more explicit.”52 Jesus’ healing ministry is best understood within a soteriological context. For John, these seven signs provide a framework for afrming Jesus as the divine Healer. John portrays Jesus as the Healer in the “I am” statements, confrming Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.

Of the seven miracles or signs in John’s Gospel, healing would be evident in some and implied in others. The frst sign was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee (2:1-11) The second miracle also took place in Cana when Jesus healed an ofcial’s dying son (4:46-54). Jesus said to the royal ofcial, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe” (4:48). The man believed, and his son recovered. The third sign would be on a Sabbath day when Jesus met a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to be made well?” (5:6). With the man explaining his helpless condition, Jesus told him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk” (5:8). Immediately the man recovered.

The fourth sign in the Gospel according to John was the feeding of the fve thousand (6:1-14). The ffth sign was Jesus walking on water (6:16-21). The sixth sign came when Jesus healed a man blind from birth (9:1-41). The seventh sign took place with the miraculous raising of Lazarus from the dead

52 John Christopher Thomas, “Healing in the Atonement: A Johannine Perspective,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 14, no. 1 (October 2005): 26. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

(11:1-44). It was on this occasion that Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (11:25-26a).

Jesus continued the prophetic healing tradition of Judaism. But Jesus also re-interpreted some prophetic traditions. Some saw disease as originating with God and being dealt as a form of punishment. Jesus did not subscribe to this theological assumption. Chapter 9 describes a scene in which Jesus’ disciples asked him whether a man born blind or the man’s parents had sinned. Jesus explained how the man’s blindness was not an issue of divine punishment. Restoring the man’s sight was the fulfllment of an eschatological reality in the present.53 In his ministry, Jesus continued the ancient Jewish healing tradition. But Jesus also cast new light on long-held Hebrew theological tenets, especially within the contexts of healing and human sufering. In addition to the law, Jesus came to fulfll the tradition of the Hebrew prophets. This fulfllment included the prophetic tradition of healing.

Christ the Healer and His Healing Church

Even a cursory reading of the four Gospels reveals Jesus’ concern for body, mind, and spirit. The health of the whole person was an essential focus of Jesus’ mission. MacNutt writes, “I think it is fair to say that every time Jesus met evil, spiritual or physical, he treated it as an enemy. Every time a sick person came to him in faith, Jesus healed that person. He did not divide human beings, as we so often do, into a soul to be saved and

53 Paul W. Walaskay, “Biblical and Classical Foundations of the Healing Ministries,” Journal of Pastoral Care 37, no. 3 (September 1983): 203. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

44 | Presence – Healing in the Four Gospels healed and a body that is to sufer and remain unhealed until the next life and resurrection.”54 Jesus’ public ministry was not constrained to saving souls. Jesus’ ministry brought about the wholeness of the entire person in body, mind, and spirit.55

Healing was vital to Jesus’ ministry. Yet, some Gospel writers emphasized divine healing more than others. Matthew’s text describes how the risen Christ appeared to the eleven. On this occasion, Jesus told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). Some copies of Mark’s Gospel would include a similar statement (Mark 16:15-16). Luke’s account would contain a reference to the promised Holy Spirit (Luke 24:47-49). Christ intended to continue his mission on the earth after his ascension through his Spirit-empowered church. The Book of Acts, recorded by Luke, chronicled this continuance of ministry by Christ’s church.

Healing Presence

Christ, God incarnate, embodied the presence of divine healing. The promise of miraculous healing found in the Hebrew Scriptures took on fesh and bone in Jesus’ ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. Jesus gave his life on a cross as an atoning sacrifce for the sin of humankind. Yet, even before the cross, Jesus the Savior embodied salvation and

54 Francis MacNutt, Healing (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1999), 4950.

55 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 11.

healing. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, demonstrated that God is not distant and removed from human sufering. In Jesus, God was present with the people and their sufering. Presence is powerful. But absence is also powerful.

When I was ffteen years of age, a surgeon removed a tumor from my father. But cancer spread quickly, consuming his physical health. His body wasted away, from a picture of strength to a shell of his former self. A spring biopsy led to a summer funeral. My dad was gone. Our family’s spiritual leader, who spent countless hours on his knees in prayer, was no longer in the next room. I would no longer see him sipping cofee at the breakfast bar when I got up each morning. I would no longer fnd him sitting in his chair reading the newspaper when I came inside from playing basketball.

During my formational high school years, the spiritual strength of our home was no longer present. In my mourning, my thoughts turned silently dark. My feelings of loss transformed into anger at God. How could a loving God allow this to happen to my dad, who faithfully served God for so many years? I did not understand. It seemed to me that God turned his back during my dad’s time of sufering. How could the God who heard my dad’s prayers for the healing of others allow my dad to sufer in such a horrible way? At the time, I thought, “Is this the kind of God that my dad served?” I did not want anything to do with a God like that.

I now understand what I could not back then. God is the Healer. Yet, God sometimes accomplishes a greater purpose through temporary human sufering. When my dad left this world, he found eternal healing in Christ’s presence. Believers

46 | Presence – Healing in the Four Gospels ought to pray for divine healing. But believers ultimately have to trust in God and his greater plan. In his physical death, my dad was absent from the earth and present with our Lord in heaven. Without the eyes of faith, I could not see God’s healing in my dad’s passing from this world. In time, I would know a divine presence greater than that of any human.

Personal Refection

Think about churches in which you have participated. Did they emphasize Jesus’ preaching, teaching, healing, or all three? What are some observations that you have about Jesus Christ the Healer as described in the four Gospels?

Chapter Four

PRACTICE: HEALING BEYOND THE FOUR GOSPELS

Acts of the Holy Spirit

Throughout history, some have referred to this book as the Acts of the Apostles. It is more accurate to describe this text as the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The church is powerless without the presence of the promised Holy Spirit. Jesus’ ministry would continue in and through the body of Christ, the Spiritempowered church. Healing the sick relates to proclaiming the Good News of God’s kingdom.56

Before his ascension, Jesus made a promise to his disciples. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1:8). According to MacNutt, “The basic teaching of the book of Acts is that the early Christians simply carried on the work of Jesus by preaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand and then they made it all come true by healing the sick and casting out evil spirits.”57 In his public ministry, Jesus connected

48 | Practice – Healing beyond the Four Gospels people with the healing and transforming power of God. Jesus authorized his disciples to continue this same dynamic work of deliverance after his ascension.58

According to the Book of Acts, Peter attributed the healing of a disabled man directly to faith in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:16). Paul did as well in explaining the healing of another disabled man (Acts 14:9-10).59 Philip began his deliverance ministry in Samaria. “The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured” (8:6-7). Philip’s healing ministry was prominent in the early church. His ministry extended beyond that of those appointed as apostles by Jesus. Even those without apostolic status, empowered by the Holy Spirit, were vessels of divine healing in the early church.

The healings described in Acts pointed the faithful to the healing ministry of Jesus. How the early church operated refected Jesus’ healing ministry. Warrington explains, “To look at the way they healed was to remind the reader of the way that Jesus healed. That is exactly Luke’s purpose: the healings refect the ongoing presence of Jesus in the ministry of the church.”60 The early Christians understood that the risen Christ is still present with his church. Miraculous healings prove the Lord’s presence. Christ’s church would experience persecution. But the Book of Acts would serve as a reminder that Jesus Christ is

58 Beate Jakob, “We Can Expect Great Things from God: The Relation between Faith and Healing,” International Review of Mission 93, no. 370/371 (July 2004): 461. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

59 Brown, 224.

60 Warrington, 158.

Lord. His Good News will be victorious despite any momentary sufering.

Pauline Epistles

Parts of the Book of Acts (14:22; 20:22; 21:11) ofer clues to the apostle Paul’s pneumatology. Paul implied a connection between sufering and the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. Even in times of weakness and pain, the Holy Spirit accomplishes a redemptive plan. Warrington writes, “Believers are informed that they are not exempt from sufering experienced by the world; in reality, they participate in its pain (Rom. 8:18-23) but so does the Spirit. The sufering experienced by both is not the fault of the suferers; rather it is sin that is at fault, and both the created order and the church sufer as a result.”

61 Christfollowers are not immune to sufering. Even in momentary afictions on the earth, the Holy Spirit may carry out the divine work of restoration. The apostle Paul focused more on the Holy Spirit working in human weakness. But miracles, including healings, were a part of Paul’s apostolic ministry.62

Paul’s epistles ofer limited information related to the ministry of healing. Some argue that Paul was more interested in the issue of sufering. He did not intend to form a treatise about healing ministry. According to Warrington, “Paul advocates prayer as a response to sufering, and when the sufering continues he suggests that the believers develop awareness of the presence of God. He reminds the Corinthians that God is a God of all comfort, and of the words of the Lord

61 Warrington, 162.

62 Graham H. Twelftree, “Paul’s Experience of the Miraculous,” Evangelical Quarterly 87, no. 3 (July 2015): 195. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

50 | Practice – Healing beyond the Four Gospels to him in 2 Corinthians 12:9, ‘My grace is sufcient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”63 Paul’s emphasis on divine comfort does not suggest any lack of concern for the sufering. Paul believed that followers of Christ can experience the Spirit’s power as and when God wills.

The apostle Paul understood that God works not only in miraculous signs and wonders. God also works in human sufering to bring about a higher plan of redemption. For Paul, pain and healing are not always at odds with each other. God’s redemptive purpose will triumph. Warrington argues, “It is not the case that life lived in the shadow of the cross and life lived in the power of the Spirit are mutually exclusive. There is no contrasting theology between a theology of the cross and a theology of the Spirit.”64 In Paul’s perspective, the cross and the Spirit-flled life are complementary. In fact, the cross is central to the Spirit-flled life. Tribulation often reveals the glory of God. The need for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit is evident in human sufering.

Paul specifcally included healing as one of the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Two cultures infuenced his worldview. He was a Roman citizen versed in Greco-Roman thought. But he was also a devout Jew immersed in the Torah and rabbinical teachings. Referring to Paul’s treatment of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, Walaskay writes, “That Paul was a Hellenistic Jew is not incidental to his placement of healing which, in the catalogue of gifts, is bracketed by knowledge (drawn from the Hippocratic tradition) and miracles (from the Old Testament tradition).”65 Paul would have been familiar with

63 Warrington, 160.

64 Warrington, 161.

65 Walaskay, 195.

classical Greek philosophical arguments regarding human sufering. But Jewish tradition would have also infuenced his perspective.

The phrase translated as “signs and wonders” would not have been foreign to Paul. It was a phrase sometimes associated with the miracles related to Moses and the exodus. After his Damascus Road experience, Paul learned about Jesus the Messiah. Paul’s thinking shifted during this period. He would associate “signs and wonders” with Jesus’ public ministry. Healing accompanies both preaching and teaching. In his list of spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1-11), Paul included faith, healing, and miracles.66 So, to say that Paul was uninterested in healing ministry would be an inaccurate assessment of Paul’s theological perspective. In Paul’s understanding of God’s redemptive plan, sometimes sufering serves a higher purpose in the work of sovereign God.

The Letter of James

The volume of James’ written work is more limited than that of Paul. But the Letter of James has some signifcant contributions to understanding healing as a ministry of the church. Like Paul, James acknowledged the relationships between sufering and faith, and between sickness and healing. Warrington writes:

The letter of James is written to Jewish believers who are struggling due to the oppression of the rich, and those who are antagonistic to the Christian faith. James ofers a good deal of practical advice to his readers. He encourages them to pray,

66 Twelftree, 197-199.

52 | Practice – Healing beyond the Four Gospels to recognize that their sufering can be benefcial to their faith in God, and to remember that God has not overlooked the oppressors. James also provides advice concerning the role of believers in ministering to those sufering from varied forms of weakness that may include sickness (Jas 5:14f).67

Human afictions of various forms are a painful reality in a fallen world. But Christ did not leave his church powerless against human sufering. Prayer is an essential means of grace and healing.

Along with prayer, James prescribed the ancient practice of anointing with olive oil. Hebrew customs had long afrmed the practice of anointing with oil. This healing tradition continued in the early church. James Wagner explains, “The instruction of James to use oil when praying for the sick was simply an order to employ the best medicine available along with prayer (Jas 5:14). This passage implies that prayer and medicine go together.”68 Historic Judaism associated anointing oil with restoration, strength, healing, and joy. Anointing with oil is also related to being set apart for God. Monarchs, prophets, priests, and even service utensils were all anointed with oil.69 Jewish tradition considered anointing oil a medicine. Anointing those who were ill with oil for healing was a common practice.70 Medicines and therapies, such as the application of olive oil, were conventional treatments in the early church. Anointing oil, along with prayer, demonstrates how medicine and faith can work together.

67 Warrington, 162.

68 James K. Wagner, Blessed to Be a Blessing: How to Have an Intentional Healing Ministry in Your Church (Nashville: The Upper Room, 1980), 44.

69 Warrington, 162-163.

70 Wagner, 43.

Medicine and faith were not at odds with each other in the early church. Accompanying anointing with oil, James also recommended the prayer of faith. Warrington explains, “The prayer of faith is a prayer that is ofered in association with faith that has been given by God. It is a prayer that is ofered in the certainty that the desired response is guaranteed. This is demanding or assuming that God would do as we ask. This is not ‘name it and claim it’ theology; that is presumptuous and inappropriate. Rather, it is a prayer that has the backing of God.”71 James’ prescription for healing includes two elements: anointing with oil and praying the prayer of faith. It is evident in the New Testament texts that healing ministry, in some form, was commonplace in the early church. Perhaps no other New Testament text describes healing like the Revelation of John.

The Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation has been a topic of debate for centuries. There are various approaches to understanding the text of John the Revelator. The historicist approach understands the text as a prewritten historical record. Fulfllment progresses from the time of its writing until the end of the age. According to the preterist method, culmination occurred not long after the recording of the Revelation. But some believe that the fnal chapters of the book will fnd fulfllment at Christ’s return. The futurists argue that most of the book’s prophecies will happen in the future. This future fulfllment will occur soon before and at Christ’s second coming. A fourth interpretation goes by various names such as idealist, symbolic, and spiritual. This method understands Revelation as a grand drama. Symbolism

54 | Practice – Healing beyond the Four Gospels represents spiritual matters that are relevant to any historical period.72

Revelation anticipates an ultimate healing. Examples include Christ’s promises to the seven churches. The faithful who overcome will eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God (2:7). They will also receive from Christ various gifts: the crown of life (2:10); hidden manna, as well as a white stone with a new name written on it (2:17); authority over the nations (2:26); the morning star (2:28); white robes as well as one’s name written in the book of life (3:5); becoming a pillar in God’s temple, with the name of God written on them (3:12); fellowship with Christ (3:20); and reigning with Christ (3:21) who ofers salvation as a gift to those who will receive it. The 144,000 of Israel and the multitude from every nation (Chapter 7), and those invited to the Lamb’s marriage supper (19:9), describe the faithful.

The end of Revelation pronounces the ultimate healing and restoration. Reconciliation with God is in Christ alone. As the prophecy draws to a close, it includes the description of a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem. “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the frst things have passed away” (21:3-4).

Healing is the norm as the river of life fows from the throne of God. “On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and

72 Steve Gregg, ed., Revelation: Four Views – A Parallel Commentary, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997), 2-3.

the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (22:2b). Christ ofers the defnitive blessings. He forgives sinners of their sin. He rewards his faithful followers with eternal life in which there is no more sin, pain, or death. The triumphant Christ heals. As John concluded recording the vision, the Revelator included this moving appeal: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20). The human author anticipated Christ’s imminent return. The healing of all things would be yet to come. Yet, the healing of all things is certain in Christ.

Healing in the Early Church

The New Testament portrays healing as the standard in God’s kingdom. Deliverance is an ordinary occurrence in the divine realm. Restoration of the whole person in body, mind, and spirit is a reasonable expectation. When the apostle Paul learned that some Christians in Corinth were practicing healing, he referred to healing as a spiritual gift (12:9, 30). Paul anticipated healing in the church. Historically, his theological perspectives about sufering and redemption stand alongside other healing perspectives in the early church. The New Testament Scriptures afrm that church healing ministry in some form endured.

The Church, a Community of Evangelistic Care

Though my parents were devout believers, I did not come to faith in Jesus Christ until I was a student at Oklahoma State University. Christian students on campus befriended me during my freshman year. Their concern for me was no small endeavor. I silently struggled to cope with my dad’s death while trying to run as far away from God as possible. They invited me

56 | Practice – Healing beyond the Four Gospels to Bible Studies in the residence hall where I lived. They invited me to worship services and other church events. Sometimes I attended these studies and church gatherings. Looking back in time, I now realize how the Holy Spirit led those believers to water the seed of faith planted by my parents when I was a child.

During the second semester of my sophomore year, I sat at my desk in my dorm room, reading my Bible. For some time, I had been reading through the Gospels. There was much that I did not understand about matters of faith, life, the universe, and everything. Yet, as I struggled to comprehend the preaching, teaching, and healings of this historical person named Jesus, I experienced a quiet epiphany. I sensed that there was something diferent about Jesus of Nazareth, who was reportedly both Son of God and Son of Man.

On that day, as I read one of the Gospels in a quiet moment in my dorm room, an impulse to pray came over me. I prayed a simple prayer. Evangelical Christians might refer to it as the Sinner’s Prayer. Still, I responded in prayer to God’s grace. As I fnished that prayer, alone in my dorm room, I did not hear the sound of angelic choirs. I saw no bright lights or heavenly visions. Yet, a quiet peace came over me, along with the sudden realization that for me, nothing would ever be the same. I am eternally grateful to the student believers who befriended, invited, cared for, and nurtured a young man drowning in spiritual darkness while grieving the loss of his father. The church is at its best when it is a community of evangelistic care, seeking and loving the lost into our heavenly Father’s healing embrace.

Personal Refection

Are the presence and power of the Holy Spirit still essential in our lives today? Do you think that God sometimes accomplishes his work through human sufering?

Chapter Five

CONTINUANCE, DECLINE, AND PERSISTENCE

Continuance

Historical evidence suggests that dramatic healings continued after the passing of the apostles. Signs and wonders of various kinds reportedly continued into the second century. According to Remus, “Thus, around the middle of the second century CE Justin Martyr boasts that Christians cast out demons by reciting a little credo about Jesus’ crucifxion (2 Apology 6.6; similarly, Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho 30.3; 76.7; 85.2-3) – an interesting early example of how the story of the powerless healer begins to be used as a power for healing in his name.”73 Demonstrations of divine power continued to serve as evangelistic tools for the church. Healing in Christ’s name drew people into the Christian community. The church proclaimed that a person is not bound to physical infrmities. The hope of healing inspired many people to come into the body of Christ.

Miraculous forms of healings in the early church included casting out demons. The early church did not restrict deliverance ministry to physical healing. The casting out of demons proved to hold its own evangelistic merits. Remus

60 | Continuance, Decline, and Persistence explains, “A few decades later, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, reports that those from whom demons have been expelled are frequently won to Christ (Against Heresies 2.33.4). Tertullian, a couple of decades further still (197 CE), asserts that evil spirits inhabiting humans masquerading as deities reveal their true identities when a follower of Christ orders them to speak (Apol. 23.4).”74 The signs and wonders of the young church served as a continual reminder. The church is in a spiritual battle between good and evil. But, in Christ’s name, the believer has authority even over evil entities.

Miracles were a recognizable part of the life of the young church. Historical texts confrm the importance of healing. Dame Raphael Frost explains, “…Starting from the Acts of the Apostles and on through the years of persecution down to the time of the Emperor Constantine, the evidence is clear that the Lord was working with them, and confrming the word by ‘the signs that were incarnate to a remarkable degree.’”75 Miracles, including healings, remained essential to the life and ministry of the church. Miraculous healings refected Jesus’ compassion. In some form, deliverance ministry continued even after the time of the apostles.

Based on the testimonies of early church leaders, miracles did not cease. For the frst three hundred years of the church, healing continued in some form. Christians carried on Christ’s deliverance ministry. They prayed for the sick and cast out demonic spirits.76 Justin Martyr writes about exorcisms. “For many demoniacs throughout the entire world, and even in

74 Remus, 97.

75 Raphael Frost, Christ and Wholeness: An Approach to Christian Healing (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1985), 356.

76 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 82.

your city, were exorcised by many of our Christians in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucifed under Pontius Pilate; and our men cured them, and they still cure others by rendering helpless and dispelling the demons who had taken possession of these men, even when they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and exploiters of incantations and drugs.”77 Irenaeus and Tertullian also acknowledged the reality of miraculous healings.78

Origen recorded this observation on recovery: “…We also have seen many delivered from serious ailments, and from mental distractions and madness, and countless other diseases, which neither men nor demons had cured.”79 These historical references document the continuance of healing in some form. Some overlook the role of healing among the early Christians, focusing instead on the preaching, teaching, and evangelism of the young church. Yet, healing ministry in the church continued even after the passing of the apostles. But compared to its vibrant beginnings, church healing ministry would in time decline.

Decline

An emphasis on wholeness was signifcant in the frst centuries of the church’s existence. But then, in the fourth century and after, things began to change. Church healing

77 Justin Martyr, “The Second Apology,” in The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation Volume 6, trans. Thomas B. Falls (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 2008), 125-126, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/oruebooks/reader.action?docID=3134832.

78 A. J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing: Miracles in All Ages (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1961), 60-61.

79 Origen, Contra Celsum, trans. Henry Chadwick (London: Cambridge, 1965), 142.

62 | Continuance, Decline, and Persistence ministry started its gradual decline.80 MacNutt laments, “But over the centuries a lively belief in healing prayer was taken away, not only by the enemies of Christianity, but surprisingly, by Christians themselves. We are not dealing with villains here but good, even holy leaders who nearly killed Christian healing; the monks, for instance, fed to the desert (ca. A.D. 400) to escape the sinful cities and then refused, in the name of humility, to pray for the sick.”81 In time, the practice of prayer, especially those for healing, sufered. A church lacking in prayer is a church lacking in spiritual power. As the practice of prayer declined, much of the spiritual power of the church weakened. In time, the church transitioned from a Spirit-empowered movement into a human-powered institution.

Constantine

Some have attributed the decline in miraculous healings to a single historical event. That was the supposed conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine around 312 AD. A. J. Gordon explains, “And the era of Constantine’s conversion confessedly marks a decided transition from a purer to a more degenerate and worldly Christianity. From this period on, we fnd the Church ceasing to depend wholly on the Lord in heaven, and to rest in the patronage and support of earthly rulers; and ceasing to look ever for the coming and Kingdom of Christ as the consummation of her hopes….”82 Ascribing the church’s decline in healing to any single event can prove to be complicated. But the post-Constantine age played a signifcant role in the decrease of deliverance.

80 Mark Pearson, Christian Healing: A Practical & Comprehensive Guide (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2004), 16.

81 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 11.

82 Gordon, 62-63.

Extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were common in the time of the early church. But they began a noticeable decline after Constantine’s reported conversion to Christianity. John Wesley ofers commentary on the decline of miracles in the post-Constantine church. Wesley writes, “From this time they almost totally ceased; very few instances of the kind were found. The cause of this was not (as has been vulgarly supposed) ‘because there was no more occasion for them’ because all the world was become Christian. This is a miserable mistake: not a twentieth part of it was nominally Christian. The real cause was: ‘the love of many’ – almost of all Christians, so called – was ‘waxed cold.’”83 Wesley believed that Constantine’s supposed conversion marked a turning point. The church’s sense of orthodoxy and orthopraxy began to change.

Out of Constantine’s political acquisition of the church emerged a diferent entity than the movement described in the Book of Acts. This emergence would be a more self-serving institution. The institutional church would prove to be void of spiritual charisma and power. Miracles, including miraculous healings, declined in the church. Although Wesley believed that charismatic gifts could, at some time, return to the church.

Seismic shifts in culture and religious expression accompanied Constantine’s presumed conversion. The western church, in time, became a political force. Like any empire, it would in time adore its growing prestige and political power. MacNutt explains, “After the emperor Constantine was converted in the year 312, it became more or less fashionable to be a Christian. No longer were Christians threatened with 83 John Wesley, “The More Excellent Way,” in John Wesley’s Sermons: An Anthology, ed. Albert C. Outler and Richard P. Heitzenrater (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 512.

64 | Continuance, Decline, and Persistence death; no longer did it require great courage to worship God. Pagan temples, like the Pantheon in Rome, were converted into churches.”84

With its new power and status, ecclesial life and ministry changed. The church gained social power and eminence that it had never before experienced. Once the church relied on spiritual power and authority. Now church leadership relied on political infuence and human ofces. Earlier, the church had been a dynamic spiritual movement. Now, the church expanded into a bureaucratic institution.

The Church as an Institution

After Constantine’s supposed conversion, the western church became the established religion of Rome. As the church did so, the church lost its kingdom-centered focus. Ecclesial control replaced the Holy Spirit’s power. Spiritual transformation waned, leading to a watered-down faith among many people. According to Pearson, “The Church was soon fooded with nominal believers for whom the radical centrality of Christ was secondary to social acceptance and career advancement.”85 By the middle of the third century AD, S. Cyprian noticed a decrease in healing power. Cyprian witnessed the lessening of spiritual vitality within the larger church.86

84 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 103.

85 Pearson, 17.

86 Frost, 57.

Subtle changes that seemed benign at their start in time turned into signifcant shifts. One of which pertained to the anointing of those who were ill. Anointing and praying for

physical healing became a ritual of preparing church-members for imminent death. Physical healing was still present in words. But it became only a spiritual practice. In time, anointing of the sick transformed into the last rites. It was not until Vatican II that this practice began to reverse. This reversal would bring about a renewed emphasis on physical healing.87 But the church found itself detached from the deliverance aspects of Jesus’ public ministry described in the Gospel texts. Christ’s church struggled to reach an agreement on how to fulfll Jesus’ command to heal.88 This confusion about deliverance ministry afected the church’s fulfllment of the Great Commission.

Missional Decline

With the decline of healing ministry in the church came a decrease in the church’s compassion. Some in the church would see Jesus’ miraculous healings as mere metaphors. This perspective promotes the image of a Savior who only cares about a person’s soul and not the whole person. Jesus expected his church to love God, love one another, and love neighbor (John 15:12; Matthew 22:39). In time, the love of the church grew cold. MacNutt argues:

We also lost another main motive for healing: God’s compassion for His sick and wounded children. Love as a motive will always remain, as long as human beings – God’s children – remain sick, wounded, and hurting. Jesus often healed people because he was moved with compassion, even when it was against His best interests. How

else can we explain why He healed on the Sabbath when it turned the religious leaders against Him?89

Jesus healed the sick out of compassion for the lost and hurting. In his healings, Jesus announced the advent of God’s kingdom on the earth.

But the church, in time, lost touch with the healing ministry of Jesus. In doing so, the church also lost touch with the compassion of Jesus. Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and healings all complemented one another, forming an overall ministry of wholeness. Healing was central to the Nazarene’s public ministry, as well as the ministry of the early church. But the decline in healing ministry was gradual, and few people noticed. Church leadership then focused on other matters. Institutions demand much attention, and an institutional church was no exception. The church began to change its missional focus. Ministry no longer resembled the compassionate mission of Jesus and the early church. Healing ministry sufered.

The church started looking beyond the physical. A theology of eternal salvation became more critical for the church. Eternal matters pulled the church’s focus away from the painful realities of the here and now. MacNutt comments, “Christians became concerned with ‘saving souls’ – a term you never fnd in the gospels. The ‘Kingdom of God’ meant the next world – heaven. The more you virtuously sufer in this world, the more your soul will beneft in the coming life: A cross in this life – a crown in the next. The body was to be ‘mortifed’ –which literally means to be ‘put to death’ – for the soul’s sake.”90 Healing was central to the public ministry of Jesus. But in 89 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 99-100. 90 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 107.

time, miraculous healings became more and more infrequent. Christ’s church lost interest. Healing ministry would only exist at the margins of church life. In time, the church needed something that could alter its erring trajectory. The church needed Reformation.

Protestantism

The church experienced its Reformation. Yet, early Protestantism would not fare much better in reclaiming Jesus’ healing ministry. Treating biblical accounts of miraculous healings as allegory or outright mythology would become standard. The church abdicated healing to medical science. It was then that Protestant churches began emphasizing the salvation of the soul. The Age of Reason gave rise to empirical scientifc thought.

This change in conventional thinking led to a general separation of the physical and the spiritual. People sufering from physical sickness now consulted medical physicians. People with spiritual crises sought out help from the church.91

Opoku Onyinah explains: “Scientifc medicine began to strictly consider all illnesses as a result of physiological malfunctioning and ofer other scientifc explanations for various human suferings. Thus, there was no room for divine healing or intervention.”92 The Enlightenment infuenced many early Protestants. A secular scientifc worldview became popular even in the church. Church leaders began seeing healing as

91 Linda L. Sieh, “Reclaiming the Church’s Healing Ministry,” Chaplaincy

Today 15, no. 2 (July 1999): 18. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

92 Opoku Onyinah, “Healing: A Pentecostal Perspective,” One in Christ 47, no. 2 (December 2013): 315. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

a remnant of primitive understanding. But healing ministry would persist.

Persistence

The popular ecclesial currents of history generally moved away from deliverance ministry. However, healing ministry in the church continued in varying forms. According to Linda Sieh, “Healing through touch and the laying on of hands, in efect, went underground during the Middle Ages and on into subsequent centuries until the mid-nineteenth century. At that time there seemed to be a resurgence of interest in religious healing from many unorthodox groups while the mainline denominations remained skeptical of this possibility.”93 Healing ministry would persist in a theological awakening that began as a movement in the Church of England. This movement would be that of Methodism.

Methodism

John Wesley believed in the transformative presence and power of God. For Wesley, experiencing God’s grace is an intimate interaction. In his 1765 sermon, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” Wesley argued for a more holistic view of salvation. Wesley writes, “The salvation which is here spoken of is not what is frequently understood by that word, the going to heaven, eternal happiness. It is not the soul’s going to paradise, termed by our Lord ‘Abraham’s bosom.’ It is not a blessing which lies on the other side of death….”94 Salvation includes a

93 Sieh, 18.

94 John Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” in John Wesley’s Sermons: An Anthology, eds. Albert C. Outler and Richard P. Heitzenrater (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 372.

believer going to heaven. But salvation is not limited to going to heaven. Reconciliation with God also pertains to the present. God’s grace makes reconciliation possible through faith in Christ alone.

Those who are in Christ have the scriptural hope that all things will become new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because of God’s grace, wholeness is available for the believer in both the here and now and the hereafter. The kingdom of God is not only a future hope but also a present reality. Instead of an event occurring at some moment in time, salvation is a journey with God in which God’s grace gradually transforms the disciple to be more like Christ. Prevenient grace prepares a person for the journey. Justifying grace begins the journey with faith and repentance. On this journey of salvation, God’s sanctifying grace afords power for transformation, including the possibilities of healing.

Some in Wesley’s time understood salvation primarily as a pardon. As such, some thought of salvation as more of a legal transaction. It is this concept of a spiritual contract that presumably secures one’s future hope. But this was not Wesley’s perspective. According to Randy L. Maddox, “In denying here that human salvation is only a future hope, Wesley is also denying that it is solely juridicial in nature. Salvation involves much more than a momentary legal transaction that guarantees eventual eternal blessedness (as a simplistic form of the juridicial emphasis would suggest).”95 Wesley believed that the reality of God’s grace is much more dynamic. Grace includes eternal life. But God’s grace also consists of an abundant life

95 Randy L. Maddox, Responsible Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1994), 143.

|

Decline, and Persistence of holiness and wholeness in the present. Wesley believed that God’s presence and power are relevant in the present and not only in the future. This dynamic understanding of grace among early Methodists aforded theological and practical space for divine healing.

But Methodism in the United States would experience changes in the early twentieth century. James Buckley, the editor of the Methodist journal The Christian Advocate, was critical to that change. His opposition to any presumed healings infuenced many Methodists. Theological liberalism denied that miraculous healings happen today or in biblical times. Professors at mainline seminaries taught the miracles of the Bible as mythology. Sometimes these professors ofered natural explanations to miracles in the Bible. Shifting attitudes toward the miraculous found their way into the Methodist Sunday school curriculum. Additionally, a good number of Methodists became more concerned with middle-class respectability. They sought to shape a class of clergy with higher levels of education and income.96 Beginning in the nineteenth century, Methodists in the U.S. would migrate away from historic healing ministry. But other groups would continue the practice of healing.

Holiness

Among the Methodists of the nineteenth century, understandings of the doctrine of sanctifcation were changing. Out of this ecclesial context emerged something of a spiritual awakening. This awakening became known as the Holiness Movement. Participants in this movement continued to see 96 Frank H. Billman, The Supernatural Thread in Methodism: Signs and Wonders among Methodists Then and Now (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House Press, 2013), 69-73.

healing as more than an eternal hope. They understood healing as a present reality. Wholeness is available because of the transformative presence and power of God. Henry H. Knight III writes, “The Holiness Movement had insisted in good Wesleyan fashion that salvation is for the present as much as for the age to come, and its goal is not pardon but holiness. The love that will one day reign in fullness can even now fll the hearts and govern the lives of Christians. The promise of holiness had already been won by Christ, and only awaited its reception through consecration and faith.”97 The dynamic understanding of grace found among the Wesleyans continued with the Holiness Movement. Holiness believers saw the grace of God present with a world that is in desperate need of healing power.

The Wesleyan Movement birthed the Holiness Movement, which would birth the Pentecostal Movement. Each awakening had varying emphases. Yet, each revival maintained that God’s presence and power bring transformation in the present. According to Henry Knight, participants in the Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Movements believed that God would be present with the power to transform lives. Knight explains, “Most believed God would heal sickness through prayer. Virtually all experienced divine empowerment for ministry (identifed by later Holiness and Pentecostal Movements by the term ‘power’) and the transformation of the heart by God (sanctifcation, or ‘holiness’).”

98 Each movement,

97 Henry H. Knight III, Anticipating Heaven Below: Optimism of Grace from Wesley to the Pentecostals (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014), 157.

98 Henry H. Knight III, “The Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Family,” in From Aldersgate to Azusa Street: Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Visions of the New Creation, ed. Henry H. Knight III (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2010), 4.

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Continuance, Decline, and Persistence in its unique ways, believed that all of creation will become new in Christ. Divine presence and power are still available to all disciples of Jesus Christ.

Pentecostalism

With the advent of the twentieth century came the Pentecostal Movement. The Azusa Street Revival beginning in 1906 marked the beginning of the Pentecostal awakening. Pentecostalism would birth the Charismatic Renewal Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. There would be the Third Wave of Charismatic Renewal in the late 1990s. But, in the early twenty-frst century, the church in the western world fnds itself in decline. The church struggles in Europe and the United States. But Christianity is growing in places such as South America, Africa, and Asia. In parts of the global church, spiritual power, including healing, is evident.99

From its beginning, Pentecostalism maintained an emphasis on healing. The passion found in the Wesleyan and Holiness revivals continued with Pentecostals. Knight comments, “We have seen how Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Movements are marked by an expectant faith rooted in an optimism of grace. Compared to most other Protestant traditions, theirs is an expanded vision of what God has promised in this present age, coupled with an intense longing to receive it. What they envisioned and expected was heaven below.”100 The presence and power of God were essential to three historic revivals. Wholeness ministry was part of the Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Movements. The various

99 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 205-208.

100 Knight, Anticipating Heaven Below, 243-244.

waves of the Charismatic Movement also anticipated divine healing. Each of these awakenings embraced healing as the norm and not the exception.

Divine Presence, Divine Power

The Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Movements held various emphases that changed over time. But they all maintained a reverence for the presence and power of God working in the present. Where God is present with power, there is the hope of healing. Knight writes, “Indeed, many extended their expectation of divine transformation to the renewal of both the church and the social order itself. They had a holy discontent with the way things are, and a deep yearning for the entire creation to refect God’s holy love.”

101 Pentecostal believers rediscovered the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals tend to believe that God is willing to heal and set the oppressed free in the present. They do not see healing as excluded for a few, but instead available to all.102

Generally, a good number of Pentecostals maintain two beliefs about sickness and healing. Illness is Satan’s work, and the atonement provides for physical healing as much as saving souls.103 In many ways, Pentecostal Christians seek to recapture the dynamic element of the early church. This component included a passion for healing ministry that fell out of favor in much of the western church. Yet, there is no authentic church ministry without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Where the Holy Spirit is, there is healing power. The Holy Spirit does not limit healing power to the clergy. Divine power

101 Knight, “The Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Family,” 4.

102 MacNutt, The Healing Awakening, 162-163.

103 Knight, Anticipating Heaven Below, 178.

Decline, and Persistence is available to every believer, laity as well as clergy. The Holy Spirit equips every believer for witness and service.

Gifts of the Spirit

Pentecostals believe that all the giftings of the Spirit are still available today. Spiritual gifts include miraculous gifts, such as healing. These gifts are necessary for the church in the present. Pentecostals also believe that deliverance is an integral part of the Gospel. One strand of Pentecostal theology argues that Christ’s atonement includes healing. Human sin led to human sufering. God addressed human sufering through Christ’s sacrifcial death on the cross. The result is not only spiritual healing but also physical and emotional healing. Pentecostals believe in divine healing of the whole person in body, mind, and spirit. This expectation of healing is a foretaste of the ultimate wholeness that will come at Christ’s second coming. At Christ’s return, God’s people will experience complete deliverance from the efects of humanity’s fall.104

The Kingdom of God

The kingdom of God is central to classical Pentecostal theology. The in-breaking of God’s kingdom in the present brings power. Divine power is necessary for salvation, redemption, and healing. The concept of God’s kingdom inspired early Pentecostals in mission work and social work. The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts are the two biblical texts that serve as Pentecostal guidebooks. These texts support a “full gospel” understanding of the Christian faith. Jesus embodies the inbreaking of God’s kingdom. Christ the Healer has long been

104 Onyinah, 311.

central to Pentecostal belief and practice. The concept of the kingdom of God conveys not only a future hope. God’s reign also brings an urgency to mission and ministry in the present.105

Changing Times and Warning Signs

By the mid-twentieth century, the message of the Pentecostal movement would expand. It would even cross denominational lines in the birth of a Charismatic renewal. This movement would also emphasize faith, prayer, divine healing, and miracles.106 Healing ministry would even fnd its way into mainline churches of the United States.107 More and more people in diverse settings embraced healing ministry.

But, in the twenty-frst century, healing ministry is disappearing once again. Healing is only an occasional emphasis in many mainline churches in Europe and the U.S. Charles H. Kraft comments, “Sadly even very committed Christians, including those in the ministry, regularly fall into this seductive trap. They often resort to it unwittingly by attempting to make God predictable and controllable. That is the way we have been taught to handle every aspect of life, so it is not surprising that we have carried it over into our practice of Christianity.”108 Suspicion is often the response to great movements of the Holy Spirit. Distrust about the Spirit is too common in the contemporary church. In some churches, any

105 Veli-Matti Karkkainen, “Spirit, Reconciliation and Healing in the Community: Missiological Insights from Pentecostals,” International Review of Mission 94, no. 372 (January 2005): 43-44. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

106 Onyinah, 320.

107 Sieh, 18.

108 Charles H. Kraft, Christianity with Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural (Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, 1989), 40.

semblance of the Holy Spirit’s power collides with skepticism. A good number of believers in various denominations remain doubtful regarding deliverance ministry even today.

Healing ministry sometimes bears little resemblance to that of Jesus and his early church. Not all contemporary churches oppose a healing ministry. But it seems that healing, in general, remains elusive to many worshipers today. The need for authentic healing and transformation remains. Wholeness is an integral part of the sanctifcation journey. The ministries of Jesus and his early disciples still challenge the contemporary church. God wants to transform those who come to him by faith into a new creation.

Meanwhile, the need for healing remains. Jesus’ ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing continued with his early church. Healing ministry declined in the post-Constantine church. Yet, healing ministry in some form persisted throughout the centuries, and divine healing remains a hopeful reality in the contemporary church. The ancient Hebrew and Christian texts speak of healing. Jesus of Nazareth embodied divine wholeness. Christ the Healer revealed in the New Testament texts heals even today. Human sufering still exists on the earth. Even now, Christ wants his church, laity as well as clergy, to participate in healing ministry.

Personal Refection

Do you think that the church today ever relies on its institutional presence and power? Should the church today rely on the presence and power of God?

Chapter Six KINGDOM HEALING Kingdom Authority

The theological context for church healing ministry is the reign of God in the present. In his incarnation, Jesus embodied the kingdom of God. Jesus acknowledged the kingdom of God as the defning theme and context of his public ministry. When he began preaching, Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom. Some presume that the kingdom of God only refers to heaven. Heaven is an essential part of God’s eternal kingdom. But Jesus did not merely refer to a future time and place in his revelation of the divine realm. Jesus proclaimed that the reign of God is a present reality that is evident in divine healing.109

With authority, Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom in the present. He inaugurated the advent of the divine reign in his public ministry. Jesus, the Mediator between the divine and the human, proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21). Jakob explains, “With these words Jesus wanted to make it clear to everyone that he was the one who will and has already begun to fulfll their hopes for the promised time of salvation. He wanted to say that now, with

109 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 53-54.

78 | Kingdom Healing his words and deeds, everything the prophets had promised for ‘the last days,’ that is for the kingdom of God, had become a reality.”110 Some judged the Nazarene’s claims as scandalous, and others responded to his message with obedience. Yet, Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and healing all worked together. With kingdom authority, Jesus proclaimed a time of salvation never before seen.

Kingdom Presence

The Nazarene’s healing ministry, in part, authenticated his reputation as the Healer. But this was not the sole purpose of his deliverance ministry. The Son’s healings were signs of God’s kingdom that is present with hurting humanity. According to Jakob, “To consider the cure of isolated physical or psychological symptoms as the only aim of Jesus’ healings would contradict the biblical anthropology. In the Bible, the human being is seen as an entity of body, mind, and soul. Health and disease always afect a human being as an entity. Therefore, to be healed in the biblical sense could never be understood as the cure of isolated symptoms.”111 Jesus healed many in his public ministry. Yet, his preaching, teaching, and healing all formed an invitation to the kingdom of God.

The reign of God is the central theological concept found in Jesus’ public ministry. Throughout the centuries in the church, there has been confusion about the kingdom of God.

According to Wimber and Springer, “In the New Testament, the Greek word basileia means ‘kingdom’ or ‘royal rule.’ It is normally translated ‘kingdom.’ It implies exercise of kingly

110 Jakob, 459.

111 Jakob, 460.

rule or reign rather than simply a geographic realm over which a king rules.”112 The New Testament texts emphasize the authority of God, as well as the presence and power of God. This divine reign relates not only to some faraway time and place. God’s kingdom is a certainty ofering power in the present. Christ imparted this kingdom’s power and authority to his Spirit-empowered church.

Associated with the kingdom of God is the principle of authority. Jesus came with divine power, not human infuence. The kingdom of God has yet to come in its fullness. But humanity witnesses in part the reality of God’s reign in the frst advent of Christ. The authority of God’s kingdom rests in Christ’s hands. Jesus, the Christ, shares this kingdom authority with his Spiritempowered church. He does so to continue his ministry in the world until his return. Jesus did not call his church to share only a future hope. Jesus called his church to share an eternal hope that is present now. The Holy Spirit equips the church for kingdom ministry.113

Deliverance Ministry

Jesus’ kingdom ministry was a deliverance ministry. He liberated those trapped in the bondage of various human afictions. Jesus healed as one who embodies authority and power from on high. According to Warrington, “Through his healings, Jesus initiated and revealed the character of the kingdom, and demonstrated his authority to welcome people back into society.”114 Jesus demonstrated kingdom authority in his miraculous healings. He forgave people of their sins

112 Wimber and Springer, Power Healing, 5.

113 Wimber and Springer, Power Evangelism, 5-6.

114 Warrington, 157.

80 | Kingdom Healing and touched those considered unclean. He welcomed those condemned as religious, social, and cultural outcasts. Jesus demonstrated not only his authority and power. He also showed his compassion for the whole person in body, mind, and spirit.

In his public ministry, Jesus Christ, the Healer announced that God sees no one as unreachable. Those relegated to the margins of society welcomed his message of hope and healing. Warrington writes, “Jesus’s healings could not help but encourage people to assume that a new era had come that was a kingdom flled with hope to replace a kingdom permeated with fear. More than that, the one who initiated this kingdom bore so many of the characteristics that naturally belonged to God that, to the person with insight, it was hard to exclude the possibility that he may even be God.”115 With the frst advent of Christ, the Healer, a new era emerged. No longer would the sick, the aficted, and the outcast need to remain estranged. Jesus ministered with power and authority. The healing presence of God’s kingdom is now on earth as it is in heaven because of Jesus Christ. A person can access the resources of the divine realm through means such as prayer and Scripture. With Jesus’ frst advent, the kingdom of God is here.

Some argue that the atoning death of Christ provided for healing. God the Son gave his life on the cross for the sickness and sins of humanity. In Christ’s death on the cross, believers fnd victory over both sin and disease. Gordon explains, “The yoke of his cross by which he lifted our iniquities took hold also of our diseases; so that is in some sense true that God has ‘made him to be sin for us who knew so sin,’ so he made him to

115 Warrington, 158.

be sick for us who knew no sickness.”116 The apostles’ ministry, empowered by the Holy Spirit, was to continue Jesus’ ministry on the earth. They would proclaim God’s reign in healing the sick. The atonement of Jesus Christ at the cross provides victory over sickness and disease, and sin and death.

The cross is the traditional symbol of the atonement for Christians. It is a compelling image found in countless places. From paintings to jewelry to crucifxes, the cross is a familiar image. But the resurrection of Jesus is also essential. Ernst Conradie explains, “The most important Christian symbol that may be used here is the resurrection of Christ. It symbolizes the power of God to address any situation and to conquer even death. It is the triumphal manifestation of God’s decisive victory over the powers of evil.”117 Christ took the penalty for human sin at the cross. But Christ conquered death, the wages of sin, in the resurrection. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ are all essential to the Christian faith. Together they form a soteriological understanding of Christ’s atonement and divine healing.

Some fnd a compelling metaphor in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. According to this perspective, Jesus’ life and ministry embodied a new social order. This new way of living embraced the marginalized through healing the sick and the disabled. This new life welcomed outcasts such as lepers and tax collectors.118 Jesus Christ, the Healer, embraced wayward humanity. He did so through his incarnation, his life, and his

116 Gordon, 16-17.

117 Ernst M. Conradie, “Healing in Soteriological Perspective,” Religion and Theology 13, no. 1 (March 2006): 3. ATLASerialsPLUS®, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

118 Conradie, 15-16.

82 | Kingdom Healing ministry. He did so through his substitutionary sacrifce on the cross. He did so through victory over sin and death in his resurrection. The church has long emphasized the power of Jesus’ atoning death, and one should not discount the power of Jesus’ sacrifcial death on the cross. But neither should one dismiss the power of Jesus’ life, ministry, resurrection, or ascension. The entirety of Christ’s incarnation embodies atonement and healing.119

Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray is a model prayer. It includes a longing for God’s reign to become a reality on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is an essential component in healing ministry.120 There are abundant blessings of heaven’s kingdom that God wants his people to enjoy in the present. The faithful sometimes endure tribulations of various forms on the earth. But the Lord’s Prayer acknowledges heavenly blessings in the here and now. Prayer that longs for the presence of divine healing in the present is a powerful means of grace. Prayer is an essential conduit between hurting humanity and the God of healing.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus included the imminence of God’s reign on the earth. The kingdom of heaven is not only a future hope. The kingdom of heaven is a present reality in which people may fnd liberation.121 The kingdom of God does not only describe a future ideal, state, or condition. The divine domain is a literal reign over the present as well as the future. It is a reign realized through repentant faith and accessed through

119 Thomas, 38.

120 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 54.

121 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 54.

humble prayer. To relegate God’s sovereignty to a heavenly realm would be a misinterpretation of Scripture. The authority of God in the present ofers the hope of healing to humanity’s brokenness.

The kingdom imagery of Jesus’ redemptive work is ftting. Throughout human history, kingdoms battle against other kingdoms. For centuries, the church has, in various ways, described a war. It is a war that rages between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Wimber and Springer write:

One of Satan’s most efective tools is disease. Almost half of all the verses in the Gospels involve some form of power encounter, with healing accounting for from nine to twenty percent. Yet too often we read these accounts through the flters of modern scientism, assuming physical disease has only a physical cause and solution. Subconsciously or consciously, we read of healings in the New Testament and assume that either they were only for the early church or there is another explanation – a scientifc one – for how these healings actually occurred.122

Even in the church, skepticism about miracles sometimes persists. This uncertainty originates in misunderstandings about the present reality of God’s kingdom. Confusion in the church quenches the Spirit, and yet the war between good and evil still rages.

Jesus’ healing ministry included casting out demonic spirits. His exorcisms illustrated God’s war against an evil kingdom loosed in a fallen world. The three-fold ministry of

122 Wimber and Springer, Power Evangelism, 97.

84 | Kingdom Healing

Jesus proved that God desires wholeness for humanity.123 God’s kingdom is at war, and one of the primary weapons that the enemy utilizes is illness. Public healings demonstrated Jesus fghting back against the kingdom of Satan. When Christfollowers pray for divine healing, they too fght against the evil that is in the world.124

For the early church, miracles announced the presence and power of God’s kingdom in the world. The reality of spiritual warfare exists throughout history. Eighteenth century England saw the reality of spiritual combat. Billman explains, “…John Wesley testifed to a belief in demons and spiritual warfare. He believed in and experienced miraculous healings. He believed in the gift of prophecy, visions, and dreams. He testifed to the ministry of angels.”125 Spiritual warfare is a necessity in a fallen world. The realm of God is still at war with evil. But the defning characteristic of God’s kingdom is love.

The Love of God

God’s kingdom and God’s love are inseparable because God’s eternal reign is one of divine love. Humanity has long sufered from the after-efects of the fall. Still, the kingdom of God ofers wholeness to broken humanity. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). MacNutt writes, “And the love with which the Father loved Jesus is the Holy Spirit – and Jesus prays that this deep, powerful love will be ours.”126 The ministry of healing, as exemplifed by

123 Carroll, 130.

124 Wimber and Springer, Power Evangelism, 97.

125 Billman, 29.

126 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 74.

Jesus, relates to God’s reign and love. The kingdom of God is not understood apart from God’s steadfast love.

God’s reign and God’s love are not at odds. Instead, God’s authority and God’s love are expressions of divine grace. One may best understand the early church’s missional work as sharing Christ’s love with a hurting world. Jesus said to his disciples, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father” (John 14:12). How can the one who believes in Christ accomplish more signifcant works without Holy Spirit empowerment? How can one do more wondrous actions without divine presence and power? How can one carry out more excellent missions without love? God’s reign is a holy kingdom of love that is present with power. The God who loves still ofers the hope of healing and transformation to hurting humanity.

The Holy Spirit and the Missional Church

For the church in its infancy, prayer was an essential means of grace and healing. Prayer remains a vital means of transformation by God’s presence and power. The divine agent of change and transformation in the kingdom of God is the Holy Spirit. Members of the early church believed that, when they prayed, the Holy Spirit would be present with manifestations of power and healing. According to MacNutt, “Without the Holy Spirit’s ability to overcome Satan and the powers of sickness – mental, moral, physical – we are blocked from experiencing the fullness of new life that Jesus came to give us. For this reason, in addition to saying, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand,’ we also need to proclaim, ‘The kingdom of

Satan is being destroyed!’ That is the other side of the Good News!”127 For the early Christians, a new thing was happening. The apostle Paul proclaimed, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor 5:17).

The Holy Spirit is the divine agent of renewal and change. The Spirit empowers the church to be the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit equips the church to continue Jesus’ redemptive work in the world. Believers may disagree on the defnition of Spirit baptism. But believers generally agree on the necessity of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God works in and through Christ’s church to bring about transformation. The early Christ-followers understood that they were to carry on Jesus’ mission. This sacred work would manifest in healing the sick as well as preaching and teaching. Early Christians also understood that they could not be the body of Christ in their human power. The Holy Spirit must fll and empower believers for witness and service.

Though some disagree, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit can be unique for each person. Each believer may not see the same phenomena accompanying Spirit baptism. Those baptized as infants may experience a gradual witness of the Spirit. The infuence of the indwelling Holy Spirit may develop over time. It may seem to the person that God’s presence has always been with them. For others, an encounter with the Holy Spirit can be dramatic and sudden. These believers may think that everyone should have such a dynamic experience.128 127 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 55.

128 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 63.

The Holy Spirit may work in various ways in the life of a believer. But the same Holy Spirit is the agent of change and transformation in the divine kingdom. Jesus promised his disciples that he would not leave them as orphans. He would send his Holy Spirit. The Spirit would empower Christ’s disciples to be the body of Christ. The Spirit would equip them to continue his mission in the world.

Healing physical and psychological afictions was an essential part of Jesus’ public ministry. His miraculous healings served as eschatological signs. These signs illustrated the presence and power of God’s kingdom on earth.129 Jesus came in the fesh with a redemptive mission. This mission continues even today in and through Christ’s Spirit-empowered church. The very name of Jesus says something about his mission, in that God saves and heals. The church must take part in Jesus’ deliverance ministry. If it does not, the church’s preaching and teaching about God’s kingdom will be little more than empty promises.

God’s kingdom comes with power for transformation. The Spirit-empowered church is to continue Jesus’ mission of redemption in the world. In doing so, healing must come with preaching and teaching. Not every person that the church prays for will fnd healing. The church has wrestled for centuries with why that is. But wholeness should be a common expectation in the church. This expectation proclaims the presence and power of God’s reign in the world.130

129 Jakob, 458.

130 MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening, 56.

88 | Kingdom Healing

The New Testament is clear that God’s kingdom is present with power from on high. Jesus’ miracles, including miraculous healings, announced the advent of God’s kingdom. Kydd says that “the Gospel writers were at pains to show that Jesus initiated the reign of God and that the healings were an essential part of it.”131 Jesus valued the healing of the whole person. The Healer passed this emphasis on wholeness to his Spirit-empowered church. Deliverance was evident in Jesus’ public ministry and his church even after the time of the apostles.132

The Kingdom Continues

The presence and power of God’s kingdom on earth informed the theology of John Wesley. Some Christians today downplay or even ignore the miraculous manifestations in the early Wesleyan movement. The contemporary trend is often to accentuate preaching and teaching, sometimes to the detriment of healing ministry. One may argue that healing is only one thread in the rich tapestry that is the theological work of John Wesley. Yet, wholeness and sanctifcation underscored Wesley’s practical theology. Christ’s authority, prayer, spiritual warfare, divine love, the Holy Spirit, and the atonement all infuenced Wesley’s theological understanding. The beliefs and practices of Wesley and the early Methodists confrmed that God still heals.

Personal Refection

Prayer is an essential means of grace and healing for the church. How might you pray through Psalm 103:1-5?

Chapter Seven

JOHN WESLEY AND HEALING

Wesley and the Early Methodists

The early Methodists experienced the miraculous in a time of scientifc inquiry. Demand for empirical evidence nurtured a skepticism toward the spiritual in the minds of many. Yet, Wesley maintained that divine healing is a regular occurrence. Members of Christ’s church should expect and seek divine healing. Robert Webster argues, “John Wesley’s commitment to the idea of natural and supernatural forms of healing was considerable. Throughout his travels, he was constantly being approached by individuals who were in need of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.”133 The wellness of the whole person was important to Wesley. He and the early Methodists considered prayers for healing essential to the church. God’s people should anticipate divine presence and power manifested in the present. Wesley passed this mindset on to those infuenced by his practical theology.

133 Robert Webster, Methodism and the Miraculous: John Wesley’s Idea of the Supernatural and the Identifcation of Methodists in the Eighteenth Century (Lexington, KY: Emeth Press, 2013), 183.

Grace: Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying

Along with some Protestant theologians, Wesley afrmed the human reality of total depravity. But he did not agree with all Protestant interpretations about atonement and election. Roman Catholicism and some eastern theologians avoided certain Protestant inferences. These theological perspectives argued against the concept of total depravity. In some ways, Reformation, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic perspectives infuenced Wesley’s theological understanding. But Wesley did not always agree with these various understandings either. Wesley reasoned that spiritual restoration necessitates both divine initiative and human response. Wholeness involves the earliest stirrings in the soul. But it also contains the ability to respond to God’s saving work. Divine grace precedes human agency, making spiritual restoration and human response possible.134

Wesley understood that God’s grace is prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying. According to the Bible, salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, for Wesley, salvation is more than eternal happiness in heaven as some during his time assumed. Heavenly bliss is part of salvation. The lyrics of many hymns attest to the eschatological hope of heaven.

But heaven is not the entirety of what the Scriptures refer to as salvation. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God’s kingdom would come and that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In his incarnation, Christ inaugurated a uniting of heaven and earth under the reign of God. Wesley writes:

134 Maddox, 83.

So the salvation which is here spoken of might be extended to the entire work of God, from the frst dawning of grace in the soul till it is consummated in glory. If we take this in its utmost extent it will include all that is wrought in the soul by what is frequently termed ‘natural conscience’, but more properly, ‘preventing grace’; all the ‘drawings’ of ‘the Father’, the desires after God, which, if we yield to them, increase more and more; all that ‘light’ wherewith the Son of God ‘enlighteneth everyone that cometh into the world’, showing every man ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God’; all the convictions which his Spirit from time to time works in every child of man.135

Prevenient grace prepares the way, making it so that the repentant sinner can come to God by faith. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me…”

(John 6:44). This drawing toward God describes the activity of prevenient grace.

Wesley understood that divine grace precedes human response. The prevenience of divine grace makes repentance and confession a possibility. Believing that the Scriptural concept of salvation includes both justifcation and sanctifcation, Wesley explains:

Justifcation is another word for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins, and (what is necessarily implied therein) our acceptance with God. The price whereby this hath been procured for us (commonly termed the ‘meritorious cause’ of our justifcation) is the blood and righteousness of Christ, or (to express it a little more clearly) all

135 Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” 372-373.

94 | John Wesley and Healing that Christ hath done and sufered for us till ‘he poured out his soul for the transgressors.’ The immediate efects of justifcation are, the peace of God, a ‘peace that passeth all understanding’, and a ‘rejoicing in hope of the glory of God,’ ‘with joy unspeakable and full of glory.’136

Wesley argued that divine grace brings both pardon and power, reuniting the believer with God. Grace restores the likeness or image of God in a person. The immediate beneft of grace is that the repentant receive forgiveness. This pardon allows a person to take part in the divine nature, while the Holy Spirit empowers one for a new life of holiness.137

Prevenience, justifcation, and sanctifcation are interconnecting expressions of divine grace. God’s prevenient grace prepares the way for justifcation and sanctifcation. Wesley writes, “And at the same time that we are justifed, yea, in that very moment, sanctifcation begins. In that instant we are ‘born again,’ ‘born from above,’ ‘born of the Spirit.’ There is a real and relative change. We are inwardly renewed by the power of God. We feel the ‘love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us’, producing love to all mankind, and more especially to the children of God….”138 This primary understanding of God’s grace as prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying shaped John Wesley’s perception of salvation. Prevenient grace prepares sinners for salvation. Justifying grace brings about new birth by faith. Sanctifying grace perfects the faithful so that they may love like Jesus.

136 Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” 373.

137 Maddox, 168.

138 Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” 373.

Yet, sanctifying grace expands the believer’s soteriological perspective. Wesley understood the concept of salvation as even more signifcant than the eternal joy of going to heaven. Maddox explains, “Wesley understood salvation in its fullest sense to include deliverance (1) immediately from the penalty of sin, (2) progressively from the plague of sin, and (3) eschatologically from the very presence of sin and its efects.”

139 Salvation includes the Holy Spirit shaping a person’s life in holiness. For Wesley, holy living is becoming Christ-like in the ongoing process of sanctifcation. One cannot separate a believer’s becoming like Christ from loving God and neighbor.

Wesley focused on saving souls. But Wesley also emphasized equipping people to become faithful and loving disciples of Jesus Christ. This equipping meant helping people in the sanctifcation process as they go on to perfection in love. Wesley explains, “It is thus that we wait for entire sanctifcation, for a full salvation from all our sins, from pride, self-will, anger, unbelief, or, as the Apostle expresses it, ‘Go on to perfection.’ But what is perfection? The word has various senses; here it means perfect love. It is love excluding sin; love flling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul.”140 According to Wesley, spiritual perfection describes perfect love. This spiritual fulfllment would be a Spirit-empowered capacity to love. One may describe this as loving God and neighbor like Jesus.

Wesley highlighted divine grace that is sanctifying as well as prevenient and justifying. He also urged believers to become faithful Christ-followers perfected in love. Because of

139 Maddox, 143.

140 Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” 374.

96 | John Wesley and Healing these emphases on holy living, some refer to John Wesley as a practical theologian. Collins explains:

With this larger purpose of sharing the glad tidings of salvation, Wesley not surprisingly rejected abstract, philosophical, and speculative accounts of the Christian faith and instead focused on what he had termed ‘practical divinity.’ Thus, much of Wesley’s theological interest devolved upon the hope and task of raising up genuine disciples of Jesus Christ, those who were willing, indeed eager, to go beyond the form of religion in order to taste something of its power.141

Heaven is part of God’s salvifc design. But, for Wesley, salvation is more than going to heaven. Even on the earth, believers live out their faith daily in the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s grace does not stop at pardon and forgiveness. Grace also brings about authentic spiritual transformation. When God saves, the beneft is full salvation that sanctifes as well as justifes.

God’s grace is sanctifying as well as prevenient and justifying. This understanding provides the theological context for the means of grace. The means of grace are the ordinary channels through which the Holy Spirit moves in a person’s life. The means of grace help the disciple of Jesus Christ grow in God’s love. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent of transformation. The Spirit works through the means of grace to carry out the process of sanctifcation. The means of grace equip the disciple of Jesus Christ for a life of holiness. A life of holiness is a life of loving witness and service for the glory of God. The Holy Spirit works in the hearts and lives of God’s people so that they may

141 Kenneth J. Collins, The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 328.

love God and neighbor more like Jesus. Wesley’s understanding of the means of grace ofers a framework for congregational life. This framework includes healing in the various ministries of a congregation.

Divine Power and Human Responsibility

John Wesley lived in a time of cultural, ecclesial, and scientifc changes. The Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason shaped thinking in the western world. Human reason would also infuence the church and its clergy. Scientifc understandings were shifting. But the need for physical healing remained at the forefront of English society. Recognizing the sorrows of human existence, Wesley did not see science and faith as being at odds with one another. According to Webster, “Wesley maintained that supernatural healing should be embraced by enlightened society; and, far from being a type of quackery left over from antiquity, the healing ministry of the church was in line with the movement of science for the restoration of individuals to a balanced plan of health and wholeness.”142 Wesley believed in divine healing. But he also advocated that humans should contribute to their health and wholeness. People can do so even through practical means such as diet and exercise.

At the time, clergy candidates in England studied elementary medicine. Wesley read medical texts when he was a student at Oxford. The study of medicine equipped clergy with basic medical knowledge. These ministers ofered some measure of health care in the villages where they served.143 In

142 Webster, 167.

143 Melanie Dobson Hughes, “The Holistic Way: John Wesley’s Practical Piety as a Resource for Integrated Healthcare,” Journal of Religion & Health 47, no. 22 (June 2008): 242. ATLA, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

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his writings, Wesley often used medical imagery. He mentioned physicians, illness, and healing to convey ideas of health and wholeness. In various ways, he argued that ministry with the sick is a fundamental obligation of a Methodist.144 Wesley understood that divine healing complements natural forms of healing.

Out of compassion for the poor, Wesley expressed his concerns about English apothecaries. He criticized their excessive ingredients in compounding medications. According to Wesley, they did so to increase their profts at the expense of the poor. Wesley advocated safe, natural remedies utilizing indigenous ingredients in treating everyday medical issues. He believed that God provided natural remedies for the health of humankind.145

Wesley did not oppose competent physicians. He afrmed the role of honest and qualifed healthcare providers. In healing, Wesley advocated the integration of divine power and human responsibility. Webster argues, “At the core of Wesley’s understanding of healing, however, was the love and grace of God. This he saw not only manifested in the progress of knowledge in the modern world but also in supernatural healings which transcended natural philosophy and science.”146 Wesley believed in praying for miraculous healing. But he also promoted the use of medical treatments and measured compounded medications.147 Wesley cared about the wellness of people. Sometimes the matter at hand calls for a natural remedy, and sometimes the situation requires professional

144 Webster, 170-171.

145 Hughes, 243.

146 Webster, 174.

147 Hughes, 244.

medical attention. But prayers for divine healing are always appropriate.

Wesley was not only interested in cures for everyday ailments. He held a broader perspective of human wholeness. According to E. Brooks Holifeld, “…Wesley’s interest in health and medicine refected his sense of the duties implicit in love. Caring for the sick, he said, helped to form and discipline love. In that sense, care for the sick became a means of grace to the visitor who cared. But to care for the sick was also to express love, and in that sense caring became a way simply of living the life of love.”148 Wesley’s social Gospel originated in an ethic of love as he served the poor and the sick of his time and place. Following Christ means sharing the love of Jesus Christ in tangible ways, such as treating common ailments.

But Wesley also recognized that physical afictions frequently demand a spiritual response. Christ is still the Healer. Christ’s church should use any means of healing that God has aforded. Holifeld explains, “In every instance, Wesley considered prayer to be an appropriate response to illness. In some, he thought, God responded immediately to the prayer in a miracle of healing. In others, God healed the body through the ‘natural’ means of medication or surgery.”149 John Wesley committed his life and ministry to wholeness of the body, mind, and spirit. He did so within the broader context of holiness. Believers infuenced by John Wesley have long recognized the appropriate place of prayer. Petitions for divine healing complement medical science and natural remedies.

148 E. Brooks Holifeld, Health and Medicine in the Methodist Tradition (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1986), 22.

149 Holifeld, 28.

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A demonstration of healing power afords one a glimpse into God’s kingdom. God’s path of salvation and transformation includes broken people made whole. So, Wesley understood that prayer is an essential means of divine grace. This need for intercessory prayer is apparent in times of sickness. Wesley believed that God’s grace is always at work in the world, and divine healing is evidence of divine grace. Many early Methodists understood the possibility of a person’s recovery as a present reality. For them, divine healing proves the presence of a higher order in a hurting and fallen world.150 Those infuenced by Wesley anticipated instances of divine healing. They expected manifestations of God’s kingdom in a broken world that needs God’s grace. The anticipation of wholeness stemmed from an expectation of God’s presence and power.

Skepticism about the miraculous was common during the time of the early Methodists. Yet, an awareness of divine presence and power was an essential aspect of early Methodism. Wesley was a man of reason. But he also anticipated the Holy Spirit’s presence and power to be active everywhere in the world. The realm of the Spirit’s activity includes the lives of people who desperately need God’s transforming grace. From Wesley’s time to the present, skepticism regarding the miraculous remains in the church. Contemporary authors sometimes ignore the miraculous nature of the early Wesleyan movement. Since the Enlightenment, an emphasis on natural science has dominated western thought. Yet, a desire for holiness and healing would endure. The human need for a new life that is abundant and eternal remains.

150 Webster, 166.

Salvation

The transformative presence and power of God are the key elements in John Wesley’s soteriology. To only think of salvation as going to heaven ignores the immensity of scriptural hope. While the human soul remains important, Christ will make all things new (2 Corinthians 5:17). The kingdom of God is not only a future hope but also a present reality. Some at the time of Wesley described the working of divine grace as a cold legal transaction. Presumably, it is this legality that secures salvation. But this was not Wesley’s perspective. Wesley believed that the reality of God’s grace is much more dynamic. Divine grace includes an abundant life of holiness and wholeness in the present. So, Wesley advocated a holistic soteriology born out of the transformative love of God. Wesley’s soteriology anticipated the presence and power of God in the present.

John Wesley’s rudimentary theological message rested on certain biblical truths. Sinners need salvation, which comes only by faith in Jesus Christ and his work of redemption. Faith in Christ leads to an assurance of salvation. The Holy Spirit empowers Christ-followers for witness and service, perfecting them in love. Faith in Jesus Christ brings about meaningful changes for the believer. In this new birth, the disciple begins to exhibit Christian moral conduct. The means of grace equip the believer for this new life in Christ. These means of grace include worship, prayer, Bible study, Holy Communion, and fasting.151

According to Webster, “In large measure, Wesley embraced the image of sin as disease, which enabled him to address both

151 Frederick E. Maser, “Part One: The Eighteenth Century,” in United Methodism in America: A Compact History, ed. John G. McEllhenney (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 24.

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body and soul as he conceptualized the importance of healing for his evangelical agenda.”152 Wesley understood that sin does not have the fnal word for the believer. Salvation includes the whole person in body, mind, and spirit. So, the means of grace are a means of healing and holiness.

Holiness

Wesley emphasized growing in grace and living a life of practical holiness. Wesley’s social concerns originated in his soteriology and his understanding of divine grace. The holiness of heart and life was a central aspect of Wesley’s theology. Knight explains, “While Christian perfection was not the frst or only anticipation of heaven below, for John Wesley it was certainly its ultimate manifestation. But as we have seen, holiness of heart, if it really does image the love of God, must necessarily be expressed through holiness of life.”153 The concept of Christian perfection is essential to understanding Wesley’s theology. The holiness of heart and life refects the love of God working in the life of a believer.

This life of holiness is a life of following Jesus Christ. By God’s sanctifying grace through the divine agency of the Holy Spirit, this holy existence means becoming more like Jesus in loving God and neighbor. Wesley understood that becoming Christ-like means that God’s love perfects the believer. As God is love, the Holy Spirit empowers the disciple to love like Jesus. Holiness and Christian perfection motivated Wesley toward compassionate ministries with the poor. Wesley’s theology

152 Webster, 175.

153 Knight, Anticipating Heaven Below, 210.

of holiness infuenced his views on healing, including social reforms and works of compassion.

Compassion and Social Healing

Wesley’s understanding of sanctifcation led to compassionate ministries. Sanctifcation produces the desire to live a life of holiness, refecting God’s love. Wesley understood that it is not enough to minister to the poor. One must stand with the poor. Sometimes that means becoming an advocate for those who are the most vulnerable in society, and sometimes that means being a voice for those who have no voice.

Those shaped by Wesley’s theology sought to live out a life of sanctifcation and holiness as well, becoming vocal advocates for social change. Compassion ministries addressing poverty would be essential for British and American Methodists. According to Knight, “From its inception Methodism had a special focus on the poor. Impelled by obedience to God and a desire for perfect love, John and Charles Wesley made concern for the poor a central feature of their ministries while still at Oxford in the 1730s. It remained an emphasis as the movement took form and developed in the decades ahead.”154 Social concern includes befriending the vulnerable and understanding their unique conditions and needs. Participating in compassionate ministries, a person grows in holiness and love. This discipline of love exemplifes the life of following Christ.

Among the social ills of his time, John Wesley was concerned about the practice of slavery. He published Thoughts Upon Slavery in 1774. In this pamphlet, he voiced his opposition

154 Knight, Anticipating Heaven Below, 219.

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to the sin of slavery. Thomas Coke, the frst Methodist bishop, opposed slavery as well. While preaching against slavery in America, Coke endangered his own life.155 Besides poverty, slavery was the critical social issue of the time. Those living a life of holiness could not ignore the sinful institution of slavery. Wesley understood that God’s people must take part in the work of grace. Compassion ministries demonstrate the work of grace.

For Wesley and the early Methodists, wholeness ministry was multi-faceted. The anticipation of divine power addressing various illnesses, accompanied social concerns, and yet prayers for the miraculous healing of individuals were common. Recovery ofers a glimpse into God’s larger plan of transformation. Webster writes, “…Many Methodists in the Enlightenment believed that the presence of healing was a support and corroboration for their belief in the supernatural; an indication of God’s new order had broken into a sinful world.”156 The expectancy of healing was a characteristic of early Methodists. This hope of recovery would be evident in both the Methodists of England and the United States. The anticipation of wholeness stemmed from an expectation of divine grace at work in the world.

But, by the late nineteenth century, an ecclesial shift would take place. Healing ministry, for some Methodists in the United States, would focus less on individual illnesses. Instead, they would primarily address social concerns. Expressing healing ministry through social ministry while devaluing the healing of personal sickness may not have been a conscious

155 Maser, 43.

156 Webster, 166.

perspective. But it became an implied reality. It seems that in time more and more Methodists addressed various social afictions. They saw the church as an advocate for those who could not defend themselves.

Americans faced many social problems in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such concerns included alcoholism, child labor, and poverty. Like Dwight L. Moody and other evangelists, some argued that traditional revivalism was the best approach against social ills. Presumably, the conversion of the individual would lead to the renovation of society. Others focused on economic, political, and social problems, advocating institutional reforms. Increasing numbers of Methodists subscribed to the latter approach. Presumably, systemic changes would lead to the liberation of all peoples. This approach gave birth to the modern Social Gospel.

In America, Methodist congregations advocated both approaches to societal healing. Conficts were frequent between proponents of saving souls and advocates of social causes. In any case, many churches expressed a need to speak out about the social problems of the time.157 Conversations about social concerns became commonplace in the church as well as the larger society. Such issues included the role of women in the church as well as racism. Seismic shifts were reverberating throughout American culture, and these shifts included American Methodism. For many Methodists of the time, healing ministry manifested as social ministries. This trend of addressing the collective systemic maladies of society continues even today.

157 Yrigoyen, Jr., Charles. “Part Two: The Nineteenth Century.” In United Methodism in America: A Compact History, ed. John G. McEllhenney, 67-104. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 100.

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All Healing is Divine Healing

The kingdom of God is still present and active in the world today. This reality is the crucial context for understanding divine healing and church wholeness ministries. The immanence of God’s kingdom was central to Jesus’ public ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. His public ministry inaugurated the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus’ miraculous healings promised divine deliverance as a current expectation, and the early church embraced this understanding of the heavenly kingdom on earth. The body of Christ would continue Jesus’ ministry in the world. Healing ministry in the contemporary church may still fnd itself revived. This reconnection begins with a renewed understanding of the kingdom of God in the present. God’s reign inhabits a Spirit-empowered church culture of healing and deliverance.

John Wesley built his social ministry on a theological foundation of divine grace. The grace of God is prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying. Wesley envisioned God’s grace manifested in holiness and wholeness. Physical healing may come through natural remedies, medical treatments, and prayer. Societal healing is possible through prayerful advocacy and addressing social concerns. But all healing is divine healing. Christians should live with anticipation of God’s presence and power. Divine grace nurtures a sanctifed life even in the present. Wesley’s historical and cultural context was that of eighteenthcentury England. But Wesley’s understanding of healing and holiness is still relevant.

Wesley valued natural remedies, medical treatments when necessary, and prayers for divine healing. This holistic

approach to wellness remains benefcial. Proper diet, physical exercise, vitamin supplements, and natural oils can aid a person’s immune system and overall well-being. Physical, emotional, and spiritual health are interconnected. Some fnd that a combination of chiropractic care and massage therapy can signifcantly improve physical health, which contributes to emotional and spiritual health. One should not forget that prayer, Scripture, and worship hold benefts for physical, emotional, and spiritual wholeness. God still heals through various means, naturally as well as miraculously. Wesley’s holistic approach to wellness can still help people today.

Personal Refection

Do faith and science have to be at odds with one another?

Can faith and science complement each other within a context of wholeness? Does the church rely on its programs and human eforts more than it depends on God’s grace?

Chapter Eight

MEANS OF GRACE AS MEANS OF HEALING

The Means of Grace

Many of the early Methodists experienced the miraculous, including healings. But, before the beginning of the Methodist movement, a dynamic faith was absent for the most part. John Wesley observed something distressing in many of the churchgoers of his time. In the Church of England during the 1700s, the love of many had grown cold. There was no vibrancy, no life, and no sense of joy. Wesley observed that many churchgoers of his day mistook the means for the end. They attended church gatherings and did church activities. But they were not functioning as the body of Christ. They presumably thought that if they did church things, then they would please God. But they did not allow church activities to nurture and renew their hearts for God and his kingdom. They seemed to forget that the goal of every commandment is love for God and love for neighbor.158

158 John Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” in John Wesley’s Sermons: An Anthology, eds. Albert C. Outler and Richard P. Heitzenrater (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 158.

Means of Grace as Means of Healing

Without the presence of Christ’s love, Christianity hardens into a cold religion. It may be full of rules and regulations but empty of grace and mercy. Cold religion is not the way that Christ intended for his church. John Wesley diagnosed a lifeless form of belief in the church of his day as a kind of sickness. The antidote to this disorder is to make oneself available to the means of grace. Wesley explains, “By ‘means of grace’ I understand outward signs, words, or actions ordained of God, and appointed for this end – to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.”159 The means of grace weave through Wesley’s life and writings. He addressed the means of grace in a variety of contexts. He spoke of prayer, Scripture, and the eucharist all as means of grace. But he also included fasting, devotionals, class meetings, and rules for holy living.160

Wesley spoke of three primary means of grace: prayer, Scripture, and the Lord’s Supper. According to Wesley, “The chief of these means is prayer, whether in secret or with the great congregation; searching the Scriptures (which implies reading, hearing, and meditating thereon) and receiving the Lord’s Supper, eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of him; and these we believe to be ordained of God as the ordinary channels of conveying his grace to the souls of men.”161 Wesley considered baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as liturgy and prayers, to be channels of grace. Yet, he dared not restrict divine grace to these means only.162

159 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 160.

160 Maddox, 192.

161 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 160.

162 Maddox, 194.

There are many avenues through which God shares his grace. However, people do not always make themselves available to these channels of blessing. There are times when people close themselves of to these means of grace. In doing so, they quench the Holy Spirit. Without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the means of grace accomplish nothing. There is no energy in praying, reading the Bible, or partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Without the abiding Holy Spirit, there is no power.163 The path of holiness requires both divine and human participation. The Holy Spirit, the divine agent of sanctifying grace, is at work in the hearts and lives of God’s people. Yet, sanctifcation requires human commitment as well.

Prayer

Jesus modeled the importance of prayer. His disciples took notice, asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus then gave them a model prayer, and he taught them (Luke 11:1-13). Prayer was essential to the life and ministry of Jesus. Wesley believed that the primary way of availing oneself to God’s grace and power is the practice of prayer. He addressed this in his sermon, “The Means of Grace.” Wesley writes:

And frst, all who desire the grace of God are to wait for it in the way of prayer. This is the express direction of our Lord himself. In his Sermon upon the Mount, after explaining at large wherein religion consists, and describing the main branches of it, he adds: “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall fnd; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, fndeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened” (Matt. 7:7-8). Here we are in the 163 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 160-161.

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plainest manner directed to ask in order to, or as a means of, receiving; to seek in order to fnd the grace of God, the pearl of great price; and to knock, to continue asking and seeking, if we would enter into his kingdom.164

For Wesley, prayer as the chief means of grace is the primary means of seeking divine healing. Wesley was a man of science, and yet he also believed in the reality of divine healing. As a person of prayer, he often asked for divine healing on behalf of himself and others.

An important person in the Methodist movement was John Fletcher. On one occasion, Fletcher was ill and reportedly near death. Arriving at the conference for Methodist preachers at Bristol in 1777, Wesley noticed his friend’s ailing condition. Billman writes, “John Wesley knelt at his side, and all the preachers joined him. Wesley prayed for Fletcher’s restoration to health and a longer ministerial career. Mr. Wesley closed his prayer with this prophecy: ‘He shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.’ Mr. Fletcher did recover and lived another eight years.”165 Wesley did not believe that prayer and fasting could manipulate the movement of God.166 But Wesley advocated that prayer and fasting make the miraculous accessible. This reality is true for both the individual believer and for larger groups.167

164 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 162.

165 Billman, 45.

166 Webster, 180.

167 Webster, 178.

A House of Prayer, Worship, and Healing

Of all the means of grace, prayer is the most apparent means of divine healing. Jesus called the Jerusalem temple a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). Roman forces destroyed that place of worship in 70 CE. According to the apostle Paul, those redeemed in Christ are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. If the temple made of stone was a house of prayer, how much more is the church, the visible body of Christ, a vessel of prayer that is mobile?

The church is the people of God. So, the church is a moveable and dispersed house of prayer, worship, and healing. Unlike a brick-and-mortar structure, the church transcends any fxed location. The church is a house of worship that is on the move. Christ sent his disciples into the world as Spiritempowered servants. They would be his “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The church is not a building. Instead, the church is the people of God and a moveable house of healing.

Still, there is no healing apart from God’s grace. If prayer is the chief means of grace, then prayer is also the principal means of healing. It is essential to the Spirit-empowered witness and service of Christ’s church. Speaking with God is vital in worship gatherings and other ministry contexts as well. Community walks or disaster relief eforts can include intercessory prayers. Phone calls, text messages, social media, and video conferencing also become avenues of prayerful petitions. The church remains a house of worship by various means. Even in digital technology, Christ’s church intercedes on behalf of hurting humanity. Prayer remains the chief means

114 | Means of Grace as Means of Healing of grace and healing. Accompanied by fasting, prayer is still a powerful means of seeking divine healing.

Corporate worship gatherings must devote time and attention to prayer. Prayer is not only something that worshipers do. Prayer is the foundation of worship. For the church, prayer has long been an essential part of public worship. But, according to some, prayer as a spiritual practice is sufering in many contemporary churches. Other emphases may push prayer to the periphery of the worship experience. Constance M. Cherry writes:

In many churches today, praying in worship is in decline. In some churches it has all but disappeared. Unfortunately, this is more likely true for services in the contemporary style, which tend to be devoted almost entirely to an extended time of singing followed by a lengthy time of preaching/ teaching. As the minutes given to singing and preaching swell (in any style), other features are squeezed out, most notably prayer and Scripture readings. Sometimes this happens unknowingly; we fail to regularly evaluate our services and certain things slip away unnoticed. Other times this happens because worship planners assume church members prefer it that way.168

The church has long expressed its theology through music and singing. Preaching and teaching are both essential to the worshiping church as well. But a prayerless church inhibits the healing and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

168 Constance M. Cherry, The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 126.

Contemporary churchgoers spend a fair amount of time singing. Worshipers also value preaching and teaching. But it seems that fewer Christ-followers are investing in fervent prayer. When a congregation no longer appreciates prayer, the church body sufers in unseen ways. A church that is lacking in prayer is a church that is lacking in power. Does the contemporary church want to hear from God in prayer? God may lead a person to do something that one does not want to do. God may prompt a person to give up something that one does not want to give up or go where one does not want to go. God may advocate reconciling with a neighbor or praying for an enemy. God may challenge the one praying toward personal change. Prayer does not only involve speaking to God but also listening to God. God may ask a person to do something uncomfortable. So, does the church want to hear from God?

Prayer is not only the church speaking to God. Prayer is the community listening with hearts open to God’s will. Kendra G. Hotz and Matthew T. Mathews explain, “Public prayer, however, is not only about our speech to God. It is also about our silence before God. Coming into the presence of God in prayer involves a reciprocity that not only allows us to address God but also allows God to address us. Speech often entails a degree of control; silence in prayer allows us to relinquish that control in a way that generates afective receptivity to the presence of God in our lives.”169 Prayer is a dialogue between God and his people. Yet, in this holy discourse, churchgoers ought to be quiet more than audible.

169 Kendra G. Hotz and Matthew T. Mathews, Shaping the Christian Life: Worship and the Religious Afections (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 103.

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Worshipers ought to listen more than they speak. A worship gathering with ample room for silence may make parishioners uncomfortable. But being silent before God in prayer leads to worshipers surrendering control to God. Prayer is the most potent activity of a church body. It may be that there is a connection between a general lack of prayer and a lack of authentic divine healing.

Christ is still the divine Healer, and Christ’s church is still the Spirit-empowered body of Christ. In his ministry, Jesus was a person of prayer. John Wesley understood that Jesus called his church to be a people of healing prayer. According to Holifeld, “In every instance, Wesley considered prayer to be an appropriate response to illness. In some, he thought, God responded immediately to the prayer in a miracle of healing. In others, God healed the body through the ‘natural’ means of medication or surgery.”170 Wesley committed his life and ministry to wholeness that is made possible by God’s grace. Those infuenced by Wesley still recognize the appropriate place of prayer.

Prayer is the chief means of grace, permeating other means of grace. Regular prayer nurtures every part of the Christian life. It forms the path of holiness for Christ’s disciples seeking the world’s transformation. Prayer is essential because it connects people with the presence and power of God. Prayer and faith work hand in hand because prayer is communion with God. Prayer is necessary for receiving any gifts from God because prayer is a continual conversation with the Giver of all good things. Prayer gives shape to living out one’s relationship

with God.171 Wesley understood prayer as the principal means of grace. But Wesley also acknowledged the authoritative voice that is Scripture.

Scripture

Wesley was an avid reader of all kinds of books. Yet, he understood that none could compare with the Bible. The biblical texts remain essential above all other written works, as God works through the Bible like no other text. The Bible alone shows the way of salvation.172 According to Wesley, “… All who desire the grace of God are to wait for it ‘in searching the Scriptures.’ Our Lord’s direction with regard to the use of this means is likewise plain and clear. ‘Search the Scriptures,’ saith he to the unbelieving Jews, ‘for they testify of me’ (John 5:39). And for this very end did he direct them to search the Scriptures that they might believe in him.”173 Wesley advocated that Methodists should always close the reading of Scripture with prayer. Combining prayer with the Word would take what they read and write it on their hearts.174 For Wesley, Scripture is an essential means of grace. Through Scripture, God gives, confrms, and even increases wisdom among God’s people.175

As in prayer, it is vital for God’s people to hear from God through the Scriptures. The proclamation and interpretation of

171 Henry H. Knight III, The Presence of God in the Christian Life: John Wesley and the Means of Grace (Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1992), 116117.

172 William J. Abraham and David F. Watson, Key Methodist Beliefs (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013), 119.

173 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 164.

174 John Wesley, Preface to “Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament,” in Wesley’s Notes on the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Francis Asbury Press, 1987), 20.

175 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 164.

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Scripture are at the center of worship. Since the time of Moses, Scriptural authority shaped the life of the Jewish synagogue. In time, Scripture would form the life of the early church as well. Cherry explains:

The purpose of the service of the Word is so people may be addressed by God through the Holy Scriptures and thereby changed for God’s glory and kingdom. Notice that it is not a matter of us addressing the Scripture, for that suggests that the primary point is the skill with which we handle the Word of God. Rather, the goal is for the Scripture to address us. The emphasis in this part of the service is on hearing from God rather than learning about God.176

Hearing from God through sacred Scripture is vital to the worshiping community. This necessity of hearing from God has long grounded both Jewish and Christian traditions. It is far more crucial for the faith community to hear from God than for God to hear from the faith community.

The life of the Jewish synagogue has long valued the proclamation of God’s Word. But, for the Jewish people, this has long been more than a matter of tradition. It has been a matter of survival. James F. White writes, “The synagogue service focused on what God had done. Jews celebrated God’s actions not only by reading their history (scripture) but also in songs rejoicing in this history (psalms), in prayer blessing God for that history, and in refection on that history (sermons).”

177

The Scriptures include the stories of real people with real

176 Cherry, 70.

177 James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship, Third Edition Revised and Expanded (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), 153.

struggles. In these stories, people throughout generations have encountered the living God. Though human contexts change throughout history, many dilemmas endure through time. The ancient stories of the Bible remain relevant and still speak to people today.

In the biblical texts, a person does not read someone else’s accounts. Contexts can be very diferent from those of people who lived long ago. But these ancient stories of human sin and divine redemption are the stories of contemporary audiences as well.178 White goes on to say, “Thus worship became a way of teaching and transmitting the corporate memories of a people with whom God had covenanted. Survival came through remembering. It was not just a dead detached past that was recalled but a living God, who was made known through past events encountered in present worship.”179 Scripture has long remained central to Jewish worship. The earliest Christians were Jews. So, the Jewish synagogue would shape the early Christians’ worship patterns, including the role of Scripture. From Moses’s stone tablets to Paul’s epistles, Scripture would remain relevant.

Paul wrote about the efcacy of Scripture. The apostle advocated that the sacred texts can instruct a person for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be profcient, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Paul argued that true wisdom relates to one’s capacity to accept the truth of Jesus Christ.

178 Hotz and Mathews, 121.

179 White, 153.

Means of Grace as Means of Healing

The Word of God reveals the truth of God. Scripture ought to remain at the center of church life. Derek Joyce and Mark Sorenson explain, “When grounded in this truth, the Scriptures come to life as they move and instruct you, and direct and challenge your world-views. Ultimately the goal is that the person in Christ will be fully capable – having been transformed and given the mind of Christ – to accomplish the good works that God so desires for the people of this world.”180 Scripture is vital to the gathered community of faith, and Scripture is illuminating within the context of private devotions. The collective community needs to hear God speak, as does the individual seeking to grow in grace as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Along with prayer, Scripture is an essential means of divine grace and healing. The Gospel texts describe Jesus’ miraculous healings. Both the Hebrew and New Testament Scriptures include references to divine healing. “For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the Lord…” (Jeremiah 30:17). “And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

The Holy Spirit is the divine agent in both prayer and Scripture. The Holy Spirit intercedes in prayer, bringing divine healing. The Holy Spirit illuminates the holy Scriptures, ministering to people’s souls with the Word of God. The Spirit works through the Word in private devotions, and the Spirit moves in the hearts and minds of people through the Word within group gatherings. The Spirit brings conviction of sin, prompts people toward action, brings comfort and

180 Derek Joyce and Mark Sorenson, When Will Jesus Be Enough? Reclaiming the Power of Worship (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2008), 63.

encouragement, and facilitates healing. Yet, the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures so that the people of God may hear the Word of God.

Tradition, reason, and human experience will inform. But, for centuries, Christ-followers have held Scripture as the highest authority. Scripture is the authoritative voice that shapes the teachings of Christ’s church. But Christ-followers are not to worship the Bible itself. Daniel L. Migliore argues:

Christians do not believe in the Bible; they believe in the living God attested by the Bible. Scripture is indispensable in bringing us into a new relationship with the living God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and thus into a new relationship with others and with the entire creation. To speak of the authority of the Bible rightly is to speak of its power by God’s Spirit to help create and nourish this new life in relationship with God and with others.181

The Bible is central to Christ’s church, in private devotions and corporate worship, because Scripture ofers a unique witness to the world. The history of Israel demonstrates the care of God the Healer. The life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ reveal the reality of God’s healing grace. Wesley understood the vital role of Scripture as the guiding authority in Christ’s church. Prayer is the breath, and Scripture is the heart of Christian life. But prayer and Scripture work together in God’s plan of redemption.182

181 Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 46.

182 Knight III, The Presence of God in the Christian Life…, 149.

Holy Communion

Besides prayer and Scripture, an essential means of grace is the Lord’s Supper. Like prayer and Scripture, Holy Communion as a channel of grace is a means of divine healing. Wesley writes, “Is not the eating of that bread, and the drinking of that cup, the outward, visible means whereby God conveys into our souls all that spiritual grace, that righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which were purchased by the body of Jesus Christ once broken and the blood of Christ once shed for us? Let all, therefore, who truly desire the grace of God, eat of that bread and drink of that cup.”183 Methodists recognize two sacraments, water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They serve as continual reminders of divine presence and power at work in the church.

As a devout Anglican, Wesley drew inspiration from the Church of England catechism. In doing so, he defned a sacrament as “an outward sign of inward grace.” Wesley understood that Christ’s presence at the Supper is spiritual and not physical. Yet, the sacrifcial love of Christ is present with power in the celebration of the Eucharist.184 Because of Christ’s sacrifcial love, the hope of healing is present at Christ’s Table.

The sacrament of Holy Communion originates in Christ’s atoning sacrifce. Therefore, one cannot separate the Table from the Cross. Wesley understood that God’s redemption in Christ is available in the Supper. To experience the Eucharist in the present is to receive the past sacrifce of Jesus at Calvary. Means of grace are means of healing, and the Eucharist is no

183 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 165.

184 Collins, 259-260.

exception. Hurting people can fnd healing in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The bread and wine hold no healing properties in themselves. But transformation is possible at the Supper because of the sacrifcial love of Jesus Christ.

The early Methodists endured criticism for various practices and beliefs. One point of contention with those outside Methodism was their emphasis on Christ crucifed. According to Webster, “Throughout various narratives of the period Methodists unabashedly avowed visions of the horrifc nature of Christ’s death which, they contended, brought relief and healing to the visionary and at times to those listening to the tales of their testimonies.”185 The meal’s central image is the crucifed Christ. In Jesus’ past woundedness, believers fnd divine power for healing in the present.

The Supper highlights God’s love for humankind. A person cannot separate the Lord’s Supper from the divine love in Jesus’s atoning death. Collins explains, “The Lord’s Supper, then, brings the meanings of Christ’s death into the present community of faith, in a very tangible, sensible, and mediated way, where bread and wine become the conduits for saving graces.”186 This divine love secured in the past is available in the present. Along with prayer and Scripture, the Lord’s Supper remains a powerful means of healing grace.

John and Charles Wesley recognized the relationship between Communion and Christ’s atonement. They instilled a sense of this vital connection in the early Methodists. The 185 Webster, 182. 186 Collins, 261.

presence of the crucifed Christ in the Supper reveals the fullness of God’s love. Webster explains:

The atoning signifcance of the crucifed Christ incorporated the believer into God’s power which had cancelled sin. The Eucharist, then, demonstrated for Wesley a bridge between the life of Christ in its human dimensions and a reality that lay beyond the fnitude of human limitations. It was not uncommon in Methodist narratives during the period for communicants receiving the host to have visions of the crucifed Savior and experience the healing efcacy of the wounds of Christ.187

The Eucharist proved to be a means of grace and power for Methodists in the eighteenth century. This sacred meal still ofers divine presence and power to all who will receive it by faith.

In the bread and the cup, believers communed with the healing Christ who proved to be present with power. Central to Wesley’s understanding of worship was a sense of anticipation. Humans cannot manipulate God. Yet, believers should expect God’s healing grace, God’s presence and power, manifested in various ways. This expectation would include divine healing. In the Wesleyan and Methodist tradition, Communion is a channel of divine grace. The Lord’s Supper afords believers tangible opportunities to experience God’s healing presence and power.

The presence and power of God demand a human response. Sometimes the church refers to the Lord’s Supper

187 Webster, 182.

as the Eucharist, the Greek word eucharistia, which means “thanksgiving” or “giving thanks.” To give thanks is a human response, expressing gratitude for divine generosity. Brent Peterson explains, “Within the Wesleyan tradition it must also be celebrated that while God ofers healing to persons in the sacraments, persons must also respond to God’s invitation of healing. It is not the case that the sacraments are only about what God is doing; persons are empowered and wooed by God to respond to this healing. While God is the primary actor, the healing ofered must be responded to.”188 In the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, God is present with grace and power. Wherever God is present with power, healing remains possible.

Even today, some Methodists incorporate healing into Holy Communion. Worshipers blend anointing with oil and praying for healing in the Supper. Christ extends the invitation to his Table, and yet people must respond by accepting the divine invitation. Receiving the bread and juice is a means of receiving divine grace and healing. The Lord’s Supper celebrates an ongoing story of redemption narrated through the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. The Father’s only begotten Son came in the fesh to give his own life in sacrifcial love. This life-giving of the sinless Son provided atonement for the sin of humankind. It is a story that includes the resurrection as well as the cross. The Son overcame the sin and death of all humanity, providing reconciliation, redemption, forgiveness, and restoration. For his disciples in the world, the Son of God also ofers healing and power for daily living.189

188 Brent Peterson, “The Church’s Sacraments,” in Essential Church: A Wesleyan Ecclesiology, eds. Diane Leclerc and Mark A. Maddix (Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 2014), 108.

189 Cherry, 86.

Means of Grace as Means of Healing

Methodists celebrate this ongoing story of redemption in their liturgy whenever they gather at Christ’s Table. The timeless story remains relevant not only for ancient Christians, but also for Christ-followers at any time in history. Migliore writes:

The Lord’s Supper gathers together the past, the present, and the future of God’s creative and redemptive work. It is a vivid reminder of Christ’s salvifc death and resurrection and also all of God’s lavish gifts in the creation and preservation of the world. But for the community of faith, Christ is no memory: he makes himself present here and now through the breaking and eating of the bread and the pouring and drinking of the wine, and those who partake of this meal are made one in community in him. Furthermore, in this sacrament Christians are aroused to hope in Christ’s coming again. They look eagerly for the consummation of the liberating and reconciling activity of God in which they are now co-workers.190

For worshipers, Holy Communion is a faithful response to God’s grace at work in the world. But the Lord’s Supper is not a mere ritual of obedience. At his Table with his faithful community, the risen Christ is present with power. He is present in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup. It is in divine presence and power that God afords the means of divine grace and healing.

Healing Works of Mercy

Works of mercy are tangible expressions of Christ’s Table extending into all the world. In his Supper, Christ welcomes the 190 Migliore, 220-221.

poor and forgotten, the weary and wounded, and the sick and disabled. Charles Wesley described this extension of the Table through works of mercy in some of his lyrics. “Come, all ye souls by sin oppressed, ye restless wanderers after rest; ye poor, and maimed, and halt, and blind, in Christ a hearty welcome fnd.”191 Compassionate ministry invites all to Christ’s Table without discrimination. The Wesleyan tradition acknowledges works of mercy as means of divine grace.

The Holy Spirit-empowered church is the visible body of Christ. Christ sent his church into the world to continue his work and mission until Christ’s return. The church’s commission is to continue Jesus’ healing works of mercy. Doing good works includes generosity, visitation, and feeding and clothing the poor. In various forms, works of mercy are practical social extensions of Christ’s Table.

Early Christians gathered for worship, instruction, and participating in the sacraments. Yet, the earliest Christians understood their mission to the world. According to Reggie McNeal, “What we have not had for all these centuries is robust attention to the ‘sent’ aspect of church. The ‘sent’ church implies a church on mission, largely played out away from church gatherings. ‘Sent’ people maintain the purpose of the church when scattered and are not just hanging around waiting for the next church gathering to attend to and live out their spiritual development.”192 Christ sent his church into the world to be salt and light in their witness and service (Matthew

191 Charles Wesley, “Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast” (No. 339) in The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989).

192 Reggie McNeal, Missional Communities: The Rise of the PostCongregational Church (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), 16.

5:13-16). The sent church partners with God in the divine work of redemption in the world. In his public ministry, Jesus moved around. Wherever he went, he found hurting people who needed healing. Like Jesus, his church should be on the move as well.

Christ-followers should go where hurting people are, sharing the healing love of God. As the visible body of Christ in the world, the church is on a mission with God. This mission includes the salvation of souls. But redemption is not limited to personal salvation. McNeal writes, “Dealing with institutional racism and poverty must be addressed along with restoration of right standing with God. One cannot be complete without the other.”193 In the Wesleyan tradition, works of mercy go beyond benevolence ministries. Works of mercy include ending discriminatory practices, addressing poverty, and promoting education.

The church has long participated in various forms of benevolence and mercy ministries. Social concerns accompany soul-saving. Followers of Christ continue to share God’s love in tangible ways. But the church has not always done so well at addressing societal sicknesses. Institutional illnesses prove to be more challenging to heal. Riley laments: “Unfortunately, our tradition has not talked about the communal aspect of responsibility as much as the individual, at least in certain contexts. This is particularly sad given the fact that our spiritual parents understood that individual and community could not be separated. John Wesley and his followers understood that if one did not take responsibility for the community, then one’s

193 McNeal, 21.

spiritual life was not complete.”194 Both evangelistic crusades and benevolence ministries remain benefcial. But addressing social and systemic ills proves to be more challenging for the church.

Addressing individual needs and concerns remains a priority for the church in the U.S. But social problems also merit the attention of the body of Christ. Sometimes people must confront social systems and challenge oppressive structures.

Stephen Seamands says, “In the last hundred years Christians have become increasingly aware of social dimensions of sin and evil. Of course, sin is personal, involving the actions and attitudes of particular individuals. But sin is also social, involving the actions and attitudes of collective groups of people, becoming enmeshed in systems, manifesting itself in impersonal, cultural, political, economic, intellectual and religious forces as well.”195 People become trapped in personal sins. But people also fnd themselves entangled in communal and institutional sins.

Throughout its history, it seems that the church has focused more on individual sins. Perhaps addressing individuals’ sins seems more manageable than fnding just systemic resolutions. Even so, the sent church participates with God in a divine mission of redemption. This mission must address social sins as well as individual sins. In various forms, both personal and social sicknesses remain.

194 Stephen Riley, “The Church of Compassion and Justice,” in Essential Church: A Wesleyan Ecclesiology, eds. Eds. Diane Leclerc and Mark A. Maddix (Kansas City: Beason Hill Press, 2014), 159.

195 Stephen Seamands, Give Them Jesus: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifxion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 78-79.

Congregational and Community Wellness

Eating of the bread and drinking of the cup are outward signs of the inward working of God’s grace.196 Like prayer and Scripture, the power of the Eucharist is found not in the elements themselves. The Supper’s strength is in the person of the Holy Spirit, the divine agent of grace. In the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit employs the bread and wine, and the words and actions, all as means of grace. Worshipers encounter the risen Lord at the Table where Christ is present with his people.197

Yet, the Table of Christ’s Supper is not limited to any piece of furniture. The Table extends into all the world, inviting all persons to the Gospel feast. Prayer, Scripture, the Lord’s Supper, and works of benevolence aford a powerful witness of the risen Christ. Through these channels of grace, people experience God’s transforming presence and power. Yet, the means of grace are also means of divine healing. They provide a framework of wellness for both the congregation and the community.

I have heard countless stories of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing attributed to the power of prayer. There are many examples of people experiencing emotional and spiritual healing through the reading or proclaiming of Scripture. Stories of healing taking place while receiving the Lord’s Supper are also familiar. I have heard of physical healings associated with Communion. I have witnessed more instances of emotional and spiritual healing connected to the Eucharist. I have seen the tears of the broken, people experiencing emotional and spiritual

196 Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” 165.

197 Knight III, The Presence of God in the Christian Life…,136.

breakthroughs. I have heard the holy weeping of parishioners receiving the elements at the prayer rail. God searches a person’s heart, and the Holy Spirit intercedes. Sometimes, tears and weeping are the prayers of the broken and hurting. God the Healer understands these prayerful lamentations, and God responds according to his will and purpose.

Personal Refection

Have you or someone that you know experienced some form of healing through prayer, Scripture, the Lord’s Supper, or assistance in time of need?

Chapter Nine EMOTIONS AND HEALING

Healing of the Self

Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to love God (Matthew 22:37-38). The second greatest commandment is like the frst: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, NRSV). A person demonstrates love for God by caring for others. Yet, caring for others becomes problematic when a person fails to care for one’s own needs. The stresses of life touch every part of a person’s being. The body, mind, and spirit are all afected. Life events related to marriage, family, vocation, fnances, etc. can all cause anxiety. God did not intend to redeem only part of a person, but the whole person.198 The Healer’s realm extends beyond the spiritual and the physical. There is also the hope of inner healing.

Jesus Christ can heal the inner wounds that remain in one’s memories or subconscious. As the Healer flls those internal wounds with divine love, Christ can heal the past and present. Frequently, inner healing is a long and gradual journey. Yet, inner healing is possible because of God’s sanctifying grace.

According to Francis MacNutt, “Inner healing is indicated

198 Paul L. King, God’s Healing Arsenal: A Divine Battle Plan for Overcoming Distress and Disease (Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2011), 60-63.

134 | Emotions and Healing

whenever we become aware that we are held down in any way by the hurts of the past. We all sufer from this kind of bondage to one degree or another; some severely, some minimally.”199 Some hurts may be old, and some wounds may be more recent. But God’s grace is enough for all forms of human woundedness. Inner healing is possible even with emotional injuries that occurred in the past.

Presence, Prayer, and Process

There are two essentials to emotional healing. The frst is the ministry of presence. Inner healing frequently involves talking to someone about personal problems, acknowledging both the wounds and their causes. Though this may be difcult, talking about deep pain is essential to the healing process. The second essential is the ministry of prayer, asking God to heal the efects of the past hurts. Sometimes the ministries of presence and prayer coincide. For example, a caregiver may ofer intercessory prayer on behalf of a suferer who cannot pray. Presence and prayer are vital to the process of healing.200

When a person prays for healing and does not see the desired outcomes, it is easy for doubt to creep into the mind. But, when and how the healing comes is up to God, not mortals. It is healthy to pray for the fulfllment of God’s will, and not human will, in every circumstance.201 Human beings often cannot comprehend divine methods and means. God usually does not work according to human timetables. But God’s timing

199 Francis MacNutt, Healing (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1999), 146.

200 MacNutt, Healing, 147.

201 King, 36.

is perfect, and God’s ways are the best. The process of healing challenges hurting people to trust God the Healer.

Many of Jesus’ healings described in the Gospel texts were instantaneous. Yet, it seems that today healing is frequently a process. There are examples of immediate and dramatic deliverance. Examples are recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. But there are also examples of healing taking place in a long and even complicated process. Humans are not God and cannot comprehend God’s ways. Recovery may be instantaneous, or healing may be a process.202 Emotional healing can be more of a progression requiring some time. It is not uncommon for a hurting person to get frustrated with God during treatment. It becomes easy for some to lose hope. Healing may come about quickly or gradually. Either way, the Healer is at work in the process, and those who are hurting must trust the Healer.

Examples of instantaneous healing tend to draw more attention. But there are examples of physical healing as a process in the Bible. Naaman washing seven times in the Jordan River is one example (2 Kings 5:14). Instantaneous healing would have addressed his physical afiction. But Naaman’s need for healing went beyond his medical condition. Naaman had to invest in his healing process. Another example of healing as a process is in the Gospel According to John. The disciples asked Jesus about a man born blind. They assumed that the man’s condition resulted from some sin, either the man’s sin or his parents’ sin. But Jesus said that the man’s afiction and healing would reveal the workings of God.

Emotions and Healing

According to John’s text, Jesus spat in the dirt, made a little mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the man’s eyes. Jesus then told the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man went as Jesus instructed, and the man could see (John 9:1-7). Instantaneous healing would have dealt with the man’s inability to see. But, like Naaman, the man born blind had to invest in his healing process. Accounts like these in the Bible serve as important reminders. Healing, whether physical or emotional, is sometimes a process. This process requires time, as well as participation by the one who needs healing.

Healing the Past and the Present

When it comes to emotional healing, it seems that hurts from the past haunt many people. Wounds inficted years ago can disrupt a person’s wellbeing in the present. The continual pain of past hurts can disturb a person in ways that one may or may not realize. Wimber explains, “Emotional and psychological hurts linger in the form of bad memories (thoughts of hurtful experiences from the past) and form barriers to personal growth. They may even lead us into forms of sin, emotional problems, and physical illnesses.”203 Sometimes, people sufer because of some personal sin. Sometimes people sufer because someone sinned against them. Dealing with the emotional injuries of the past is vital to present wellness. The healing of these past wounds brings inner healing.

Prayer and the Work of Healing

Emotional woundedness is often complicated. But divine healing is available because of God’s grace. Prayer is the chief

203 Wimber and Springer, Power Healing, 79-80.

means of divine grace, and prayer is the primary conduit of divine healing. Divine presence and power make the process of emotional healing possible. Jack Moraine advocates a specifc practice of prayer. He refers to this form of prayer as inner healing prayer. According to Moraine, “Inner healing prayer is prayer that releases the healing power of Jesus into the deep wounds of a person’s past that are still negatively impacting and infuencing them today.”204 Divine healing is not merely for the present. God’s healing grace is available to the emotional wounds of the past.

Wounds of the past can emotionally debilitate a person in the present. These wounds include the painful memories associated with past wrongs. Pearson explains, “The healing of memories is a chance to go back and reclaim the past – not changing it, but changing its infuence on our lives. It is a chance to be released from the shame, guilt, and pain that have hurt us for years and continue to afect us today.”205 Past hurts can prevent people from functioning at their best in the present. In the practice of prayer, those who are sufering invite God the Healer to enter into their problems.

Inner healing can be a long and painful process. The course of recovery requires time and hard work on the part of the hurting person, as the suferer participates in the healing process. Yet, wholeness does not come about by human efort alone. Inner healing is a manifestation of divine healing. Wellness is only possible by the presence and power of God. Wimber writes, “I defne inner healing as a process in which the Holy Spirit brings forgiveness of sins and emotional renewal to

204 Jack Moraine, Healing Ministry: A Training Manual for Believers (Choctaw, OK: HGM Publishing, 2010), 77.

205 Pearson, 85.

people sufering from damaged minds, wills, and emotions. It is a way of bringing the power of the gospel to a specifc area of need.”206 The Holy Spirit is the divine agent of divine grace. A hurting person must surrender to the presence and power of the Spirit. Yielding to the Spirit makes inner healing possible. Healing is the work of God, and yet the sufering person must invest in the healing process.

Sometimes healing emotional wounds can be more complicated than healing physical injuries. Healing a wounded mind can be a difcult and emotional process. Yet, healing is possible. The Holy Spirit brings all the power of Christ’s Gospel to the mind, will, and emotions. Inner healing often requires time and patience. But God’s grace is more powerful than a person’s deepest wounds. Injuries of the past lead to emotional responses in the present. These responses can inhibit a person’s capacity to experience God’s grace in its fullness. The poor choices of oneself and others can be parts of the equation related to sufering. Emotional entanglements may take years to construct. So, recovery may be neither quick nor painless.

Forgiveness and the Lord’s Supper

In many ways, forgiveness is the greatest human need. A person may need forgiveness from God, another person, or oneself. At some point, a person may ofer forgiveness to someone else. Jesus emphasized that his disciples should be forgiving people. Wagner writes:

Forgiveness is popularly accepted as a spiritual principle which was clearly taught, illustrated, and practiced by Jesus. Forgiveness is universally 206 Wimber and Springer, Power Healing, 80.

respected in promoting harmonious social relationships. How many people, however, look upon forgiveness as a crucial key to personal good health? How many realize unforgiveness is a major contributor to unhealthiness? Not only is forgiveness good for one’s soul and one’s social life, it is equally good medicine for one’s physical and mental well-being.207

Forgiveness may translate into healing that is physical, emotional, or spiritual. For a good number of people, forgiveness is key to emotional healing. Sometimes healing comes through accepting Christ’s forgiveness for one’s transgressions. At other times, healing comes through forgiving others. Unforgiveness, though understandable, can prove to be an obstacle to wholeness. Extending forgiveness can be difcult for the wounded soul. But forgiving a wrongdoer can be liberating.

Prayer and Scripture are essential means of divine grace. But the Lord’s Supper is another sacred channel through which Christ’s healing love may fow into past wounds. Pearson writes, “As we receive Communion, we lay our burdens, sins, and hurts at the foot of the cross and receive grace to be made whole. While this often comes when we are not thinking about his grace, we discover that when we lay our burdens at the Lord’s feet intentionally – including the pains and hurts of previous years – and deliberately focus on God’s healing grace in the sacrament, more happens, and it happens more often.”208 The minister presiding over the sacred meal may proclaim this promise of divine healing. Yet, the consecrated bread and the wine speak with more power than any words spoken by humans.

207 Wagner, 77.

208 Pearson, 96.

Holy Communion serves as a perpetual reminder that salvation in Jesus Christ includes healing. Remembrance is important to worshipers who receive the bread and wine at the Lord’s Table. One, they recall what the Lord did for lost sinners in the past. Two, they acknowledge that the Lord is with those who repent of their sins in the present. Three, they recollect that those who trust in Christ will be with him in the future. The sacrifcial love of Jesus Christ is available in the past, present, and future. The image presented at the Communion table is that of Jesus giving his life on the cross. It is the life-giving of Christ that ofers atonement for the sin of humankind.

At his table, the Lord invites all who repent of their sins to come. The Lord invites all to receive forgiveness, sustenance, wholeness, and new life. According to MacNutt, “The frst and deepest kind of healing that Christ brings is the forgiveness of our sins. Our repentance and God’s forgiveness – they are emphasized by every Christian denomination. No one doubts that Jesus died for our sins and took them away, provided we do our part and repent. This is salvation and healing at the deepest level.”209 The bread and wine in a spiritual sense speak of the forgiveness of sins. The elements at the Lord’s Table also proclaim the promise of healing. This promise goes beyond any allegorical understanding of healing. Christ’s Table ofers wholeness realized in the forgiveness of sin. This wholeness ofered at Christ’s table is a healing that is physical, emotional, and spiritual. 209 MacNutt, Healing, 135.

Wholeness and Holiness

Hospitals have not always welcomed the practice of healing prayer. Yet, things have changed in a good number of medical facilities. Prayers for healing expect that God heals through medical personnel, treatments, and medications. Scientifc studies highlight the benefts of faith and healing. According to some studies, people who regularly take part in worship activities tend to have better health and generally live longer than average. Some studies claim that as much as 80% of disease is stress-induced. Other studies show that prayer can help reduce the symptoms of many ailments. These medical conditions include stress-induced illnesses such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Many medical studies suggest that faith is benefcial to a person’s health.210 God heals sometimes through prayer, sometimes through medical treatment, and sometimes through both prayer and medicine. But all healing is divine healing.

Self-Care

In an imperfect world, negative factors attack the physical body to varying degrees. Heredity, climate, allergies, vitamin and protein defciencies, and physical accidents are all realities. Some phenomena remain random and unpreventable. Diet, exercise, and nutritional supplements can be helpful. But prayer is always appropriate. There are many causes of stress that contribute to human weakness. Removing certain stress factors from a person’s life can be helpful. At the least, better stress-management can prove benefcial to one’s health. The complexity of a person’s life can leave one’s body and mind

210 MacNutt, Healing, 207.

142 | Emotions and Healing drained and fatigued.211 Humans exist in an imperfect world. The reality is that healthier life habits would beneft many people. Self-care is essential to the body, mind, and spirit.

The Hebrew Scriptures list some basic health principles that remain benefcial today. Cleansing (Exodus 29:14; Leviticus 15) emphasizes good personal hygiene, bathing, and clean laundry. Isolation (Numbers 5:1-14) deals with separating oneself from “unclean” or harmful things. The principle of diet (Leviticus 11) stresses good eating habits. Personal discipline (Numbers 6) underscores an orderly lifestyle, including regular exercise and a sensible diet. The principle of the sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11; Leviticus 25) means getting adequate rest.212 Self-care is benefcial to a person’s wellbeing.

Jesus’ Healing Ministry Is the Church’s Healing Ministry

A good number of contemporary churches do not have any meaningful ministry of healing. There may be many reasons for this. Moraine writes, “One of the reasons the church has failed to emulate Jesus in his healing ministry is because they have not seen healing ministry as central to the ministry of the kingdom and therefore central to the ministry of Jesus. Instead, many have been taught that Jesus healed primarily to authenticate his identity as the Messiah and the Son of God.”213 Wholeness was crucial to the ministry of Jesus. So, wellness should be central to the ministry of Christ’s church as well.

Some imply that healing was secondary to Jesus’ preaching and teaching. Others suggest that Jesus’ healings

211 King, 75-76.

212 King, 76.

213 Moraine, 58.

only validated his identity as the Savior. Moraine argues that “Jesus did not heal the sick to prove a point. He healed because God has compassion on the sick, the oppressed and the hurting, and because in bringing the rule of heaven to earth, things like sickness and demonic bondage and oppression stand in opposition to God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.”214 As in Jesus’ public ministry, compassionate healing is vital to wholeness. Will contemporary churches continue to neglect the ministry of healing that was so important to Jesus? If current trends continue, churches today are in danger of losing the compassion of Jesus.

Healing Is More Than We Might Imagine

Perhaps the church’s vision of healing is at times too restrictive. More than physical recovery, healing also includes emotional and spiritual wholeness. The physical, emotional, and spiritual are interconnected. The human need for healing can be complex. Before my mom died, she sufered for some time. Dementia is a general term describing the impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions. Memory, speech, concentration, reasoning, and visual perception of a person may be afected. Sometime before her physical death, my mom gradually slipped away with increasing anxiety and decreasing cognitive abilities. I said goodbye to my mother well before she passed from this life.

At one point, she exhibited paranoia. It must have been a frightening place for her, where nothing seemed familiar, and everything appeared threatening. No matter how I tried to reassure her, I could bring no sense of calm to her. She

214 Moraine, 58.

continued wringing her hands as her eyes darted around the room in fear. One of the last times that I visited her she was unresponsive. I talked to her for a while. But her eyes remained fxed on some distant corner of the ceiling. After a time, I told her goodbye. I kissed her forehead, questioning whether she had any awareness of what was going on around her. At the far end of the large room, I paused before heading out the door. I turned and looked back at her. She no longer gazed into space. She had turned her head, and she was quietly watching her child.

I was at a diferent spiritual place when my mom died than I was at the time of my dad’s death. On the day of her death, God healed my mom of all her afictions. She passed from a world of sickness and dementia into God’s eternal healing presence. God heals through divine intervention, natural remedies, or medical treatment. But all healing is divine healing, and healing is more than we imagine. Sometimes God heals by escorting his children through the shadow of death into an eternal home. Even the journey of grief is a healing journey, when we trust in the abiding presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Personal Refection

Healing was essential to the ministry of Jesus. Why do you think that healing ministries are not promoted more in many churches today? Might we think of grief support and addiction counseling as healing ministries?

Chapter Ten

UNTIL CHRIST RETURNS

The Path of Healing

The Hebrew Scriptures describe the frailty of humans. This fragility resulted from the fall described in Genesis. The book of beginnings establishes the human need for healing in a broken world. The book also recognizes that God wants to heal the broken. Genesis describes the origin of mortal sin infecting every generation of humanity. But the book also proclaims the hope found in divine grace and mercy. Healing ministry in the church builds upon the foundation of a basic understanding. One, humans need wholeness that is not attainable on their own. Two, God ofers grace that heals and transforms.

The Hebrew texts also deal with the relationship between discipline and obedience. Healing is the work of God, and yet humans take part in the healing process. Humans do so through two essentials. The frst is repentance, and the second is obedience to God’s will revealed in the sacred texts. Both repentance and obedience were essential to the ministries of the Hebrew prophets. The Psalms give voice to the relationship between obedience and redemption. The

146 | Until Christ Returns writings of the psalmists also proclaim the correlation between repentance and restoration. The church should strive for a deeper awareness of the human need for healing. Those who are sufering fnd wholeness in Christ. Fragile humans fnd spiritual transformation in Christ alone. Yet, transformation of the whole person is part of God’s redemptive plan.

The New Testament texts reveal that Jesus’ primary message related to the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. The Nazarene proclaimed the invasion of God’s kingdom in the present. This divine visitation was part of a gracious plan of redemption and restoration. Christ’s proclamation of God’s kingdom echoed themes found in the Hebrew texts. Old Testament passages relate to God’s remedy for the fall. These texts also proclaim the hope of divine healing realized through repentance and obedience. These Hebrew texts also connect with the public ministry of Jesus. The Gospels portray Jesus Christ as the Healer. The incarnate Christ embodied the hope of healing communicated in the Hebrew texts. A ministry of healing was central to the public ministry of Jesus. Should not a ministry of healing be crucial to his church as well?

The four Gospels lay the theological groundwork for Christ as the Savior who heals. The Gospel texts afrm that salvation includes healing. Other New Testaments texts build on the foundation of Christ as the divine Healer. The Book of Acts describes how Christ would continue his ministry on the earth through his church. With the Holy Spirit’s presence and power, the church would be the visible body of Christ in the world. The church would uphold Jesus’ three-fold ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. The Pauline epistles establish that even human sufering can accomplish God’s redemptive

work. The apostle Paul saw a place for human sufering, when it is God’s will, in God’s plan of wholeness. Yet, in his writings, Paul did not disparage the critical role of healing in Christ’s church.

The Book of James afrms the importance of faith and prayer. Faith and prayer are crucial to church healing ministry. Prayers for healing should include the use of olive oil. James understood anointing with oil as the application of medicine. Anointing with oil, related to the prayer of faith for divine healing, is a powerful and efective means of grace. The four Gospels, the Pauline epistles, the Book of James, and the Book of Revelation all in their unique ways, reveal a profound truth. Seeking divine healing should be a regular practice of the historic church.

Church history demonstrates the continuance, decline, and persistence of healing ministry. The need for divine healing remains evident. The Wesleyan/Methodist, Holiness, and Pentecostal/Charismatic contexts afrm some things about wholeness. One, the Holy Spirit moves in various and powerful ways. How the Spirit moves is not for humans to decide. Yet, the Spirit moves. Two, divine healing remains possible. Biblical, theological, and historical refection confrms a divine plan of redemption. This plan underscores the hope of recovery revealed in Jesus Christ. A succession of Christ-centered healing ministry endures in the historic church. The human need for healing remains, even in the church of the twenty-frst century. But the hope of wholeness in Jesus Christ remains as well.

Yet, there appears to be some degree of disconnection. Contemporary church practices do not always embrace the

148 | Until Christ Returns ministry of healing. A lack of understanding about divine healing persists in a good number of churches. This defciency, combined with a fear of the unknown, can lead to the Spirit’s quenching. Many will seek the care of physicians for various ailments. But a good number of Christians today do not expect divine healing.

Some believers choose to seek God only when it comes to their spiritual health. They instead entrust their physical and emotional health to medical professionals. Healthcare is an essential aspect of healing. God, the Healer, works through physicians and other medical professionals. Yet, in time, failing to entrust one’s physical and emotional health to the healing Christ can be detrimental to one’s faith. Misconceptions and a lack of teaching in the church can lead to a lack of divine healing. The absence of expectation about divine healing can lead to a weakening of one’s faith. A person who does not expect divine healing most likely will not expect the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in daily existence.

The General Rules and the Life of Holiness

Every person who seeks to follow Jesus Christ needs help in living a life of holiness. Even in a healthy ecclesial structure, a person will fnd oneself lacking. God’s power equips believers to live like Christ in a fallen world marred by human sin. So, some practical guidelines would beneft the order of any local church context. One of Wesley’s gifts to the church is the general rules. They are like guardrails lending guidance in living a sanctifed life.215 Disciples of Jesus Christ need the Holy Spirit to guide a

215 Rueben P. Job, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 16-17.

person’s decisions and actions. Wesley also acknowledged the necessity of testing the leading of the Spirit. A believer must test any divine leading by Scripture and reason, because the Spirit moves in harmony with Scripture and reason. Yet, the Holy Spirit convicts and guides believers in the life of holiness.216

Wesley’s general rules ofer guidance for the new life of holiness in Christ. The frst rule is not to harm. According to Rueben P. Job, “It is a challenging path to walk. Yet, even a casual reading of the gospel suggests that Jesus taught and practiced a way of living that did no harm. His life, his way of life, and his teaching demonstrated so well this frst simple rule. And rather than inventing something new, John Wesley picked up on what Jesus taught and incorporated it into his structure for faithful living….”217 Wesley believed that the journey of salvation is a life lived in harmony with God. This path of redemption includes doing no harm and avoiding every form of evil. This new life in Christ incorporates self-examination about how a person lives and practices one’s faith.

Accompanying the frst general rule not to harm is the second, which is to do good. Christ-followers are to seek empowerment by the Holy Spirit for witness and service. Equipped by the Holy Spirit, doing no harm and doing good become holy endeavors. Job writes, “I do not need to wait until circumstances cry out for aid to relieve sufering or correct some horrible injustice. I can decide that my way of living will come down on the side of doing good to all in every circumstance and in every way I can. I can decide that I will choose a way of living that nourishes goodness and strengthens community.”218 The

216 Maddox, 133.

217 Job, 27-28.

218 Job, 37-38.

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frst two general rules may sound like human eforts. Yet, doing no harm and doing good originate within the context of what God is doing. God’s grace is at work in the world, and God’s grace is at work in the heart and life of those who believe in Jesus Christ.

A person may practice these general rules without divine presence and power. Yet, self-efort will not bring about lasting change. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent of transformation. An absence of the Holy Spirit will not lead to a life of holiness and becoming like Christ. Believers take part in the process. But the Holy Spirit provides the divine power. One may argue that the General Rules are at the heart of the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37. Jesus told this story to illustrate the greatest commandments. A person is to love God and love neighbor. The holy life is a life of loving witness and service. Doing no harm and doing good are potential catalysts for change. With the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, these rules can nurture relational healing and reconciliation. It may seem simplistic on the surface, and yet to do good nurtures a life of holiness.219

After the frst two rules, to do no harm and do good, the third rule is to stay in love with God. Wesley understood the necessity of divine presence and power in the life of the believer. Doing no harm and doing good are powerless apart from a personal relationship with God. A believer may stay in love with God through the means of grace. Prayer, Scripture, and the Lord’s Supper all nurture a personal relationship with God. Ordinances of the church are essential spiritual practices. They

guide and sustain the Christ-follower in a life of faithfulness and holiness.

Daily activities of worship provide sustenance to follow Jesus. These practices provide a spiritual framework where healing is possible. Physical, emotional, and spiritual recovery may take place. But relational and communal recovery are also possible. Doing no harm, doing good, and staying in love with God through the ordinances of Christ’s church nurture an atmosphere of divine healing and a life of holiness.

A Wesleyan Approach to Church Healing Ministry

A Wesleyan approach to healing ministry originates in the means of grace. Prayer, the chief means of grace, is essential to the life of the local church. Worship gatherings, small groups, and business meetings should all incorporate healing prayer. From pastoral care and counseling to the fellowship of Christian friends sharing a meal, prayer remains a vital means of healing grace. Prayer is also important to Spirit-empowered witness and service. A congregation ministers to the community in which that congregation resides. From prayer walks to hospital visitation, laity as well as clergy should ofer healing prayers wherever the people of the church may go. In doing so, healing prayer promotes congregational and community wellness.

Along with prayer, Scripture and the Lord’s Supper are important means of grace. Though tradition, reason, and experience inform and guide the church, Scripture is the authority in the Wesleyan tradition. God’s Word speaks to the local church in worship gatherings, small groups, and every area of congregational life. Scripture guides the church in community

152 | Until Christ Returns ministries, equipping clergy and laity to love God and neighbor as Jesus taught. By the Holy Spirit’s presence and power, the open table of Holy Communion remains an important channel for God’s grace to fow into a hurting world. The church sees the healing power of the Supper in worship gatherings. Yet, the healing Eucharist also shapes the congregation and propels community ministry, providing benevolence and addressing societal wrongs. Works of mercy and social responsibility are also expressions of church healing ministry.

The church should not see these means of grace only as rituals of church tradition. Rituals are useful. Yet, continuing and participating in rituals should not be the church’s aim. The means of grace are channels through which God’s healing love fows into a sufering world. Prayer, Scripture, Communion, and works of mercy are all means of grace, forming a Wesleyan framework for congregational and community wellness. Human sufering aficts individuals, families, marriages, communities, and societal systems. Healing and transformation are not found in the means, but in God’s grace that fows through these means. The means of grace avail the church to God’s loving presence and power. The Spirit-empowered church shares Christ’s Good News of redemption and new life.

In my years of pastoral ministry, I have witnessed Christians experiencing both powerlessness and transformation through the means of grace. When church-goers treat prayer, Scripturereading, and the Lord’s Supper as little more than acts of obedience and devotion, there is an absence of spiritual power and transformation. When church members engage in social work that is divorced from prayer, Scripture, and Christ’s Table, the church is no diferent than any secular advocacy group. But

when Christians approach prayer, Scripture, the Lord’s Supper, and works of mercy and benevolence as means of divine grace, genuine healing and transformation are possible.

Some churches focus on saving souls, while other churches focus on social work. Some point to Christians described as too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. One may also highlight Christians who are so earthly minded that they have no use for eternity. Yet, soul-saving complements social ministry in an authentically Wesleyan approach to church healing ministry. To choose one over the other does not accurately refect the heritage of John Wesley and the early Methodists.

Christ’s church ought to care about the wellness of the whole person in body, mind, and spirit. In a Wesleyan approach to healing ministry, lives are changed by God’s grace both in this life and for all eternity. Prayer, Scripture, Holy Communion, and works of mercy in various forms are all means by which people avail themselves to God’s healing and transforming grace. This is a Wesleyan approach to church healing ministry that is Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered.

Incorporating Healing into Daily Life

How might a person incorporate a Wesleyan approach to healing ministry into one’s daily life? Set aside some quiet time every day to spend with God and consider this question.

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Prayer

Begin every day with God in prayer. In one sense, prayer is talking with God. Yet, prayer is the chief means of grace. Jesus provided a model prayer for his disciples in Matthew 6. Some refer to this prayer as the Lord’s Prayer or even the Disciples’ Prayer. The prayer begins by praising God. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” If we were to go and meet with someone important, we would probably not barge in and immediately hand that person a list of requests. We should not do this with God in prayer either. We begin each prayer by praising God and revering God’s holy name.

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” After praising God, believers ought to acknowledge that God’s will, plans, and purposes are more important than human plans and purposes. In this model prayer, a person prays that God’s will would fnd fulfllment on earth as God’s will reaches fulfllment in heaven. Even Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane before going to the cross, wrestled with his heavenly Father’s will. According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus knew that the cross, with all of its sufering and shame, stood before him. Jesus prayed that this cup of sorrow that is the cross would pass from him. But then Jesus prayed this: “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Believers also pray, acknowledging that God’s plans and purposes are greater than theirs. Even when life on this earth get difcult, believers must trust in God’s greater will and purpose.

The model prayer in Matthew 6 then address the needs of the one praying. “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is appropriate to ofer our needs to God in prayer, needs that are spiritual and practical. Every human has needs that are physical, emotional, and spiritual. One of the greatest human needs is forgiveness, either for oneself or for a wrongdoer. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Some translations use words like sins or trespasses. But the meaning is the same. In a fallen world, humans hurt humans. At one time or another, every human will need forgiveness, and every human will need to extend forgiveness to someone else. Many people fnd it difcult to forgive someone who harmed them. Yet, for the Christ-follower, just as God forgives people, people ought to forgive one another.

The model prayer of Matthew 6 asks God for protection. Humans exists in a world flled with trials and temptations of various kinds. This fallen world is flled with the existence of evil. “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.” The King James Version of the Bible concludes the Model prayer with this line: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” The Lord’s Prayer concludes by acknowledging some spiritual truths. In the end, the important thing is not what humans want, but what God wants. In prayer and in living one’s life, humans need God’s power. In the end, God should receive any glory or praise.

Scripture

Reading a daily devotional contributes to a person’s wellness. Preferably, read a passage from the Bible. “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-

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edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The Book of Hebrews describes God’s Word as a sword. Scripture has a way of penetrating a person’s heart. When a person prays to God, the Holy Spirit is at work in the prayer’s heart and can in time transform the prayer’s life, making that person more like Jesus. Also, when someone reads the Bible, the Holy Spirit is at work in the reader’s heart, transforming the reader’s mind, heart, and life. Prayer and Scripture, by the Holy Spirit’s presence and power, are essentials means of availing oneself to God’s grace.

The Lord’s Supper

How might the Lord’s Supper as a means of grace beneft a believer daily? In a corporate worship setting, the Communion liturgy guides the people in a sacred moment of contemplative worship. Participants meditate on Jesus’ sacrifcial life-giving before receiving the sacred meal. In your daily quiet time, spend a moment thinking about Christ’s loving sacrifce at the cross.

Consider how, as a Christ-follower, you might live more sacrifcially, serving others in need. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifce, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). Is there someone in your workplace, school, etc., that needs a Christ-like presence?

Believers nourished at Christ’s Table go forth from a worship gathering into the world to serve. How might you share Christ’s love with someone that you know?

Healing Grace

The human need for healing is evident in any number of contexts. For some people, the issue is inoperable pain or alcohol and drug addiction. For others, the afiction is fnancial. Racism remains in diverse forms. Some justify prejudice, and some promote division for political purposes. Until Christ returns as he promised, the need for divine healing remains.

Changing attitudes about healing ministry in the contemporary church begins with re-introducing healing. Divine healing must be part of the language, teachings, and practical life of the church. Many congregations get stuck in set ways of doing and being the church. Church cultures congeal over several decades or longer, and change is often slow coming. Yet, change is both possible and essential. Congregations can reclaim the historical ministry of healing. To invest in healing ministry is to invest in the long-term vitality and existence of a church body. Change and healing are still possible because of God’s healing grace. Healing is still possible today because of Jesus Christ.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Timothy Lyn Ashcraft serves as a Methodist pastor. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, a Master of Divinity from Saint Paul School of Theology in Oklahoma City, and a Doctor of Ministry in Church Ministry and Leadership from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK. His doctoral research focused on healing ministry in the church. He and his wife, Doris, live in northwestern Oklahoma.

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Thomas, John Christopher. “Healing in the Atonement: A Johannine Perspective.” Journal of Pentecostal Theology

14, no. 1 (October 2005): 23-39. ATLA Religion Database, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

Twelftree, Graham H. “Paul’s Experience of the Miraculous.” Evangelical Quarterly 87, no. 3 (July 2015): 195-206. ATLA Religion Database, EBSCOhost (03 February 2018).

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Warrington, Keith. “Healing and Sufering in the Bible.” International Review of Mission 95, no. 376/377 (July 2006):

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Packard, Joshua. “Meet the ‘Dones.’” Christianity Today. Summer 2015. http://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2015/ summer-2015/meet dones.html (8 December 2016).

“The Wesleyan Means of Grace.” United Methodist Church. N.d. http://www.umc.org /how-we-serve/the-wesleyanmeans-of-grace (30 November 2017).

About First Fruits Press

Under the auspices of B. L. Fisher Library, First Fruits Press is an online publishing arm of Asbury eological Seminary. e goal is to make academic material freely available to scholars worldwide, and to share rare and valuable resources that would not otherwise be available for research. First Fruits publishes in ve distinct areas: heritage materials, academic books, papers, books, and journals.

In the Journals section, back issues of The Asbury Journal will be digitized and so made available to a global audience. At the same time, we are excited to be working with several facultymembersondevelopingprofessional,peer-reviewed,onlinejournalsthatwouldbe made freely available.

Much of this endeavor is made possible by the recent gift of the Kabis III scanner, one of the best available. The scanner can produce more than 2,900 pages an hour and features a special book cradle that is speci cally designed to protect rare and fragile materials. The materials it produces will be available in ebook format, easy to download and search.

First Fruits Press will enable the library to share scholarly resources throughout the world, provide faculty with a platform to share their own work and engage scholars without the di culties often encountered by print publishing. All the material will be freely available for online users, while those who wish to purchase a print copy for their libraries will be able to do so. First Fruits Press is just one way the B. L. Fisher Library is ful lling the global vision of Asbury Theological Seminary to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.

asbury.to/ rstfruits