Responding to the healings in our Service last Sunday 

Below are some thoughts about how we should respond to the healings that people received in our service last Sunday.  The focus of these thoughts is on the healings and the importance of us responding to them in significant ways.  We are also working on a second article that considers situations where people have had long standing health issues that haven't been healed.  It will be published soon.  We need to let both experiences speak to us and shape us.

So here are thoughts and questions to help us respond to the healings:

1. Take the time to stop and think about the implications - don’t just say ‘oh that’s nice’ and move on!!!

2. REALLY - TAKE TIME TO THINK!

3. Checking and testing healing is important.  Jesus told a paralysed person to test their healing by standing up and picking up their mat, he told the 10 leprosy sufferers to get the proper tests from the priests, and he asked a blind man what he could see.  We never want to claim more OR less than what has actually happened.  We are committed to truth.

4. But once things have been checked.  Think deeply about this - some ordinary people spoke words in the name of Jesus and in various cases there were immediate and verifiable changes in some people’s physical conditions.  That is AMAZING.

5. Our first response should be thanks and praise.  When a person is healed - it is an expression of God’s goodness and it is appropriate for ALL of us (not just the person healed) to give God thanks and praise.

6. Our second response should be to be sensitive, loving, caring and affirming toward those who were prayed for and either nothing changed or they didn’t experience all of the change they were hoping for.  Some of those people have walked long roads of suffering and disappointment.  If you are one of those people, God is still for you and with you and you don’t need to carry blame, guilt or condemnation.

7. Motivated by our love for hurting people AND respect for Jesus warning to those who were blasé about miracles, our third response should be to seek to learn all we can from the healings that happened and respond wholeheartedly to what we learn.

8. When thinking about these events we should ask - what do they tell us about 

   1. the nature of reality?

   2. the existence of God?

   3. the significance of Jesus?

   4. possibilities for disciples of Jesus?
      (These are short but significant questions)

9. In the Gospels, healings were often called signs.  Now it is the nature of signs that they point to something beyond themselves.  A sign for Sydney on the Hume Highway is not Sydney - it points to Sydney.  If you want to get to Sydney, it is no good camping out under the sign, you need to keep going forward along the road.  Some of the ways in which healings in the gospels and in our church function as signs are:

   1. They point to the power that Jesus has to forgive all of our sins (think of the paralysed man lowered through the roof to Jesus)

   2. They are foretastes of God’ promised future where creation is renewed and we will all have new bodies (whether we were healed last Sunday or not).  These foretastes confirm and bolster our confidence in this.

   3. They point to the possibility that we could see future healings and healings of a greater sort than we saw last Sunday.

10. For people who were involved in praying or observing the prayers for healing last Sunday - what sorts of things went through your mind - uncertainty, questions, feeling weird/embarrassed, confidence/doubt…  As you reflect on that and possibly discuss it with others ask:

    1. In what ways do you have to change your thinking about God and yourself?

    2. What might you do differently in the future?

    3. What have you learned about healing through these events?

11. For people who were prayed for and whether you received a healing or not, you might like to reflect on your experience on the day and some of the thoughts that have gone through your mind since then.  

    1. What did you think or feel:

       1. during the prayer?

       2. when you were checking if anything had changed?

       3. on subsequent days?

    2. What might God be saying to you in the midst of all this?