I am going to preface what I’m going to say this evening by saying that they come from someone who is disabled and so have the view point of that experience.

 When we come to a healing service, what is it that we expect to happen there? Do we expect to see people made physically whole, instantaneously; do we expect to see gradual improvement of a condition; or do people come to an understanding of where they are and where God is with them in their lives? 

Personally, I have the greatest difficulty with the first alternative, though I would not deny that it can, through faith, happen. For anyone who has been disabled for many years this may be the last thing that they want, or that is good for them. I have been disabled for just over 40 years and if I had perfect binocular vision again, let alone it being 20/20, I don’t think that I could cope, for me it would unbalance my life and be like learning to walk again. My disability is part of my being; it makes me what I am. In faith, it has made me learn what gifts I have in other ways and to be thankful. With God’s help it has made me into a complete, whole person.   

We have all seen people who through prayer have had improvement in their conditions. Indeed there is one person on our sick list with whom I spent time with while he was travelling around the world after being treated for cancer, who if it were not for prayer would not be here today, six years later.

If we read the Gospels, we can be sure that it is God’s will for people to be well spiritually as well. Perhaps we should put a sign outside the church that says “Come in and get well”; reminding ourselves as we do so that healing also has to be soul directed if wholeness is to be achieved through God’s love.  If we want to be whole, we have to be prepared to take time to listen to God and take him into our hearts and lives, so that he can transform us. He has sent his angels in the form of our doctors and nurses to tend to our physical problems but we in turn also have to let God himself tend to us too and look after our inner being, to enable us to accept who we are and how to go forward with life knowing that God, as the Psalmist says, is upholding those who fall and is lifting up all who are bowed down, knowing that God will protect and nurture us with his love as we realise our wholeness in him.

For this to happen we have to be open and willing to allow God in. God is waiting for us to let him in and only then can we begin to be able to understand where we are and where God is with us in our lives and this will then enable us to find a completeness in our lives.