, as we have discussed, has the characteristic of 'deliverance' which we have continued discussion. The layers of meaning and understanding of healing, though are not mutually exclusive: it is much more like the 'blind men and the elephant', in that as we examine from different vantage points, we see different aspects and colors of healing in the Word.
I am parenthetically stepping aside from building this 'descriptive apologetic' to remark on what I have seen recently in covering the various aspects of healing in the Word of God. I have tried to be very careful and discerning, since the practice of healing, while one of the fundamentals of the Christian life, has fallen prey in this day and time to perversions and even 'showmanship', but really is now as always, a gift of God to set back his Creation in right order on every level from the body, mind and spirit, to marriages and nations. While I will cover the topic later, we need to understand that while we bandy the word "salvation" about freely, telling all they need it, we must come to see Salvation in its fullness. When Jesus,[Yshua] died on Golgotha, laying his life down freely in the ultimate surrender to God's Will that the 'second Isaac [Ihtzak]' only could perform, He became the stick thrown in the waters of Mara, which healed the stream. He first and foremost healed man to God: it had not been possible before that Moriah. With His blood bought and anointed salvation, that High Priest carried the covering all the way into the depths of Heaven, and Life, Chaim, was opened and available to all. From there, afterwards, all healing was possible, in fullness, not in portion.
DELIVERANCE FROM PAIN, SUFFERING AND DISEASE
Turning again though to our continued discussion, we have talked about the need for 'deliverance' from the pain and suffering of DISEASE and malfunction, which healing encompasses and results in. While we have covered at least lightly deliverance from disease and malfunction, we can see this aspect of healing in the healing of Peter's Mother-in-Law who was near death from an illness. When Jesus[Yshua] healed her, she did not just say 'that's better' but got up and in gratitude began to serve the guests.
And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. Matthew 8:14-15.
Healing was not just 'feeling better', but a real release, a sense of a return to a right state, and rest and peace, and the gratitude wrought service. This is also seen in deliverance in healing from
2)Malfunction:
Withered hands are made whole, the blind are made to see, the deaf/mute to hear and speak, a definitive sign of Messiah! (John 9) The result most often is either gratitude or joy, as in the following passage:
And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked:or again:
The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. Acts 14:9-10
Act 3:7-9 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted [him] up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God:
It is the sense of deliverance in the physical healing of disease and malfunction which makes the healed person rejoice and even dance [leap] or shout or praise. Partly it must be the miracle, the experiencing of the real truth of God's power over the 'natural order' of things: persons of faith often persevere through terrible wildernesses of faith, trusting God but not "seeing" evidence, and when the fruit of faith shows itself through an abundant healing, deliverance begets joy. Deliverance also brings a sense of newfound freedom and a return to a peaceful stress free state: in healing there is a deliverance from pain, stress and anxiety, and constant cumbersome circumstances which the diseased or malformed encounter: the lame cannot run or climb or walk until healed and must compensate with crutches, arm strength and so on such that every task is an arduous one: once healed, a literal freedom also ensues.
SPIRITUAL 'DIS-EASE' AND MALFUNCTION
A form of malfunction is also spiritual or what the world calls 'psychological' i.e. mental, cognitive and emotional trauma. Examples are replete: for example the Boy delivered of evil spirits in Mark 9:24-26.
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, [Thou] dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
And [the spirit] cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.
But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
HEALING OF SOUL AND SPIRIT
Other examples abound, and we will look at psychological and spiritual healing in Scripture in a further lesson, but even more than with physical healing, the healing of the soul and spirit, involves deliverance which is most often described in both old and new testaments as deliverance from evil spirits. Even one psychologist , Dr. Rollo May acknowledged the idea of the 'demonic' although he of course does not describe it Biblically. He described a psychological phenomena of the 'demonic' as something that 'overpowers' a person. This is not unlike the biblical view, except it falls short of a complete descriptions and remedy. The demonic or 'devils' overpower a person incapacitating them in some form including limiting reasoning, sanity, or usual behavior. This will be discussed later, but the deliverance aspect of healing is even more prevalent in possession of similar afflictions than the other, for the others involve a deliverance from hardship and physical bounds, but the healing from 'devils' involves a virtual setting free in which the person returns to an unbound condition.
II. DELIVERANCE FROM OTHER: HEALING CONFLICT AND CONTENTION
We have already mentioned that we must be healed to others: friendships, marriages, children an dparents, families, and more: we need healing in fragmented relationships, especially ones in covenant and purpose which are ordained of God. But sometimes, to be healed we need deliverance FROM others: constantly in the Wars of Israel, Israel prayed and obeyed and were delivered from the enemy, healing the land and the nation in victory.
An example of a prayer for this kind of deliverance is
Gn 32:11
Deliver me I pray thee from the hands of my enemies"
Israel after deliverance was healed back to the land in peace and rest, the reward and outcome of a God bought victory. Acts 7:25 mentions
God would deliver them..
In the trials of daily life, we find ourselves both in microcosm and macrocosm having to be deliver 'from' other people in order to be healed in our spirits and minds to peaceful and restful living. A person who has a boss who is constantly critical, listing faults non-stop, and constantly calling insufficiencies into question, creates a state of feeling unsafe and unworthy: this makes the person feel unwhole, uneasy, anxiety ridden and fearful, and generally without rest. For some it becomes so great that a job change is required. Home situations can present the same problem: until they are brought into the pattern and order the LORD has given, there may be in extreme cases, even for the Christian a need to be 'delivered' from another person in order to be healed. I am not advocating divorce, in fact far from it, for even in cases of extreme dissension and occasional violence, the underlying causes are often healed by bringing the marriage back into its right purpose and order.
Healing, Deliverance and Marriage
Many marriages, for example, in which division and even hatred take hold, are often marriages out of order: women tend to want control over men, to the point that they overthrow their headship, which in turn makes husbands either wish to escape the relationship, or over-exert headship to the point that it becomes domination. When that happens, all sorts of havoc and chaos occur, turning terribly uncomfortable for all parties concerned including children. Violence can ensue, affairs, hatred, division, substance abuse and ultimately the end of the marriage. The marriage state, and order, has been disrupted and lost its equilibrium. Most Christians are aware of God's commands and order in marriage: loving surrender and submission of both parties, with the husband as head, and the wife as not a lesser human being, but surrendered to the role of support and upbuilding. When this order is correct: neither minds it: one position is not less than the other, but both work together for the benefit of both and family, in loving surrender to God's order, as a type and kind of the Church and her Redeemer, where love is the central value for both. While the wife is not the 'head' her position is not less, but necessary and critical to the excellent working of the family. Problems arise today in view of secular views of marriage in which if a woman surrenders to the headship of a man, many have redefined the nature of that surrender to being 'unliberated' but the truth is, that when it is correct, it is actually freeing to both husband and wife, and instead of a competition, the marriage becomes a loving cooperation for the benefit of both. Some women have no trouble in accepting the Christian command of 'dying to self' or 'counting one another better than oneself', but they seem to add a codicil of 'except for my husband'. Husbands on the other hand, if they loved their wives 'as Christ loved the Church' would not find a constantly rebellious, arrogant and cutting spirit, or cruel competitiveness which often ruins a marriage. A marriage is often healed by bringing correct views and order back to the relationship.
On the other hand, carrying through with the idea of healing as deliverance from others, some marriages, as with jobs, and other relations reach a point of no return, and in order to be healed a person has to be out of the relationship. Even Jesus spoke of a few exceptions while teaching that "God hates divorce". He mentioned fornication as one---he does not require a wife or husband to be subject continuously to extreme abuses. Remarriage may be debated in the House of God, but by in large, unless life is threatened or spiritual health and obedience, God's principle is first the healing of the household by delivering the partners into right relationship, and failing that, to deliver a person from for example a cruel or even violent person. Descriptions of the holy order of marriage are described in the book of Ephesians. But real, self-sacrificing love, on the part of two people surrendered to each other and the LORD, is not only the greatest principle, but the mainstay of healing.
Deliverance as a means of healing, from others, can be as mentioned as small as issues between friends in mundane issues, or range to nations and wars against enemies. In the case of the Concubine which was beaten and raped to death by men from the tribe of Benjamin caused such consternation in Israel, that a civil war started, so bloody it claimed thousands before the other 11 tribes subdued Benjamin.
The healing of Israel in that case came only at the hands of intense prayer and supplication. We will later look at God's plan and teaching regarding the "Healing of the Nations" and how patterns and healing which apply on minor levels work also even internationally.
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