Closing the Healing Circuit

Yesterday morning, my parents shared a passage of scripture with me over the phone. Luke 6:17-19 describes Jesus' ministry of healing, and The Amplified Bible phrases it this way:

"And Jesus came down with them and took His stand on a level spot, with a great crowd of His disciples and a vast throng of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to listen to Him and to be cured of their diseases - Even those who were disturbed and troubled with unclean spirits, and they were being healed [also]. And all the multitude were seeking to touch Him, for healing power was all the while going forth from Him and curing them all [saving them from severe illnesses or calamities]."

What struck my parents, and me as I began reading it, is the nature of this healing process. It says that "healing all the while going forth from Him and curing them all." The result was that "all the multitude were seeking to touch Him."

Matthew and Mark also describe the same healing dynamic at work:

Matthew 14:35-36 - "And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed."

Mark 3:10 - "For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him."

Mark 6:56 - "And wherever he went into villages, towns or countryside they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed."

It amazed me to see just how many times the Gospel record refers to people seeking to touch "even the edge of his cloak" in order to experience his healing power. But what particularly caught my attention was that these accounts show that the people had realised that it wasn't just when Jesus actively touched them that they were healed; it was when they actively reached out to touch Jesus themselves - even the hem of his garment - that they also experienced that flow of healing power.

In Luke 8:42-48, we see one specific example of this:

"...As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

'Who touched me?' Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.'

But Jesus said, 'Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.'

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.'"

In this extraordinary account, we see the dynamic of Jesus' healing power at work even when he was not at the time aware that someone was seeking to get healed!In fact, the woman didn't even touch Jesus skin - she merely touched the "hem of his cloak" (probably the tassels, or tzitzit, of his prayer shawl). Yet this touch closed "the healing circuit" (to use an analogy from electronics) and Jesus "perceived that [healing] power has gone forth from Me" (The Amplified Bible).

This electronic analogy is not, for me, a frivolous one. So for those who may not be familiar with the physics of electricity, I think a brief explanation of how an electric circuit works would be in order. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines an electric circuit as "the complete path of an electric current including usually the source of electric energy." The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computer defines it as "a complete path through which an electric current can flow."

Even without understanding how it works, we use circuit technology every day. Every time you turn on a light, or turn on your computer, or even simply flip a switch of any kind, you are "closing a circuit" which allows electrical energy to flow through a device to perform a specific function. And I believe this analogy also describes what was happening in Luke 8:42-48. Just like you may not understand how an electrical circuit works, so this woman didn't understand how touching the hem of Jesus' garment would bring her healing; she just believed it would.

Because I was interested in exactly how this healing dynamic was working, I read and re-read these passages a number of times. In a parallel account of this incident, Matthew 9:20-21 says:

"Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, 'If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.'"

From the Luke 8:42-48 account, we can see that the woman was not the only one touching Jesus. In fact, "the people pressed together around Him [almost suffocating Him]" (The Amplified Bible). No wonder Peter's reply was, "'Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you," for he could see no difference between any of the people that were pressing in on Jesus - no specific person who stood out as one who might draw the healing power from Jesus.

So what made the difference with this one woman's touch? Jesus himself identified the key element, when he said: "Daughter, your faith has healed you". It was the woman's faith which "closed the circuit" and drew the healing power from Jesus into her life. It is faith which flipped the switch and closed the "healing circuit."

The Gospel accounts make it clear that faith is an important element in the healing process. In Matthew 9:29, Jesus touched the eyes of the blind men and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you."

Amazingly, there were even times when Jesus could not or did not heal due to the people's lack of faith. For example, when Jesus visited his home village, Nazareth, Matthew 13:58 tells us that "he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith."

In recent years, there has been a strong emphasis on faith for healing. This is based on scriptural authority (see Matthew 21:21; Mark 9:23; Mark 11:22-24; Luke 17:6; John 14:12), but at the same time has gone into extremes which, I believe, are not biblical - to the point where some view God as little more than a servant of our faith (i.e. if you do this or say this or pray in this way, God will jump to attention and heal you). But we are not the Lord and God our servant. This means that God doesn't respond to formulas of faith; he simply responds to faith.

To use another analogy from electronics, many people view the healing process as being like a remote control device. The wonder of remote control technology is that as long as you are within range of the device you seek to control, you can switch the device on or off from a distance (hence the term "remote control"). I remember the first time I used car keys with remote central locking. What a feeling of power I got when, from the other side of the road, I was able to point my keys to the car and - chirrup - the car unlocked, and - chirrup, chirrup - the car locked again! I was like a child with a new toy!

And yet many people approach their relationship with God in that way. They are more than happy to use prayer like a remote control device - a formula which gets God to do what they want. And we can approach faith in the same way. After all, Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Jesus had a lot to say about faith (see also Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21; Mark 11:22-23; >Luke 17:6; >John 14:12), but that specific teaching on faith finds its context in the rest of Jesus' teaching, particularly John 15. In John 15:4-5, we find Jesus providing the secret to how faith has been designed by God to work:

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

If you want more on this, feel free to download the lesson I wrote on "Abiding in the Vine":

http://www.online-bible-college.com/dsc-03.pdf

So faith, I believe, is not designed to be a remote experience but an intimate one - based on the "abiding in the vine" principle. In fact, that's why it outworked in Jesus ministry through the act of physical touch. The "closing of the circuit" is not an impersonal, formula-based approach to healing; in fact, quite the opposite. It is the closing of a circuit of intimate contact between you and the Lord.

And it is in the context of "abiding in the vine" that Jesus goes on to say in John 15:7-8:

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

There are sections of the Body of Christ - particularly the so-called "faith movement" - that have so strong an emphasis on faith that the word is the primary focus of all preaching and ministry. There are also other sections of the Body of Christ - primarily the "evangelical movement" - who have taken an opposite position: God is sovereign and that suffering and sickness can actually play a role in the plan and purpose of God for our lives. The answer is not found in one side or the other, nor even in a compromise between the two, but rather in both camps! God's Word teaches both! And yet, sadly, Christians tend to swing from one emphasis to another, and this pendulum swing has led to extremes, with each side rejecting what the other has to say.

In the past, we've seen many miracles take place. I've personally seen many people healed from deafness, cancer, fever, leukemia and the like. I've had the privilege of laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover, and I've also personally experienced the healing touch of the Lord. In his ministry, my father has also experienced a number of times where he has witnessed the sovereign move of God's Spirit in healing - not just the healing of one or two, here and there, but literally thousands being healed from every kind of sickness you can name. I'll see if I can get him to share with you more about this soon.

Because of this, I believe strongly that healing is in the atonement (I'll take this up in more detail in a later post), but at the same time I also believe that God sovereignly engineers the circumstances of our lives in such a way to enhance our growth in Christ. In other words, I believe not only in faith, but also in the "trial of faith" (1 Peter 1:6-7), where God will sometimes purposely delay his answer in order to mature the very faith we are expressing toward him! In short, I believe that God works on two levels - the meeting of our perceived needs (for example, healing) and the meeting of our eternal needs (giving us eternal life and conforming us to the likeness of his Son).

I am believing the Lord to see his complete healing outworked in my body. But at the same time, I know it is not about searching for some hidden formula. It is not about a "remote control" mentality, where if I do ABC, then God will automatically do XYZ. It's not about perfecting my "name it and claim it" techniques. It's not about praying the right way, with the right tone of voice, and the right authority, and quoting the right promises, and then if I do it all in the right way - chirrup - God acts on my behalf. Instead, it's about understanding the nature of my covenant with God through Jesus (see "The Amazing Secret" and "The Bond of Covenant"), and reaching out to touch him in genuine faith.

As a family, we feel like we are learning so much. It's like we're in the personal school of the Lord. I feel like I'm on a fast-track training program, a crash course in the exercise of true faith. And I also believe that the Lord is doing the same thing in his Body around the world. As the Body of Christ, we are entering into a new phase of ministry, where we will learn to apply the covenantal principles of God's Word in a balanced and authorative way. The result will be not just healing for us (within the Body of Christ), but healing out there in the world - on the streets, in our schools, in our marketplaces (I'm fascinated by the statement that in Mark 6:56 that "wherever [Jesus] went into villages, towns or countryside they placed the sick in the marketplaces...and all who touched him were healed."

If we are truly called to be the "Body of Christ", then we are to be the extension of Jesus' continuing ministry in the world. Just as the Book of Acts refers to the earlier Gospel of Luke as a record of "about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven" (Acts 1:1-2), inferring that the Book Acts is a record of what Jesus was continuing to do and teach after the day he was taken up to heaven. In other words, the Book of Acts is the fifth Gospel account (after Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), but this time it is the Church, his Body, which is ministering in the world. And in a very real sense, the Book of Acts is still being written in the experience of the Church today. We are still his Body - hands and feet and voice of the Lord Jesus - in the world today.

Thus we should not be surprised to see the same healing dynamic happening in the Book of Acts:

Acts 5:15-16 - "As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed."

Acts 19:11-12 - "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them."

We have much yet to learn, and the learning curve is steep, but I believe the Lord is teaching us to enter into a new depth of his healing ministry in the marketplaces of our world. The answer is not in formulas (the "remote control" approach), but in working closely with the Lord in faith and obedience (the "intimate" covenantal approach). There is a very real cost to this ministry - not only do we need to "know Christ and the power of his resurrection" but also to know "the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (Philippians 3:10). But when we do this, we will "close the circuit" not just for our own personal healing, but also in our ministry to a needy world desperate for the touch of God.

And so my faith is not just that I personally will get healed, but that we, as the Church, will begin praying as the early Church prayed in Acts 4:30:

"Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

Amen! So be it, Lord Jesus!