HEALING MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH
(from Sent to Heal by Harold Taylor)
All healing is from God. We are not able to heal ourselves, and healing occurs because of the activity of God in His Creation and in our lives and situations. The insights and skills of medicine make use of what God has provided. The Church gives thanks to God and seeks to work with the medical profession in using the gifts of God. The Church also believes that God has provided special resources in His act of salvation through Jesus Christ, and these resources are essential for a true understanding of the healing which God offers.
Healing is God's purpose for all people, so that they may experience fellowship with Him, in which all brokenness and alienation is overcome.
Healing is more than physical cure. .... Cure refers to the removal of some disease or the restoring of something lacking in the body, whereas healing has a much wider meaning, referring to the wholeness of body, mind and spirit. It is possible for people to be cured without being truly healed and also to be substantially healed without necessarily being cured. In the NT the story of the ten lepers illustrates the difference (Luke 17). All were cured ...... but only one returned to give thanks. .....It is true that in the NT, many instances of healing do refer to the cure or healing of a person's physical ailment and so physical healing is an essential part of the total ministry given by Jesus to the Church; but physical healing is only one part of the wholeness which is God's purpose for us.
Healing is not complete in this life. We remain part of a Creation marked by decay and frustration and our minds and bodies witness to this fact (Rom. 8:18-25). .... only in the future life will we find complete wellbeing of body, mind and spirit.
Healing is the concern of the Church. .... The message of the Gospel is that healing and salvation are available in Jesus Christ.