By Rudy M. Viernes
Many books have been written about faith healing, divine healing, spiritual healing,
hailing prayer and other similar expressions which are essentially synonymous to each other. There have been genuine testimonies of people who have been healed through
God's intervention. But the foundation of this truth lies not so much on man's experience but in the Word of God -- the Scriptures.
There's power in a believer's faith and in prayer. Matthew 21:22 said "Whatever you ask for in prayer full of faith you will receive." Anybody has faith no matter the color of his skin, culture, origin or religion. Every religion has the good, the bad and the ugly. No one but God alone is privy to one's heart and soul.
Healing faith was epitomized in the Scriptures even by pagans, like the Canaanite woman, the centurion, the Samaritan, all unbelievers until they became beneficiaries of God's providence and goodness. The Canaanite woman (Canaanites were members of a Jewish sect who were anti-Romans) cried, pleaded and obliged Jesus to demonize what was bedeviling her daughter. The centurion, a junior officer in the Roman army who
himself gave orders, felt unworthy to receive Christ in his home to cure his sick servant but only wanted him to utter a command and his servant will be healed. This has become part of the church liturgy before communion: "Lord I am not worthy to receive you under my roof but only say the word and I shall be healed."
The Samaritan is a non-Christian, called "alien" by Jesus. He was one of ten lepers whom he had cured. But he showed character and Christian breeding when he went back to Jesus to thank him aftrer he and his group were cured. "Go, your faith had saved you." said Jesus to the heathen. The other nine downplayed therir healing and missed the opportunity of salvation.
The Scriptures abound with stories about divine or spiritual healing because of
faith. A woman with severe bleeding said within herself "If I only can touch his garment I shall be healed." And she was healed. Two blind men followed Jesus and cried with faith "Son of David, have mercy on us." Jesus touched their eyes..."Ephphetha" and they saw the light.
Jesus cured the sick, the lame, the crippled, the diseased and those possessed by evil
spirits. Because of their faith they were made whole. In the epistles of James it is an important principle that when one asks something from God he must believe and not doubt because he who doubts is "like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."
Hebrew 11:1 said "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see." Faith even the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, according to Matthew.
Genuine faith requires action. It was faith that made Noah heard God's warnings about things in the future that we couldn't see. He obeyed God. Then he built a boat that
saved him and his family when the deluge came.
Can prayer, faith and spirituality heal?
A Time magazine report revealed a scientific study in the United States that
praying and faith work through some supernatural power. It says that the best predictors of survival after a major surgey is the degree to which patients say they draw strength and comfort from religious faith.
A physician once said that if a patient puts his faith in the hands of God and finds the
will to live he will recover. But the doctor knows that it is only faith and prayer, not medicine, that can provide the inner will to survive, that prayer has a way of influencing a patient's desire to live. Here's a surgeon in Anchorage, Alaska who believed in faith. He was holding a prayer cloth in front of his patient he was about to operate on, intoning God for his assistance. Here's a Christian doctor, with all his advanced scientific knowledge and training, humbly asking the Great Physician to assist him and do something better than medical science can do.
There's a saying which goes "It's God who heals, the doctor collects the fees."
My late wife and I were active in the renewal movement in the Philippines. We
came to know the eminent Fr. Corsie S. Legaspi whose name resonates loudly as the healing priest. We bear witness to his healing power. It was phenomenal. It was no fluke. Fr. Corsie's power to heal isn't his. It's God through him. It's God, the Healer. Applause broke out every time there were cries of instant healing. Patients were
heaping praises to God when they could move frozen infection had subsided to normal. Limping patients could walk straight again. Many were slain when the priest laid his hands on them. These were people who had no pre-conception of what "slain" means.
Fr. Corsie emphasized complete faith during the healing process, be in the state of grace and no ill-feelings towards none. Proverbs 17:22 says "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
Fr. Corsie told us about the story of a matron who had a terminal illness and it was her desire to see him and be prayed over before she dies. But the woman expressed resentment towards some people who have "wronged" her. Fr. Corsie asked her if she recites the Lord's Prayer. "Always" was the answer. "If so be emphatic on that portion 'as we forgive those who trespass against us' because if you don't it's useless for me to pray over you if you harbor so much reviling and animosity in your heart."
In his book "Timeless Healing" Harvard's Herbert Benson has come to believe the great benefits of religious healing. He said that faith in medical treatment is wonderfully
therapeutic, successful in treating the most common medical problems. He believes that faith as an invincible and infallible force carries even more healing power and it's a supremely potent belief.
A poll conducted of 1,004 Americans found that 82% believed in the healing power of prayer and 64% thought doctors should pray with patients who request it.
Or doctors who are insensitive about the role of religion in physical healing may ask their patients if they like to discuss their faith with the hospital chaplain. Not doing so is a disservice to their patients.
Take this from John Lafarge, a distinguised American painter of French parentage, who said of faith: "For those who believe in God no explanation is needed; for those who don't, no explanation is possible."
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