Prayers For Healing

WED., NOV. 27, 1991, 5:50 AM
FARM, STUDY

The last portion of this Book of James that you have been studying focuses on praying for healing. There is much evidence down through these Christian ages that I, as Almighty Gd, as Jesus the Christ, or as the Holy Spirit, do bring about physical healing, sometimes suddenly and miraculously. And yet I want to tell you plainly and early on – prayer is not a tool for healing… prayer is not a medical means to fuller physical health.

Prayer should always commence with thanks for what you have or have had. Even those in terrible pain from a terminal condition can offer thanks for remembrances of pain-free life, full of activity. Thanks for family and friends who show concern and for those who give loving care should always precede prayers of supplication. For thanks is the main feature of prayer. It is not that I want and need these prayers of thanks, but that you need to be constantly aware of My presence, power, and love for you, each one.

The actual conditions of life in the earth are of minor concern to Me. As I have told you I have no favorite economic system or even political system. Though I do prefer health over illness or disability I obviously allow a good deal of ill-health, even in dedicated servants of Mine. Occasionally I counter a natural process and bring about healing that would not otherwise be coming, but mostly I just help a bit with natural healing that is taking place. And more often I respond to the person’s spirit, letting natural processes develop, even into more pain, disability, and death.

You are quite aware that bodily death is a natural and necessary aspect of earth life. There is much prayer offered to Me, often quite sincerely, for the healing of one who is dying. Occasionally I will intervene, as I did with Lazarus in the Scripture story, but mostly I do not. For most people, and certainly for sincere Christians, death is really a birth experience., quite more pleasant than dying. Prayers for the spirit of a dying person are much more appropriate than prayers for continued bodily life.

The importance of prayer is in the renewal of relationship with Me. You can pray easily and readily because Our relationship is an ongoing one, and your speaking to Me is as easy as my speaking to you. Most often when I do respond to a prayer for healing as the one praying wants, it is because of the sincerity of that one rather than because of the need for which she prays.

I am not a sadist, but I do marvel at how fully some people live with pain and disability. Such lives are often strikingly more beautiful than some in perfect health who show no appreciation for this condition. This is why I occasionally do strike a healthy person with some injury or ill-health, hoping that the spirit will rise and a better balance of appreciation will result. “A loving, compassionate God would never do that!” is a humanistic statement and reflects little understanding of the importance of spiritual growth.

If you know that spiritual growth can occur in any earth/body situation then you can judge situations as different but not better or worse. The fact that you couldn’t get back to sleep this morning made it possible for you to be here, hearing Me, and this is quite more growth enhancing than sleep. I just know, from experience as well as from omniscience, that many who suffer some in earth life had a greater appreciation for that experience than many whose life is more obviously pleasant.

Continue to pray for your own healing, and do not discourage others from doing the same. Yet let your prayers be guided by this Teaching. Begin with thanks, even for the apian and disability. Pray for relief and healing, but more so for the strength to be healthy in spite of the handicap and discomfort. Pray for others, focusing on help for them in living fully, even with pain.