HEALING IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD
(WITH A SAMPLE PRAYER FOR HEALING WHEN YOU SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM)

If we think that affliction is allowed by the Lord—and the Old Testament’s Job would tell you that it is—then it is good to recognize that it is a good ‘teaching aid’ for the individual, if not for others.

We pray to be released from bondage of all sorts.  These may be any of:  addictive behavior, habits, physical abnormality, blindness, heart trouble, loneliness … the list can go on and on.

The end result of all malady is that we will reach towards God for help and show some faith in our requesting.  Why some healings take more time than others to arrive and/or become permanent will be gone over later on in this little writing.

In essence, God allows this hardship into our lives and we address Him formally in prayer and ask Him to take the difficulty or illness away.  We don’t like to be sick; we don’t like to exhibit any compulsive behavior; we don’t like to lose time from work; we do not like others to see us ill.  There is pride involved here on our part—there is also impatience and too much independence in our thinking.  Do we pray only when we need help? or when those we are concerned for need some assistance that’s divine?

Let me ask you this.  If you as a parent or friend only hear from someone on the phone (or get paid a personal visit) when that particular person needs to borrow money or the car or ask you to watch their dog for the weekend, etc., the relationship is not very fulfilling.  It is unbalanced on the “give and take.”  Pretend that it is God who has the car (health) and you come asking.  So far, so good; now, add to this the suggested situation that you never come to Him at all except to ask for things.  He is your Creator, but is He Lord of your life?  Unless you’re receiving instruction and leading from Him regularly, continuously, then not much real relationship exists between you and Him.

I was a dentist with the Navy in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in the 1980s.  One patient—a retired petty officer—was always talking about his current parties and drinking when he’d be sitting in my chair.  It so happened he got very sick with a heart ailment, and we had talks about religion at that time.  Praise God, he got well!  But when well, he went back to his old way of talkin’ and drinkin’.  But while he was sick, he was a religious man.

I have been sick.  In 1979 I was hospitalized with a liver ailment that I eventually had 100% recovery from.  But during the three weeks in the hospital for this, I vocally pled “the Blood of Jesus” for days on end, easily a thousand times.  There is no more powerful object or substance or entity in this universe than Jesus’ blood!!!

Let’s look at a lovely little healing account in the Bible.  It starts with Mark 10:46 and is often referred to as “Blind  Bartimaeus.”  The date is late in March, 30 AD: “⁴⁶They came to Jericho and, as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a great throng, Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.  ⁴⁷Hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus, take pity on me!”  (Note: he had already heard somewhere along the line that Jesus had healing power.  He knew this to be his opportunity to be seen by a great healer and possibly the awaited messiah.)  ⁴⁸Many ordered him to keep still; but he shouted the louder, “Son of David, take pity on me!” (Note:  he repeats his requests to get through to Jesus.)  ⁴⁹Jesus stopped and said, Call him!  So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up!  Get up!  He calls you!”  ⁵⁰Throwing off his coat and springing to his feet, he went to Jesus.  ⁵¹In response, Jesus accosted him, “What do you wish Me to do for you?”  The blind man replied, “Dear Rabbi, I should like to see again.”  ⁵²Jesus told him, Go! your faith has restored you.  And instantly he recovered his sight and followed Him on the way.” 

Some discussion over these few verses can be added here.  First of all, let’s talk about the name of the man—Bartimaeus.  It meant “son of Timaeus” (variants are Hebrew: Timai; Aramaic: Timi; Latinized Greek form: Timaios—all having to do with “honor”.)  All his life he was always thinking of himself as the “son of someone named Timaeus, son of honor, the father is my honor”.  Now Jesus passes by, and he knows Jesus already, by reputation—that’s why he is excited!  He calls out to the Lord, “Son of David.”  To call him this is to acknowledge that Jesus is eligible in the lineage of ancient King David to be their long-awaited Messiah; this beggar awaited the messiah.  Notice that many if not all discourage his request to be seen and to speak with Jesus, but Jesus forces those who refused the man's request to go to Bartimaeus themselves and tell the blind man the news that Jesus wants to see him!  (So these followers are being taught a lesson, aren’t they—sort of in the same way as in Mark 10:14—about four months or so earlier—they had made this same action error of holding “needy” ones away from the Lord.  At that time Jesus said to them, “Allow the children to come to Me; do not hinder them, for to their kind belongs the kingdom of God”—Berkeley Version translation.)  The blind beggar threw off his coat.  I would guess it was ragged, and probably spotted with spilt food, etc., definitely not something to be proud of.  Though he couldn’t see the spots himself, Bartimaeus knew they were there.  And he did not want Jesus to see him so disposed.  He was embarrassed by his state, and he was about to approach the one who could be "messiah."

Isn’t it lovely where Jesus asks Bar-timaeus (son of David speaks to son of Timaeus, much as “deep calleth unto deep”—Psalm 42:7—both of these men are conscious of their relationship as “sons”) wherein the blind man—obviously blind!—is asked, “What do you wish Me to do for you?”  Is it that the man by the roadside who knew about Jesus, that He was in the royal lineage to be considered for being the Messiah was already rather religious?  It is difficult to practice Jewish orthodoxy if one is wheelchair bound or blind or paraplegic; I know, I’ve seen one sitting totally alone outside a gate in an alleyway in Jerusalem enduring a long wait for someone to come let him inside the courtyard.  And if Bartimaeus were religious already, might he not have been one to have been offering many prayers for others and for himself during his years of blindness and begging?  And what does a beggar say when someone gives him money?  Times have not changed in two thousand years; it is most likely that he will say, “Bless you.”  Since we—you and I—do not have a blessing innate that’s ours to personally bestow upon another, this is asking God to bless this giver that Bartimaeus asks for.  So in the course of being a blind beggar, this Bartimaeus has asked (most likely) for hundreds if not thousands to “be blessed”.  When one is blind, you can see God who has made the ones that you hear.

So when you, and when I, come to God, have we many things that we could say to Him, so many things in fact that He must hear from us and be certain exactly what the request we have is, and involves?  That is relationship.  Not, so to speak, coming to God just to ask to borrow the car.  It is visiting God, in prayer, and having enough other going on that God will be waiting to hear the ultimate request for His blessing, healing—whatever else it may be.

Do we want to “shake off” God’s effort to get our full attention from off our own lives’ leading on over to what He has planned for us?  If we are relieved of our pain, our suffering, our agony, our disappointment right “off the bat,” and too soon, then we may not press on to know Him in other important respects.  Perhaps we need humbling, a giving up of personal pride, a loss (financially) of our reasons to be proud, smaller and less shiny cars that are not so expensive and strapping to our generosity towards others in the work of God’s kingdom.  So, like the importunate (unwilling-to-quit) widow who sought her own justice from the unsympathetic judge—Luke 18:3—continued in her asking and asking…  she eventually taught the judge the small lesson that she was not going to go away from him without having his do justice for her.  And God is far greater than any wise judge in any land!  So He will answer.

If you die, will those who know you and are left behind, will they be forced to produce in their lives greater character and Christ-likeness, or shall they become bitter because you are taken in an untimely way away?  It’s decision time for them in this case.  But all life is decision making, choosing the right way.  Jesus is the Way.  The early Christian church before it was called “Christian” was known as “The Way”.  We have to prefer God.  We have to choose for Him!

“Dear Lord and Savior.  You know my life.  You love me and care for me—better than I can do so for myself.  I have a need, but this need of mine is not greater than your ability to fix things.  You have helped others.  I have heard of your helping others.  I have been encouraged to come to you in prayer.  I believe in your Son Jesus, and that you raised him again to life.  I am sick.  My _____(fill in the blank)_____ is giving me problems.  Serious problems.  You have said of yourself, “I have come to give you life, and that more abundantly.”  You have also said, “Ask and it shall be given unto you.”  Your word contains the accounts of many miracles performed by Jesus.  He was always willing to help those on this earth that were in need.  Now he is beside you in Heaven and he offers to you my prayer.  I thank you for this privilege of prayer.  Now I believe that in asking, I can ask you for a miracle, for the complete healing I need.  If I have been ignoring you in the past, I am sorry.  If I have taken your name in vain, forgive me.  If I have been angry and let turmoil “stew around” in my life and in the life of others, I repent of that… and do, Lord, help me to stop this bad behavior and carrying on of mine.  Now I come to you in faith.  Your word says you will not cast any of us away, and that “no one or thing can ‘snatch’ us out of your caring hands."  Heal me of my _____(fill in the blank)____, I pray.  I thank you for healing me now and I will continue to offer you thanks for this help forever.  I know that by Christ’s trickling bruises on his cross, I am healed.  Forgive me for my sins.  Keep me in your sight as one of your faithful daughters/sons, and let me enjoy the sunlight and the life that you have created for our pleasure and use.  Have mercy.  Help me to endure.  Bring all past blessings you have given to me back into my memory, and let my faith grow.  Thank you, Heavenly Father.  It is in Jesus’ name that I pray.

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