While my primary curing mechanism is medical care; my primary healing mechanism is prayer.
Does "praying for a cure" differ substantially from "praying for healing?" Praying for a cure refers to our attempt to petition God; asking God to lift our sickness from us completely. By contrast, "praying for healing" involves seeking healing grace: the strength, the stamina, the hope, the faith, and resilience necessary to meet the challenges presented by our sickness. We take a very different spiritual posture and make very different assumptions about the purpose of our prayer when we engage in one or the other.
- With curing prayer we request a very specific outcome, an outcome that we define ourselves. The goal of curing prayer is for our sickness to "go away," to be removed from our lives. In contrast, healing prayer places the outcome of our sickness in God's hands. We are requesting in our prayer that we "get out of the Holy Spirit's way", as it were, and let God's Will take the lead in our lives.
- Curing prayer is rather directive and somewhat controlling. It represents our attempt at imposing our own will onto God's. In contrast, healing prayer is accepting God's Will. This type of acceptance is not submission, nor is it resignation, each of these is a form of abdication of our own free will; something God does not want for us.
- Curing prayer does attribute power to God, but it paradoxically assumes that we retain the directive executive power of running our lives ourselves. Curing prayer is essentially self-centered. Curing prayer starts from the self and focuses only on the self. Contrast this to healing prayer that is God-centered, it clearly recognizes God's ultimate omnipotence. It gives all power to God.
- Curing prayer is seen as a specific task; we spend a certain limited amount of time in petition prayer, and see our "work" as done; we have done our job as it were. By contrast, healing prayer involves a more or less sustained attitude of prayerfulness that we carry with us wherever we go. We live in a continuous prayer.
- Curing prayer seems intolerant of mystery, it seeks to influence reality, to plan, and to rationalize; it attempts to inject logic and reason into an arena that is mysterious at its core. Healing prayer, on the other hand, recognizes that we walk in mystery; we recognize that our life is indefinable and unpredictable.
- Curing prayer is seen primarily as a spiritual "drug" that we take to alleviate the physical symptoms of sickness. Healing prayer is seen as primarily building communion with God, as becoming ever more intimate with God as the basis of our life, and the primary course we need to follow.
- Curing prayer is extrinsic, external, and somewhat detached. Curing prayer emanates from the head; it sees the source of healing as a function of the world with little or no personal involvement. Healing prayer is intrinsic, internal and personal. Healing prayer emanates from the heart and soul; it sees the source of healing as the power of God manifested internally.
- Curing prayer can be impatient and tends to see sickness as a disaster, an intruder, and a tragedy. Healing prayer is patient and sees sickness as a master teacher.
- Curing prayer sees the purpose of prayer as the end of sickness. Healing prayer, by contrast, sees the purpose of prayer as becoming more who we really are in Christ.
- Curing prayer sees human life, continued existence on this plane as the highest good. Healing prayer sees eternal life, salvation, as the highest good.
The Diamond of Love
Where curing seeks to "fix" the body, healing brings a soothing and relief-filled balm not primarily to the body but to the mind, heart, and spirit. Healing calls forth the power that only comes from God; power like: hope and charity, acceptance and kindness, mercy and perseverance, simplicity and empathy. Such powers are different facets of the diamond of love that focus laser-like healing to the root of the problem and bring transformative energy to the site of the suffering.
May God’s peace and blessings be ever with you,
Richard P. Johnson, PhD