The
Still
Waters
    
      WHY the Prayer of Faith Heals    
       
August 2012

Home  Library

     "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." (James 5:15; New King James Bible Version (NKJV).

     "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17: 19 & 20; NKJV).

     "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." (Mark 11:24; NKJV).

     "Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7; NKJV).

     "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." (Words of Christ Jesus in Matthew 8:13; NKJV).



     In biblical teachings, the word 'faith' is often tied to healing. Many people around the world have discovered that, when they have mentally stood firm in believing in God's protecting presence, something has been healed for them—be it the return of health, supply, peace or safety from some worldly evil. Mentally standing in their own faith in God's invisible, protecting power has caused whatever afflicted them to transform back into harmony. From such mental stands by individuals, God's deliverance actually takes over the physical scene.

     Now, on the surface, this can appear as though God has been withholding Its favor until we prayed. We erroneously believe that the Almighty, who was seemingly withholding such aid before, stepped in to help whomever was finally being faithful or good. But that isn't why taking a mental stand of faith in God's loving deliverance brings about our healings in this human experience (where we collectively believe that we are both fleshly and spiritual beings).

     The prayer of faith isn't something to be done to please God, or win back God's favor if we've been humanly 'bad' in some way. Rather, the prayer of faith works for this reason: It works because we all live in the collective consciousness of this human experience. And to bring about deliverance from any and all of the evil situations of this human condition, (the material sense of things) it takes, at least, one individual to step out and become separate from the collective, worldly beliefs of material existence and the evils this false sense of reality brings into our daily lives.

     In the beginning days of spiritual healing, Jesus was that one who healed by knowing that (in spiritual reality) there is nothing to heal—no evil to banish. God's spiritual creation, including our own selves in it, is everlastingly whole, sound, balanced, peaceful, and abundant, despite all material 'evidence' to the contrary.

     But to call forth this truer, higher reality of being, at least one person must know of this higher reality of being. He or she must step out of the collective, earthly consciousness and mentally stand in his or her spiritual perception of the divine Harmony, in order for that harmony to break through the physical appearance of things and bring healing changes into this collective dream of life in matter.

     Then, and only then, does the word become flesh—that is, the truth of mankind's eternal wholeness, health, abundance, and peace breaks through the collective dream of life in matter and transforms the human situation, (whatever it is) for the better. When the truth of God's everlasting harmony takes form in the human experience and reveals (by the healing results) that we really live, move and have our being in Spirit, healing of all forms of material evil can take place.

     This is the reason that Jesus acquired so many disciples, whom he taught the spiritual, healing way in order to bring God's invisibly-present deliverance to all earth's captives of the false, material sense of things. Jesus taught his disciples to realize the spiritual truth of being, in order to heal the people of their false, material beliefs about reality, after he, Jesus, was long gone. Such spiritual healing brings about adjustment in the human experience from sickness to health, poverty to abundance, war to peace, and hate to love.

     When any one of us stands in the realization of spiritual, rather than fleshly being, our belief in God's sovereign power over all is called into the human experience and delivers us from any and all forms that evil can take in this human experience—even while we still seem to occupy a finite, physical form. This is how we can be in the flesh, but not of it.

     For example, we suffer from universal beliefs of ill-health, which have taken multitudinous forms over the centuries. We manifest diseases of the human body form because we believe we are finite, material beings subject to laws of matter. We will be diseased until we begin to understand, or comprehend, that we are spiritual, everlasting children of God, infinite Spirit, and that laws of matter do not apply to our real Selves. That's why Christ Jesus could heal, and teach others to heal diseases.

     Christ Jesus (and his disciples who learned from him) healed every name and diseased condition of the physical bodies and physical minds (including some cases of physical death) that people believed in. Yet, God never took our eternal, spiritual wholeness and health away from anyone in the first place—nor is our spiritual identity ever injured in substance.

     Also, there are other ills of the flesh besides mental and bodily disease. Just as Jesus never used physical means to vanquish the multitudinous forms which the belief in physical lack of health produces, neither did he face hatred, wars, poverty, sin, or anything evil as being true conditions of God's own children, who still existed in God's own kingdom. He knew that all the lacks and limitations of this human condition were the unreal trials, which our false, collective beliefs materially produce. By a change in consciousness, from the false sense of material being to the recognition of our true, spiritual selfhood (our Christly Selfhood) physical healing can take place.

     Due to our mistaken sense of identity and blindness to the eternal laws of Spirit, lack of every form of spiritual good (not just wholeness and health) but every sense of lack of God's infinite good are unreal trials and tribulations produced by the collective, universal beliefs in God's absence and indifference to Its spiritual children. In the collective mentality of this level of conscious thought (this human experience) every claim of evil is only the belief in some lack of our God-ordained good.

     We find evil everywhere in this material sense of reality. That's why Jesus taught his disciples and followers the spiritual way of life that they knew not of. All evidence of human, material lack never wipes out the reality of God's everlasting good, invisibly at hand. Trust in this will bring it forth, visibly, into our material sense of daily life. Right where some divine good seems to be missing, right there is God's invisible presence, waiting and willing to be called forth into the dream-state of humanity, to produce, even physically, what seems to be missing—be it health, abundance, peace, joy, or safety.

     God, infinite Spirit, is the ONLY power (cause and effect) that has ever existed in Its spiritual creation, of which we are all a part. Nothing has power above and beyond the Creator. God is the creator of only good, and good is all that exists. Evil is not a person, a place, or a thing. It is a false, finite belief about a person, a place or a thing—and a false belief is something that is not real.

     So, blind faith can even work in some cases; but as the scriptures say, Wisdom and Understanding are the things to have (See 4th quote at top of article). God's delivering presence is neither magic nor miraculous—it is divinely natural. KNOW why spiritual healing of any and all inharmonious situations can be turned around when trusting in God's eternal Harmony. This learning is a wise way to go; for God's eternal creation has never really left us at all, nor have we ever really left it in our material sleep—our temporary, collective dream of finite materiality.

     These materialistic evils, or lacks, of persons, places or things, are a false view of reality. This false, material sense does not perceive the invisible world of Spirit, with all its fullness and harmony for all. God never created a material man. Yet, believing ourselves as belonging to finite, sinning humanity, we live in a 'survival of the fittest' mentality. In our temporary dream of life, and power in matter, we act out all sorts of destructive things, all in the name of taking care of ourselves. Yet, God has created only Its spiritual children, who in this material-seeming level of thought still BELIEVE ourselves to be finite, physical beings, driven out of our harmonious, spiritual realm (home) called Heaven. We simply believe ourselves to be separated from God, Spirit, when we are not.

     Thus, the conflict that occurs concerning whether or not faith healing 'works' has to do with this: It works only when at least one person here, in this collective, material mentality, takes an essential step out of the collective, universal, worldly beliefs of finite, fleshly being, and realizes, instead, that the eternal kingdom of God is always at hand. Only an individual who doesn't just hope, but believes, in the unseen universe of Spirit and our own place in it, can call forth spiritual healing into the human scenario. Yet, any one of us can be that one who stands in faith of God's presence, all-power and unconditional love for each of us.

     So, although the collective human belief that we have inherited a material creation of good and evil powers is still believed today, nothing could be further from the Truth. Jesus tried to turn us away from the Adam man (fleshly identity) to the Christ (spiritual man). This was the Truth that Christ Jesus tried to demonstrate for humanity. When he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," (John 14:6; NKJV) Jesus was telling us to make it our way. We are to put on our spiritual identity and mentally discard the fleshly identity. Leave the Adam man for the Christ Self, and leave the Eve persona for the Christ Self.

     Likewise, when Jesus said, "For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." (John 18:37: NKJV) he was talking about the truth of all of us here, in this collective, erroneous dream of life in matter, rather than Spirit. He was telling us to progress beyond the false, physical sense of being for our true spiritual being—our own Christ identities.

     Individuals can mentally stand in the higher perception of spiritual being, rather than a fleshly identity, and find themselves above and beyond the so-called laws of cause and effect in matter. That's because God's laws are not material, they are ever-lastingly spiritual. The divine Intelligence never created a finite, physical creation. Such an imperfect, chaotic place is mankind's collective belief about reality, not God's harmonious realm.

     God's spiritual universe, though invisible to the physical senses, is still the only place there is. Though hidden from material perception, it is not hidden from our everlasting Christ Consciousness within us all. God's laws are all eternal. They uphold our eternal life, health, abundance, safety and peace; thus, we are never trapped in a finite, physical body, or a finite universe, but dwell forever in the spiritual realm of God, whole and free, eternally loved and cared for. Our bodies, souls and minds have always been, and always will be, immortal and made of spiritual, not material, substance.

     Each one of us must find out way back to our spiritual identity, which is sleeping within our deeper conscious remembrance. Many in the world population, today, seem ready to recognize this. For the reality of spiritual being (rather than physical being) is dawning throughout the collective mentality in today's cultures. Many Christian churches now embrace it, in some manner, even though the practice of spiritual healing was abandoned from Christianity in favor of material forms of healing about four hundred years after Christ Jesus' resurrection. Still, for those four hundred years, it was kept alive enough to be rediscovered by individuals throughout the ages since.

     In this collective 'dream-state' of life in matter, where powers of good and evil seem to exist side by side, we act out all the good and evil we believe in, as if both are real, ever-lasting states of being. But God has no evil twin. God never created an evil entity, or power, to destroy Its forever creation. There is no super-natural 'devil' who is the source of all evil. God never created one. The false belief in finite, mortal materiality is all the devil we need. It is the collective, carnal mentality that wars against the spiritual truth of all things.

     We don't need a being outside of ourselves to conjure up evil. Our actions due to hatred, greed, envy, selfishness, (the list of destructive beliefs goes on) are our own choices. Satan, symbolized as a serpent, made its appearance in the ancient Jehovahistic doctrine shown in the biblical, second chapter of Genesis, where Adam (representing the first man) fell asleep, and then re-created God's spiritual creation, into a finite, dust to dust, creation, and was given the task of naming everything in creation, and giving to everything its good and evil powers. So, Jesus was chosen as the one to come into the materialistic dream of life in matter, to show us the way out. It is to awaken to spiritual, rather than material being. He came to show us the way from the Adam dream of life in matter, back to our heavenly home in Spirit.

     Adam represents the unreal identity; the Christ represents our spiritual identity, made in the image and likeness of God. Jesus was showing us the Christ—our own spiritual identity, which is made in the image of divine Spirit, rather than the image of man.

     The Bible tells us, "For as in Adam all die; even so in Christ all shall be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:22; NKJV). This shows that some of the old Testament beliefs that were erroneously passed on to humanity were corrected by Christ Jesus and his disciples. Jesus said of himself, "For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." (John 18:37; NKJV).

     In his ministry, Christ Jesus also spoke of our having faith, but he was speaking of faith in God's invisibly-present, spiritual kingdom, with all the harmony that characterizes it. This kingdom is found in our deeper remembrance. This invisible kingdom of God within us (that is in our deeper awareness), termed, the Christ Consciousness, has never left us, nor have we left it, except in our materialistic sleep-state. This Christ Consciousness is our spiritual mind that exists right where a limited, material mind seems to be, but is not. This is the mind of the Christ (our spiritual identities) which Jesus demonstrated and we are to emulate.

     If no one comes forth to stand in his or her convictions of spiritual, rather than physical being, no spiritual healing will take place. But it only takes an enlightened, spiritual brother or sister, who can See reality, to break through the materialistic scenario that is playing itself out. Someone must step out of the spiritual darkness into the light of spiritual reality for the change in material appearances and lack of good to prove God's underlying sovereign power and presence, even in the collective material dream.

     Thus, healing is not a real change in anything. Rather, it is the truth of everlasting being taking over the material-seeming form of reality. It is the word made flesh. This is WHY the prayer of faith can save the sick, sinning, and other bad situations of our human lives. And it doesn't matter who prays it.

Home  Library