Having Jesus In Your Heart 21

“The leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him. ‘My daughter has just died,’ he said, ‘but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.’ So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, for she thought, ‘If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.’ Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, ‘Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.’ And the woman was healed at that moment.

“When Jesus arrived at the official’s home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. ‘Get out!’ he told them. ‘The girl isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.’ But the crowd laughed at him. After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside.

“After Jesus left the girl’s home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us!’ They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, ‘Do you believe I can make you see?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ they told him, ‘we do.’ Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘Because of your faith, it will happen.’ Then their eyes were opened, and they could see! Jesus sternly warned them, ‘Don’t tell anyone about this.’ But instead, they went out and spread his fame all over the region.

“When they left, a demon-possessed man who couldn’t speak was brought to Jesus. So Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed. ‘Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel!” they exclaimed.” Matthew 9:18-33

“‘Laying the hand on’ means transmission and reception because by ‘the hands’ is meant power. And because this power is the capacity to act, ‘the hands’ also means whatever resides with a person, thus the entire person engaged in action. By ‘laying on’ is meant transmission on the part of the one who lays them on and reception on the part of the person on whom or thing on which they are laid. From this it is evident what ‘laying the hand on’ meant among the ancients, namely the transmission and transference of whatever thing it was that they had in mind, and also the reception of it by another, whether it was power, obedience, blessing, or testimony.

“When the Lord laid His hand on people, and also when He touched them, the meaning was the transmission and reception of Divine power. The fact that these things are meant is perfectly clear in Mark: ‘A certain woman came behind and touched Jesus’ garment, saying, “If I touch merely His garment I shall be healed.” And immediately she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus perceived within Himself that power had gone out of Him.” (Mark 5:27-30)

“By the ‘laying on of the hand upon children’ means the communication and reception of Divine power, through which is the healing of the interiors, which is salvation.” Secrets of Heaven §10023

I can get caught up in analyzing Jesus’ miracles and miss the larger, or more fundamental, lessons. Instead of connecting emotionally with my Savior, I remain merely intellectually stimulated. For instance, as I read these four miracles, I catch myself wondering why they are in the order they are. I imagine the lives of the apparently incurable woman, the agonizing father, the desperate blind men, the trapped man, and the amazed onlooker.

So, becoming touched by Jesus Christ, and so healed, requires a personal, internal, emotional response that leads to new thoughts, intentions and actions. The spiritual import of these stories and Jesus’ words provide me the foundation for those changes I have to make to abide in the Lord and have Him abide in me.

These stories teach me the Minimum Requirements for Healing (MRH): 1. Go to the Lord. 2. Humble myself to Him. 3. Beg Him for help. I must have all three for the necessary and sufficient conditions to be healed. MRH is a cyclical, organic and individualized process that includes listening to the teachings of Jesus and hearing their spirit; identifying, naming and assessing character traits, thinking patterns, emotional reactions and behaviors; and becoming clear about, comfortable with, and consistent in, letting go of power, wants, judgments and predictions, and replacing them with the love and wisdom learned from Jesus Christ. The total effect is an emotional state of being in which I feel loved, forgiven and empowered by the Lord, whose love for me is unceasing and unconditional; whose mercy is unbounded and unlimited; and whose power is infinite and bound by His divine love for my eternal joy.

These MRH provide that my sin can be very secret (like the woman in the story), and He still heals me. Even as Jesus didn’t mind touching unclean people; He won’t hesitate to help me.

The MRH provide that I can be ignorant and still be helped by the Lord. In fact, an intellectual sophistication formed from knowing a lot can interfere with letting go of false beliefs. However, while I can be ignorant, like the Synagogue leader, I must have his kind of faith. I must believe that Jesus Christ can heal me. I must believe that I need His help, which is a kind of belief that leads me into action. I must make an effort to find His teachings, experience them first hand in my life, from a heartfelt need for them (and sometimes from a desperate need for them).

The MRH demonstrate that healing is a miracle, not magic. He can heal me any time, any place, while I am in any condition. However, I must have a connection to Him (thus His hands are so often mentioned in the stories). The miracles performed at a distance are remarkable not because He didn’t touch the person He healed, but that His touch is not actually physical. The woman was healed, as He said, by her faith. Touching His robe demonstrated her connecting faith rather than creating a physical connection. And what Jesus Christ says is more often explicit encouragement rather than magic words or incantations. His words do not direct us away from the action, as a magician does with his hands and voice. Rather, His words call our attention to what is actually, really happening: the miracle of healing because MRH are being met.

So I invite you to look at where purposeless activity is bleeding your life away out of some childhood wound. I encourage you to believe that Jesus Christ can bring a genuine innocence back to life in your mind. I urge you to persevere in your search for the light, as blind as you are right now. And I will hold you in my heart while you struggle with Satan himself to be free of your addiction or compulsion. The MRH are within your reach. With practice you can achieve them repeatedly and regularly!