Growing into Healing

Lean in…I have some more thoughts about healing.

I think we sometimes get our priorities and focus a bit out of wack in our pursuit of healing, especially when we place the pursuit of healing above the pursuit of God.

Just to say as a reminder, since we are so inclined to make idols out of things, watch out for spending more time and energy seeking healing than seeking the Healer. He’s it. He’s the cake. Healing is the icing; unless of course, you love icing more than cake. Then He’s the cake, and healing is icing. For me, it is definitely the latter.

Our time on earth, in the span of eternity, is a speck….a vapor.

What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James 4:14.

And get this: Christ already overcame death for us, so we know that whatever happens in our bodies does not have the final word.

But now has been revealed through the appearing of our savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and has now brought light and immortality through the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:10

Our resurrected Lord already trumped that when He made His temporary grave death’s permanent grave. Imagine the enemy’s face when he realized he had been out-smarted!

So, how does this relate to healing?

We first must examine our priorities, our fears, and our desires. We are told in Psalm 71 to delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

This verse is a feel-good verse for “name it and claim it theology,” otherwise known as the prosperity gospel, sometimes known as Amercian Christianity. But as we so often are prone to so with verses, we take the part of the verse that we like the most:

“God will give me the desires of my heart! Yay!”

In our frantic list-making of wishes for our Santa Clause- like God Head, we don’t stop to consider the conditions of this promise. Yes, every promise in God is “yes and amen” as we read this encouraging word from 2 Corinthians 1:20, but is says more: For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him amen, to the glory of God through us.

God is our yes, His promises are “so be it”, as long as our hearts are set on Him. This process of being transformed by the renewing of our mind in Christ Jesus (Romans 12:2) is the process of intimacy with the father, being made more and more into the image of our Creator, and a download of God’s top priorities , thus transforming the desires of our hearts.

Delight yourself in the Lord. If we choose not to seek the heart of the Father, the mind of Christ, and the leadership and counsel of the Spirt, then we need to know that many answers to our prayers will involve two letters: N. O. This is because we have not yet gained a heavenly perspective. Without the heart of God beating within our own, we might be more inclined to pray out of our own agenda, brokenness, and fleshly desires. And therefore, God’s no’s are acts of mercy, even when they feel cruel.

As He spoke to the disciples concerning the parables in which Jesus spoke, we too find ourselves asking the question, “Am I ready and able to yield to the Lord so that I might receive the secrets of the kingdom of heaven?”

“The mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given to you,” Jesus said, and He followed with this statement, “but not to them” (Matthew 13:11), referring tho the rest of the crowd over whom’s heads the words of wisdom sailed with a barelly noticeable breeze.

The more we seek Him, the more we find Him, and the more we find Him, the more that He shares with us the mystery of His heart, His plan, and His purpose for His church, for the kingdom, and for each of us. And as our heart allign with the heart that holds all the love and wisdom in the history of the universe, then our prayers start to reflect the desires of God for His beloved people, including ourselves.

We long for physical healing, and we desperately long to linger on this planet longer….and I it’s appropriate to ask God for physical healing. He is the God of miracles. But friends, we are thinking in earthly terms. Our requests are too small.

I’ve been healed. God has worked unbelievable healing of my heart, mind, and soul over the past ten years. I was the girl labeled “chronic” with anorexia, the one who made it my mission in life to disappear, the one who believed that it was my duty in word and deed to live as an act of apology for my presence on this planet. I absolutely abhorred myself.

And throughout my life, before I even could catch a glimpse of it, God was working the miracle of healing, He was renewing and restoring my spirit, He was planting seeds that would need years to grow. And He has been in the process of healing this whole time.

Sometimes healing comes suddenly, in an instant. It has for me. Sometimes, healing is worked over a lifetime (in perspective, still a mere breath). I am also experiencing this healing. It weaves its way into our moments, days, prayers, and worship, until we look back and say, “Wow. He really did it.”

Ultimately, total healing comes as we step into eternity and are welcomed into the fullness where there is no more death, no more sickness, no more pain, or tears, or darkness, or empty longing—where we gaze into the face of Jesus.

There are earthly glimpses of that space, when we brush shoulders with heaven in one mysterious way or another, often, counterintuitively, through suffering…and that’s when we start to shift our perspective on healing. It’s what happened to Stephen when he was stoned to death, to see the heavens open. It’s what happened to the prophets when they beheld the Lord in His glory. It’s what happened to Paul in the depths of his suffering over and over.

These collisions with heaven hold heavy doses of healing for our earth-weary souls.

God’s Healing is indeed physical. It’s everywhere in the gospels. The healing God provides is also Spiritual. He’s also a God who heals our wounded minds and souls. And He’s the One who takes our hand and walks us into the eternity of total and complete healing.

Don’t grow weary of what feels like “incomplete” healing. In the words of Kalley Heiligenthal seven months after the death of her toddler daughter, “if it is all bitter, keep going. The sweetness is coming.”

Whatever we think about healing, have the courage to think bigger…..think heavenly….think eternal…..think of the veil being torn and the sea of glass and the never ending joy of beholding our Beloved.

Until then, remember He’s slowly but surely turning every bitter thing sweet.