Healing Prayer: The Miracle & Mystery

Two Sunday's ago, following worship, 15 or so church members and Elders gathered with me in my office to lay hands on and pray for two young women in our congregation.

One woman, the mother of two small children, had had a small cancerous abdominal tumor removed a year ago and, at her first-anniversary check-up, a second, new lump had been discovered. Surgery to remove the as-yet undiagnosed lump was scheduled for the following morning. She is a new Christian, having studied and prayed about her faith for some years. I had the privilege of baptizing her several months ago.

The other woman had been suffering from terrible headaches and, in recent weeks, her left eye had begun to be visibly pushed forward from behind. A CAT scan had detected what appeared to be a fairly large tumor behind that eye, located in a place difficult to access for either surgery or biopsy. A MRI (Magnetic Resonant Imaging) test had been scheduled for the following Thursday to help determine a more precise measurement and analysis of whatever it was that had appeared in the CAT scan. This woman, too, is a Christian, although of an uncertain and searching faith.

In any case, the prayer was intense for each of these women. No one spoke in tongues nor were there any other dramatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit, simply profound prayers for healing, offered to God in faith.

And what, you might ask, was the outcome of these prayers? The answer to that question lands somewhere between puzzlement and wonder.

During surgery the following morning the surgeon discovered that the cancer had not only recurred but had spread throughout a large area of her abdomen. The two-hour surgery that was planned stretched into a seven-hour surgery as the doctor attempted to remove as much of the malignancy as possible.

After she heals from the surgery she will be undergoing an extensive regimen of chemotherapy. Her faith and trust in God, however, remains strong. She radiates joy and is searching for ways in which "God can work for good" in this situation that she, herself, described to me as "tragic." A description that I completely agreed with.

On Thursday, the second woman had her MRI. On Friday I spoke with her and she explained how the experience had helped her reprioritize her life. So much that she had taken for granted had suddenly become central and precious to her. Although she did not yet know the results of her test she said she was at peace with whatever would be found. Her trust in God's love and her faith in his goodness had been profoundly reaffirmed in her heart. She even spoke of her desire to offer a testimony of her experience during worship some Sunday.

In any case, she received a phone call on Friday night giving her the results of her MRI test. She did not, however, tell anyone else the results until she phoned one of our Elders who had accompanied her when she had the test. To put it simply, the MRI could not locate any evidence of a tumor at all. None. Zip. A dye had been injected to heighten whatever image that might have existed. Even a small cyst filled with water would have shown up clearly. But there was nothing there. Whatever had been pushing on her eye, whatever had been causing those headaches, whatever had been clearly seen on the CAT scan.....was gone.

Prayer is, for me, the greatest mystery of my Christian faith.

I can handle the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement and even the Genesis creation stories without losing much sleep. But prayer.......prayer is another thing altogether. How it "works?" Why God asks it from us? Why or why not it makes a difference? I don't really know. Scripture gives many helpful hints and tips on prayer. But, more important, scripture tells us that prayer, when offered in faith in a manner consistent with the will of God, can unleash a power that.....that......well.....according to Jesus, can move mountains!


Two Sundays ago we prayed identical, passionate prayers of faith for two women who we love equally. For one, the mountain was lifted up and cast into the sea. A mystery of healing and prayer answered just as it was asked.

For the other, it was as if the mountain had been lifted up only to fall heavily upon her, crushing her under its unfathomable weight. A mystery of prayer asked, but unanswered. At least not answered according to our impassioned pleas.

This is not the first time I have participated in healing prayer that resulted in what, by all objective evidence, can honestly be described as a miracle.

Strangely enough, however, it is not the answered prayers, the miracles of healing that surprise me. In a spiritual sense, such results seem almost normative to me....the way it is supposed to be. Although I rejoice and stand before the Lord in complete humility and awe, I do not find myself puzzling over the miracle.

The unanswered prayer, however, leaves me pondering an even greater mystery than the answered prayer. For in the unanswered prayer will come suffering, pain and, quite possibly, death.

To find meaning and purpose in life is not a great challenge to most of us. But to find meaning and purpose in suffering, pain and death is quite another matter. I am led to sit at the feet of Job. I am led to stand at the foot of the cross where I watch the suffering, pain and death of the eternal Son of God, fully and inseparably incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ who is my Lord and the Savior of the world.

In the suffering, pain and death of Jesus, however, I can discern something unique and very surprising. I discern, in that bleak darkness, the un-snuffed light of hope. The light of life that will rise again and never be challenged by darkness again. Ever.

For Jesus died. And Jesus rose from the dead.

Jesus was dead. Yet now he is alive forevermore!

In the healing, God is praised.

In the suffering, God is found.

It is a wonder....and a puzzlement.