Often the gifts of Miracles and Healing are related when a person in need asks the Lord for his merciful grace to bring healing to a great infirmity in their lives. They also relate to those things that cannot be accomplished through ordinary means. Healing is the most sought-after charism and easiest to accept by those who trust in the Lord. The best starting place for understanding our call to minister and receive healing is to study Jesus. What did Jesus think about healing? To listen to this episode on YouTube or to read the script please continue below.
TOS013 Charism of Miracles and Healing (Part 3);for Audio
It is quite obvious when we read the Gospel of Matthew that a major part of Jesus’ time was given to healing. Whether he healed because of his great compassion and love, to witness the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, or to draw people to hear the truth there is no doubt that Jesus provided temporal and spiritual healing during his ministry years.
SCRIPT
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. I’m Patti Brunner. Today my episode is going to share the truth about gifts of the Holy Spirit identified as “Mighty Acts” and “Healing”. Often these two are related when a person in need asks the Lord for his merciful grace to bring healing to a great infirmity in their lives. It also relates to those things that cannot be accomplished through ordinary means. Why would God bestow such manifestations on some and leave others to suffer? I do not know. His ways are above my ways. His divine purpose is to share his love with us not just in this life but for all eternity so perhaps a little suffering now actually brings an eternal benefit.
One time Fr. Rick Thomas gave a retreat I attended and he shared his witness of several miracles that occurred at his mission in Juarez, Mexico, where people made their living on the dump. Father’s crew would feed these homeless and poor people and he said no matter how many people would come there was always enough food. He would see soup pots that refilled themselves and bread that would multiply just like when Jesus fed the people the 2 loaves and five fish. In the local St. Vincent de Paul pantry I have heard similar stories of supplies that were extremely short-handed but took care of all the needs of the day.
I shared in an earlier podcast about some of the miracles I have witnessed myself about the alignment of my car and the life of a child previously diagnosed as miscarried. Some days we think it’s a miracle that we find a parking place or that the way is clear when we pull out onto the interstate. Rather than a miracle, I believe we can call this divine favor. Similarly when we ‘pray the weather’ and the Lord protects us from tornadoes or other damaging weather it is probably divine favor not a miracle.
The Catechism paragraph #799 says, “Whether extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of men, [951, 2003] and to the needs of the world.”
One time I was at a conference in Philadelphia where miracles were quite common for a season. People were receiving gold fillings in their teeth. I met one lady who was not only healed of cancer she had a new tooth growing in her toothless mouth. Our God takes care of all our needs!
Miracles are supernatural effects to natural problems. It happens instantaneously. There are many instances of the dead being raised just like Jesus raised Lazarus.
One time the Lord asked me this question after Bea, the wife of our deacon, died. He said, “If I asked you to bring her back to life—would you?” Whoa! At that moment in time I said, “No.” Are you surprised? Have you ever said no to the Lord? After all He gave us freewill and allows us to say yes or no. You see, earlier, the Lord had allowed me a visitation to heaven. Incredulous as that sounds, after my visit to heaven I knew the bliss that Bea was partaking. I couldn’t comprehend bringing anyone from the perfect joy of heaven back to the darkness of our sinful earth. As time went on I pondered my choice and eventually realized that anything the Lord asked of us was for the best. My only comfort was that He didn’t actually ask me to raise her from the dead but only quizzed me on what my answer would be. He knew all along what I was going to say and this discussion allowed me to be more obedient to him in the long run. If He had wanted her brought back to life, surely He would have asked someone else.
The saints are required to have miracles associated with their beatification unless they were martyrs for their faith. Some unusual miracles include: St. Ita of Kileedy healed a man who had been decapitated. St. Maurus raised many people from the dead. Saint Giovanni Theristi once prayed for help to save a harvest that was about to be destroyed by a storm and an angel appeared and instantly harvested the crop saving the peasants from starving. Saint David of Wales was preaching to a crowd and the people on the outer edges could not hear so he spread a handkerchief on the ground, stood on it and the ground beneath rose up a pillar so all could hear. St. Francis of Paola wanted to cross the Straits of Messina to reach Sicily but a boatman refused to take him. Francis laid his cloak on the water, tied one end to his staff to make a sail and sailed across with his companions. When Saint Vincent Ferrer was canonized the stories of 800 of his validated miracles were read out loud; there were more, but the celebrants decided to simply move on with the recognition. I could go on and on, but let us, too, move on.
There have been many healings also recorded by the canon of saints. A saint, truly, is anyone in heaven. The church never verifies that someone has missed the boat to heaven but it does, by examining their lives, verify several holy men and women who have entered heaven for all eternity.
The charisms or gifts of grace for mighty deeds and healing are available through the presence of the resurrection grace and the Holy Spirit. These manifestations are made available to edify the Church and to show that the supernatural Way of Jesus Christ is attainable. They are a preview –so to speak—of the coming attraction that is heaven itself.
The Catechism says in Paragraph 800: “Charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all members of the Church as well. They are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and for the holiness of the entire Body of Christ,provided they really are genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit and are used in full conformity with authentic promptings of this same Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure of all charisms.”
Gifts of healing are supernatural outpourings of God’s power which results in the healing of sickness and disease without the use of medical means. This can involve “sickness” of the body, soul and/or spirit. God is interested in healing our total person. Healing is given as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit to build up, encourage, strengthen, make new or whole an individual or a group for the glory of God and the blessing of His people – to sanctify or to make holy the recipient, to glorify God, to build faith, to be a sign of the power and presence of God, to meet the need, to change the circumstances, to build up the Church.
The best starting place for understanding our call to minister and receive healing is to study Jesus. What did Jesus think about healing? It is quite obvious when we read the Gospel of Matthew that a major part of Jesus’ time was given to healing. Whether he healed because of his great compassion and love, to witness the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, or to draw people to hear the truth there is no doubt that Jesus provided temporal and spiritual healing during his ministry years. Through his death and resurrection he then provided the ultimate healing of everlasting life. What many forget is that he also trained his followers to heal and challenged believers to continue to provide healing. We are like the men who lowered the man through the roof to Jesus. Healing ministry involves bringing people into the healing presence of Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The gifts of grace called charisms by the Church are to be requested, received and shared. It is for the express use of strengthening and building the church that they are given. Without the charisms the Church would move more slowly in attaining wisdom, understanding, fortitude and faith. Charisms allow a “fast track” to receiving and sharing God’s love in “application”. To put it in terms of our time, like an “I-Phone” the usability is not just in the availability of the ‘apps’ but in the understanding of what the apps can do and how to access them that makes all the difference. We each are given the Spirit at our baptism and confirmation. This stirring up of the gifts of the Holy Spirit takes place by the mercy of God on the Church. How does it happen? How do we learn it? 10 years after Vatican II Pope Paul VI wrote: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
Let me tell you part of my story, my witness. It is one familiar throughout the Church today. 120 million Catholics could tell theirs. It is the story of the stewardship of the grace given to me and to the Church by the Holy Spirit. I was confirmed in the third grade and was basically unaware of the gift and blessings I was given. They lay ‘dormant’ until ‘stirred’ by the Spirit during a Cursillo woman’s retreat in October 1996. All during the week-end I felt a special connection to God. Part of the weekend was a healing service. We went forward in groups so that we could pray for each other while a priest led prayer. As I extended one hand on the shoulder of the person receiving prayer, I could feel a flow through me to that person. It felt awesome. Sometime it came in waves, as if several types of healing were being given to the same person. I wondered if they had turned out the lights if I would have seen sparks flow between us. Each time the energy ceased I could sense that a healing had taken place. I didn’t understand it but I looked forward to being on the receiving end of that energy force. When it was my time to receive prayer I felt my friends’ touch but it seemed more like a heavy blanket than a lightning zap. As I sat down I thanked the Lord for whatever he chose to give me. It was then that I felt like a big wind or a tornado was going on within my chest. It took me a while to connect all the dots and realized that the Holy Spirit had stirred within me and had given me a gift of healing. In the weeks that followed I found myself praising the Lord, visiting and praying with people in need and writing letters of encouragement. More than once an urging sent me to the hospital to pray with the family of a friend of a friend. I led a rosary of forgiveness asking the family to forgive the man who was dying and for him to forgive them. I didn’t understand why I was suddenly drawn to pray for people near death and their families.
A few months later, in May 1997, I started finding answers as I visited a prayer group at my parish, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Rogers, AR, with members who understood the charisms of the Holy Spirit. They prayed for one another in small groups with encouraging words. As I stood with them and prayed, I felt an urging to tell the person we were praying for that the Lord wanted her to read scripture. Many months later I realized that the Holy Spirit was prompting those words, visions and scriptures. That night we were invited to attend an upcoming healing conference in Bella Vista, AR, sponsored by the Order of St. Luke, an interdenominational organization to promote the charism of healing. At the July 1997 OSL healing conference I browsed the book table looking for a Catholic book on healing. I found and purchased a book by Francis MacNutt called Healing. I talked about the book to my husband who was in Tulsa and he told me he purchased an earlier edition of the same book in a used book store the same day. God is amazingly generous to place affirmations in our paths. A month later, my husband and I were invited to serve as a prayer team at the Arkansas Catholic Charismatic Conference held for the state in August 1997. As we prayed with people I could sense the presence of God. The Lord shared ways to pray by revealing words of knowledge about their needs, by reminding me of scriptures that gave counsel and causing physical sensations as particular physical healings took place. It was a tremendous joy to be able to signal my catchers that this one and that one was being overwhelmed by the grace of the Holy Spirit and was about to relax and fall back. Some received physical healings and many received inner healings. His overwhelming peace always entered the scene, the peace that surpasses all understanding. (Philippians 4:7)
In January of 1998, we joined a team sponsored by Cornelius House Ministries led by Dr. Dennis Holt to travel around to parishes offering Living Life in the Spirit Seminars. During each week-end retreat we held a healing service where many were healed. In March 1998 at Benton, AR, the Lord used me to share the specific healings of those present—to call them out. I remember the first one was a healing of an elbow. I was reluctant to call it out so the Lord told me the person was wearing green—which I kept to myself. Sure enough, the person healed was wearing a green sweater.
Since those days I have come to better understand that the presence of the Holy Spirit within us connects us—the person praying and the person receiving prayer and Jesus—the Holy Spirit connects us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in Paragraph 798 that “The Holy Spirit is “the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the Body.” He works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity … finally, by the many special graces (called “charisms”), by which he makes the faithful “fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church.”
The Power of the Most High dwells within you. Do not forget it. Are we one? Yes! One in faith, in Baptism, in the source of everlasting life. Do not fear praying and asking for healing. The answer may not always be obvious but remember: Jesus Heals!
My husband and I continue to pray for people who need healing. We lead healing workshops and spiritual formation including Life in the Spirit to help brothers and sisters in Christ to step into God’s calling and commission. Even though a lot of people are healed I’m waiting for the day when the Lord heals them all. Almost every time we pray we sense the presence of God upon them. Whenever the distant thunder sounds, you see the light preceding it and wait. Patience is difficult in good times; it is imperative in bad times. Waiting on the Lord when people are miserable is painful. So what can be done to alleviate misery? It is difficult for people to pray themselves when they are in pain except to cry out to God for relief. Seeking to change the environment can aid, yet sometimes the choice of change makes things seem worse. We are called as Christians to center our lives more fully on the Word of God. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Colossians 3:16 When you allow the Word of God to permeate your soul you will find that you can step out of darkness. Know the Scriptures, eat the Word, and consume it so that from the abundance of the heart the mouth shall speak. Matthew 12:34 To pray for those with pain not physical: release the bondage of the pain by the name of Jesus. Speak life into them. Share his love with them. Redeeming love is the reminder that no matter what he will never forsake you. Look at the Psalms 131 and 139. Look too at Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd. The Lord stands by you and leads you to verdant pastures. Encourage those in need. Hope is in the Lord. Check it out. Hope in the Lord.
Healing is the most sought after charism and easiest to accept by those who trust in the Lord. When you seek physical healing and receive physical relief – immediately – God is praised for his Goodness. Yet there are many types of healing that God bestows on those who seek his healing power and grace. Inner healing of the mind and of the soul are also gifts from God. Healing of memories and overcoming regrets build up the Body of Christ. Healing of marriages and relationships are frequent prayer requests. The gift of peace that overcomes stress that causes many illnesses is but one way that the Lord gives His healing grace to his people. One way that I have been trained –by others who have been anointed in the healing ministry – is to speak specifically to the physical need. In the name of Jesus we can command body parts to come into alignment with the will of God and the perfection of creation.
We always ask God to heal and allow His grace to flow in the best possible way. Sometimes the Lord delays physical healing to allow layers of inner healing to take place. Sometimes the Lord heals through providing medicine and excellent doctors and treatment. Sometimes the Lord touches the soul and allows the heart to heal. I have personally witnessed hundreds of all types of healing – many in my own family and among friends. Many are small things because we turn to the Lord for every need big and small. Every Christian can ask for the gift of Healing from the Holy Spirit. The ministry of healing is when the Lord calls you to go out among His people curing their illness in His name.
When you set out on this course you’ll probably ask yourself “Am I worthy?” During mass we repeat the prayer, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you; only say the word and I shall be healed”. The mass prayer is based on the centurion’s prayer in Matthew 8:8 “The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” He asked not for himself but for his servant. The centurion became a healing minister and so can you. Know this: The Lord is worthy. Jesus is worthy. Stay in the Lord and you shall see the glory of the Lord as the grace descends upon the people and lives are changed. Be one with his Church as it pursues the people to come to Jesus. So often people look the other way but when something ‘catches their eye’ it causes them to pause. Trust me, healing and miracles will catch their eye!
Matthew 4:23-24 “23And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.”
Matthew chapter 8: 16-17 “16 That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Matthew 9:35 “35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity.”
Matthew 12:15 “15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all”
Matthew 14:14 “14 As he went ashore he saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick”
Matthew 14:34-36 “34 And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent round to all that region and brought to him all that were sick, 36 and besought him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched it were made well.”
Matthew chapter 19:1-2 “1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; 2 and large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.”
If you skipped listening to or reading the scriptures on my blog or only skimmed over them, I now ask you to go back and read them or listen to them again. Until we get it in our heads and hearts that Jesus healed all the people we will limit him just like the people of his home town. How can we have the faith that Jesus will heal today if we don’t comprehend the magnitude of his will for healing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people? These scriptures chosen from Matthew show the degree of healing Jesus gave to those who asked.
Jesus combined words of teaching in the synagogues with the works of healing. He offered the people truth. Jesus began his ministry among those willing and ready to accept help in all of Galilee healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. He healed all the sick of various diseases and pains. He healed demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics. “And he went up on the mountain, and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the throng wondered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.” Matthew 15:29-31
There is nothing too big, too desperate, nor too overwhelming for Jesus to heal. Today if one in a hundred is healed we praise God. Would 100 out of 100 not honor him more completely? That’s what Jesus did. And Jesus only did what his Father taught him to do. “So Jesus said (to them), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.” John 8: 28
The Lord wants his people healed. That is clear from what Jesus did. When we battle sickness of body, soul and mind we are kept from enjoying God’s love for us. Over and over and over, Jesus shows us the will of the Father for us to be healed in body and soul. These examples give us hope. They give us expectant faith: that what Jesus did for them he will also do for us. Nowhere in scripture does Jesus refuse to heal. The only place of limitation was his home town where their lack of belief kept the number of miracles down. How often are we like these people? We think we know Jesus, too. And we decide that Jesus won’t do anything, that all that he did in scripture just doesn’t happen anymore; after all, we should be taking care of ourselves! And so he does “not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.” Do you make fun of “faith healers”? Do you consider faith healers to be in the same category as Don Quixote chasing windmills? “Faith healers” have become one with Jesus and they instill faith in those who come forward for healing. We should bring forth the people to prayer to know that God heals. Become one in him because in him is the power of resurrection healing.
We can have the Father or the Son in us, but until we accept and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit we are missing the kingdom. We have a blank check and a million billion dollars in our account and we’re starving. The Holy Spirit gives a charism of faith—the gift that first overcomes obstacles of doubt placed there by evil one using worldly things like intellect and rationality. The charism of faith is different from the virtue of faith. The virtue of faith calls us to belief in the Trinity, the Virgin birth and the death and resurrection of Jesus. The charism of faith is that which inspires you to approach God for a clear understanding of his word – it connects the heart and the head with the soul through the power of the Holy Spirit. The charism of faith releases the barriers of other gifts – in faith all things are possible – it is divine trust. If you find yourself limited in the various gifts of healing, ask for manifestation of the gift of faith. Then take his healing to others. Say what? Ask the Holy Spirit for the charism of faith so that we can bring healing to people? We can accept that Jesus heals. After all Jesus is God. We believe that. We can even believe that the Lord healed them all. Where we run into trouble and doubt is when we find out that Jesus taught the Church to continue to heal. He commissions the Church to heal. He provides sacraments of healing. “Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.” John 14:12
Jesus did a lot of great works. He healed them all. We are called to do more: to reach more people, to cover more territory, to give more testimony because he returned to the Father and sent us the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If you would like to read the blog of this episode, you can find it on my website: PatriarchMinistries.com.
You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit with Patti Brunner. I invite you to subscribe; it’s free! And come back for more. With the Holy Spirit there is always more! And if you have received a healing through the charism of healing, leave a comment on my podcast. May the Lord heal you! Amen.
