The only true healing
Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life
Many people today are looking for a spiritual discipline or practice that will bring stability and healing to their lives. When an engineer designs and builds a bridge, he or she has faith that the bridge will stand. An understanding of certain laws of physics underpins that faith. Similarly, an understanding of God and His laws of harmony is needed to undergird effective spiritual healing.
According to Jesus, the spiritual healing he did would always be possible: "These signs shall follow them that believe;... they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17, 18). And that makes sense; God stays constant, and God is the source of healing.
Jesus healed cases of sickness without even being physically present with the sufferer (see John 4:46-53 and Matt. 8:5-13). This is indicative of a method that has to be mental rather than physical.
He taught his 12 disciples and sent them out to heal people. Then he sent out 70 more. Jesus taught that spiritual healing depended on understanding that God, and not a personal healer, had power. He said, "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me" (John 12:44).
One of the laws of spiritual healing is that God is entirely good, and so can send only good. In Bible language, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5). Although sickness sometimes may be what causes a person to seek to understand God better, our creator never wills disease. Jesus showed this. You don't find him ever resigning himself to sickness and suffering; you find him curing it.
He did, however, emphasize the need to overcome fear - and also sin, which was often viewed as a root of sickness in Jesus' time. Today, too, stress and negative character traits are commonly linked to many diseases.
One of the most devoted followers of Christ's teaching, St. Paul, discussed the action of putting off "the old man, which is corrupt" and putting on "the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:22, 24). This points to the fact that we can exchange a consciousness of ourselves as sinning and subject to sickness for a more accurate concept of ourselves as free and innocent children of God.
When we try to act according to this concept, we can actually overcome selfishness, dishonesty, and other undesirable traits through more than just human power. And, reasoning from this same basis of our perfect spiritual identity, we can also attain better health and help others do the same.
For example, one evening I had a bad cold. I was very congested. In my work I talk to people a lot, and I was concerned about how these symptoms would interfere with this. But I focused on the fact that my identity was not material and imperfect, but spiritual and perfect. I was a child of God. So were the people I was working with. And therefore, they were dependent on the thoughts and ideas that God would communicate to them, rather than on me personally. I felt a responsibility lift from my shoulders, and went to bed feeling much better. In the morning I was entirely free of all cold symptoms. Understanding myself to be the child of God brought a fast healing.
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy's textbook for studying God's laws of harmony, discusses Jesus' method of healing, which is also one you and I can employ. For instance: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy" (pgs. 476-477).
Spiritual healing is for every time and place. It involves filling our heart with love for God and our neighbor, and becoming instruments of that love.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Matthew 10:7, 8