Physical healing is one thing. I have never witnessed the kind of healings that Jesus and the disciples had the power to bring to the blind, lame and demon possessed. I have spoken to reliable people who have witnessed healings like those on the mission field. It makes me wonder if it is because they do not have access to medical healing or is it because those of us who do don’t act on our faith for healing? I believe that God does heal today. He has healed me, but not every time I ask. I do know of miraculous healings from cancer and other life-threatening situations through prayer and medicine. Just having access to medicine does not guarantee a healing. God’s healing work along with medicine have created true miracles for many people I have prayed over. I believe in the power of God to heal, yet I have prayed in faith for healing over many people who have died or lived with their illness.
The miracle of healing I have experienced a thousand times or more in my lifetime is the power of kindness. A word of encouragement has the power to raise a tormented soul to a state of life and peace. God has used me as an agent to share His truth and His promises with others in a manner that heals beyond expectation. Most of the wounds that I have witnessed God’s super-natural power to heal have been through forgiveness. The ointment of forgiveness administered over wounded souls is simply miraculous. I have felt the alchemy of forgiveness in my own soul on occasions too numerous to mention.
Most soul wounds are healed through forgiveness. Forgiveness that leads to reconciliation is a human experience beyond the limits of this world. In every experience of forgiveness there is a scar that is a badge of courage. It is there to remind you of the transformation of a soul totally overwhelmed by anger, resentment and hatred that now has peace, joy and acceptance.
There are other wounds that forgiveness won’t destroy completely. These are unhealed wounds. They are open wounds that resist the efforts of love and forgiveness. They must remain open by way of acceptance. It is a wound that never heals. It is similar to the wound Jesus carried with Him into the Last Supper with His disciples. Although He longed to have this dinner and teach His final lessons by giving the sacrament of the blood and the body through the wine and the bread, He was tormented. What troubled His soul was not the future denial of Peter or the scattering of all the disciples, save John. No, what caused His anguish was the loss of Judas—his free will to betray the Son of God and the eternal effects it would have on his soul. That is what troubled Jesus that night. He didn’t even seem to flinch about the cross that was looming within the next hours.
Betrayal’s wound cut deep and cold through His heart that lovingly sacrificed and willingly gave all He was sent to give. His heart remained open to the harsh reality of rejection. There was nothing He could say or do other than accept that the wound.
Many of us are inflicted by wounds that fall into this category. Wounds that do not heal. Wounds that must be accepted. Wounds like these are healed through the love of God who binds up our wounds. When forgiveness and reconciliation are not possible, we need God’s special healing. We need supernatural binding. We are literally held together by the love of God.
Psalm 147:3 describes the healing for open wounds. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” His binding pulls together what human hearts cannot bear. Its results are peace and consolation through a brokenness that must be endured but not without strength, comfort and peace by the healing power of God’s binding.
