The Cart Before The Horse

I’ve always taken a lot of heat for having questions about church doctrine that other people find easy to believe. I tried to explain why in an earlier blog. Now I’m hearing it for suggesting, although I’ve seen it for more than thirty years, that healing by the laying on of hands doesn’t occur often enough in the church. I guess I need to look at this a little more carefully. I really do believe what Jesus said about us being able to do what he did, and I look forward to the day when it becomes normal practice in the life of all Christians. Healing the sick is what we should be doing and I respect anyone who is seeking the gift. But for some reason the gift isn’t coming to us easily. I’m willing to admit that fact in hopes that we may find out what’s wrong and fix it.

Anyone who has attended a mega-healing-conference (I’ve been to several) knows what a small percentage of people - compared to the number in attendance - get healed of anything. Those who do are talked about and written about as proof of success as if it happens all the time. We want so much to feel the touch of God. We think if we heal the sick and raise the dead we’ll become more like Jesus, but in fact it’s the other way around. When we become more like Jesus we'll be able to heal the sick and raise the dead. It’s a classic case of the cart before the horse. Healing is not a gift - no matter what the church says - that you develop by trying it on people over and over until it works. There’s no evidence in the bible that Jesus had to practice, nor was he was ever unsuccessful when he prayed for someone. (Well maybe one time he had to pray twice). But praying in Jesus’ name just doesn’t seem to get the same results for us as it did for him. Something is missing. Let's see if we can find out what it is.

Hmmm. Jesus of Nazareth was a man just like us. The church says he was the only begotten Son of God. Is that why he was able to do miracles? I don’t think so. He knew who we were yet he still said we would do greater things. So that’s not it. Was he just wrong about that? I don’t think so. How could Jesus be wrong about something? Did he spend all those missing years studying before he prayed for the first leper? Maybe. I really do think (and there’s a lot of evidence to support it) that he spent some time in the East learning about things the Church doesn't tell us. But it’s not just that. Did he know something we don’t know? YES. There’s the elusive answer. He knew something we don’t know. He knew the truth about the relationship between God and man. There it is. That’s it. Jesus understood who he was in God - and we don’t. 

And so we need the Church to intercede for us. We have to ask for help from above and pray in Jesus' name because we don’t realize the authority we have in our own. Why? Because we’ve been told we’re sinners, separate and apart from a God who has the power and who may or may not give us some depending on how good we are. We have this relationship with God thing all wrong. He lives in us - and through us - just like he did with Jesus. He loves us the same way he loved Jesus. His power is available for us the same way it was for Jesus. The reason we can be like Jesus is simply because we are like Jesus. That’s the real good news. Jesus knew the way the universe worked and tried to tell us about it in the Gnostic gospels. We're just now starting to learn about the one-ness of life and how matter responds to consciousness. When these kinds of things becomes real to us we'll be able to change the course of disease and illness the same way he did. We have access to the same power. We're part of the same "one-ness".

Fortunately, as if by divine coincidence, just as the spirit of truth is beginning to awaken these things in us, science is beginning to prove them. We really are all one with the source. We are not separate from God. He doesn't exist in a heavenly realm somewhere apart from us. He is in us. He is in us because he is us. That’s the real untold truth of the Holy Spirit. And that's why Jesus said it would be better for us if he left. He knew as long as we depended on him we would never learn the amazing truth about ourselves. When that truth becomes our reality we will have a new understanding of everything. What the bible says about a God of love will make perfect sense in a whole new way. In fact everything we’ve been taught will make sense in a new way - even healing. Someday we’ll see it happening for us the same way it did for Jesus. He said it would. That’s all I want to see.

Then I promise not to question it anymore.