Instruments in the Hand of God
By the Rev. Dr. Richard G. Leaver
Many times when we Christians speak of the healing ministry we think in terms of healing services with anointing with
oil, the laying on of hands, and prayers for healing. It is biblical. It is a part of the Church's historic custom. And in
many denominations today, the healing ministry has made its place back into the intentional practice of the church.
Thus, when believers talk among themselves about healing the conversations contain many stories about those who
have participated in such services and received a healing. There is absolutely no doubt among us that God intervened in
someone's life and healing took place. Even medical personnel were astonished when these healed believer's went to
their next appointments.
Sometimes after a critical operation, professionals in the healing arts will voice the statement concerning a patient's
recovery, "It's in God's hands now." But, our healing is always in God's hands. From before the moment of the
malady's occurrence to the point of its healing or to the time of resurrection, God is in charge. It is a humanist
presumption to think that God heals only after the medical profession has worked its wonders. It is God who has
endowed humanity with the desire and wisdom to use science and technology to heal. Thank God for our medical
professionals, but let them not assume that they are in charge. The women and men of medicine create an atmosphere
for healing to take place, but they do not heal us. It is God who heals. From the first, it is God who has created bodies
that can be healed. Science and technology are gifts from God. It is scientists and medical practitioners who cooperate
with the grace of God to facilitate our healing, but it is God who enables us to be whole.
We should ask God's blessing upon every person involved in the healing process, from the hospital cooks and orderlies
to the most skilled of nurses and doctors. They are all apart of the workings of God. If every human resource in the
health care milieu from the janitors who keep the hospitals clean and sanitary, to the administrators who oversee it all,
to the health care professionals who daily work in the trenches of disease and disorder were to see themselves as
instruments of the Great Physician and realize that what they do is not only a service to humankind but to God, they
would understand then that even the lowliest task is a holy one, for they participate with God in God's grace of healing
and wholeness. I believe that many such people are a part of the Order of St. Luke the Physician and other similar
bodies, as they have come to realize that they are instruments in the hand of God.
There are many such people in the health care professions who feel called by God to their work, and they are blessing
the world. But they are blessings too, who do not believe, for even in their unbelief God is using them. For it is God
who is the healer, no matter the instrument of God's healing.
But I really want to address another kind of healing for which so many believers overlook and fail to give God the due
credit. This is the kind of healing that takes place over a long period of time and much medical attention may have been
required. For many it seems as if God sort of left this one to we mortals to handle all on our own. A patient may have
never asked for a religious presence or prayerful intervention on his or her behalf. The person may have had no belief
at all in any religion or God, and over time he or she came around just fine. In a similar fashion, a devout believer may
have participated in healing services at every opportunity, the clergy and other Christian friends visited regularly and
prayed for the patient, but the hope of healing seemed as futile as searching for a rainbow at night. It just was not
happening, or so it seemed.
Ever so slowly, healing was taking place for both the believing and nonbelieving patient, and in both cases it was the
work of God. But the believing patient, if for no other reason, was healed because people of faith were praying. Prayer
itself is healing whether one is cured or not. A person may never return to 100% capacity as before an infirmity had
taken hold, but by the mere act of her or his praying the person was engaged in the healing process. Sometimes we
believers will acknowledge that a certain healing was nothing less than a miracle, but every healing is a miracle no
matter how long it takes. The fact that we heal at all is a miracle. I have been in services where I have seen the disabled
discard their crutches. And I have been there when a parishioner died in spite of everything the medical and spiritual
communities did. But just for the fact that even one human, let alone many cared about another was a miracle. We are
all instruments of God in the healing process whether we are the one wielding the scalpel or the prayer book. The fact
that any of us care enough to do either is a healing act.
If the patient becomes completely well -- thanks be to God. If the believer dies -- thanks be to God, because for that
person there is the ultimate cure of the resurrection. But do not say the person was not healed if he or she is left
disabled or dies, because it does not depend on what we do, but on what God has already done, and that is simply to
be God in Christ reconciling the world unto God's self. Whether we live or whether we die we are God's.
Howbeit, ever so slowly healing was taking place for both believer and nonbeliever in the example I cited above, God
was in the midst of both, because every person is a child of God. Believers know it, nonbelievers have yet to learn it.
The fact that we have bodies that can be repaired at all is because of God. It is the way we have been created. Of
course, God is rarely given thanks by nonbelievers, but God healed them, too. The time it takes for a person to heal is
but a variable. There are all sorts of factors in play why one person will heal faster then another, genetics, one's general
health, the level of seriousness of the disorder, the skill of the medical staff, the timing of the medical intervention, and
so on. But faith is a crucial factor when it comes to time. Several studies have shown that all other things being equal,
believers are hospitalized less often then nonbelievers, believers heal faster than nonbelievers, and believers' hospital
stays are shorter. Believers ought to get discounted medical coverage because of this, but then insurers would have to
admit there is a God who heals and makes us whole.
One final word of apologetic. Given the above, we are led to ask the question then, "If believers have some edge on
healing, why do some nonbelievers live and some believers die?" Is there an answer for this? Maybe not, but let me
offer this fact of faith: There is no death for the believer!
There is a difference between healing and cure. People coming to healing services come obviously for healing, but in
reality, most come looking to be cured. Some people are cured completely -- thanks be to God. I have witnessed it.
But so many seem to leave in the condition in which they came. But, they were healed nevertheless, because they came
seeking God. They came in faith. They prayed. They had prayers said for them. They were anointed and had hands laid
upon them. They were healed whether their bodies were cured or not, because all in which they took part is healing.
They are whole because of their faith while yet being broken outwardly. Faith always heals, but sometimes we are not
cured until the resurrection.
A person who may have lost the use of her legs for example, and there is no medical cure at this time, may still be more
whole than many people who are fully physically-abled. Healing and wholeness go beyond the physical and include
one's spirit, soul and attitude. I have a beautiful young woman in my congregation who is in this very circumstance and
she has given great hope and courage to everyone who knows her. She has taken on a ministry of helping others who
have become disabled by just being their friend and sharing her attitude. She would not call the giving of herself in this
way a ministry. She is just being a child of God and witnessing to the fact that today she is more whole than she ever
was before the onslaught of her affliction from which she cannot be cured by medical means. She is an instrument of
God and she will be cured in the resurrection. She will have a glorified body like Christ's own. Death is not a healing,
either for the believer or the nonbeliever. It is the believer's resurrection that is the ultimate cure. No matter our
condition or station or circumstance we can all be instruments in the hand of God to enable people to become whole
even in their brokenness.
The Rev. Dr. Richard G. Leaver, D. Min., Ph. D. is senior pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church of
Merchantville, NJ, is certified in Healing and Wholeness by the Upper Room of Nashville, TN, is a certified spiritual
director by the Tree of Life Institute, is an OSL member, and leads seminars and continuing education events in the
healing ministry
