Faith, Healing, and Medical Disorders

depression, cancer, and joint disease

How faith is a part of healing :

• Spiritual treatment of depression
• Cancer
• This joint is hot!
• Does lack of faith = no healing??

Depression

It is in treatment of mental and emotional disorders such as depression that the separation of 'spiritual' from the 'material' world does its most harm. The two are part of the same creation by the same Creator, with the same end : the Kingdom.

I myself suffer from depression, a chemical imbalance of the brain which weighs the brain's operations heavily in favor of the sad, the fearful, the serious, the lonely, and the pessimistic sides of life. Treatment has many sides, all of which have a 'spiritual' and a 'material' effect, if we are to use such words. Depression must be treated holistically, rather than just by willpower or drugs or prayer.

• Medications oppose the chemical imbalance itself.
• Exercise rallies the body's own antidepressive workings and gives me the energy to go out and do things.
• A healthy diet, low in carbs and fats and attentive to my body's sensitivities to certain foods, helps to take an edge off of depression.
• Depression is most helped by a good night's sleep. (I have much trouble sleeping.)
• The mind's awareness of depression makes me able to spot when I am thinking or acting according to the depression, and to choose to do otherwise. I act out my depression when I blame, or suddenly put someone down, or get snippy, or without cause expect others to be negative about me.
• Prayer and spiritual disciplines keep me tuned to the power of the Holy Spirit within me without which the only change is bad change. Spiritual practices also help open me to healing possibilities. I trust it helps to have others praying for me.
• You might find that relaxation techniques such as deep breathing may help, especially when very upset or anxious. Some of the Asian un-stressing arts, such as Tai Chi and basic forms of yoga, are also sometimes helpful for depression, when practiced regularly. (They've not been all that helpful for my depression, but they might help you.)
• Fellowship brings the conviction that no matter how it seems, I am not alone among humans. I have brothers and sisters in Christ, at least some of whom care about me. Make a network of friends!
• I set aside time for serving others by volunteering for community, faith, and charitable activities. The idea here is not to do anything from a distance; instead, get face-to-face with those who need your help.
• Support groups help me to share in detail with others who are going through the same thing, and know what to do from experience.
• Scripture keeps me aware of Christ and the Kingdom, here and to come, so I know my life really is going somewhere and not stuck in place, whatever I may feel at any one moment.
• Hobbies, sports and entertainment, and especially singing, bring in the fun and help me to stop taking things too seriously.
• Being outdoors, especially in sunlight, helps. Sunlight in moderation has uplifting effects on brain chemistry, creating a 'sunny' feeling. Just going around outside doing things will take your mind off of depression and on to relationships, activities, and nature. It gets your body pumping, too.
• Worship gives me a chance to be thankful and grateful to the One who deserves more thanks than I can give, thus filling me with joy.
• Having attainable goals gives me something to aim for, forcing me to stretch in order to attain. (In depression, you sometimes aim for fantasies that won't happen, setting yourself up for failure.)
• Paying full attention to the world around me gives God an opening to send little blessings when I least expect them, when God waves a hand saying "I'm here, and I care, whatever else happens".

All this attacks depression on many fronts in many ways. This course of therapy does not banish it (that has happened to a few, but not to most and not to me); it helps me become able to live with the depression I have. The idea is to beat up on depression more relentlessly than depression beats up on me. The healing is spiritual and material, alone and with others, resting and doing. The treatment is holistic in the best (non-'new-age') sense of the word; it covers all of life. It has to, because depression has so many different ways of showing itself, at any moment. I find I need every bit of this help to keep going ahead with life.

The danger comes when some person without medical training tells you to go off the antidepressant drugs because 'your faith has made you well', or because some herb, vitamin, or healing technique will cure you. The track record is ultra clear : going off medications makes your depression worse.

Cancer

A reader writes :

>> If I do learn that I have cancer, where do I go next?

To doctors who deal with cancer.

Too many people keep acting as if there is some sort of either/or regarding faith and medicine. There is not. God works through prayer. God works through doctors. God works through other human beings. (God also works through you!) Having your church's elders pray over you is a good idea. It's an act of praise even in the face of danger. But that should not stop you from getting the best medical help you can get, as soon as you can get it. None of it may stop the cancer. But then again, it just might. Cancer's the result of a created world which is out-of-whack (or 'fallen') in relation to its God. I would trust that God will use whomever or whatever is needed to get this cancer thing gone.

Hot Legs

A reader writes :

>> Just came across your site and was reading about
>> the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. One that I wonder
>> about is a burning heat in the knee that
>> comes and goes - any suggestions?

To be honest, it sounds more like the body's trying to counter the effects of overwork of the knee, or of arthritis, or lupus. To be anything like a 'manifestation of the Spirit', its timing each time would have to match up with something happening to you spiritually. You would likely notice or recall the spiritual effect most, not the burning knee. Pray for the knee's healing. (Sometimes when some praying person lays hands on an unhealthy part of the body, the part touched then heats up really hot -- manifesting the 'miracle' part of physical healing, which itself is the Spirit at work.)

Strange things happening to a body are usually bio-medical, not spiritual, except that ultimately all illness is a part of this universe's being out of whack from its Creator, and all healing is ultimately its Creator at work to bring it back in synch.

When There Is No Healing

I've gotten many of these letters over the years :

> A woman's daughter was dying. Her friends brought in this other woman who
> claimed to be a healer and a prophet. She went to the hospital, prayed over
> the daughter and anointed her head. Then, she prophesied to the mother that
> the child would live. The child died the next day. When the prophetess heard
> about this, she said that it was because the mother didn't have enough faith.
> The mother turned to her pastor, who told her that it must be so, otherwise
> the daughter would have been healed. The mother has turned her back on the
> Christian faith because of this, and runs from her former friends, who
> really miss her much. What happened, and what should we do?

What happened is that her friends' lack of discernment fed the mother's desperate desire to believe anything that might give her back her child when everything else says the child will die. When someone is in that state, they'll cling to anything for hope, and the Devil sends his people around to be that 'anything'. Hence the 'prophetess'.

Someone with real healing gifts would know better than to promise or guarantee a successful healing. They know from experience and Scripture that they don't know why things happen the way they do in this broken world, and that the child may not (but also may) be healed. They know healing is a gift from God whenever it is done, it is not really under the healer's control. They can be confident that a healing will take place, but never anything resembling certain. Thus, the 'prophetess' reveals herself as false by the very fact she declared that the girl will be healed. You can't expect the mother to discern such things in the state of mind she was in, so her friends, and then later her pastor, have the responsibility to discern for her. And they did not. Whether she believes or disbelieves in healing or prophecy, she's still totally desperate. If this promise wasn't there, the mother would have grabbed another. Wouldn't you if it were your child? That's what makes this kind of a lie so evil - the mother has so little choice. The guilt trip is so heavy, and so hard to resist.

Now that it's happened, the best thing to do is let the passage of time settle things down. Later on, opportunities may arise, and she may be more open again. But don't force anything. She's angry, and has every right to be.

Spirithome.com warns hard against the belief that the failure to be healed is caused by a supposed 'lack of faith'. Some also see the use of anti-depression meds as a 'lack of faith'. Faith does matter, but in a different and positive way -- the presence of faith sets the groundwork for healing possibilities which may or may not happen. Mis-faith or lack of faith, however, is not generally to blame for failure of faith healings. There are too many other reasons we are ill and die. This is a material world that is out of kilter with God. Because of that, we all die. Because of that, any one of us can die anywhere at any time from any number of causes. That's the way of the world -- no exceptions. No amount of faith changes that. (Nor can any medical treatment change it.) It isn't the way God wants it to be. (That's why there's a died-and-risen Christ.) It is, however, the way it is till the Kingdom comes in full. And we must come to terms with it.