Times of Healing and Spiritual Renewal

Spiritual Healing

Spiritual Healing is about working with illness, dis-ease, and dis-harmony from multiple angles.

When using spiritual healing to address illness, we focus on bringing harmony back to reinforce a person’s whole body-heart-mind health.

Healing vs. Curing

In modern society, we expect quick fixes. Western medicine focuses on curing people through surgery, pharmaceuticals and other medical interventions. If you have a bacterial infection, western medicine provides the cure, antibacterial medicine.

Many treatments exist in western medicine. Treatments focus on curing symptoms. For example, medications are used to treat symptoms of depression and pain. Treatments can be beneficial in acute situations.

However, long-term reliance on only treatment can inhibit healing, create a dependence on the treatment and even create additional illness and disease.

For example, antibacterial medications often create an imbalance in the gut.

Healing goes beyond medical treatment. It includes spiritual growth, intellectual expansion, physical cures and other interventions. Healing requires digging deeper into why you got a bacterial infection in the first place and why you have depression and pain.

Healing is usually a mixture of interventions – physical medical and non-medical, energetic interventions and mental interventions. When we transform the cause of illness/disease and grow beyond the problem, we are then focused on healing.  Healing is a whole package deal. Addressing only one element of an illness rarely leads to healing.

In spiritual healing, we create a medicine story for ourselves that includes both a curing process and a healing destination.  We create a spiritual prescription for the body, heart, and mind and then embark upon a healing journey.

Spiritual healing is a path of transformation, a journey that connects the body, heart and mind to free the soul.

The Spiritual Healing Journey

A spiritual healing journey addresses physical, emotional, mental and spiritual toxins.  In this way, we eliminate toxins that undercut the soul. We then release motion that splits a person away from themselves.  Doing both allows a person to heal and become whole.

Healing the soul is the combined healing interventions for the body, heart, and mind.  Many of us think of one action and then act upon another. For example, I may think I want to write today and then physically go to the beach instead.  Or, we feel strongly about one need and yet physically move in a different direction.  It happens all of the time, every day, for most of us.

One of my teachers, Gabrielle Roth, says it this way in her book Maps to Ecstasy,

“We need to do right by our body, purify our relationships, use our mind for creative freedom and not enslavement, free the soul from the ego, and undertake the spiritual journey.”

So, what does doing right by our body mean?

Check in with your body on a daily basis.  How does it feel?  Does it have any complaints?

• Eat Healthily.  What does this mean for us now? Can we eat less sugar?  Are we still eating fast food?  Do we drink enough water?  Find small ways to improve dietary habits.  Eat more vegetables.  Eat more local and organic foods. Learn more about diet.  Choose one thing and move forward!
• Exercise.  Finding exercise we enjoy and can easily integrate into our daily life is one of the biggest challenges many people face.  Try dancing, walking, surfing, jumping rope, swimming, yoga – try whatever calls to you – until you find an exercise that you feel practicing! Taoist Longevity and Lifestyle
• Care for Your Body.  Get a massage or have a spa day with a friend.  Go to the chiropractor or physical therapist.  Find a circle of healers who will care for your body and address any complaints it might have proactively.
• Sleep. Are we getting an appropriate amount of sleep? Do we feel rested? Create an evening sleep ritual. Turn off the TV. Take an evening soak by candlelight. Listen to a favorite audio meditation or put on some relaxing music.

Typically, when we take care of the body, we are also taking care of the heart and mind!  Remember to start and build body practices in a way that can be easily sustained and expanded over time. There is always something we can do for our body!

What does it mean to purify our heart, relationships, and personal energy field?

• Balance Giving and Receiving.  Are we giving and receiving in our close relationships?  Or, are we mostly giving?  Or, only receiving? Read more about The Yin and Yang of Support
• Practice Loving without Judgement.  No heart can be pure if it is constantly comparing and judging others right or wrong. Find a supportive coach or counselor to help you release judgment.
• Increase Awareness around, Build & Maintain your Energy.  We are exposed to toxic energy at work, in relationships, and from the TV/internet. First, begin reducing the negative energy you receive on a daily basis. Then, find an enjoyable practice that helps build and maintain energy.  Qigong, light visualization, and acupuncture are a few of our favorite energy practices.

How do we free our mind and use it to grow and create a life we love?

• Practice meditation.  There are so many wonderful meditation practices to help keep our mind clear. Casey has a morning meditation he teaches and loves. There are numerous styles of meditation. Try several and practice the one that resonates the most for your body-heart-mind!
• Pursue intellectual challenges. Read, take a course, pursue a degree and find ways to challenge your mind to grow.
• Tell stories. We are our story: so talk story and write out your stories. In Remapping Your Mind: The Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story, Lewis Mehl-Madrona talks about how stories help us rewire our neural pathways and transform our life.

How do we free our soul up?

• Practice.  Soulful people have a connected body, heart, and mind. They aren’t fighting themselves. So, by finding the practices you love for your body, heart and mind you will free the soul. You will experience more moments where your thinking is aligned with your feelings and the physical motion of your body. Consider a destiny coaching session.
• Build Mana. Be willing to build your spiritual power, so you have a strong body without complaint, energy to fulfill your dreams and a clear mind able to make choices in the present moment without doubt and distraction. In this way, you will free your soul to create a life you love!
• Revisit and Practice Daily. Check-in to be sure your practices are still resonating for your body-heart-mind. Are you starting to feel a zombie going through the motions? Maybe it’s time to try a new practice or deepen your practice!

Spiritual Healing: Undertake the Spiritual Journey

While we practice keeping our body healthy and happy, our emotions and energy balanced, our mind clear and sharp, sometimes there are spiritual aspects of illness, dis-ease, and disharmony. Our medicine story may benefit from a spiritual intervention.

• Regain Power. In shamanic cultures, it is important to be full of power. Power gives us the ability to be the authors of our life (rather than a character being directed by others). One way to restore power to a person, family or community, is through a power animal retrieval. We’ve created a ten minute audio meditation to help you connect to a power animal. It’s part of our membership and can be accessed through Personal Tao on Patreon along with other patron-only audios, teachings and meditations.
• Remove misplaced energy. There is no good or bad energy. There is simply energy that is stuck, not where it is supposed to be and often simply needs to be moved. The energy practices you adopt will help with this. However, it can be helpful to have a shamanic practitioner help you move energy that has been misplaced in your body.
• Retrieve lost soul parts. When we experience trauma in life, a part of us leaves to protect us from experiencing the trauma full on. This is called soul loss in shamanic cultures. And, a soul retrieval is a shamanic method for bringing back lost soul parts so that we may be whole again.
• Reconnect with your ancestors. Know your Mountain. We stand on the shoulders of others, and it is important to be rooted in this. Otherwise, we risk becoming ruthless. Being connected to our ancestors, family, and friends who love us is critical to all medicine stories. Ancestral healing, with ancestors who have passed on in the last 100 years, often helps physical issues that won’t resolve.
• Be the Light.  Healing with Spiritual Light is a cross-cultural spiritual healing technique that helps transmute negativity and toxins within and around us. As your body, heart, and mind come more into balance and harmony, removing stones that have accumulated in your bowl of light over time, you find that you can hold your core in a strong, energy-filled way. You can walk through life filled with light, shining bright and inspiring others to be in their light more and more! 

Spiritual healing involves healing the body, heart and mind so that the soul can be whole.

Often, it takes more than one intervention for us to heal, as well as daily practice. This is the path of our destiny, creating a bigger story for ourselves and our loved ones, so that we may move through life in a connected, fulfilling way.

Spiritual healing is about being the author of your very own medicine story.

Jewelie has completed Sandra Ingerman’s Soul Retrieval Training and is listed as a shamanic practitioner. She offers Long-Distance Soul Retrievals and Spiritual Healing sessions. Contact us for more information and to schedule a spiritual healing session!

Join our next Spiritual Healing Small Group via Zoom – $99 for 4 sessions!

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Источник: //personaltao.com/soul-spirit/spiritual-healing/

Renewing the Church as a Healing Community

The evangelical church is going through an identity crisis. It doesn’t know how to adapt to the fast-changing secular culture and at the same time remain faithful to its biblical mandate and moral authority.

Even the emerging churches are trying to define themselves theologically, missionally and culturally.

But the church does have a key role—a clear mandate to be a healing community in the midst of a broken world.

There are currently several problems for the church being the healing community it needs to be. Key issues include

1. Feelings of isolation and insecurity:Why do pastors have a besieged mentality? Why do so many churches hate their pastors? Why do pastors have difficulty making friends? Is this related to the “pedestal syndrome?”
2. Feelings of futility and helplessness:Church leaders don’t know how to handle the problems of pluralism, secularism, and wounded members.
3. Feelings of uncertainty and anxiety:Evangelical churches and seminaries have lost their direction in their attempt to be relevant and successful in a time of change and uncertainty.

The net result: Many pastors feel overwhelmed, discouraged, trapped and burned out. The ministry is no longer exciting. Sermon preparation becomes painful. The attrition rate among clergy is alarmingly high.

A Clear and Compelling Vision

We need to ask God to grant us a clear and compelling vision—to move us forward with a clear sense of direction and confidence. Without vision, especially in a pluralistic, postmodern world, pastors perish.

First, the vision has to be clear. There should be no ambiguity, no ifs and buts, and no disconnect between our beliefs and actions.

Secondly, the vision has to be compelling. If the vision comes from God, it will stir our souls, transform our lives and move us forward, regardless of the circumstances.

Thirdly, it must be sustaining. It must enable pastors to survive repeated blows of insults and disappointments. A vision from God will also be compelling to the congregation because it resonates with them and speaks to their deepest spiritual and psychological needs.

Fourthly, it recaptures our first love for God, restores our passion for the ministry and reinforces our calling. That is how we overcome feelings of futility and anxiety.

Somewhere along the way, we may have lost our vision and lost our first love. But it is never too late to return to the fundamentals.

The Church as God Intended

When a local church is what it ought to be, and functions as God has intended, it is the best place on earth. It is the centre to minister the grace and love of God.

This is part of a larger vision for the church. That vision at my church is summed up in the mission statement “Growing disciples through community.” It is a simple statement that tells people who we are, what we do and how we do it. It represents a drastically different way of disciple making, and avoids the excesses of one-on-one shepherding.

We believe that a faith community serves five essential functions: healing, learning, serving, worshipping and praying (see Acts 2).

From this new vision, healing is not restricted to healing services or one-on-one counselling sessions. It is an ongoing process — whenever we extend love and “embrace” to others, we participate in the healing process, because love is the best medicine.

The full benefit of God’s grace can only be experienced in the community of saints as we minister to each other, and care for each other.

What is the Nature of Community?

Community is a fragile eco-system, because when there is a malfunctioning even in the weakest system, the entire system is adversely affected.

It is a delicate gift of grace, because no one really knows when and how a group of strangers come together and merge as a community. Something magical must have taken place.

Community, be it family, church, or school, is held together precariously by some invisible and intangible force, in spite of the conflicts. This something must be guarded jealously and carefully, because a careless hurting word can destroy it. One major task of the pastor is to foster and maintain the gift of community spirit.

Community is a way of life, because Christ calls us to share, serve, heal, work and worship together.

The Theology of a Healing Community

First, we acknowledge that the Trinitarian God is a community. God works through community, through the social institutions ordained by Him, namely, the church, family, and nation. Most of the spiritual blessings are mediated through the church rather than directly from God.

The ministry of healing is at the centre of divine atonement and Christ’s sacrificial death. The two sides of the cross are: Christ is wounded for us so that we may be healed; we are wounded for Christ so that others may be healed through us.

Our hearts need to be broken by what breaks God’s heart. The ministry of healing is at the centre of the Gospels and the early churches. The Bible is full of references to healing.

The Gospel is good news because it gives us hope that we can be made whole again.

The Theology of Holistic Healing

The Gospel is about healing for the whole person—spiritual, mental, emotional, social and physical. The healing is even extended to the nations (see Revelation 22:2) and the cosmos (see Romans 9:19-21).

Churches require healing because of human weaknesses. A church can become terminally ill and eventually die, if it does not seek divine healing.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

This verse has been mostly used in personal evangelism, but it is actually extended to churches, which are very successful in terms of attendance, buildings, and cash flow, but very poor spiritually.

Another thing to notice is that healing can be painful—it may involve surgery and destruction before there can be renewal and healing.

The Full Extent of Healing

Scripture speaks to the full scope of healing:

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor” (Isaiah 61:1).

“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18).

“He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness” (Matthew 10:1).

The Psychology of a Healing Community

We are created in God’s image; that’s why we are created for God and community. We are relational beings.

Henri Nouwen wrote, “We are always in search of a community that can offer us a sense of belonging.” When this need is not met, all kinds of psychological problems arise, such as alienation, anger, depression, and violence.

Our yearning for wholeness, happiness and significance cannot be met without being part of a community. The crumbling of social institutions creates a greater psychological need for the church to be a healing community.

Real healing occurs at the spiritual level. It means that all problems, whether physical or psychological, are related to spiritual issues. That’s why the church should regain its role as a major partner in the medical and mental health field.

Building a Healing Community: Margaret Rinck

Margaret Rinck’s 1992 article was reprinted as a Christianity Today classic in August 2000. Rinck reported that her church’s Teleios Ministry equips believers to offer help to the hurting through empathetic listening skills, combined with biblical teaching on relationships.

Her theology of failure emphasizes that human failures and problems are inevitable for Christians. This theology provides a basis for creating a safe and non-judgmental environment.

“To help people recover from sin and failure’s wounds, we need to create a ‘healing community,’ a place where it is acceptable to be broken, have problems, admit failure, and where help is expressed in concrete practical ways,” she wrote.

Building a Healing Community: A Broader Vision

It is a broader vision, because (a) it goes beyond adopting some skills from psychology, and (b) it advocates the development of the full redemptive potential of the church for healing.

The entire church needs to be a safe, trusting, and caring environment. Carl Rogers says that the counsellor creates a therapeutic relationship through unconditional acceptance (safe), positive regards (caring) and genuineness (trusting). All church members, especially leaders, need to be trained in Rogerian skills.

The ministry of grace is practiced through embrace, which involves intentional vulnerability, forgiveness and unconditional love.

Members need to explore new ways of coming together and joining together in ministry (e.g. through the Internet, community development initiatives, etc.)

The Role of the Pastor in Implementing the Vision

This vision of the church as a healing community casts a new light on the pastor, and introduces a fundamental shift in how we do ministry. There are four important roles for the pastor:

1. Be an example, a model of a wounded healer made whole. You set the tone for the church by way of your personal example of being open, trusting, and caring. Pastor, heal thyself!
2. Be a promoter of the new vision. You need to raise the awareness and consciousness of your congregation regarding the healing nature of the faith community through your preaching, planning and interactions with others.
3. Be a developer of leaders. Train, delegate, and empower lay leaders. Give them opportunities to grow.
4. Be a servant leader. Don’t stay on the pedestal. Don’t maintain a façade of being strong, self-reliant and independent.

Conclusions

A healing community is an ideal that is difficult to achieve. Success and failure largely depend on the pastor.

Only pastors are in a position to cultivate and maintain a “healing climate” through worship services, teaching, small groups, servant leadership, one-on-one counselling, and more importantly, through providing a safe, trusting and caring environment.

Only then can the church as a healing community minister the grace and truth of Jesus and in so doing move people from brokenness to wholeness. Such a church and will enrich our lives and contribute to a better world. The stakes are high. God has created us for community-building and grace-sharing with all hurting people.

Источник: //www.drpaulwong.com/renewing-the-church-as-a-healing-community/

10 Signs You May Have The Spiritual Gift Of Healing

The spiritual gift of healing is the Holy Spirit-given ability to impart miraculous healing to the body or soul of a person in Jesus’ Name.

‘Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers…’ 1 Cor 12:7-10a

Sometimes when we are in the early stages of a spiritual gift manifesting in our lives, we struggle with doubts or uncertainty.

In the Bible, trial leads to triumph; the presence of a difficulty is an indication that God will use you in that area to minister to others. If you can relate to this in the area of healing, be encouraged to persevere. Be faithful. Steward the hunger and gift that God has given to you.

1. Desire to see People Healed

You feel more strongly about healing than other people seem to do. You are hungry to see people healed by the power of God and may have had that desire for a long time.

2. You Encourage Others to Receive Healing Prayer

You believe in praying for the sick and regularly encourage others to receive prayer. If someone shares they are unwell, your first instinct is to pray.

3. Prophecies or a long-term sense of God’s call

• You can look back to a time(s) in the past where you received the call of God to the ministry of healing
• You may have significant Bible verses that have spoken to you about your call to the healing ministry
• You may also have received personal prophecies about God using you in the ministry of healing

4. You Gravitate Towards the Healing Ministry

Your interest in praying for the sick has led you, now or in the past, to join a team that prays for the sick. This could include a dedicated healing ministry, healing evangelism team, prayer ministry or a church prayer or altar team.

Remember, you will have a unique healing gift – the way the Holy Spirit ministers through you may be different to others.

5. You have Received a Significant Healing

You have experienced first hand the power of God to heal in your own life and that encounter with Him has increased your faith for God to heal others.

6. You have had Trials in the area of Health

You, or others close to you have had severe trials in the area of your health, with illness and problems. These times have caused you to pursue God, His Word and His heart concerning healing.

7. You have Been Through a Difficult Time in Your Healing Ministry

You used to pray for people and see them healed, but since then, you have been through a dry or difficult time. There have been wilderness times of testing, during which you have doubted that you have a gift of healing.

8. You are Drawn to Equipping in the area of Healing

You have studied the Bible to learn more about healing and know Scriptures about healing off by heart.

You have been drawn to teaching, training and equipping in the area of healing. Your heart leaps when you hear of an opportunity to be better equipped to pray for the sick.

9. Leaders Acknowledge Your Healing Gift

Leaders and pastors have recognised your call and ability to minister in the area of healing. They have encouraged you to move forward in your gift or invited you to join a team that ministers in the area of healing.

10. People Have been Healed Through you

The ultimate sign that you have a gift of healing is seen in the evidence of healing through your ministry. People regularly experience a touch from God emotionally and physically when you have prayed for or ministered healing to them.

Do you Identify with Some Signs you have a Healing Gift?

Can you identify with many points in the above list, but do not have a strong track record of people being healed as you minister to them in Jesus’ Name?

My prayer is that this article will encourage many who have received a call from God to minister healing to rise up, pursue that call and minister to the sick with greater fire and passion than ever before.

Be faithful with what you have and watch as God multiplies and uses your gift of healing.

Why we Pray for Healing:

• See more about why we pray for healing here.

1. The Bible’s example: the Bible teaches it, Jesus did it, the disciples did it, and the early church did it (Luke 5:15, Acts 4:30, Luke 10:1-9)
2. Pastoral care: Ministering healing is an important part of expressing God’s compassion (Matt 9:35 – 10:9, James 5:13-16)
3. Praying for healing encourages people to connect with God in times of need (Matt 14:34-36)
4. Prayer makes a difference (Matt 18:18-20)
5. Obedience: Jesus instructs us to pray (Mark 16:18, Matt 28:20
6. Evangelism: a sign for unbelievers (Matt 8:8-18, Luke 10:8-9)

A spiritual gift is a turbo-boosted, Holy Spirit empowered version of an attribute that should be seen in every Christian’s life. Whether or not you recognise a sign from the above list that you have a spiritual gift of healing, be encouraged to step out and minister to people in Jesus’ Name, and watch as God’s power is released.

Notes:

[1] I have compiled the above list from years of Bible study, observation, prayer leadership and learning from the stories of those whom God has used in the ministry of healing. For more detailed information about the stages of growth in spiritual gifts including healing, along with Scriptural references, see my book, ‘Grow Your Prophetic and Prayer Gifts.’

‘Grow Your Prophetic And Prayer Gifts’ will help you move forward in your gifts of prophecy, healing and prayer – at whatever stage or season you are on the journey of growing your gift.

Related Posts:

7 Reasons Why You Can Pray For Healing

Discover Your Unique Healing Gift

8 Signs You May Have the Spiritual Gift of Discernment

3 Simple Ways to Pray for Healing

© Helen Calder  Enliven Ministries

A part of the David McCracken Ministries family

Источник: //www.enlivenpublishing.com/blog/2015/09/15/10-signs-you-may-have-the-spiritual-gift-of-healing/