Learning about Healing

Something that I've really wanted to understand is about praying for healing. Jesus told people that it was their faith that healed them, and the gospels record that He didn't do miracles in certain places due to the the people's lack of faith.

I can definitely say that I have not had much faith for healings in the past. How could I believe that God would heal someone if I didn't know that that was what He wanted to do? So many people pray and don't get healed. Do they all have too little faith? Maybe it was just that God didn't want to heal in those cases. So one day it occurred to me: Ask Him. I was so tired of guessing at what He thought was good. I wanted to know Him. And I knew that whatever He wanted to do, heal or not, would be good.

Every prayer was a little different. One time, a friend of mine was sick in the hospital after undergoing some treatments, and each day as I prayed, the Lord would lay different needs on my heart. I got to see God answering those needs directly. I would become aware of a specific need and feel God's great compassion. Then I simply asked the Lord to care for it. He was laying His own desires on my heart and then doing the work to care for them. I truly became just a vessel for His love and power.

At first I had thought that the goal was to see miracles, but I have learned through these experiences of asking His will that He often just works through natural systems like medicine or an immune system to care for people. I think He was often protecting people from further harm. And sometimes He intervened in clearly miraculous ways. But the common factor is His care for His people.