5: 12-16 As Jesus was traveling from one village to the next teaching, he met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed to him with his face to the ground and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Jesus reached out and touched him saying, “I am willing. Be healed!” the leprosy instantly disappeared. Back in the time of Jesus, leprosy was considered a highly contagious and devastating disease. Individuals who had leprosy were isolated from others to prevent spread of the disease. It would be unheard of for someone to have a conversation with a leper, much less touch them. Jesus touched the man regardless, sending the man who had been isolated, an amazing amount of genuine love and healing!
Jesus asked the man not to tell anyone what had just happened. Instead, he instructed him to go to the priest to be examined and to take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. He indicated that by doing this, it will be a public testimony that he had been cleansed. By submitting the offering according to the law of Moses, that would be visual proof of the man’s healing as opposed to just a verbal testimony before the priest.
Despite Jesus’s instructions, word got out and people began flocking to him to hear him preach and be healed of their diseases. I wonder if the draw to Jesus at that time for most people was to be healed and not necessarily hear God’s word. I’m sure there were individuals who went for that reason and upon hearing Jesus teach, had their hearts pricked and changed. Jesus often went off in the woods, out to remote places where he could pray without interruption. I’m sure it was overwhelming with people coming up to him wanting to be healed.
There was a time in my life where I stumbled upon healing. I am in no way equating myself to Jesus. I am simply outlining my experiences and understanding the need to spend time with God.
I had an amazing experience with my daughter when she became very ill with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. At the time, I didn’t know what was going on. She became very hot, but cold at the same time. She could not walk and was like a rag doll, just wanting to sleep. I took her to the doctor and after an hour of asking questions, bloodwork, tests, and finding out she had been bitten by a tick 2 weeks prior, the doctor decided to treat her for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever until the test came back.
I was so worried about her! After the doctor’s appointment, I took her to my apartment and laid her down on the couch. She asked me to pull up the bottom of her shirt as her stomach felt hot, and asked me to put my hands on her stomach. The couch was right next to a sliding glass door that overlooked a small patio on the third floor. I saw a light come in through that door and go into my daughter’s body. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had! She went to sleep for three hours and when she woke up, she was fine. All her symptoms were gone. We got the test results back the following week and she tested positive for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
That started my journey into energy healing. I would go on walks on a nearby wooded trail at a local park and had the most amazing experiences along my walk. I learned that I could put my hands about an inch or so over someone’s skin and would feel a great deal of heat, and sometimes cold. I learned that I could feel their energy. I prayed and talked to God as I moved my hands about an inch over their head, neck, arms, stomach and legs. There were times when my hands would get really hot and tingle and I felt the need to stay in that area. I asked God to use me if needed, to move love through me to them and to heal whatever pains or sickness they may be experiencing. I had no idea what I was doing, but knew from the very beginning that “I” was not doing anything. All “I” was doing was allowing a love that I did not completely understand at that point to move through me and into the other person. I would talk to the person afterwards and tell them what I felt and where and to my surprise, the areas that my hands were attracted to, the areas that when I moved over them, I would instantly feel really hot to the point at times where I would sweat from the heat or get very strong tingling sensations, were the areas that they had either recently experienced pain in or had some previous challenges with.
This was something that I was very uncomfortable with as I didn’t understand it and didn’t want to be labeled as “strange” for doing something that I could not even explain or was unsure about, but there were times when I would be around someone and I would get a very strong feeling to ask them if I could try something that may help them and if they said yes, then would stumble across my words as I had no idea how to explain it. I ran across an ad for a workshop on Reikki and attended it. It was not exactly what I had stumbled upon, but it was close and it gave me a way to explain to someone what I was asking them in a way that they could understand without me having to do a lot of explaining. In an attempt to try to understand it, I also attended a Buddhist Temple, some Shaman workshops and read some books on Edgar Cayce, and even worked with someone for awhile who was connected to the Edgar Cayce Institute and wanted to test what I was experiencing.
What I found through all of this is that working with others started to drain me. Many times, I would come home and would be very tired. I had heard to protect myself before working with others by surrounding myself with a bright, white light, among other things. These things would work temporarily, but not permanently. I started to get very drained. I learned that I cannot give what I don’t have. When connected to the love of Jesus and the love of God, the love that is exerted does not end. Once I learned about this, and spent 2 years learning about my past experiences and my role in them and examining where my thoughts, decisions and actions come from things started to change. I learned that there is nothing I have to physically do. I just have to love others unconditionally, right where they are, which includes a lot of listening and not a lot of talking, and always ends in lifting them up in prayer. When I started to love others in this manner, instead of coming away drained, I came away energized!
I could understand why Jesus would go off in the wilderness, into a remote area where he could pray without interruption. It is easy for me to give and give until I feel that there is nothing more in me to give to others and where I start to feel drained and unappreciated. It is so important for me to have time in the early morning to talk with God. To read the Bible, to meditate on God’s word and to pray. This helps to keep me in balance as I go throughout my day, talking with others and helping them through the work I do as an Accountant and as a friend/wife/mother/daughter/sister-in-law/employer. I need that quiet time with God in the morning to help me stay focused and to walk with God throughout the day so that I don’t intervene and try to take over, which never works out very well!
Jesus was not only human, but was divine as well. He had human experiences while on earth, with crowds of people following him to listen to him teach, wanting him to heal them or someone they knew, or just to witness the healings that he did and at the same time, had the Jewish leaders after him wanting to kill him. I’m sure the time he spent in the wilderness in prayer talking to God, his Father, helped him to process all that he was experiencing and to bask in God’s love so that he could continue to walk among the people as part human and part divine, spreading love and God’s message.