No one can enter the field of healing, either as practitioner or as patient, without his inner nature being remorselessly laid bare. He is entering a field of the closest type of relationship: God is the centre and the people involved are the periphery, the circumference of the circle. Each is essential for the working of the whole. The energizing power is provided by the Spirit of God, who is the Life-giver as well as the One who shows the way. The way is a purgation of such an intensity that each person is brought to a confrontation of the essence of God within himself. The spark of the divine is both the source of encouragement in times of doubt and the measure of judgement during excesses of self-adulation, when one really believes one has the answer to the engima of life or that God is wholly on one's side. And so we are buffeted by an encouragement that keeps us moving and a restraint that stills us in its severity. God desires the whole person for himself, the blemishes so healed that the chastened heart can with confidence present itself to its Maker.
Why does a person become involved in the healing ministry? There is only one answer that is authentic: he or she has been called to it, just as Jeremiah was called to the prophetic ministry even at the time of his conception. The obedience to God cost him very dearly, almost his life on several occasions, but he could not stand back. In the story of Jonah the attempts of the prophet to evade his duty are ludicrously foiled by God, who looks down at the antics of his servant with amused patience and good-humoured tolerance. Had Jonah actually had the effrontery to reject the divine call categorically, he would have died, since he would have shut off the inflow of the Holy Spirit on whom all life depends. In fact, one can as easily close one's soul to that divine command as one's lungs to the need of air. The tension mounts rapidly to such a pitch that repentance is inevitable. This, incidentally, is the answer to those who believe that they have not heard the divine injunction and fear that their lives are being wasted in the wrong type of work. When the call comes, it is so clear that it cannot be mistaken. Even if, as in the instance of Jeremiah, the summons is one of dedication to the point of ceaseless pain, it none the less causes the heart to leap to attention with a joy that overrides any personal reservations.
The call to heal is from God. It is his will, we may be sure, that every person should be healed, since God's nature is love. But the divine way of healing far transcends our own limited understanding. We look for an immediate cure, whereas God requires no less than a complete change of perspective, a metanoia, in fact, so that the individual may perform his apportioned task properly, while at the same time growing into the stature of the complete person shown definitively in the lives of the world's saints; in the Christian tradition Jesus would be the model as well as the destination. Therefore our life on earth is an adventure. We are essentially strangers here, for our true home is in the heaven of mutual recognition and sharing, where we can be fully ourselves in the presence of the One whose radiance infuses all things, bringing them immortality. The way is hard and solitary; each of us marks out his or her own tracks, for no two lives can ever be identical in their journey, even if they share a common destination. And so to feel called to heal contains within the summons an arrogance that has to be faced and surmounted, and a trepidation that is to be accepted and yielded to God, as did the prophets of Israel. Usually it is the arrogance that predominates in many healers; time, however, disabuses them of many childish preconceptions.
Though the call is divine, the mouthpiece of God is usually another person firmly established in a healing ministry. It is less common for the person to know intuitively that he or she has a healing gift. In my own case, I was aware of such a possibility, but it needed the ministry of the friends I have already mentioned to bring the gift to the surface so that I had the confidence as well as the self-criticism to commence the work. After the send-off the work is slow and lonely. Of the three friends, one did offer to support me, but in fact he was so immersed in his own activities that he probably forgot his offer: in the end this was rather fortunate, because my approach was dissimilar to his, due as much to differences in personality as to theology and background training. How I longed to possess his psychic powers, until I began to see how intrusive they could be! Not only are such gifts unreliable, no matter how assured the practitioner may be, but they almost inevitably lead to an unwelcome invasion of the client's inner sanctuary of peace and a superior attitude of judgement over that person. Jesus had such powers of inner vision - it was claimed of him that he knew men so well that he needed no evidence from others about a person, for he himself could tell what was in a man (John 2:25). But the difference between a truly spiritual intuition and a merely psychic intrusion is that the former is authoritative and benign, whereas the latter is coloured by the invader's prejudices and is potentially harmful to the person whose psyche has been invaded. Admittedly, in the ministry of deliverance, intimations of the inner disposition of afflicted people may be vouchsafed one, but they are fleeting and only immediately useful for the cleansing work at hand.
Here indeed we come squarely against a temptation that lies ahead of all those who feel called to the healing ministry: the lust for power with its corresponding desire for recognition. Many people enter the paranormal fields of adventure because they are dissatisfied with the crude materialism of the world around them. This dissatisfaction may stem from a variety of sources. Many seekers have personality problems that burden them with a feeling of inferiority. Their showing in the world of affairs may have been less impressive than might have been wished. The lack of the recognition they feel is their due may have led them to more obscure fields of endeavour where they can attain a more "occult" type of knowledge with the power promised by skilled practitioners in that field. To claim healing powers is certainly an attractive prize as much for the boost it affords a cowering personality as for any material recompense. One becomes a member of a self-styled élite, a gnostic sect who can disdain the beliefs of ordinary people, to say nothing of the dogmas of orthodox religion. When one knows the hidden meaning of the Scriptures and sees the plan of life in all its glory, one - not unnaturally - feels decidedly superior. The superiority may appear to be related to society generally, but it is at heart an escape from the memory of the previous impotence of the seeker when he functioned as an inconsequential worm in a world of material values where affluence was the criterion of success. Such an individual may be approached by the leader of the group and told he has healing powers. Alternatively the message may come through a medium in the course of a spiritualistic seance or less spectacularly during casual conversation. At any rate, his ego has been boosted, and though his state of inner health is appalling, he is intent on nothing less than bringing healing to others! Well does Christ enjoin us to remove the plank from our own eye before we proceed to take the speck out of the eyes of those around us (Matthew 7:5)! In fact, this clearance of vision is a life-long process; if we were to wait for perfect sight, we would never be fit to help anyone else. As we strive to be of assistance in the humility of graciousness, so our vision, both physical and spiritual, does tend to strengthen. But we have to learn to call on the name of the Lord first, and not depend on any man-made contrivances, to say nothing of the indeterminate agencies liable to inhabit the psychic field.
Another, far more reputable, entrance to the healing field is through the Church's ministry. The healing ministry, so vital to the work of Jesus and of his disciples during the events described in the Acts of the Apostles, seems to have gradually dropped out of fashion as the power of the Christian Church waxed in political strength allied to military force. But a witness of healing was preserved even if it had to flourish underground. It has even been argued that the miraculous healing powers of Jesus and his immediate circle were a special dispensation of God, and not to be relied on, let alone cultivated, subsequently. Healing was to be of a more rational nature, associated with the scientific method and requiring the discipline of the human mind: the end was to be modern medical practice, whose advances, even in our own short time of witness, have been truly breathtaking. "Dispensationalism" is no longer accepted as a part of orthodox doctrine, but its insight should not be dismissed as pure heresy: we have to participate with our whole being in the never-ceasing creative acts of God in our small world. This is both our duty and our privilege. Although Jesus could perform the miracle of feeding the five thousand with bread and fish (an episode recounted in all four Gospels, as if to emphasize its special importance), St Paul relied on the more usual way of collecting money from the various communities in the Diaspora to relieve the needs of the parent church in Jerusalem, especially after the prophet Agabus had forecast a severe famine in the region (Acts 11:27-30).
In more recent times the healing ministry has come progressively into its own. Not only have gifted individuals like Constance Peters emerged, but the larger movement of Renewal, also called the Charismatic Movement, has manifested itself, often with dramatic insistence, in the mainstream Christian denominations. There can be no doubt that this Renewal has deepened the spiritual life of many previously nominal churchgoers, as its results have opened areas of awareness that had before been hidden. It seems as if the previous emotional and intellectual barriers of the person are broken down, so that the God who knocks so persistently at the tightly shut door of the soul can now be heeded and welcomed inside. The joy of recognition is great; the unintelligible, though very meaningful, language of "tongues" (also called glossolalia) is a response of the soul to its newly acquired intimacy with God (as seen in the person of Christ). The barriers of fear, suspicion and intellectual arrogance are surmounted, and the Holy Spirit pours through the personality of believers so that they feel they have been born again into the faith that they inherited secondhand but have only now come to know and to own. Not only may there be a dramatic inner healing of the person's psyche but the power of God may also effect amazing changes in the outer vesture, which is the physical body. Such, at any rate, would be the theory underlying the experience of Renewal, both personal and communal, and there is much truth in it.
A meeting of Renewal has elements strangely reminiscent of those encountered in frankly psychic groups. The Spirit flows through the meeting, imparting to various members important individual directives, while a "word of knowledge" issuing from the mouth of someone present may seem to be directed quite deliberately to the condition of another member of the group. Not infrequently a member may be specifically commissioned for a particular ministry in the Church; healing is one such example, though often a large group would be engaged in the work. The "word of knowledge", like the instruction given by a medium in a spiritualistic meeting, is itself open to question: Is it really an instruction from the Holy Spirit (or a discarnate source in the case of a spiritualistic seance) or merely the opinion of the speaker directed to the person already known to him (or her)? Discernment alone can furnish the answer; my own view tends naturally to scepticism, but on occasions it seems as if a genuine stranger does indeed receive a message remarkably pertinent to his or her situation and helpful for its progress. More usually the communication is of such a general quality that it can apply equally to a great number of people with difficulties or perplexities about their future actions.
There can, however, be no doubt that the Pentecostal churches and their counterparts in the mainstream Christian tradition, both Catholic and Reformed, have renewed the strength of the healing ministry and brought to the fore a number of celebrated ministers of healing - a term I prefer to "healer", which lays too much stress on the individual's gift. If esoteric teaching tends to make its practitioners feel rather a cut above the general run of humanity so that they can look down with pity on the ignorance of the masses, including the devout churchgoers, the Renewal Movement can hardly avoid inflating its adherents with a conviction of infallibility inasmuch as the Holy Spirit himself is their inspirer and guide. As St Paul would put it, "If God is on our side, who is against us?" (Romans 8:31). The deduction is therefore only too easy that those who do healing work under non-Christian auspices - and especially those with spiritualistic affinities - are allied to the powers of darkness which produce immediate relief only to draw their victims more inextricably into their grasp prior to their final destruction. The fact that phenomena typical of Renewal can also be encountered in non-Christian esoteric circles is attributed to the mimicking powers of the devil, who can impersonate the angels of light so convincingly as to deceive the very elect.
Can the desire to heal have a dark undertone? Certainly there have been, and are, people with a conspicuous healing gift whose personal character has been far from wholesome. The notorious Russian healer Rasputin gained control over the royal household to the extent that the government of the country was under his malign spell; his assassination by two highly placed aristocrats sparked off the Russian Revolution that saw the murder of the royal family and the implementation of a communist dictatorship that has constantly persecuted all forms of worship up to the present day. On a less dramatic level there have been healers who have so controlled the lives of their clients that they have been forced to sacrifice their power of personal judgement to the whim of their despotic helper. It would no doubt be comforting to the believer if one could place all such predatory healers in the esoteric, spiritualistic camp while exonerating all Christian Charismatic individuals from this tendency, but in fact there is no sharp line of demarcation between the two groups. Each has its dictatorial, despotic element that does much harm by threatening those it treats with dire retribution if they do not carry out the recommendations of the practitioner in question. It is only too clear that the minister of healing in both groups may be inspired with amazing faith while remaining distressingly immature as a human being. It has been asserted that the healing consequent on the Charismatic Renewal Movement is permanent, while the effect of the non-Christian camp is temporary and indeed often succeeded by even worse trouble, but this again is open to question. I have seen remarkable results stemming from both groups, and also disastrous failures. Much seems to depend on the gift of the practitioner and his inner sanctity; unfortunately, even Christian Charismatic groups have their dark residue. Jesus does well to remind us that not everyone who calls him "Lord, Lord" will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of his heavenly Father. Even such charismatic feats as prophecy, deliverance and miracle-working do not automatically receive the divine accolade even when performed in the name of Christ (Matthew 7:21-23).
It seems to me that God's will is love, inasmuch as God is love and our own love is contingent on his love for us. Therefore anyone who practises the ministry of healing in an attitude of love for the person he is treating is at least on the right path. The more he can surrender his own desires to the divine will, the more harmless he will be, and the more benefit will follow his ministrations. But if he nurses hatred in his heart, his work is almost certain to be undermined, no matter how impeccable his theology may appear. Members of Renewal groups hate the devil and all his works. Since they believe they are guided by the Holy Spirit, it follows, according to this reasoning, that any other avenue of spiritual healing is demonic. The criterion of acceptability soon narrows down to a dogmatic scriptural literalism, notwithstanding the wide range of religious experience described in the Bible and the progressive revelation of the nature of God that emerges as the pages unfold. The God of terrible wrath of the Genesis-Exodus period slowly broadens to the God of benign justice of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament and the loving God of many of the prophets (especially Hosea), Psalm 103, and finally much of the New Testament. Furthermore, as the nature of God's love unfolds, so does fear recede into the background: there is no room for fear in love; perfect love banishes fear (1 John 4:18).
The fear of the devil of many members of the Renewal Movement brings a dark shadow, a heavy sediment of hatred, into the depths of the group. This does not mean that we should have a liberal, permissive view that minimizes the terrible power of evil in the world. It simply reminds us that if we fight the enemy with his own weapons, we shall come to resemble him more and more. Jesus' advice about not setting ourselves against those who wrong us, and loving our enemies (Matthew 5:38-48) may seem visionary and otherworldly, but especially in healing matters it is remarkably practical. Our protector is God. In him alone is safety. This is a hard teaching to practise, for it stretches our faith almost to the point of breaking. But as soon as we take matters into our own hands, we assume the divine prerogative and the results are lethal: the various persecutions and inquisitions of the past are our warning lights, while the Holocaust and other atrocities of our own century show us the end of hatred. "Justice is mine, says the Lord, I will repay" (Romans 12:19). St Paul goes on, in verse 21, to enjoin us not to let evil conquer us, but to use good to defeat evil. The good thing is love, not naked force, which has never won the final victory, since it always leaves a residue of hatred lurking in the background, waiting patiently for its own time of revenge.
In my opinion the gifts of healing (whether by contact, counselling relationship, discernment of spirits, or simply an outflowing, affectionate temperament) are innate. Just as one person may have a natural aptitude for music or mathematics, for athletics or finance, for government or scientific research, so there are others who display some healing gift. As St Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, there are a number of spiritual gifts, and a single individual is unlikely to excel at them all (unless he, like Jesus, is a divine genius). Indeed, it is quite right that we should be deficient in some qualities, so that we may learn to receive in humility and not only bestow our gifts with a superior graciousness on our lesser brethren. These gifts, whether of healing or of more secular attainment, are morally neutral. They can be used for the public good or the individual's private gain.
The second way brings with it more immediate dividends, but in the end we find that the gift becomes a prison rather than an asset; we have to cling onto it at all costs since our very identity hinges on its display and the ensuing acclamation. Those who tread the "occult", psychic path are in constant danger of the gift's dominating them and, like Frankenstein's monster, eventually encompassing their ruin. In addition, they are open to psychic assault by malign elements in the milieu in which they function - these elements may be both human and demonic. It is for this reason that I strongly discourage people from getting involved in spiritualistic circles and groups that explore the "occult" dimension. The question is simple: "Who is in command?" There can be only one proper answer, God himself, if the exploration is to be safe. But, in fact, it is the group leader or some psychic intermediary that dictates the work, which invariably comes to a sticky end, no matter how sincere the protestations of the participants may be. How easy it is to delude oneself with spiritual platitudes when the ego is simply looking for new fields to conquer! And yet natural psychic openness is not bad in itself. Without it our relationships would be barren intellectual forays, with a strong element of sensual stimulation thrown in, such as we witness among our animal companions.
I believe that one of the functions of the Renewal Movement in the Church was to elevate natural psychic gifts to spiritual excellence, with God in Christ as the true leader as well as the destination of our endeavours. Just as divine grace perfects nature, so that it starts to function as God would have it and not according to the aberrant working of selfish humanity, so do the natural gifts of God (for he is the Provider of all things in heaven and earth) acquire an added radiance when they are dedicated to him and, by extension, the whole of the created order. The two great commandments, to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbour as ourself, are thus affirmed, remembering that the love of God must precede all other proclaimed love if that love is real and not merely a clinging possessiveness. Once we know and can, in our own feeble way, reciprocate the love of God, we no longer need the support of our human brethren to substantiate our own identity. Then at last we can love them for themselves alone without looking for any response, let alone reward. Love, like virtue, is its own reward, and when it can be received in innocent trust, it brings with it a glorious healing radiance. This is the divine illumination that should infuse all human activity, whether physical, mental, emotional or psychic (remembering that the psychic field is closely linked to the emotions and rather more distantly to the reason).
Unfortunately that divine love is not always to be found in Renewal groups. As we have already noted, fear and hatred are sometimes distressingly evident, so that the fully renewing power of the Holy Spirit has not been allowed to cleanse and radiate the psychic faculty as well as it might. We cannot control the flow of God's Spirit, who blows where he wills and not only along those channels we have constructed for his passage. If we are not fully open in trust, the Holy Spirit cannot enter into our lives, and so we remain on the periphery of divine healing. In this way the movement of Renewal has often had a divisive effect on congregations and not the unifying one seen with a full working of the Holy Spirit - "Spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit gives" (Ephesians 4:3).
It is indeed a venture of faith to enter the healing ministry. It is truly falling into the hands of the Living God. We may feel that we are especially gifted to have been called to heal, but first of all we have to be healed ourselves of all illusions as well as the many impurities that sully our private lives. There is one Holy Spirit who is the Author of healing as an integral part of his life-giving function. His inspiration plays on all those engaged in healing work, whatever their belief or personal integrity. Just as God makes his sun rise on good and bad alike and sends the rain on the honest and the dishonest (Matthew 5:45), so his Spirit is with us all in our work day by day. I have no doubt that all healing has a common source, but unfortunately the rays can be deflected and misdirected by sinful people. Whether a healing ministry is divine or demonic depends not so much on the professed beliefs of the practitioner as on the purity of his heart. The acid test is that of Jesus: you will recognize them by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-20). These are the fruits of the Spirit of which love, joy and peace are the first three - the others are patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and, last but not least, self-control (Galatians 5:22). One's way into the ministry may seem, on later reflection, to have been decidedly suspect and one's early associates extremely eccentric, if not deluded, in their own belief systems. But one learns to plough one's own furrow as experience opens one's mind to new revelations of the Holy Spirit.