The Meal That Heals

The Meal That Heals

3. The gifts of healing and miracles (l Corinthians 12:7-10) 4. The spoken Word (Psalms 107:20) Christ, His disciples, and the New Testament apostles would lay their hands upon the sick to impart healing (Mark 16:18). According to Mark 5:30, those who exercised faith could literally feel the healing virtue (power) enter their bodies. Numerous examples are found where the sick were cured through the ministry of the laying on of hands. Laying on of hands is also a basic doctrine in the Christian church (Hebrews 6:2). In this manner, the anointing was transferred from one person to another: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Acts 10:38 The second New Covenant method is anointing the sick with oil and praying a prayer of faith. Notice that forgiveness and the healing prayer of faith go hand in hand. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” James 5:14-15 Oil is a symbol of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Under the Old Covenant, when the olive oil was poured out upon the heads of the kings, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon them (1 Samuel 16:13). It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that breaks the yoke (Isaiah 10:27). In the early church, the elders (the older and spiritually mature men in the congregation) would pray over the sick and anoint them with oil. If the prayer was offered in faith, the sick would be healed. The healed individuals were then required to confess their faults one to another, and to pray one for another:

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