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the gift of healing


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It's a gift of the Spirit. Some people have it, and others don't (D&C 46, Moroni 10, etc.). The gift to be healed is also one. 

I have found with those close to me (including myself) that people can and do have gifts not enumerated in their patriarchal blessings. 

B.H. Roberts (who wasn't happy with his p.b., even though it was a very good one, in my opinion) was told in his p.b. that he had the gift of healing. His first child was very sick (scary sick), and he was afraid to give her a blessing (he feared failing). His wife kept asking him, and the Holy Ghost told him powerfully that if he did not bless his child, he would lose this gift and it would be taken away. He blessed her, and the child recovered (from his Autobiography, dictated shortly before he died). 

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I don't know that I get this.  I haven't seen it in action.  I know of a number of cases wherein a person blessed another and the other got better, but I know of more cases where no blessing was administered and yet the person got better too.  I'm also aware of cases where in a priesthood holder blessed another saying he/she will get better but then that person got worse and died, often immediately afterward.  The same blesser in a couple of cases felt particularly prone to healing others as a previous blessing or two before had the ill person get better. 

I say if God feels any need, desire, or willingness to heal another, He hardly cares if the one is given a blessing or not, at least it doesn't seem like it.  I think we do it because it seems spiritual and makes us feel better particularly as we struggle to articulate some of this spiritual stuff. 

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2 hours ago, Avatar4321 said:

how do you get it?

The following excerpt from Bruce R McConkie's 'A New Witness for the Articles of Faith' answers your question briefly yet comprehensively. Virtually every sentence from this except supplies much food for intensive thought and discussion. I'm especially fascinated by the line I placed in bold..

 

 "How do men exercise faith? If they have an occasion to heal the sick, raise the dead or move mountains, how is it done? Faith is power, but what causes the power to flow forth and accomplish the desired result? As an introductory explanation, the account we are studying [The Lectures on Faith] asks: "What are we to understand by a man's working by faith?"

"By way of answer, the account says: "We understand that when a man works by faith he works by mental exertion instead of physical force. It is by words, instead of exerting his physical powers, with which every being works when he works by faith. God said, `Let there be light: and there was light.' Joshua spake and the great lights which God had created stood still. Elijah commanded, and the heavens were stayed for the space of three years and six months, so that it did not rain: he again commanded and the heavens gave forth rain. All this was done by faith. And the Saviour says: `If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, say to this mountain, "Remove," and it will remove; or say to that sycamine tree, "Be ye plucked up, and planted in the midst of the sea," and it shall obey you.' Faith, then, works by words; and with these its mightiest works have been, and will be performed." (Lectures on Faith 7:3.)

But working by faith is not the mere speaking of a few well-chosen words; anyone with the power of speech could have commanded the rotting corpse of Lazarus to come forth, but only one whose power was greater than death could bring life again to the brother of Mary and Martha. Nor is working by faith merely a mental desire, however strong, that some eventuality should occur. There may be those whose mental powers and thought processes are greater than any of the saints, but only persons who are in tune with the Infinite can exercise the spiritual forces and powers that come from him.

Those who work by faith must first have faith; no one can use a power that he does not possess, and the faith or power must be gained by obedience to those laws upon which its receipt is predicated. These we have set forth. Those who work by faith must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father. They must accept at face value what the revealed word teaches as to the character, attributes, and perfections of the Father and the Son. They must then work the works of righteousness until they know within themselves that their way of life conforms to the divine will, and they must be willing to lay their all on the altar of the Almighty.

And then -- when the day is at hand and the hour has arrived for the miracle to be wrought -- then they must be in tune with the Holy Spirit of God. He who is the Author of faith, he whose power faith is, he whose works are the embodiment of justice and judgment and wisdom and all good things, even he must approve the use of his power in the case at hand. Faith cannot be exercised contrary to the order of heaven or contrary to the will and purposes of him whose power it is. Men work by faith when they are in tune with the Spirit and when what they seek to do by mental exertion and by the spoken word is the mind and will of the Lord. (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pp.191-192)"

Edited by Bobbieaware
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3 hours ago, stemelbow said:

I don't know that I get this.  I haven't seen it in action.  I know of a number of cases wherein a person blessed another and the other got better, but I know of more cases where no blessing was administered and yet the person got better too.  I'm also aware of cases where in a priesthood holder blessed another saying he/she will get better but then that person got worse and died, often immediately afterward.  The same blesser in a couple of cases felt particularly prone to healing others as a previous blessing or two before had the ill person get better.

I say if God feels any need, desire, or willingness to heal another, He hardly cares if the one is given a blessing or not, at least it doesn't seem like it.  I think we do it because it seems spiritual and makes us feel better particularly as we struggle to articulate some of this spiritual stuff.

I have tried to come to terms for years with our inability to determine when a healing has occurred.
I am convinced sometimes adminstrations heal the sick and sometimes they fail and sometimes people get better on their own and it is attributed to administration.

I have wondered if the lack of a way to determine success is part of God's plan.  I mean, if the world knew that the priesthood 100% always healed cancer (unless that person was appointed to die) people would be lined up at LDS chapels, it would no longer be an issue of faith because we'd have demonstrable evidence, and administration would then become a cure all regardless of God.
I think he allows results to remain murky for a reason.

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The gifts of the Spirit are real - I have no doubts about this. I beleive that the first thing we should do is to recognize the spiritual gifts we have.  Should we seek other gifts we do it in the same manner we seek after understanding the mysterious of God.  It is possible, but it comes with living a commited life of faith, devotion, and holiness.  To me it is the ultimate path of discipleship which often goes unexplored by most of us. 

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13 hours ago, stemelbow said:

I say if God feels any need, desire, or willingness to heal another, He hardly cares if the one is given a blessing or not, at least it doesn't seem like it.  I think we do it because it seems spiritual and makes us feel better particularly as we struggle to articulate some of this spiritual stuff. 

but prayer can cause a good placebo-effect, which helps. Perhaps that is why Jesus said "your faith has healed you". 

However, there is no evidence that prayer works for heart patients.

Quote

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the effect of intercessory prayer, a widely practiced complementary therapy, on cardiovascular disease progression after hospital discharge.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

In this randomized controlled trial conducted between 1997 and 1999, a total of 799 coronary care unit patients were randomized at hospital discharge to the intercessory prayer group or to the control group. Intercessory prayer, ie, prayer by 1 or more persons on behalf of another, was administered at least once a week for 26 weeks by 5 intercessors per patient. The primary end point after 26 weeks was any of the following: death, cardiac arrest, rehospitalization for cardiovascular disease, coronary revascularization, or an emergency department visit for cardiovascular disease. Patients were divided into a high-risk group based on the presence of any of 5 risk factors (age = or >70 years, diabetes mellitus, prior myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular disease, or peripheral vascular disease) or a low-risk group (absence of risk factors) for subsequent primary events.

RESULTS:

At 26 weeks, a primary end point had occurred in 25.6% of the intercessory prayer group and 29.3% of the control group (odds ratio [OR], 0.83 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.60-1.14]; P=.25). Among high-risk patients, 31.0% in the prayer group vs 33.3% in the control group (OR, 0.90 [95% CI, 0.60-1.34]; P=.60) experienced a primary end point. Among low-risk patients, a primary end point occurred in 17.0% in the prayer group vs 24.1% in the control group (OR, 0.65 [95% CI, 0.20-1.36]; P=.12).

CONCLUSIONS:

As delivered in this study, intercessory prayer had no significant effect on medical outcomes after hospitalization in a coronary care unit.

 

Aviles, Jennifer M., et al. "Intercessory prayer and cardiovascular disease progression in a coronary care unit population: a randomized controlled trial." Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Vol. 76. No. 12. Elsevier, 2001.

Edited by MormonVideoGame
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35 minutes ago, MormonVideoGame said:

However, there is no evidence that prayer works for heart patients.

Are you so sure?

Key questions:

Were such prayers from faithful people who concretely believed in a God of miracles? Or were such prayers from nonbelievers/doubters going through the motions - reciting things they didn't even believe in? Was there any statistical difference between the two groups?

What of the level of faith in prayer/healing among those prayed for? Any attempt to gauge that? What of those who had zero belief in the power of God to heal?  Was there any statistical difference between the two groups?

What of believing people praying, matched with believing patients. Any statistical difference there?

Without reliable answers to questions like that, the study has zero merit claiming to have measured the efficacy of prayer. Especially when the NT instructs that something very specific should be happening in addition to genuine prayer and faith. (As in, "Yes, Dr., I know the patient urgently needs oxygen and meds and saline I.V. in order to stabilize, but just for curiosity's sake, let's try without any of them just to see what happens, k?") 

Edited by probablyHagoth7
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On ‎3‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 1:20 AM, MormonVideoGame said:

but prayer can cause a good placebo-effect, which helps. Perhaps that is why Jesus said "your faith has healed you". 

However, there is no evidence that prayer works for heart patients.

Aviles, Jennifer M., et al. "Intercessory prayer and cardiovascular disease progression in a coronary care unit population: a randomized controlled trial." Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Vol. 76. No. 12. Elsevier, 2001.

president Nelson would disagree. It was with much fasting and prayer for him and his patient that the Spirit revealed how to perform a certain heart valve operation that has since saved many lives

Edited by Avatar4321
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13 hours ago, probablyHagoth7 said:

What of the level of faith in prayer/healing among those prayed for?

No study can answer that question, but when a faith healing doesn't work many say "it's because you didn't have enough faith"  

"Largest Study of Third-Party Prayer Suggests Such Prayer Not Effective In Reducing Complications Following Heart Surgery"

http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/html/3_31STEP.html 

"Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16569567

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6 hours ago, Avatar4321 said:

president Nelson would disagree. It was with much fasting and prayer for him and his patient that the Spirit revealed how to perform a certain heart valve operation that had since saved many lives

Guide to the Scriptures says, "The object of prayer is not to change the will of God"

Do you have any evidence (statistically) that prayers work for heart patients?  

 

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On March 24, 2017 at 1:06 PM, Avatar4321 said:

how do you get it?

D&C 42 (if memory serves) teaches that to some is given the "gift to heal" and to others the "gift to be healed". I have experienced both...but like all gifts we can seek them out, and if we are diligent, we will not seek in vain. D&C 20, teaches of the duties of each office, those who hold the Priesthood are entitled to all the responsibilities and blessing of that Priesthood. Others are just given such gifts from before the foundation of the world. My Mother on more than one occasion healed me, it was a natural ability. 

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6 hours ago, MormonVideoGame said:

Guide to the Scriptures says, "The object of prayer is not to change the will of God" 

Does that mean the sick don't really need prayers to heal?

 

No.

It means one object of prayer is to discover/know God's will...

...and then, if need be, get up off our knees and do our part to help it unfold.

 

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It seems from the scriptures about Christ's miracles, that spiritual gifts come with a caveat. The recipients must also participate to some extent. There were places where we are told the Christ could not perform any miracles because of the unbelief/ lack of faith of the people.

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