JVW

duplicate post

I don't have an answer for you. I've been asking members about what the difference is between "praying for someone to be healed" vs "giving someone a healing blessing" for around 15 years now and am not really any closer to understanding the difference. However, I have learned a lot about the priesthood, generally, in that same timeframe and maybe a few insights I have will help tackle the question you pose in this thread. The church defines priesthood as the "power and authority of God". Authority is easy to understand. Someone gets pulled over for speeding, if a cop issues a ticket that person is in trouble, if it's a neighbor that ticket is getting tossed in the bin. When anyone says a prayer, they do not need any authority. Prayer is a relationship building tool. I don't need any authority to make a new friend, or write a note to my crush in high school, or to ask for help studying, etc. So why does priesthood need authority and not just power? I believe that the power of God is, by definition, "to be the answer to the question 'What would Jesus do?'". If one is acting with God's power, they are acting as his agent/proxy/etc. They are speaking what He would speak, acting as He would act. They are His hands, His feet, His mouth. A cop representing the government has authority as long as they are employed and in good standing. But they only have power as long as they act the way the government would act. If they act contrary to who they represent they will be stripped of their power and authority. So, if someone says a prayer, they can say, and ask for, anything they want without restriction and God will do whatever He feels like in response to the prayer. If someone has authority in the church to give a priesthood blessing, they can say whatever they want and God will do whatever He feels like in response to the blessing. If someone has authority, but also has God's power, they will speak as God would speak if He were in the room giving the blessing. In this case, truth is revealed, the Spirit is present, and God's will and man's will are in alignment. This includes if God's will was to inflict pain and then cease that course upon the recipient being blessed, or vice versa. I personally believe that a father's blessing, baby's blessing, healing blessing, and comfort blessing are pretty much the same as praying over someone. And I think that blessings, in general, are more a result of tradition and culture than they are a vehicle for manifesting God's power. But I'm still learning and am probably wrong.