Divine Healing

And God was performing extraordinary miracles

by the hands of Paul, so that cloths or aprons were

even carried from his body to the sick, and the

diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.

~ Acts 19: 11-12

Divine healing should not be confused with “faith healing” or “spiritual healing.” Divine healing is the effect of the Holy Spirit upon our natural beings. When the sick, suffering and demon possessed touched Our Lord Jesus Christ, virtue went out of Him ~ the power of the Holy Spirit flowed from the Saviour. Divine healing can be experienced through the following means:

The laying on of hands in His name.

Anointing with chrism.

The prayer of Faith.

Fasting and prayer.

Anointed cloths.

Gifts of healing.

The Eucharist.

Important prerequisites include:

Establishing a proper relationship with God and asking for forgiveness of sin.

Recognising that Christ bore your sickness and afflictions.

Pray and believe. Give glory to God for your cure.

Divine healing via prayer cloths:

Paul was stranded on the island of Melita (Malta). Unable to travel, God revealed to him the ministry of blessed cloths. The blessed prayer cloth is a point of contact, but the healing power derives from the risen Lord. In 1997 the Nanteos Cup was revealed to British television viewers, and in 1998 to an American television audience, in two separately made documentary films about the Holy Grail. The precise location of the Nanteos Cup nevertheless remained guarded. Both television programmes featured the Reverend Peter Scothern and the Bishop of Glastonbury, the Right Reverend Seán Manchester OSG, Primate of the Apostolic Church of the Holy Grail. Prayer cloths anointed with chrism and immersed in water poured into the Nanteos Cup, an olive wood bowl thought by some to be the vessel used by Our Lord Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, was demonstrated by the Reverend Scothern. Bishop Manchester, filmed at Glastonbury Abbey for the American documentary, provided the genesis of the Holy Grail from Palestine to England, and, in the English film, spoke from the chapel in the Holy Grail Retreat Centre of the supernatural healing properties attributed to the Sacred Cup of the Last Supper.

Divine healing via the laying on of hands, prayer and the Eucharist:

Members of Ordo Sancti Graal provide the ministry of healing through the laying on of hands and prayer. Those in the sacred priesthood also visit and provide the Eucharist to those who are unable to leave their home or bedside. Apart from prayer, the presence of a minister is naturally essential to administer the Holy Sacrament or to heal through the laying on of hands. Where this is not practical, owing to sheer distance, blessed prayer cloths can be sent through the post. The sick may nevertheless have their intentions included in the Eucharist celebrated in their absence.

Divine healing via prayer of Faith:

The apostle James said to the Christians of his own time: “Is anyone among you sick? 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 offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him (James 5: 14).”

Divine healing is a gift of God’s grace made available to us through the atoning ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, predicted this when he wrote: “With His stripes we are healed.” Before Our Lord was crucified, He was savagely scourged ~ receiving many stripes. Christ suffered and “He Himself took away our infirmities, and carried away our diseases (Matthew 8: 17).” ~ “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross … for by His wounds you were healed (1 Peter 2: 24).” Jesus paid the price for our salvation and healing. Divine healing is the children’s bread, ie the right of every true believer in Jesus Christ. Do not lose heart if you are not healed straight away. The nobleman’s son in John’s Gospel began to recover from the hour the Lord spoke the word of healing. The son was not instantly made whole. The blind man from Bethsaida was blessed twice by the Lord. He was not immediately restored. Naaman the Syrian leper washed seven times before he was eventually cured. Do not confuse healing with a miracle. To heal means to recover.

Exorcism:

Some mention ought to be made of the ministry of exorcism on which the Grail Church places much importance. Our Lord Himself was an exorcist throughout His earthly ministry and many of the healings in the Gospels are indeed exorcisms. The Primate of the Apostolic Church of the Holy Grail was an exorcist for many years prior to taking holy orders (the exorcistate being a minor order). The duty of the exorcist is to cast out demons, to administer water at the sacred functions, and to lay hands upon the possessed. By the imposition of the exorcist’s hands, the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the words of the exorcism, the unclean spirits shall be cast out from the bodies of the possessed. An exorcism should not be carried out in normal circumstances without the permission of a bishop. Sadly, this essential ministry has been seriously neglected of late, and even abandoned in some quarters, by mainstream churchianity which, by doing so, has rendered itself virtually defenceless against the wiles of the devil. Holy Scripture instructs us to “put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness of this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens (Ephesians 6: 12).” A monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord attests.

“Where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side (Romans 7: 21).” Our frailty, whether bishop or priest, makes us one with those whom we serve, and we are saved from any suggestion of smugness or self-satisfaction. We view those who work with us as friends, in the same way that Christ calls His disciples servants no longer but friends. The ministry of exorcism especially requires those chosen to be marked by piety, prudence, knowledge and holy humility.

“He who was healed did not know who it was; for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place (John 5: 13).”