Spiritual healing means first of all, healing from sin.
Sin itself is seen as a sickness, a wound in the soul and can be a cause of diseases in the body "people brought to him a paralysed man, lying on a bed.
When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the paralysed man courage my son! Your sins are forgiven (Mt9. 2)
Similar forgiveness can be seen in the stories of the prodigal son,
the woman caught in adultery,
and
Zaccheus.
Healing was integral to Christ's ministry and was continued by the apostles as the Holy Spirit worked in them as he had in Christ, Healing spearheaded evangelization by the early Christians but when it declined after the time of Constantine the theory was propounded that it was a special gift for the beginning of the Church. Now a renewed understanding of the sacraments and especially those of reconciliation and anointing of the sick makes it clear that healing is a central work of the Church as it was of Christ Nor is it limited to the ordained ministers because we know that the Holy Spirit works in all members of the Church and Christ promised that we are to do the same works as he did himself and indeed greater works.
The four Gospels give many accounts of healings by Jesus.
In Saint Matthew we read Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues preaching the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people (4 23) and he takes up the same words when speaking of the sending of the twelve on the mission Go and preach, the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases and drive out demons
(10 7-8)
The disciples drove out many demons, and rubbed olive oil on many sick people and healed them (Mk 6 13)
It is easy to understand that when the subject of healing is raised many people think first of physical healing but this is only a small part of the total healing ministry. Someone can be healed by medical science of a serious illness and yet remain deeply embittered, the illness is cured but the person is not healed.
Healing ministry is about using the gift of prayer for healing. It is not what we do through our own gifts, but what we do in the name of Jesus Jesus himself said In my name they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover (Mk16 18)
The message for all of us is a message of great hope.
We must accept ourselves as Christ made us and be convinced that we are truly precious in his sight. This is called healing of the self- image and is the first step towards healing of our relationships with others through forgiveness and the healing of our memories through changing the way we remember the past. There is no question of a special technique: it is simply a matter of willingly and honestly bringing all our past hurts and resentments before Christ and asking him to heal them while giving us the power to forgive others.
When inner healing does not take place in response to our prayers it is almost always because of a variety of barriers which we place in its way such as lack of self-acceptance or lack of genuine repentance.