Article January 13, 2014 Issue

How long will this take?

Michelle Nanouche

Someone asked me online why some healings through prayer take longer than others. Here’s my response from the heart, and from my own experience, which is the only way I can see to answer such a sensitive, and often angst-filled, question. Someone also asked if I thought healing through prayer is going on as readily and rapidly as it did in Christ Jesus’ day, or even a hundred years ago. This prompted me to list for myself, on paper, every “major” healing I have had. In the end I had quite a number—from walking pneumonia, to broken bones, to a growth in one breast. I left off the bouts of flu, colds, or family arguments that evaporated quickly after prayer.

As I reflected on these experiences, I realized that there are two ways one could tell their life-story. One is as the history of the catastrophes, large and small, that they have encountered, and how they have been overcome. The other is by tracing the thread of spiritual growth and revelations of God’s goodness that have unfolded through daily experiences with prayer. I think that what we focus on as our story line speaks directly to this question of “Why is my healing taking so long?”

In every one of my own healings, consecrated prayer has resulted in a perception shift. Healing prayer involves looking at life from a divine perspective and being willing to work from this new point of view. Prayer develops spiritual sense, and spiritual sense is a capacity we all possess to understand and see divine reality without the encumbrances of fear, pain, or doubt. When one understands that what he sees and feels through spiritual sense is the actual state of true being, consent occurs, evidence changes, and we call this change a healing. To my sense, the book of Ephesians in the Bible gives a good explanation of what occurs in healing prayer: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (4:22–24).

About the author

Michelle Nanouche is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher, and a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship. She’s based in Paris, France.

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