Some Of The Benefits Of Christian Meditation The reality of meeting with Jesus in this way is a principle benefit. But it must not be either over-emphasised nor under-emphasised. The first is a danger because actual experience of meditation will vary considerably from day-to-day or as between prayer periods on same day. Few people with considerable experience in meditation would deny reality of this meeting.

But some with limited experience may tend to overstress these encounters. They get carried away with what Holy Spirit is providing for them over a particular period of time. But Spirit deals with us in very different ways at different times.

On other hand, these experiences are real, of great value and bring many blessings and should not be ignored. Certainly, we should avoid becoming "hucked" on them. That is a real possibility and must not be allowed to happen. People like John of Cross have warned repeatedly about such dangers.

Allowing Freedom For The Holy Spirit To Work Moreover, we need to allow Spirit to balance graces he is giving us. This requires mixing meditation periods on gospels with other periods on, say, letters of New Testament, or Psalms are a good source for beginning to meditate on Old Testament.

One of greatest benefits which a Christian has in his relationship with God is very fact that God dwells within him. For example, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:12 that we have not received spirit of world, but we have received Spirit who is from God. The reason for this is so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

When we do understand that, we understand that he needs to be given both freedom and opportunity to work within us to maximum possible degree. Only in that way shall we continue in process of becoming like Jesus. That, after all, is what our lives are about.

One can spend considerable time teaching individuals how to pray with other for healing, laying stress on how specific prayer should be. But so many people, when it comes to actually praying, fall back into something like "Oh Lord, please heal him/her in all ways he/she needs healing".

Somehow, God is so good that no prayer is a waste of time, but this kind of prayer probably comes very close! Certainly, praying like that will not result in many healings.

Focus your prayer exactly on problem. If they have cancer, or a damaged vertebrae, or Aids, or a cold, pray exactly into that!

Letting God Be God Anyone can pray with another for healing. And anyone can see that healing take place - because God's love for us is so great. However, his knowledge and wisdom are also very great and he sees things differently to us. So we shall not always know why a particular healing does not happen. Sometimes it is down to factors we are discussing here. Sometimes it is due to similar ones we do not have space to included here.

But sometimes nonhealing is due to something which we shall never know about. We need to do all we can, certainly. But when that has been done, there will always be cases which defy explanation. On other hand, there will also be cases where God works in such a sovereign way that we are left speechless at "how" and "why" of it.

Sometimes, in either of these instances, we just have to let God be God"

5.Gifting Anyone can pray with another for healing. But if we feel called into healing ministry, we really ought to get ourselves prayed with for a gift of healing.

Just as God can heal without us, so he can empower us without any assistance from anyone else! But unless we know ourselves to have been specifically blessed in this way, we really ought to seek prayers of others.

What others? Well, any Christian who know what he/she is about. But there does seem to be a definite advantage in being prayed with by someone known to have a gift of healing themselves. Many healers will themselves testify to this. God can give when anyone asks, but...

About The Author A K Whitehead Web Site: www.christianword.co.uk Experience: Over twenty years in Christian healing and teaching. Qualifications: B.A., M.Phil., Camb Univ Cert in Religious Studies Conditions of use: This article may be reproduced on condition that it is unaltered and that all this information is included.