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Evangelist

Nuala Watt
Nuala Watt Community member Posts: 30 Listener
Hey - I have spastic diplegia and a visual impairment. Someone I know has discovered God, and thinks I should pray to be healed. I find this very difficult. I'm used to evangelists in the street saying this - I can't get out of their way all that fast - but no one I know has done it before. I explained that I didn't want to be healed, but I'm not sure she could understand this. She said she had wanted to be healed from her mental health problem. I've had mental health problems in the past and understand wanting them to get better, but I don't think cerebral palsy is the same thing. I'm fit and well and mostly happy - I just have some unusual brain lesions but my life is quite good and I'm doing a Phd and have a partner and am mostly in a good place. I'm not sure how to deal with the evangelism nicely. She used to be a good friend, but I think this is quite a big gap. I wish she could accept me as I am. How can I react well? I understand that this is an expression of concern for me, but it hurts. A real miracle would be if everywhere was accessible and everyone could accept cerebral palsy without turning a hair. Lots of people can. Any polite ideas? Not sure how to react. Cheers. Nuala

Comments

  • RonnieH
    RonnieH Community member Posts: 2 Listener

    I have been in this situation before, and the nicest thing I can think of to say to them is that I respect that they want to believe in god but its not for me and I would appreciate it if they didnt pressure me into it.

    Hope this helps

    Ronnie
  • mollymoobarnes
    mollymoobarnes Community member Posts: 107 Listener
    Hi Nuala

    I have had this too - a friend is a Baptist and they always want to pray for my 2 year old son Tom's recovery but I just tell her that I don't believe that if there is a God he/it has that kind of control - that if I were to believe in a higher power, its one that that made the world like a clockmaker makes clocks. Basically he just wound it up and let it go on it's merry way. If our God has that kind of control why do kids die or good people have bad things happen? If God had that kind of control then would my son either have to received brain damage in the first place or been healed without the need for prayer? Just tell her that you value her friendship but don't subscribe to her beliefs.

    Maria x
  • JordanMcGrory
    JordanMcGrory Community member Posts: 2 Listener
    The couple of times I have this from strangers were both awkward enough - I'm not sure I can fully imagine what it must be like from friends but here goes:

    Perhaps debating the nature of god and his choice to make you disabled is the wrong approach entirely. Taking theology with believers, particularly devote ones is a bit of a brick way. Try just telling them that you're happy and that really, that's all you feel you can ask from god or life in general? Hopefully the approach from within their world view will land better.

    Alternatively I'd echo Ronnie's comments just explain that you aren't religious and would not be comfortable being prayed for.

  • chelskipete
    chelskipete Community member Posts: 4 Listener
    I'm an adult with CP and a Christian. I would suggest that people who are asking to pray for you to be "healed" without getting to know you and engage with you about the process of preying are na
  • Nuala Watt
    Nuala Watt Community member Posts: 30 Listener
    Thanks guys, that's helpful and thank you for making me laugh chelskipete,
  • Fundamentalist
    Fundamentalist Community member Posts: 133 Courageous
    Hi from Fm. There is a lot of misunderstanding here. First of all it is wrong to blame God for disability, or anything bad. There not only is a God but there is also evil forces at work in this world that can ruin people's lives and cause all manner of dreadful things to happen and some people unfortunately get themselves involved in unGodly practices and cause harm to their children when they reproduce and it then runs through families for several generations. That is what happened to me. Also it's not a perfect world and God gave people the free will to do with it what they pleased and you can see the results, just look at the news. And also there is things like chemical poisoning which can cause damage to unborn children, that is another thing which people, not God are responsible for. And if you look in the Gospels there is a scene where Jesus healed someone from CP. Anyone who wants to investigate healing further check these out: www.cfan.org.uk  and  www.propheticvision.org.uk These sites are run by long serving and internationally respected Evangelists who have decades of experience of getting people healed. They know a lot more about it than I do. At the end of the day of course folk can believe what they want but I know there is definitely an all seeing and all knowing and all powerful God up above because I have experience of him, I don't just believe words in a book or what a preacher says, I know from real life experience and that is what matters, there's no substitute for experience. And Evangelists are only trying to help, that's their job and their duty so don't be so disrespectful. Fm.
  • bam
    bam Community member Posts: 326 Pioneering
    Hello@Fundamentalist how are you doing today? Please remember there are a lot of people on here who worship many different religions. No one's faith is greater than another's. Please remember to respect the fact that people have differing views on the subject of religion. This is a very loving community and remember to try to keep it that way. Please respect other people's religious preferences. I hope you have a really nice night.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 740 Listener
    edited March 2017
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Sam_Alumni
    Sam_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,671 Disability Gamechanger
    Did anyone see the BBC3 documentary Heal me in the name of Jesus? We were talking about it in the Coffee Lounge.
    Scope
    Senior online community officer
  • Fundamentalist
    Fundamentalist Community member Posts: 133 Courageous
    Hi from Fm. Unfortunately there is some real serious misunderstanding here. The word "faith" has become far too widely misunderstood and misused as a result, most likely because it's so widely misused on TV, especially on the news by people who don't understand it. First of all faith and religion is NOT the same thing as is so commonly assumed. That is now a widespread gross misunderstanding. The Bible defines faith as being sure of things not seen. The book of Hebrews chapter 11 explains it more. An good analogy would be a bit like this. If you take out a loan from a bank to start a business and they give you say five years to pay it back, you take it out in the confidence that you can make the business pay so you can pay the loan back in the five years with interest, that is an act of faith, like confidence taken a bit further. But "religion" is something different, that means believing in something and practicing various rituals or keeping various rules etc. or observing various dress codes and/or festivals etc. And you can only have one version of the truth, there is no such thing as multiple "truths" in any kind of situation, be it "religious" or anything else. For instance if there was a serious incident of some kind out on the road there can only be one version of events that happened, and only one person saw the whole thing and they know the truth but lots of others who didn't see then start telling their versions of what happened which are very different and therefore not true. Have a look in the Gospel of John chapter 14, verse 6. When you become Christian properly and become "born again" as it's defined in the Gospel of John chapter 3, verses 1 to 7 you receive a share of God's Holy Spirit and then you get a really powerful experience from God which proves his reality and it's this spirit who gives people like Evangelists the power to get people healed. But without the Holy Spirit you can't be sure of God's existence and can't get anyone healed or win over anyone to Christianity and salvation. The Holy Spirit is God's power source and it's that power that makes Christianity work and works miracles. Has anyone on here ever seen an Evangelical healing crusade meeting? You can on youtube. And you can only receive the Holy Spirit by properly committing  your life to Jesus. Unfortunately a lot of people try to be Christian without the spirit which is no good and achieves nothing because they don't understand what's actually involved. I hope this clears up the misunderstanding but of course there are those who will just endlessly argue. Fm.
  • Sam_Alumni
    Sam_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,671 Disability Gamechanger
    Just out of interest as someone who isnt religious at all, is faith healing something that only occurs within christianity or do other faiths believe in healing through prayer?
    Scope
    Senior online community officer
  • Fundamentalist
    Fundamentalist Community member Posts: 133 Courageous
    Hi from Fm. I'm not religious either, I born again, I don't get involved in religion. In Christianity healing involves both prayer and faith, when Jesus healed anyone in the Gospels he said "It is your faith that has healed you". Faith as I've explained above is an essential part of healing or any Christian activity. In my experience you can only have effective faith if you have an active share of the Holy Spirit. Fm.

Brightness