Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: cole@maverick.uswest.com (Cole Keirsey) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: prayer for others (was BIBLE references) Message-ID: Date: 22 Jun 91 04:28:53 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 47 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Barbara Wood wrote: """""""""""""""""""" There is no supernatural power or extra special annointing in anyone's hands; the power is in the prayer that is backed up by the life of the one doing the prayer. The most serious thing about this is, "what is in you, is transmitted onto the person of whom you lay your hands on, whether faith or unbelief." Take for instance a person who has a weak spiritual life who lays their hands on a person who has a strong spiritual life; the weaker one is blessed and the spiritual one is weakened as if he/she was drained of the spiritualality they had built up. The woman with the issue of blood drained spiritual power (virtue) from Jesus. The woman was healed when her faith extracted healing power from Jesus. (Matt 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48) ****Note***** One can build up their spirit by reading/study of the Bible, prayer, fasting and obedient lifestyle which each are a Bible study of them- selves. """""""""""""""""""" Thanks to Barbara for the citations she provided on this interesting topic. I agree in part with her comments, but I'd like to present a different point of view for s.r.c readers to consider. Whenever we support someone else through prayer (with or without laying on of hands), it is God's power that helps the other person, not our own. God's power is infinite and inexhaustable. Praying for God to help someone else doesn't weaken or drain a person spiritually. On the contrary, it increases the spiritual strength of the person who is praying. When we pray for those in need, as Jesus and the apostles encouraged us to do, the net result is a gain for the church, not a gain and a loss that cancel one another out. We're all familiar with laws of conservation in physics (conservation of mass/energy, of charge, etc.), but I find no basis for thinking that similar laws apply to the power of the Spirit. Jesus said that virtue went out from him when the woman who touched him was healed. There is no indication that Jesus was less virtuous afterwards. On the other side of the coin, the Bible says of Christians that if they touch any evil thing, no harm will come to them. An analogy that helps me is to think of my life as a window that the light of God can shine through. Bible study and Christian living are like cleaning the window so that God's light shines through more clearly. If someone else sees and benefits from the light, that doesn't make my 'window' dirty again. The only thing I have to loose in the process is the opacity of sin. C. C. Keirsey