How often at Communion do we pray that our partaking would be “for the healing of soul and body.” At our Communion service we frequently give opportunity for prayer and anointing with oil. In James 5:15 we have these words “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick” (KJV) or another translation, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” (NIV). But what is the healing we so desire?
Healing is both physical and spiritual, but it begins in our hearts. The human heart has been darkened. The teaching of the New Testament is first and foremost about how we can be healed/saved. The Christian life is a lifelong journey of salvation/healing. Salvation is a journey. It goes beyond a one-time legal transaction of justification; it involves a lifetime relationship with Jesus Christ and his church. Numerous Anabaptist reformers saw the goal of the Christian life as more than legal justification, but as union with God. This salvation journey is a relationship that is constantly transforming us. The destiny of union with God is the destiny God intends for the human race. That is why we have been created, why we exist. But our problem is that our hearts have been darkened by sin. Healing from that darkness comes through the medicine the church offers—baptism, anointing with oil, bread and wine of Communion, gathered worship, fasting, prayer, confession of sin, Bible study, Christian fellowship—all in the power of the Holy Spirit and based on the work of Jesus Christ.
This means the church is a hospital for healing the sick—the sin sick, those whose hearts have been darkened. That means all of us are patients. Are we making progress in being healed? This also means the church is not a place for people who are ideal Christians or who “have it all together.” It’s for those who have been wounded by sin—deeply wounded. It’s for you and me. We welcome all who desire to be well and who are willing to receive treatment, to take the prescribed medicine. Jesus did not come for those who think they are well or righteous, but for the sinners, those who are sick. 
What about physical healing? Yes, we sometimes receive physical healing in this life—as a foretaste of the eternal Kingdom. But our physical healing will come once for all in the resurrection when there will be no more death. The most important healing is the healing of our darkened hearts, and that healing continues as we stay on our journey to our destiny— union with God.
