Constructing a Wesleyan Theology and Practice of Inner Healing

Photo from 2019 Spirit & Truth Conference in Dayton, Ohio.

Recent national and global events – the COVID-19 pandemic, economic devastation, racial injustice, civil unrest – reveal anew the pain, anguish, trauma, and hurt that exist in our communities. In such a time as this, a ministry of inner healing has the potential to renew, reconcile, and restore individuals and communities. In an effort to lay a foundation for understanding and developing an inner healing ministry, this essay will explore inner healing from a Biblical and Wesleyan lens, utilizing John Wesley’s sermon “The One Thing Needful” and the General Rules from “The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies,” and will suggest how this ministry might be implemented within Christian community. 

What is inner healing? In his book Defeating Dark Angels, Charles Kraft, former professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and a leader in the inner healing movement, defines “deep-level healing” (his term for inner healing) as follows: “Deep-level healing is a ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit aimed at bringing healing and freedom to the whole person ….[It] focuses on healing the hurts held in memories, often by helping people to experience Jesus’ presence in the memories and to give to him the hurts” (Kraft, Defeating Dark Angels, [Ventura: Regal Books, 1992], 41). Similarly, Father Richard McAlear, Catholic priest and founder of Ministry of Hope and Healing in New York says this: “Inner healing fills in the gaps between the love that was needed and the love that was received…. [T]hen the person moves to a deeper healing, from which the experience can be seen in a positive light” (McAlear, The Power of Healing Prayer, [Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2013], 58). Broadly speaking inner healing is a practice that seeks the restoration of broken places through reconciliation with God, neighbor, and self.

Inner healing is a common Biblical theme. The prophet Isaiah reveals the ministry of God’s anointed one: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted…to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair (from Isaiah 61:1-3).” In his inaugural sermon in Luke 4, Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and expounded on the 61st chapter of Isaiah, directly quoting verse 1, thereby revealing that he was the one through whom this good news – the evangelion – would be realized. A close reading of the Isaiah text reveals the holistic nature of this good news; bringing wholeness and healing to the exterior AND interior life is God’s desire. The good news is concerned with binding up the brokenhearted, comforting those who mourn, and turning despair into praise. The trauma that Jesus endured allows for humanity to be set free from theirs. God’s will, revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, is that believers would in turn live out this ministry of holistic, Holy Spirit-driven ministry to the whole person.  

Inner Healing, then, seeks to bring a prayerful, Spirit-empowered ministry of love to the brokenhearted, the grief-stricken, and the despondent. It is a ministry that flows from the love of God made known in Christ and offered through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is Triune restoration, affecting body, mind, and soul, so that the entire individual might be renewed and restored to bear the image of the Creator. Inner healing ministries comprise a movement among Christians and churches that focuses on emotional and spiritual healing and freedom through repentance and forgiveness, prayer, and Scripture meditation. Such ministries are most common among those churches and parachurch groups influenced by the Charismatic movement which gained a foothold in Catholic and mainline Protestant churches in the early 1960’s; it is also a prominent ministry among Third Wave Charismatics and classical Pentecostals. Today, inner healing ministries can be found in local churches, parachurch organizations, counseling centers, and other places across denominational expression and among Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox believers.

How, then, might Christians in the Wesleyan tradition approach inner healing ministry? Does Methodism’s principal architect, John Wesley, provide a theological grounding for such ministry? Wesleyan soteriology, especially Wesley’s emphasis on the restoration of the image of God through the renewal of our human nature, offers a foundational concept upon which to construct such ministry. 

Central to Wesleyan soteriology is the restoration of the image of God. In this way, Wesley was close to the Eastern church with their shared therapeutic understanding of salvation. It is a holistic salvation, in which God not only forgives sin but heals the damage caused by sin; some of the havoc wreaked by sin is, of course, deep damage to the inner self. This inner trauma can occur as a result of one’s behavior, actions, and thoughts, or through things others have done. In his sermon “The One Thing Needful,” Wesley puts it this way: “our nature is distempered, as well as enslaved; the whole head is faint, and the whole heart is sick. Our body, soul, and spirit, are infected, overspread, consumed, with the most fatal leprosy.” That leprosy, of course, is sin; it is the doing of “the devil…to work his will.” Human wills, passions, and desires are distorted and no longer aligned with God’s purposes for creation. According to Wesley, the “one thing needful, is the renewal of our fallen nature.” It is upon this renewal that all other facets of life and faith depend. This renewal is made available by the love of God and the providential working of God’s Spirit: “the renewal of our nature in this love being not only the one end of our creation and our redemption, but likewise of all the providences of God over us, and all the operations of his Spirit in us, must be…the one thing needful.” Therefore, a deliberately Wesleyan approach to inner healing must hold to the love of God as its central tenet and seek to bring the inner life in line with that love, for “love is the very image of God: it is the brightness of his glory. By love man is not only made like God, but in some sense one with him.” True healing can begin when the love of God saturates the inner life and when emotions, feelings, and thoughts are oriented toward the things of God. 

How does this happen? How can people begin to find freedom from the emotional and mental bonds that bind so tightly? First and foremost, it is a work of the Holy Spirit, made possible because of the atoning work of the Son whom the Father has sent. This must be the starting theological and practical premise for such a ministry. It is love applied because of what the Triune God has done. Building upon that redemptive Triune work, it is through attending upon the means of grace – sacraments, Scripture, prayer, fasting – that the benefits of what Jesus Christ has done becomes realized in the individual and impacts the wider community. “One thing we have to do, to press towards this mark of the prize of our high calling; to emerge out of chains, diseases, death, into liberty, health, and life immortal!” When we approach inner healing, either as practitioners or those receiving such ministry, we must remember that all ministry is responsive: we prayerfully respond to what God has already done and give him all the glory for what he will do.

This continual response to God’s salvific acts anchored John Wesley’s General Rules of the United Societies: 

here is one condition previously required in those who desire admission into these societies, ‘a desire to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins’…it is therefore expected of all who continue therein that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation, First: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind… Secondly: By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men…Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God.

After each rule, Wesley offers specific actions and attitudes pertinent to keeping that rule. For example, a few ways Wesley admonishes Methodists to “do no harm” is by avoiding drunkenness, rejecting slavery, and eschewing usury, among other things. Some of the “ordinances of God” are public worship of God and the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist. It was expected –in fact, demanded – that Methodists took care to follow these rules. Eventual expulsion from the societies was the consequence for the unrepentant, habitual rule-breaker. 

These three rules can give shape to the construction and practice of an inner healing ministry. Adherence to these three rules was understood to occur within relationships of trust and accountability. Participants in these Methodist societies were divided into class meetings of twelve or so people, allowing for increased vulnerability and deeper sharing with an eye toward spiritual maturity. Due to the nature of inner healing, I posit that centering such a ministry within these intimate relationships is most appropriate. Given the nature of trauma, of painful memories, emotional wounds, and damaged thought patterns, ministry that arises out of an environment saturated with the presence of God and trusted, confidential, trained, loving relationships is most conducive for inner healing. A trained prayer ministry team in the local church is most fitting and a great way to engage this ministry. Following the general rules also points toward an integration of healing and individual and corporate worship. Elucidated in the third rule, “attending upon all the ordinances of God,” are various aspects of Christian devotion that we Wesleyans believe tangibly communicate the healing grace of God. This can give guidance to inner healing, which is, of course, a gift of grace. 

Inner healing ministry has the potential to deeply impact our local churches, and Wesleyan theology provides a solid framework for developing such a ministry and integrating it within the larger church community. The body of Christ truly lives into its mission when it makes the healing of the entire individual its focus, for such a holistic endeavor was the ministry of Jesus Christ. In doing so, our individual and communal lives become a doxology, and we can join John Wesley’s proclamation that ended his sermon “The One Thing Needful”: “Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, adoration and worship, both now and for ever. Amen.”

Rev. Evan Rohrs-Dodge is the senior pastor of Belvidere United Methodist Church in Belvidere, NJ, and serves in a variety of leadership roles within the annual conference. He is completing the Doctor of Ministry degree at United Theological Seminary, focusing on training and equipping clergy and local churches in a Wesleyan theology and practice of inner healing ministry.