"He took him aside to be by themselves, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue with spittle." Mark 7,33

"He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village." Mark 8,23

We all know the story of the prodigal son - who the father sees from a long way, rushing out to meet him before the big party.

This story has a similarity with two other healing events, that of the deaf and stuttering man at Mark 7,31ff and the blind man led outside of town at Mark 8,23ff.

All three individuals had a private encounter with God that served as a gateway to their healing. The prodigal had this experience in his spirit and conscience (Luke 15,17ff). The deaf-mute and the blind man had it face to face with Jesus. They were all "found", healed in some way, because they let themselves have a private encounter with Jesus.

As a pastor and a visitor, I sometimes meet folks who think that personal encounters with Him don't happen like they did when he walked the earth, but they still do.

Even in church.

And some folks are reserved, even guarded, especially in church. Others want to be like the good patient and get their Doctor's visit over as quickly as possible: "Oh don't mind me..."

Some might even be hiding from their healing or denying any need, but I'm thinking that's why God brought them in the first place, praise Jesus.

They haven't allowed themselves the singular grace of His private and undistracted attention on them individually (cf Jamieson-Fausett-Brown Bible Commentary, biblehub.com, Mark7,31ff).

Now it sure would be best if Jesus personally and privately took all of us by the hand, inside or outside of church, and pulled us away from the distracting comforts of our i devices, our homes, work and cars.  But my experience is that church, and the folks who minister in them, often appear to be the last and best hope of any such healing encounter.

In other words, our private healing "day" with Jesus might come by letting the imperfect folks at a church get to know us and take us aside. The fact is still the same as in Jesus day, sometimes we humans need other human beings with whom to talk.

Nothing I say or write here could convince someone to trust a church or its ministers to lead them to their healing by Jesus Himself. This comes by way of revelation, and includes a person's own due diligence, and the church's willingness and ability to set up trained teams (not just one on one) of trustworthy folks who themselves have had personal healing encounters with Jesus, sometimes with the confidential help of others too.

Our need for healing and wholeness might not be as obvious as squandering all our resources, or deafness and stutterering, or physical blindness. Thus, there is often no crowd that hustles us to the best place and team for healing as there was for the deaf-mute.

Despite the challenges that inhibit one's healing, at some point we all have to allow Jesus to take us aside and deal with us privately.

Sometimes this includes trusting other folks who have also had their eyes and ears opened, and been down the same gospel road.

We pray that churches would be open to folks who are in need of healing, and would act on the grace to set up healing protocols that build up and protect all God's children. 

In Jesus mighty NAME, I pray

Jesus Had A Whole Heart  (Number 3) and Many Ways To Be Healed (Number 10) at this preaching link are about healing:

http://www.zionpentecostmission.com/faith-brings-life-dup.html