Acts 5:12 Meanwhile, through the emissaries many signs and miracles continued to be done among the people. United in mind and purpose, the believers met in Shlomo’s Colonnade; 13 and no one else dared to join them. Nevertheless, the people continued to regard them highly; 14 and throngs of believers were added to the Lord, both men and women. 15 They went so far as to bring the sick into the streets and lay them on mattresses and stretchers, so that at least Kefa’s shadow might fall on them as he passed by. 16 Crowds also gathered from the towns around Yerushalayim, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits; and every one of them was healed.
It says here the believers met united in mind and purpose. What they thought was in unity with one another. What they did was in unity with one another.
Beliefs and actions, faith and works.
They were echad in mind. They were echad in purpose. This fact right here is what separates the believers at that time from believers of today. We wonder why the church has no power, yet here we see exactly why.
Our unity with one another has its practical limits. We have different jobs, different lifestyles, different schedules, different demands on our time. There is enough difference in our lives that unity can only really work once or twice per week (if we’re lucky). And on those days we do meet, we take a small bit of time then to actually get together. We share some food, music, teaching, (maybe) some prayer, then head off to our lives once again. Breaking away before people learn too much about the real us.
Then someone gets sick or has a life challenge and we call everyone to the wall to declare the goodness of God. We then expect healing to come because of our great faith, obedience, and time served. This isn’t wrong or bad, it’s just weakly supported. There is an expression of unity but only while it supports our needs. Then we go back to our lives.
What is really holding us back from living the Acts church?
It says people would just try and touch Peter’s shadow in order to be healed. Was it Peter’s shadow that really healed people? Better question, did Peter have anything to do with it at all? He didn’t lift his hand, he didn’t perform any incantation, he didn’t even look at them.
Yeshua had a similar situation happen with Him when the woman reached out to touch His garment. Those in Gennesaret also. Did the garment itself have power? Maybe, or maybe not.
Looking back over Yeshua’s miracles, though, we see a predominant theme that carries through: trust. He cast out demons to build trust to those that saw it happen, and He healed those that had trust.
So was it Yeshua that healed them, or was it that the people believed He could heal them? I’d argue an equal amount of both.
I think we’re all familiar with the placebo effect. It’s when people see an improvement in their health because they think a certain medication or surgery is real. There are numerous studies that have been done testing the placebo effect and the results are most certainly interesting.
From Google:
The placebo effect is a phenomenon that demonstrates how the mind can trigger physical changes in the body. Here are some examples of the placebo effect:
In one study, participants were given a placebo pill and told it was a stimulant. The researchers were convincing and positive about the expected results, and the participants' pulse rate increased, blood pressure rose, and reaction times improved. When the same participants were given the same pill but told it was a sleep aid, they reported feeling relaxed instead.
If you take a specific pill for headaches and start to associate it with pain relief, you might still report decreased pain if you're given a similar-looking placebo pill.
When someone expects to feel better, their interpretation of their symptoms may change. For example, they might interpret a sharp pain as a tingling sensation.
In a 2002 study, surgeons performed "fake" surgery on half of 180 patients with knee pain, involving real skin incisions but no actual procedure. The other half had surgery, and both groups reported the same level of pain relief.
From Healthline:
Below, we’ll explore three examples of the placebo effect from real studies.
A 2014 study Trusted Source assessed how the labeling of drugs affected episodic migraine in 66 people. This is how the study was set up:
Researchers found that the expectations set by the pill labeling (placebo, Maxalt, or neutral) had an effect on the pain intensity reported. Here are the results:
Fatigue may still be a lingering symptom in some cancer survivors. A 2018 study Trusted Source looked at the effects of a placebo compared to treatment as usual in 74 cancer survivors with fatigue. The study was set up as follows:
After the study concluded, the researchers observed that the placebo, despite being labeled as such, had an effect on both groups of participants. The results were:
A 2015 study Trusted Source investigated the placebo effect in 35 people with depression. Participants weren’t currently taking any other medications for depression at the time. The study was set up like this:
Researchers found that some individuals experienced the placebo effect and that this effect impacted their brain activity and response to antidepressants. The results were that:
The point behind this is that belief and trust can have as much power in healing as a drug that is designed to trick your body into resetting. The level of healing is even more so if your belief and trust is high.
But there is one more thing that is needed before you can even begin the process: you have to want to be healed.
It seems people that are hurting need to hurt enough to want to do something about it. Having a splinter is annoying but we likely won’t opt for surgery to get it removed. Let it fester and get infected, now we may consider the doctor. If the infection spreads through the bloodstream and starts attacking organs? Now, we’re motivated. Have those organs start shutting down and we go from motivated to desperate.
For most of us, once physical pain reaches a certain point, we want relief from that as quickly as possible. But what about emotional pain?
Those wounds that started small have been allowed to grow into less than desirable behavioral characteristics. Left untreated, you then create a dwelling place for the dark spirits to come and set up shop. Now we’re manifesting things that are beyond anything we ever wanted in our own lives. And the people around us tread lightly in fear of upsetting that spirit. But that’s ok because we have created a bubble around us that gives us protection and power. We like that.
Getting motivated here is very, very difficult. We become comfortable with our ability to manipulate and who in their right mind would give up that kind of power. No, we like what we have here. It’s comfortable. It’s familiar.
Physical issues warrant healing. Emotional issues warrant deliverance. Healing requires trust (which we don’t have), and deliverance requires confrontation (which we avoid). So we maintain a strange tension of disconnectedness while claiming unity.
Don’t we see this in your own relationships? We come together in prayer when someone needs a physical need met, but avoid one another when our familiar spirits are challenged. We don’t allow the emotional wounds to get healed and that keeps us lightyears away from getting the spiritual healing we so desperately desire.
A community of believers together but not united in mind and purpose.
What can we do? Simple: want, believe, trust.
Once this is in play, a shadow is all you’ll need. But you need to find the shadow of someone that is Echad.