spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

constitute an important element of healing, because they are necessary for the construction of a
healing community, providing a kind of safe haven. The African healer needs to cross the
boundaries of this safe haven in order to access the spiritual and herbal resources required for the
healing of the patient, because ordinary people are not able to access these resources by
themselves. It is not my intention to construct a direct analogy, but the element of borders could
also be addressed in theological discourse on healing. The central theme would be that healing
always takes plays in the vicinity of borders: the ecstatic Spirit of God moves between divine
and human communion, and allows humans to experience healing which they cannot access
themselves. The idea of the Spirit being poured out from heaven or from on high (Isaiah 32:15ff,
Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 39:29, Joel 3:1ff, Zechariah 12:10, Proverbs 1:23, Acts 2, Acts 10:45, 1
Peter 1:12) suggests that the Spirit of God moves from a divine domain towards the domain
where healing and restoration of wholeness is needed. Specifying the meaning of heaven and the
pouring out of the Spirit, Welker (1994:139) says that heaven can be understood as “the domain
of reality that is relatively inaccessible to us, which we cannot manipulate, but which exercises a
determinative and even definitive influence on life here and now”. Thus, by crossing the borders
between the heavenly, divine communion and the creaturely reality, the Spirit is the One who
communicates the wholeness that exists in God’s relational life.
7.3.2 Participation in God’s relationality
The Spirit communicates from within Trinitarian relationality, and reaches out towards human
life and its environment. Luke 4:18-19, for example, portrays the promise of restored wholeness
through the Messianic bearer of the Spirit of God. Jesus’ reference to the Isaiah text emphasizes
the work of the Spirit as the One who is involved in the imparting of God’s shalom in people’s
life. Also the Pentecost event in Acts 2 narrates how the Spirit entered the life of human beings
and gave them the ability to relate to each other. Beyond the miraculous elements, the Pentecost
event refers to the communication of God by God himself: “through the pouring out of the Spirit,
God effects a world-encompassing, multilingual, polyindividual testimony to Godself” (Welker
1994:235). The Spirit of relationality shares God’s life with people, and invites them to
participate in His relationality and wholeness. Welker (2003:155; see also 2007:238) does not
speak of the Spirit as ecstatic, but as being poured out: “Just as rain gives life to an entire region
so the ‘poured out’ Spirit of God renews the life relations of human beings. They are brought
into living new relations — to God and to each other”. The ecstatic Spirit, then, seeks relations
and the restoration of relations in a way that embraces all of human life. The Spirit, who imparts
God’s love, addresses every dimension of creaturely life to participate in God’s life.
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