My home is surrounded by some live oak trees, which usually retain their leaves all year. A few years ago, an early freeze caused the leaves to drop off. One afternoon my wife told me that while looking through a bedroom window she noticed a large bulbous growth on a major limb of one of the trees. I, too, looked out the window and saw that strange growth, previously hidden by the leaves. But when I went outdoors for a closer look, I discovered the growth we thought we saw was only a visual illusion. The limb in question had developed in such a way that it was shaped like a bent elbow. From the perspective of our window, the elbow had looked like a large lump.
When we learned the fact, and were convinced by what we'd learned, our concern about the growth was overcome. Now when we looked out of the window, we no longer even saw the illusion. It had disappeared when we found out what was true.
This simple experience illustrates an important point that applies to the prayer that heals physical disorders. To heal on a spiritual basis we need to have a correct view of man. That is, we need to know what is spiritually true of man in God's likeness and then be convinced that this alone is the scientific fact.
