The power to heal and drive off evil has long been attributed to objects that have been blessed. To best understand the principles discussed on this page, first please make yourself familiar with the nature of the Kingdom Conflict.
I provide a comprehensive and biblical explanation for how all this works in my book Peace in Your House: Spiritual Cleansing of Life and Land.
Here’s a summary, however. The Biblical precedent for this includes
- In Matthew 9 and 14, sick people who touched Jesus’ clothes received healing.
- In Acts 5, people touched by Peter’s shadow received healing.
- In Acts 19, handkerchiefs and aprons touched by Paul were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
- In James 5, the writer instructed prayer and anointing with oil for the sick.
Healing properties then and now are attributed to different kinds of oil, in fact. Francis MacNutt’s excellent Deliverance from Evil Spirits contains a chapter on deliverance through “blessed objects.”[ref]See pages 245-252.[/ref] According to MacNutt, ancient Christians also prayed over salt and water.
Water is associated with baptism, washing evil away, rebirth, and spiritual warfare. MacNutt suggests that blessed oil is more effective than blessed water, because water evaporates quickly, but since oil stains, care should be taken when sprinkled on cloth. He suggests salt may be more effective is more effective yet, since it will remain far longer.
How Sound Relates To Healing and Deliverance
Verbal praise to God – the sound of humans praising God – affects matter in such a way that God is said to inhabit it.
With the creative force of the Holy Spirit that inhabits the sound of prayer to God or praise and worship to God, matter and the spiritual are impacted.
The impact is so significant that if humans did not praise God, the “rocks would cry out” in praise. I suppose that means the vibrations recorded in the crystal structure of rock would continue vibrating and fill the vacuum of praise.
Biblically, this is demonstrated multiple times, but the creation account recorded in Genesis is a good example. The sound of the voice of God released God’s will and changed matter. It brought order to the chaos. Prayers do the same thing today (on a microscale, of course).
Actually, the vibrations caused by sound can be recorded in matter, and they can affect the air around it in certain conditions. Have you ever listened to a recording of a congregation singing praise and worship to God… and the atmosphere around you changed? God inhabits praise… even recorded praise.
How sound interacts with different kinds of matter may explain the healing power that was stored in the clothes referenced in the verses above, and it may account for why historically salt and oil that have been prayed over have been successfully used in healing and deliverance.
(Edit: NOT) Quantum Vibrations
Perhaps something is going on at the quantum level. The spoken word resonates, creates vibrations on quantum levels, and when the Holy Spirit is behind the spoken word, creative powers (meaning, power to change reality, to shape chaotic systems into order, to affect creation) are released.
(EDIT: This is incorrect. Vibrations, whatever that means exactly, don’t resonate on the quantum level. See how I learned I was wrong, and info debunking these ideas.)
In one of the accounts of creation in the Bible, the spoken Word released the Holy Spirit, who was hovering over chaotic matter, and organized it according to the Will of God.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.[ref]Genesis 1:2-4a, ESV[/ref]
This concept is affirmed in John 1, a retelling of the creation account through the lens of the Word became flesh (Jesus).
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.[ref]John 1:1-5, 14, ESV[/ref]
Salt and Crystals and the Spirit World
Salt has a crystalline structure. Crystals apparently are able to receive an imprint that affects both the physical and the spirit world. An example of how crystals can relay information physically is if you’re reading this on a Liquid Crystal Display monitor. Vibrations are stored on them, and those vibrations can be drawn out in certain situations.
A less technological example is when some people see ghosts re-enacting bloody charges on a rocky battlefield. The blood shed and the violence poured out imprint itself on crystals in the rocks, and in certain circumstances, the scenes are replayed, like a film projector casting an image into the air.
Perhaps something even more is going on at the quantum level. Biblically, this is reflected in the vest worn by the High Priest in the Hebrew religion. The author of Exodus 39 states that sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, jacinth, agate, and amethyst were all embedded into this vest. What physical and spiritual properties were imbued in these crystals and rocks?
Different scholars have speculated, and ultimately, it’s not that important, because they have been replaced by a Solid Rock on Whom we stand: Jesus.