Please stop praying for my son with autism to be healed

by

img_0035

So many people have told me over the years they are praying for my son. I am incredible grateful for that and the kindness they show but what are they praying about?
Are they asking God for my 8 year old to finally speak? Are they asking for his seizures to stop? Are they praying he learns to communicate or to read and write? Or are they praying for him to be healed of his autism?

Let me be very clear..I want people to pray for my son. My entire family needs prayers and needs God more than we ever have. We need love and support. But please please could you not pray for my son with autism to be healed?

Here is why.

There are many occasions when Jesus healed individual people in the Bible. These include people who were blind, deaf, paralysed, had leprosy, fevers, seizures and even those who had died. Despite studying all of these incidences I could not find any occasions when Jesus prayed for anyone who had learning difficulties or communication difficulties like my son’s autism to be healed.

Then there were mass healing events that Jesus did. Again although many were healed there is no direct reference to children or adults who struggled socially or had repetitive behaviours like my son.

The Bible says that Jesus welcomed the little children. Although I have no proof I am certain there were children in Bible times who displayed similar difficulties to my child. I know they were every bit as welcome to Jesus.

The Bible says that my child is fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14).
The Bible says my son was knitted together in my womb (Psalm 139: 13)
The Bible says my son is created in God’s likeness (Ephesians 4:24)
The Bible says my son is the apple of God’s eye. (Psalm 17:8)
The Bible says my son is God’s workmanship created to do good works. (Ephesians 2:10)
The Bible says God has plans to prosper my son and not to harm him, to give him a hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

God sees no difference between my son and anyone else. He does not view my son as less than or inadequate in any way. Could God heal my son of his seizures and his genetic condition that causes tumours in his body? Yes, without a doubt. Could God open my son’s mouth to give him clear speech? Yes, I believe that with all my heart. Could God cause him to be more settled and display less challenging behaviour and agitation? Without a seconds doubt of course he could. These are things I pray over him daily.

IMG_0440I pray for peace for him. I pray for joy and laughter. I pray for people to understand him and show him love. I pray safety as he travels so far back and forth in country roads to school each day. I pray for a receptive mind and open heart. I pray strength to his body and ease from pain. I pray for him to sleep (I am human so this is something I need too).

I pray for strength for myself as I care for him. I pray for wisdom and unity for those who work with me to meet his needs. I pray for his sister as she deals and lives with some events that could traumatise her. I pray her tender heart is not broken too often. I pray for friends she can trust. I pray she knows she is loved when her brother consumes so much of my time.

There is so many things I pray for and so many things others can pray for too. There are things you CAN pray for for my son to be healed of, but autism is not one of them. Autism is a neurological difference in his mind that causes him to see the world a bit differently. Autism is a part of the way God made him and it makes him beautiful and perfect.

God made each one of us part of a body. My son is every bit as much a part of the body of Christ as the next person even if he has severe learning difficulties, is vision impaired, has global delay and has autism. It does not matter to God that he flaps, spins, screams and is unable to speak. Man looks at all that but as the Bible says “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” I Samuel 16:7

I pray that the world looks at my son’s heart too.

IMG_0263

89 thoughts on “Please stop praying for my son with autism to be healed”

  1. Your post touched my heart in ways I can’t explain. I am a proclaimed Atheist (raised in the Christian church) as well as a devoted Special Education teacher and Autism Specialist. Today, a parent told me she doesn’t like to research or think of her child as having Autism, she just prays that God will one day make him whole and she receives this blessing in Jesus name. While I respect and honor faith in God, her comment that her child was not whole and needed to be fixed killed me. I started crying and had to walk away. Her son is beautiful beyond belief and he touches hearts daily, not despite his disability, but because of it.

    How to you convey that beauty to a parent that feels the need to fix it?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • That’s a wonderful question and my personal answer would be to celebrate the child and make a huge effort to celebrate the child in front of mum in the hope her eyes will eventually be opened. There was a time I grieved heavily for my son and I know as parents we all have a journey to acceptance so I hope one day she will get there too.

      Like

      Reply

  4. Mark 9:14-29
    New Living Translation

    14 When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them. 15 When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him.

    16 “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked.

    17 One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. 18 And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.[a] So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”

    19 Jesus said to them,[b] “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

    20 So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.

    21 “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.

    He replied, “Since he was a little boy. 22 The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

    23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

    24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

    25 When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil[c] spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”

    26 Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.

    28 Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”

    29 Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.[d]”

    Notice this child could not speak and even had episodes of epilepsy/convulsions. Many autistic children have these kinds of symptoms described in scripture. There are testimonies of such healings and I’ve witnessed some myself.

    Like

    Reply

  5. Inability to speak, the seizures, difficulty sleeping, the spinning and many other symptoms that you wrote about are symptoms of autism so if you want those symptoms healed then ultimately the label of autism that the medical community has placed upon these children needs to be healed. Your son is NOT ‘autism’ he is a child of the most high and only God, Jesus Christ. Autism is just a label that society puts on people based on SYMPTOMS. Don’t focus so much on the autism focus on the symptoms and ask God to deliver him of these symptoms. You’re young boy is beautiful and greatly loved exactly the way he IS, but that does not mean the symptoms that can cause havoc in life need to stay.

    Like

    Reply

    • Ah but that’s just it…the ‘symptoms’ don’t cause havoc and therefore don’t need to be healed. They are part of who he is. Just because someone can’t speak doesn’t mean they are inferior and need healed. They need a means of communication not healing. Spinning isn’t anything that anyone needs healed of either, neither is learning difficulties. Epilepsy is different as it’s a medical condition and one which I encourage people to pray for but NOT his autism. Without being autistic my son wouldn’t be who God made him to be. Praying for autism to go would be akin in my mind to praying for his hair to be a different colour. It’s just not something I agree with at all, hence this post.

      Like

      Reply

  6. hmmm.. I have a nephew who is also an autistic , we are praying for him because he is so aggressive
    and will cause damage to some things and he will hurt somebody and himself when he so aggressive but after he try to fix those things that he broke and kisses those he hurt.. For me he needs prayer for God to help him control his whole being because we can’t do anything he is taking his medicine but still…, only God can help him. Good for you that your son have only those symptoms that’s not so bad he doesn’t hurt anybody not aggressive. I dearly love my nephew we don’t want him to be hurt but we can’t do anything. ONLY GOD CAN HELP HIM. just saying…. God Bless you and your son.!

    Like

    Reply

  7. This is beautiful. It is wonderful to see a mon show such love for an autistic son as he is. As an autistic trying to write a book on prayers for my fellow autistics, it is great to see moms like you who understand that we want to be loved as we are – as God made us – and not attempted to be transformed to something we aren’t.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Faithmama,
    I’m very touched by your write up.
    However, it seems you are contradicting yourself. It is the condition of autism that is the cause of the speech impediment, challenging behavior etc.
    Wanting those things to stop because you love your son, means he should be free of autism.
    When you look at it from the spiritual perspective and from the scientific perspective, these are various demons who collaborate to afflict individuals, especially boys with autism and other developmental delays and regressions.
    You, and all those who love your son and pray for him should be praying autism out of his life.
    The Scripture does not support your conclusion that God made him that way and that he should remain that way. All sickness, disorder and health conditions, as well as all other negativity stems primarily from sin, from Adam.
    When we become Christians, we must appropriate and enforce the turnaround Jesus died and rose up again to give us to be free of them, as well as use the wisdom He’s given to various health professionals.
    I’m concerned you may have done yourself and your son a disservice by asking people to stop praying for autism to leave your son.
    But you are still entitled to your opinion, though.

    Like

    Reply

    • I disagree that autism is a sickness or a disorder in the way you describe. Should we be praying that someone with brown hair gets cured of that? What about someone with freckles? I see my sons autism as a fundamental part of exactly who he is. He is made in the image of God and no diagnosis changes that.
      His sister is autistic and can speak so being non verbal is not an absolute of autism. However I still encourage people to pray for his communication to be understood as words are not always necessary and even scriptures says before a word is on our tongue Hid knows it completely so God already knows my sons communication and that’s what matters most.
      I respect your opinion though and it’s great that God created us all different with different thoughts and opinions.
      I won’t ever stop anyone praying for anyone else but I stand by my thoughts that my son is perfect as he is and doesn’t need cured so therefore doesn’t need prayer to ‘get better’ in any way from the person he already is.
      Thanks for reading and commenting.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. Mark 9: 14-29. Many of the descriptions of the posessed boy in this passage are what is experienced by some with Autism: lack of awareness of pain (being thrown into fire and water), mutism (he doesn’t talk), seizures (it’s said Autism and epilepsy may be related).

    And people not knowing what to do with these types (I asked your disciples to heal him but they could not. And a crowd gathering around.)

    I myself am autistic. I hate it. It keeps me from having relationships with normal people and while I may have gifts in music and art, the only way I can use them and be paid for it is by helping teach those subjects to young people with special needs. While I am working in my field (I have a music degree), it’s not in the way I wanted or expected.

    I don’t even care to associate with other autistics. They just remind me that I’m autistic too. I would do anything to be normal.

    Like

    Reply

    • Hi Jeanne
      Check out Jon George Ministries…it is a deliverance ministry it’s all about casting out unclean spirits exactly as what Jesus did and what he commanded us to do.
      https://www.jongeorgeministries.com/
      Because of the Covid they have been having online zoom meetings every Tuesday starting at 6:30 for deliverance. Register and there is no fee! Jesus did not charge for healing. Freely you have received, freely give.

      Like

      Reply

      • Hello,
        I actually wasn’t sending that to you as I know you are not seeking healing for your son. If you read the post by Jeanne Hall I was responding to Jeanne. The response even says Jeanne check out …..Jeanne IS wanting healing and so I was referring Jeanne to a healing ministry.

        Like

Leave a reply to miriamgwynne Cancel reply