So every
week in churches all over the USA
people come forward to the altars to pray and ask the Lord for healing. Every
once in a while a great healing occurs and praise the Lord for that, but in my
experience, pretty much ever time I’ve watched people go forward, there is some
encouraging words and prayer and possibly some tears but I have never seen a
miraculous healing happen. I’ve heard stories about people who prayed and went
to the doctor and were completely healed of sickness, disease, or injury and
again, praise the Lord for these healings, but I have been truly curious as to
why we don’t see the outpouring like in the new testament days when the
apostles and disciples in the early church were at work. We simply do not see
miraculous healing to the degree that the apostles did in the days of Christ
and immediately following. Why is this?
Could it be
that we don’t have the level of faith needed to see these healings? Many times
that Christ healed He would attribute it to the faith of someone involved. The
Centurion’s faith made his servant well, and he wasn’t even the person being
healed. I must be honest, when I see people going up to be prayed over, I
really hope they are healed and I believe God can do it but I really don’t
expect anything to happen and unfortunately I don’t think I’m alone. As I’ve
seen dear friends become sick and in dire need of supernatural healing, I have
been more and more concerned with what God really expects of us in order for
his healing to be poured out. Does this mean we earn it? No not at all. But He
has given us instructions which Christ modeled for us in person and the
disciples continued following right after Him. Here in Northern Ireland,
I have started to come across some answers.
Most of the
time, when I hear prayer for healing, it sounds something like this “Lord we
just ask for your healing in this life, please heal this person” and sometimes
“if it be your will” is tagged on to the end. This is apparently quite common
place because a minister here who is very active in healing ministries said
that around the world he has heard these same prayers. I think we have all
prayed them and there is nothing wrong with having that in our hearts but I
don’t think it is the way we are supposed to pray for healing. When Jesus
healed and performed miracles, He took authority over the afflictions and
situations, “rise and walk,” “Be still,” “Lazarus come forth.” These are not requests.
He was not asking the Father to do it because He knew the Father had empowered
Him to do it and likewise, He empowered the disciples and us to do it the same
way. Mark, the gentleman here in Coleraine, used this analogy to describe why
prayers of bequest are good but not really the way God’s healing is done. Its
like being a police officer and seeing across the street a thief breaking into
a car and saying to your commanding officer “Hey Sarge, Could ya go over and
arrest that guy please? But only if it’s your will.” Well I don’t think the
commanding officer would really feel that it was right for him to do what his
subordinate is already empowered and designated to do. He would probably get
rid of an officer under his command that continued to ask him to do his job.
Now I think God has more grace with us and often works in spite of our limited
understanding, but He has given us authority over sickness and injury and He
has told and shown us how to use it. Now there is nothing wrong with asking God
for healing, He wants you to ask but that is not where we are supposed to stop.
To do it as
Jesus and the disciples did we are to be in tune with the father and the Holy
Spirit and then take authority over the affliction in Jesus name. So this all
sounds good but how do you back it up? I am as guilty of skepticism as anyone
but I have seen some things that make all this stuff true and real to me. One
of the other missionaries on this trip with me has struggled with back pain.
Lots of the most common back pains are caused by a body malady that more people
have then realize. It is that often one of our legs is slightly shorter than
the other, not even very noticeably until you sit down and check your legs with
each other. My teammate had one leg an inch shorter than the other, quite noticeable
when he sat in a chair and stretched his legs out. Here is what happened. Mark
put his hands under my team mate’s feet and told Him that God loves him very
much and is concerned for him. He then just invited God’s spirit to come and be
present there with us all. At this time he did not ask anything or even pray to
God. He said very gently and not over a normal conversational tone “I command
this leg to grow in the name of Jesus.” Before my very eyes I saw his leg grow
over an inch and become even with the other. No tricks, no gimmicks, it really
happened. Not only did it happen for him, I watched several other members of
our team with the same condition be healed and have there legs grown right in
front of me.
So is it
because Mark is some special person that God heals through? Not according to
him. He says, and I believe that we are all empowered as believers to do these
things in the Lord’s name. Here is how I know that to be true. Brian, one of
our squad leaders, has been having one of his eyes become more and more blurry
and not able to see as well as the other. He demonstrated by covering his good
eye and he said he couldn’t even make out one of us standing 6 feet in front of
him. A couple nights several of us gathered around him and prayed for him the
same way Mark had prayed. We told him God loved and respected him and invited
the spirit to come be with us and putting my hand next to his eye I said “I
command this eye to see clearly and for vision to be restored and perfect.” It
wasn’t only me, several of us said similar things commanding the eye in Jesus
name to be healed. Guess what? Brian opened his eye and kinda looked around and
just had astonishment on his face. We said “is it better” and he goes “uhh,
Yeah. Where it was a 4 now it’s about a 6 or 7. I can see you more clearly
now.” But that’s not all. In the next 5 minutes, astonishment still etched on
his and our own faces, his eye got better and better and he could see out of it
just as clearly as his good eye. We just praised God and said “yeah, THAT just
happened” and were jumping around like our team had just won the Super Bowl. I
believe healing is real and God has given us authority to do it in His name.
Yeah, World race month one and all I have to say is “God is so cool.”
