| |
Healing Training Course
Introduction
The purpose of this handout is to present some important principles of healing which might help you as you step out in faith and begin laying hands on the sick.
The information in this handout might be different than what you have always been taught, but consider keeping an open mind in case God wants to reveal something new to you. Check these things against the Bible, don't just believe what I say or what other people have said!
Important Points to Keep in Mind
-
As we saw in
Part One
of these handouts,
Christians
have the authority to lay hands on the sick and cast out demons. If you are not a Christian, or if you are not sure of your salvation, then please see my article called
Why Become a Christian?.
-
As we saw in
Part Two
of these handouts, we receive
dunamis,
the miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit, when we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit after we become Christians. Here is a simple prayer for receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit:
"Lord Jesus, You said in Luke 11:13 that as a child of God I can ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. You also said in Acts 1:4-8 that I will receive power when I am baptized with the Holy Spirit. So Lord, I am asking in Your Name, the Name of Jesus, for You to baptize me in the Holy Spirit right now, exactly like on the day of Pentecost. I might not feel any different, but I receive the gift of the power of the Holy Spirit right now, by my faith. Thank You, Lord! Amen."
If you sincerely prayed this prayer in faith, then believe that you have received the power of the Holy Spirit for carrying out the Great Commission. This means that you now have the ability to pray in tongues, which is explained in detail in my article called
How to Receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
That article describes how speaking in tongues works (and I urge you to begin praying in tongues every day), but it is likely that you can now lay hands on people and see miraculous healings even if you have not yet begun exercising your new ability to pray in tongues.
-
The main purpose for miracles is to point people to Jesus (see John 10:25, 37-38, 12:37, 14:11, and 20:30-31). Always remember that the glory goes to God, so don't accept any glory for yourself.
-
Sicknesses, diseases, injuries, and so on are not "crosses" that we must bear. Let's look at what Jesus said about this:
"And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself - that is, disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself - and
take up his cross daily,
and follow Me [that is, cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example, in living and if need be in dying also]." (Luke 9:23, AMP)
Notice what it means to "take up our cross." In the Amplified Version of the Bible (which tries to provide the shades of meaning from the original Greek), Jesus said that we must lose sight of ourselves and our interests, and give up our own desires and plans and goals and ambitions and opinions.
"Taking up our cross" means that we must follow Jesus' example and be "dead to self," as the apostle Paul described it:
"I have been
crucified
with Christ and
I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me." (Galatians 2:20)
For example, notice that Jesus denied Himself His own interests and ambitions, and He only did what the Father told Him to do:
"Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth,
the Son can do nothing by himself;
he can do
only
what he sees his Father doing, because
whatever the Father does the Son also does.""
(John 5:19)
"By myself I can do nothing;
I judge
only as I hear,
and my judgment is just, for
I seek not to please myself but him who sent me."
(John 5:30)
"So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim
to be and that
I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.""
(John 8:28)
"Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work."
(John 14:10)
The cross does not represent burdens that we must carry (as many people believe), the cross is a place of
death.
The Bible tells us to
die
to our "self" nature (any attitudes, decisions, motives, etc., which do not line up with God's plans and timing), just as Jesus did. "Bearing our cross" does not refer to being sick or having crippling diseases or injuries.
-
When Jesus was ruthlessly tortured and brutally executed, He purchased not only our salvation but also our healing. For example, the prophet Isaiah said that Jesus would take up our infirmities, carry our sorrows, be pierced for our transgressions, be crushed for our iniquities, be punished for our peace, and be wounded for our healing:
"Surely he
took up our infirmities
and
carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was
pierced for our transgressions,
he was
crushed for our iniquities;
the
punishment that brought us peace
was upon him, and
by his wounds we are healed."
(Isaiah 53:4-5)
Christians tend to believe the salvation parts of this prophecy which were fulfilled when Jesus died for our sins, but we must not simply focus on the parts of Scripture that we like and ignore the parts that we're not comfortable with. If the salvation parts of Isaiah's prophecy apply to us (and they do) then the healing parts of his prophecy apply to us as well. Isaiah 53:4-5 plainly states that Jesus would bear our sins (purchasing our salvation), and that He would bear our sicknesses (purchasing our healing).
For some in-depth proof that Jesus purchased our healing 2000 years ago, I invite you to see my article called
Healing Training Course - Part Three.
Notice that Jesus paid for our
sins
2000 years ago, yet sinners are not automatically forgiven. They must
receive
forgiveness of sins by faith (Acts 26:18). Healing works in a similar way, because Jesus paid for our
healing
2000 years ago, yet we must
receive
healing by faith (Luke 18:42). When we lay hands on people, we can believe for them to be healed when faith is present (just as we receive salvation by faith) because Jesus has already paid for the healing.
-
Christians sometimes ask,
"Why do we need to lay hands on the sick? I believe that God can heal people when we
pray
for them."
Prayer is extremely important, there is no doubt about that, and people sometimes do get healed when we pray for them. But you see, that isn't the issue. The issue is that Jesus has commanded us to fulfill the Great Commission by continuing His earthly ministry until He returns for us at the end of the age. This means that we are meant to share the Good News with people,
lay hands on the sick,
and cast out demons, as we saw in
Part One
of this Healing Training Course.
In Luke 4:40, for example, the people brought to Jesus
all
who were sick. Certainly Jesus could have snapped His fingers and healed all of them in an instant, right? But He didn't. The verse says,
"laying his hands on each one,
he healed them." It probably took a long time for Him to lay hands on every one of those sick people, but laying hands on the sick is one of the main methods that God has chosen for divine healing. Therefore, Jesus had to be obedient, and so do we. In fact, sick people often specifically begged Jesus to lay His
hands
on them because they knew that He often healed by the method of the laying-on of hands (see Matthew 9:18 and Mark 8:22, for example). In the original Greek, Acts 5:12 says that signs and wonders were done "through the
hands
of the apostles" (see for example the Amplified Version and the King James Version). Hebrews 6:1-2 tells us that
the laying-on of hands
was an elementary, foundational teaching for new Christians. John 14:11-12 says that believers will do the
same
miracles that Jesus did, which includes laying
hands
on the sick. Mark 16:17-18 says that believers will
place their hands on sick people,
and they will get well.
Why do we need to lay hands on people? Simply because Jesus told us to do that (Mark 16:18 and John 14:12). If Jesus had commanded us to heal people in some other way then that is the way we would need to do it. Our job is to be obedient to our Master, not to question His judgment!
-
Another question that people sometimes ask is,
"Why do you say that I have to speak in tongues in order to lay hands on the sick?"
Well, it's not so much that you have to speak in tongues in order to lay hands on people, it's just that speaking in tongues is the usual, Scriptural evidence that you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (see my article called
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit).
Jesus specifically said that the power of the Holy Spirit is imparted to us when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in tongues does not necessarily happen
automatically
when we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit because we must choose to open our mouths and speak. Plus, our analytical minds do not like to give up control and allow us to speak out words that are coming from our spirits, and this makes it difficult for many people when they try to pray in tongues for the first time. For this reason, I personally believe that people can receive this Spirit baptism, whether immediately after they are saved or at a later time, without actually saying anything in tongues right away. They have the
ability
to pray in tongues, but they don't know that they have this ability (due to wrong teaching) or else they don't quite know how to speak out words which are coming from their spirits. For example, I led my mom through a prayer to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but she was not able to get her mind out of the way enough to allow the words to come up out of her spirit in tongues (my wife and I both had the same problem initially). However, my mom has laid hands on people and they have been healed. So I personally feel that my mom has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and has the ability to pray in tongues in the Scriptural manner, but she has not done it yet. Praying in tongues is the
usual
outward evidence that we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, but I believe that a person can receive this baptism without speaking in tongues right then and there. For more on this, please see my article called
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I would suggest that you lay hands on the sick in faith no matter what your view of tongues happens to be. But if God is not confirming His Word for you by healing people, consider that it might be because you haven't received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the (usual) evidence of speaking in tongues, because Jesus said you would receive
power
when you receive this baptism (see my article on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, above).
-
Now let's take a look at how faith and healing work together.
First of all, notice that Jesus was
hindered
from doing miracles when there was a lack of faith:
"When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor."
He could not do any miracles there,
except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their
lack of faith."
(Mark 6:2-6)
The above passage tells us that a few individual people received healing in Jesus' hometown, but otherwise Jesus was
unable
to do miracles there because of their lack of faith! (Also see Matthew 13:58). The Greek word for "able" in this passage essentially means "To be able"
(The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament,
Spiros Zodhiates, p.485), and it is used in a negative sense in this passage ("not able"). We can see in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus did miracles both before and after Mark 6:2-6 (above), so it is reasonable to assume that Jesus still had the power to do miracles while He was in His hometown. Then why was He "not able" to do miracles in His hometown, other than laying hands on a few people? A prominent Bible commentary puts it this way:
"Because of such persistent unbelief Jesus could not do any miracles there except to lay His hands on (cf. 5:23) a few sick people and heal them.
There was no limitation on His power, but His purpose was to perform miracles in the presence of faith.
Only a few here had faith to come to Him for healing."
(The Bible Knowledge Commentary,
Walvoord and Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, p.127, emphasis added).
In other words, Jesus certainly had the
power
to do miracles in His hometown, but He did not force His power to work in people who were unwilling to receive it. Because of such persistent unbelief in His hometown, Jesus could not do any miracles there.
In Mark 5:22-43, a synagogue ruler named Jairus asked Jesus to heal his dying daughter. As Jesus was on His way to Jairus' house, a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years touched Jesus' cloak and was instantly healed. Notice
how
she was healed:
"[Jesus] said to her, "Daughter,
your faith has healed you."" (Mark 5:34)
Jesus said that it was
her faith
which had healed her. Now, after this woman was healed, Jairus (the synagogue ruler) learned that his daughter had died. Notice that Jesus
ignored
the "bad report" and told Jairus to
believe
and not to fear:
"While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"
Ignoring what they said,
Jesus told the synagogue ruler,
"Don't be afraid; just believe.""
(Mark 5:35-36)
Jesus immediately disputed the "bad report" that people had spoken, and He told Jairus to continue to have
faith.
When Jesus arrived at Jairus' house, He was confronted by people who were speaking doubt and unbelief, so what did He do? He
cleared the room
of all those doubters:
"When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." But
they laughed at him.
After he
put them all out,
he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old)." (Mark 5:38-42)
So even though Jesus had infinite faith, we can see that healings and miracles depended to some degree on the faith (or lack of faith) of other people.
In the next few passages, notice that the miracles happened
because of
people's faith:
"Jesus said to him,
"Receive
your sight;
your faith has healed you."
Immediately he
received
his sight and followed Jesus, praising God." (Luke 18:42-43)
"As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said,
"Go, show yourselves to the priests."
And
as they went,
they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go;
your faith has made you well.""
(Luke 17:12-19)
"As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "
Do you believe
that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said,
"According to your faith will it be done to you";
and their sight was restored." (Matthew 9:27-30)
"Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus
saw their faith,
he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!" Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ." Then he said to the paralytic,
"Get up,
take your mat and go home."
And the man got up
and went home." (Matthew 9:2-7)
"By faith
in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name
and the faith
that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see." (Acts 3:16)
"In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him,
saw that he had faith to be healed
and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that,
the man jumped up
and began to walk." (Acts 14:8-10)
In several of these passages, Jesus said,
"Your faith
has healed you," or
"According to your faith
will it be done to you." In a couple of instances, Jesus and the apostles
saw
that a person had faith to be healed. Several passages say that the people
received
their healing by their actions of faith.
Now, what if these people did
not
have faith? What if the lame or paralyzed people in these passages had refused to get up on their feet? After all, it must have sounded ridiculous when Jesus or the apostles commanded a lame person to get up onto his feet when obviously his legs did not work properly! What if the man in Matthew 12:13 had refused to stretch out his shriveled hand? What if the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:2-9 had refused to get up when Jesus told him to? What if all of these people had reacted with doubt and unbelief and said things like, "What do you mean, 'Get up'? Can't you see I'm lame?!"? If these people had not put their faith into action then they would not have received their healing. After all, Jesus repeatedly told people,
"Your faith
has healed you," or
"According to your faith
will it be done to you."
As you read the Gospels, notice that Jesus sometimes
measured
people's faith. He said things like, "You of
little
faith," or "I have not found such
great
faith even in Israel," or "Be it done
according to your faith,"
and so on. If you examine closely all of the miracles that Jesus did, you'll find that there were often actions of faith which were performed by other people. For example, we tend to say that
Jesus
turned the water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee (John 2:1-10), but that is not entirely accurate. Recall that the servants
knew
that they had put water into the six stone water jars, yet Jesus told them to take some of that water to the master of the banquet as if it was really wine! Jesus' miracles frequently required an action of faith on someone's part (for more examples, see my article called
Healing Training Course - Part Four).
In fact, the
greater
the faith that was demonstrated, the greater the miracles that resulted. For example, there are two events in the New Testament in which Jesus said that someone had
great
faith (Matthew 8:5-13 and Matthew 15:22-28). In
both
cases, Jesus healed a person
at a distance.
Jesus did not need to see the sick person or touch the person or talk to the person or anything. Why? Because someone demonstrated
great
faith. There is only one other time that Jesus healed someone at a distance in the Gospels, and the Bible says that
"The man took Jesus at his word
and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living." (John 4:50-51). Again, someone demonstrated great faith by taking Jesus at His word, and a person was healed at a distance.
Now that we understand that faith plays such a big role in healing, this gives us some insight into other healing passages in the Gospels. For example, Matthew 14:35-36 says that people begged Jesus to let the sick just touch the edge of His cloak so that they would be healed. Why did Jesus allow them to touch His cloak? Why didn't He simply lay His hands on them? They had
faith
that they would be healed if they touched Jesus' cloak, so He allowed them to put their faith into
action,
and they were healed.
This might also explain why Jesus did some strange-sounding things in order to heal several people:
"There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. After he
took him aside, away from the crowd,
Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he
spit and touched the man's tongue.
He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly." (Mark 7:32-35)
"They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and
led him outside the village.
When he had
spit on the man's eyes
and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly." (Mark 8:22-25)
"Having said this, he
spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.
"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." (John 9:6-7)
Jesus is the Son of God, so why did He spit in people's eyes and make mud with His saliva and so on? Surely His power is so great that He didn't really need to do those things, right? Well, consider that it is not just Jesus' great power and His great faith and His great authority that brings healing, because we have seen over and over that people's
faith
sometimes played a role in their healing. When Jesus took these people away from the crowd, when He spit into their eyes, when He made mud from His saliva, and so on, these were probably not necessary for increasing Jesus' power or His faith, right? But they might have been factors for increasing
the deaf and blind people's
faith.
Based on all of these Scriptural examples of how healing works, you will see greater results when there is greater faith present. You can build faith in people by showing them the Scriptural proof that healing is "for today," by telling people about some of the other healings you have witnessed, by having them watch other people get healed, by asking them about their theological problems concerning healing or their doubts and fears about healing, and so on. In the New Testament, people put their faith into action and
then
they were healed, and the same principle holds true today. Many times you will find that after you command healing in a person's back, for example, the healing will manifest itself when the person begins to move around and bend his back, putting his faith into action.
I still have a lot to learn about faith for healing (for example, atheists sometimes get healed even though they have
no
faith!), so I would appreciate hearing of your successes and failures and anything that God has shown you which helped you to get more people healed.
-
Speak with
authority
when commanding healing to take place. Say it like you mean it!
The dictionary defines an ambassador as a person who is the highest-ranking representative appointed by one government to represent it to another government. An ambassador is an official agent who speaks on behalf of the government he is representing, with the full authority and backing and power of that government. The apostle Paul said:
"we
are
Christ's ambassadors"
(2 Corinthians 5:20, AMP)
"Clothe yourselves therefore, as
(God's own picked representatives,)
His own
chosen ones"
(Colossians 3:12, AMP)
You
are an ambassador or an agent of Jesus Christ on this earth, His own chosen, hand-picked representative! When you command healing in His Name you are doing it on His behalf, with the full authority and backing and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Speak with
authority
when you speak in His Name, because the Name of Jesus is above the name of every disease and every demon! When an FBI agent confidently flashes his badge, he expects immediate respect, and usually he gets it. When you flash the Name of Jesus at the enemy,
expect
the devil or the sickness to flee!
Notice that speaking with authority does not mean shouting. Have you ever been in a store and heard a parent whisper forcefully to a misbehaving child, "Get over here
right now!"?
It might not have been loud enough for anyone else to hear, but the child knew he'd better get over there right away. That is speaking with authority.
-
Jesus healed people in different ways, He did not stick to a single formula. We must always try to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit when laying hands on the sick. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher, and He never stops teaching those who are eager and willing to learn and willing to
do
what they are taught. Don't expect the Holy Spirit to teach you new things if you aren't willing to
do
what He teaches you!
The apostle John said that the whole world would not have room for the books that could be written about the things Jesus did (John 21:25). Since we don't know everything Jesus did, we need to try different things in order to get the sick person healed, following the
principles
given in Scripture. The purpose of this Healing Training Course is to give you some ideas how to do this.
If one thing doesn't work and the person isn't getting healed, ask God to give you discernment and then try something else (as we will see in Part Four of these handouts). Be
persistent,
because God honors persistence (see Luke 11:5-10).
-
You need to
believe
and
know
that you have been called to do the supernatural in your daily life, because that is exactly what Jesus told us to do in the Great Commission. If you have any doubts, study
Part One
of these handouts until you are absolutely convinced that evangelism and healing are part of your "job description" (so to speak).
You also need to believe without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus lives His life
in you
and
through you.
Jesus laid His hands on people while He was on the earth, but then He took His hands with Him when He ascended back into heaven. Now He lives
in you,
you are His hands and feet on the earth! Wherever you go, Jesus goes with you. Whatever you touch, Jesus touches. When you lay hands on someone, Jesus within you is laying hands on the person as well. Step out in faith and
believe
that people are going to be healed.
Expect
it, and you will see awesome miracles which will bring many people to Christ. Nothing is impossible for Jesus in you!
Notice that when you flip a light switch you
expect
the light to come on. It is possible that the light bulb is burned out, but since this doesn't happen very often you don't have to work up a bunch of faith before flipping the switch, you simply turn on the light with complete
expectation
that the light will come on. The same principle works with healing. You don't need to try to work up a bunch of faith before laying hands on someone, just do it with the
expectation
that it will work. This level of expectation will build in you as you gain more experience in laying hands on the sick.
Nobody knows everything about how healing works, just as most of us don't know everything about how electricity works. But we can still turn on a light switch! We can use electricity without understanding everything about it, and we can heal the sick without having all of our questions answered.
-
Keep your eyes open when you lay hands on the sick so that you don't miss the miracles! Tell the person you are laying hands on not to act "religious" by closing his eyes or frowning seriously (as many people will tend to do), tell him to smile and relax and keep his eyes open so that he can watch his arm or leg grow out or his tumors fall off or his bones straighten out or whatever the need happens to be. Don't miss watching the miracles happen and don't miss seeing the person's eyes bulge out with joy when he is instantly and miraculously healed!
-
When the power of God goes into someone, it occasionally causes the person to fall to the ground (usually backwards). Try to make sure that there is nothing behind the person that he might fall onto, or better yet try to have someone behind him to catch him and gently lower him to the ground. The frail human body sometimes reacts this way when the awesome power of God goes into it, and sometimes God uses a "divine anesthetic" (so to speak) as He heals people, just as He did for Adam (Genesis 2:21). For example, see my article called
Is It Scriptural to Be "Slain in the Spirit"?.
Your beliefs might not allow for such things as "falling out under the power of God," but keep this point in mind anyway because God is God, and He isn't going to squeeze Himself into the little boxes that we keep trying to put Him in. As you lay hands on people, some of them might fall out under the power of God (and some people might fall just because they think they're supposed to!), so be sensitive to this possibility as you minister healing.
-
Jesus laid His hands on the eyes of blind people (Matthew 9:28-30), He put His fingers in the ears of deaf people (Mark 7:33), He touched the tongues of mute people (Mark 7:33), and so on. It is often best to lay your hands as close as possible to the afflicted area so that the power of the Holy Spirit is directed right to the source of the problem.
Use wisdom and common sense, though. If the problem is in an area where your hands have no business being, ask the person to put his own hand near the area and then you can put your hand on his hand. Also, don't touch an open sore because you are living in a physical body which is susceptible to catching diseases. Yes, you can then lay hands on yourself and you might get healed, but why risk it? Just because you heal the sick every day, it doesn't mean that you'll never catch the flu, it doesn't mean that you'll never have to wear glasses, it doesn't mean that you'll never go bald, and so on. Even if you are sick, though, you can still lay hands on people and they can still be healed (just make sure that you wash your hands and that you don't cough in their faces!). Your physical health has no bearing on your authority to lay hands on the sick because Jesus within you never gets sick.
-
Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10), but the devil (the thief) comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10). The devil will try to sow seeds of doubt to make people think they didn't get healed. He knows that we must
believe
that we have received healing:
"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and
does not doubt
in his heart but
believes
that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
(Mark 11:23-24)
The devil knows this Scripture just as well as you do, so he knows that all he has to do is to put doubts and fears in people's minds. This can prevent the healing from happening, and it can sometimes cause a person to
lose
his healing if he gives in to doubts.
As Christians, we are meant to live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Don't be moved by what you see, hear, think, feel, taste, touch, or smell. We are easily fooled by our senses, and the devil can use our physical senses to deceive us. Stand on what the Word of God says and live by faith, not by sight. In other words, don't be intimidated by the physical problems that people might have, because God's power can heal anything!
When a person receives healing, explain that the devil will sometimes put
symptoms
back on a person in order to create doubt in the healing power of God. There have been many examples of people who were instantly healed, but within a day or two they noticed that the pain or symptoms had returned. Fortunately some of them were aware that this might happen, so they simply told the devil to get out in the Name of Jesus, and the pain or symptoms instantly vanished. This has happened several times to my wife after I laid hands on her. She was instantly healed, but then the pain returned a day or two later. She told the devil sternly, "Devil, you can just take that right back because
I'm not signing for that package!"
and the pain instantly left!
-
When healing people, it is essential that we do not tell them to stop taking their medications or anything like that. First of all it would be considered practicing medicine without a license, which is illegal. Secondly, the Bible tells us to obey the authorities, and therefore when a person submits to the authority of a doctor then he should obey that doctor. Always tell people to continue their medication and to go to their doctor as soon as possible in order to be pronounced healthy by the doctor.
It does not display a lack of faith to go to a doctor. For one thing, if a person doesn't get healed when you lay hands on him then it can be very helpful to find out the specific medical diagnosis so that you can use that information to get the person healed. For example, several years ago I had a small growth on my leg. I laid hands on it a number of times and my wife laid hands on it, but it wouldn't go away. My dad (a medical doctor) said that it was a "skin tag," and that cutting off the circulation to it would cause it to die and fall off. I laid my hand on the skin tag and commanded the blood vessels to close up and to cut off all circulation to it. Two days later it had turned black, dried up, and fallen off! In other words, the skin tag was not healed until I was more specific in what I commanded (after getting a medical diagnosis). Also, notice that the healing was not completed instantaneously.
-
Jesus and the apostles were often ridiculed by religious people, and they were accused of doing demonic things. This is also true today. When you step out in faith and begin laying hands on the sick in obedience to the Great Commission, expect to be ridiculed. Ironically, atheists don't care about the healing power of God because they don't believe in God in the first place, so it will be your own brothers and sisters in Christ who will ridicule you and accuse you of doing things which are "of the devil" (speaking in tongues and so on). Love them anyway and don't let this deter you, because
blessed
are you when people ridicule you for the obedient works that you are doing in His Name (Matthew 5:11 and Luke 6:23).
Keep in mind that our goal must always be to please God. We must not disobey God out of a fear of being rejected by friends or family or brothers or sisters in Christ:
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man
against
his father, a daughter
against
her mother, a daughter-in-law
against
her mother-in-law--
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'
Anyone who loves his father or mother
more
than me
is not worthy of me;
anyone who loves his son or daughter
more
than me
is not worthy of me;
and anyone who does
not
take his cross and follow me
is not worthy of me."
(Matthew 10:34-38)
"Blessed
are you when men
hate
you, when they
exclude
you and
insult
you and
reject
your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man."
(Luke 6:22)
"If anyone comes to me and does
not
hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--
he cannot be my disciple.
And anyone who does
not
carry his cross and follow me
cannot be my disciple."
(Luke 14:26-27)
"Am I now trying to win the approval
of men, or of God?
Or am I trying to please men?
If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."
(Galatians 1:10)
I can't tell you how amazing it is to take part in your first healing miracle! It will get you so excited that it won't matter what people say!
-
When people are experiencing pain and you lay hands on them, sometimes they will say, "I can still find a little bit of pain there." People have a tendency to focus on the 5% of pain that is still there and miss the fact that 95% of the pain was miraculously healed! Have them praise God for the miracle (and you praise Him too, of course), and both of you continue thanking Jesus for the remaining 5% of the pain to go as well. Thanking Jesus over and over tends to bring about more healing. Always thank Jesus for the healing, even before anything happens.
-
It is very helpful to keep ourselves immersed in the Scriptures where Jesus gave us the authority to heal the sick, because this helps keep our faith at a high level. Periodically review the handouts in this Healing Training Course in order to keep this information fresh in your mind, and keep studying the examples of healing in the Bible so that the Holy Spirit can reveal new things to you. See
Every Example of Healing in the New Testament.
The Bible says that "the word of God is
living
and
active"
(Hebrews 4:12), but the Word of God needs to be living
in
you in order for it to be
active
in your life! (see Joshua 1:8, Proverbs 4:20-22, Psalms 1:1-3, and 119:10-20).
-
Continue to grow in spiritual maturity so that God will be able to trust you with more authority to use His power. For example, my four-year-old knows how to use our scissors, but he needs to be older and more
mature
before we will give him more
authority
to use the scissors without our supervision. Similarly, if God were to give you full authority to operate in His power before you have the maturity and the character to handle it then you might hurt yourself (and others) in some way.
To learn some specific things you can do to grow in spiritual maturity, I invite you to read my articles called
Scriptural Ways to Grow in Spiritual Maturity
and
How to Hear the Voice of God.
-
Keep in mind that Christianity is not a religion, it is a
relationship
and a way of life that you live 24 hours a day. Don't limit God, but instead be "dead to self" like the apostle Paul ("I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" - Galatians 2:20). Dead people don't care if they look foolish when someone doesn't get healed, and dead people don't have any agendas of their own, so they are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
-
Above all, love those people out there! Get them healed and get them saved, and give Jesus lots of opportunities to receive glory and praise and honor!
May the Lord richly bless your life with fruitfulness for the Kingdom as you go out and continue His evangelism and healing ministry, and as you train others to do the same until He returns.
YOU can heal the sick in Jesus' Name!
|
|
