The grace of God in action

I picked up the ringing telephone about 3 weeks ago to hear my distraught cousin tell me about her twin 6 year old boy who was in the hospital with H1N1 or swine flu.  His twin sister had also had the flu but had recovered. He, on the other hand, was not doing well.

She asked me to pray and I said I would.  I took time off and entered the “peaceful room” – what we call one of our bedrooms and spent maybe a half hour praying for the boy.  I immediately got a sense that this would be more of a challenge than her original report indicated, but I declared that he would live and not die.

The next day, she called me even more distressed, with the news that one of his lungs had collapsed, he was now in intensive care, in an induced coma, as his discomfort was acute. His doctors did not know what else to do.

She asked me to pray again as the hospital outlook was bleak and getting bleaker.  I wasn’t too surprised by the turn of events based on what  had heard the first time, although a bit surprised at the speedy deterioration.

I’ll tell you what I did and what I did NOT do.  I did not call a prayer line or a prayer chain.  I didn’t get on the telephone with masses of people.  If the Lord led me to, I would have, but as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I believe it is a disgrace for hundreds of Christians to pray against one or a few spirits of infirmity.  One believer should be able to minister effectively against the attacks of a horde of demons, with Greater One on the inside.

I entered my “prayer closet” and took the offensive against this infirmity.  I prayed in the Spirit and I prayed with my understanding.  I took authority over the situation and spoke healing over the boy.  I prayed a couple of times – perhaps an hour each time.  When the burden lifted, I stopped, called the mother and told her I believed her son would be fine. At this point, there simply was no outward evidence of this, but I was convinced it would be so.

Although she called me the next day with grimmer news of how his collapsed lung was scarring and he was now unable to breathe on his own, I was not moved.  OK, maybe some concern in the flesh – I’ll be honest – but I’ve learned that the flesh and mind will sometimes react to stimuli in ways that you cannot fully control.  If someone jumps out with a gun, your  adrenaline will spike even if you know the angels of God are protecting you.  That’s what I mean. You must realize though, that this is separate from faith.  Faith is what you KNOW, not what you feel.

In my heart and mind and words to her, I knew and told her he would be fine – but it was interesting watching my own emotions at times.  Sometimes even amusing.

OK, what happened?  Two days after that bleak report, he began recovering rapidly and was out of the Intensive Care.  The doctors and nurses who treated him in intensive care were all coming by to marvel at his “miraculous” recovery.  Another two days and he was home, playing with his siblings like nothing ever happened.

The doctors had said that the scarring in his lung would take at least 2 years to heal, but at his last visit, there was no trace of scarring, the doctors pronouncing his lungs to be “like Lance Armstrong’s”!!

So praise God for this all.  This is not about anyone’s greatness of faithfulness, but God’s.  He preserved my cousin from “sorrow upon sorrow” and kept the life of a boy who will live to serve Him and glorify His Name.  I pray that your hearts might be encouraged, just as mine and my cousin (and her family) have been, through the Lord’s healing mercy. Amen.

Precision is key to long-term effective healing ministry

Precision is essential to the healing ministry.  Without it, we often flail about, turn up the volume, and hope for results that seldom materialize. What do I mean by ‘precision’ and why is it so important?  Precision is accuracy in hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit during ministry. Every ministry situation provides you with many alternative ways that you can minister, but not every way will bring success.

When the Shunammite woman came to Elisha after her son died, notice what Elisha did.  He took a specific set of actions. Gehazi was to take the Prophet’s staff and lay it on the boy’s face.  He was not to speak to anyone on the way.

It is interesting that the boy did not immediately recover and Gehazi returned, unsuccessful.  Didn’t Elisha hear God, you may ask?  I’m inclined to say he did.  Why didn’t the child come back to life then?  I don’t think the Bible spells it out explicitly, but I would lay the blame on Gehazi’s doorstep,  as being an unsuitable vessel of grace.  He later proved this in the case of Naaman the Syrian.

In any case, when Elisha finally arrived, he didn’t anoint with oil or lay hands on the boy, but instead, did something that would be strange in any age.  He lay on the boy nose-to-nose (2 Kings 4:32) and eventually the boy came back to life.  Again, he didn’t walk around the bed seven times in the manner of Jericho or smash arrows on the ground as in the case of King Jehoash (2 Kings 13:18).  He was specific in what he did and got results.

Jesus put his spit on a man’s tongue (Mark 7:33), spat in another man’s eyes (Mark 8:23), and asked Lazarus to come forth (John 11:43).  He asked the 10 lepers to go and show themselves to the priests in one instance (Luke 17:12), but laid hands on the one leper who sought healing (Luke 5:13).  Jesus was precise, He didn’t try everything, He did one thing.

If you are in healing ministry, realize you can minister in hundreds of ways to any healing candidate.  Will every approach work?  No, but the one the Holy Spirit illuminates in your heart will in most cases.  I say most cases, because it is not that simple working through the vessels of clay that we are. Unforgiveness on the candidate’s part, tiredness on our part, or disorganization may just a few obstacles to healing.

Yes, we must know all the Biblical approaches to healing, many of which are listed on this blog.  But we must always strive to hear the Holy Spirit in every situation.  We must also be flexible and open to his direction during the healing encounter.  I have seen dual errors of treating every situation like a nail when you only have a hammer (e.g., laying on of hands on everyone you meet), and being so inflexible during ministry, you don’t receive a change in direction from the Holy Spirit.  We would do well to avoid both.

May you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as you minister, may you be flexible enough to deal with changing circumstances in healing ministry.  Amen.

Can you give some info on Why we don’t see many healing miracles in the Western culture. Is it a lack faith by those praying for others to be healed? I don’t like pulling single scriptures out to back up my point but there are a few that talk about faith the size of a mustard seed or Jesus said we would great things than this etc. I feel frustrated when I see and pray for people who are in for example a wheelchair and their own desire is to be healed by God?

Sorry for the delayed response. Great questions. We do have miracles associated with many ministries in the West, but not only are they fewer than in the early 20th century (in my opinion), but there is a definite resistance to any kind of reporting of Christian ministries in our day, other than scandals.  I certainly detect an anti-Christian spirit developing in the US, but it is even more advanced in Europe.  If for example, a blind person was healed in your ministry, no news outlet would carry it, and even so, it would probably be an obscure “documentary” about “religious craziness” showing at 1.00am and featuring you with Indian mystics and David Blaine.

So, just as God spoke to Elijah about him not being alone and 7,000 being reserved who had not bowed their knee to Baal, the same is true today.  There are many miracles occurring in the US and in Europe.  In churches across the land, by itinerant evangelists, in countless healing rooms, healings are occurring – real, verifiable healings.  In my 5 years in healing rooms, we had bad blood tests becoming good, bad X-Rays and MRIs coming back good, and people released form chronic pain and set free.   I have seen deafness healed, diabetes healed, double vision restored instantly and my own horrible prognosis for my shoulder (“your only option is surgery!”) discarded by God – now I’m back lifting weights – no surgery.

It is all there, but you’ll never see it in a paper or on TV.  Rather, in unheralded meetings and in healing rooms all over the US, people ARE getting healed.  Is it as much as I would like?  Clearly not!  Any why not?  I continue to maintain that our current crop of pastors and teachers are largely unbelievers in the area of healing and the miraculous.  You shouldn’t take a fly swatter to a gun fight, which is what these dear ones do.  They proclaim loudly that they believe but their actions belie their words.  They don’t preach healing, don’t demonstrate it, and in the rare instances that they mention healing, they twist it to their experience and strip it of any power…

• “He heals sometimes…”
• “If it is His will, you’ll be healed…”
• “God’s will is for you to be sick…”
• “Sickness will build your character…”
  
• “How else would we die…?”
• “Sometimes He answers Yes, sometimes No, sometimes Wait…”
• “This sickness is to make you humble/teach you patience/(add any excuse you like) …”
• “What about Job?”
• “What about Paul’s Thorn?…”
• “What about Trophimus, who Paul left sick…”
  

I could go on and on.  Essentially they are out there preaching myths and fables and not healing.  That’s what all the above junk is.  So we don’t get healing.  God does not work through laymen (bottom-up) – He works through pastors (top-down).  So no matter how on fire you are, if your pastor is a big ball of faithlessness in the area of miracles and healing, that’s the atmosphere you’ll have. You will be pulling uphill and you will have less success than if you had a believing pastor.   God respects His order in the church, regardless of whether you are right and the pastor is wrong.  That just the way it works.

So I could go on – we don’t have serious prayer or intercession in most churches, we seldom hear sermons on healing, there’s no way we can have sustained explosions of widespread healing as long as the present situation continues.  God confirms His Word with signs following…  No word of healing, no confirmation.  The good thing is that you can find places where the pastor is leading the healing revival, places where they pray, teach, preach, and demonstrate healing.  They exist, absolutely and God is doing amazing stuff in those places.

I may continue in this vein later…  Blessings.

Other kings started well and ended badly, like Saul and Solomon, while others had rocky beginnings, yet ended much better, like Manasseh. One cautionary word here: we often say it’s not how we start, but how we finish that’s important. That is strictly speaking, true. The grace of God means that 100 wasted years followed by 10 minutes of repentance takes us straight to heaven.

I noticed though, that very few kings of Israel or Judah started badly but ended well. Many more started well but ended badly. This should motivate us to guard our hearts, as so aptly put in Hebrews 3:

12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

In Isaiah 38, King Hezekiah became ill and cried out to God for his healing. God healed him and what is notable is one line he wrote after his recovery. In Isaiah 38:9-11, he said:

9  A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery: 10 I said, “In the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?” 11 I said, “I will not again see the LORD, the LORD, in the land of the living;

Did you notice that? Hezekiah, under the Old Covenant said he would not again see the Lord … in the land of the living.

If Hezekiah could boast of seeing (experiencing deeply) the Lord on earth, how much more should we expect to experience deeply the Lord under our covenant, which eclipses the old. Hebrews 3:16 says:

6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

Most of us would be excited to have lived during periods in the Old Testament when Israel experienced God’s miracles and tangible glory. Sad, isn’t it, that our Christian life in these days of the Latter Rain are less characterized by the miraculous than the days of Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and David?

Beloved, we should not settle for this. If Hezekiah could boast of “seeing God” , experiencing Him under an inferior covenant, we should expect to walk in more power, more miracles and more of the presence of God. We were birthed (the New Birth) by a miracle and we go miraculously to be with the Lord when we die. Should our life in between be devoid of miracles? That makes no sense, biblically.

May we press on in the faith until we walk in the fullness of the New Covenant and its better promises. Amen.

After a while, she managed to slowly drive back home and visited the doctor soon after. Several studies followed and eventually, the doctors told her they thought she had suffered a mini-stroke in the recent past that affected the muscles attached to one eyeball. Their remedy was surgery to tighten up the muscles. As has happened at similar times in the past, indignation rose up within and I said I believed Jesus could heal her. I asked if she wanted to pray and she said yes.

At this point, I called a friend of mine in Kenya – a stalwart in prayer, and we had this 3-way call while physically separated by thousands of miles. After quick introductions, my other friend began to pray up a storm. He bound and he loosed, he banged out scripture after scripture, cast out demons and called forth healing. From me came hearty amens interspersed with the tongues of angels.

After a minute or so, someone tried to call me via call waiting, repeatedly. I ignored the call, angry at the enemy apparently trying to distract us from this important mission. I keep hearing the call waiting beeps. No matter. We press on. After my friend concludes, I begin to storm the heavens and call forth healing. Eventually, I am done and we “power down”.

I called out my friend’s name. No response. “Perhaps she’s slain in the Spirit,” I thought…very spiritually. God has a sense of humor, as you’ll see in a second. I realized she was not connected and called her. Here’s her story.

When the prayer began, she sat in a chair, took off the special glasses she had been given to merge the images, shut her eyes and leaned back. In doing so, the phone connection was lost, so she opened her eyes to call me back. When she did, her eyesight was perfect! She screamed and excitedly called me back. However, our prayer blitz had just begun and we were not stopping for anyone She was the caller, as you have probably guessed. We kept at it for another 15 minutes or so, until we were done and called her back.

God has a sense of humor indeed. She was healed immediately we started praying, but I can imagine the angels laughing as we raised a holy ruckus for the next 15 minutes. Needless to say, no operation was required by the puzzled doctors. This is one of the most touching, but also the most hilarious healing I have been involved in. I thank God for it – for saving my friend from going under the knife.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

An act? Not a chance. A performance? Not with a 4-year old who cannot be depended upon to follow the script. What set it beyond a shadow of doubt for me was that prior to his reaching this family, I had been irritated by the young girl making these strange sounds, these formless sounds. I had wondered why her parents would not keep her under control as I tried to listen to the evangelist.

Now it struck me. Of course! They were the sounds of one who had never heard and thus, could not speak. I’d heard this before and you may have too. You know when you hear it, and that was certainly it. He cupped his hands around her ears. People are standing on chairs, craning to see. “There it goes!”, he declares. I look for “it” but it’s clear he’s the only one who sees this ‘it’. It is now so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.

Ten or so rows back, a woman cannot contain herself and loudly begins to praise God, startling many…including the young girl. Instinctively, her head whips around-completely impossible to script-and she is pointing back, to this woman she could not see. I know she couldn’t, I and a hundred others were in the way. They test her with finger snaps and other sounds to everyone’s satisfaction.

There’s something that happens to crowds when God’s healing power is demonstrated. It is joy that borders on panic, although panic is not a good word. People screamed and ran around aimlessly, they stood on chairs and yelled to to each other. I have never forgotten that day. The presence of God can be felt. I don’t mean just sensed. When He is there in power, His presence can physically be felt. There were many miracles that night, some of which I will describe later. Are miracles for today? For those who believe, my answer is yes. There will always be scoffers, but they can request to be put on God’s “do not call list”. For those pressing in, more power to you. Write and share your testimonies.

As I approached the Convention Center, two men came running frantically down the street. Breathless, they asked me, “Are you blind?” “No”, I answered, quite puzzled. “Are you sure?” they insisted. Was this a joke? They didn’t look amused. Finally it began to dawn on me that these guys were dead serious. “I think I would know if I was”, I replied. As I was now quite useless to them, they tore past me seeking a blind man or woman to take to the meeting.

Now, my curiousity was piqued. Who was this evangelist and why were these men frantically seeking blind people to bring to him for healing? I walked into an auditorium and an atmosphere that was tense with expectation. The confident evangelist walked up and down the rows of people, exhibiting the most accurate gift of the Word of Knowledge I had ever seen.

Coming to a couple and their 4 or 5-year old daughter a couple of rows ahead of me, he stopped and asked, “Four doctors have said there’s no hope, haven’t they?” They nodded silently. For our benefit, since the young girl looked physically healthy, he says “she was born deaf.” The couple nod again. The tension is now palpable…(continued tomorrow)

Two months back, I’d been mowing my lawn, the narrow part of the raised kerb, when the mower wheels slipped.  I tried to hold it level, but my wrist popped.  It kept hurting but for two weeks, I thought I had just strained it.  So I went with the ice and heating pads for about 3 weeks, but the pain didn’t quit.  After a visit to my Primary Doctor, he recommended an X-Ray.  It showed a little floating chip had broken off my radius.  However, he assured me that it would eventually be carried away by my body.

Since that didn’t explain all the pain, off I went for an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan.  The report from the scan said my wrist was fine–other than the tiny floating bone chip, but I knew better.  I grabbed a copy of the MRI to take along to the specialist, checked it out against images on the web and knew that my TFCC had been trashed.

Fast forward to the wrist surgeon.  As I bid him goodbye, I was recoiling from the thought of surgery–my only option, in his book.  I resolved instead to pray and did so over the next few weeks.  Gradually, I began to get stronger and started a self-designed program of forearm and wrist therapy.

Back in his office two months later, he looked strangely at me as he bent my wrist one way and then another.  “Any pain?” he asked.  “No”, I answered.  “What about here?”, “here?”. I smiled, “No, nothing at all”. If there was, I would have told him.  After a few minutes of this, he sat back and said, “If I were you, I would not even think about surgery.  Leave well enough alone.” As I left, I thanked God for His mercy.  From no alternatives to surgery to leaving well enough alone.  A “slow” healing, but you know what, I’ll take it with thanks and appreciation.

So I like and respect doctors.  They help you diagnose what’s wrong so you can pray specifically.  They can help make you better in many cases if divine healing is not immediately available.  There’s no shame to seeing doctors, I’ve seen many in my time.  Luke, the author of the 3rd Gospel and Acts, was a doctor. Think about it, you can actually pray more intelligently once you know what the issue is, not so?  Thank God for those with huge faith that don’t use doctors.  But I’ve seen that put into doctrine and served cold, to the detriment of the drinkers.  What do you think about doctors?

At this, I said how sorry I was to hear it. I then asked if she did any therapy for it. Enthusiastically, I put my knife and fork down, got up, and showed her a couple of stretches she could do for her back. After I sat down, I immediately felt quite foolish. Here I was, teaching and ministering healing almost every week, but my first reaction was to show her stretching exercises.

Anyhow, in a few minutes, we were done with dinner and as the sun began to set, I walked with her to her truck to say goodbye. This was still gnawing at me though, but I felt that reserve many of us do and still said nothing. I think it was when she opened her door and I saw the cushions she had arranged on the driver’s seat to keep her comfortable that I finally gave in and asked, “do you mind if I pray for your back?”

She was a little taken aback but after a couple of seconds, answered yes. I laid hands on her back, right there in the parking lot. “Father, in the Name of Jesus, I ask that you heal her back. I believe it is done and I thank you for it, in Jesus Name.” That’s it, I’m done. She gingerly gets into her car, waves and drives off. I find my car nearby and drive off. I don’t get more than half a mile down the road than my phone rings. I can tell she’s excited about something. “I can’t believe this!!” She’s yelling now. “The pain is gone .. it’s gone!”

Now I’m excited too. “Praise God, the pain is gone?” She answers, “Yes, it’s completely gone. I can’t believe it…” She is so excited. She is still healed when she gets home, the next day and weeks later. She told me that she had to make adjustments in the way she got into her car, into bed, opened things and so on-her whole life had changed. Actually, she could stop compensating for a bad back.

I must admit I was puzzled at the time. I prayed for maybe 20 seconds and laid hands on her back. I had just had some tough, protracted prayer cases with minimal relief for the sufferers. Why the difference? I think I have gotten some answers since then, which I’ll share in a later post. What are your thoughts on this?

I read a quote from Blamires that I liked, “Revivals are caught, rather than taught”.  I certainly agree (mostly) in regard to these large-scale outpourings.  However, I also believe that it is possible for individuals and churches to walk in constant revival.  One certainly does not need to wait for a massive outpouring to have a local one.  All that is involved is hunger and desperation for God.

OK, onto Florida.  If you kept up with it, you will know by now that it did not end well.  Todd Bentley, who led the meetings attended by thousands night after night for weeks on end, had personal difficulties and self-admitted shortcomings that led to his stepping down.  Shortly thereafter, the meetings ended.  Now, before I go on, I should state that I didn’t attend any of the meetings, I watched a few clips on YouTube and GodTV like many, so I cannot give a qualitative view of the happenings there. I’m more inclined to believe that God was deeply involved in it though.

It seems that some have discounted everything that occurred because of one man’s failings. To me, that is not a valid assumption.  If it was, we could discount David’s inauguration and calling after he killed Uriah and married Bathsheba.  Men and women of God fall-get over it.  To discount everything they did because they fell is faulty thinking.  All you need do is look at yourself.

What I’d to hear though, is observations from folks who went down to Brownsville and attended the meetings.  Were you blessed?  Were you healed?  What did you see?  What did God do?  Share your experiences on here and give us a deeper perspective on Brownsville, 2008.