Available to Train in Healing

It has been several months since I made a post on the Christian Healing Blog.  I somehow became busier than the Lord intended and time got away from me.

So I’m back now and I promise to be more attentive to those who have commented on the site and to share more of what the Lord is doing in my life and around me in the Healing area.

The main topic of this post though is that I am making myself available to conduct seminars and to train in the area of healing to churches who request it.

For now, I have to restrict it to the North-Eastern United States until I have more time to travel. Apologies to those outside this area.

The Lord has placed it on my heart to share on and to train groups who are interested in becoming more effective in healing.

I’m not an ordained minister, so let’s be clear about that.  I am a teacher by gifting, however and have been trained in healing ministry, with over 15 years of teaching, healing, and counseling ministry.

If you have a group interested in healing or you’d like a seminar on the subject, that’s the idea.

These seminars would also be accompanied by ministry, where I expect the Lord to do what He does – heal, deliver, and impart knowledge and gifts to men and women.

I cannot deal with individuals at this point, only pastors and their staff.  If you would like me to come to your church or prayer group, please let your pastor know and let them or their staff do the invite.

Payment

To come to your church, I charge NO FEES.  I also do not require love gifts.

I do require that you pay for my travel costs (car rental/train/airplane) and a hotel room (Hampton Inn/Hilton Chain) if I have to stay overnight.  If you are in my local area (Philadelphia), I’ll not stay overnight, I’ll be heading home typically.

I think that’s it.  Pastors or their staff can reach me  – Bay - at ari840@hotmail.com. I will call you and we can talk further.

John Lake

John Lake was a mightily-used man of God whose biography I love to read often.  I also greatly admire Smith Wigglesworth, another man whose life is an inspiration to modern-day Charismatics and Pentecostals.  I’m often deeply reflective as to where the anointing and tenacity of these men and others have gone in our day.

I recognize that some ministries today are moving in power, but there is much from that era that I believe we lack. I recall an account from John Lake , who while ministering in South Africa, went through an extended period where every person he prayed for and laid hands on was healed – every single person!

It is easy to think that as your local or national church goes, so goes the whole church globally. Many of us see little and thus become discouraged.  However, remember that we only ever see a small part of the fabric.  Even here in the USA, there are pockets of miracles, faith, healings and deliverances.  All over, from Kansas to California (go IHOP and Bethel!), Pennsylvania to Florida.

This is not even to speak of Chinese teens raising the dead in rural China and blind eyes being opened in Mozambique.  We must keep in mind that as in Isaiah 9:7,

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

I encourage everyone involved in the ministry of healing to read about the likes of Lake, Wigglesworth, Kathryn Kuhlman, Jack Coe, Aimee Semple-Macpherson, John Wimber, and others used mightily in faith and healing.  Their life stories will encourage you, motivate you and mobilize you in moving more effectively and determinedly in the ministry of healing.

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.

Without evidence, I’m guessing that statistics for Christians are similar. Especially since they are similar in divorce statistics and reportedly, greater in support of torture of prisoners of war (62% vs. 49% – Pew Group Report). However, those discussions are for another day and perhaps even another blog. The focus here is on healing, so back to television.

While there can be good television programming, I think there are few things that are more destructive to faith and a life of communion with the Lord than television. And no, I’m not just referring to sex, violence and profanity. I’m referring instead to the act of TV-watching itself and what happens as you watch TV. It is possibly the most passive and mind-surrendering act you can perform in your home.

Many say they watch TV to relax, but it is merely giving your mind over to the folks in Hollywood. We hand it over to them to fill with images, to engage, but later wonder aloud why we seldom hear the voice of God. It may be that the “still, quiet voice” is drowned out by the multiple explosions and gunshots of those thrillers we have surrendered our minds to.

My personal thesis is that the more we watch TV, the less we’ll hear God. I’ll add even “Christian channels” to the mix here. Some of these are good to watch, others are simply fund-raising operations that don’t edify. If we watch the average of almost 5 hours a day, I personally doubt that we can ever be effective in healing ministry. We simply will not have enough time to pray, to study the word and build faith, and to consecrate ourselves before the Lord.

These days, I now catch myself almost automatically while watching TV. Five to ten minutes seems to be my limit before an internal timer warns me it’s time to move on. I just can’t seem to do it anymore. I realized a long time ago that even with an unremarkable cable package, it is easy to watch TV for hours on end – there is so much ‘interesting’ stuff. History, the geographical channel, news and sports, all of which I’m a fan (sadly!) In Hebrews 12:14, it says:

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

What is holiness? It is separation unto God. The word “see” means perceive. In other words, without separation from the world system (including thoughts, desires, and its affairs), we will not, and cannot perceive the Lord’s purposes. That includes personal leading for our own lives as well as ministry unto others.  If we look at Jesus’ life as a model, we see in Mark 1:35, that:

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Watching TV late at night just makes this impossible for us to do, especially if you have a job you must go to. However, without this type of communion with God, forget signs, wonders, healings and miracles.  They just won’t happen for us if we don’t spend the time – it’s that spiritual law of sowing and reaping again.

So, in summary, I’m not saying all TV is evil, but the less time we spend watching TV and the more time we spend praying, the more effective we’ll be in ministry, including healing ministry. There is a price to be paid for more effectiveness in healing. I’ll say it again, there’s a PRICE to be paid to be effective in healing.  May we be ready and willing to pay that price. Amen.

I’ve been struck over the years by how so many diseases are beyond the reach of medical science to cure.  Medical science is quite good at disease management and keeping people alive while sick, but hundreds of millions live with chronic conditions that cause daily pain and distress.  Naaman was one such individual.

It is surprising how adaptable people are.  People can adapt to pain, discomfort, and even a limb that may not work as it should.  Often, they rarely think about it any more. Not Naaman though.  He appeared to have had his condition on his mind, so much so that his servants had his situation on their minds also.

2 Kings 5:2  Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman was immediately interested.  He acted on the information and traveled to see Elisha.  Interestingly, he  took along gold and other valuables with the mindset that his healing was going to cost him something.

Healing costs nothing, of course.  It is provided free of charge to all who come to eat the children’s bread. I’ll be a little controversial though and say that while the gospel is free, it is simultaneously not free- it costs money to send missionaries out, to print Bibles,  and to send those with healing gifts out to the people.  But the power, the anointing, the Word itself is free. Anyway, I digress.  Back to Naaman.  After making the trip to Israel he met Elisha,

2 Kings 5:9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”  11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.

Naaman was indignant about the method used by the prophet and almost went back to Damascus in a huff.  Fortunately, his servant prevailed on him to dip in the Jordan river and this is where humility played a major role.  He changed his mind.  He turned instead and went to dip in the river, and got healed.

Is that relevant to us?  Yes, it is.  In my work in the healing rooms, I have seen many get offended for one no-reason or another and leave before they could be ministered to. In truth, people can have legitimate reasons to leave a ministry venue, and I tell friends that if they are genuinely not comfortable in their spirits, go ahead and leave.  And just as you would do your research on doctors and specialists, by all means do your research about specific healing rooms and ministries.  Attend a few meetings to test their spirit.  Talk to others.  All too often, we walk into churches and lose all common sense.  I don’t let just anyone lay hands on me – neither should you.

However, some are so easily offended at nothing that they miss what God has for them.  God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and His ways are not our ways.  But some come with a firm opinion of how God has to minister to them.  Remember what Naaman said:

2 Kings 5:11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

I often wonder: if they knew this, why didn’t they just get their healing on their own?  God does more than all we can think or imagine,  so why try to put Him in a box?

What do we take away from Naaman’s example?  Humility is an avenue to healing.  As an example of humility, Bartimaeus is a great example. “Son of David, have mercy on me,” was his cry. Likewise, Jairus humbled himself before Jesus (Luke 8:41). So did the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43) and the ten lepers who were healed (Luke 17:12).

Isaiah 57:15 For this is what the high and lofty One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Few have problems humbling themselves before God, many have problems humbling themselves before men. However, God doesn’t lay hands on you. Men do. You’ve got to deal with anointed men and women and that’s where it gets sticky. Yes, you might know more scripture than the minister, you may been a Christian longer and you may be more mature spiritually.  You might even be better looking.  However, you can still receive your healing through them.

Some men won’t allow themselves to be prayed for by women, to their own loss. If God sent a donkey or a three year-old to lay hands on me for healing, I’ll take it. Kathryn Kuhlman was one of the most anointed healing ministers that ever lived, if any man needed proof that God uses women in healing. However, I’ll blog on men’s attitudes to women in healing ministry in a later post.

Not a single chronic disease impresses God.  He is able and willing to heal your sicknesses and diseases.  Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand and He will lift you up, heal you and restore you through Jesus. Amen.

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

Jesus likened healing to bread and being healed as eating bread. It was not for nothing that bread was an element in the Last Supper—Jesus’ blood (wine) for the forgiveness of our sins, and His Body (bread) for the healing of our bodies.

Let’s return to the topic then. How can we grow the fastest? By reading the Word? By praying? By meditating on the Word? These are all good and profitable, but they are not the major means by which we grow in faith and effectiveness in healing. We do so by practice, or in other words, through service.

If we wanted to become stronger, we could read all the exercise manuals and training programs in the world, but if we never got into a gym and started a regular training program, nothing would happen. If we wanted to become a concert pianist and never played a piano, but only read music books, well, you get the idea. In 1 Corinthians 9:25, we read,

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

To become more effective in healing, we must do it, we must train. We should join a local Healing Room, our church’s healing ministry (if one exists), get trained, understudy those who are moving in knowledge and power, and begin ministering healing ourselves. Sorry, there are no short cuts. Repetition creates experience. In Hebrews 5:14, we read,

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Repetition prepares us to deal with a wider range of circumstances and trains us in experiencing God in the healing arena. Constant use is key to every aspect of our faith walk.

The ‘Lone Ranger’ mentality is not very effective, although God does call some individuals eventually into very powerful individual healing ministries. However, if you ever studied the lives of these mightily-used individuals, you will note they all started working under another ministry, where their gifts and callings were developed and refined. I urge you to do the same, and may the Lord anoint you greatly for the work He has called you to. Amen.

Whoever watches the wind will not plant;  whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

If we struggle with that thought, we will never be free to pray in faith. In the natural, we don’t want to make a fool of ourselves. We dread the thought of our prayer resulting in…absolutely nothing. We are frequently afraid of those who would pounce on us for giving the sick “false hope”, and we would rather not be classed with those who are labeled the “name-it-and-claim-it people”. This leads to paralysis and hesitation.

I was helped by realizing that God is the Healer, not me. All I’m required to do is my part, namely to nurture my faith and minister healing to the supplicant. Oh yes, there’s also consecration, and training to make me more effective.

However, let’s just follow that hypothetical, shall we? If “nothing happens”, then as long as I have fulfilled my part, the responsibility for healing lies with God. He is the Healer. I am neither embarrassed nor mortified if there is no immediate discernible change in the situation. Why would I be? I am only ever embarrassed if I am not prepared or hearing clearly or consecrated. Besides, something always happens after faith-filled prayer- in the spirit if not in the physical.

Second, we think healing is easy. Well, it is not, sorry. Eating bon bons is easy, healing is hard. Please read “Healing is Hard”. A nation of instant gratification gets upset at temporary failures without realizing there is a price to be paid. An unfocused church gets so demoralized that many pastors now avoid the topic entirely. Read John Wimber’s Power Healing about paying the price for success in the healing ministry.

Jesus, as it happens, was in the habit of waking up very early to pray. In Mark 1:35, we read,

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Did He have to get up early in the morning to pray? Not really, but to be as effective as He was, definitely yes. We know that Jesus did not minister as the Son of God, He ministered as a man anointed by the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, He never would have said we’d do the same and even greater works than He did.

So here’s the sequence. We don’t pay the price, we don’t get results, and then we back off because we don’t get results. Even worse – and this is the most distressing – there are some believers who once believed in Jesus the Healer, who have now joined the chorus of naysayers.

I like to look at it this way: naysayers will never receive healing other than through natural means. Deliverance will always be out of reach.  What have we got to lose by getting trained and going for broke in healing and the supernatural? Embarrassment? If so, read Hebrews 11 and realize how good we have it today in the West. If you call this embarrassment, consider what your brethren are going through in South Sudan, Eritrea, China, Egypt, and parts of India. That is beyond embarrassment unto death.

Let’s put it all together then. Never consider what people may think or the “what if it doesn’t work?” question. Do your best to get trained by one of the very few remaining teachers that teach authoritatively on Christian healing (books, tapes, actual meetings and the Internet are all good). Join a Healing Room or other band of believers, where you can develop your gifts and exercise your faith. Pray and meditate on the scriptures that relate to healing . Then pray some more. It may take time as you pay the price, but your faith will grow, as will your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and ultimately, your effectiveness. Then you will eventually, like Elijah, begin to seek out and challenge naysayers and see God’s power demonstrated through you.

11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

Those who are familiar with healing and deliverance ministry understand the significance of touch and how the anointing can be released through touch.

On one hand, we can look at this scripture and say: “well, this was specific to Paul as a healing method and nothing is said about its generalizability to other ministers”. They would recall when a dead body was thrown into a cave in which Elisha had been laid and the dead one came back to life on contact with Elisha’s corpse (2 Kings 13:20, 21). Surely, we would not introduce that as a general form of ministry, would we?

However, there are other precedents that seem to me to permit this form of healing ministry. Elisha (2 Kings 4:29) had his servant, Gehazi, take his staff to lay on the face of a dead boy for healing (although unsuccessful in that instance). Most important though, the woman with the issue of blood was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment.

Clearly it is not the cloth itself that heals, but the Holy Spirit’s anointing from the individual that impregnates the cloth. With these examples, I suggest this is a viable method of ministering and receiving healing today. However, as practiced today, this method is dramatically unsuccessful or at best, “hit-and-miss”. Why?

I believe the major reason is that we have little understanding in our churches about who has what kind of anointing, calling or gifting in any area. We just gather around en masse, lay hands on the cloths and send them out “on a hope and a prayer”. It is almost ritual now.

As an aside, I have been in meetings where twenty believers gather around a sick person and begin to pray. This irritates me, quite honestly. That is dignifying sickness and ascribing importance to the demonic activity behind some sicknesses. Why are twenty Christians needed to pray for healing for one person? Am I the only one to whom this seems ridiculous? The Greater One lives in us, doesn’t He? If one Christian can change a light bulb, one believing Christian should be able to pray successfully for a sick person’s healing.

Anyway, back to anointing cloths. What would it take to have a better success rate? Teaching and recognition of spiritual gifts…much more of it. Are we an army? Yes, but an army of specialists. Pilots fly planes, tank drivers drive tanks, engineers build bridges. This is important. You have this gift, I have another. Those who have this gifting and success in it should be doing it, not everyone. We just don’t operate like an army and so become largely ineffectual in warfare, particularly when contending for healing.

To conclude, I suggest that anointing cloths are a method by which God heals. Trained and anointed ministers in this area can have great results that glorify God and get the sick healed. Please tell us about your own experiences in this area.

However, she saw her daughter awake and went right to her, very emotional, talking frantically to her and calling for the nurses. Interestingly enough, her daughter fixed her gaze at me all through this. I knew she knew she had been revived for the Prayer of Agreement, but disconcerted by her mother’s entrance and approaching nurses, I fluffed it. I told the mother I was a there to pray for her daughter and asked if I could. Cautiously, she said yes but in my flustered state, I didn’t do what I had myself asked for i.e., a Prayer of Agreement, and instead prayed a tepid prayer that I knew didn’t even make it out the window. Obedience and boldness are so important.

She began an instant improvement from that day on, but I went home and wept that day, because I knew I had not done what I was called to do. Each day saw further improvement and positive reports from the doctors, but I was cheered not a bit. On the day they were transferring her out of intensive care to the regular ward due to her improving condition, she died. This came as a shock to everyone but me.

Yes, I did beat myself up for a while over that. Do I still beat myself up? Of course not! It is often harder to forgive ourselves than others, but I learned long ago that wallowing in self accusation is a favorite trap of the enemy. She was saved and is walking the streets of gold; I learned obedience; and I led her father to the Lord in the hospital and followed up for months afterward. Please, don’t even get started about the Lord having some purpose in her untimely death at 30-odd years old. We just lost that one. We’ll do better next time. In the tragedy, God gave comfort, because that’s what He does. In ministry to the sick, may we be bold, compassionate, and obey His leading. Amen.

What’s this got to do with a church becoming a healing church? Well, healing churches have to be gregarious about healing. Churches need others who know more than they do to really round them out in the various areas of healing. It is really important to find fivefold ministers to visit who move in the power of the Spirit and can also teach. Doctrine is important though, so it is wise to study the doctrine of your visitors before they visit, not after. Avoid ministers who move in power but have really erroneous doctrine.

A while back, in a home meeting, I innocently asked the question “what gifts does everyone here operate in?” All I received were blank stares and perhaps one or two hostile ones. I continued to quote Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6,

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

It says here that God works all of them in all men. I don’t believe there is a believer without spiritual gifts. Your gifts may be different from mine, but I believe God operates certain gifts in the life of each born-again believer. If there is one tragedy in the Body of Christ today, it is that this is not taught and many believers will go on to glory without operating in their gifts to benefit others. I’m sad when I think of the thousands who never walked in gifts of healing, faith or miraculous powers because they were not taught and thus never knew.

Healing churches should teach their congregations about, and encourage them to seek after spiritual gifts. This is one area where it is OK to be a glutton, that is having more and more of the Holy Spirit!! Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. I daydream sometimes about a healing room team of three members, one operating in the word of wisdom, another in gifts of healings, and yet another, in miraculous powers. I think they would be seriously effective.

When it comes to healing, we need to be as organized as the military, for two reasons. First, it is war, and second, the enemy is organized. “Jesus won already!” I hear someone say. I quite agree, but did you read Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:3,

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

And again, in 1 Timothy 1:18,

Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight,

What war? This war that Paul refers to in these scriptures. So yes, we already have a victory through Jesus, but we are involved in an enforcement action that is war. My prayer is that more pastors teach, develop and equip their people to be used mightily in the healing ministry. Amen.