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.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The idea is to make people self-reliant, so we don’t have to give them aid over and over again. It is a good principle, often used in the context of aid to poor countries – teaching them to farm, to provide for themselves, so they don’t become dependent on aid.

There can even be a spiritual analogy, where we teach people how to pray for themselves or minister to others independently, so they can do so without their teacher or instructor.  Again, this is a great idea that makes us self-reliant and productive.

There is a danger though, in stretching the spiritual analogy too far.  God taught Israel in the desert, not so they could become independent, but so they would learn to depend on Him.  When He told them to go and possess the land, they balked, but later decided to go on in their own strength.  The results were predictable—defeat.

Time after time, after God gave both victories and peace, Israel would begin to believe in themselves and trust in their own strength.  Then they would face defeat again and have to repent and restore fellowship with God.  God gave Israel manna and quail not to teach them how to grow manna and trap quail, but to teach them to depend on Him for everything.

Remember the 120 in the Upper Room?  They had to wait until the Holy Spirit came on them in power and then rely on Him everyday in preaching to the ends of the earth.  Their strength was not a requirement; in fact it was an obstacle.  Paul himself says, in speaking to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:4),

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

It is always better to go in God’s power.  That’s why He tells us in Ephesians 6:10,

“Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power”

Paul also states in 2 Corinthians 1:7-9:

8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Since even the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength, why would I want to go in my own strength anyway? There is no area of greater reliance on God than in the ministry of healing. In so many areas of ministry, you can ‘wing it’ without it being evident that you lack a reliance of God. Powerful prayers, great-exhortation, erudite preaching can all take place in man’s strength.

However, in healing ministry, it is immediately apparent if we have reached a place of dependence on God or not. When we do, there are healings, when we don’t, a lot of nothing will be happening.

Does this mean that dependence on God always brings healing? Sadly, no. what I mean is that, dependence on Him in he ministry of healing is necessary, but not sufficient. While simple, healing is also quite multifaceted, leading us to remember the scripture in 2 Timothy 2:15 that says:

“study to show yourselves approved of God, a work man who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth”

What this means is that the Word and the Spirit are essential for healing.  The Holy Spirit will always break yokes and heal, but without the Word, we cannot understand fully what He says.  We need to know the Word on Healing.

So, in closing, God teaches us, not become self-sufficient, but to depend on Him even more – on His Word and His Spirit.  No matter how mature we are and how much we know, we must rely on Him more and more in the ministry of miracles.  May we learn to do this.

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.

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.

John 5:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

From this, we saw that sin can lead to sickness. Worry or drugs or sexual sin, among other sins, can lead to sickness of the body and mind. In case you were wondering, worry is a sin, as in Philippians 4:6;

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Note that this is not a suggestion, it is a command—primarily for our own good. Physiologically, worry and stress raise cortisol levels in the body and can affect blood pressure, sleep patterns and so on. Anxiety and worry cannot coexist with faith.  Once they arrive, trust and faith in God departs.

So then, is all sickness the result of sin? Thank God, it is not, or some would be sick every day or week. In Jesus’ day, many believed that sickness was the result of a person’s sin or that of his parents, but Jesus debunked that very quickly:

John 9:1-3 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

So this sickness was not the result of sin by either the man or his parents. Some sickness comes from our being in a fallen world, others from our unwise choices and lifestyles, and yet others by demonic attack. Also, the actions of sinful or malicious people can cause sickness in others, such as parents who smoke.

Note that I didn’t mention God here. He is not the source of sickness. I find it strange that the obituaries of worldly people state that “after a yearlong fight against cancer….”, whereas Christians point to God or “God’s will” for their sickness. Many non-Christians recognize sickness as an enemy of all that is good, an evil that must be fought, while many Christians go on about God’s supposed will ‘permitting’ or causing them to be sick.

If you think this way, tell me this: If it was God’s will for you to be sick, why do you visit the doctor to escape “God’s will”? If it was His desire that your character be perfected in sickness, why do you ask for your name to be placed on the prayer chain to avoid this perfecting? If God wanted you ravaged by illness, why not ask the brethren to pray for you to become more sick, so as to enter His will more deeply? The faith-sapping myths we propagate in the church today are a tragedy.

Why is it that wise Christians cannot tell God’s will until after the event? The person died of sickness, ergo, it was God’s will that they died. The person recovered from sickness, thus it was God’s will that they recover. This is a “que sera, sera” Christianity, a lazy spirituality that tries to infer God’s will after the fact. It has more in common with fatalistic Mid-Eastern and Eastern religions than Christianity. If you know God’s will, tell me before we pray, so if it is not His will, we won’t bother. However, not one of these wise ones ever knows until afterwards—going by sight and not by faith.

I can tell you God’s will for the very sick young man with a heartbroken wife and three young children all crying out to Him. It is for him to be healed, period. That is His will before I pray and that is His will after I pray, whether he gets up or stays down. God’s will for that sick child? The same, of course. Why? Because healing is in His Word and His Word is His will.

Why do tragedies occur then, you ask? There are many reasons, but why on earth wouldn’t they occur when we continue teaching unbelief throughout our churches….because we, as a church do not believe all of the Atonement. As a pastor, you doth protest too much that you believe. It doesn’t matter what you profess in conversation. Do you preach healing? Do you regularly pray for the sick? No? Why not? Because you don’t believe it. I learned a long time ago that people do what they believe and avoid what they don’t believe. Most pastor/teachers don’t believe in the full Atonement. If they want to argue about healing being in the Atonement, fine, we don’t have to bring that up.  They just don’t believe in the many healing promises in the Word or in doing the works Jesus said we would do.

Finally, some will argue “why the undue focus on healing?  There are other things to preach about, aren’t there?” Yes there are.  But let’s look at Jesus, in Matthew 4:23:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Jesus focused on healing quite a bit, didn’t He?  He didn’t have other things to preach about?  Somehow though, our gospel has been transformed into a shadow of that which Jesus and the Apostles preached.  It has changed from the Full Gospel to the “Part-Gospel”.

If you are one of few who preach and minister healing regularly, God bless you. May He strengthen you, embolden you, impart spiritual gifts to you, infuse you with the power of the Holy Spirit and may signs and wonders accompany your ministry. Amen.

…to be concluded…

The first question is whether there is a connection between sin and sickness. The answer is “yes” to the general question. By the general question, I mean that there was no sickness before Adam’s fall. The entrance of sin brought sickness in tow. Notice also that in the Atonement, God introduced the solution to sin and sickness, i.e.,

Isaiah 53:5 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.

Psalm 103:2-3 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases

So that shows the link between sin and sickness in the general causative sense. The fallen state of humanity is the background to all sickness. However, we see that healing and the forgiveness of sins became available through the second Adam—Jesus Christ. I say “became available”, because they are not automatic. The new currency of exchange with God has become faith, and forgiveness and healing are available through faith.

Now, let’s look at the individual level. Can sin bring about sickness? Yes it can. The sin of worry can bring about many stress-related diseases. Fornication can lead to sexual diseases. Anger and violence can lead to physical harm. Illegal drugs destroy the whole person. Thus, many types of sin can lead to sickness and harm to the mind and body. The best authority here is Jesus, who, after healing the disabled man at the Pool of Bethesda, found him and said;

John 5:14  Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Jesus warns the man that further sin can lead to sickness.  Some may then conclude that all sin leads to sickness or that all sickness is the result of the sick person’s sin. However, these would be erroneous assumptions. I’ll explain why in the next post…stay tuned…

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.

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.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

From my earlier post about righteousness, it is not surprising that much of the church’s interpretation of this passage is negative i.e., “Paul had a thorn (sickness) so I’m in good company if I have one too.” It is interesting that Christians seek the most negative interpretations of scripture even when these interpretations do not square up with the rest of the Word.  Let’s look at a few scriptures again:

Joshua 23:13 … “then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.”

Numbers 33:55…” ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.”

Matthew 7:3  “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

When Joshua talked about the ‘thorns in your sides’ and Jesus warned about the ‘plank in your eye’, we took them all to be metaphorical, not literal.  Joshua did not mean the physical, literal side of your body or your eyes.  Neither did Jesus mean a real plank in your actual eye.  These are metaphors, aren’t they?  But to give the worst possible interpretation, we have mixed the literal with the metaphorical.  So when Paul says:

there was given me a thorn in my flesh,

we translate ‘thorn’ as a metaphor for sickness but keep flesh as our actual, physical body.  Wrong! Completely inappropriate.  Jesus, in speaking of a plank in the eye meant this as a complete metaphor and so did Paul here.  He meant harassment, just as Israel was harassed, as Joshua predicted.

Why we seek out the most negative in the church is still a mystery to me.  I once thought it was our past programming from the world, but now I doubt it. Some of the most naturally optimistic people I have met have been non-Christians. As I mentioned in a previous post, the world will hold telethons to “fight the enemy, cancer” and “fight the killer, malaria“.  Many Christians, on the other hand, will wax lyrical about how God is teaching them something or blessing them by “giving them” a disease.  We have created church myth to satisfy false humility.

I’m not asking that you misinterpret the Bible to “be positive”.  The Bible is positive enough.  ‘Gospel’ actually means “good news”, not bad. Just read the gospels again and see how positive Jesus was – he healed everyone who came to Him.

I now think that much of what we believe in evangelical and even pentecostal circles is church myth or tradition – things that are just not so. May we interpret the Word correctly to see the great hope to which He has called us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.