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.

Power: How much power is in your life and ministry? I love the fruits of the Spirit as much as the next Christian, but why do pastors avoid the topic of power so much? Even in the most loving, polite, “help-old-ladies-cross-the-road” churches, they’ll preach on kindness and humility and general niceness week after week. No matter how many blind, deaf or diseased ones sit in the pews suffering week in and week out. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 2:4:

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

The world cries out for a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, we respond with niceness. That’ll get you run out of town in Islamic or animist parts of Africa. Go there with power or stay home. Even in developed countries where so many have chronic diseases, there is a great hunger for power. I call this issue the elephant in our living room.

I recall the story of a young man in my old high school. After preaching the gospel to a skeptical friend for a while, becoming frustrated, he says to his friend, “see that streetlight in the distance?” The friend answers “yes, I do”. “OK”, he says, “In Jesus’ Name, I command that streetlight to go out” and it flickers and dies. The friend’s jaw drops. Emboldened, he goes on “In Jesus Name, I command the streetlights to come back on!” and they dutifully comply. The friend kneels and promptly gets saved. Come with power or go home. We must move in power.

Money: Is God reflected in your checkbook? Would I know you were a Christian if I went through your checkbook? The way we handle money determines our priorities in life. And no, I’m not talking about the concept of tithing, which has no relation to the church age. Why folks are still teaching tithing, which a very cursory read of the Bible by a one-eyed boy with half sense would reveal is not a New Covenant doctrine, is beyond me (sorry for the long run-on sentence…) Then again, in the modern non-denominational church, probably a third of what we preach and teach is myth. So the Mosaic law of tithing being taught does not surprise me. I only wish they would obey the other 600 ordinances while they’re at it… Why pick just one? For us under the NT, here’s the rule – give generously and cheerfully, for God loves a cheerful giver. I would also add (my suggestions): give thoughtfully, systematically, and consistently.

Prayer: The last evidence I’ll discuss today is prayer. I’m preaching to myself here as my prayer life has suffered in the last few months as I’ve gotten very busy. As an unnamed pastor once said: “if you are too busy for God, you are busier than He intended you to be!” We’ve got to get away from the “Good morning”, “Good night” prayer life. For the Christian who read the words “be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18), the way we pray today is dangerous and leaves too many believers “exposed.” Think on the meaning of that for it is true. May you have deep and productive Spirit-filled times of prayer with our great God who has called you to His service. Amen.

(To Be Concluded…)

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.

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.

Actually, such a renewed focus will require three levels of prayer organization. First and foremost is a small core of intercessors who will pray for the new ministry on a daily basis. These are the most important. Due to the amounts of time they will need to spend praying individually and corporately, a pastor cannot be a full member of this group. The next level is a larger prayer group that meets regularly (perhaps weekly) and offers prayer for the healing ministry as one of their activities. Last is regular prayer in the church congregation for healing.

Back to the small core of believers, frankly, like Gideon’s 300, these are the most important – many of the miracles and healings you will get during the day will have been obtained at night by these faithful ones. Intercession is powerful and if you have members with a passion for intercession in your church, be very glad. Sadly, few of our churches feel the need for intercessors and all-night prayer has become an oddity, replaced by activity. If you are called to intercession personally, seek out the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as it will help you immensely.

The next issue that is critical in this renewal is training. Poorly trained healing workers are the best tool to drive people away from your church, never to return. They can do so much damage. If you went in to see a doctor and was told that the person seeing you was a person who “had a passion for medicine”, but had undergone no formal training, you would probably head for the exits. However, the attitude in churches seems to be to throw in folks who have a “passion for healing”. What a huge mistake we make! Workers who couldn’t rub two scriptures together or have unresolved issues are dangerous in healing ministry.

I’ll say it again; any church seeking a healing ministry must train their workers. If you cannot train your workers, get a trained person in to do it for you. I will discuss training in my next post, but some key areas are (a) Personality, including compassion (b) Communication Skills (c) Christian Character and (d) Knowledge of the Word, especially regarding healing. Over time, it is also essential that they discern their spiritual gifts.

The problem is that with the things of faith, it is exactly the opposite. It is a new regime that says:

you’ve got to believe it in order to see it.

That goes against everything we have been trained to believe and how we are tuned to experience the world. So when we run into a scripture such as Matthew 21:22,

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer,”

most of us get brainfreeze. Do you now see why the scripture says in Romans 12:2:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The truth is that we cannot operate in the realm of faith and the miraculous if our minds are not radically transformed to believe before we see. Before we see. That is a battle, including for me, with my scientific training. But then again, I have eagerly accepted the new regime, the new paradigm willingly. Why? Because it’s God’s paradigm.

It’s so strange isn’t it? The new birth is miraculous, it is also miraculous when we go to be with the Lord. Yet, many of us become comfortable living a natural life in the interim, divorced from miracles. That just makes no sense to me. So daily, I’m learning to believe before I see. Are you?

I have learned from many years of ministry that there are many different ways you can minister in every situation. However, typically, the Holy Spirit will choose to use one particular approach to minister to that individual. If you don’t understand all the Biblical ways healing comes, you may not understand the guidance you receive from Him. What does it say in 2 Timothy 2:15?

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

When we understand the Biblical ways that God heals, I believe we will be more effective healing ministers. The first way God heals is through prayer, as seen in Mark 11:24,

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

and in John 16:23,

“In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name..”

Also, in Matthew 21:22,

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

These scriptures underscore the first method healing comes–someone prays and asks for it, and then God does it. Please remember that ‘whatever’ means whatever, including healing. Ask for it, believe that you receive it, and it will be yours. Undoubtedly, some may get upset and mutter about “name it and claim it”, but they are Jesus’ words not mine. How much time do you spend in prayer on a regular basis?  Is prayer now routine or do you attach the expectation of an answer to it?

What’s the relevance of intercession to healing? It has everything to do with it. Actually, I believe you can’t have an effective healing ministry in any church without a powerful and dedicated prayer ministry. Remember what Jesus would do on a regular basis, as in Mark 1:35:

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.

In addition, look at what the disciples were doing just before Pentecost came, in Acts 1:

14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

The same thing occurred just before Peter was set free from his captors. The plain fact is that spiritual battles must be fought in order for corporate healings to come. It is not only spiritual battles, but intimacy with the Holy Spirit and revelation of what God is doing that are gained as valuable prerequisites of successful healing ministry. If all we do is movie night and pizza night-not that these are bad in themselves-then we should not be too surprised at our corporate results.

I love intercessors and have had a season in my life (hopefully to be repeated before too long) where I spent considerable time daily interceding. It is effective as a preparatory tool, that’s for sure. Intercession changes the spiritual atmosphere in your church, it breaks demonic assignments that prevent a free flow of the Spirit, it builds up our most holy faith when we pray in the Spirit. A praying church is an anointed church. What is your church like? Do you have protracted times of prayer? Overnight prayer? All-day prayer?  What has prayer done for you?