Healing Close to Home

This past weekend, my family came to visit us. On the Friday night they arrived, my sister expressed much physical discomfort, including a stomach ache, hurting back, and many other things. Now, you must realize that my sister ALWAYS tells me that something is hurting her whenever I see her. I must admit, it can be taxing to carry the emotional burden of her being sick all the time. Thus, when she expressed her discomfort on Friday night, I was tempted to become disheartened. But, realizing this, I took my thoughts captive to Christ and gave my heart over to His desires for my sister instead.

I felt "electricity" concentrated in my forearms and palms, which from past experience indicated to me a special presence (or, "readiness") of the Holy Spirit, so I decided to do an experiment. I went over to my sister Sarah, who was sprawled out on the floor on her belly, and said, "Sarah, put out your hand palm-up."

"God's Will"

As I've delved more into the topic of divine healing, it has become apparent to me that different camps of people have different things in mind when they talk about "God's Will." It is essential to clarify this term if the Christian community is to make any progress in understanding one another on the issue of divine healing (and many other essential doctrines). I will do my best to make relevant distinctions in this article in order to help us avoid future misunderstandings.

What is "God's Will"?
First off, let me point out two ways in which we can collect data about how God set up creation:

1. We observe past and present circumstances, note the outcome of each circumstance, and extrapolate to find general principles by which God operates.
2. We read God's Word, note the principles taught in each passage, and extrapolate to find general principles by which God operates.

More Thoughts on Healing

So... is it God's will to heal the sick, or not?

This question stirs up a lot of unnecessary controversy simply because people have different ideas of what the question actually means. [I'll leave that discussion for another post.] But for now, I think we can focus on another question in the neighborhood that has profound implications for our daily lives: Is it God's will for us (born-again followers of Jesus) to heal the sick?

Healing Service and Words of Prophecy

On Saturday, July 17, 2010, I attended a healing service put on by Rev. Curry Blake from John G. Lake Ministries. It was a great opportunity to see first-hand whether the teachings Josh and I had been listening to from Pastor Curry would really yield results. Well, there was one reported instantaneous healing of scoliosis (that Josh and I had no way to evaluate) after Pastor Curry prayed for a group of people afflicted with the condition. After Curry spoke, he invited all who had completed his Divine Healing Technician Training to come forward to administer healing to those in the audience. Josh and I went forward, of course. Curry instructed us to go out an find someone to pray for who had their hand raised in the audience. I went to a lady seated in the second row who was energetically waving her hand. I asked her what she needed healing for. She said that she had suffered neck pain for about 18 years after a couple car accidents spaced 6 months apart. She also mentioned some hormonal imbalance issues and a slow metabolism. So, I prayed for her, thanking God for His attributes and marvelous works. I then commanded the pain to go in Jesus' name. I continued to pray for an extended period of time.

While I prayed, the lady stopped me occasionally to tell me what she was experiencing. One time she told me that she had a euphoric feeling of joy and peace, and that she was literally in heaven with angels around her. Another time she said that the felt electricity flowing through her left leg, and that it was soothing, not painful. The last remark I remember her making is that she heard and felt a cracking sensation in the back of her head. She asked us (Josh had joined me at that point) if we heard it, but we hadn't. She said that the feeling was similar to feelings in her neck she would get when the chiropractor would work with her, but she had never felt it so high up in her head before. At one point, she broke out in a case of the giggles.

All this time, I hadn't been feeling anything out of the ordinary. I just continued praying as my heart led me. I didn't feel like I had received any words of knowledge or special revelation of how to pray or a prophecy that she would be healed. I just continued praying until it came to a natural end.

After the prayer, the lady thanked me for taking so much time to minister to her. She told me that she was in full time ministry as part of a team of prophets. I had never met a prophet before, so I thought that was interesting. Then she started praying for me. She started out by thanking God for me and my willingness to pray for her. After that, she started prophesying over me--and that, my friends, deserves a new paragraph.

I will try to remember all the things the lady said throughout the prayer and summarize them here. I'll do my best to quote what she said, but it won't be exact. I'll try not to read into what she said more content than was offered. I will also give my comments and evaluations along the way. Here's the list:

1. "God says you're just like the Energizer Bunny. You have lots of energy and have a youthful spirit. You're the type of person that, when you're 50, people will think you're 35." -- Anyone who knows me knows that this is true.
2. "God sees your generosity. I see an image of a plane ticket--that you paid for someone's ticket... and that you're the type of person who would without hesitation say, 'Let me pay for that.' He also says that you're a very compassionate person." -- These things are all true, and in fact, I did buy someone a plane ticket.
3. "God wants you to know and experience His generosity. You are a generous person, but God wants to be even more generous to you. If you let go... if you give up something in your pursuit for Him, then you give Him the opportunity to give it back to you even better than before." -- Interestingly, this has been my theme for this year. I'm trying to break my bondage to material possessions (mainly, clothes) by intending to part with some of them.
4. "God has heard your prayers in pursuit of Him. Keep praying. I see this picture of a hot air balloon... God says that if you will keep pursuing Him, He will take you to new heights." -- I hope that this is true, and I believe that I have tasted the start of my new journey. This was very encouraging to me.
5. "Her bags are packed, Lord. Her bags are packed. I see this image of you with 4 kids. I don't know if this is literal or metaphorical--but I see you in Guatemala or South Africa playing duck-duck-goose with children, and as you touch their heads, the Spirit of God flows from your hands and the children are healed and set free. ... Her spirit is willing, Lord. Finances will not be an issue, in Jesus' name. God is going to bless you beyond what you expect and finances will not be an issue." -- Several interesting points: (i) My bags were literally packed when she prayed this prayer. Josh and I had been traveling for an extended time (living out of our suitcases for about 2 months), and the bags were still (and are still) sitting in our bedroom packed. (ii) Josh and I had it in our minds to have 4 kids... (iii) At points in the past, I have fantasized about going to a different country to minister to the people there somehow, either on short-term missions or otherwise, although I hadn't thought about this in awhile. Since we went to Europe in May 2008, Josh and I both decided that the next time we went overseas we would only go in order to minister to people there. Josh still gets mailings from missions programs informing us of upcoming missions trips, although we haven't seriously considered going while our son is so young. (iv) We hadn't had any income for the past 2 months! Interestingly, though, Josh's new job position (with a higher pay rate) started the Thursday before, and we also received a large check from the workshop Josh attended in June. Could this be the beginning of a financial turn-around? :-) -- Anyway, it will be interesting to see if I end up in Guatemala or South Africa someday.
6. "God made you beautiful on the outside and on the inside in order to draw people to Himself through you. You have a pure heart." -- I have erred in the past by beating myself up over mistakes I've made in my obedience to God and/or in my relationships with people. It is true that I care very deeply about purity, and not only purity in the body, but purity in my focus, attitudes, intentions, and worship. It almost brought me to tears hearing her speak these words. I cannot be reminded enough that God sees me through the righteousness of Christ and that my sins are completely washed away.

One final note about this prayer is that it is itself an answer to prayer. I had prayed (and daydreamed) that God would basically send someone to prophesy over me. I thought perhaps that it could have been while attending a Pentecostal church (although we attend an Evangelical Free church, we visited a Pentecostal church while in St. Paul, MN), since Pentecostals seem to have prophets in their midst. I also imagined that it could have been at the healing seminar--that someone would point me out from the audience and speak a word of prophecy over me, telling me what unique purpose God had for me. I had forgotten about this prayer by the time we attended the healing seminar in Elgin, IL. (It had been a couple months since I prayed that prayer.) I think it is so cool that God answered my prayer through my own intention to pray healing into someone else! I guess that goes to show that God likes to listen to and bless his children who are acting in obedience. :-)

Successive Successful Prayers of Healing

Josh and I attended a seminar on Divine Healing (speaker: Pastor Curry Blake) in Elgin, IL this past Thursday. It was both interesting and inspiring. We had listened to the speaker's teaching online and thought it would be good for us to go see him in person, and I'm glad we did. We couldn't go to the sessions Friday or Saturday, but since we had heard the full teaching already, I thought there was no reason not to try out his principles ASAP. (In fact, we had been trying them out already.)

Thursday evening after the healing seminar, my eyes started itching like crazy. I had developed some allergy-like symptoms a few days before (itchy eyes, stuffy nose, headache), but this was by far the worst it had been. I had to rub my eyes non-stop to get relief, and even then they still itched! It was the perfect opportunity to test out our newly learned techniques. So, I forcefully and boldly commanded the allergies to go in Jesus' name. I commanded the itchiness in my eyes to go away right now in Jesus' name. Amazingly, right as I said those words, I found instant relief! The itchiness in my eyes had diminished to about 5% of what it had been. I prayed against it a few more times, and soon I forgot all about the allergies because the symptoms were completely gone!

The interesting thing, though, is that within a few minutes or hours after the allergies were defeated by prayer, they would gradually start coming back. It reminds me of how your headache will sneak back after the Tylenol you took 4 hours ago wears off. Anyway, every time I felt the allergies returning, I took another dose of spiritual medicine by praying against it. This happened the next couple days, but it seemed as though the allergy attacks started tapering off in frequency and intensity. Each time, they were defeated (either fully or partially) by a single command to go in Jesus' name. I am happy to report that I am symptom-free today. I will continue to battle against any other allergy-like symptoms that pop up in the future so that maybe someday I can say that I have completely defeated allergies in my body through the power and authority of Jesus.