Heal the Sick
It’s very clear that God has called His followers to heal the sick. There is absolutely no way that we can get around the plain fact of this commission, but some try to. They’ll tell you that healing was only for the times of the apostles or the time before the New Testament was written, but where is that in the Bible? It’s clear that Jesus gave authority to His disciples (including us) to go out and heal the sick.
This blog post is part 31 of the series Eight Steps to Experiencing His Victory
We Must Pray for the Sick
It’s up to us to believe the word of God and act upon it. I do know this, that if we don’t pray for people to be healed, we won’t see people healed. I also know this if we pray and question whether or not it is the will of God to heal, we won’t see people healed.
We live in a culture that is focused on the scientific. It is hard for many to believe in the miraculous. It’s claimed that the miracles of Jesus and the disciples were only psychosomatic and not true miracles. The writers of the Gospel and Acts added the miracle aspect to strengthen their claims about Jesus.
I want to call us to believe God for healing. He is our healer. Jesus bore our sickness and sorrows on the cross. Healing comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. Every member of the Trinity is involved in healing the sick.
I’ve read many stories of those who struggled to enter into the ministry of healing. Time after time I hear about them praying for the sick for long periods of time before seeing any major breakthrough in the area of healing. We sometimes use examples of our own prayers that did not work to prove that healing isn’t for today.
John Wimber read the Bible and saw that there was healing in it. He wanted to be a part of healing. So he started teaching healing every Sunday evening and prayed for the sick. He preached and prayed for two years and no one was healed.
John said that he was catching the things that he was praying against. He would pray for a person with the flu and get the flu. He would pray for migraines and get a migraine. It was ridiculous. He taught and prayed 104 Sunday nights with no results. Then the healings started to happen.
Chris Gore is from Bethel Church. He oversees the healing room ministry of 2,000 people and the healing ministry of the church with 3,000 people. He estimates that he prayed for over a thousand people before he he saw healing breakthrough.
I remember Chris saying in a teaching that he told the Lord that he wanted to see more people healed. The Lord answered him and said, then pray for more people.
I want to encourage you to begin to believe God wants to heal the sick. I want to encourage you to ask the Lord to use you to touch the lives of other people. I want to encourage you to look for those who need prayer and ask them if they would like prayer.
We Must Continue No Matter What
I know it can be intimidating. But I want to press into all that the Lord has for my life and the lives of those I come in contact with. I have many stories of failure and many stories of victory.
I once received a call from a woman from a Foursquare Church in Washington. Her brother was in the hospital in a comma. She was wondering if I could go and pray for him.
I said, “Yes.”
All the way to the hospital I prayed, “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. This person is on the brink of death. All of his organs were shutting down and the doctors say he has a very short time to live. I know there is nothing I can do in my own strength. Help.
I walked into the room. The man was covered with tubes and on a breathing machine. He was unconscious, so I just spoke these words. “Spirit of death, I command you leave this man in the name of Jesus.” Then I left.
A short time later I learned that this woman’s brother had died, Not much there to build up your confidence.
A short time later I got a call from a friend. He said his grandpa was traveling and was in a car accident. He said that all of his organs were shutting down and the doctors say that he will not live long.
All the way to the hospital I prayed, “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. My prayer is always the same. I know that I need His help. I walked into the room this time and his wife was with him. I talked with her for a time and we prayed.
I said the exact same prayer I prayed earlier. I commanded the spirit of death to leave in the name of Jesus. I saw no immediate change and left. I received a call the next day from my friend. He said his grandpa was fine and they had already released him. I like those results a lot better.
I am faced with a choice every time I pray for a sick person. Will I believe in God? I believe that Jesus Christ died to bring healing to every part of a person’s life. That includes physical healing. I must step out in faith and pray.
The more I press into praying for the sick and believing God for healing, the more I see. I don’t know why everyone I pray for is not healed. It’s not like I pray differently for people. Most of the time I have absolutely no feeling of special power or anointing.
I must look to the word of God and seek to have that be the standard for my faith and not my own experience. If I leave it to my own experience I would never be touched by the Lord in any area of my life. The word of God proclaims God heals the sick and I’m going to contend for it with all of my heart.
I want to encourage you to believe in God. Read the Gospels and the book of Acts over and over again. Stop at each story that talks about healing and see what took place. What sickness or infirmity did the person have? What part did they have in the healing? What part did the one praying play? Did they pray, lay hands on, or command? What were the results?
Ask God to help you understand the authority He has given you to heal the sick and start praying for the sick.
Cast Out Demons
All Authority
In part one of this post, I mentioned several Scriptures where Jesus gave the disciples authority to cast out demons. I’d like to repeat Luke 9:1 because it gives us the most complete picture of our authority over the demonic realm. Luke says, “And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.”
I want you to pay close attention to the word “all” in this verse. You have authority over all demons. In other words, there is no demonic force at work in your life that you do not have authority over.
I hear far too many Christians give wonderful testimonies about what the Lord has done in their lives and then end by saying something like this. “Every time God does something good the devil gets mad and wants to get back at me.”
They actually expect the devil to come and do something in their lives in retaliation to God’s goodness. If that were true, then why would you want to receive a blessing from God it will only bring an attack from the devil.
I personally believe that this kind of thinking and confession opens the door for the enemy to come and wreak havoc in a believer’s life. We expect the enemy to come and he obliges us by coming. Here is an example: “Praise God I just received $500 unexpectedly in the mail, I guess something's going to break.”
God wants to bless us more than we know. We don't have to be fearful of reprisals everytime we receive a blessing. Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.”
Did you notice that Jesus gave them authority over “all the power of the enemy.” That means you don’t have put up with his attacks on you or your family. You have authority to resist his works in your life.
You’ve been removed from the kingdom of darkness and are now a part of the kingdom of God. You are a child of God with authority to stand against all the works of the enemy. It is recognizing this authority and using the weapons supplied by God that will allow you to resist the devil and send him fleeing.
James tells us to submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee. (James 4:7) Resistance is definitely not a passive response to the devil. The word means “to resist by actively opposing pressure or power.” We stand up to the enemy in the authority and power of Jesus’ name.
James says that the devil will flee when he is resisted. He can’t stay. The word flee has a fun connotation when applied to the enemy. It means “to move quickly from a point or area in order to avoid presumed danger or difficulty.”
Get the picture in your mind? When you stand up to the devil, he puts his tail between his legs (figuratively speaking) and runs away from you. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we get arrogant and think we’re awesome. It is all because of Jesus.
Try commanding a demon to go without authority can cause a scene like that experienced by the seven sons of Sceva when the man with a demon beat them up. They were the ones that were fleeing from the demon naked and wounded. (Acts 19:11-20)
We must never take the authority we have for granted.
Never Hunt for Demons
Another piece of advice is to never hunt for demons. Some people put too much emphasis on the devil. They see the devil behind every event and every shortcoming in their lives.
I’ve been involved in deliverance ministry for over twenty-one years. I can tell you that I never go hunting for demons. They are not my focus.
With that said, there are times when the Lord’s presence in me causes a demon to manifest. If this happens, I simply command it to come out. I figure if the spirit is out in the open and manifesting in a person that the Lord wants to free them from the oppression of the demon.
There are times though when the Lord gives me the gift of discernment and I sense or recognize the presence of a demon. Many times when this happens I know what kind of spirit it is and that the Lord wants to get rid of it from the person’s life.
Fixing our eyes on the devil takes our eyes off Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 encourages us to fix our eyes on Jesus and run the race set before us. If, as we’re looking at Jesus, the devil pops up or the Lord shows us where he is at work, then we simply exercise our authority and continue to look at Jesus.
Next week we’ll look at the last thing that Jesus spoke about when he gave us authority, raising the dead. See ya then.
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