He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever –Jn. 14:16

This is a rewrite of a blog I wrote months ago but I sense that God is wanting me to revisit the theme. For most of my years in ministry, I functioned as one of the primary pastors in my church that provided counseling for members as well as for other believers from the community. I typically saw problems that you would encounter in any counseling practice – chronic depression, anxiety, anger, shame, addictions, gender confusion, eating disorders, and marriages on the brink of dissolving. Most of these individuals had been Christians for years. The huge red flag should have been that our people, after following Jesus for years, looked very little different from those living in the world who did not know Jesus. They were saved but their lives had not been transformed.

As I met with individuals, I gave them a little insight into their troubles and a couple of exercises to do at home, prayed over them, and sent them on their way. I would see them again the next week and hoped for a little progress. Typically, little or no progress had been made and we would march around the same mountain again. We would work until some identifiable progress had been made and I would release them. I would likely see them again in six months. I had taken graduate courses in Marriage and Family counseling and went to top-notch workshops offered by both secular and Christian counselors. Other than an opening prayer, I heard essentially the same strategies for counseling.

However, as the years passed something kept eating at me. When I read the New Testament, I never got the sense that the church in Jerusalem (or anywhere else) offered counseling from leaders who went to the world’s universities for training nor did the writers of the N.T. encourage believers to work hard to “manage their issues. ” Instead they commanded them to rid themselves of those things. More strikingly, there was no sense that followers of Jesus took months and years of meeting with a local pastor or a therapist to experience healing and significant life change.

What I did see was the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Christ healing bodies, hearts, and lives. I saw once broke and even perverse sinners transformed and walking in a holiness that stood out from the world…and it didn’t take a lifetime. Paul clearly expected the church to be the place where the wisdom and power of heaven would reside and where the Holy Spirit would unravel the knots of a believer’s past while drawing the poison out of long-standing wounds. There was no hint that the church would go to the world for help but that the world would come to the church. Yet I (and other Christian counselors) tended to call secular training with an opening prayer Christian counseling. Even Christian colleges offered essentially the same training in counseling and therapy that unbelieving universities offered.

I am not denying that secular counseling can help. But what I am saying is that there is power and transformation available from God’s Spirit that secular counseling cannot touch. Paul is clear that the real battle for the hearts and minds of people rests in the spiritual realm where only divine weapons have impact. The N.T. church seemed to rely much more on encounters with the Holy Spirit and the powerful exercise of spiritual gifts to heal and change those who followed Jesus than wisdom the world might offer.  As those who will “judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:3) and who have the Counselor of Heaven residing within us, we should have much more to offer than secular therapists.

Once I began to allow the power of the kingdom of heaven to invade the counseling room and began to be a catalyst for encounters with God, I began to see the radical life change that I saw on the pages of the gospels. Once I began to speak God’s truth over situations I began to see Christians delivered from anger, fear, depression, addictions, eating disorders, and sexual brokenness in hours or weeks rather than months and years. I saw marriages on the brink of divorce begin to thrive because the Holy Spirit changed hearts rather than people simply changing behaviors. I must admit that when the power of God brings the transformation rather than my “amazing counseling skills” I feel much less significant in the process. In those moments I am no longer the dispenser of wisdom, the Holy Spirit is. But then, I get to see radical change rather than miniscule progress.

The good news of the kingdom of God is that Jesus has come to heal the brokenhearted and set captives free. He wants to release His power into the lives of his children for every circumstance. The Holy Spirit is an amazing counselor full of not only wisdom but also power.   Until a greater portion of the church discovers that, many committed believers who love Jesus will continue to walk for years with a relational limp and a broken heart – never living up to the dream their Father has for them. That is not God’s will for his church. The bride of Christ is meant to be shining, glorious, and powerful. Lets not settle for less. The world needs us and it needs us to be the distributors of God’s power on this planet. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Cor.4:20).

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner. (Luke 7:37-39)

This is one of the most poignant scenes in the ministry of Jesus and it clearly contrasts the heart of religion and the heart of love. In the days of Jesus, when notable individuals visited a town and were invited to a prominent persons home, the villagers were typically welcomed to come and sit around the perimeter of the courtyard and listen to their conversations. Undoubtedly, most seats were reserved for close friends and family of the host but others could, perhaps, hang around the perimeter if they remained quiet and “invisible.”

On this particular evening, one of the “others” broke all protocol and eased her way through the onlookers to the very feet of the notable visitor. I’m sure that both social tension and eyebrows rose as she did so. First of all, this was a woman and women were not welcome to assert themselves in Jewish culture in the first century. More importantly, this presumptuous woman was notoriously known for her sin and certainly did not inhabit the social circles of Simon the Pharisee. It must have been an incredibly awkward moment for the host who had scored a social coup by having this young, controversial, miracle-working Rabbi accept his invitation to dinner. But now, this loose, very unwelcome woman was in the spotlight rather than Simon. More than that, she was making a scene with her sobbing and her theatrics – pouring perfume on the feet of Simon’s guest and wiping is feet with her hair. I’m surprised that Simon didn’t have his servants escort her off the premises but, perhaps, he saw this as a kind of test for Jesus. How would he deal with this breach of etiquette? If he truly were a prophet would he not know that this woman was a blatant sinner and rebuke her before all the righteous gathered in the courtyard?

And what of Jesus? If I had been him I would have found the moment even more awkward with this woman weeping, pouring expensive perfume on is feet, and wiping his feet with her hair with everyone looking on and wondering how these two might be connected – wondering if there were some revelation of scandal in this moment. I’m sure that for her sake and for the sake of everyone there I would have invited her to meet at a better time in a more appropriate setting. But not Jesus. While she is pouring, weeping, and wiping he simply tells a story that justifies the sinful woman and condemns the righteous Pharisee while calmly accepting her worship and repentance. It is likely that only two people in the whole courtyard were not embarrassed – Jesus, the healer of broken hearts, and this broken woman who had come to the Rabbi with a true sense of desperation about her life.

The religious condemned her and rejected her while the creator of the universe and the sinless second Adam embraced her. The religious focused on who she had been while Jesus focused on who she could be. The religious defined her by her sin and wanted nothing to do with her while Jesus saw her sin as the symptoms of a shattered soul and chose to do something about it. If the religious had ruled the moment, this woman would have disappeared into the night carrying an unbearable load of guilt and rejection convinced all the more that God hated her. Jesus showed a different heart and I believe it transformed her life.

The last look at this woman we get through Luke’s gospel ends with Jesus saying, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Lk.7:50). John, however, may open the door for us a little wider when he speaks of Mary in his gospel. In John’s gospel, Mary has a high profile and is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. These three seem to have been very close friends of the Rabbi. You’ll remember that in the 11^th chapter of John, Jesus stood outside the sealed tomb of Lazarus and commanded him to come forth, performing the most notable miracle in his three-year ministry. In the beginning of that particular account we are told, “This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair” (Jn.11:2).

Some scholars do not believe that the woman of Luke 11 is the Mary who played such a prominent role in the life and ministry of Jesus, but I see no contradictions. She, who had been forgiven much, loved much. I believe love took a broken, sinful woman and restored her hope, her dignity, and her family. I believe love took a nameless woman without purpose for her life and gave her an eternal purpose and a name remembered for more than two millennia now. No wonder she was so attached to this distributor of God’s love and sat at his feet while her sister rattled the pots and pans. No wonder she believed that Jesus could give life to her brother since he had already given life to her.

That is the triumph of love over religion and relationship over ritual. Religion simply categorized this woman as a battered and worn relic of humanity ready for the trash heap. Jesus, however, saw her potential. He reclaimed her and repurposed her. He made her beautiful and useful while most of us would have simply walked by her like junk on the side of a road. I absolutely believe in love over religion but, if I’m honest, I drift away from love and into religion and judgment more often than I care to acknowledge – not just toward others but also toward myself. How often do I judge and reject my own heart, thoughts and actions as I compare them to some cold standard of acceptability rather than through the eyes of my Heavenly Father who never rejects but continues to repurpose me in my life. When I judge and reject myself, I reject others. When I receive God’s immeasurable love for me I tend to love others so much more. I’m betting Mary was a lover of broken people and my prayer is that I will also love as Jesus loves.

From the Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey: As my class in Chicago read the gospels and watched movies about Jesus’ life, we noticed a striking pattern: the more unsavory the characters, the more at ease they seemed to feel around Jesus. People like these found Jesus appealing: a Samaritan social outcast, a military officer of the tyrant Herod, a quisling tax collector, a recent hostess to seven demons. In contrast, Jesus got a chilly response from the more respectable types. Pious Pharisees thought him uncouth and worldly, a rich young ruler walked away shaking his head, and even the open-minded Nicodemus sought a meeting under the cover of darkness. I remarked to the class how strange this pattern seemed, since the Christian church now attracts respectable types who closely resemble the people most suspicious of Jesus on earth. What has happened to reverse the pattern of Jesus’ day? Why don’t sinners like being around us?

I think that is a fair question and although I am sure there are churches where the poor, the broken, and overt sinners feel welcome, I am also fairly certain that those churches would be the exception. If Jesus, indeed, came to heal the broken hearted and set captives free (Isa.61:1-4); if God is, indeed, close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psm.35:18): and if God calls on us to, “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psm.82:3-4) then why aren’t these folks breaking down the doors of the church to get in and why did they respond to Jesus is such a welcoming way?

I have many thoughts on Yancey’s question but I will just share two of them at this time. First of all, Jesus went to the brokenhearted, the sinners, and the irreligious and did not simply put up a sign and wait for them to come to him. No doubt, Jesus went to the religious Jews as well because he was often in the temple compound and in synagogues but he also walked the streets of Jewish and Samaritan cities and rubbed shoulders with the sick, the leprous, tax collectors, hookers, and drunks. Jesus did not participate in their sin but he initiated contact, listened to their stories, and offered solutions. To those who were broken by life and sin he offered hope rather than condemnation. For many, the paradigm of grace that Jesus offered and demonstrated was life changing. Most churches put up a sign to welcome all those who need Jesus but rarely develop relationships with the down-and-outs of their community by going to the poor and broken rather than simply waiting for them to show up on Sundays.

Now let me tell you why I think the church avoids the deeply broken, the addicted, the junkies, the hookers, and the demonized of our society. In most cases, I don’t think it is a lack of concern or compassion or a Pharisee-like self-righteousness. Instead, I think it is a deep feeling of inadequacy and a sense that we really don’t have solutions for the homeless, the junkies, and the broken-hearted of our communities so to open our doors would overwhelm us as the needy of our society poured in like refuges crossing the border of a war-torn third world nation. Additionally, I think the pour and the broken themselves stay away from us because they sense we have no real answers for them either.

So what answers did Jesus have? First, there was hope – not just for the world to come but for this life as well. Mary Magdalene had her life changed forever and became a constant companion of the disciples and the mother of Jesus after seven demons were cast out of her. The demoniac who lived among the tombs went from being a homeless lunatic to a man dressed and in his right mind within an hour of encountering the church (Jesus and the twelve). Undoubtedly he became a useful member of society after that. For sure he became the president of the Messianic Evangelistic Association in Decapolis. Tax collectors turned from extortionists to philanthropists in their communities after encounters with Jesus and beggars who received healing got work and paid taxes after jumping to their feet. Jesus had answers for the poor, the down-and-outs, the demonized, the depressed, and sinners so he did not avoid them but took the good news to them. When they heard that he had real answers they also flocked to him.

When the church begins to experience the power of God once again and begins to offer that power outside the walls of the church, I believe the pattern of Jesus’ day will return. The very religious will, no doubt, continue to be offended but the unsavory characters of the world will feel comfortable in our presence because we will feel adequate in their presence. When the word gets out, they will also come to where Jesus is being demonstrated and may even dig a hole in someone’s roof to experience Jesus of Nazareth once again. He lives in each of us and is yearning to get out.

Jim (not his real name) was, at one time, a well-known church leader in our area who ministered  to homosexuals in our area because he was once heavily involved in “the life” himself. God had delivered him. Jim had what seems to be a standard story for men who have fallen into homosexuality. As a young boy, he was molested by an older man and as a result developed profound confusion and shame about his own masculinity and his own sexuality. He began with homosexual experiences in high school. Those accelerated in college. Jim was a Christian who attended church and served faithfully in his church. He had a leadership gift so he was expected to marry, have kids, and succeed in life. He did just that but; in addition, he had a secret life and a secret struggle in which he was not succeeding. After being married for a number of years he gave into his secret, abandoned his family, set his faith aside,  and embraced an openly homosexual lifestyle. However, his family and friends did not give up on him and neither did the Lord.

After two years of living out his homosexual yearnings he repented, returned to his faith and family, confessed everything to his church, and began to walk in sexual purity as the Lord gave him strength. If you ask Jim, it took the Lord, his family, and his church to overcome his homosexuality.

First, through serious Bible study he was convinced that homosexuality is sin regardless of what the homosexual lobby declares. His openness finally took his sin out of the dark and brought it into the light so others could pray and help. His wife, who had continued to pray for him after he left her and his children, forgave him and took him back knowing that the road ahead would not be easy.

Jim will tell you that what he needed most was absolute truth and absolute love in his life and men who showed him how to have godly friendships with other men without sexual overtones. Jim told a group of pastors one time that when he was young he really didn’t understand what it meant to be a man. He said the world of men fascinated him but he just couldn’t  crack the code for entry into that world.

By nature, Jim was sensitive and artistic but didn’t find many masculine models for men with those traits. After being molested, his confusion was even greater. However, when he returned to his church and family, the men in his congregation affirmed his masculinity and began to introduce him to other parts of the masculine world that were foreign to him such as sports, hunting, fishing, etc. They made Jim part of the group, extended healthy hugs, let him ask questions without embarrassment and, in essence, let his latent masculinity develop at his own pace.

Over time, the old man diminished and the new man flourished. His yearnings for sexual encounters with men went away and he learned to enjoy a sexual relationship with his wife. He is still serving the Lord today but his “old identity” no longer defines him. Jim is a man who was set free by love, the work of the Holy Spirit over time, and learning what it meant to be a godly man through friendships with other godly men. Jim never experienced any kind of demonic deliverance but still found freedom through openness and a committed church and family.

Jim believes that, in addition to the molestation he experienced as a young man, he also had a genetic predisposition toward homosexuality. We need to be clear that God does not make us with that predisposition, rather when we live in a fallen world many things are broken and damaged as well as our genetics. Because I have a predisposition to something at birth does not make it God’s will for me  to give into those predispositions. I was born with a predisposition toward lust, lying, selfishness, and laziness. As I got older, those intensified because of my fallen nature until I submitted those sins to the cross and the Holy Spirit.

As Christians, we are called to overcome those predispositions by the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s divine weapons. If something is called sin in the Bible then God provides a way out. It may be a truth encounter, a deliverance session, a spiritual family who prays for us and models healthy gender roles, or even the supernatural healing of damaged genes.   In the meantime, God calls us to resist those temptations with his strength until we find freedom from those obsessive promptings.   As a heterosexual, I am called to live a celibate life if single or a faithful life if married. I am called to tell the truth when it seems easier to lie and to avoid drunkenness when I want to medicate some disappointment in my life. I am called to submit rather than demanding my way and to forgive those I would rather reject.  Homosexual leanings fall into the same category.

A person can have homosexual leanings or temptations, not give into them, and still be pleasing to the Lord just as a heterosexual  can have strong desires for someone to whom he or she is not married,  not give into the impulses,  and still be pleasing to God. If any temptation has become an uncontrollable obsession then the believer has fallen into some form of bondage and deliverance is probably in order.  But with every temptation the Lord provides a door of escape. “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor.10:13).  We can find that door  if we sincerely seek it.

Homosexuality is not a new sin that has taken God by surprise. In our generation, the church must be clear that it is sin while at the same time creating an atmosphere where this sin can be confessed like all other sins and God’s remedies applied. I’m sure there are issues I have not spoken to related to homosexuality but, perhaps, some of the stories I have shared will be helpful to some. Be blessed.

Randy was in his 30’s and had been struggling with homosexuality off and on since high school. In the past three years his desires toward men had been obsessive. He was married with children but had been arranging clandestine meetings with men he met online and his shame and feelings of helplessness had become overwhelming. In my last blog I talked about his encounter with Jesus that had opened the door for hope again and the realization that he was still loved by his Heavenly Father.

After Randy had felt the arms of Jesus around him, his determination to resist the powerful temptations toward homosexual encounters was renewed. But the battle seemed constant and inevitably unwinnable. I began to speak to him about spiritual realities and spiritual warfare since Paul clearly states that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms (Eph.6:12). Randy had not heard much about that side of our faith in the denomination in which he had grown up yet his “supernatural” encounter with Jesus had opened him up to new possibilities.

One of Satan’s most destructive strategies is to assign demonic spirits to whisper thoughts that we experience as temptations and then to convince us that those thoughts are our own and that those thoughts define us. That was certainly true with Randy. I began to encourage him not to receive those thoughts as his own but as temptations or whispers from the enemy. His response should be to treat the thought as one being whispered by a spirit and to command the spirit to leave him in the name and authority of Jesus. That seemed a bit “out there” to Randy but he began to verbally command tempting spirits to leave him and the obsessive and oppressive nature of the temptations began to decrease but the voice was still a constant companion.

At that point I began to suggest deliverance from spirits of sexual perversion and homosexuality that were not just passing by but that had attached themselves to him. That thought was a profound jump for him and one he wasn’t immediately willing to receive.   However, he was determined to overcome this issue that had defined his life for years and so one day Randy, out of fear that he would eventually regress, consented.

And so, one afternoon in my office, a member of our congregation named James Morris, who had a great deal of experience in deliverance, and I prayed with Randy. We had him not only confess his sins but renounce them as well and forgive the man who had molested him years earlier. Then in the name and authority of Jesus, we began to command these spirits to release their hold on him and to leave him immediately. For the first few minutes we saw little happen but then Randy began to cough and gag. As we pressed in, Randy left his chair, hit the floor and began to crawl around with the spirits shouting, “No!” each time we commanded them to stop afflicting Randy and to leave. After a half hour of resisting, these spirits departed. Randy was absolutely sure that something had left him and although he was exhausted he was also at peace. James and I prayed for God to fill Randy with his Spirit, to grant him sexual holiness, and to restore his masculine soul. We told him to treat any further temptations as a spirit and to command them to leave.

Randy left my office that day and told me three months later that his love for his wife and sexual desires for her had returned. He was serving in his church again. Temptations from his past arose from time to time but without the power they once possessed. Randy wasn’t just managing his homosexual impulses but was free from them. The last I heard from Randy was about three years after his deliverance and he was still walking in freedom. I believe a demonic spirit had entered John through the molestation he had experienced as a child and as his confusion grew about his own masculinity and sexuality other spirits joined the first to create the shame and compulsions that ruled Randy for years. As the song declares, “There is power in the name of Jesus.”

Is every person involved in homosexuality ruled by demonic spirits? Probably not, but I believe many are and could be set free just as Randy was. I also know a young woman who was content to be single, serve the Lord, and live the busy life of a social worker. One day she met an older woman and developed a friendship with her but the friendship soon developed into a lesbian relationship with the two living together. That went on for a year with her concerned family praying for her each day. One day she simply walked away from the relationship and later said that she could pinpoint the moment when a spirit entered her and she could pinpoint the day it left. When it left, so did her desires for any sexual encounters with women. Again, a strong spirit had been at play in this woman’s life. Jesus has an answer for that.

In my next blog, we’ll talk about genetic propensities toward homosexuality and how some believers have dealt with that issue in their own lives. Blessings in Him.

In this last installment of this series on Healing Prayer I want to talk about how we pray for healing. How we pray has a great deal to do with how we view God and how we view his willingness to heal.

I have to admit that when I began to pray for supernatural healing I did so with great uncertainty. I was uncertain about God’s willingness to heal and whether my standing with God was sufficient to merit his response to my prayer and whether my prayer was adequate for healing. Part of my uncertainty came because I still tended to separate what I saw in Jesus from my understanding of the Father and the fact that there seemed to be very different views of healing in different denominations. Basically, I was confused and because I was confused I was uncertain.

Here are the things about which I am now certain.

• God by nature is a healer and so he is always willing to heal when it does not violate his own spiritual laws regarding healing or answered prayers.
• God has the same heart for healing that we see in Jesus because those who have seen Jesus have seen the Father.
• When I pray for healing I do not need to end with the disclaimer “If it be thy will.” It is his will.

Since God is good and always willing to heal I don’t have to persuade him, nag him, coerce him or impress him when I pray for healing. I don’t need to get loud, quote scriptures for an hour, or impress God with my faith. I also don’t need to impress him with how much the person for whom I am praying deserves to be healed. Most of the people Jesus healed probably didn’t have a resume of righteousness and good works to attach to their application for healing. Jesus healed them because he had compassion on them not because they were righteous.

When we pray then how do we pray? I think we pray simply and confidently and we do so in the name of Jesus. We can certainly invite Jesus or the Holy Spirit to come and heal although that is not what Jesus told us to do. He told us to heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons in his name. The first way of praying suggests that we have no authority to heal and that all we can do is appeal to Jesus and hope that he shows up. I don’t think that is a bad prayer because we do need him to show up. The difference is how we view our part in the equation. Biblically, I think Jesus does show up through his Spirit and his Spirit heals through us.

We, then, should probably begin with a prayer asking Jesus to be present. We do that more for the one over whom we are praying than for ourselves. I think we should ask Jesus to show us anything that might hinder the healing we are asking for and then spend a few minutes to discover if there is unrepented sin, unforgiveness, demonic activity, sins of the Father’s to be dealt with, etc. If we discover anything then we should deal with it by the blood of Christ and our authority as believers. Having done that, we can simply command healing in the name of Jesus as we lay hands on the person and anoint them with oil if we feel we should. We can command eyes to see, ears to hear, legs to grown, cancer to leave, tumors to shrink, blood chemistry to submit to the Lordship of Jesus, muscles to be strengthened, pain to disappear, etc. in the name and authority of Jesus.

I believe we can quote a few scriptures to encourage some faith and to align our thinking and expectations with the word of God and simply pray what is on our hearts for the person. The entire prayer might be thirty seconds. Check out the prayers you see in the New Testament for healing. They typically are very brief and take the form of a command. We can pray all we want in our prayer closet for healing gifts or the healing of a loved one but when we minister healing, the examples are brief, confident, commanding, and in the name of Jesus.

If we begin to labor in prayer over the sick person then we easily slip into the mindset that we must persuade God to do something he really doesn’t want to do – which undermines our first premise that God loves to heal because it is who he is. We may need to pray several times or on several occasions but our assumption must be that God is willing. Because God partners with his people, our prayer and our faith release his power for healing and it only takes a word.

I hope this short series on healing prayer has been helpful.

So far, in this series of blogs on healing prayer, I have attempted to make the following points:

• It is the nature and heart of God to heal.
• Illness and disability are the result of sin, directly and indirectly, and fall under “the works of the devil.”
• Although God is willing to heal, there are things that can restrict his response to our prayers.

Issues that may restrict God’s response to healing prayers are: (1) a lack of faith on the part of the one ministering healing or the one receiving healing when there has been ample opportunity for faith to develop. (2) Sin that has not been dealt with through the blood of Christ because it has not been acknowledged or confessed by the one who needs healing. (3) Unforgiveness in the heart of the one needing healing. (4) the failure of those needing healing to even ask for healing.

In addition to the above hindrances to healing, demonic spirits can play a significant role. Numerous times in the gospels, individuals came to Jesus with physical conditions or disabilities such as blindness, deafness, muteness, seizures, back pain, insanity, etc. and Jesus cast out a spirit. Healing then followed the deliverance because the presence of those spirits of manifested as illness. Until a spirit of infirmity is driven out, healing will not occur or will not be sustained.

The spirit is present because something in the life of the individual has given that spirit some ground or legal right to afflict the person. Sometimes the individual has opened the door through unrepented sin or unbelief. Others may be afflicted on the basis of the “sins of the Fathers” or curses spoken over them by those who have had spiritual authority in their lives and sometimes as a result of trauma and fear. In each case, unrepented sin or a curse must be dealt with by confession, repentance, and the blood of Christ so that the authority of the spirit to afflict the individual can be taken away. When that has been accomplished, deliverance can occur and healing may follow.

In addition, there may be times when healing does not occur and we will not know the reason. Those times can be reduced when we help sick people deal with the cause of their illness through a spiritual assessment, repentance, confession and dealing with any spirits who may be manifesting as an illness. When we pray for healing, we typically assume that a spirit may be involved and so simply command any afflicting spirits to leave so that our healing prayers will not be hindered if, in fact, a spirit is the source of the condition.

We need to remember that some supernatural healing is instantaneous while some is progressive. We should not always assume that healing has not occurred if it didn’t happen immediately. Authentic healings can also be lost because of fear and unbelief about healing that did occur. However, experience also tells us that there will still be some mystery as to why some were healed and others were not.

Although some mystery about healing will continue to exist. I am still convinced that healing should be the rule in the church and not the exception. A careful reading of scripture suggests that believers are not immune to illness because we live in a fallen world but when it comes, we can expect healing.

If healing does not occur, we should begin to look for hindrances that have prevented the healing so that God’s grace can flow unobstructed. If we can discover no reason for healing not to occur, and yet someone we love is not healed, our response must be to take no offense at God and continue to pray for others to be healed. If we believe in the supernatural ministry of God, we will have to be willing to live with some unanswered questions while we continue in faith.

In Monday’s blog I will discuss how we pray. Be blessed in Him.

The love of God is unconditional but the grace of God comes through faith. A lack of faith in those who should have some reasonable level of faith hinders healing. In addition, answers to prayers may also be conditional. For instance, in my last blog I quoted James when he said, “You have not because you ask not.” We are told that God knows our thoughts and our heart’s desires before we utter a word but asking in prayer still seems to be the normative condition for God responding to our desires or needs. There are additional conditions that hinder answered prayed and healing if they are not met.

In his letter, James reveals several of these conditions that, if not met, may hinder healing. “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (Ja.5:14-16).

From this text we discover that unconfessed sin can get in the way of healing. His counsel is to confess our sins so that we might receive prayer and through that prayer we receive healing. He has just mentioned calling the elders so that their anointing and prayer of faith might be offered for healing. Notice that if the elders pray without faith, healing will be hindered. I have seen many church leaders pray for healing with little to no faith that it would occur and it did not. He ends that instruction with “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” The implication is that unrepented and unconfessed sin can open the door to sickness. We know that is true when guilt, stress, and worry compromise our immune systems. It also gives Satan legal access and the legal right to attack us with illness through spirits of infirmity.

In order to receive healing, we need to make sure we have dealt with any sin in our life – especially unforgiveness. Remember the psalmist, speaking of covenant children, declared that God forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103:3). The fact that he mentioned forgiveness of sins before healing is not an accident. Isaiah declares, “your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2).

Another serious example of this principle is found in I Corinthians. “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor.11:28-31).

Some in the church at Corinth were abusing the Lords supper by taking it while at the same time abusing weaker members of the church. Their sin brought the judgment of sickness on them. God calls them to self-examination and repentance so that the judgment might be lifted through healing.

How often do we pray for physical healing without doing any assessment of the spiritual health of the person for whom we are praying and then leave disappointed that God did not heal. But was there unbelief, unrepented sin, rebellion, unforgiveness, a disregard for the people that Jesus died for, etc.? Those things that come to us as a result of sin will typically not be healed until the sin is dealt with.

The problem is not in the prayer or the faith of those offering the prayer but in the spiritual condition of the one who is ill. Let me say right away that not all illness for disability is a result of anyone’s personal sin but some is. In addition, we see a number of people in the gospels come to Jesus with long term illnesses and disabilities that were caused by spirits of infirmity. They were not healed until the spirit was cast out. I will discuss demonic hindrances to healing in Friday’s blog. In the meantime, be blessed.

If it is God’s heart to heal his people then why does God not heal all those for whom we pray? That is a very legitimate question and a question that we must grapple with if we hold the position that God still heals. Although we may not be able to answer that question fully or with absolute certainty, scripture does give us some specific insights.

First of all, God may not heal if we do not ask. “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (Ja.4:2). I’m amazed at how many people turn down prayers for healing. It is not unusual to run into people who have been taught that God no longer heals supernaturally. Some have additionally been taught that any “so-called healing” is a fraud or from the devil. These individuals have no faith for healing at all or are afraid they will be deceived in some way. When sick, they will go to doctor after doctor but never approach the Great Physician.

Secondly, we know that faith is involved. Matthew tells us that when Jesus returned to Nazareth after beginning his public ministry “he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Mt.13:58). The question arises, “Does healing depend on the sick person’s faith or the faith of the one who is praying?” Biblically, it seems to depend on the situation.

In Nazareth the problem certainly did not reside in the faith of Jesus. Therefore, there were not many miracles because the people there did not believe. At other times, Jesus healed people who had no faith at all because they didn’t know who Jesus was until after they were healed. In John 5, we have the account of the lame man lying by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus asked the man if we wanted to be healed and the man explained that when the waters were stirred in the pool, he had no one to help in get in. From the text, it seems that he did not know about Jesus or did not know that the man in front of him was Jesus. His faith was in the pool not the healing power of Jesus. Yet, Jesus healed him. We can even say that God does not heal because of our righteousness because after healing the man, Jesus warned him to stop sinning or something worse might happen to him.

In James 5, the church is told to call the elders when illness occurs so that they might anoint the sick with oil and pray over them for healing. He then says, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” (Ja.5:15). In that case, the faith of the elders (the ones offering the prayer) seems to be the key. And yet in many accounts of healing in the gospels, people were healed because of the faith they displayed.

It seems to me that if a person should have faith because they were brought up in a faith environment or because God has done previous miracles in his or her life, then some faith is a condition for healing. Others who don’t know the Lord or who have had little opportunity to grow in their faith may be healed as an opportunity to create faith or to bring them to Christ. The fact that faith does play a part in healing then begs another question. “How much faith is enough faith and on what should my faith be based?”

Let me begin by saying that I do not believe perfect or absolute faith is required. Remember the man who confessed, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk.9:24)! Jesus healed his son even in the face of imperfect belief. It appears from scripture that in most cases, the faith required was the faith it took to come to Jesus and ask. I can’t imagine that all the people that flocked to Jesus in the gospels and received healing were all righteous people showing up with amazing faith. But they did have enough faith to come and to ask.

I also believe that faith progresses for healing. My faith begins with some belief that Jesus exists and that he has power to heal. I then need to progress to a belief that Jesus not only can heal but also will heal because he is good. My faith ultimately is in the goodness of God which I then believe will be expressed through healing. I cannot always be certain that God will heal me but I can be certain that he is willing to heal me when hindrances to healing have been removed. More about those hindrances in my Wednesday blog.

It is significant that God gave gifts of healing to the church. “To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers…” (I Cor.12:9, emphasis added).   “Gifts of healing” are mentioned two more times in I Corinthians 12. It is significant because God gave gifts to the church that reflected his nature, his heart, and his Spirit. God gave gifts of healing to the church because he wanted his people healed and unbelievers brought to Jesus through the grace of healing.

It is also important because some believe that “miraculous gifts” were given only to Jesus and the apostles to confirm the deity of Christ and to establish credibility for those through whom the Spirit would pen the inspired Word of God. If that had been God’s only intent he would have given healing gifts only to the Jesus and the apostles but he gave these gifts to numerous unnamed individuals in the church who wrote none of the New Testament. Yet they healed.

It is interesting that he gave gifts (plural) of healing. The heart of God desires to heal all kinds of hurts and illness in our lives for he is Jehovah Rapha. Jesus not only came to heal the sick but also to “heal the broken hearted” (Isa.61, Lk.4). I believe God gives gifts of healing to his church that minister not only to sick people but also to emotional pain, broken relationships, and demonic affliction. In the gospels the term “healing” was applied to illnesses, physical disabilities, casting out demons, and the healing of broken hearts or emotions.   Different individuals in the body of Christ seem to be spiritually gifted in different ways to address all these areas of pain and brokenness. If God is the God who heals us, it makes sense that his Spirit will equip the saints to heal people in all the ways that Jesus healed them.   Again we can be confident that it is God’s desire to alleviate pain and suffering in this world through healing since he equipped his church to do so in many forms.

Another interesting perspective on healing gifts held by many is that the gift of miracles ministers instantaneous healing while healing gifts release more gradual healing that occurs over days or weeks. Either way healing occurs but sometimes we place a standard on spiritual gifts that the Bible does not state. If we believe that all supernatural healing is instantaneous then we may miss much of what God is doing. I have heard numerous men with powerful gifts of healing and miracles say that probably 50% of those for whom they pray that are healed, experience healing over the next few days rather than immediately. I wonder how many of us have gifts of healing that we are unaware of because people we prayed for got better the next day so we didn’t see it or because they did not report it to us, so we assume nothing happened in response to our prayers. We then assume God has not given us the gift. Perhaps, we need to pray for the gift of miracles as well as gifts of healing.

Gifts of healing differ from prayers for healing. The gift resides with the person. Like other gifts such as mercy, administration, wisdom, prophecy, etc. the gift rests on the person. The Spirit may not always release power for the gift because of conditional restraints (lack of faith, unrepented sin, unforgiveness, etc.) but the gift resides and will impart healing when conditions are met.

In addition to gifts of healing, James counsels us to call the elders of the church if anyone is sick and assures us that their prayer of faith will restore that person to health. He then goes on to give a general admonition to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we might be healed (James 5:16). He did not say we should confess that we might be forgiven but rather that we might be healed. The admonitions seem to be for all believers not just those with gifts of healing so that any believer can pray for another believer who has dealt with sin issues in his or her life and anticipate healing.

The tenor of the New Testament is that when believers got sick, they were typically healed. When people were not healed it raised questions because healing was the norm not the exception. To the contrary, the American church wonders what happened when someone is healed. Again, my point is that God has given healing gifts to his church because he wants people healed and so is quite willing to give the gifts or answer our prayers of faith. May we have a hunger for those gifts and faith to step out and pray with confidence because we know it is God’s will for hurting people.