What do you want Jesus to do for you?

This blog post continues along the theme of praying for people for healing. It is taken from Day 28 “Ministering like Jesus: How to Grow in Healing, Deliverance and Miracles” (Available here)

Mark 10:46-52 – Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

In this passage, I first notice that it can get messy before a miracle. The noise, the shouting, the crowd, the rebuking of the shouter, the shouting getting louder. It would have sounded chaotic. I would have felt like shouting, “STOP!”

Bartimaeus needed Jesus to hear him as Bartimaeus could not see Jesus, so he used what he had (his voice) to get Jesus’ attention. Jesus heard Bartimaeus above the noise, just like He always hears us.

He hears the cry of our hearts.

Even though Bartimaeus was told to be quiet, he became louder and more insistent. Bartimaeus knew who Jesus was and what Jesus could do. Bartimaeus had complete faith in Jesus’ ability to heal him. He was desperate for healing and was not going to miss out. Bartimaeus persevered.

Before Bartimaeus received his healing, he gave up his only possession – his cloak. His cloak symbolized his status as a beggar, his identity. He was willing to give up everything he had to get what he needed. He was willing to give up his only source of income to receive healing. He was willing to change his identity from a beggar to that of being healed and whole.

This passage shows no record of Jesus touching Bartimaeus to heal him. There is also no record of casting out a demon before healing, as is common in many of Jesus’ miracles in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus did not treat Bartimaeus the same way He healed the blind man at Bethsaida – by putting His spit in the blind man’s eyes. Just because the spit worked before when healing the blind man, Jesus treats each person individually. There is no set formula for healing with Jesus. Each person is unique. Each healing is unique.

Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”. When praying for people, a pivotal question to ask them is, “What do you want Jesus to do for you today?” The answer becomes apparent once they can articulate what they want Jesus to do for them.

A lady brought her elderly father to the Healing Rooms for prayer for healing one morning. We looked at the list of all the physical conditions they had listed that the man needed healing. It seemed overwhelming.

Before I even asked the Holy Spirit where we needed to start, I asked this man what he wanted Jesus to do for him this morning.

The man’s response shocked me.

The man replied, “I want to accept Jesus into my heart.”

Right then and there, we had the privilege of praying with this man, and his daughter, for him to enter the Kingdom of God.

I am so grateful for the question, “What do you want Jesus to do for you at the moment?” We could have missed this significant opportunity of this man accepting Jesus into his life. We then prayed for healing for all the physical issues, with him seeing amazing results. A couple of conditions were not healed, but the man’s focus had now shifted. The joy he carried was far greater than his physical condition. He had received far more than what he had expected.

To answer Jesus’ question, Bartimaeus replied: “I want to see.” Immediately Bartimaeus received his sight. Healing can occur immediately. Bartimaeus’ next response is to follow Jesus.

Immediately healed.

Immediately followed Jesus.

Reflection:

  • How do I respond in chaotic situations?
  • What am I prepared to give up to get what I need and follow Jesus?
  • How am I pressing into God for my healing?
  • Do I hear and see the ones who need a touch from Jesus, or am I distracted in the chaos?
  • Do I give people an opportunity to follow Jesus immediately after they have received their healing?
  • What do I want Jesus to do for me today?

Prayer:

Thank you, Jesus, that You are not put off by the mess and chaos surrounding us. Thank you, Jesus, for treating us all as individuals and ministering to our uniqueness. Thank you, Jesus, that You provide the answer for all my needs. Thank you, Jesus, that You hear the cries of my heart. Help me to see what You are doing and not get distracted. Help me treat each person I meet as an individual and worthy of Your love. Jesus, I declare today that I will give people an opportunity to receive from You, helping them encounter You for themselves. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Give everyone paper and pencils/crayons and ask each person to draw two pictures – who Jesus wants to be for them today, and another picture – what they need from Jesus today. Ask them to explain what they have drawn. Finish with praying for each person.

2. Group Activation: Spend time praying for each group member (depending on the size of your group, you may need to break into smaller groups) asking each person, “What would you like Jesus to do for you today?”

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God sharing with Him what you would love Him to be or do for you today and listen for His response.

4. Intermediate Activation: During a phone call this week, ask the person “If Jesus could do anything for you at the moment, what would you like Him to do for you?” Then ask them if you could pray for them.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God asking Him who He would love to be for your country. Turn the answer into a prophetic statement to declare aloud.

Healing Touch part 2

A touch communicates so much more than just your hand touching someone’s shoulder.

Something is transferred in the gesture.

I have often asked someone I am praying for if I can place my hand on their shoulder while praying for them. Sometimes, I don’t tend to ‘feel’ anything in my hand. Often, I may sense something is occurring for the person. Occasionally, my hand will feel warm and tingly. No matter what my hand feels, the other person often feels something in the exchange – usually heat, a tingling sensation, or a profound sense of peace. I know the Holy Spirit has been ministering physically to that person.

What if nothing is ‘felt’?

If there has been no ‘warmth’ or ‘tingling’ sensation in the touch, it does NOT mean that God hasn’t been ministering to the person physically. There does not need to be a warmth or tingling feeling.

Always ask before touching someone.

When praying for someone’s physical healing, I always ask first if I can place my hand on that body part, if appropriate, i.e. shoulder, back, usually those places not on the front of a person’s body or the ‘private’ parts. If a person asks for healing for their stomach, I will ask them if they can place their hand on their stomach/gut region and if I can then place my hand on top of their hand. I do not touch people’s breast region or genital area.

Please, please, please, always ask before you place your hand on someone. Imagine if your eyes were closed, and you suddenly felt someone touch you. It can be quite confronting. The unannounced touch can make your mind fixate and be frightened about where you might be touched next. You can feel violated.

Do you need to touch someone when praying for their physical healing?

No. God can heal people entirely with no physical intervention from us. God does not need us to touch people, although something supernaturally transmits in touch.

In Acts 19:11-12, we read: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.” God used a cloth to transmit His power. God can heal people, however, and wherever He so desires. It is a privilege that God uses us sometimes in that process.

I love reading the Gospels and seeing what Jesus did. He touched people a lot. Despite Jesus being jostled by the crowd, he immediately recognized when the woman with the blood issue ‘touched’ Him; He realized that power had left his body. (Mark 5:22-34). Touch was important to Jesus.

Something miraculous occurs when we touch someone. Something so much more than just a touch.

In Mark 8:22-26, we read: “some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

(In my 30-Day Devotional book, “Ministering like Jesus: How to Grow in Healing, Deliverance and Miracles”, I expand on this passage and the attitude of the Bethsaida people begging Jesus. For this blog post on touch, I will not include that here.)

In healing the blind man in this Bible passage, Jesus spat on the man’s eyes. This can seem unhygienic – putting your body fluid on someone’s eyes. Yet, this appears to be a loving act here. Spit contains bacterial enzymes that can cleanse and kill an infection. Maybe Jesus applied the antibacterial moisture to help loosen the eyelids from sticking together.

One of my first experiences praying for people for healing was at a women’s conference. The speaker encouraged us to ask God who we should pray for so that they could experience healing, and then ask the person. I felt I needed to pray for a lady with a thyroid condition whose eyes were bulging. I strongly sensed that I was to spit on my fingers and place my fingers over her eyelids.

Yuck! I felt this was revolting.

But what began as a strong sense quickly became a certainty within me.

I went to this lady and briefly shared what I had felt to pray for her. I asked her, somewhat hesitantly, if it would be okay with her if I spit on my fingers and placed them over her eyelids as I sensed that was what God was asking me to do.

Watching this lady’s face while I was sharing this with her, I was astounded. She was ecstatic.

This lady had told God she wanted someone to pray for her. She would know that it was from God if the person who prayed for her spat on their fingers and placed their fingers over her eyelids.

Despite this, the lady did not receive healing at that time.

Never underestimate God’s love and compassion and His work already in their life.

Please never spit on someone’s eyes unless you genuinely believe God is asking you to do that and the person agrees.

In the Bible passage, this man’s healing was gradual, sensitive, and progressive. Jesus did not mind waiting and asking the man, “Do you see anything?” The principle here is to perform a healing action, ask if there is any change, and then try again.

So often, we believe that if we do not get it right the first time, that is the end. This belief is not valid. Jesus is showing here that sometimes healing takes time. Sometimes we need to persevere. Sometimes it just needs one more try. Other times, there is a process in healing, and it can take hours, days, weeks, or months.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Using creative objects at hand, encourage everyone to dance, play, create, chat, and explore using these objects as they pray for others.

2. Group Activation: Brainstorm a group in your community who desires acceptance. As a prophetic group, prophesy into this community group’s acceptance and future.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time focussing on God and His love for you. Ask God to reveal to you words and pictures around His love and journal a love letter from God to you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to bring to your mind someone who needs a healing touch. Ask God how He would love you to respond.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God hearing His heart for homelessness within your area/state/country. Prophesy into the outcome.

Surgical Intervention is not Inferior Healing

Surgical intervention is not inferior to a supernatural spontaneous healing from God. Sometimes, in our enthusiasm for miraculous healing, we can reduce the role of Doctors and medicine in the healing process.

Several years ago, we went on a journey of ‘medical’ healing.

Hubby began experiencing tingling, and extreme discomfit in his right hand and arm. This had persisted for several months, during which he hadn’t thought to tell me before then. That Sunday morning, when we were chatting in bed before getting up, I commented how Hubby should book in to see our local Doctor. That afternoon, two medical specialists were at our home for pre-engagement counselling. Hubby commented on how he wanted them both to pray for him, as they have a supernatural healing ministry. They examined him, prayed for him, and strongly suggested he see the doctor for an MRI.

The next day, hubby rang the GP. The GP was fully booked out, leaving in a couple of days for an operation herself, and would be out of the office for several weeks. Hubby decided to ‘call in’ and see her at the end of her work, and she saw him then. He then rang me at 7 pm to say he needed an MRI, but it usually takes a week to get an appointment. I suggested he ring that night and see if he could leave a message. He rang, and they told him they had just had a cancellation for that night and he could come in immediately. Thus, another miracle.

The GP received the report of the MRI the following day and asked Hubby to come in as it was serious, and she wanted to refer him to a neurosurgeon. Again, we were told there would be a delay in getting in as we were public patients and did not have private health insurance. For all this to be achieved before our GP went off for her operation was impressive.

Hubby asked people to pray for supernatural healing of the C6 prolapsed disc and bony spur. He felt that there was enough faith in our home for healing, but we also invited other members of the Healing Rooms to come and pray for healing. During this time, I saw a picture of a bone being shaved away. Our 10-year-old son heard God say that Gary would be totally healed. I had a dream where I saw Arthur Burk standing in front of me, and he said, “Gary will be healed when he deals with his stuff”. Thus, Hubby was on bed rest, and I just wanted him to ‘deal with his stuff’ and ask God what He wanted to show him during this time. Our faith in supernatural healing was high.

The following Monday, we were sitting in the Neurosurgeon’s office. We had been warned that his bedside manner left a lot to be desired, but that didn’t concern us. His expertise was more what we were focussing on. I silently released peace and God’s presence into that room, and we immediately noted a change in the Neurosurgeon’s attitude. He started sharing his heart of justice, his mother, his frustration with the health system, and his concerns with some patients. Hubby felt a spirit of fear leave him in that room, plus he also had an encounter with Father God sharing some stuff with him. The outcome was that no conservative treatment would be effective for his situation, and Hubby would need surgery, but as we were public patients, there would be a wait of several months. The Neurosurgeon organised tablets and a cortisone injection that may help whilst awaiting surgery.

We have a few friends who are doctors and physios, so Hubby got their opinion. He started physio but experienced no change. The symptoms were getting worse.

Just as the 10-day course of anti-inflammatories finished, I received a phone call saying that Hubby was booked in for surgery at a private hospital that Friday at no expense to us. All within a fortnight of seeing the surgeon.

During that fortnight, we had also been on the team at our church’s Saturday morning Healing Rooms, where the team members and the children prayed for healing—no change in symptoms. One of the team leaders approached me and said, “You know Jane, surgical intervention is not inferior to a supernatural spontaneous healing from God”. I knew that, but now I have grasped more of it.

Our response then was: does Hubby proceed with the operation, or does he wait for supernatural healing? Is God going to heal through surgery?

I rang my dad, who said, “Jane – you don’t believe in coincidences. You always say that there are never coincidences with God. It sounds like you just need to walk on through the open doors.” Another few friends then said it was like the man in a flood standing on top of a roof crying out to God for help. A plane came, then a boat, and the man shooed them away each time and said he was waiting for God. The man finally accused God of not helping, and God replied, “I sent a boat and a plane. That was me reaching out to you.”

Thus, we went ahead, and Hubby had the surgery. Removal of the C6 disc, an artificial disc inserted and the bony spur shaved off down to the bone marrow. In an operation that was meant to take about 50 minutes, it ended up being 2 ½ hours as 1-2mm metal tip of a probe broke off during the surgery, and they had to find it and remove it by suctioning it out.

Apart from that complication, he had an incredibly amazing recovery. He did not have any pain or discomfort, even over the wound site or the site where the bone was shaved dramatically. The nurses gave him some Panadol in the hospital because they had to after surgery. He also had no complications after surgery.

The following morning, when the nurse took down his wound dressing, I was amazed at the lack of swelling, inflammation, bruising, and bleeding. The suture line looked beautiful and further healed than less than 24 hours post-surgery. As an ex Coronary Care Nurse, I was used to dealing with suture lines, and it honestly looked like it was about five days post-op with the lack of redness and inflammation and the closure of the wound. He came home that day with no pain, which is the major indicator of discharge in this surgery.

I googled “Arthur Burk pre anaesthetic prayer” to prepare for Hubby’s surgery. I found a video titled “Your spirit and surgery” – https://vimeo.com/315889893 (Approx 21 minutes) In this video, he describes some tools you can use to prepare your spirit for the operating room so that the procedure and the recovery are positively affected by the dominion God designed for your spirit.

I believe these prayers and how we prayed were a major help in the lack of pain and inflammation after the surgery. I must confess that we were running out of time, so I had scribbled the prayer on a slip of paper, and as I drove to the hospital with Hubby in the car, I prayed the prayer then. Not the best environment, but wow – the result was excellent!!

Four days before last Christmas, Hubby had major eye surgery. We again prayed the pre-anaesthetic prayer; he had no pain and an uneventful recovery. Hubby jokingly shares how the surgeon peeling off the tape over his eye patch was the only ‘pain’/discomfit he felt.

For those that would like this prayer, feel free to either watch the video on this link or contact me via email for a copy of the written prayer.

God created humans with the ability to gain skills and knowledge in a variety of areas. One of those areas is in medicine and healing. Healing through medicine is as valid as seeing supernatural healing through prayer.           

      

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every blog post, I list five prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Gather a list of people needing healing. Write each person’s name on a separate piece of paper. Pray. Ask children to draw a picture from God for the person whose name is on the paper. Write a statement, in the child’s words, about what they felt from God. Distribute the pictures to the relevant people.

2. Group Activation: Divide the group into small groups of 2-3 people. Give each group the name of a medical specialty at a local hospital eg cardiac services, respiratory services, kidney/renal, neurological, gastrointestinal, haematology, etc. Ask each group to individually hear from God and then as a group to combine what they heared/sensed/saw and prophesy over that service/area of the local hospital.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to highlight a person to you who is having surgery. Ask God to communicate to you His heart for them and to show you how to deliver it to them.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to highlight a hospital/medical clinic to pray and prophecy over. Spend time hearing God’s heart for that hospital/medical clinic and what He would love you to do with what He has communicated to you about that place.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight an area in the world that is in dire need of medical care and expertise. Spend time asking God to show you His heart for that area and what He would love you to do in response.

                                                                                  

Growing our Faith

faithIn living a natural supernatural life, it is important to grow your faith to believe that God can, and will, do anything. I have prayed for God to heal someone of cancer and they received complete healing. I have also seen my mother die of cancer but I haven’t let that deter me. I have seen a man’s eyesight restored. I have seen a lady healed of needing a heart lung transplant. Perhaps the greatest miracle I have seen is for people to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.

I recently found up a journal entry I wrote last year about the day before and what had occurred. I am including it here so that you can see an example of believing that God can do the impossible. Lastly, I have listed numerous ways that I grow my faith.

What do you do to grow your faith and the belief that God can, and will, do the impossible?

 

***(Beginning of Journal Entry)***

Believing anything is possible

Hubby and I were in bed last night chatting after a full day of church, hanging out with friends and ministry. Hubby commented on how it was exciting to be in a church where one of the cultural values (whether anyone realises it or not is another question as it is an unwritten and unspoken value) is that of believing that anything is possible with God. Not just believing it, but actively pursuing it.

Core Value:

As we reflected on this more, I realised that whenever we want to see the supernatural become our natural lifestyle, this has to be a core value. That God can and will do anything and that anything is possible with God.

Miracle – an illiterate person able to read the Bible

Yesterday morning in church, we heard an amazing testimony from one of our church members who was ministering in Cambodia. An old village woman had become a Christian and 3 days later wanted to be able to read the Bible but had never had the opportunity to go to school. She heard a testimony from some other people who had supernaturally been given the ability to read the Bible. This lady was prayed for by those people and within 20 minutes or so the lady could read the Bible.

Testimony:

Last night were having a meal with friends and reflecting on the testimonies we hear in church. Most of these testimonies come from the Healing Rooms we are part of. I was voicing that I am a bit tired of hearing about the back pain and the neck aches being healed. Sure, it is a big thing for those people but what about the exciting stuff we see of cancer being healed, eye sight restored, the time I prayed for the lady in hospital who no longer needed a heart lung transplant etc. I then shared how our family had experienced some amazing healings – anaphylaxis, teeth miracles – no longer needing fillings or a root canal etc.

Creative Miracle:

My friend then expressed how she has been waiting for 9 years for a huge creative miracle. Straight away I knew we had to pray for her in this area. So we did. In the natural, it seems completely impossible but with God anything is possible. We joined our faith with hers and her husband’s faith. There were a couple of prophetic acts I asked her to do as I felt they were an important step. A huge step of healing had already been overcome by our friend sharing this unusual and personal issue with us.

Prophetic Act:

In asking my friend to do a certain prophetic act, I was reminded of at least 7 years ago when I was at a ladies’ camp and I really felt to pray for a lady with a thyroid issue who had bulging eyes. This lady at the same time approached me and asked me to pray for her. As I waited briefly to hear from God, I sensed that I was to spit on my hands and place them over her eyes. I was relatively new to praying for physical healing for people and was aghast. “What would the lady think?” As I shared this with the lady, she became very excited. She shared how she had asked God to heal her and that she had told God that she would know if it was going to happen or not if the person praying for healing spat on their hands and placed their hands over her eyes. I learnt a huge lesson that night to be obedient to what God wants you to do.

God is at work:

When we left our friend’s home, nothing had appeared to have occurred in the way of a creative miracle for this lady but something had shifted in the spiritual. I totally believe that God can do this seemingly impossible creative miracle of growing body parts that are no longer there. I also knew that God was at work since we also prayed for my back pain from a pulled muscle that was causing me some incapacity. The pain completely disappeared and I could move freely.

I know that God will come through for this beautiful friend and her miraculous testimony will be huge in her future ministry that she will have in changing teenagers lives and perceptions.

God is in the business of the impossible.

*** (end of Journal entry)*** (Addit – today, yes, this very day, I received a text from my friend saying that the huge supernatural creative miracle had occurred in her body!!)

 

Align your mind:

If you need help in this area, I encourage you to take a Bible verse from the list below. If you believe the Bible is the Word of God, then meditating on the Bible and verses from it, will help your mind align to what God wants to do.

Bible verses:

  • Job 42:1- 2 Then Job replied to the Lord, “I know that you can do all things, no plan of yours can be thwarted.”
  • Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
  • Matthew 17:20 Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
  • Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.”
  • Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
  • Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
  • Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Turn these verses into a declaration that you can declare regularly eg “Thank you God that nothing is impossible for you. Thank you, God that you say in your Word that whatever I ask for in prayer and believe that I have received, it will be mine. Father God, I now thank you for giving me (answer to my prayer) and believe that You will give it to me because nothing is impossible for you Father God. Thank you, God.”

 

Ways I grow my faith:

  • Blessing my spirit. I call my spirit to attention and bless it with increased faith. I bless it with knowing beyond a doubt that Father God can, and will, do the impossible. That Father God specialises in making the impossible the possible.
  • Personally experiencing miracles and healing. Thus, I need to position myself in places where I will see miracles. I see them in our Healing Rooms where our family are team members. I saw them when I took my family with two young kids to Mozambique for three months. It can be costly to position ourselves but do it if you want to grow your faith.
  • Studying the Bible and what it says about faith, healing, God.
  • Surrounding myself with people of great faith, who know the Bible and live by the promises in the Bible.
  • Listening to great teaching about the promises in the Bible.
  • Worshipping God – giving Him glory and worth.
  • Spending time with God asking Him the hard questions and growing in intimacy with Him.
  • Prayer ministry has been another way that has helped me to see some faulty beliefs that I had about God. When I now react in a manner that is inappropriate to a situation eg get angry, I try to take a few minutes to ask God, “Father God, can you please show me why I acted that way. What lie am I believing? After I have my answer, and confess that lie/belief to God, I then ask God, “What truth do you want me to know instead?”
  • Our identity is so important. We defeat our internal giants first before we take on external ones. Going on a journey of discovering my true identity.
  • We need to become the person God sees us as – claiming & possessing our internal territory.
  • What we say with our words. I try to be very careful about the things I say as the words we speak have power to create. Isaiah 55:11 says “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Where are you currently at in believing for the impossible? Believing with such a certainty, not just that it would be great but a total belief that God can and will do anything.

 

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every week I list 5 prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Gather paper with pictures on them (eg an old calendar, scrapbooking supplies etc). Distribute the paper around the room, making sure you have enough for each person to choose a sheet. Ask people to get into pairs and then walk around looking at the pictures. When they see a picture that stands out to them or they like, pick up the picture and find their partner. Ask God to show or tell them what the picture represents for their partner or what God wants to say to their partner through the picture. Give their partner the picture to take home.

2. Group Activation: Contact a ministry like ‘Voice of the Martyrs’ for the details of how to support a person imprisoned for their christian faith. Gather blank postcards and pens. Distribute to group members to ask God what to write or draw on the postcard as a prophetic word to encourage and comfort the prisoner. (Leave room for a postage stamp in the top right corner). Gather the completed postcards and send to the ministry to enable them to be posted to the prisoner.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God which food He sees you like or that represents you and what it is about that particular food that relates to you. Spend time asking God more questions about that particular food item and how it applies to yourself.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to bring a homeless person across your path and what you can say, give and do. Ponder this so that you are ready with a physical item to assist them. If no homeless person comes across your path, go out of your way to find someone homeless.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask Father God to highlight a group that you are a part of and that group’s future. Prophecy into the future of the group and the people it interacts with.

Our Beliefs about Healing

Several years ago during our Healing Rooms Board Meeting, our Director was sharing about a team member needing heart surgery. She went on to explain the condition. I was a Coronary Care specialist nurse for over 25 years so I knew what she was talking about. I just automatically went to the position that the operation would be the best outcome for that type of condition. As we prayed, I said, “Father God, if it is your will to heal this person without surgery…”. The Director stopped me right there and said, “Jane, we don’t pray that way.”. I was rightly reprimanded as that is not exercising my faith and authority as a daughter of the Healing God that we love and serve. God wants to heal everyone. Fair enough, some people’s healing does come through having surgery, but we do not pray, “if it is your will to heal”.

When we have a faulty belief system, it is definitely highlighted in our identity and intimacy with Father God. Out of our identity and our intimacy with Father God comes our authority. How we view and believe what God can and will do, certainly impacts the authority we operate in. When we believe that God is always good and wants to heal and can heal anything, it changes the way we pray for people and what we pray.

 

My personal beliefs around healing:

  • God is a good God no matter what. We don’t have all the answers, but God remains good. Learning to live with the mystery is part of the journey.
  • God desires that we are all healed – Psalm 103:2-3
  • There is no formula to healing.
  • We don’t have to wait for our healing before we pray for someone else’s healing.
  • You do not have to be a Christian to be supernaturally healed.
  • Don’t blame God for your sickness. God is not the author of your sickness.
  • Sickness does not come from heaven. Sickness is not a blessing.
  • Sickness and pain are not your identity. Your identity is in Christ and you are His Royal son/daughter.
  • God uses medicine to heal people as well as using supernatural miracles.
  • Forgiveness can help aid the process of healing but it is not 100% dependent on it.
  • Our words have the power to create – Isaiah 55:11
  • We are partnering with God to bring Heaven to Earth. What is in Heaven, we bring to earth – Matthew 6:10
  • Believe you are healed.
  • God is always ready to have an encounter with you now and heal you.
  • If someone gets healed, get them to pray for the next person. The healing testimony is powerful. It raises our faith level. Also, if you have been healed of a condition, you carry an authority over that condition and when you pray for others with that condition, you see healing.

Throughout the last ten years, our family has experienced miraculous healings for ourselves and prayed for people for healing. We have seen people healed of cancer, blind eyes see, numerous broken bones healed, numerous teeth / dental miracles, anaphylaxis healed etc.

I encourage you to read through the list above of beliefs about healing. Do any not sit quite right with you? I encourage you to go on a journey with God and ask Him about that belief. Is it incorrect or is it an area in your own life that you need to grow in? Study the verses about that belief in the Bible. Do the hard yards and see what resonates and work out what you believe and what the Bible portrays about healing.

For me to pray for people for healing and see those healings, I have had to intentionally grow my faith so that it is bold and so that I operate from a belief system that God can do anything, that the impossible can become possible with God. Next week I will be sharing some ways that you can grow your faith and your view of the greatness of God.

 

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

Every week I list 5 prophetic activations/exercises under children/family, group, beginner, intermediate and advanced. The purpose of these exercises is to practice to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and see and sense God and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy! Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3) and that it comes from a place of love.

1. Children / Families Activation: Gather a heap of dress up clothes and identity symbols eg ring, crown, dressing gown, shoes, sword etc. Have fun taking turns dressing each other up in these items and prophesying over them their identity as a child of God.

2. Group Activation: Pass around a slip of paper, pen, a piece of string and a balloon to all participants. Ask people to ask God for a one word prophecy for an anonymous group member. Have everyone write that word on the slip of paper, then fold their slip of paper and insert into the balloon. Blow the balloons up and tie a string around them. Ask people to tie their balloon to their ankle. Then ask everyone to stand and move around the room, asking God whose balloon they should jump on and burst. The balloon the person bursts will contain a slip of paper with the word for them. Allow a few moments to ask God to show people how that word relates to them. Have a few people share the application to their life.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend a few moments with God basking in His presence. Ask Him to show or tell you a type of drink. Ask God what that drink is composed of and how and why it relates to you.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to show you someone looking to buy or rent a house or wanting to change their housing situation. Ask God for His wisdom and any keys He would love to download to you for them. Write or share a prophetic word with this person about their housing situation. Share appropriately.

5. Advanced Activation: Spend time with God seeking His heart on trafficked humans. Ask Him to show you an area/city/country specifically that He would like you to intercede for. Ask Him to show you what He would have you do, say, decree, pray, prophesy etc about this issue.

Surgical intervention is not inferior healing

iStock_000003580930SmallThis blog post comes in the midst of a journey of healing that my hubby is going on and is written out of that experience.

At our church’s Healing Rooms last weekend, one of the team leaders came up to me and said, “You know Jane, surgical intervention is not an inferior healing to a supernatural spontaneous healing from God”. I knew that but now I really have grasped more of it.

A fortnight ago, hubby was experiencing tingling and extreme discomfit in his right hand and arm. This had persisted for several months. That Sunday morning when we were chatting in bed prior to getting up, I commented how hubby should book in to see our local Doctor. That afternoon, two medical specialists were at our home for pre-engagement counselling. Hubby commented how he wanted them both to pray for him as they have a supernatural healing ministry. They examined him, prayed for him, and strongly suggested he go to see the doctor and get an MRI.

The next day hubby rang the GP. The GP was fully booked out and was leaving in a couple of days for an operation herself and would be out of the office for several weeks. Hubby decided to ‘call in’ and see her at the end of her work and she saw him then. He then rang me at 7pm to say he needed to have an MRI but it usually takes about a week to get an appointment etc. I suggested offhandedly that he ring that night and see if he could leave a message. He rang and they told him that they had just had a cancellation for that night and could he come in immediately. Thus, another miracle.

The GP received the report of the MRI the following day and asked hubby to come in as it was quite serious and she wanted to refer him to a neurosurgeon. Again, was told there would be a delay in getting in and we are public patients and do not have private health insurance. For all this to be achieved before our GP went off for her operation was amazing.

He asked people to pray for supernatural healing of the C6 prolapsed disc and bony spur. He felt that there was enough faith in our home for healing but we also invited other members of the Healing Rooms to come and pray for healing. During this time, I saw a picture of bone being shaved away. Our 10 year old son heard God say that Gary would be totally healed. I had a dream where I saw Arthur Burk standing in front of me and he said, “Gary will be healed when he deals with his stuff”. Thus, Hubby was on bed rest and I just wanted him to ‘deal with his stuff’ and ask God what He wanted to show him during this time. Our faith for a supernatural healing was high.

The following Monday we were sitting in the neurosurgeon’s office. We had been warned that his bedside manner left a lot to be desired, but that didn’t concern us. His expertise was more what we were focussing on. During the appointment, this specialist shared about his heart of justice, his mother, his frustration with the health system and his patients. I silently released peace and God’s presence into that room. Hubby felt a spirit of fear leave him in that room, plus he also had an encounter with Father God sharing some stuff with him. The outcome was that no conservative treatment would be effective for his situation and hubby would need surgery but as we were public patients there would be a wait. The neurosurgeon organised tablets and a cortisone injection that may help whilst awaiting surgery.

We have a few friends who are doctors and physios so hubby got their opinion. He started physio but experienced no change. In fact, the symptoms were getting worse.

Just as the 10 day course of anti-inflammatories finished, I then received a phone call to say that hubby was booked in for surgery at a private hospital this Friday (tomorrow) at no expense to us. This is within a fortnight of seeing the surgeon.

Our response then was – does hubby go ahead with the operation, or does he wait for supernatural healing? Is God going to heal through surgery?

I rang my dad who said, “Jane – you yourself don’t believe in co-incidences. You always say that there are never co-incidences with God. It sounds like you just need to walk on through the open doors.” Another few friends then said that it was like the man in a flood standing on top of a roof crying out to God for help. A plane came, then a boat, and each time the man shooed them away and said he was waiting for God. The man then finally accused God of not helping and God replied, “I sent a boat and a plane. That was me reaching out to you.”

During this fortnight, we have also been on the team at our church’s Saturday morning Healing Rooms where the team members and the children prayed for healing. No change in symptoms. It was at this point that I received the word that surgical intervention is not an inferior healing.

Thus, we are going ahead and hubby is scheduled for the operation tomorrow. I would appreciate it if you were able to pray for him and the doctors operating and Gary’s recovery.

Another aspect is that Gary is self employed. We have a business doing garden clean-ups of which Gary cannot work at the moment and for at least another 3 months. We also do not have income insurance. Earlier in the year, I went on a journey of asking God if I should put the kids in school fulltime and go back to nursing to aid our income as we have had several very dry years. God clearly told me no in an audible voice with a ‘fear of God’ tone. Thus, finances are a concern for Gary, however he is learning to trust the Lord for this.

During this time, two people have very generously given us some cash and we can see that God has this in hand. We are totally trusting Him. If you would like to give financially or feel any prompting by God in that way, please feel free to use the paypal button on this website – www.unlockingthegold.com or contact us in anyway.

Thank you so much.

Prophetic Activations / Exercises to incorporate into your week:

The purpose of these exercises is to help us hear God’s voice in a clearer manner. They sharpen our senses to hear and recognise God’s voice and His way of communicating with us. This enables us to grow in our relationship with God and also to impart to others what God tells us for them. Feel free to use as many of these activations each week as you can. The more you practice, the sharper you become at hearing God’s voice. Enjoy!

Remember that whenever you give another person a prophetic word or picture etc, please make sure that it is encouraging, edifying (strengthening) and comforting (1 Corinthians 14:3)

1. Children / Families Activation: Ask if anyone would like prayer for healing or if they know anyone who is needing healing. Spend a few minutes asking God for a picture for that person and then each person draw what they see God saying or showing. Give that picture to the person and also declare what God showed them over that person.

2. Group Activation: Ask who in the room would like prayer for healing. Get everyone else to make two lines opposite each other and have a gap in the middle for anyone who requires healing to walk through the middle of the two lines. As the people walk through, those on the sides are to ask God for what particular words He would like them to declare over that person.

3. Beginner Activation: Ask God to show or tell you someone who is sick. Ask God what you are to pray and how you are to pray and prophesy over that person and their sickness, then do it.

4. Intermediate Activation: Throughout your day, ask God to help you see who is struggling with their health and whom you should stop and pray for. When God highlights a person, stop and ask them if you could pray for them and give them an encouraging word.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to show or tell you a particular illness or disease and the key to the healing of that illness or disease for a particular person. Communicate lovingly what you see or hear to that person.