My 5-year-old son accidentally dropped a massive Besser brick, from a great height, on his friend’s foot, smashing a bone. Her foot was massively swollen and extremely painful. We were in Mozambique, and she was to fly back to England the next day. Unfortunately, she wasn’t allowed to fly. Flying is contraindicated with a broken bone due to the flight aggravating the swelling and placing her at increased risk of circulation loss or a blood clot.

Amidst the crying of pain, her dad and I looked at each other. There was only one solution. We needed a miracle. We needed God to show up and heal this little girl’s foot.

In that moment of utter desperation, her dad and I commanded the bones to be mended, and we watched as we immediately saw the swelling dramatically reduce. The pain eased, and all movement returned to her foot. This girl was cleared to fly home the following day as the bones were declared healed.

Several months later, a friend’s nineteen-year-old daughter broke her foot. She went to the Doctor, and X-rays were taken, which showed a fracture in her foot. The girl’s mother brought her to our home for prayer before taking her to the Orthopedic Specialist the following day. I prayed, and the pain eased but returned, only to reduce significantly overnight. Her mother requested a further x-ray before the Specialist decided whether to operate. The second x-ray showed an old trace of a break in the bone that was now fully healed. The before and after x-rays were as if they were from a different foot.

So, when my daughter’s friend had a broken bone in her hand, I wanted to pray for her so that her fracture would be healed. I prayed, and the pain and swelling lessened slightly, but not completely. Over the next few days, it became evident that the broken bone had not healed.

Reflecting on this several days later, I realized several things. First, I had reduced God’s healing to a formula. I had prayed a certain way around people with broken bones, so I had prayed the same way. Unfortunately for us, God doesn’t have a formula for healing. God is supernatural, and He heals using whatever He desires. We cannot use formulas with God. Time and again in the Bible, we read God used unconventional means to heal or to get people’s attention. A fantastic example is when Jesus heals the man who was deaf and mute in Mark 7:32-37 by spitting and touching the man’s tongue.

Second, I had become proud. My prayer for my daughter’s friend was out of pride. I had previously prayed for several people with broken bones, including the two girls above, and seen them healed. I had subconsciously developed a wrong attitude that my prayer had healed them. When I had prayed for my daughter’s friend, I had prayed, but I had not waited to ask God what He wanted me to pray. I had prayed my thoughts, not God’s thoughts.

It can be easy to believe that it all depends on us or to look for the right ‘formula’ so they will be healed. That people will be healed if we pray for them a certain way, that we can ‘fix’ people and their problems. We are not Jesus. We are not the answer to the problem. Please do not partner with the belief that you are the Messiah and that people need you to pray for them. God can always heal them another way. God is not dependent on us, but we are reliant on God.

On the other hand, we are invited to join God in seeing healings and miracles and bringing Heaven to earth. The secret is staying close to and remaining humble with Father God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus. Hearing what they want us to do and then doing that.

Questions I love to ask God are:

• “What do you want to do in this person’s life, God?”
• “What are you already doing and would love me to join You?”
• “What would you love me to do and say?”
• “How do you want me to pray, God?”

What about you? How have you seen God heal people?

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: Prepare outlines of the human body on paper. Ask the children which body parts God wants to heal in the group. Ask the children to colour in those body parts. Then ask the chidlren to pray for those parts to be healed.

2. Group Activation: Spread out a pack of playing cards face down on a table. Ask people to each choose a card and then to get into pairs. Ask people to prophesy over their partner using the playing card they picked up.

3. Beginner Activation: Spend time with God asking Him to show you something about yourself that God delights in. Explore this further with God, asking Him more questions about this.

4. Intermediate Activation: Ask God to bring to mind someone who is sick. Spend time with God hearing His heart for that person and how He would love you to minister to them.

5. Advanced Activation: Ask God to highlight a disease to you and then to show you His heart for people with this disease. Spend time with God seeking His answer to how you are to pray about a cure for that disease.