Suggestions For Having a Ministry of Healing According to James 5:14-18
1. Seek the will of God for healing in the context of His greater purposes in scripture. These will include evangelism, discipleship, spiritual maturity, the fruits of the Spirit, and the growth of His church qualitatively and quantitatively.
2. By faith claim promises that express your belief in God to work restoration, revival, and renewal through His healing powers.
3. Pray with several Godly leaders over the person by laying on of hands. This will amplify your prayers in ways that are sanctioned by scripture and the promises of Matt. 18:19,20.
4. Interview the person to see where they stand in relationship to Jesus Christ and His will for their life. You may find that they need to be led to a saving knowledge of Christ before they can be healed of their bodily ailments.
5. Be sure that you are pure in body, mind, soul, and spirit before entering into this act of spiritual warfare. Otherwise you are making yourself vulnerable to all kinds of attacks by the devil. (Eph. 6:10-18)
6. Review the principle reasons for sickness in the scriptures and in this chapter. Sometimes God allows diseases or handicaps to continue for His greater sovereign purposes. ( 2 Cor. 12:9,10)
7. Do not get swept up in the tide of sensationalism in your healing ministry. ON the other hand do not give in to cynicism about those who have the gift of healing etc.
8. Ask God for healing in the name of Jesus and through the power of His atoning blood. This is the basis for all healing and restoration with God.
9. See yourself as a channel of God’s healing power in accordance with His will and timing. Do not expect that you can turn God’s healing touch on whenever you want it. Remember that He is the potter and we are the clay. (Rom. 9)
10. Do not condition or limit the healing to the faith of the sick person. This is a subtle way of telling God that one’s faith is the real reason why people are healed or failed to be restored. God is the sole power for healing. Visit people who you know are ill with several Godly leaders and ask the person for permission to pray for his complete recovery in the name of Jesus. Learn to initiate your healing ministry rather than just wait for people to come to you.
11. Give time in your church services for people to share their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs and pray publicly for their restoration. Claim several promises from the scripture regarding God’s will in restoring people to full health and strength through the power of His name. Often, we do not have because we do not ask. Or we do not get what we ask for because we ask with wrong motives. Public prayer in a church service will reinforce the faith involved in beseeching God to divinely heal in whatever ways He chooses. You may also provide opportunities for private prayer after the service with select elders. This will allow some people to ask for special prayer in the confidence of trusted leaders of the church.
12. Use Psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs in your healing ministry. Remember how David used the power of music in restoring Saul to health and vigor. Choruses, hymns, or scripture put to music have a way of soothing one’s soul. Music lifts the heart and renews the mind in unique ways. Often music has a way of driving out the evil forces and thoughts while replacing them with the triumphant sound of Jesus.
13. Claim your inheritance through your new birth in Christ. Review, with the sick person, all the special privileges that are theirs in Jesus Christ. Read special sections of scripture that reinforce their inherited justification, sanctification, regenerated mind and spirit, new nature, assurance of salvation, hope, faith, love, etc. This will help the person begin to thank God for all the reservoir of resources that are already at their disposal through the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. "If you ask anything according to My name, I will do it that the Father may be glorified." (John 14:14)
14. Foster a climate of faith in God to heal, restore, purify, and repair through the healing process. Do not just pray that the person will be brought back to health. Instead, specifically ask the Lord to purify the person, strengthening them in God’s grace and faith. Help the person realize that all things will work together for good to those who love God and fit into His plans for their lives. (Rom. 8:28,29)
15. Accept and exercise the authority that God provides for us to use us as His channels for healing the sick and casting out demons. Remember that Jesus taught the 70 disciples in Luke 10:9:
"Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ’The kingdom of God is near you.’"
Its always puzzled me why we have preached the kingdom of God without the ministry of healing accompanying our evangelism. It could be that this is one of the reasons why certain evangelistic efforts have languished for many years.
To neglect God’s commands is always a formula for failure. Let us ask not just what would Jesus do, but what did Jesus do.
16. Follow the examples of Jesus and Paul in their healing ministries. Form study groups to look into the ways and means by which they successfully healed people. This will allow you to train your entire congregation, leaders and laity, in the ministry of healing.
17. Cooperate with medical and community health workers to bring healing to the place of your ministry.
Example: In our denomination, the Evangelical Churches of West Africa, we have hundreds of clinics, dispensaries, and mobile medical units that are dispersed throughout Nigeria to administer drugs and medical advise to the people. This is done in conjunction with the faith to see God take the drugs and medical training to bring healing to villages all over Nigeria. This allows for an integration of the science and the art of spiritual healing. Often times, community health workers will show that the best kinds of healing is preventative medicine and sanitation by educating the people against disease.
18. When God chooses not to heal people, allow them to see God’s greater purposes through this experience. Help people see that God’s ways are perfect and all His ways are peace. God is the only one who adds blessings to us without sorrows. By trying to seek for traditional doctors who use demonically inspired powers to heal, people are jeopardizing their futures. When God chooses not to heal someone, it is for the ultimate best - His and ours. Do make a bargain with someone who practices "magical healing". We need to see how God can use this situation as a stepping stone to greater successes for Him. Remember we are created for His glory not for our comfort. Paul asked many times for God to remove his thorn in the flesh, but God refused. He wanted Paul to remember that His grace was sufficient for all things. (2 Cor. 12:8-12)
19. Be willing to wait for God’s power to work. Some people are too hasty in failing to wait for God to work His power to heal. Some healing will be instantaneous, but most healing will take time. Remember, Abraham and Sarah had to wait 25 years for God to perform a miracle in giving them a child when they were in their nineties. He makes all things beautiful in His time. (Eccl.)
20. Never underestimate the power of God to heal. We are told the "Stephen, full of fight and power, did great wonders and signs among the people." (Acts 6:8) Being full of faith is a great advantage in healing ministries that catalyze the expansion of the kingdom of God. It may cost you a great deal, as it did Stephen, but it is worth it. Peter Wagner gives an amazing illustration of how God can even use our little faith to bring miraculous healing:
Case Study 12 - Kate Semmerling tells of her experience as a student nurse in a clinic in Haiti. A woman brought a small boy with crippled legs. He could not stand or walk. She tried to explain that there was nothing she could do, but she wanted to get rid of the woman so, as she says, "I sighted and offered to pray for her - a God-bless-this woman-typed of prayer that would send her on her way." But there was a grain of faith that told her God could heal, although she expected nothing. She put her hands on the crippled legs and said, "Dear God, please come and do your work here."
That was enough faith in that case. Over the next five minutes the legs pumped up as if they were small balloons, and they filled with new muscle. Kate said, "I thought I was in the Twilight Zone. I had never seen anything like this happen before." The boy’s legs became normal, and he stood up and walked around. Kate’s response: "Oh my God, look at this!" Not a strong indication of faith, but that was enough for God to show His power through her. (Wagner, p. 253)
21. Replace feelings of resentment, anger, hostility, jealousy, suspicion, rejection, insecurity, complaining, strife, projection, pride, rudeness, compensation, displacement, regression, depression, insulation, isolation, rationalization, denial, fatigue, anxiety, tension, low self-image, with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, goal orientation on the things that are above and not on things of the earth. (Col. 4:1-4; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4:28-32) This formula may do more for your healing ministry than anything else. It is God’s long term solution to most of the physical, psychological, and spiritual problems of humanity.
22. Learn to deal with conflict in constructive rather than destructive ways. Recognize the root causes behind the conflicts. Refuse to simply treat surface symptoms without reaching for the perceptual causes behind the conflicts. Be quick to hear and slow to speak. (James 1:19) Remember, that a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up strife. (Prov. 15:1) Clarify one another’s goals so that both parties know what is the most important things God would want them to accomplished.
Ask the Lord to help you settle your differences with a mutually agreeable solution. Do not expect to get your way all of the time. Note that pride leads many of us to arguments and destruction. Learn to be humble and take advice from others and enjoy their wisdom. (Prov. 13:10)
Refuse to wrongly escalate a conflict by making a mountain out a small ant hill. Issue expansion means that you will try to bring up other matters that are loosely related or unrelated to the main point of the issue.
Example: One woman became so angry with her husband for coming home late that she told him, "You are a very distrustful man. For this reason, I have reported you to the Pastor and elders of our church." This causes so much division that eventually, the man took a second wife.It is better to save the relationship than win a few minor arguments. Try reducing the conflict into smaller issues, by asking the person, what he thinks or feels is the best solution to the difficulty.
This helps you gain the advantage of seeing things from another’s viewpoint. State your own perspective and yet be willing to have them reconsidered. Do not get upset if all of your ideas are not accepted. Remember, often, people are not rejecting you but just some of their perceptions of your thoughts.
Generally, refuse to enter into conflicts unnecessarily. Instead, follow the advise given by Paul in Phil. 2:1-5 where he emphasizes, "Be of the same mind, united in spirit intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfishness or empty conceit, but in humility consider one another’s perceptions as more important than your own. Have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
Conclusion - Healing ministries are some of the most neglected and abused areas of ministry, but they can be one of the greatest catalysts for successful cross-cultural ministries. When we go back to what Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 22:29 when he said:
"You are in error (Intentionally, ignorantly, or through errors of omission) because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God."
We can see that correction starts with a transformation of our perceptions about the healing ministry. We have offered suggestions that we can help us avoid some of the same serious mistakes in using a healing ministry across cultures. By learning what the Bible has to say about power healing ministries we can present a balanced outlook that be an effective non-sectarian approach to this underutilized vehicle of service.
Application: Let us pledge ourselves to study this sermon in order to begin to correct some of the false or misunderstood notions about healing ministries. Let us work together to apply the guidelines for more effective healing ministries in ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and those to whom we are cross-culturally seeking to serve.
Bibliography
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14. Wagner, Peter, How To Have A Healing Ministry Without Making Your Church Sick, Regal, Ventura, Calif, 1988
15. Warner, Timothy, "Classroom Notes" in Power Encounter Class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1989.
16. Wimber, John, Power Healing, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1986
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