Healing "Preliminaries"

We are looking at how to get started in praying for the sick and seeing them healed. Some of us are ready to jump into that, and that is good. However, for some of us, it seems like a huge task, overwhelming and unobtainable.

There is an old saying that fits this situation... "we have to learn to walk before we can learn to run." It is simple, but it is true. God works through a process, He takes us step by step from where we are to where He wants us to be. He wants to walk out His Lordship in every area of our lives and He wants to manifest His presence and His power through His people -- e.g., through you and me. But before we are ready to run, or to do the works Jesus did -- we must first learn to walk with God.

When we walk with God, He must be the Lord or boss of our lives. We must learn to love Him and to obey Him (John 14:15) out of that love. We must learn to begin doing the things that God wants done in our lives. We must learn to put the things in our lives under Him, to do it His way. We must learn to walk in His victory over sin, to have assuredness of our salvation and to grow in our intimacy and relationship with Him. He must become first in every area of our lives.

So how do we get from here to there?

Getting Started

Let's talk about getting started in doing God's process. How do you start living in His victory and seeing His power and anointing flow through your life? How do you start praying for the sick and seeing them recover? How do you become an effective witness?

Getting started means taking initiative, not just sitting back, but going ahead. Look at 1 Sam 14:1-15, the story of Jonathan who was king Saul's son. This passage teaches us some truth about taking initiative. Because it is a lengthy passage, I won't include it here. But I encourage you to get out your bible and read it on your own. The passage narrates the story of only two men, Jonathan and his armor bearer, who go in God's power and defeat a garrison of enemy soldiers. If you don't have a bible handy, you can read it from the OnlineBible at:

http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=1+Sam+14:1-15&version=NLT

The gist of the passage goes like this: The Israelites went out to engage the Philistines, and they were met by an incredibly huge army, so that the soldiers lost heart and became demoralized. Many had abandoned their posts to run away or to hide in the caves. Jonathan was King Saul's son and a man of faith. He did not look at the enemy army as something to dread, but as an opportunity for God to glorify His name among His people. He did not have a specific promise or command from God, but He knew God's character and His nature and His history of fighting for His people and giving them the victory. So Jonathan and his armor bearer decided to take a risk and see if God would give them a victory. The two of them went to an enemy garrison, looking for a victory from the Lord. God honored their faith and gave them an incredible victory. In fact that victory became the turning point that allowed Israel to win the war and defeat the Philistines.

This passage contains many important lessons. One of them is that getting started with God will usually involve a struggle.

Getting Started Will Involve Some Struggle

Jonathan was King Saul's son. He was a leader in the armies of God, the armies of Israel. And this was taking place in the midst of a battle.

The first thing I want you to see here is that struggle is inevitable. In the text, they were having a struggle, they were having a war and their struggle was against the Philistines. The Philistines are oftentimes characterized like 'the kingdom of darkness.' The Israelites would fight the Philistines back and regain their territory. But not long after that, the Philistines would come and oppress again. And the Israelites would whip them and push them back -- and they would come back again. They were that army and the nation that always seemed to come against Israel no matter how many times they got beat up or whipped. They always seemed to come back. And that's similar to the kingdom of darkness. They always seem to come back and go after us.

I believe that one of the reasons that some people never want to get started to take initiative and get going is because they are simply trying to avoid the struggle. They are trying to avoid the fight, to avoid the battle. The truth is that there is always going to be a struggle. You never get to a place where you avoid the struggle. It is not an option for you.

You may say, "I am not going to get involved; I am not going to get started. I am not going to move out because if I do, it is going to be hard. It is going to be a struggle and I don't want to do that so I might as well stay back and not do that." Get this, you are going to have a struggle anyway. Can you avoid that? No, you can't avoid that. What did Jesus say? He said, "I've told you all this so you will have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world" (John 6:33).

What did Jesus say? He said that you are going to have struggles; you are going to have trials and you are going to have sorrows. It is going to be tough. But it says that in the midst of it you can have peace. And then He said, "But take heart, guys, I have overcome." And since He is in us, we have overcome.

Struggle is inevitable. This is the way it is supposed to be. As the kingdom of light, we are supposed to advance on the kingdom of darkness and seize the assets of the kingdom of darkness. That is the way it is supposed to work. But if you are not actively seizing the kingdom of darkness, taking hold of those assets for the kingdom of light, the kingdom of darkness tries to seize your assets of light, you don't get out of the struggle. It is either your seizing or their seizing. You are either on the offensive or you are on the defensive. The truth is that you are involved in the struggle regardless. You don't get out of the struggle -- you just get to decide what kind of struggle you want. It is your choice: the struggle of seizing or being seized. Which struggle do you want?