Ministry Team Training

God has been doing amazing things in my life over the past ten years or so. I have seen Him heal the sick, do miracles, defeat territorial spirits in power encounters and I have also seen Him speak His words of life into people through the prophetic. He has allowed Me to participate with Him as He does these things. He does very powerful things because He is a very powerful God, and it has been an awesome experience to be allowed to participate with Him in this.

But there was a time that I would have thought you were "crazy" if you told me that I would one day prophesy to people all over the world and speak into their lives. And if you had told me that I would lay hands on the sick and they would recover, I would have been convinced that your imagination was overactive.

Why did I think that way? I was under the impression that the power ministry sort of things (prophecy, healing, etc.) was something that only the "big name" people could do. And I knew I was not a big name person. I did not think it was possible for everyday believers like myself to move with God in demonstrations of His power. Yes, I read John 14:12, but I did not fully believe it. I assumed the "anyone" from that verse was not really anyone, but meant any "big name" minister. I somehow discounted myself from being one of the people who this verse talked about. And I am not alone in that -- I have discovered that many people who this verse is talking about don't really think it applies to them.

Let me share the verse with you from the NIV translation:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

That verse is pretty inclusive, isn't it? It says anyone who believes in Jesus, anyone who has made Him Lord of their life can do what Jesus did. What did Jesus do? He healed the sick, cast out demons, performed miracles and proclaimed the good news of God's kingdom. Jesus promised that each of us can do these same things. Why can we do them? The reason is not because of our holiness, it is not because of our great faith. In fact, the reason has almost nothing to do with us.

The reason we can do the works Jesus did is because Jesus did what it takes to make it possible. He explained it this way: The reason we can do the works He did is because He said He was "going to the Father." A lot of us don't understand what that means and that is why we don't believe the verse is really for us today.

How did Jesus go to the Father? First, He died for our sins on Calvary, and then He rose from the dead, breaking the power of sin and death over our lives. Then He walked among the people of His day and appeared to some of them as proof that He was truly raised from the dead; He was not a ghost but a living flesh and blood being Who was capable of eating and drinking and being touched. Then Jesus physically ascended into Heaven.

And afterwards He sent His Holy Spirit to live inside of His followers. This is the same Holy Spirit that lived inside of Jesus from the time He was baptized until the time He ascended into Heaven. That was the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus to do the miracles and works that He did when He walked on the earth. (The Bible tells us that for the season when Jesus was human and lived among us, He did not use His own power to do the miracles. Instead He used the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. See Acts 10:38.)

So the only qualification we need in order to do what Jesus did (heal the sick, cast out demons, work miracles and preach the gospel) is to believe in Him. That sounds too easy, doesn't it? People try to make it harder. They assume that "believe" requires some sort of super-faith that is not available to the everyday believer. When Jesus said "believe," what was He talking about? Was He talking some incredible level of faith that is not available to most Christians? Was he being exclusive? No, not at all.

He was talking about the same type of faith that results in our salvation. The Greek word that Jesus used for "believe" in John 14:12 is "pisteuo." That same word is used in Mark 16:16, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." And Jesus used that same word for believe in Luke 8:12 in the parable of the seeds and the sower, when He said, "Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved." And it is the same Greek word used in Acts 16:31, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved -- you and your household."

In short, if you have enough faith to be saved, you have enough faith to do the works Jesus did. In fact, saving faith is the only requirement on us to be able to do these works. Jesus Himself met all the rest of the requirements for us in His death and resurrection. So, if you are born again and you are a child of God, then you cannot be disqualified from doing the works Jesus did. It really is that simple.

Then why is it that you are not currently going to the hospitals and emptying them out? Why aren't you healing all the sick people you come in contact with and raising the dead and so on? The reason is found in the parable of the mustard seed. Jesus said, in Mark 4:30-32,

30Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

In other words, Jesus said that this faith grows just like a mustard seed grows. It starts out tiny and may seem insignificant at first. But it grows over time as it gets used. In is sort of like that old adage "practice makes perfect." The more we practice our faith and stretch it to do the things Jesus did, the more it grows. And soon we find ourselves doing the very things Jesus did.

There is another catch to this, detailed in John 14:15, just three verses after Jesus promises us that we can do the things He did. He says, "If you love Me, you will obey what I command." In short, Jesus does not expect us to believe without obedience. Instead, obedience is a byproduct of our faith. We are to make Him Lord, to do the things He says to do and to stop doing the things He says not to do. We no longer live to ourselves, we live to Him; Jesus becomes the Lord (or "boss") of our life. This is part of the process of being saved. We learn what it means for Him to be Lord of our lives and we begin to walk that out. It takes time for us to complete the transition from the "old ways" to the new way of obeying Him and giving Him Lordship of every area of our life. But as we begin to walk this out, He helps us get better at it.

It is more or less the same thing when it comes to doing the things Jesus did. It is a process and it takes some period of time to come into the fullness of His power and authority in our lives. (A few people seem to catch on almost instantly, but most of us learn over a longer period of time, as we practice and apply ourselves.)

John Wimber was the founder of the Association of Vineyard Churches and he used to train people in his church to successfully pray for the sick. He was in ministry for a lot of years and during that time he challenged his trainees to pray for a lot of people. He told them not to give up if they experienced a few failures in a row. In fact, John did not allow people to say they could not heal the sick unless they prayed for 100 people in a row who were not healed. And in all of his years of training and equipping people, he never once encountered a single person who prayed for 100 people and did not see any of them get healed. In fact, in most cases, people could not pray for more than 10 or 12 sick people before seeing a healing.

In other words, the more we "practice" at doing the things Jesus did, the more we are able to actually do them. Our faith grows just like the little mustard seed grows. It starts small, but it grows as we pray for the sick, especially as we see Jesus heal some of the people we pray for. And as we begin to experience Him moving through us, it becomes easier to believe Him for healing. Our faith grows and as a result, we see more healings.

So how do we get that experience? One way is to simply start praying for any sick person you encounter. Some believers have great success at this. But others find that approach too intimidating. They prefer to be in a training atmosphere that they perceive as "safe," then they are more comfortable to stretch their faith and pray for people. As they try it in a safe practice environment, they begin to discover that John 14:12 applies to them and they can indeed do the things Jesus did.

There are multiple ways to build a safe environment. One of my favorite approaches is the use of ministry teams. I think the reason that I love the ministry team approach so much is because that is how I learned. And learning to pray for the sick in ministry teams provides an added advantage because the team members get to piggyback on the "anointing" of the ministry they serve under. In other words, there is a little bit of extra anointing available to the team members, because they get to move under the anointing of the person leading the meeting. This helps each member to personally experience Gods power moving through them to heal the sick, cast out demons, do miracles, etc. And that experience builds their faith and causes their own level of "anointing" to grow.

Ministry teams can be run in many different ways. Some allow anyone on the team to pray for anyone when they finish some sort of training or orientation. Others pair the beginner up with an experienced person for an "internship" before allowing them to pray on their own. Others require that team members always pair up to minister as a "team of two" and they do not permit people to pray individually. There are a lot of different ways that a team ministry can be structured. But regardless of the structure, most teams seem to offer the same advantage: a safe place for someone to learn to minister. They provide a place where people can experience God moving through them to heal, cast out demons, etc. And because of this, the team members grow in faith and in the level of anointing they can operate in on an ongoing basis.

That is why I feel that ministry teams are a very good thing and why I am teaching on this subject. The next several lessons will offer the actual ministry team training that I give when I train teams to work under me. The basic principles are pretty much universal, but some specific logistical details may vary from culture to culture. Most of what is in these lessons should be practical no matter what part of the world you are in, but you may need to make a few adjustments for your specific culture.