Ministry Team Training

ESTABLISH A BASELINE

When you pray for someone who is sick, try to establish a baseline so you can tell when there is a change in their condition. If I pray for a person with vision problems, I get them to look at something a distance away to see if they can see it (or maybe read it), etc. I figure out what they can and cannot see before I start to pray. If they are hard of hearing, I will whisper at different volumes into their ear until I determine what they cannot hear. If they say they have a specific problem, such as a backache or headache, then I ask them, "Is it hurting now?" I ask them to show me where it hurts and I try to quantify how much it hurts.

I check their condition before praying to "establish the baseline" so that I know where they are starting from.

If the person has some sort of physiological problem, such as a withered hand or a partially paralyzed leg, I ask them to move it as much as they can -- that way I can see what they are capable of before I start to pray.

After I pray, then I have them test it out again to see if there is any change. Sometimes their complete healing comes instantly. If there is a complete healing, I ask them to try to make it hurt, or I ask them to do something they could not do before. An example would be asking a person with a back problem to reach down and touch their toes.

There are some conditions where you can't establish a baseline because the condition can't be directly observed but has to be medically tested, such as kidney failure or high blood pressure. Don't attempt to establish a baseline for that type of thing. Have them go to their doctor to have their doctor evaluate their condition after you think a healing has occurred.

WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS, KEEP PRAYING

Sometimes healings take longer than we expect. Keep praying as long as something seems to be happening. That means if the person is experiencing some sensation, such as heat or tingling, keep praying. God is on them and is touching them. Bless what He is doing and keep on doing it with Him. If someone reports the pain is decreasing, then keep praying and maybe it will go away all together. If someone has an improvement in their condition (which you can observe because you took a baseline), then keep praying and see if you can get them to 100%.

At times, healings are instant. But most of the time, they are gradual over a period of sustained prayer. Let me give an example. One time I prayed for a lady who was paralyzed in both hands and arms. I prayed for the whole condition (restore mobility in both arms), but nothing happened. I decided to pray a second time and I changed my prayer strategy a little. I prayed for one small body part at a time, praying for each joint separately. I took the index finger of one hand and prayed it by commanding healing in the joints and ligaments and nerves of that finger. After a little while, she was able to move that finger, she could bend and unbend it.

But everything else remained paralyzed. If I stopped praying at that point, that probably would have been all of the healing she received. I did not stop, I took the finger next to it and prayed for it. We went one finger a time until she had mobility back in all of her fingers. Then I started praying for the wrists. After that I prayed for the elbows and the shoulders, one at a time. At the end of the prayer, she was a bit stiff and clumsy, but she could move her hands and arms and fingers. It took about two hours to pray but it was certainly worth the time to see her mobility restored!

My general guideline is that if nothing happens, I usually pray a second time, just in case. If something happens but the healing is not complete, then I pray some more. If I have the time, I will keep praying until the healing is complete or until the condition stops improving. I have had people that I was praying for get tired of the prayer and suggest I stop. But I suggested we keep going as long as things were happening, and they agreed. After a while their healing was complete and they were happy that we had not stopped.

My general philosophy is that I like to keep praying as long as God appears to still be doing something.

INSTANT VS GRADUAL HEALINGS

When Jesus healed people, some were instantly and completely healed, like the man with the withered hand. Jesus told him to stretch it forth, and then it worked perfectly from that instant onward.

Some of the healings did not happen when Jesus prayed, but happened afterwards. Let me give an example from Luke 17:11-17. Ten lepers asked Jesus to heal them. Look at what happened in verse 14: "So when He saw them, He said to them, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.' And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed." The healing did not take place until after they had received prayer and left.

And others began to get well when Jesus prayed for them, but it took some period of time before the healing was complete. We see that in Matthew 15:28: "Then Jesus answered and said to her, 'O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.' And her daughter was healed from that very hour." Notice the phrase, "from that very hour." That means the girl's healing began the instant Jesus spoke that word but it took some period of time until her symptoms all left and she was 100% better.

There was even a case recorded in Mark 8:23-25 where Jesus had to pray for someone more than once. The first time He prayed, they received a partial healing. So He prayed again and they were healed the rest of the way. "23So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. 24And he looked up and said, 'I see men like trees, walking.' 25Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly."

It is important to understand that not everyone who Jesus prayed for was instantly healed. Jesus is probably the greatest and most successful healing minister to walk the face of the earth -- and even some of His healings were partial and required additional prayer. Even some of Jesus' healings were gradual and took some period of time.

We must understand that not all healing is instant. We will have some people who are partially healed. When that happens, I like to follow Jesus' model and pray again. We will have some people who start to be healed as we pray for them, but they will need to allow some time to pass (an hour or two or maybe even a day) before they are completely well. Healings happen that way. So be prepared for it and allow for it when you pray for people.

PHYSICAL HEALING PRAYER

I would like to summarize the main steps I usually go through when I pray for someone and God has not given me explicit instructions on how to pray for that person:

1. In Jesus' name, command the disease to leave, or command the body part to work right or command the healing to come forth.

2. I always suspect a spirit of infirmity, unless God tells me there is not one present, and I command it to leave.

3. Bless the body part to function the way God created it to work.

4. If there are no results when praying for a believer, ask God to reveal root causes and deal with them. You may also want to interview the person for obvious things like unforgiveness or unrepented sin.

5. Test to see if healing occurred. (I usually take a baseline before I pray so that I can tell how much improvement there is.) In outreach meetings, send people with healings up to give their testimony. If healing is only partial, you may want to pray more, as God may do more healing.

6. Be sure to tell them that sometimes the devil tries to bring symptoms back, so if the symptoms return, they need to command them to leave in Jesus' name.