A Beginner's Guide To Healing

Several years ago, I noticed that sometimes the physical "attacks" that come against a person mirror the spiritual gifts God has given them. They can serve as an indicator of what He is doing in the spirit. Of course, this is just a guideline, and certainly not always the case. But it is sometimes the case.
Some of the general guidelines include:

• feet problems -- evangelism
• voice problems -- evangelism, teaching, pastoring
• throat problems -- pastoring
• hearing problems-- hearing God's voice
• vision problems -- prophetic gifting or discernment
• ear problems -- prophetic gifting
• teeth problems -- prophetic gifting
• back problems -- intercession
• knee problems -- intercession

This is not to say that everyone with a foot problem has the gift of evangelism... that is definitely not the case! Nor am I saying that God wants to release the prophetic in everyone who has ear problems. However, if someone seems to have a persistent problem in one of these areas that began around the same time that the started moving into a new ministry or started moving at a higher level of gifting, it just might be this type of attack.

Let me give you a few examples. A while ago a woman came and asked me to pray for her feet. Out of a clear blue sky about three years prior, she started having all sorts of physical pain. The doctors were not sure of what was causing it and of how to treat it, but felt it was some type of bone deterioration in her feet. She shared how this started right after she'd done a foot-washing of an inmate in a prison. She felt it was a spiritual attack -- that she'd somehow picked up a demon during the foot-washing and needed a deliverance. As I listened to her story, I kept hearing the verse "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them who bring good news." I asked her if she felt she had an evangelistic gifting/calling and she said most definitely. So, instead of using a deliverance type of prayer strategy, I simply blessed her feet and blessed/released the gift of evangelism that the Lord had put in her. I was not in a renewal setting and I was not doing renewal prayer, but God fell on her in a similar way to what I'd been seeing at renewal meetings. She shook and her feet kicked for a while. As this was happening, the passion she had for lost souls began to resurface in her. Her focus changed from her physical problem (constant chronic pain in her feet) to things of God's heart, particularly God's passion to reach the lost. The Holy Spirit was on her for about half an hour. When He lifted, the chronic pain was totally gone and she had recommitted to the Lord to walk out her evangelistic calling. I was primarily a spectator on this ministry time, with God doing the majority of the "work".

Another time someone who was hard of hearing in one ear came to me for prayer. As I prayed for their physical healing, I kept hearing God say that the problem was not physical but spiritual. The man had been given a prophetic gifting and Satan was attacking him in the area of his physical ears to mirror God's wanting to open his spiritual ears. I stopped praying and asked him if God had been stirring him in the prophetic. The man replied yes, but that it was "tricky" for him to discern God's voice from his imagination. So he often did not deliver words when he got them, for fear that he might be wrong. Often times God would show him something about a person and shortly afterwards, that thing would become public knowledge. I stopped praying for physical healing and started blessing/calling forth the prophetic gift that the Lord had given him. As I prayed, the ringing in his bad ear stopped and he could hear better than before we started praying. It was not a total healing, but a noticeable physical improvement.

I have noticed that a lot of intercessors have various types of back and knee problems. If someone who is an intercessor comes to me with a back or knee problem, I frequently spend more time blessing their intercessory gift than praying for the back. God usually heals them when I pray this way.

About two years ago, I had a rash of painful ear infections -- no sooner would one be "treated" than another would occur. My poor doctor could not figure it out and ran some tests that did not tell him much. I did not think about it at the time, but an interesting thing was going on in my life at that time. This was when the Lord was beginning to do a prophetic impartation in me, and was starting to establish me in it. The ear infections mysteriously stopped after about three monthes. Looking back, it was that three month period where I was really being established in this gifting and just starting to move out in using it. (Coincidentally, I was interceding for a prophetic conference in British Columbia one time. What what the counter-attack that came on me? You guessed it -- an ear infection out of the blue for no apparent reason.)

I believe there is a principle that the enemy will sometimes attack in the natural what God is doing in the spirit. This is not to say that every time there is a physical problem the enemy is attacking something in the spirit. But sometimes he is. So, I sometimes find it helpful in the pre-prayer interview to see what a person's gifting/calling are and then to (silently) ask the Lord if this attack is the enemy's resistance in the natural of what God is doing in the spirit with the person. If God seems to be saying "yes" to that question, then my prayer strategy is usually to spend more time/energy blessing what God is doing in the spirit with this person than physical healing prayer -- through I throw that in briefly too, just to make sure the person I'm praying for feels I'm addressing their prayer concern. (I don't pray for all physical healings this way -- but this is a strategy the Lord has added to my "arsenal". In any given prayer situation, we need to ask God which strategy to use for the ministry situation at hand.) But, I do tend to see a high percentage of physical healings when the Lord tells me to go ahead and use this strategy.

So when you are praying for someone for a physical healing, consider asking the Lord if this is an attack in the natural against what He is doing in the spirit. If God says "yes," try blessing the gifting that the enemy is attacking.

Blessing Prayers

There is great power in blessing in general. I believe that there is a Holy Spirit anointing released when blessings are spoken or pronounced over a person. Those blessings have a tangible effect on the person, because you are inviting the Holy Spirit to touch them in a positive way. Blessing seems to break the yoke of enemy oppression. In fact, some sicknesses are caused by curses, and general blessing prayers sometimes seem to counteract curses that have been spoken over someone. (If the person knows about a curse, we often ask them to renounce that curse, then we break it's power over the person and send back a blessing to the individual who originally spoke the curse. We send the blessing because Luke 6:28 says, "bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.") But you don't have to break curses to see God's power go forth in blessing prayer. When in doubt of now to pray, speak a blessing over the person.. you will never go wrong that way.

The blessing prayer does not have to be specifically in the area of health. In fact, blessing prayer touches every aspect of a person's life, in a positive manner, in accordance with God's will for that individual. It is best to be Spirit-led in the specific blessings we speak over an individual. Blessings can touch any of these areas:

• personal happiness
• health
• finance
• family
• interpersonal relationships
• success in business
• material possessions
• friendships
• opportunities for growth
• spiritual wellbeing

There are many examples of blessings and blessing prayer in the Bible. You may it helpful to review these and use some of them as models in praying.

Numbers 6:22-27
22The Lord said to Moses, 23"Tell Aaron and his sons, `This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24"` "The Lord bless you band keep you; 25the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."' 27"So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."

Numbers 24:5-9
5"How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel! 6"Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the Lord, like cedars beside the waters. 7Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water. "Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted. 8"God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. They devour hostile nations and break their bones in pieces; with their arrows they pierce them. 9Like a lion they crouch and lie down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse them? "May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!"

Deut 7:12-24
12If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. 13He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land--your grain, new wine and oil--the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. 14You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. 15The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you. 16You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 17You may say to yourselves, "These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?" 18But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. 19You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. 20Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. 21Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. 22The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. 23But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. 24He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.

Deuteronomy 15:4-6, 10
4However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 6For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you. 10Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

Deuteronomy 24:19
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deut 28:1-13
1If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: 3You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 4The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock-- the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 5Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. 6You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 7The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. 8The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. 9The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity--in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground--in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you. 12The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.

Deuteronomy 33:11
Bless all his skills, O Lord, and be pleased with the work of his hands. Smite the loins of those who rise up against him; strike his foes till they rise no more."

1 Samuel 2:20
Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord." Then they would go home.

Psalm 5:11-12
11But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. 12For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

Psalms 41:2
The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.

Ezek 34:22-30
22I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken. 25"`I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. 26I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord.

Luke 24:36
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

1 Cor 1:3-8
3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way--in all your speaking and in all your knowledge-- 6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph 3:13-19
13Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. 14For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

2 Corinthians 1:2
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.