A Hockey Model Of Healing

As I explained in the previous lesson, I was starting to have a lot of questions about healing and began seeking God for some answers. The model He gave me a new model to put things into perspective for me. That model was based on the game of hockey. I know that hockey is a popular sport in Canada, the north east part of the USA and in some parts of Europe. But there are a lot of people who live in other parts of the world and don't know much about the game. So I am going to share a bit about hockey in these teachings in order to explain the model the Lord gave me.

In hockey there are two teams. Each team has six players. Three of them are "offense" positions (called the "forwards" or "front line") and the other three are defensive positions (two "defensemen" and the goal tender or "goalie"). The goal of the game is to get the hockey puck into the opponents goal (sometimes referred to as a "net") as many times as possible, and at the same time to keep the opponent from putting the puck into your goal.

Even though there are definite offensive and defensive positions, everyone on the team (except the goalie) plays both offense and defense, depending on where the puck is on the ice.

The ice is divided into three sections. There is your "end" (the area where your goal is located), "center ice" and the opponent's "end." The strategy is to keep the puck in the opponent's as much as possible so you have more opportunities to shoot the puck at their goal to score. (Of course, their goalie and the rest of the opponent's team are going to try to stop you, so putting the puck in the net is not as easy as it sounds.)

When you are on the offensive (shooting the puck at their goal), then everyone on the team (except the goalie) plays offense. The three forwards will be more aggressively attacking the net and the defenseman's main job is to keep the puck from leaving the attack zone. If the puck crosses the blue line that separates the attack zone from the center ice zone, then all off the players on your team have to leave the attack zone and cannot reenter it again until the puck first comes back in to that zone. For the most part, defensemen hang near the back of the attack zone to prevent the puck form leaving the attack zone. But from time to time things line up so that they take a shot at the goal, and sometimes they score goals for their team.

In fact, some defensemen score a lot of goals for their team. The last time I checked, the highest scoring defenseman in the NHL (National Hockey League) was a fellow named Bryan McCabe from the Toronto Maple Leafs, who scored 15 goals by Jan 13 of 2006. That is a lot of goals, more goals than a lot of offensemen scored during that same time frame. I mention him so that you can know that just because a person is asked to play in a defensive position, that doesn't mean they can't score goals.

The intercessors are the healing parallel to defensemen in the game of hockey. They stand behind those who do a lot of healing ministry and they battle to make it possible for their teammates to score. Their role is critical--they are the ones who make it possible for the "forwards" (those who minister healing) to successfully completing their assignments. The intercessors are the ones who make it possible for us to see the anointing and power of God flowing in healing ministry.

A lot of intercessors do not get many opportunities to minister directly, just like most hockey defensemen do not get to score a lot of goals. Most of the time, interesssors are not the ones who lay hands on the sick and see God's healing power flow through them. However, some intercessors are the Bryan McCabes (or "top scoring defensemen") and they get to minister healing as well as intercede. We must be careful not to make the mistake of thinking that an intercessor who doesn't physically lay hands on the sick to pray for them is not a key member of our healing team.

Those who don't know hockey well might think that the defensemen are not all that important, that "a good defense is an offense," and things along that line. But that this simply not the case in hockey; offense alone is not enough. In fact, my team (the Sharks) recently had an embarrassing loss because their defensive line fell apart and their goalie was not playing well. The offense played great, but the other teams goalie was on top of his game and the Sharks did not score very many goals. The other team's offense was not all that great, but because of defensive breakdowns they were able to score six goals against my team. If you have a great offense but you have an inferior defense, you are going to loose more games than you win.

What does the defense mean to those of us who regularly pray for the sick? It means that we absolutely need our intercessors in place, because if we are missing solid intercession, then our healing ministry will suffer. One of the biggest mistakes people can make is to think their own personal healing anointing will cover them so that they do not put solid prayer covering (intercession) into place. It is true that their anointing will cover them for a bit, just like a good attacking drive in hockey. But if they don't have their defensive players in position, that "puck" will eventually cross the ice and end up in their end. Then they will be in great trouble without a good defense.

There are different types of intercession, any one of which can cover us effectively at a given moment that we minister. Let me talk about three different types of intercessory coverage. First, there are the "dedicated intercessors" who pray for a specific ministry (or minister) and cover it regularly in prayer. They and release the Lord's anointing on the ministry or person, they fend off some of the spiritual counter attack, and they do spiritual warfare to remove certain obstacles the enemy tries to put in the way of the healing flow. These are my favorite type of intercessors to have, because their intercession is consistent and long-term. They cover you no matter what type of healing activity that the Lord assigns you to do or no matter where He sends you.

There are also the intercessors who are not assigned to a specific person or ministry, but the Lord assigns them to cover a given area. It may be a neighborhood, a city, or even a state/providence. They are the ones who break through the darkness and enemy oppression over an area and gain an "open heaven" over that area. When there is an open heaven over an area, it is much easier to operate in God's power and anointing; you see all sorts of quick/easy results. If you minister the same way somewhere else that does not have an open heaven, then you have to work much harder to get smaller results. The difference (the ease in ministry and quick results) comes because these intercessors have secured an open heaven, they have removed the obstacles and enemy resistance that blocks the anointing and healing flow.

The third type of intercessors are those who cover specific events rather than being assigned to a given area. They may cover a healing conference at their church and break through the open heaven for this that meeting. Or they might they cover an on-going meeting, such as a weekly healing room or a monthly healing service. The event they cover seems to have the anointing and open heaven, but other events in their same area may not have that open heaven.

When I was in Hong Kong and in India last September, the local believers had put a great deal of prayer and intercession preceding my trip. The intercession in Hong Kong was specific to the conference and meetings I was holding. As a result of their prayers, it was very easy for me to minister there. There was such a strong anointing on the meetings and the power of God flowed freely. That anointing came from the intercession support for the specific set of meetings I spoke at.

There was also a strong anointing in India, but it came from a slightly different source. There is ongoing concentrated and continuous intercession for the State of Andhra Pradesh by a group of intercessors who live there. They did not do a lot of concentrated prayer for my meetings (though they did some). But they had secured an open heaven over the area from the constant prayer and intercession and spiritual warfare over their area. As a result, there was an open heaven and we saw a lot of miracles.

In both cases, Hong Kong and India, prayer and intercession had created an open Heaven so that God's will for healing (and for the prophetic) could go forth unhindered. In once case it was intercession specific to the meetings I was holding and in the other case it was blanket intercession over the area. Both types of intercession produced the same results for me, making it relatively easy to see the power of God flow freely.

Let me share another story, to help you better understand the significant role that intercession can play. Someone from the meetings in Hong Kong recommended me to a friend of theirs in Canada, who needed someone to speak at her church's winter retreat. The people who came to that retreat were mostly immigrants from Hong Kong and mainland China. They had the same cultural and ethnic background as the people in Hong Kong, and they were just as open to the Lord and just as hungry for God as the group in Hong Kong. But the anointing for physical healing just was not on this retreat. In fact, it felt like there was some cloud or oppression over the area, making it very difficult to minister. I saw much less healing than I normally do when I speak somewhere and I found the experience frustrating.

What was the difference? I did not know at first, but God explained it to me when He gave me this hockey model of healing. The difference had to do with prayer and intercession covering for the meetings. I had not mobilized any intercession from my end (just after the holidays and it being a small private retreat instead of a GodSpeak outreach). The group who invited me did not organize much intercession for this retreat either, so we did not have adequate prayer coverage. The ground they gained over their local area from their ongoing prayer/intercession not seem to help much because this particular retreat was held at a location that was a four-hour drive away from their church.

The bottom line is that there just was not an adequate under girding of prayer support and we did not have the open heavens that I normally enjoy when I minister.

Intercession is what made the difference in the level of power and anointing in these meetings and that is why I did not see very many people healed when I prayed for the sick. In short, I only brought the offensive line to the game and that simply was not enough. If we want to "win" (to see the power and miraculous healings), then we need the full team in play. We need the defense. We need our intercessors.

Perhaps that is why the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:18-19:

18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.