A Hockey Model Of Healing

We talked a lot in our last lesson about how there are two teams involved in healing, God's and the devil's. Part of Satan's job is to make people sick. John 10:10 says that the devil "comes to steal and kill and destroy." When we pray for the sick, we are in the offensive against the devil's plans, we are tying to advance God's kingdom. In short, we are trying to take ground away from the devil, score a goal against him by making someone well who he is trying to make sick. The devil doesn't like that. He doesn't just sit back and watch you take his territory away from him; he fights back. He has his defensive line in place to block our shots. He has a goalie in place to try and prevent us from scoring.

In a sense, we do spiritual warfare every time that we pray for the sick. Some of the battles are very minor, like when you pray for a friend at church who has a sort foot or a headache. If the devil doesn't have a lot invested in that, he won't put his best resources against you. It is sort of like beings "sent down to the minors" to play against a less skilled defense. That is where NHL hockey teams start their players, to train them in a setting that is not quite as tough. They build their skills in the minors and then they come up to the majors to play the big games against the more skilled opponents.

It is the same for us. God will usually start us in the minors, with little things like headaches and colds and flues. He wants us to build faith in His ability to heal on the relatively easy things before He puts us in the big games. God is not being mean to hold us back from the "big action." Instead, He is developing us and helping us to build the skills we need before we are ready for the "big stuff." Don't be afraid that you will be left out or passed by. Allow the Lord to develop you, to cause your faith to grow, to give you the ability to develop experience moving with Him in His healing anointing.

Another thing you need to know about hockey is that it is not a one-man show, it is a team game. When you play on the offensive line, you are not out there by yourself, you are part of a team and you must be a team player to do well in the sport.

When they track player statistics in hockey, they track of total points a player scores. A player can earn points in either of two ways: by scoring a goal (goals) or by assisting another play in scoring (assists). The person who sets up the play and passes the puck to the shooter gets just as many points for the goal as the one who actually shoots it into the net. In fact, hockey will allow up to two players to get a points on an assist, plus one point for the goal shooter. It all depends on how many people are involved in making that play happen. Since there are three offensive line players on a team, if they work well together, they can all three get a point (e.g., credit) for scoring a goal. Likewise, if one of the defensemen helps set up the goal, that defenseman earns a point. In short, hockey is set up so that credit for the goal is freely shared with many people, not just the person who actually shot the puck into the net. Therefore in hockey, they really understand the concept of teamwork.

That is a good model for us. Teamwork is important in healing ministry as well. We don't want to have just one superstar who has anointing to heal, we want to see many believers working together to use their gifting and anointing to pray for the sick. That might be team prayer where many pray for the person at the same time. Or it might be a ministry situation where there is an open altar and many are ministering at that altar, each praying for some of the ones who come up for healing. Or perhaps it is a soaking prayer situation, where the person receives prayer from multiple people on multiple occasions until they are fully healed.

Remember that God is the scorekeeper in the game, the one who assigns the points to the players. He gives just as much value to the person who was involved but did not see the healing as to the one who actually got the final healing when he prayed. Healing ministry should never be about seeking personal glory or keeping statistics on how many more people God heals "through you" than He does through someone else.

In hockey, the most valuable (and highest paid) players are not the ones who personally score the most goals. They are the "play-makers," the ones who cause their teammates to score a lot more goals than they would otherwise score. Recently one of the hockey "superstars," a guy named Joe Thornton, was traded to my team. He is an awesome player and he can control the puck better than anyone else on the team. He specializes in battling for the puck, gaining control of it, then passing the puck to a teammate who is "open" and who can shoot/score a goal. He has accrued 33 points on the Sharks since being traded to us about a month ago, but only 8 of those points are goals. Our whole team is playing better because he is making good opportunities for his teammates to score. He is building their confidence because of how he helps set them up and as a result, they are starting to play better even when he is not on the ice.

What Joe Thorton is doing is pretty much what you expect any hockey "superstar" to do. Yes, he himself is extraordinarily talented and plays very well. But his real strength is in making his teammates play better.

That is what God is looking for in His healing superstars--He is looking for the ones who can make assists, who can get others in the body of Christ to begin moving up to their full potential with Him: to heal the sick, to cast out demons and to do with God the things that God is doing in His power and anointing.