Healing Tidbits
or
Miscellaneous Teachings On Healing

God often invites us to minister with Him, instead of commanding us to do so. Don't get me wrong, Jesus did command us to heal the sick, cast out demons and share the good news of the gospel with those who don't know Him. He commanded us to do that in the great commission of Mark chapter 16. That command is for all believers, so we are already commanded to heal the sick with the Lord. But many times, when it comes to any one instance of healing ministry, God invites us rather than commanding us. And a lot of times, His invitations are subtle, where we can miss them if we are not paying attention. So that is what I want to talk about today--how to pay attention so we don't miss God's subtle invitations to minister with Him.

Let me share a very recent example of a subtle leading from my own life. It is not a healing example, but it illustrates the point. It was Sunday morning, and I woke up about 1.5 hours before I had to leave for church. I was a bit sleepy, so I did the mechanical things I have to do each morning (let the dogs go potty, feed them, etc). Then I sat down at my computer to play a quick computer game that sort of relaxes me and lets me collect my thoughts.

Right then the Lord reminded me that He'd recently suggested I read through Genesis again, and I had only made it half way through. I figured He wanted me to read some more, but I was in the middle of a computer game. So I told Him that I'd like to finish this game, which would take about 10 minutes, then I'd go read my bible. I asked Him if that was OK with Him--and I expected His answer would be yes. He did say yes, but there was something in my spirit that made me press in further. I asked Him, "Lord, would You strongly prefer that I put aside my game to go read your word right away?" To my surprise, He said, "Yes."

So I stopped my game and I began to read the Bible. A few seconds later, God quickened a verse to me in a way that I just had to share it with my friends at church and with the GodSpeak intercessors. So I went to email to send the verse to them. As long as I was there, I skimmed the subject line of my other emails, and saw one that required my immediate attention. I began to work on it, and finished just barely finished to rush outside and make it to church on time.

If I'd waited ten minutes longer, I could not have taken care of the "emergency" and still make it to church for the start of worship. In short, I would have been forced to choose between letting the emergency slip or missing part of the worship.

As it turned out that particular Sunday morning, the first two songs we did were favorites that really brought me into His presence. I did not relate to most of the songs they did after that. But it did not matter, because the first two songs had transported me to a place of special communion with the Lord, and I was able to stay there and worship through the songs that "didn't work" for me. But if I'd arrived late, I would have missed the songs that drew me into His presence, and I would have really struggled to worship that morning. God knew the worship team's song selection for that morning. That is why He wanted me to take care of the problem right way, so I wouldn't miss the songs that brought me into His presence.

But the way that He led me to deal with the problem "in time" was very subtle. If I had not chosen to ignore His suggestion to stop playing a computer game so I could start reading the bible, then I would have not found the emergency and been able to take of the problem in time to make it to church in time for those songs.

The reason it was a subtle leading was because what He talked to me about and what He actually wanted to lead me to do where were not the same thing. One led to the other, but I had to start obeying what He talked to me about before I could get to the other part that He wanted me to do. Here is another reason it was a subtle leading--His suggestion was optional, not a command. I had the decision--which was more important to me at that moment, pleasing God or pleasing myself? It definitely would not have been a sin to finish my "wakeup computer game" and then go read His word. But His pleasure at that moment was for me to stop doing what I was doing and go start reading His word. It wasn't really that He wanted me to read a lot of the bible at that moment, it was that He wanted to move me into resolving the emergency problem in time to still make it to church.

It is not unusual for God to lead us subtly like. He makes suggestions and leaves it up to us whether or not we will take them. Of course, when He gives us a clear cut command, He expects us to obey Him immediately, because we are committed to serve and obey Him. But when He makes a suggestion, it is more of a matter of what do we want to do more--our own thing or the thing God suggested. We don't feel like we must do what God suggests, because He did not actually command it. But it is always a good idea to take His suggestions when He offers them.

Here is example to illustrate how helpful God's subtle suggestions can be. It may not make sense if you are not a pet owner, but there is certain paperwork you need to keep on your dogs--their pedigrees, their inoculation records, medical records, training certificates, etc. I recently got a new puppy, so I needed to start a folder on him. I already had folders for my other two dogs, containing seven years of records. Those folders were falling apart, so I wanted to replace them as well as getting a new one for puppy.

I know it sounds silly, but I had a strong opinion about what those folders should look like--I wanted them to each be a solid color, and I wanted three different colors so I could easily tell each dog's folder form the others. Ideally, I wanted Red, Purple and Tan, to match the collar colors I use for each dog, but I would have settled for any three solid colors.

I went to the store to get the folders, and all they had were odd designs that I found "ugly," or pictures of teenage music stars like Hannah Montana. I tried another store and found more of the same. The third store I tried had folders with pictures of cats and horses, which did not seem appropriate for keeping Dog records. I was starting to get frustrated, surprised that it was so hard to find solid color storage folders. I decided to drive to one last place to look for my folders, and as I drove there, I passed a supermarket.

I felt the Lord's prompting to look for the folders in the grocery store. The idea seemed silly to me, and I was going to discount it. But this was the same day that God gave me the subtle leading to stop playing my computer game. It turned out well when I followed that one, so I decided to "go with the hunch". I went in the store and inquired if they had a section with school supplies--and to my surprise, they did. It turned out that they had the type of folders I was looking for, and they were available in four different colors, including two of the colors on my wish list.

This leading was subtle--God did not speak to me in that voice that I know and recognize to say, "That store has what you are looking for, go there to get it." Instead, He just gave me a "hunch," the crazy idea that maybe I should check out that place even though it seemed counter-intuitive. It would have been so easy to discount that hunch, because I think of grocery stores as a place to buy food, not school supplies. But when I went with that hunch, it panned out. They had what I was looking for.

[By the way, I was very close to that fourth store that I'd been heading to. I decided to go look there, just for curiosity's sake. As it turned out, they did not have what I was looking for either. The only place that carried it was the grocery store. God used a subtle hunch to lead me to what I was looking for.]

God's invitations to do healing ministry with Him can be just as subtle. Let me give you an example.

I stopped at Kmart on the way home from church, because I needed to get a key duplicated. When I entered the store, I did not have anything else I wanted to shop for. My plan was to get the key and then go home. But as I left the counter where they made the key, I suddenly felt that maybe I should take a few moments to look around the store. I wasn't in a big hurry, so I did just that. An idea crossed my mind: 'Maybe God gave me the idea to look around the store because he wanted to lead me to some great deal or something."

I began to poke around the store, and I ended up in the shoe section. I saw a pair of shoes that I thought was really cute. I tried them on and they fit comfortable. But they had a sale where you buy one and then get the other half off. So I started shopping for a second pair of shoes to take advantage of the sale.

I would slip off my right boot and slip on the shoe I was trying on. Everything I was trying on was of the slip-on variety, so I did this standing up.

A lady walked up to me and said, "I wish I could try on shoes like you do, but I had a surgery so I have to sit down to try on shoes." Being dense and missing the fact that this was a divine setup, I pointed to a bench that was a bit hard to see and said, "If you'd like to try on a pair, here is a bench you can sit on." She thanked me and selected a pair of shoes and sat down. I kept trying on shoes, looking for that second pair.

The lady made that same comment to me at least three more times--"I wish I could slip on shoes like you do, but..." Then she shared how she had pain that the operation could not correct. It took me a while, but I finally realized that God wanted me to offer to pray for her.

It was a divine set-up, an invitation to minister healing with Him. But it came in a very subtle way. It came by this fleeting thought that maybe I should look around the store since I was already there to have the key duplicated.

God leads us like that a lot. He uses subtle things like ideas, hunches, desires, etc to get us doing something, and that something is step one to moving us to where He wants us to be. Then once we are there, He brings along an opportunity--like the lady in the shoe department who needed a healing.

So, my advice to you is to invite the Lord to break into your day, and ask Him to give you opportunities to minister with Him. Then if you get hunches, ideas and desires, follow them--providing they are simple things that don't lead you into any type of sin or misbehavior or trouble. And while you are following them, keep your eyes and ears opened to see if the Lord brings any opportunities to you.