Ministering At The Altar

If the Lord brings people up to the altar during ministry time, they are usually ready to deal with something. God will usually do something very quickly. So, do not put them off and make an appointment for later in the week. You will be surprised at how quickly God can move to heal. If something is rising up, the iron is hot to strike. It might cool during the week. It is hot now; so deal with it now. God can deal with issues quickly, very quickly. So, if something comes up, deal with it right then.

One reason that we have a multitude of prayer counselors is to give people the time to do this. In our church we continue in ministry as the Lord is moving; people are free to go when the service is over, or they can come forward to stay for ministry. There is freedom in the church service. Those attending are conditioned that when they are done they can get up and leave. In our church, during the first song or two, hardly anyone comes up for ministry. Then all of a sudden, people begin to filter out. Then one or two will come up for ministry; more begin to leave, more begin to come up. More leave. People who really need ministry have been waiting for everyone else to leave. All of a sudden, they begin coming up. We have seen some of the greatest touches of the Lord in the last 10 to 15 minutes of our ministry time.

More power seems to manifest up at the end than at the beginning. I suspect this is because those people who have some big stuff were waiting for others to leave the sanctuary. Often when I am tired, I want to go home. Then that last person will come up and I think, "Oh, God. Can't you just fix this person? Is there anyone else who can pray for this person?" I usually get up very early on a Sunday morning, and I have preached two messages and lead a training/ministry time. By 1:30 PM, I'm tired and ready to go home. I'm always amazed that even in the midst of my "attitude," God is always faithful to show up. He's so gracious. Of course, then I have to repent. A lot of times that inner healing for those people comes when they come up and say, "I want prayer, but I don't know what's wrong. I'm just upset, I've got stuff going on." Focus upon those feelings, and pray for that.

So far as praying for physical healing, we use the Vineyard five-step model. Those steps are: the interview, the diagnostic decision, the prayer selection, prayer engagement and post-prayer direction. For details, refer to the Week 9 lesson for the Healing School series titled "A Beginner's Guide to Healing" by Teresa Seputis. You can read that on the Healing School website. The URL is:

http://www.godspeak.net/hs_lessons/hs1_week9.html

So far as deliverance goes, we covered a lot of that in the fourth healing school series titled, "Ministering Deliverance" by Rodney Hogue. The URL for that teaching series is:

http://www.godspeak.net/hs_lessons/hs4_index.html

Keep in mind that deliverance usually is not the person's primary need. The presence of demons serve as a signpost to give direction to what needs to be healed. God is after the roots. He is after what got there and why it got there. God wants something broken off. He wants something removed off of them. Demons are usually not the problem. They are usually simply an indication that you have a problem, and the road signs that are there to follow to find out what the problem is. God will allow demons to stay to reveal the problem. You can remove the demon, but if you don't remove the root, something else just comes in. When you do minister to the demonized, please understand that it does not have to be loud. You do have authority over this. There does not have to be screaming.

I remember the first year or two we began doing ministry at the end of the service, and demons were manifesting, and there were people all over the auditorium screaming and yelling, "Come out, come out in Jesus name." I would walk over to tap the yeller on the shoulder and say, "It's OK. Volume doesn't increase the authority. All yelling does is let those demons know you are insecure. Just be quiet and take authority over this. Tell them to be silent, and if they don't obey, they are defying the Lord Jesus Christ." Always be legalistic with demons; they understand the law. When they defy, kick them out. Have a no-tolerance rule. "You have defied the Lord Jesus Christ. Go!" The others take note and realize that the person ministering is serious! The person needing deliverance may be the one going ballistic. It may not be the demons; it may be the person, and you may be struggling with that person. Take them to a side room and always take another person with you when you go; never go off by yourself. Usually you are going to minister to a wound or a hurt. At times the person you are ministering to will become embarrassed if they have been loud or have had manifestations that others in the church saw. In that case, simply reassure them, act as if their behavior was not a "big deal" and continue with the ministry in the private location.

Sometimes people come up for prayer, and they just want you to pray for circumstances. Some people are in pain and just want immediate release. Always pray for them. Sometimes they don't know what they want you to pray for, so you should always pray in the Spirit. Some of you, in your prayer life, pray in tongues. So when you do not know what to pray, pray in tongues. However, you don't know what kind of person is coming up for prayer, what their background and traditions are, so you don't know whether they understand about tongues. What I usually say is that if you do not know the person, their background, or where they are coming from, be sensitive because you may freak them out. You are there to pray for them, not distract them. You could just say, "I'm going to pray silently for you," and then just pray silently in the Spirit. Some of you pray in tongues and some don't. So just pray and cooperate with the Spirit.

Don't get in a hurry. I feel pressure when I see that a line has built up. When you are praying for people, you may notice that other people are standing around waiting to be prayed for. That will make you think you have to get through quickly, that you must rush your ministry with the person you are praying for. But that isn't the right thing to do. Resist the temptation to rush. Pray until God releases you. Pray until the Spirit releases you.

People are going to be unsure of what they need, and you need to wait upon God. God may give you words of wisdom and knowledge. Pray that. See if you hit something. If they did not come for something specific, just go shooting. "Lord, give me something," then starting praying. You will have some people who are prayer addicts. They may not have anything specific; they just want prayer. That's OK. To me, that just tells me they are hungry for something, or they are confused, or they are extremely needy, or they can't discern their true need. Just pray for people, and don't get frustrated if you have a few prayer addicts -- those who seem to come up for prayer every week and never seem to "get better". Take each person that comes to you, see what God is doing in the ministry time. Don't feel frustrated if others are waiting, don't get in a hurry.

We need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this. I know that sometimes people want to leave, but sometimes people have to be taught how to "hang in" with the Holy Spirit. You pray for some people and say, "Amen" and then they leave. Then sometimes I will say, "The Spirit of the Lord is present and He still wants to minister to you. Why don't you just hang out with God for a little bit?" Sometimes God will be ministering to somebody and I will say that I have done all that I can do. I will walk away and minister to somebody else. Who is it that ministers? It is the Holy Spirit, not me. So, we need to learn how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and simply bless what the Holy Spirit is doing. We need to wait; we need to be patient for the Holy Spirit. Then some of our blessing work needs to be that when somebody comes up just for prayer, we just bless what God does.

Let me describe a blessing prayer. This is some of the most important prayer that goes on. When God is dealing with people at the altar, you should look at them and discern whom the Holy Spirit wants you to pray and intercede for. Simply walk up to them, stand behind them and bless the work of the Holy Spirit. Quietly ask the Holy Spirit to come and to bless. Stay with the person. As you pray, that person may turn around and see who is there and then sometimes communicate other areas they need prayer for. Blessing prayer is what you do when you have done all you know to do and yet the Holy Spirit is not done with that person.

I've described blessing prayer when you have already prayed for that person, and prayed blessing for what God is doing. Also, when people come up to the front, a lot of times God will speak to those of you who are sitting out there and say that He wants you to pray for that person. Your job in church is not done. Go pray for that person. Do not touch the person unless God tells you to, because you do not want to distract them. They are probably having an engagement with the Holy Spirit at the altar, and then all of a sudden somebody touches them and scares them. You do not want to do that unless God tells you to. If God instructs you to, then obey the Lord. But that is one of those things where you have to hear a word from God before you do it. If you are unsure, don't do it. If you are questioning, don't do it. You may have a word that says to go lay your hands on them, because sometimes that touch is what they need, but only if God tells you to.

That does not, however, stop you from coming up to them, getting behind them, and just extending your hand to them and praying for them, and staying with them until God is done with them, or until God says in your spirit, "OK, you are done praying for them." That to me is one of the most beautiful things - to pray for people. You may not be the person they come up to pray for, but when they do come up for prayer, God may speak to you and say, "I want you to stay with that person. I want you to minister to that person. I want you to do that." Then you need to obey the Lord in that.