Seven Steps to Ministering Healing

Jesus said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-1 6).

Step 1: Believe What The Word Of God Says

“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18).

I repeat these last eleven words: “They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover, “It is imperative that we believe with all our hearts that His desire is for believers to lay hands on the sick with results.

We must also believe Philippians 2:9-11: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,”

The name of Jesus is above the name of every disease that exists or which will ever exist It is above the name of cancer, arthritis, cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, or any other disease.

Sometimes when we’re first obedient to Jesus and lay hands on the sick, we approach the power that is in the name of Jesus, asking, “In the name of Jesus?” Instead we should approach healing with absolute confidence in the power that is in that very special name.

I made a very interesting typographical mistake when I typed the original notes for this book. I had planned to type “meditate in the Bible”; instead I had typed “medicate in the Bible.” I laughed as I started to correct the error. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the Bible is medicine to our minds, bodies, souls and spirits. The more you medicate on the Word, the more you will be convinced that God heals today.

Nothing will keep us as strong as God’s Word, and nothing will help in healing more than the Word. When you “medicate” on the Word of God, it will heal you of any unbelief. To be successful in the healing ministry you must get rid of unbelief when the devil constantly tries to put questions about healing in your mind. It is amazing to see what happens when you give the Word to someone to whom you are ministering healing.

I remember the day I was healed of diabetes. Not realizing that God had healed me, I was still taking my insulin and went into insulin shock in the Atlanta airport. As I fell over in the chair, my Bible opened to Psalm 30:2, which says, “O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You have healed me.”

I moaned, “But I don’t feel like it.”

I repeated the verse again, “

Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You have healed me.” I moaned again, “But I don’t feel like it.”

“O Lord my God I cried out to You, and You have healed me. “I moaned again, “But I don’t feel like it.”

After I had said that about ten times, suddenly the truth of what had happened dawned on me. I screamed, “O Lord my God I cried out to You, and You have healed me, ‘and because I’ve got a new pancreas and am taking artificial insulin, I have gone into insulin shock!” I screamed for Charles to get me some sugar or some orange juice because I knew that was the only thing that would bring me out of it. Shortly after he brought me some candy, I felt fine! The same doctor who diagnosed my diabetes two weeks earlier re-examined me and said, “You have a new pancreas, so throw away your medicine!”

I knew right then and there that I had been totally healed of diabetes. I haven’t had a problem or sign of diabetes from that day to this. I believe that what God does, He does well. “He hath done all things well” (Mark 7:37, KJV).

There’s power in God’s Word. That Scripture passage in the airport gave me something to cling to. It let me know beyond any shadow of doubt that I was healed.

In 1988 I was healed of endocarditis (the inflammation of the lining of the heart and its valves). At that time God gave me another verse. The doctors had told me I wasn’t going to live because my blood system was pulling off pieces of my heart. They gave me four days, possibly longer with massive doses of antibiotics. We had often prayed, “Father, when You show us what the problem is, we will know how to pray for Frances.”

Charles simply laid hands on my heart and commanded, “In Jesus’ name, I command a new blood system!” That was what the Holy Spirit first put into his mind to pray, and that is what I needed. They said that when enough heart tissue had been destroyed, my life would end. The night after Charles prayed for me, a supernatural event took place right in our bedroom.

Although in my spirit I did not receive the diagnosis the doctors had given me, Charles took me to a heart specialist in Houston who ordered additional tests.

When we returned home, I was exhausted and fell into a sound sleep.

I was awakened in the middle of the night and felt as if I had been hit on the head and chest by a large piece of wood. While I do not know if it was a vision or a dream, it was one of the most real things I have ever experienced in my entire life!

I looked, and there, completely covering my chest, appeared to be a huge, wooden book. On it was one single verse of Scripture:

“Those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Instantly, in that split second of time when God gave me that verse, I knew that I knew that I knew that I had been healed, because God had renewed my strength!

Many Scripture passages will give you confidence if you will remember them when you are laying hands on the sick. They are also beneficial to you in the event you yourself should ever need healing.

Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

We need not fear disease, because the Word of God is so sharp that it can cut through any disease or crippling situation in which we might find ourselves. Isaiah 55:11- “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

God sends His Word “on an assignment’ to heal if we believe and command!

Luke 11:28 – “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Not only do we need to hear it, but we also need to keep it. You can be blessed just by hearing it, but you can be more than doubly blessed by hearing it and keeping it!

Mark 13:31 – “Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will by no means pass away”

What a powerful comfort to know that His Words will never pass away. You can rest assured that this is a fact which will never change.

Romans 10:17- “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

At times this is the written Word of God, but often it’s the rhema word that God speaks into your heart. You know that you have heard from God when He gives you that special word, and that it will come to pass in your life.

Psalm 119:11 – “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

When that old nature comes up in us, giving us an urge to sin, we need to remember, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. “It is amazing how fast the remembrance of that verse will keep us from crossing over the line into sin again!

Luke 4.4 – “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Every, not just part, but by every word of God.

Step 2: Make Healing a Life-Style

Catch a vision of what God has called you to do. Then go out and do it! It goes beyond putting on a hat on Sunday mornings, going to church and, when the service is over, thinking, “Well, I did my little thing for the week, so here I go!” Then you go out the door and live just as you did previously, coming back the following Sunday, thinking that you’re living the Christian life-style.

Real Christianity is a life-style that you live every moment of every day. There’s no time off no vacation time, because it’s a twenty-four-hour-a-day thing, every day of the year.

I got saved at the ripe old age of forty-nine, and I went up like a rocket. I left the church that morning and tried to beat Jesus into the head of every person I met. I went up and down U.S. Highway 1 in Kendall, Florida, like a wild woman. And I was wild about Jesus!

When I went to church the next Sunday, I was excited because of all the wonderful things that had happened during my first week as a Christian. I started out the first day to make Christianity a life-style. I shocked many of the “old” saints in the church who promptly said: “She’ll never make it; she’ll fizzle out. She won’t last long. Those who go up like that come down real fast, and then they crash.”

It’s been more than thirty-two years, and I’m still going strong, and I intend to keep on going stronger until Jesus returns. Peculiarly, many• of those “saints” have backslidden since then. It has caused me to wonder about something.

What makes a person hang in there with God? What makes a person fizzle out? What makes a person hang in there with healing? Many times at a healing explosion we see people get so excited that they want to lay hands on everyone in sight. You see them laying hands on the sick in the hotel elevators. You see them growing out waiters’ and waitresses’ arms. But the important thing is not what they do at a healing explosion, but what they will do to keep from fizzling out once the Healing Explosion is over.

Charles and I have made healing a life-style. Everywhere we go we lay hands on the sick. We talk about Jesus and what He wants us Christians to do now! We don’t talk about anything else.

We don’t feel anything else is worth talking about.

The other night in a cafeteria a man came up to us and asked if we minded the interruption. After we assured him that we did not, he said, “Fifteen years ago you laid hands on me for deliverance from cigarettes.

“Although I haven’t seen you from that day to this, I’ve never smoked another cigarette since.”

What a whoop-and-holler time we had right there in the cafeteria. To me that is exciting news and I’m sure there wasn’t another conversation in the cafeteria nearly as exciting as ours. We praised the Lord right there in public because it is a life-style with us. It’s not something that we pretend to have in the pulpit. It’s something we do every waking moment of our day.

The excitement of our first week of salvation needs to be part of our walk with Jesus right now. We should all notice the needs of others whether we are in a grocery store, at work or in the church. Those people need you and me to help them find the answer to life.

The day I got saved I made a decision, a quality decision, and nothing could ever make me change my mind.

I made an everlasting decision.

We must not vacillate. We need to get into the Bible, our holding power, instead of saying, “I don’t think this ‘stuff’ works!” or, “I’m not sure I can cope with this.”

Think how much worse it would be if you didn’t have the answer to cope with problems!

Recently Charles and I went to a conference where the main topic was survival. We’ve never heard so much gloom and doom in our entire lives. Charles and I are looking forward to the best years of our lives, though we’re older than we have ever been before! We’re looking forward not just to surviving, but to living the abundant life Jesus promised. We have a purpose – doing the works of Jesus!

Wherever you go, Jesus always provides opportunities to minister in His name.

One day a man came into our office to see about some concrete work we needed. He had never seen a miracle, but before he got out of there, he saw his own leg grow out in divine healing. He was already saved, but he went onto receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which he had been seeking for years.

He walked out a different person! Sometimes we think that we shouldn’t talk about Jesus to people with whom we do business because we think they might not be interested or because we think “business is business.” I personally believe Jesus is the best business to talk about, and that’s why we discuss Him all the time.

When God planted a seed in you, He did not plant that seed to die. He planted that seed to grow in you.

You apparently have something inside of you that makes you want to heal the sick, or else you would not be reading this book. God has dropped a seed into your heart; and you need to nurture that seed and get a vision of what God has called you to do. Ignore circumstances that might try to change your mind.

Step 3: Have Confidence in God In You

It’s easy to have confidence in God, because nothing is impossible with God. We all know He can do anything. We know He can heal the sickest person; through God the most crippled person can be healed and walk perfectly. But do we believe God can use us? We need to have confidence in God in us.

In Matthew 17: 14-20 we read: “And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.’

“Then Jesus answered and said, ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me. ‘And Jesus rebuked the demon, and he came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour

“Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast him out?’

“So Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief for assuredly, I say to you, f you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

I want to burn the last part into your heart so that you will never forget it: “And nothing will be impossible.... “If I stopped right there, it would be easy to agree with me. But if you read the entire clause, it says, “And nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus meant it. That is why He gave us the privilege of stepping out in faith and laying hands on the sick, knowing they will be healed. As you just read, He said that nothing will be impossible for you. He didn’t say for Me, because we all know that nothing is impossible for Him. To think that nothing is impossible for us, however, certainly changes our way of thinking.

The apostle Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). We need to get that in our spirits and know we cannot do it on our own, but that we can do all things – whatever God calls us to do – through Christ who strengthens us.

Often when I lay hands on people, I pause before I start and say: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. “Jesus made a positive statement in Mark 16: “Those who believe; In My name they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (v 17-18). No ifs, ands or buts about it – “those who believe will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover,”

John 14:12, one of my favorite verses, says, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that l do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father,”

I didn’t say that – Jesus did! As a believer, I have the right, the privilege and the authority to do even greater things than He did. Not only that, I have a responsibility to fulfill the Word of God in me because God lives in me, and Jesus lives in and through me. We need to believe that God’s Word is speaking directly and personally to us in this twentieth century.

Every time a new year rolls around, both Charles and I get excited because we anticipate all the great and wonderful things God is going to do through us. Then when we reach the middle of the year, we look back and say: “God, we’re so grateful for what You did in the first six months. Now what are You going to do in the last six months?” He always tops what He did the first six months!

We all need to be reminded of our potential, because we often forget that we can do all things through

Christ who strengthens us. I can do greater things than

Jesus did, not because I say it, but because He says it in His Word!

When you have confidence in God in you, then you will realize you don’t have to answer every voice of criticism. When you get in the healing ministry, people will criticize you. But we need to understand that taking criticism is a part of anyone’s life who is on the front lines. So instead of confidence in the critical things that someone may have said to you, you need to have confidence in God in you.

Step 4: Be Persistent

If you want to be successful in healing, you must be persistent. You cannot let go the first time somebody comes up to you and says: “Who do you think you are to lay hands on the sick?”

That can either crush you or inspire you to pray, “Thank You, Father, that Your Word says I can lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

The primary reason that some people fizzle out after a healing class or explosion is because they fail to persist. Maybe on your first healing trip or mission you came against a hard case. To God no case is harder than another; but to us some seem harder than others. So we may encounter two or three people whom we classify as impossible cases. We think, I had three people with severed spinal cords, and not one of them got healed!

Don’t get discouraged! Be persistent! Keep going!

One of the most persistent men in the Bible was Elisha. He got a vision of what he wanted, and hung on – and he got exactly what he wanted (II Kings 2).

Charles and I have often failed to see people healed. We have ministered to cancer victims who have died. But we have also ministered to many who lived. We keep right on going regardless of what happens, constantly learning more about healing in Jesus’ name than we knew ten or fifteen years ago – or even one year ago. We are two of the most persistent people on earth.

Many people are healed when they quote, “By His stripes I am healed. “It’s wonderful when that happens.

But there are times when someone leaves a healing service looking just as bad as when he or she arrived.

I often laugh at Charles. He will call to the stage someone who has a back problem. Sometimes he does what we normally do, and the person doesn’t get healed right away. If something doesn’t work, Charles tries another prayer or command. He is persistent, and I have almost never seen someone with a back problem fail to be healed.

You can give up easily and say, “Well, it isn’t working.” Yes, it is, because in the final analysis, it will!

If you want to be a successful Christian – one who is alive to the Holy Spirit all the time – you must be persistent in every area of your life: in reading the Bible; in winning people to Jesus; in talking about Jesus. All of these things are vital.

Be persistent! Don’t give up! The devil is the one who comes in and says, “It’s not going to work” If you’ve ever laid hands on someone, you’ve more than likely had a visit from the devil before you ever took your hands off. He’ll tell you that your Christianity won’t work. But the Bible tells us that we’re victorious in all things and more than conquerors. I constantly say that everything I put my hand to prospers.

Because I belong to Christ Jesus I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. Therefore it pleases God for me to walk in divine health.

You too, need to be persistent in speaking the Word of God over yourself. Be persistent; don’t give up. No matter how many times the devil comes against you, don’t you ever give up. No matter how many times you think you have failed, hang in there. Be persistent.

Step 5: Know What You Are Doing

You can be ignorant but sincere, and God will honor that. “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” It will help tremendously, however, if you learn everything you can about healing. I often am amazed at some of the things I did when I first got saved.

For instance, at the first church in which lever spoke, I gave an altar call and didn’t know what to do when people responded. I don’t think I believed anyone would answer the altar call, so when the first person came, I thought to my self What am I going to do with the people who come up?

When others came and began to tell me their requests, I was dumbfounded. Finally I said, “As soon as I get home, I’ll start praying.” Isn’t it wonderful that God will bless us in spite of our ignorance? But I discovered that if I was going to speak in churches, I needed to learn how to minister to people at the altar, to meet their needs right there and to introduce them to Jesus – the One who can give them the answer to every problem they might have.

Likewise, learn as much as you possibly can about healing. You can’t learn too much. Charles and I are constantly learning new things about healing. The other night we were watching some videotapes of old healing services. Many were from the crusades of men such as A. A. Allen and William Branham, who were well-known years ago for their tremendous healings on the “Voice of Healing” program. We watched a couple of hours of the actual live services they conducted, and we learned tremendous things from these men. Whenever we watch a healing service on television or go to someone else’s healing service, we watch carefully to see if we can learn something new.

We love to watch the new “babies” at Healing Explosions. Sometimes they do things they never learned but apparently were instructed to do by the Holy Spirit. We see them doing things we never thought about doing or saying, and we discover that what they do is effective.

Learn everything you can about healing from successful people. Don’t learn things from individuals who never have any successes in their healing attempts. Receive instruction from those who have had successful experiences and who know what they’re doing!

Although Charles and I wrote the book “How to Heal the Sick,” we still read it over and over because we forget some of the things we wrote. We watch the video tapes over and over, laughingly amazed at the fresh inspiration we receive from them each time. And every time I watch them, the Holy Spirit reminds me of something I have forgotten. When you watch those videos or read the book time and again, you’ll learn something new every time.

Read the four Gospels and the book of Acts repeatedly to learn more about healing in the first-century church. I still read those five books more than any others because they talk about healing more than any other part of the Bible. If you want to learn how to heal, do the same things Jesus did. Say the same things Jesus said! You will be amazed at how effective that will be.

Two things bring miracles, and they go together – the name of Jesus and the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

The power Jesus displayed in His miracles came from His Father. Jesus said, “For the works which the Father has given Me to finish – the very works that I do

– bear witness of Me ... that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36).

You also will be able to do miracles by using the name of Jesus and the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Practice on everyone you can. Practice on your friends. Practice on your family and on yourself until you learn how to be proficient. The more you lay hands on the sick, the more proficient you’ll become and the greater results you’ll see.

Keep yourself prayed up! And keep yourself “read up” in the Bible at all times. Do what Jesus did!

Step 6: Talk A bout Your Successes, Not Your Failures

When Charles and I write or speak, we always talk about success. We never tell about the people who don’t get healed – we tell about the ones who do. In doing this, we have discovered that the more we talk about success, the more people get healed. As we tell the victory stories, everyone’s faith rises.

I recently heard about a lady brought to one of our Healing Explosions on a stretcher, dying of cancer. The doctors had allowed her to come because they said she had less than twenty-four hours to live. This was more than a year ago, and we just heard that she was completely healed by the power of God. Now she’s telling everyone what Jesus did to her when she came to a Healing Explosion.

Those are the kinds of stories to tell – the success stories. One of my favorite Scripture verses is Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.”

Think about the good things; think about the praiseworthy things. Think about that crippled person who got out of a wheelchair; think about that person with the horrible back problem who got healed when her legs grew out! Don’t tell people about your failures – tell them about your successes!

Step 7: Get to Know Him

If you want to have success in ministering healing biblically, get to know Jesus in the power of His resurrection.

Psalm 27:1-4 in the Living Bible is tremendous. There is a real clue in here.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? When evil men come to destroy me, they will stumble and fall! Yes, though a mighty army marches against me, my heart shall know no fear! Jam confident that God will save me.

“The one thing I want from God, the thing I seek most of all, is the privilege of meditating in his Temple, living in his presence every day of my life, delighting in his incomparable perfections and glory.”

I don’t know what part of that verse spoke to you the most clearly. But one day during a prayer meeting in our office, we asked the staff which part of that passage ministered to them the most

One man said, “I’m most grateful for my salvation.”

Another one said, “I just praise the Lord that He will protect me. Although an army marches against me, I will be protected.”

Charles and I were thrilled the most by the part that says, “The thing I seek the most of all is the privilege of meditating in his Temple, living in his presence every day of my life.”

When you get to know Jesus, you will have the same desires He has. The more you get to know Him, the closer you get to Him. The more intimate you become with Him, the more you will become like Him. The more you will have compassion in your heart to reach out to people who are lost, dying and sick.

The entire world desperately needs to know a living Jesus, but they also need you and me to introduce them to the One who is the answer to all of life’s problems.

What an awesome privilege, yet what an equally awesome responsibility is given to us to bring the world to a living knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection (Philippians. 3:7-10).

Verses 12 through 14 expound on other great things:

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

“I press toward the goal.” Probably Paul’s greatest desire was to know Him. To know Him more intimately than I can even dream possible is the desire of my heart.

The day I got saved I heard a song that said, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glow and grace.”*

The more you get to know Him, the dimmer the things of this earth will become and the less hold they will have on you. Put all of these seven steps into practice; think about them and meditate upon them. I guarantee they will lead you to success in ministering healing biblically.

Keep it up, remembering you are doing your part to usher in the King of Kings and the Lord of lords.

And you are... well-equipped and dangerously loaded and have the ability to explode all over!
(Frances)

*Copyright C)1922 Singspiration Music/ASCAP AU Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Benson Music Group Inc.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 726