“Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.”
Smith Wigglesworth
Of all the technical and challenging work I have done over my years as an aircraft mechanic in the Navy, or maintenance mechanic at factories, or even as a network technician and technical project manager in Information Technology, I have never faced anything as challenging or rewarding as working for the spiritual well-being of God’s people. People are definitely the most complicated out of all that I have experienced in my life, but love is what we are and why we do what God commands us.
I had only begun ministering to people in the fall of 2018 when I learned that God had given me special gifts to help others. The gift of the discerning of spirits and the gift of healings are two such gifts. With these gifts, I often get words of knowledge from the Holy Spirit when I am around people. Quite often, they have no idea that it is happening. Sometimes though, they confess with their mouth, what spiritual issues they are experiencing in their life they need help with. I once had a woman talking to me say the words “throat cancer” in between her sentences in a conversation. My ears are open to hear these utterances. Other times, it can be a pain or feeling I am aware of in their body that I recognize as a problem. These words of knowledge present opportunities for us to pray and release the Spirit of God to get a person healed or delivered and other times it for them to learn that God is speaking to them about life situations. Often, it can be for encouragement, to release words into their life to allow a person to feel God’s presence and that He is with them.
“The Spirit reveals, unfolds, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and prepares us to be more than a match for Satanic forces.”
Smith Wigglesworth
While these are great gifts, they also are a challenge. Not everyone is ready to receive a word from God. Other times, while I get an impression of sickness or infirmity in a person, they will acknowledge the pain, but when it comes to receiving healing, they balk and have no faith in prayers. In some cases, people were offended that I knew something at all that I couldn’t or shouldn’t have known about them, and yet other times, people were simply offended by the prayers I speak with my mouth for their healing, because they are different than the prayers they pray.
My prayers don’t sound like prayers to the average Christian, they sound like commands, because they are. God gave us authority over all the power of the enemy and we are to use it, but not abuse it. My understanding of the Bible and through many teachers I have learned from since I started in ministry, shows me that we are to command some things, pray for some things, and declare some things. When I speak a healing prayer over a person, I use the command presence of Christ himself when I pray and I tell the person’s body, mind, or soul to be healed from whatever is ailing them.
“The ministry of Christianity is the ministry of the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that inhabits the words, that speaks to the spirit of another and reveals Christ in and through him.”
John G. Lake
Unlike some ministers, I receive confirmations with my prayers that let me know if they worked or if the the prayer was not received, or even if the prayer was blocked, which is sometimes the case. When I get the word of confirmation of healing, it is wonderful news, and one I often speak to the person immediately. It also helps to build confidence in the healing with the released confirmation. After all, it is not my belief they are healed, because up until 2018, I had none, but the Holy Spirit, telling me if the the prayer had worked. Praise Jesus!
God’s promises are only fulfilled on our behalf, when we act upon them.
F.F. Bosworth
In some cases though, I have had failures. Failures to see the healing miracle manifest. Failures to offer an encouraging word. Failures to see the person through until they were healed. While healing prayers don’t always happen right away, I do expect them to work when I receive confirmation. Even with a failed healing, when I sometimes get a confirmation, it sometimes is a negative one that the person blocked it because of a soul injury that needed healing. You see, people may not know why they don’t get healed, but it is often a deep secret they hold inside that tells me why. Until the person want to deal with the secret, which is usually keeping them from being healed, they remain injured.
Once healing case I will present is when I prayed for a woman after a bible study in 2019. The woman was reluctant to be in the presence of others and she seemed resistant to trust people with the information she had. When she finally spoke about her condition, I finally understood that the pain I was experiencing in my spiritual chest, a sharp pain in my left lung and a heaviness that made it hard to breath, was actually a word of knowledge for her. She had been experiencing traumatic health issues with her lungs. She said that she had her lungs collapse multiple times unexpectantly and suffered from a great deal of fear and anxiety because of it. Because of the word of knowledge I had received, I knew without a doubt that one, she was a very Godly woman who God loved dearly, and two, I knew that God wanted her healed.
I asked her if she was ready to be healed and took hold of her hands. I looked deep into her eyes, (the windows to the soul and where I can see evil spirits manifest) and released a prayer I have released many times now. I said “I bind and rebuke the spirit of infirmity in (her name)’s body, mind and soul, and loose the spirit of life and gifts of healing. Lungs, respiratory system, be made whole, work properly! Body, mind and soul be healed in the name of Jesus Christ!” I then asked her to take a deep breath and expel the spirits that were harming her, and she did.
I had followed up with her many times after that day, and she reported that she hadn’t had the hard-to-breath symptoms, or the collapsed lungs, but occasionally had panic attacks that made her feel like it might come back again. I just reminded her that the Lord had healed her and to reject the anxiety. To speak positively and to reject the idea that she could ever have the her lungs be hurt again. To this day, I believe she was healed and has no recurring issue with lung collapses, which required hospitalization. The fear and anxiety, however, is still something I feel in my spirit to this day while I recall her healing. You see, this gift transcends distance and I receive information about people health, by merely thinking about them.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Mark 16:17-18
I often receive pains in my body, it’s part of the gifts I have. I have mapped out the different messages I receive based on scripture and use them as words of knowledge. They are quite affective in ministering to others for healing and deliverance, which is what I originally prayed for when I received the Holy Spirit and baptism. The messages I receive are often for the people directly around me or for the people that come to my mind or sometimes its for a person who another in the same room is thinking of. People who are around me frequently are not surprised when I ask who they were thinking of or who sent them the text or e-mail they are reading, because I frequently get information about the condition of the person through the thoughts of the person with me. Yes, I know that sounds odd, but it’s true.
The people who we pray for don’t always remain friends. People are all at different places in their lives and while they may have faith in you and Jesus to get a healing one day, they can easily lose it when you become a familiar face to them. In some cases, they may resent you for it. This is one of the challenging aspects to healing ministry. We have to trust that God will use us in every way to deliver and heal His people (not ours) and what happens after that, is up to Him, not us. We have to give it to God, like we must give everything we do to God to stay humble and remain in good standing with Him. It’s an honor to have such a close relationship and it’s one I’ll treasure for my lifetime. Thank you Jesus!
God Bless! You are loved!
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16