Healing Prayer

In Luke 4:18 & 19 Jesus quotes from Isaiah as he begins his ministry and says,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

He goes on to declare to those in the synagogue that the scripture had come true before their eyes that very day!

In Isaiah the full passage says,

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, aznd with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Reading through the gospels we read how Jesus again and again performed the most incredible miracles:

In the midst of it all Jesus sent out the disciples saying,
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received.” (Matthew 10:8) Obviously, he fully expected that it would be the case and it was.

Incredibly, Jesus says in John 14:12(-14)

“The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father. Yes, ask anything in my name, and I will do it!”

The same works? And, greater? Yes, indeed!
Am I seeing it? Am I experiencing it myself? Not yet.
But, something inside me says that Jesus wouldn’t say something like that if it wasn’t possible. Frankly, I’m tired of seeing only little bits of healing here and there. I want to know what Jesus was talking about, to see the greater works happening in me, and through me.
It really seems to me that the greater works ought to be the norm of our lives!

Nouwen in his book “Reaching out” speaks of our need to accept our powerlessness. To admit powerlessness means we acknowledge we do not have the events of our lives under control. We hold onto the illusion that we are masters of the universe and to admit powerlessness means we are admitting this is not so.

How many defences do we have in place to hide our powerlessness? How strong is our need to have safe control of our lives? How unstuck do we become when we cannot control what is happening to us, in us or around us?

Admitting how powerless we are is but one step towards healing. We then need to turn to God, admit our pain and how much it hurts to be so powerless and ask him to come and help us. Failure to turn to God leaves us in the pain of powerlessness and opens the door to being overwhelmed by despair and hopelessness. God, and God alone is our power, our refuge, our strong tower.

As I pray with people I am continually coming face to face with the pain of powerlessness. The pain is so great. And, whilever we look for ways to alleviate the pain ourselves we will remain stuck in powerlessness and its consequent pain. We need Jesus to take us back to the roots of our powerlessness and allow him to heal us at that wounded place. It’s something he loves to do.

(Adapted from: Neilsen, Mark. 2003. Renewed for life. Daily meditations from the works of Henri J. M. Nouwen. USA: Creative Communications for the Parish.)

Interested in getting the book? Click image.

In a Lenten meditation entitled “Temptations” Henri Nouwen says, “Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.”*

A lady I know whom I’ll call Bertha, had rejected her true self. She came to believe that the feeling, alive, able-to-feel-pain little person who was left alone in physical pain and terror, had to be rejected because she was in pain and expressing her pain in her tears and screaming. Her mother could not cope. Her mother could not calm her. Her mother abandoned her to her pain. As a result, self-rejection occurred and she lost herself, she became disconnected from the feeling little baby she had been, and in consequence she lost her emotions.

Bertha learned that the expression of emotion (pain) was not acceptable and if she expressed emotion she would be abandoned and left in her pain. So, that feeling/expressing part of herself was rejected and she became what she believed was acceptable. And this became so entrenched that even though she wanted to feel again she couldn’t. The journey out of this self-rejection has been long and arduous for her, like climbing up out of a deep deep straight-sided mine shaft. It’s a journey she had to pursue if she wanted to be free and able to feel again.

We prayed through many layers of the abandonment event where the self-rejection took hold. My sense has been that the event was so painful and the resulting trauma so great that Jesus in great mercy and compassion was very gentle and kind in his dealings with this wounded part of her heart.

*Neilsen, Mark. ed. 2003. Renewed for life. Daily meditations from the works of Henri J. Nouwen. USA: Creative Communications for the Parish. First Sunday in Lent. Meditation quote from Nouwen’s “Life of the beloved,” 1992. The Crossroads Publishing Co.

I’ve recently been reading a book by Norma Dearing called “The healing touch. A guide to healing prayer for yourself and those you love.” It is really very easy reading, yet packs a powerful message.

She covers the following main topics: Healing our relationship with God; Practical tools for healing; and, Walking in your healing.

One of the things I’ve become acutely aware of in praying with people is the need for their image of God to be healed. This Dearing addresses very helpfully in the first section, ‘Healing our relationship with God’. Our image of God is usually the same as our view of our parents. See my earlier post on ‘Our image of God’

Her second main topic includes chapters on practical tools for healing, covering generational healing, physical healing, emotional or inner healing, healing for the conception-to-birth experience, healing of occult experiences, and cutting free from unholy and unhealthy realtionships. All of these areas seem to come up at some time or other during a person’s healing journey.

There are many encouraging stories that increase one’s appreciation of God and his desire to heal. Dearing also includes numerous helpful prayers as templates of how and what to pray.

I recommend this book to anyone involved in healing prayer ministry, or just interested in praying with others as the need arise.

Like the book? Click image below to find it at Amazon.

Check out other books on the Recommended books page

I come across a lot of sadness in people as I pray with them. On the surface they may put on a happy face but deep down there’s an incredible sadness. Generally, people aren’t dealing with their sadness, they’re just covering it up. They’re afraid to allow themselves to feel the sadness (to visit it, to look at it, to acknowledge how sad they are) for if they did they would start to weep much like rain in a downpour. They fear starting to weep and then never being able to stop.

Jesus wants to comfort the brokenhearted. That’s one of the reasons he came, sent by Father God (take a look at Isaiah 61:1-2). He wants to heal people’s sadness; all the things that bring deep grief — lost innocence, broken hearts, destroyed hopes, wounded bodies, wounded spirits — much of it locked away from our conscious awareness. Many people don’t know how sad they are, they’ve worn an safe exterior face for so long they just don’t know how really sad they are.

What to do?
1. Realise that whilever it’s locked away inside, that’s where it will stay; and it will pop out inappropriately when you least expect it.
2. Pray a simple prayer asking Jesus to go with you into that sad place and show you the root of why you are so sad.
3. If possible, allow yourself to feel the sadness. Don’t pretend about anything.
4. Pay attention to whatever Jesus shows you concerning the root of the sadness. He wants to comfort you and take the sadness to himself. Ask him to do so - it might even help you to hand it over to him.
5. Sit quietly and listen for anything he wants you to know about that root of sadness. You may experience a deep peace, you may have an interior picture of him doing something.
6. Thank him for what he’s done.

It is possible that the root of your sadness is too big for you to look at on your own. In such a case I’d encourage you to have a trusted friend with you who is willing to journey with you through the sad place. If your sad place is a place of much trauma you probably will need to seek help from an experienced and trained counsellor. Where this is the case, don’t put off seeking help.

What is our image of God? What do we feel about him? Do we believe he is truly good? Are we able to connect with him in any personal way. Judith Hougen in Tranformed into Fire (p 122) says:

“… the foundational question each of us must ask [is]: Do I believe God is good? We all know the “right” response is to say, “Yes, of course, the Bible clearly tells me God is good.” But what about the God we relate to, not intellectually but actually? Do you ever fear hearing from God in prayer because you’re afraid of what he might say to you? Do you move through your life sensing that God is disappointed in you or unhappy with you? Or do you quietly steel yourself toward God because you sense at some point he’s going to lower the boom on you for all your wrongs? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions then you do not believe God is entirely good. You have a distorted view of God.

Judith MacNutt from Christian Healing Ministries talked of the need for our image of God to be healed (Emerging Leaders in Healing conference at Falls Church, Virginia, May 2. 2005). She spoke of how we’ve come to have a distorted image of God and what some of those distortions looked like. Some of these distortions are formed by our sitting in the pew and finding God to be rather distant and formal; by the interpretations of scripture which tend to put God in a box of our own or someone else’s understanding; by our experience with authority figures such as our parents, teachers, priests, pastors, etc; by the mystery of suffering or death where we somehow believe God has sent the sickness to punish us. Judith really hit hard at this when she asked, “Would a parent send a child leukemia or death simply because they were fractious or rebellious? How dare we think God would send sickness to one of his children!” I’m reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-11 about the ridiculousness of parents giving their child a stone when he asks for bread. Of course they will give good things to their child. In the same way God, our heavenly Father, gives good things.

Some other distorted views of God Judith talked about included the “Accountant God”, the “Gotcha God”, the “Sitting Bull God” (morally neutral and apathetic), the “Philosopher God” (busy with creation and not interested in our problems), and the “Unpleasable God” (the “Pharoah God”).

As I’ve prayed with people invariably at some point in their healing journey the issue of their image of God comes up. Whatever their experiential view of their parents is that is also their view of God, the two are usually identical. So their healing journey involves a process of separation; to separate God from their view of their parents such that they can begin to see God for who he truly is and relate to him free from their relationship with their parents. Sometimes the separation is dramatic, sometimes one that slowly evolves as healing continues.

When the issue comes up I pray a prayer of separation according to however God leads me to pray. The prayer itself is fluid. Common elements include cutting between the two (parents and God) in the power of the Holy and inviting Jesus to come stand between. I also usually pray that Jesus will reveal to the person whatever he would like them know. Quite often the person receives insight and understanding they’ve never known before. Sometimes there’s a huge sigh of relief because Jesus reveals himself to them interiorly in such a way that they are able to finally relax. Jesus is SO different to anything the person has ever previously known about God.

God bless you today and bring healing to your image of God, however that needs to come about.

The focus of this weblog is healing prayer, and the wonderful ways in which Jesus heals.

Somewhere along the way we lost our view of the God who is near and who heals and replaced him with a disinterested and distant God who doesn’t heal. Well, it does seem to be that it’s all changing now and we are rediscovering God’s true love for us and his desire to heal all that has wounded us, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

I hope with this weblog to share some of what Jesus teaches me as I pray with people for healing. May you too be blessed as you share in this.