Healing Prayer

The following is adapted from John & Paula Sandford’s book, “Healing the Wounded Spirit”. I have found it quite useful in helping people ascertain how they feel about God. We can be angry at him without realising it. I hope this is helpful.

Checking and Dealing with Anger at God
Questions:
…let’s imagine that we existed in the heavens. All questions are to be answered silently if the person so wishes. We will discuss them later.
1. Suppose we are sitting in a group in a heavenly place enjoying the angels and the saints, the Lord enters and says, “I would like three or four volunteers to go to earth.” Would you have been one of the volunteers?
2. If Jesus had presented himself before you, had said your name, and asked, “Will you go to earth for me?” would you have responded, “Oh, boy, yes Sir, right away, Hallelujah!” or “O.K. (drat!)”
3. If you had to come to earth but were given your choice, would you choose the time and place in which you were born, or some other century or country?
4. Would you choose to be born to your parents, or some other?
5. Would you choose your father? Or some other father?
6. Your mother?
7. Would you choose to be a boy or a girl?
8. Would you choose your face?
9. Your body?
10. Your mind?
11. Your character and personality?
12. If you are a woman, are you beautiful? Pretty? Attractive? Desirable? Loveable? Would someone choose you? Should they? If you are a man, are you handsome? Good looking? Attractive? Desirable? Loveable? would someone choose you? Should they?
13. Do you like you?
14. If Jesus walked up to you in the present moment and said, “I’ll give you your choice. You can either go all the way through life or straight up to Heaven with me right now,” which way would you choose?

As we ask these questions, we tune in our spirit to the other’s spirit to sense by empathy what he really feels. Sometimes people are incapable of being fully honest. We may sense more accurately than they can express what they actually should have answered.

Statement:
“In whatever degree you would not have volunteered for life on earth or would have agreed only reluctantly to come, in whatever degree you would not have chosen your time and place or either or both of your parents, or you would not have chosen the sex you are, in whatever degree you would not have chosen your face, your body, your mind or character, in whatever degree you do not think you are beautiful or handsome, loveable or chooseable, in whatever degree you don’t love you, to that degree you are angry at God. You are saying inside that He could have done a better job creating you. In whatever degree you would choose to go straight to Heaven rather than live life here, you are telling God you don’t like it here.”

Prayer:
“Lord, we repent for rebelling against being born here on earth where you put us. We repent for not liking and accepting what you created us to be. We repent for rejecting earth and ourselves and all of earth’s experiences. We couldn’t trust your lordship, that you knew what you were doing. We forgive you, Lord Jesus Christ, and Father God, for creating us and putting us here. We repent for rejecting ourselves. We accept our bodies. Reconcile us to ourselves. Reconcile us to our time and place, our position in this earth. Thank you, Jesus.”

Sandford, John & Paula. 1985. Healing the wounded spirit. Tulsa, OK: Victory House. pp 230-1, 236-7.

Purchase the book from Amazon.

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.