Healing Ministry

THE HEALING MINISTRY

We are all called to continue Jesus' Ministry of Healing: 

'These signs will follow those who believe: they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover' (Mark16:17,18). Though some are specially anointed every believer has a part of the healing ministry of Christ 

Jesus said: 'Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, 

the works (of healing) that I do he will do also; and greater than these he will do, because I go to My Father' (John 14:12)

HOW? 

(1) By calling upon the Name of Jesus, the key that opens the door to the power of the Spirit that flows from the death and resurrection of Jesus: 'Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it' (v13,14).

(2) By obeying His Great Commission to preach and heal: 

'If you love Me, keep My commandments' (v15).

(3) By trusting in the power of the Spirit to do it: 

'I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever'(v16). 

These promises are for all believers.

Since we are to continue Jesus' ministry we must learn the principles of ministering healing by studying how Jesus ministered for he is our example. Although He was the Son of God, He laid aside those advantages and ministered as a man anointed by the Holy Spirit. 

He did no miracles before He was anointed at His baptism. 

Then He went around preaching: 'the Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, 

because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel 

.…to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and sight to the blind, to set at liberty the oppressed' (Luke 4:1).

'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth (His humanity) with the Holy Spirit and with (healing) power, who went about doing good (as a man rich in the anointing sharing it freely to all in need) healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him' (Acts 10:38).

To fully understand the healing ministry you must see there are different ways God heals. Every miracle has two ingredients: GOD'S POWER + MAN'S FAITH which receives the Power. 

We can discern three different combinations of these two in the Gospels.

1. MANIFESTED POWER + LITTLE or NO FAITH on the part of the recipient. This is the operation of the gifts of Spirit, the gifts of healing or the working of miracles through the minister (1Cor 12:9,10). This method is limited because these gifts manifest only as the Spirit wills. However the minister should desire these to flow through him out of love for the oppressed (1Cor 14:1). This method does not necessarily involve the laying on of hands. An example is the healing of the cripple at the POOL of BETHSEDA (John 5:1-14). Jesus picked this man out of the crowd and healed him. Why did he chose that man and leave all the others in that hospital? It was clearly not because of his faith. He had no knowledge of Jesus. Jesus explained to his critics that he only did what he saw his Father doing (v19). Even Jesus could not initiate the gifts himself. This is why he could not do any miracles in Nazareth Mark 6:5,6). However he was able to minister the anointing through the laying on of hands and heal a few of minor problems but results were limited because of their unbelief (see 3 below).

2. FAITH in God's Word + no manifested POWER. 

This is at the opposite end of the scale. This person just receives by faith according to Mark 11:24. He realises that God's power is in the Word. He believes the Word, acts on the Word and then the power is released. 

This requires more faith but there is no limitation but you must be a Christian who knows the Covenant. So, even when there is no anointing you can still teach them faith and pray in agreement with them to be healed. This is how the Nobleman received healing (John 4:46-54). It was purely by faith in the word of Jesus. The great faith of the Centurion in Luke 7:1-10, was purely faith in the Word. So the presence of a minister with a healing anointing was not needed. This method does not need contact through the laying on of hands.

3. THE HEALING ANOINTING. 

Between these two there is another method which is a combination of Manifested Power + Faith. This is where the minister has a tangible healing anointing upon him which can be transmitted by touch through the laying on of hands. When there is a degree of faith present, that power will flow into his body driving out the sickness and effecting a healing and a cure. There is less manifested power than with a gift of healing so more faith is needed. 

You must believe the anointing is present and when hands are laid on you that healing power will go into your body. But less faith is needed than just believing the Word, because there is more manifestation for your senses to rely upon (it is easier to receive this way). The speed of manifestation depends on the degree of faith and power in manifestation, but the moment hands are laid upon you and the power flows the process of recovery has begun and will continue as long as you keep the switch of faith turned on. Healing ministers like to pray for people first who are believing to get the power flowing. You can be highly anointed but the person not receive anything because faith is required. Therefore you need to prepare the person you are praying for by telling them about the healing anointing and how it works so they can receive the anointing, as Jesus did in Luke4:18-21.

The primary way Jesus healed was through the HEALING ANOINTING (because that is where most people's faith is at).

The classic example of someone healed by the transmission of the anointing through contact with Jesus is the Woman with the Issue of Blood in Mark 5:

'A great multitude followed Him and thronged Him' (v24). 

'A certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years... when she heard about Jesus (this is how she had faith - she heard He was anointed with healing power), she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said (this was her faith talking), 'If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.' Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed. Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that POWER had gone out of Him, (there was a tangible transmission of power - you know when the anointing flows out of you)turned around in the crowd and said, 'Who touched My clothes?' But His disciples said to Him, 'You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?' 

.... and He said to her, 'Daughter, your FAITH has made you well. 

Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction' (v25-34).

Notice there was a clear combination of POWER + FAITH. The power was ON JESUS, available to all. It was transmittable by touch but many touched him and did not receive because it had to be a touch of faith. The power (God's Electricity) is only activated by faith. Faith gives action to the power. Like electricity the power is always present but contact must be made and the switch of faith has to be turned on for the power to flow. She believed he was anointed and that when she touched him the anointing would flow into her and heal her. After receiving he instructed her to keep the switch of faith turned on - to keep believing that God's healing power is working in her body. If you stop believing, the power, though present, is dormant.

This story also shows the anointing can be stored in and transmitted through cloth.

As word got around, more people began to be healed this way: 

'When the men of that place recognised Him, they brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment, and as many as touched it were made perfectly well' (Matt 14:34-36).

'A great multitude of people came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits, and they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all' (Luke 6:17-19). 

Notice that because the anointing destroys the yoke (Isa 10:27) that it will also remove yokes of demonic bondage and oppression. The method is limited because it required personal contact, but it was available to all who laid hold of it (unlike the gifts of the Holy-Spirit).

However through prayer clothes which can store the anointing the method can have a wider use: 'God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them' (Acts19:11,12). The anointing on Paul was transferred to these cloths.

We all can minister healing: 'Jesus cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' 

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified' (John 7:37-39). 

When we received the Spirit we received power from on high (Acts 1:8). 

We can all let that power flow out of us as rivers of water (or electricity). 

We are now (like Jesus in his ministry) TEMPLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, and He wants to anoint us and flow through us.

TIPS for flowing in an anointed healing ministry:

(1) As a minister you need FAITH which comes from meditating in the WORD about healing. You also need PRAYER to bring that POWER into 

manifestation. You can also TALK it into manifestation by telling the person to whom you are ministering about the anointing.

(2) Develop FAITH, LOVE and HOPE:

FAITH relates you to past events. 

Faith in the Name of Jesus connects you to the power that comes from JESUS by the Spirit. Your healing ministry must be rooted in the power that flows from the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ. Only minister that power. See Jesus bear all sickness (by his stripes we are healed). See Jesus ascend to heaven and pour out the Spirit upon all flesh. This is how you must establish your FAITH. Call on Jesus for this power to flow through you to the person you are laying hands upon. Reject any other power. Worldly faith-healers use their own pyschic power and may even tap into the demonic. Avoid any spiritual healing that is not in the Name of Jesus. When Jesus told his disciples to heal the sick (not pray for them) He was thinking of this method of administering the anointing he had given them.

LOVE needs to be the present motivation to be used in healing. Jesus was moved with compassion to heal the sick (Mark 1:40-45, Matt 14:13,14). Love will propel you to seek the anointing and for it to flow out of you strongly. DESIRE to be a channel of healing not for your glory but from LOVE (1Cor 13,14).

HOPE - relates us to the future. 

It is our confident expectation based on faith that God's healing power is working as you pray. Hope covers and protects our mind from unbelieving thoughts (our helmet of salvation). As you pray SEE the power flow into them and see them recovering. Your creative imagination is not the source of healing but it should be used to be a open channel for and to direct the healing power flowing out of you.