In today's witness I talk about a healing session I had with my friend. Our homework in class this week was to pray over a loved one or friend. In this week's episode I recount our session and the results of what occurred. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or just click here. It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!
Today I want to witness to you about a call I had with a friend. As I have told you before my class this quarter is on physical healing, which is really cool. Last Monday we learned this five step prayer model that we can use when we are praying over people for physical healing. The model has five steps to it, and each step might have a few components to it. It gives us a guide line to follow so we don’t feel we are all on our own. Although they made sure to state not to worry if we miss a step. If you pray over someone for healing and then they are walking away and you realize you forgot to do one of the steps, you don’t have to call them back over to do that step. Last week I talked about my classmate we prayed over in class to practice this model that we had just learned.
This week our homework for this class was to pray over a loved one or close friend. I do have loved ones that could use praying over, however, I did not feel like they would be comfortable with me praying over them. My father in law has been sick with a cold or bronchitis for over a month now. I did not think he would feel comfortable with me praying over him. My husband also has hip pain, but again, I did not think he would feel super comfortable with me praying over him. I was thinking about who I would pray over when a friend of mine posted on facebook that she really needed some prayers because she was having really hard time right now. I instantly felt like she was who I was supposed to pray over. I sent her a facebook message stating what I was learning about in class and that I would love to pray for her for a physical healing. She said she would love that.
We set up a time when we could do a Facebook call, I think we did later that night or the next night. I called her and we walked through the prayer model. I explained that I would be reading from a paper because I still hadn’t memorized the steps yet, and although I might not look like I know what I am doing, God is the one doing the healing and He knows what He is doing, so we should be all set. The first part is to figure out what is going on with whoever we are praying over. My friend has had chronic migraines for 31 years and has also, in the last year started taking care of her dad. She has had to do all sorts of paperwork and things that she did not know how to do and never thought she would be doing. She also took in her father’s dog to live with her because when he broke his ankle and was in the hospital he couldn’t have the dog with him.
My friend has been experiencing a lot of anxiety lately with all she has to do. I explained that next quarter is on inner healing and we will learn to pray over things like anxiety but this quarter is on physical healing. I explained that I could pray peace over her for the anxiety, but that most of the praying would be for the physical healing of the headaches if that was ok. She agreed and said if she didn't have the headaches, then that would be a big help with the anxiety also. She said she has a headache every single day and in one day she could have up to five different types of headaches. Medicine does not help the headaches either.
After praying over her for peace and then also praying command prayers for headache to leave and the pain to go away, she said the intensity was less. She said she also felt a peace come over her. She said she still had the headache but she said she could feel a little change. I asked if she wanted me to pray over her again, and she said yes. This time I prayed a little differently. There are three different types of ways to pray in the model we learned. There is a prayer of petition, where a request is made to God to heal, asking as a son or daughter with authority! Power based on intimacy with the Father. “Fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful” (James 5). For instance you might say, “Father in the name of Jesus, I ask you to let your presence come and bring healing to (fill in the name of who you are praying over). Next is Prayer of command where an authoritative act of faith addressed to a body part, a sickness or evil spirit. (Matthew 10:1) For instance, “In the name of Jesus I command the bones, ligaments, muscles and tendons, be healed.” For a sickness you might say, “In the name of Jesus I command this tumor to dissolve and disappear.” For a spirit you might say, "In the name of Jesus, I command the spirit of affliction to leave now in Jesus name.” The third way to pray is a Prophetic Act: An action done in the physical realm of what you’re seeing in the spiritual realm that releases God’s power to heal. For instance, you can ask, “Father what are you doing? Or “How do you want to release healing right now?”
Since I prayed over my friend with prayers of command the first time, I decided to try prayers of petition the next time. I asked God to heal her headaches, I asked him to heal her anxiety and just fill her with a sense of peace. I asked for his presence to be known and that he surround her with love. I am not sure of everything I said, but she said she felt more of a sense of peace and her headache was even better, but was still there. She could feel it but the intensity was gone. I asked if she wanted me to keep going and to continue to pray for a full healing. She said yes.
Next I prayed with a prophetic act. I asked God how he wanted to release healing right now and I felt as though he said with love. I felt like He wanted me to let my friend know how much he loved her and how much she meant to Him. He wanted her to know that He is there with her and that she is stronger than she thinks. He wanted her to know He is proud of her for all she is doing to take care of her dad. He wanted her to know that He will never leave her side and that He hears her prayers. I cannot remember all He wanted her to know but whatever I heard I told it to her.
A big part of our prayer model is checking in frequently to see if anything is going on with the person. Do they feel anything? Often times people may feel heat, tingling, cool, or peace. This can be normal but is not necessary for a healing. She was feeling peace. She said she still did have a headache but she felt this presence all around her. She said she felt surrounded by it. I asked if she wanted me to keep praying for the headache to go away and he said that although she was intrigued to what might happen if I kept praying, she also really wanted to sit with that feeling of this presence all around her. I told her that was a great idea and that I would be happy to pray over her for healing any other time she wanted me to. I let her go to sit with the feeling of being surrounded by the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and or God. Before going I prayed that God would continue to heal her as she sat with Him and also all through the night. I prayed for a complete healing of the migraines. I heard back from my friend a few days later saying despite her bad anxiety she has hardly noticed her headaches, Praise God!! He is so good. Now Lord, we just ask you to take away her anxiety too!
I hope that by me witnessing to you about the healings I am seeing you will see that God wants to heal all of His children and He wants to use regular people, like you and me. I know when I said that you told yourself He doesn’t want to use you, but He does. Each and every one of us has the authority to command pain to go away. We have the authority to command sickness and spirits to go away. Jesus gave us the authority and the Holy Spirit. The same exact Holy Spirit that Jesus used to do miracles is living inside of you, just waiting for you to discover the amazing power that can be used through you if you let it. You may pray over someone for a healing and they don’t get healed. This doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means keep trying. You won’t get a basket ball in the hood the first time you try either. Maybe God just wants to see if you will be faithful and keep showing up and trying even when it doesn’t work.
I have prayed over people for years now. Honestly probably about four or five years I have stopped to pray over people who need physical healings. Many times I saw no results. Did I feel discouraged, absolutely! Did I stop doing it, no! I kept on trying, even though I felt discouraged because I had read books about people who are doing amazing healings now, restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, people are getting up out of wheel chairs and walking. All of these people had long periods where they prayed over people and they weren’t healed. Then one day, they started seeing more and more that were healed. Still not everyone they pray over is healed. It is God that does the healing and He is a mystery. But if you keep showing up and trying He will work through you.
I going to keep sharing my stories so you can see that amazing things can happen for you too when you are faithful in asking God to use you. I don’t believe I was born with a special healing gift. I believe God is using me to heal others because I have asked him every day for years now and because I am willing to step out and faith and ask people to pray over them even though I know they might not get healed. If you want God to use you, just ask Him. It might not be for healing, but whatever it is for, just keep asking. God loves when we are persistent. If you have been asking and haven’t seen an answer, maybe He is just waiting to see how badly you want it. Step out in faith as if He has answered you and see what happens. Keep stepping out with the faith that because you asked, He will answer. And then share your stories with us so we can cheer you on along the way!