Not only has Jesus given the healing mandate to every minister of the gospel, He has also given the spiritual gifts of healing to the Church through the Holy Spirit of God. While those with gifts of healing can be more effective in one area than others, yet, every minister must operate in the healing ministry. We must overcome our fear and doubt and work to
bring the healings of God to the body, soul and spirit of our
people.
Here are specific steps to take if you really desire to fulfil your healing mandate:-
1. Preach the Whole Gospel.
Declare the whole gospel of Christ to save, heal and deliver. Don't preach the gospel of powerlessness nor a set of rules that cannot deliver and liberate people. Rather, preach the gospel of freedom, liberation, deliverance and healings. Talk about the Christ that is mighty to save, heal and deliver from any oppression and bondage. As you faithfully declare the whole gospel, God will confirm His words with miracles, signs and wonders. Preach the whole gospel and let God confirm His word with attendant healings.
"And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following" (Mark 16:20).
2. Encourage People To Come For Healing.
Don't only preach to people, encourage them also to come for healing. Preachers are many, ministers are few. Minister healing to people consistently in the church or in meetings. As you sincerely minister, God will honour your ministrations and bring healings to the people. You must rn to overcome your fears in this area.
After your preaching, call people out for healing and pray for them as you are led by the Lord. I did this regularly . While I was pastoring and many were healed by the Lord. Pray for people and let God do the healing. Our mandate is pray and God's mandate is to answer. Keep on praying and let God keep on working in the lives and bodies of people.
"Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church: and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."(James 5: 14-15).
Healing schools, healing services and regular prayers for the sick must be regular in the church.
3. Fast and Pray Sincerely:
To operate in the healing ministry, you'll have to pay the price of intensive fasting and prayer. There are sicknesses that will respond to normal prayers, but there are many diseases that will not respond until you fast and pray for one, two, three or seven days at times. Jesus says in Matthew 17:21; "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by
prayer and fasting".
Fasting is not hunger strike but a deliberate effort to leave the flesh and get into the Spirit realm. Fasting helps our spirit to be in tune with the Spirit of God and therefore gain power over the works of the devil. Operating in the healing ministry means you will have to deny yourself of necessary food on regular basis and spend time in private prayers if you are going to see
mighty results.
Fasting gives you boldness and confidence to deal with demonic activities in the lives of people. This is the price you , st pay regularly if you want to see people healed and delivered through your ministration.
4. Ask for Specific Work of Healing and Miracles.
To see mighty healings and miracles in your ministry, 'II have to pray intensively and ask God for specific work of healing and miracle. This is what the Apostles did in Acts 4:29-30;
"And now, Lord, behold their threatening: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus".
They asked in holy motive. They wanted to see the Lord glorified and His name honored and God did many miracles in answer to their request. We must follow this example today. We must pray for specific miracles and mighty hand of God in operation in our Churches, so that His name alone can be magnified and honoured. God is willing work when when we ask him to. But our asking must be in re and godly motive. If we ask because of selfish glory, God will not honour it. Our motive must be clear, pure and honouring.
5. Launch out in faith
Operating in the healing ministry demands for faith on our part. The supernatural can be a daily occurrence in your ministry and ministrations if you grow in your faith. The Bible talks of temporary faith, weak faith, little faith, strong faith and possibility - thinking faith. You'll have to move away from temporary, weak and little faith to the level of strong and possibility thinking faith if you desire to witness the miraculous in your life and ministry.
You must do like father Abraham in Romans 4: 19-21 :
"And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief: but was strong in faith, giving glory to God: And being fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was able also to perform".
Doubt, fear, unbelief and anxiety must leave your heart.Your faith must be strong in the Lord to fulfil His word
and honour your prayers.
Faith means you never trust in yourself, but in the atoning work of Christ, the word of God and the powerful name of Jesus. You must grow in your faith. The disciples grew in their faith until the miraculous became a normal thing in their lives and ministries.
Launch out in faith by regularly praying for the sick. Don't listen to the doubtful whisper of the devil. Pray for people in faith. Understand that healing is often a process. It is not instantaneous in most cases. It happens gradually. So don't be afraid to pray again and again until the whole process takes its course.
6. Be an Open Channel.
Operating in the healing ministry means that you must d remain an open channel for God to flow through. Determine to be a vessel unto honour. Be clean in your thoughts and feelings. Don't allow nor harbour grudge, animosity, bitterness, immorality and unforgiving , within you. Always allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse purge you from these negative things. If you allow them within you, they will become holes in your armour and my will attack you through them.
So watchfulness and carefulness is greatly needed in this area. Purge yourself from all these filthiness of the ~and spirit. Let your heart and life be an expressway for ! Let God be able to flow through you without let or hindrance. The minister that will be used of God to minister multiple healings and health to people must ally be a clean vessel, humble and sensitive in the spirit
and fullness of faith.
7. Be Open to The Leading of The Holy Spirit:
More than anything and anybody else,the Holy Spirit is e that has the mandate of bringing the supernatural power of God to the church today. There is nothing we can do without Him. Even our Lord Jesus attributed the miraculous in His life and ministry to the Holy Spirit.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the accepted year of the Lord" ( Luke 4:18-19).
Every minister that wants to move in the healing ministry must be filled with the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit and commissioned by the Holy Spirit of God as Jesus was.
When you are in such vital relationship with the Holy Spirit of God, he can then lead you in various ways to be a channel of healings to the people. He works through:
Laying of hands (Mark 16: 16)
- Anointing with oil (James 5:14)
- Touching people (Luke 7:14)
- Being touched by people (Mark 6:56)
- Power of the word of God (Matt.8:5-16)
-
Use of cloths or handkerchief (Acts 190: 12)
- Speaking and rebuking spirit of infirmity (Luke 13:18)
And a host of points of contact such as using of the Bible or shadow of Peter John 9:6; Acts 5:15.
The point is that we must be open to the Holy Spirit to see whichever means He is willing to use to bring healing and health to the people.
In conclusion, not all those who are prayed for will be healed at once or as often as we desire. However, that should not serve as hindrance to us from praying for the sick.
I remember a Pastor who started praying for the sick in church. The first person he prayed for died, but he kept praying for the sick. Initially, nobody was healed, but as kept on, gradually people began testifying of healings and miracles. Words started going round and the church grew thereby. Keep on praying for people in the power of Holy Spirit and let God keep on healing whomsoever He wills.
* Dr. Bola Akin John is a Church growth expert. You can reach him and or buy this book at his website: http://www.churchgrowthafrica.org
