Yesterday, TGP held its first ever healing service. We are still waiting to get feedback to some of the prayer. After a short message from Pastor Byron (here), we opened the floor for our ministry team to share words of knowledge regarding specific healing prayer. Then we had our ministry team break into groups to ease the flow. In the aftermath, I thought it would be nice to share some reflections on healing services.
Healing Services Are an Act of Faith
No one can manipulate a true healing. There are some charlatans out there that manufacture false reports of miraculous healing for whatever reason. But a real healing is completely dependent upon God. In that sense, for a ministry to have a healing service really is an act of faith. Some church traditions wouldn’t even consider having healing services, either because of a theological view against supernatural occurrences in modern times or because there is an element that we cannot control. We all from one degree to another long to control something, so when we are faced with the uncontrollable it generally leaves us anxious and afraid. To have a healing service puts the human organizers/leaders in a position where they don’t control the outcome. We are completely dependent on God to do something, because we cannot manufacture a healing.
To have a healing service puts the human organizers/leaders in a position where they don’t control the outcome [tweetquote]
Healing Services Are Fully Dependent on God’s Decision To Move
As I touched on in the above point, a healing service is fully dependent on God’s decision to move. It is well within the realm of possibility that we could schedule a healing service, pray and fast during the upcoming week, get our hearts in line, and witness no healing. Why? Because the healing part of the equation is up to God. We act in faith accordingly, but ultimately, the healing comes from God. Just like the cowboy saying “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” a similar principle is true. You can give space for God to heal (release our own sense of control), but you can’t make him heal. This total dependence on God’s willingness to heal is the same reason people get nervous or anxious. It is because, unlike other power gifts, we can’t fake healing. It is much easier to fake prophetic utterances, words of knowledge, and tongues if people aren’t using discernment. Healing, not so much. People can talk about feeling the heat, or the anointing. In the end, medical tests will determine whether the healing really took place. The cool thing is, this does still happen. God still heals people and it still catches the medical community off guard. In the end, we can say that God did heal someone. And we also have to be honest and say it’s not from any of our doing. Thus, God gets the glory.
The Only Thing We Can Do in a Healing Service Is Give God Space
So what can we as human facilitators do? We can create an environment conducive for God to heal. There are reasons Jesus used agricultural analogies to convey spiritual truths. Just like the human body, God built the ecosystem. He knows how agriculture works. So that is a fitting place to start. A farmer can till the land. He can fertilize it. He can plant the seeds, water the ground, and weed the area. What he’s doing is creating an environment conducive for his seeds to grow. He can’t make the seeds grow any more than he can make the sun shine. But he does what he can to give the seed the space it needs to grow. That is what facilitators/leaders to with moves of God. We can’t make God move in anything, including healing. What we can do is create an environment for him to move. We can dedicate a space for it. We can prepare our hearts. We can invite people who need healing. We can do teachings on it to get it in people’s minds. We can build an expectation. What we can’t do is actually make the healing’s happen. Just like the farmer is dependent on the seed to grow on its own in the environment he made, the leaders are dependent on God to show up on his own in the environment they create. He will either decide to heal or not. I believe, more often than not, when we give God space to move, he will move.
What we can do is create an environment for God to move [tweetquote]
So many churches set the pace of every church service and only give God space to move in certain areas. In a sense, they are not creating environments for God to move in people’s hearts. They are casting their seed on inhospitable ground. Their environment ensures a lesser crop of God’s move.
May our hearts be open to the way the Lord operates. We know He is a God of order (why else would the sun always rise in the east and set in the west). We also know he moves freely within his order as he sees fit. This is because his ordered structure allows for a degree of uncontrollable movement. All we do is make a space in our gatherings and in our hearts for the uncontrollable movements of God. He moves when and where He wishes. We just have to have our hearts ready for when He does. And we can ask in faith for Him to move in certain ways (like a healing service).
May our hearts be open to the way the Lord operates [tweetquote]
As we wait for reports to come in because of our healing service, let’s take time to thank God for his faithfulness. We know healing and other supernatural moves of his are fully dependent on his decisions. We also know he is faithful to his people and hears their prayers. Thank God for what he’s done yesterday. And Praise God for the reports we’re going to hear. Thanks for reading this week’s Pastor Blog. I hope it has helped you to better experience our Lord’s:
Presence. Love. Power.
