H1 - Following Jesus the Healer
Handout #1 Following Jesus, the Healer
Equipping/Healing Workshop
Connecting Questions
- How many of you believe Jesus did heal the sick, drive out demons, and forgive sin in his earthly ministry?
- How many of you believe Jesus can do the same today, at least in some parts of the world?
- How many of you believe Jesus will heal your diseases, rid you of demonic oppression, and forgive your sins, here on earth as it is in heaven?
- How many of you believe Jesus will save, heal, and deliver others as you lay hands on them and pray for them?
Testimony: On Thursday, April 22, 2004, Amy Evans was five years old. She was in a traumatized family—her dad was in jail again for drugs—but as she was sitting on the kitchen counter Jesus healed her bronchitis and fever. I’ve seen and heard hundreds of testimonies like these, especially in the last four years.
My testimony of learning to follow Jesus, the healer, over many years:
- Growing up in American Reformed Church in
- Four years at
- Fuller Seminary years, 1988-1991: Healing and World Evangelism course with Dr. C. Peter Wagner and John Wimber of the Vineyard church. Practicing more healing ministry in our
- Ministry years from 1991 to January 31, 2002: a vision I had in
- Since January 2002 (fog lifting; “Follow Me” encounter results in personal allegiance to Jesus for a public healing ministry): began the Healing Rooms of Tulare, California, which was founded with some 30 churches in the city that partnered to restore this divine truth and ministry to the body. Hundreds of healings follow; deep training and practice; major increase of healings, miracles, and deliverance in my life, family, and ministry.
Scripture Study—Jesus’ “show how” method of training is outlined in Matthew 9:35–10:8:
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- “I do it; you watch.”
- “I do it; you help.”
- “You do it; I help.”
- “You do it; I watch.”
- “You do it; someone else watches.”
- “I do it; you watch.”
Observations: this immediate context emphasizes three times that harvest workers are desperately needed.
What is Jesus doing or saying?
Biblical Perspective on Salvation, Healing, and Deliverance
Greek word is the same! Sozo means saved, healed, delivered (Mark 5:23, Acts 2:47).
Luke 8 shows all three of these uses of the verb sozo in one chapter (verses 12, 36, 50). Lesser to greater covenants (Exodus 15:26, 23:25; Deuteronomy 7:14-15; Psalm 103:1-3, 107:19-20). Healing is clearly promised and experienced in the old covenant—how much more so in the new covenant founded on better promises, better hope, and a better mediator?
Healing in the atonement of Jesus (Isaiah 53, Matthew 8:14-17). Jesus’ sacrificial death is the divine basis and provision for healing and all the benefits of salvation for the saints, reversing the curse of the fall. His cost is enough!
Clash of two kingdoms (Mark 1:1, 14, 32, 39, 41; Ephesians 6:12-18; Acts 8:4-8, 10:38).
The “already” and “not yet” tension around this battle of the ages. Lost people and lost dominion are restored in Christ to his new humanity. Lord’s Prayer pattern.
Salvation/sanctification viewpoint (1 Thessalonians 5:23, Romans 8:28-31). Part of our spirit, soul, and body is being redeemed and made like Christ’s. Sin/sickness connection in Scripture is strong (James 5:14-18, Luke 5:22-25, John 5:8, 14).
Jesus reveals the Father! He best makes the will of God in healing known (Hebrews 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-20; and John 14:6-13; 4:34; 5:19-20, 30, 36-37; 6:28-29, 38; 7:16, 29; 8:26-29, 40, 55; 10:15; 17:14). Nothing—not my experience, not bad teaching in the church, not culture, not someone else’s Christian life (like Joni)—will overshadow for me what Jesus reveals is the will of God.
Removing Some Cultural Barriers and Hurdles for Healing:
Where do sickness and death come from?
Disease and death were not part of God’s original way with the world—they came from the fall into sin (Romans 5:12)—nor will they be present in the new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:4). So now grace overtakes the fall, with the power of God against the power of Satan, and God is infinitely stronger. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Is there really a split between the natural and supernatural world?
No, only our physical senses limit our “sight.” Jesus’ central preaching theme was that the
What is a typical misunderstanding of human nature in the western church?
We often think of soul and body as two parts that make you “you” (or some just think you are evolutionary soup, a machinery of chemicals and matter). But we are spirit, soul, and body—three parts (1 Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 4:12, 1 Corinthians 14:14). We are spiritual beings who have a soul (mind, emotions, and will) and live in a body. This has huge implications for the Christian life, healing, other gifts of the Spirit, spiritual warfare, etc.
Didn’t healing cease with the apostles or the New Testament church?
No, that’s not true biblically or historically. It is more likely that I don’t have any mother. The cessationist lie is bad biblical theology and blind allegiance to a stronghold of Satan. The Bible is no replacement for its author (the Holy Spirit) and the needs of people are not met by knowing the Bible alone (John 5:36-40). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
What about Job, and Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 11:16–12:10)?
Here’s the big book of Job in a nutshell—Satan made him sick and God healed him.
This glorified God and blessed Job more than ever. (Some seem to know more about Job’s sufferings and Paul’s thorn than they know of Jesus and the four Gospels.) Paul’s thorn in the flesh is a common expression from the Old Testament (like Judges 2:3) that always refers to harassing and persecuting people against God’s people. Paul’s thorn is named in 2 Corinthians 12:7 as a fallen angel, a messenger of Satan (not sickness!) who afflicts him, mainly through the exact situations described in 2 Corinthians 11:23-27. Eight times in verse 26 the word “danger” is used—is there a theme? Paul’s thorn in the side was persecution, not sickness. Read it again.
If I’m not healed when I pray or am prayed for, is it because I don’t have enough faith?
No. This is divine healing, not faith healing—the focus is different. It may help to realize miracles are immediate but healing is a process over time. Faith and trust in God are commended in Scripture in reference to many healings, and so we take that to heart as well. Yet if you have enough faith to be born again, you have enough faith to connect with God for healing. Faith is a relationship, not an event, so Jesus encourages us to persist in faith in God in spite of what we see as obstacles and delays. Doubt is our real enemy, and faith is our ally. We can capture our doubts with revelation/illumination from Scripture, testimonies, and teaching, and so grow in faith in God’s provision for healing and deliverance through diligent study of Jesus in the Word. Someone’s faith is usually operational in healing, but it could be in friends, the one praying, or, in the case of the deceased, anyone but the one who is about to receive the miracle. See handouts on “A Dirty Dozen Doubts” and “The Clash of Kingdoms.”
Didn’t Jesus perform miracles to prove he was God? Shouldn’t I just admire Jesus as unique in this ministry of healing and not think he can be my example?
Jesus said just the opposite in John 14:12. He proclaimed and demonstrated the kingdom of God, teaching his followers to do the same (Matthew 10:1, 8; Acts 4:29-30, 5:16, 8:4-8; 1 Corinthians 2:4; Hebrews 2:3-4). Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one. He performed miracles and healed just as Christians do today, through the power of the Holy Spirit in and upon him. He didn’t switch between his divine and human nature to do miracles (two channel theory) but emptied himself of his divine prerogatives, becoming our servant and example, even unto death (Philippians 2). Since the fall, the great need of history is the saving presence of God on earth. Jesus was all that! And now in the plan of God, Christians have that saving presence because they have the Holy Spirit in them, the third person of the Trinity. John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth” (NIV). The Holy Spirit is just like Jesus, and lives in my innermost being, in union with my spirit, my new creation.
See Also, “A Dozen Dirty Doubts” (handout)
Resources for Further Growth
Check out the bookstores at local healing rooms or go online. There are hundreds of well written resources, videos, and audio testimonies/teachings. Try One Hundred Divine Healing Facts or Thirty Bible Reasons Why Christ Heals Today or Megashift.
I’ve read about four feet of books now in four years. There are tens of thousands of testimonies worldwide for the devil to reckon with and to inspire you.
- www.healingroomssmv.com
- www.allnationsmin.org
- www.healingrooms.com
- www.healingroomstulare.com
In
Seminary entrance off
Means of Grace for Healing
I’ve found these methods to be effective:
- Speaking the truth, rebuking symptoms in Christ as a persistent act of the will. Speak a positive confession: “This healing is mine because of what Jesus did on the cross.”
- Laying on hands, anointing with oil (symbolizes the real presence of the Holy Spirit) in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is ordinary ministry practice for the saints, a “fundamental of the faith” as in Hebrews 6:2. Impartation and instruction go hand in hand.
- John Wimber’s five-step ministry model for ordinary Christians (see Appendix A).
- Believing the gospel when preached in a complete way, hearing and appropriating the good news of the
- Elders being invited to pray and anoint with oil according to James 5.
- Receiving communion, the meal that heals, by understanding the body and blood.
- Word of command within divine revelation.
- Praying in tongues. I’ve seen the immune system strengthened and prayers answered.
- Deliverance from demonic attack or attachment.
- Capturing doubts with Scripture promises and truth in order to release faith in the Lord’s provision for healing.
- Intercession for one another, even at a distance.
The Promise and Challenge
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will
do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12, NIV).
Keys to Empowerment
- Intimacy with the Father: hearing and seeing what God is doing in real life situations and then doing his works with him.
- Following Jesus, the Son: in the details of Scripture, he is our example. Jesus brought his world with him when he came to earth, and so you too can be an ambassador of the
- Yield daily to the Holy Spirit (John 14:16 describes the Spirit as “another Counselor”—allo paracletos—meaning just like the same, another “Jesus”). I have a big Jesus in me, full-grown, in the person of the ancient Holy Spirit. I am the temple of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; Acts 2:38, 4:29-31). Have God-inside mindedness, not just God-outside mindedness. Begin every morning submitting your whole spirit, soul, and body to the Spirit’s presence and power. Then go glorify Jesus together! Fullness in the Spirit is measured in overflow, not just infilling. The baptism (or immersion) in the Holy Spirit has been a birthright and blessing since Pentecost.
- Impartation (laying on of hands) from gifted leaders in the body sent by Christ to equip you for works of ministry as in Ephesians 4:11, especially apostles.
- Testimonies and teaching on healing (sound doctrine) absorbed regularly. Explore environments of faith where miracles and healing are occurring, like the healing rooms, church gatherings, small groups, mission fields, and the marketplace.
- Pray for healing as part of a team so the distributed gifts in the body are more concentrated.
- Cultivate the gift of prophecy/words of knowledge and your ability to hear the Lord’s voice.
- Fasting and intercessory prayer, including spiritual warfare training.
- Walk worthy of your calling in Christ and forgive all who offend or harm you and separate from all known sin.
Prepared by Tim Vink, RCA coordinator for multiplication, (616) 499-5125, .