I just love it when this happens! I am thrilled to share with you all, dear ones, the Lord�s goodness in a brief testimony.

For about two months, I�ve been meeting with a couple who are struggling with some marital issues and a young son with behavior problems. We pray at the end of each psychotherapy session. They are not �born-again� per se, just plain church-goers who seemed eager to allow me to pray with them. Well, last week as I was praying for blessings for their marriage and healing for the son who is presenting with problems, I also felt led to pray for their older son who has a long-standing developmental disorder. I had no intention of doing this, but suddenly as I began to pray for the older boy, I felt the Spirit move powerfully through me. I felt a surge of authority and conviction that he would not suffer with this disorder. I bound the spirits of this disorder with an unusual faith rising up and a shudder of the Holy Spirit moved me to pray in tongues as well (which I do under my breath so as not to freak people out).

Well, just tonight, exactly one week later, I saw this couple again and had forgotten all about my prayers until the mom told me some good news. She reported that her older son with the developmental disorder had just had the �best week ever in his whole life.� She kept saying it over and over again, �the best week ever in his life!� He had apparently been doing things successfully which he had not been able to do before.

We thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Father!!

What an exciting time for people at my church. A woman on the prayer ministry team, Renee, just yesterday shared with some of us this testimony (paraphrased):

I was praying with a man whose knees were badly damaged from years of college football. He had had multiple surgeries, but they were unsuccessful. He said his knees were shot and always hurting. I had placed my hand on one of his knees and another man praying with me had placed his hand on the man's other bad knee. Just as we began to pray, I literally felt movements in the knee, like pieces of bone and tissue were literally moving around underneath his skin!!

The man started moaning and said he was feeling excruciating pain while this was happening. Then after a minute of praying, he was helped to a standing position. He suddenly got a wide-eyed look on his face and exclaimed with surpirse and delight "All the pain is gone!" Then he put his hands in his face and started crying and thanking Jesus for his healing. God gave him new knees!

That's what we call a creative miracle.

That's amazing and edifying, Shasha. Thanks for sharing this with us. It sounds like you're discovering something of a call to healing ministry these days.

Phil--

I feel such a passion for praying for and with others like never before. Something in me has changed since Bill Johnson laid hands on me--an impartation and blessing, I'm pretty sure of it.

I've noticed that:

The more I pray for others,

the more I want to pray,

the more I expereince peace and healing in myself.

And of course, logically, the more people I pray for, the more people receive peace and healing.




much love to you and your family!

Francis MacNutt outlines 12 reasons he feels are behind why some people do not get healed following prayer.

From his book, Healing, he writes:

The best point of view, I think, is to see that God's ordinary will is that people will be healed, unless there is some countervailing reason....To avoid simplistic approaches to healing we should be aware of the reasons people are not healed...:

1) Lack of faith....I beleive that this is still the reason we do not have more healings taking place in our churches today; there is a general skepticism about healing as being anything more than a natural psychological process.

2) Redemptive suffering. Physical healing is not in itself the highest value in the world. At times God uses sickness for a higher purpose....

"It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by christ for the sake of his body, the Church" (Col 1:24).

3) A false value attached to suffering...[sometimes there is] a strong subcouscious resistance that my block healing.

4)Sin. If there is sin connected with the physical ailment (especially resentment), no healing is likely to take place unless the sin is dealt with first.

5) Not praying specifically. Especially in praying for inner healing, it seems important to get to the root cause of emotional suffering, the initial harmful memory.

6) Faulty diagnosis. ...To be specific, the most common failures I have found are:

* praying for physical healing, when inner healing is the basic need

* praying for deliverance from evil spirits, when inner healing is the real need

* praying for inner healing when deliverance is the real need

7) Refusal to see medicine as a way God heals

8) Not using the natural means of preserving health

9) "Now is not the time..."

10) A different person is to be the instrument of healing

11) Demonic Interference. To the modern mind this may sound strange, but we have found that one reason physical and inner healing are blocked is because of demonic interference, especially if the person has been involved in the occult....two special blocks to healing: curses and generational bondage.

Once in my experience a woman was freed of severe emotional problems when we prayed to free her of the influence of a druidic priest in her family's ancient past. In another woman the blockage to the healing of her problems went back to a Black Mass performed by an ancestor in seventeenth-century England.

12) The social environment prevents healing from taking place....

Much sickness in our society is caused by wounded relationships and will only be healed when the larger relationships are healed, and until we have Christian churches and communities where people can be loved into wholeness.

The healing ministry is perhaps the most dramatic, and one of the most beautiful demonstrations of God's love for us. There is no need to overstate the case or to lead the scientific community to disparage it. If we think we have all the answers we are shut off from God's light....You should be open to being used for healing, or for not being used....Wait upon God's wisdom in all simplicity, like a child.

pp. 194-204

While I'm on the subject, let me share with you a huge lesson I learned about prayer ministry from MacNutt's School of Healing Prayer.

They taught us to recite a prayer for protection before ministering and then a "cut loose" prayer at the end of a ministry session. WOW! This has made a huge difference in my life. I realized that all those irritating or miserable energy transfers that would happen when I prayed for others were like open doors. Because I'm sensitive to the supernatural, I used to literally experience people's stuff all the time, a walking spiritual sponge.

I realize that when I pray with somebody (or even when I read something), I literally pull something of them into me. For instance, I prayed with a patient whose sister was involved in a double suicide by shooting. This was a terrible agonizing event, as you can image, for his whole family. That night, I was awakened by the sound of two gunshots (in the supernatural). Horrible. Something of that event got inside me because of my natural empathy and compassion. Another time, a man from my church was praying for me. He was close to my face and I remember his breath was getting into my breathing space. That was OK as he did not have bad breath, but that night, I was awakened by a sense of his wife. I had never met his wife, but I knew that this spiritual presence was his wife. Because this man and his wife were 'one,' and he breathed on me, I naturally experienced something of her. Fortunately, they are both very pure and good people and so it wasn't an awful experience, but you see what I mean. This has happened so many times, I can't count. And then there's the "laying on of hands" issue and we've talked about this here before. There's a lot of energy flowing that can happen through touching--good and bad.

So, we really need to do prayer ministry with reverence and caution. That's what I've learned.

Francis and Judith MacNutt had to learn these lessons the hard way, and I'm very fortunate to benefit from their training and sacrifice.

If anybody wants these prayers, I think Francis would allow me to share them with you.

much peace and love to you, dear ones!!
Shasha

Shasha, what you share about here resonates as I've experienced similar things doing spiritual direction. One of my own spiritual directors taught me years ago to "shake off" after doing a session. It's a kind of brushing oneself from head to toe with the hands. I'm sure it changes the electro-magnetic dynamics that have developed during a period of concentrated attending to another, and so it helps one to break free and move on to the next thing, whatever that might be.

I would indeed like to hear more about how the MacNutts pray for protection and then "cut loose." Thanks for sharing so generously of your experiences with them and others.

Phil

Yeah, I've experienced similar things too regarding praying for others and having people pray for me.

Let me just share what happened this week to me. I had an abscess in a very delicate area. Enough to say I couldn't sit down - or lie or walk for that matter. I had it for four days and by the fourth day it had really become so sore I couldn't function. My mum and auntie visited me to help around the house etc. and the pain got so bad we were ready to go to accident and emergency at the local hospital. My aunt, who's involved with healing rooms and is just back from a visit to Toronto, suggested she pray for me. I joked that she couldn't very well lay hands on the area. But she prayed nonetheless and put her hand on my shoulder. As soon as she had finished, I thought: this feels better. I stood up and felt great relief, went to the bathroom and discovered that the abscess had burst. It was instantaneous and really felt like something beyond the natural had occured - too much of a coincidence for it to have just burst on its own while she prayed.

Just a small work of healing but I was stunned. I've always been a bit of a sceptic. But there it is. I'm a believer.

Stephen -- what a wonderful story! Thank you, auntie!

I think we get to enjoy a lifelong journey of being healed by the Holy Spirit, in small and big ways...

I wonder if this recent healing is, in part, an answer to the prayers you described on the other thread. I think you said you were praying for closer union with Christ. Maybe God used your auntie to show you how much He cares about you?

quote:

Originally posted by Phil:
[qb]
I would indeed like to hear more about how the MacNutts pray for protection and then "cut loose."

[/qb]

I'd like to copy both of the prayers to this thread, but let me first get MacNutt's permission to do so.

I always say the prayer for protection before every face-to-face psychotherapy and ministry setting. In addition, I try to say the prayer for protection at the start of every day since I'm often in silent prayer on and off throughout the day and people spontaneously cross my path who want prayer, either by calling on the phone or make requests via email.

Last year I was talking with a woman on the phone and I felt an awful lustful energy come into me. It was very unpleasant. I knew it wasn't me, that it didn't come from me, so to speak, but it was weird because she wasn't talking about her sexuality or sex in general. As I recall it left within several minutes. A few days later, this woman confessed (spontaneously) that she was struggling with strong lustful urges and had been for years. Another anecdote that really supports our need for protection, imo.

I've heard of people with active k. who suffer from being so sensitive to other's energies that they can't leave their homes for long periods of time. I wonder if they could benefit from Christ's protection in this regard, to seal those "open doors" and live a fuller, interactive life?

I say that idealistically, but at the same time I am not confident that prayers of protection would allow me to receive a massage, for instance, without feeling something of the person's unwanted energy in my body. YUK. That happened once; I'm never doing it again.

Being energy-sensitive is a two-edged sword, isn't it? Sort of like the other senses -- bot a positive and negative aspect.

I would guess that the intent of the prayer for protection matters far more than the wording of it. If the MacNutts are willing to share the latter, then so much the better. It's good to be reminded of the importance of it, at any rate, so thanks for that.

Phil-- interesting you should ask again about the prayer today. I just heard back from a not-too-sympathetic admistrator from MacNutt's school who informed me that the prayers are from copywritten books, and I cannot reprint them here.

I'm fixin' to go back down to their school for Level II of their training in February. I think I'll just ask Francis directly if I can reprint his prayers on this thread.

In either case, you are right, of course, the intent of the prayer is what counts.


Peace and blessings to all of you. In our Lord, Shasha

When you realise all the people you meet are not actually 'out there' at all


You will understand why making them better makes you feel better inside you


They are inside you


I can prove it if you want

Daniel x

Dear friends,

Speaking of healings, this sermon by Bill Johnson is so moving...just had to pass it along. I just love to hear a grown man close to tears with love and a calling for the ministry of Jesus Christ. He shares his passion for the healing the sick, the standard that Jesus set for "healing all," and how the sick are not to be treated like "projects" but healed out of compassion.

http://www.ibethel.org/feature...dex.php?f=sermon.php

The sermon title is "Creating the Atmosphere for Increase".

--------------

Daniel-- Yes, I agree, at some level we are all one body indeed. No need to prove it to me.

I can relate to the emotional energy sensitivity thing. I wonder if I get more in touch with my body if I will notice that there is also a general energy sensitivity and I just didn't understand what it was before...hmmm.

Regarding Phil's brushing off action, that reminds me of "tracing" the meridians, which is supposed to clear energy blocks. I'm not sure what I believe about all that yet, other than my personal experience working with meridians has been very positive. I've used it in Brain Gym Brain Gym, educational kinesiology, which i got licensed in to help further my work (at the time) with learning disorders in kids. It is very powerful. I still use it. But that is the chinese system v the Indian kundalini...

I'm really looking forward to learning more from you all as time goes on!

Michelle, good to hear from you.

I think the Chinese system is working with the same energy (chi) that the Hindus call prana, just in a different way. It might be part of what the Hebrews meant by spirit (ruah) as breath.

Brain Gym looks very interesting!

Thanks Phil!

Brain Gym is very interesting. I enjoy it.

It is really intriguing this energy idea. I have so many questions and plan to continue researching the broad topic via the yoga connection (to keep me focused!).

I have been listening to a lot of preachers lately who are involved in healing and prophetic ministry, like Bill Johnson that Kate (?) mentioned. (His sermons are great!) there seems to be a lot of overlap with some occultic issues and these guys address the issues, which I appreciate. One pointed out that many people are so afraid of getting involved in the occult that they shun the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are more "miraculous", like healing. That is a good point.

So much has been learned or discovered about these energy systems from spiritual arenas that are suspect, at times. I wonder how much can be taken as truth. An extreme example: people who are into battling demons have developed elaborate charts of info on the demonic realm from information gleaned from demons THEMSELVES. Whether the info is 5% or 90% accurate, we'll never truly know in this life. Should we be building strategies and philosophies on "doctrines of demons"? I don't have the answer, but am thinking about this idea in a broad way as it relates to eastern thought, medicine, energy and a view of the soul...

I think this is fascinating, but also very important to understand.

Michelle

Hi Michelle,

Good to meet you (so to speak ). Yes, Brain Gym looks interesting. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I love Bill Johnson's sermons too. I met him this summer and have not been the same since he laid hands on me. I wrote a little about my experience on another thread here called, End Time Army.

Like you, I've been drawn to wanting to learn more about the Holy Spirit's gifts of healing and prayer and how it's different from the occult. While there is a lot out there we *can* learn about demons and the supernatural, I guess we all have to discern where we should focus our intentions, what will actually bear eternal fruit. As for strategies for dealing with demons, the best folks on deliverance ministries are Francis and Judith MacNutt, in my view. Their approach is that you first need a Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then, healings and deliverance of demons should be a 'normal' way of life.

peace to you, Shasha

OK, finally getting back to your request, Phil. Last week while I was at Christian Healing Ministries, I did ask Francis MacNutt if I could reproduce his prayers for this thread. He said, "Oh, sure."


A Prayer for Protection
(To be prayed before ministry.)

In the name of Jesus Christ, and by the power of his Cross and his Blood, we bind up the power of any evil spirits and command them not to block our prayers. We bind up the powers of earth, air, water, fire, the netherworld and the satanic forces of nature.

We break any curses, hexes or spells sent against us and declare them null and void. We break the assignments of any spirits sent against us and send them to Jesus to deal with them as He will. Lord we ask you to bless our enemies by sending your Holy Spirit to lead them to repentance and conversion.

Furthermore, we bind all interaction and communication in the world of spirits as it affects us and our ministry.

We ask for the protection of the shed blood of Jesus Christ over ____________________.

Thank you, Lord, for your protection and send your angels, especially St. Michael, the Archangel, to help us in the battle. We ask you to guide us in our prayers; share with us your Spirit�s power and compassion. Amen.
-------------------------------------

Prayer to be Set Free
(To be prayed following ministry)

Lord Jesus, thank you for sharing with us the wonderful ministry of healing and deliverance. Thank you for the healings we have seen and experienced today.

We realize that the sickness and evil we encounter is more than our humanity can bear. So cleanse us of any sadness, negativity or despair that we may have picked up.

If our ministry has tempted us to anger, impatience or lust, cleanse us of those temptations and replace them with love, joy and peace.

If any evil spirits have attached themselves to us or oppressed us in any way, we command you, spirits of earth, air, fire or water, of the netherworld or of nature, to depart�now�and go straight to Jesus Christ for him to deal with them as he will.

Come Holy Spirit, renew us, fill us anew with your power, your life and your joy. Strengthen us where we have felt weak and clothe us with your light. Fill us with life.

And Lord Jesus, please send your holy angels to minister to us and our families�guard us and protect us from all sickness, harm and accidents. (Give us a safe trip home.)

We praise you now and forever, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we ask these things in Jesus� Holy Name that he may be glorified. Amen

(Prayers by Dr. Francis MacNutt.)

Thank you so much, Shasha. Beautiful prayers.

Dear friends, I wanted to share a few testimonies of Jesus healing the sick.

The night after my first day at Christian Healing Ministries, I experienced a wonderful thing. I was in my hotel room and it was about 4:30 am. I was rudely awakened by a man in the room above who began coughing. I could hear him very clearly through the thin construction. This man's coughing quickly turned into a horrible retching sound and more out-of-control coughing. I laid there thinking, "I should pray." But I was tired and was feeling annoyed that my sleep was interrupted. So I muttered to myself, "Lord help him. Heal him, Father." The coughing got much worse. Now the coughing fits were closer together and he was obviously gasping for breaths in between the coughing. I realized, this is serious! If he doesn't stop, I'll have to call an ambulance, so I sat up urgently in my bed and I felt, "I have to pray!" So I began praying in tongues automatically, without trying. Would you believe that in just a matter of seconds, his coughing and gagging instantly stopped, no slowing down, just total quiet! Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus.

Recently, I prayed for a little girl, age 4. Her mother told me she had a bad case of sleep apnea which often kept her from getting a solid night's sleep. She would wake herself up repeatedly through the night because she would suddenly stop breathing. I asked her mom if I could pray for her while she was napping. I laid hands on her and prayed in the Spirit. I watched the sleep apnea in process. She would stop breathing and then suddenly gasp for air over and over again within a few minutes of being with her. The mother left the room after a few minutes of this. As soon as she left the room, I literally felt power going through my hands. Tears rolled down my face as I literally watched this child's breathing become normal and even. Thank you, Lord.

I realized why all the faith healers I've studied report that it is God who does the healing. There's a real sense that it is not you doing the healing, though you are doing the praying...pretty amazing!!

Christ's peace to you all!

Oh, I realized the coughing man story could be interpretted as his stopping suddenly to mean that he just died! But that's not the case. A minute after he recovered from the coughing, I heard water running and then the TV went on. So I got to enjoy the weather channel for a few hours!

One other praise report. I prayed for my cousin and his wife back at Christmastime. They had been trying to conceive for a full 10 years with no luck despite medical interventions. Neither of them had any detectable problems with their reproductive capacity. I felt moved to lay hands on them as a couple and break any supernatural forces that were coming against them. I prayed in the Spirit. Both of them are Catholics but were a little embarrassed about receiving hands on prayer, but I just had to do it!! Three months later, the wife is pregnant!! Thank you, Lord!!!

Thank you for sharing these accounts of healings, Shasha. Yes indeed, it is God who does the healing, and it sounds like you're a vessel of God's healing power. Of course (and here's the mysterious part) this healing must also be "willed" by God, and it sounds like you're attuned to when God's will becomes manifest in this manner.

quote:

Originally posted by Shasha:
[qb] Oh, I realized the coughing man story could be interpretted as his stopping suddenly to mean that he just died! But that's not the case. A minute after he recovered from the coughing, I heard water running and then the TV went on. So I got to enjoy the weather channel for a few hours!

One other praise report. I prayed for my cousin and his wife back at Christmastime. They had been trying to conceive for a full 10 years with no luck despite medical interventions. Neither of them had any detectable problems with their reproductive capacity. I felt moved to lay hands on them as a couple and break any supernatural forces that were coming against them. I prayed in the Spirit. Both of them are Catholics but were a little embarrassed about receiving hands on prayer, but I just had to do it!! Three months later, the wife is pregnant!! Thank you, Lord!!! [/qb]

Shasha, these are wonderful testimonies... I too have been "going after healing" with God for a few years now, with little success! However, I will keep pressing on to learn how to acquire His grace for healing others. I have read several times that John Wimber gave one year of sermons in his church on Divine healing before one person was healed of a cold! Week after week John would preach on healing, then at the end of teaching he would invite people to come forward for prayer for healing and nobody got healed for one year!! However, he was faithful and there was finally a breakthough, and I think you know of his ministry.

How exciting that you got to go to a Bill Johnson healing conference. Have you heard of Randy Clark's healing schools? Are you familiar with the writings of Agnes Sanford? Some consider her one of the "pioneers" in teaching of others on Divine healing in Christianity... I have read almost all her books and found them very helpful!

Caneman

quote:

Originally posted by Caneman:
[qb] [QUOTE]I too have been "going after healing" with God for a few years now, with little success! However, I will keep pressing on to learn how to acquire His grace for healing others. I have read several times that John Wimber gave one year of sermons in his church on Divine healing before one person was healed of a cold! Week after week John would preach on healing, then at the end of teaching he would invite people to come forward for prayer for healing and nobody got healed for one year!! However, he was faithful and there was finally a breakthough, and I think you know of his ministry.

How exciting that you got to go to a Bill Johnson healing conference. Have you heard of Randy Clark's healing schools? Are you familiar with the writings of Agnes Sanford? Some consider her one of the "pioneers" in teaching of others on Divine healing in Christianity... I have read almost all her books and found them very helpful!

Caneman [/qb]

Keep pressing in, Caneman. That's what many have done, as you know. I remember reading John Wimber�s story in his book Power Healing. I thought, Wow, what determination!! Bill Johnson, reports that he kept trying to avoid the scripture "..and these signs will follow those who believe�they will heal the sick." Bill says he saw one healing and then nothing for many years as if God's anointing came and then left to test his character. It feels like a long process to me, Caneman, and that wish to be a healer is a part of growing in the character of Christ. One major turning point for me, about 3 years ago, was when I listened to a testimony from a young woman at Bill Johnson's church who was casually healing the sick here and there as she went about her normal day. I listened to it on a CD in my car one day. I literally wept as I heard her pure, innocent voice coming through the speakers. She must have been no older than 19 or so. I cried tears of joy and longing and a tinge of shame at what I heard / felt in her voice. The shame was from feeling that I was so far away from the purity this young lady exuded. I saw that I lacked her purity but was close enough at the same time to recognize a kernel of it in me. So, for me, it�s been about growing in a kind of purity of motive that seems connected to being open to the gift of healing.

I've not been to Randy Clark's school, but know he's well-respected. I'm reading Sanford's autobiography now, but am too swamped with work to get through it. I believe that receiving Bill Johnson�s, Mahesh Chavda�s, and the MacNutt�s hands on impartations and blessings have made me more open to praying for the sick and being used by God when He chooses to heal.

At Vineyard, we pray in teams. I prayed with a partner just last Sunday. We prayed for a woman who had terrible, chronic pain in her neck and shoulders. I had to encourage her to relax a few times as she was closed tight and knew she was subconsciously not wanting to receive God�s healing. After a few minutes of this, she said the pain was still �terrible.� I was led to gently stroke her forehead. I kept praying in tongues and suddenly I saw something deep inside her that I felt compelled to speak out loud. I said, �You seem to believe that being faithful is the same as being responsible for something that does not belong to you. You have taken on a burden that does NOT belong to you.� .. Instantly, it was like the armor was pierced and she began to cry. As soon as this happened, I felt a nasty energy leave her body and it hung in the air amongst us. I was waving my hand around to push this thing away. I looked at my prayer partner who was making a face, and I thought, �she can smell this thing with her nose.� Later, my prayer partner said it smelled like sulfur, which is commonly reported when a demonic spirit leaves. I didn�t smell it, but I could distinctly feel that it was dirty. The prayer recipient reported that much of her pain did leave just then. We invited her to come back for deeper, inner healing prayer.

I don't have all "success" in praying for the sick, Caneman. There are many for whom I pray who are not healed, but enough so that I try to stay open to when/how God wants me to pray. It helps to be part of a community of believers who are all surrendered to praying for healing by the power of the Holy Spirit (which is a little different than the �power of now� ; - ))