When joining with the Spirit of Jesus to minister healing, it’s important to give yourself permission to be a learner. “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin” (Zechariah 4:10).
In all matters of faith, we learn by doing, by putting into practice what we learn from the Bible. At times we will make mistakes, get disappointed, and fail. We’ll need to get back up on our feet and try again with a different approach — that’s how we learn and grow as apprentices to Christ in the Kingdom of God.
A simple way I (Kristi) do this is by praying for the Good Shepherd to find his lost “sheep” when we lose something (Luke 15:3-6). Then we search with Jesus and when we find it (which we usually do), we don’t view it as a coincidence, but give thanks to the Lord our Shepherd for helping us!
One day I lost my wedding ring. We prayed for Jesus to find it for us and then remembered we’d been playing at the beach that day. Finding a ring on a sandy beach is like finding a needle in a haystack! Nonetheless, we kept praying as we returned to the beach and combed through the sand. Sure enough, the Spirit of the Lord showed us where it was!
Prayer projects test out our adjustment for tapping into the movement and power of the Spirit. Like spiritual scientists, there are many prayer experiments we can try. This is how we grow our faith in God’s presence and power to help us.
For instance, before an important ministry or family event, we can earnestly pray for God to strengthen our immune system and bless our sleep and the vitamins we take so we don’t get sick.
It’s fun to practice praying for God’s (super)natural interventions in our daily needs and watch to see what God does! We can pray for God to:
- Find our lost keys
- Heal a headache
- Keep us safe on a car trip
- Give fresh energy and ideas as we work on a project
- Reveal to us the source and cure for our back pain as we research and work with a physical therapist
It greatly strengths our faith to pray for little things and notice God’s assistance. We discover that Jesus is indeed present with us and powerful to intervene supernaturally in our lives. It gives us confidence that the word of the Lord is true in our own daily life.
We can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Then when we ourselves or someone in our circle of concern is sick, diagnosed with a disease, or struggling with a painful emotional-relational problem, we’ll pray to the Lord for healing with boldness and enthusiasm.
This blog is adapted from Bill & Kristi’s new book Healing Prayer: For Emotional & Physical Wholeness.
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Listen to SoulTalk Healing Prayer: You Can Experience Divine Health
Bill & Kristi talk about what it looks like for us to build faith and boldness for emotional & physical healing, and how praying for healing is just a piece of the beautiful journey of our apprenticeship to Jesus.
