How to Heal the Sick

A simple tool to activate any believer to heal the sick

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G’day Everyone and Welcome to another edition of “The Holy Go” where we teach, equip and empower you to share the gospel!

Last week’s challenge was to use the Palms Prayer. How did it go? I love using it as a daily rhythm and believe it’s a great way to lead people into an encounter with Jesus.

This week we are looking at one of my favourite forms of evangelism: Healing Evangelism. I have seen countless people activated by using the simple tool I share at the end. Check it out and give it a go!

Equip

One of my favourite ways to Share the Gospel is by praying for healing. I’ve seen God heal the blind, deaf and dumb. I’ve seen people throw away casts and crutches as Jesus heals them on the spot.

One story I love sharing is when I was at the Mind Body Spirit festival. There were all sorts of spiritually curious people searching through this festival looking for something with meaning.

A lady came up to our stall and asked for prayer. I asked “prayer for what?” and she had no idea. However, I saw she had a bandage on her wrist. I asked if she would like to be healed, which she said yes.

I turned to her partner and said, “Do you know how to pray?”

“Pray? I don’t even believe in God!” he replied.

“Well, you’re about to meet Him! Grab her wrist and repeat after me, Jesus please heal my friend.”

He looked at me strangely, grabbed her wrist and mumbled, “Jesus please heal my friend.”

As soon as he finished I asked the lady to check out her wrist. Her eyes lit up and shaking her wrist she said, “Wow! It’s better!”

Her partners eyes nearly popped out of his head. He couldn’t believe what was happening!

I asked if it was 100% healed, but she said it was “nearly” 100%. As I went to grab her hand to pray for her, I felt Holy Spirit say, “James, tell her that just as I am about to heal her hand, I want to heal her whole life!”

So I did. She began to weep, and her hand was totally healed! I asked her if she wanted to know this Jesus more, and of course she said yes.

It turns out she had a lot going in on in her life. I was able to demonstrate and declare the good news of the Kingdom of God to her, and she started following Jesus that very day.

Healing in History

Did you know that just as people came to Christ in miraculous ways throughout Scripture, the same can happen today? Healing was an essential part of the gospel message that Jesus proclaimed.

In my previous newsletters, I have outlined how the Gospel of the Kingdom is to be Declared and Demonstrated in order to open peoples eyes.

The Apostle Paul stated that he wanted his preaching to rest on the power of God and not his wise and persuasive speech. Put simply, when we preach the gospel, we cannot just leave it with words. It must be accompanied by action. It must be demonstrated.

Healing is one way Jesus, the Disciples, the Early Church and countless of others throughout history have demonstrated the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Who can heal?

Before we move any further, I want to highlight that the ability to perform healing miracles is for every believer. Not only that, but healing has always been part of Jesus command to those being sent out to preach the gospel.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12 NIV

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:17-18

“Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness… As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Matthew 10:1, 7-8

Did you catch that? Healing ministry is part of the preaching of the gospel, and is available for all whoever believes! It’s for every disciple! That means you!

SPITS

Here is a simple tool that will help you “heal the sick.” It’s called SPITS and is based on Jesus’ interaction with the blind man in Mark 8:22-26.

Step 1: See the need
Often when we are sharing the gospel there will be people around who need healing. You can identify these by looking at the people, asking the people or even through words of knowledge. I then like to ask people what their pain is on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being no pain and 10 being lots of pain. We do this because we want to be able to identify what God is doing.

Once I have found the people or person I will be praying for I will tell them a story of how I have seen God heal their ailment in the past. If I haven’t seen that specific miracle before, I will simply share other healing stories. I do this to increase my faith and theirs. Scripture demonstrates repeatedly the link between faith and miracles.

Step 2: Pray
If appropriate I will ask if I may lay hands on the body part that is injured or sick OR I will ask if I may place my hands on their shoulder. If neither option is appropriate I will ask them to lay their own hands on that body part, or ask one of their friends to do this. Next I simply pray a short and simple prayer, “Jesus please heal my friend.” I’ve seen cancer, injuries and other sicknesses healed through that simple prayer.

If they are not immediately healed after step 3 I will then switch the way I pray to a command. This is how the disciples often performed healing. I will say something specific and command the body to be healed in Jesus name. For example, “Blind eyes, I command you in Jesus name to be healed!”

Step 3: Investigate
Next I ask them to check out the pain. I want them to do something they couldn’t do before to test the healing. This is an important step where we get them to exercise their faith. Jesus would tell people to pick up their mat, wash off their eyes, show themselves to the priest and so forth… I ask them on a scale of 0-10 where the pain is now. If there is still pain or sickness I thank God for what He is doing, and then repeat steps 1 and 2 and switch to the prayer of command. (See Mark 8:22-26 for when Jesus had to pray twice!)

Step 4: Thank God

Now that the person is experiencing healing I tell them that it was God who healed them. I then tell them to thank God. And we say a prayer of thanks out loud. For example, “Jesus, thank you for healing me!”

Step 5: Share the gospel
After thanking God I will continue to share the gospel with them by declaring and explaining the gospel. I will give them an opportunity to repent and believe. (See last weeks newsletter for a great way to do this!) I will often say something along these lines, “Just as God has healed your wrist, He now wants to heal your whole life! And He is inviting you to join Him in bringing healing to the whole world!”

Conclusion

So there you have it. That is my starters guide for how to heal the sick. It’s a simple model that allows you to begin sharing the good news the way Jesus did it, the way He commanded us to, and the way the Disciples did. I encourage you to step out in faith, take a risk, and be amazed as God begins to work miracles among you that leads people into the loving arms of Jesus.

Activate

This weeks challenge is to go through the SPITS model.

Begin by “Seeing the need.” I saw the need many times before I plucked up the courage to start praying for people. But seeing the need is the first skill to master.

Once you have seen the need, try and move through the steps to Praying for people and Investigating. You will be surprised how God shows up and responds to our steps of faith! When you do, don’t forget to Thank God, and Share the Gospel!

Let me know how you get on!

Let’s Go!