In Christianity, physical healing is a difficult and pretty controversial topic. There’s many questions that come along with it. And I don’t have all of the answers yet. But one thing that I think we can all agree on is that in Jesus' ministry, he healed a ton of people. I literally just googled how many people Jesus healed that were recorded in the gospels. Here’s what came up:
-There are 31 different stories in the gospels of Jesus bringing either physical healing, deliverance from demons, or life back to dead people at an individual level. In these stories it specifically says who Jesus healed, what their condition was, etc.
-There are 20 different stories in the gospels where mass healings take place with Jesus. These are stories where it says statements that tell us that Jesus healed larger amounts of people, without giving specific numbers.
And then in Luke 10, Jesus sends out the 72, and tells them to go into every city that He will eventually go to, and heal those in it who are sick. Then the 72 come back rejoicing saying “even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” Based off the happy report, I think it’s safe to say a lot of people got healed in those cities.
And the gospels seem to just be a little peak into what was going on regularly for Jesus. John says that Jesus did “...many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” So there were probably a lot more people healed, delivered, and risen from the dead in the ministry of Jesus than we know.
My point is this: Jesus seems to be very pro-healing.
And then we’re called to heal the sick as well (Matthew 10:8; Mark 16:17-18; 1 John 2:6).
So tonight, I just felt led to give my top 10 practical tips for believers who want to be obedient to Jesus’ commands to bring healing to people.
We can do it!
Nathanael
-There are 31 different stories in the gospels of Jesus bringing either physical healing, deliverance from demons, or life back to dead people at an individual level. In these stories it specifically says who Jesus healed, what their condition was, etc.
-There are 20 different stories in the gospels where mass healings take place with Jesus. These are stories where it says statements that tell us that Jesus healed larger amounts of people, without giving specific numbers.
And then in Luke 10, Jesus sends out the 72, and tells them to go into every city that He will eventually go to, and heal those in it who are sick. Then the 72 come back rejoicing saying “even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” Based off the happy report, I think it’s safe to say a lot of people got healed in those cities.
And the gospels seem to just be a little peak into what was going on regularly for Jesus. John says that Jesus did “...many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” So there were probably a lot more people healed, delivered, and risen from the dead in the ministry of Jesus than we know.
My point is this: Jesus seems to be very pro-healing.
And then we’re called to heal the sick as well (Matthew 10:8; Mark 16:17-18; 1 John 2:6).
So tonight, I just felt led to give my top 10 practical tips for believers who want to be obedient to Jesus’ commands to bring healing to people.
- Make it a discipline in your life to always offer prayer for healing when someone mentions a pain or sickness that they have in front of you. You will be shocked by how many times a week you will get to pray for someone once you have this discipline implemented in your life.
- Pray a “commanding prayer.” Jesus or the apostles didn’t ask God to come down and heal people if it was His will. Jesus and the apostles commanded things to happen and they did. So when you get to pray for your coworkers hurting back, just say something like “back be healed in Jesus’ name.”
- Pray more than once if needed. In Mark 8, Jesus laid his hands on a blind guy, and he wasn’t fully healed. Then after the second time Jesus laid his hands on him, he was fully healed. So if a person doesn’t get healed after the first prayer, that doesn’t mean the fun is over. Pray again! And maybe even a third time.
- Ask people if they need healing for anything. Tons of people are hurting, and most of them aren't going to tell you, because most of them don’t know that you have the cure. It’s as easy as saying this with a smile on your face to the cashier at the grocery store: “Hey, I know this is a strange question, but I know you’re working hard and have probably been standing up all day, you don’t have any back pain, do you?” Then if he or she does, follow some of the other practical tips that I’ve written and go from there.
- Ask Jesus for opportunities to obey this command. You will be surprised by how many people you come in contact with who need healing if you pray this prayer. You’ve been warned.
- If you don't see someone healed, that doesn't mean it's not God's will to heal that person and that doesn't mean it's not God's will to use you in healing. I prayed for probably close to 50 people before I started seeing people get healed. Keep going after it, keep growing in faith, keep being persistent, keep obeying this command of Jesus, and I really do believe results will happen.
- Have fun with it. A theologian I like named Robert Capon says this: “For while it is true that nothing that is fun can be done without some measure of discipline, it is practically an eternal truth that nothing that calls for discipline will be kept at very long (or very well) if it is not fun.” If you aren’t having fun stepping out and taking risks, you won’t keep it up for very long.
- Find a buddy that will go on this journey with you. Jesus sent out the 72 out in 2’s. Having someone go after this healing stuff with you will help tremendously. Share the successes and the failures with them. Set some goals with them.
- Be spirit led with your approach. Sometimes Jesus laid His hands on people. And Mark 16:18 says that believers will “lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” Sometimes people got healed just by a word of authority like when Peter says “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” in Acts 3. Jesus even spit on a man’s eyes once. There’s many different examples we see, so do whatever you feel led to do. But if it’s the spitting one, make sure you’re feeling very led by the Spirit.
- Above all else, love the person. Don’t let them just be an attempt to have a testimony to share at your Bible study. What we want is for people to feel loved and get healed. But even if the healing doesn’t happen, but they feel loved, it’s still a big win.
We can do it!
Nathanael