Authors: Praying Medic
Some receivers are skilled at running routes, but they don’t catch many passes. Poor receivers can be distracted by the defense and are easily intimidated. Some are fearful of what will happen if they catch a pass. At the critical time when the ball is in the air and their eyes should be looking for the ball, they’re looking somewhere else, thinking about the defender, or their hands aren’t in the right position. If any of these things become a habit, the receiver will be inconsistent. Poor receivers are easily distracted and intimidated; good receivers are fearless and focused.
As a new member of the team, the rookie receiver is unaware of the things that veterans know, putting them at a disadvantage. In his
favor
is the fact that the opposition usually underestimates the ability of rookies. They focus more on veteran receivers, often putting two defenders on them, leaving a rookie uncovered. This can provide the new-comer with excellent opportunities to catch a few passes without interference from the defense. As a rookie proves himself, he becomes the target of the defense and draws more harassment.
Some rookies rise to the occasion, making catches that surprise everyone including themselves. Determined ones find ways to outsmart and outplay defenders. Instead of being intimidated, they become more determined to win. Their leaping, one-handed grabs and acrobatic catches leave defenders looking like incompetent fools. Quarterbacks dream of having receivers like this on their team.
Many talented receivers succumb to intimidation, pain, and harassment from defenders who battle for every ball thrown their way. Some can’t shake the memories of the reception that was rewarded with a hit so hard it required surgery and months of physical therapy afterward. Some see themselves as unable to measure up to the expectations of the fans and the team. When fear or low self-esteem sets in, receivers can develop an attitude of defeat that prevents them from playing up to their full potential.
In summary, good receivers play without fear. Some are unafraid because they don’t know the strength of the opponent. Other receivers know the opponent’s strengths, but they’ve learned to outplay them. Receivers who live in fear tend to play poorly. Now let’s turn the discussion back to healing.
I’d like to share a story about someone who wasn’t healed the first time I prayed for her. Early one morning in October of 2011, a co-worker made her way outside to wash an ambulance. I noticed she was limping and asked what happened. I told her that I see a lot of people healed and asked if I could try to get her healed.
She said, “What do you mean?”
“I just want to pray over your knee.”
With a concerned look she asked, “What are you going to do to me?”
“Can I take a look at your knee?”
She rolled up her pant leg and showed me the swollen knee. I could see her kneecap was displaced laterally.
“I just want to place my hand on your knee and pray.”
She asked, “You aren’t going to hit me, are you?”
“Why would I want to hurt you?”
She said her roommate intentionally hit her on the injured leg a couple of times and she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to do the same thing. I told her I wasn’t going to hit her and she finally agreed to let me pray over her knee. When I did, she felt nothing. I prayed three times with no change. I told her that I believed she would see her healing soon and walked away.
I was disappointed. I really wanted her to be healed. On the same day, I prayed with another co-worker, who had a partially torn Achilles tendon and pain in his back. He was healed of everything instantly. That day and for a few days following, I asked God why one person was healed and the other one wasn’t. I believe God told me the man with the Achilles tendon injury and back pain was healed because he gladly received his healing without fear while the woman with the injured knee wasn’t healed because she was afraid.
A couple of months later, the woman with the injured knee saw me loading my gear in the ambulance. She came over and asked why she wasn’t healed. I told her I believed it was because she was afraid of being hurt and fear prevented her from being healed. I told her the offer was still open. If she wanted to be healed, God would heal her. She said she wanted to be healed. We sat on the couch at our station. She showed me her swollen knee, wrapped in a bandage. I asked God to bring His presence upon her then asked what she felt.
“I feel really relaxed and at peace.”
I commanded the swelling, inflammation and pain to leave and commanded the ligaments, tendons, muscles, nerves, cartilage and bones to be healed. She felt heat going through her knee, which increased each of the three times I prayed. While her knee was being healed, I taught her how to keep her healing. (We’ll discuss that in the next chapter.) I warned her that the symptoms might return and told her to believe that she was healed and to command the symptoms to leave if they returned.
I saw her three weeks later and asked how her knee felt. She said it felt great. I asked if she was serious. With a smile, she looked at me and said, “Yeah – it feels great!”
When she wasn’t healed the first time, the easiest explanation would be to assume that God didn’t want her to be healed. That’s what many of us do. Thinking that we prayed with faith, when someone isn’t healed, we wonder if perhaps God doesn’t want them healed. The fact that this woman was healed at a later date demonstrated that the failed healing wasn’t a problem with God; it was a problem with her. She could not receive healing in a state of fear. One of the most frequent problems with failed healing is the fact that we can’t receive all that God wants to give us.
This is a difficult concept for many of us to understand, particularly if we believe in a God who is all-powerful. God is indeed all-powerful. He is able to do whatever He wishes. But He has chosen to limit the manifestation of His power for healing to that which we’re able to release or receive through faith. Our faith, our fear, our doubt and unbelief all play a role in how healing is released and received. It was fear that prevented her from receiving her healing, because fear opposes faith.
In these two examples, the only difference I could see was that one person was open to prayer and had no fear, while the other was reluctant about prayer and was afraid. These attitudes are not uncommon. In fact, they represent two of the most common types of receivers you’re likely to meet.
Many people are ignorant about divine healing, the reality of demons, the existence of God and problems of abuse in the church. These people are, is a sense, spiritual rookies, who don’t have a reason to be fearful. I’ve found that they usually receive healing rather easily. While many of them are neutral on the issue of God’s existence, they’ll agree to let you pray with them because they feel they have nothing to lose. They aren’t afraid of God or Christians and they haven’t been wounded in the church or suffered demonic attacks. They have a simplistic almost child-like view of spiritual matters. I would liken them to the children whom Jesus said were able to receive the kingdom of God. I’ve prayed with two such people often in the last few years. One of them is my son, the other is my former EMT partner.
Both of these guys are prone to frequent injury. In the past four years I’ve prayed with each one over a dozen times for various conditions like neck pain, back pain, knee pain, a partially separated shoulder, headaches, stomach pain and a hand injury. The first time I wanted to pray for healing they were willing to let me try and both were healed instantly. The same thing happened the next time. After that, every time they needed healing they asked me to pray with them because they knew they would be healed. No fear. No doubt. No unbelief. Both received their healing each time I prayed with them.
Their view of healing is simple. They figure that if God healed them in the past, He would heal them again. They’ve learned how to be good receivers of healing by practicing their receiving skills. The process for receiving healing looks something like this:
• Ask for healing
• Expect to be healed
• Receive God’s healing power
• Believe you are healed
• Be thankful for your healing
We all come into the world without views toward spiritual life. Only through experiences, both negative and positive, do we develop things like fear, doubt, anxiety, faith, courage or hope. The experiences we have color our perceptions of God and His ways. Our perceptions dictate the things we think about and the ways in which we think about them.
In contrast to the spiritual rookies, there are those who have had many spiritual experiences – both negative and positive. It’s this group, and in particular, those who have had negative experiences that seem to have the most trouble receiving healing. If you’ve prayed with many people for healing, you’ve probably noticed a few folks who stand out from the crowd.
Some people are untrusting when you ask if you can pray with them. The fears they have are usually due to negative experiences they’ve had in the past that they don’t want to repeat. The negative experiences involve things that were said or done to them. It’s not uncommon to have someone tell you that you’re not healed yet because you don’t have enough faith. When you hear this repeatedly, it can make you think twice about asking for prayer. I’ve heard complaints from women who reported being groped by a man who prayed for them. It’s for this reason that healing conferences often restrict prayer to team members who have been selected in advance. When prayer includes prophetic ministry, the one praying might believe they have discerned sins the person has committed and announce them publicly. There is no real benefit to exposing someone’s sins publicly. When this is done it causes them to suffer shame and condemnation. There are many other ways in which people can be wounded during times of prayer. Someone who has had negative experiences like these can be difficult to pray with simply because the situation of receiving prayer itself can bring back painful memories from the past.
Another type of person is the Christian who has received prayer from many people who are successful in healing, but they still haven’t been healed. They may actually seem to be sicker than when they first began. Many of these individuals become obsessed with their medical conditions to the point that it’s all they talk about. Most of their conversations are a monologue about how bad their disease is, how doctors have failed them and how many people have prayed with them unsuccessfully. Eventually they’ll confess the fear that God doesn’t want them healed.
In many cases, the individual becomes fixated on past failed experiences, instead of focusing on seeing themselves healed. As much as they’re sick and tired of being defeated, they can’t visualize Jesus actually healing them. Some don’t believe they’re worthy of healing, some feel it’s their punishment or cross to bear, and some believe their sickness is a divinely appointed lesson to build their character. For whatever reason, they haven’t learned how to be a good receiver of healing.
I suspect that some of these people suffer from demonic oppression that has not been dealt with. Demonic oppression can create fear and hopelessness, which worsens their symptoms and prevents them from receiving the healing they so desperately want. If they were to be delivered of the demonic oppression, no doubt they would probably be healed.
We know that faith is one of the keys for those who desire to release God’s healing power. If we have fear, unbelief or uncertainties about God’s will in healing, we won’t see people healed. These things are barriers to releasing God’s power, but they also prevent us from receiving it. As the one praying, we can pray a perfect prayer of faith, but if the one we’re praying for is full of fear, they may not be healed.
James reminded the church about the necessity of asking God in faith and not doubting:
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
JAMES 1:6-8
This instruction was given to the church, to those who know God. We can’t expect people who don’t know God to ask Him in faith for healing, but we can expect it of the church. I believe it’s for this reason that many people in the church have not yet received their healing.
Like the receiver who can’t shake the defender, they never seem to be open to receive the pass and when they are, their eyes are distracted as the ball approaches. If they manage to make the catch, the enemy quickly steals the ball, leaving them with another demoralizing defeat. But the cycle of defeat can be broken.
If someone receives prayer from multiple people with a good track record for healing and no progress is being made, it almost certainly points to a demonic presence that hasn’t been dealt with. Further prayer for healing without removing the demon(s) will be fruitless. Deliverance should be considered in such cases, if the individual is willing.
Another problem is a mind that hasn’t come to accept the reality that Christ is our healer, and that healing is available to everyone, regardless of their situation. It’s easy to believe that some people deserve healing more than others. It’s equally easy to believe that some deserve sickness more than others. Healing is an act of God’s grace. Like any other work of grace – we cannot qualify or disqualify ourselves as a recipient. Grace is given freely to all who are willing to receive it – regardless of our perceived merit. If we believe there is a valid reason for our sickness, our healing will likely not manifest until we understand the truth about God’s healing grace.
Our minds must focus on Jesus and the great love He has toward us. We must meditate on his mercy, love, grace and kindness toward us and refuse to entertain thoughts to the contrary. Fixing our eyes on Jesus is the most important step we can take in becoming a better receiver of healing. To bring this chapter to a close, I’d like to share a testimony from my friend Mike Laabs about a dream that provided the key to his healing: