Bill Johnson On Healing

Bill Johnson on the 700 Club

Bill Johnson - God's Concealed Glory and Sovereign Healing

Bill Johnson discusses why God generally conceals His glory and on rare occasions, reveals it more fully. He also discusses the purpose of God's sovereign acts in the earth.

Releasing The Supernatural Presence of God

Every time I listen to Bill Johnson, I’m challenged in some part of my life. Most often it’s in the place of living the kind of life Jesus lived. Call me a fool, but I’m trying to take seriously the fact that Jesus said we would do even greater things than He did.

I’d heard this particular message before, but this time his words brought to mind something I’d been wrestling with for a long time. Bill hinted at the answer I’d been looking for. He loves to hint at the answers, without coming right out and telling you the full implications of what he's saying. There’s always a pregnant pause for reflection.

The message was on hosting God’s presence. If you aren’t familiar with hosting the presence of God, I recommend viewing the video (here) because much of what I’m about to share is tied to the concepts he illustrates so well.

As Christians, we are carriers of God’s Spirit and partakers of His divine nature. God is present in and resides with us. His presence in us is the life and power behind all that we do. He has enabled us to do things that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. His divine enabling is one aspect of His grace. While the law sets prohibitions on what we can do, His grace enables us to do more than we would ever dream of before receiving it.

Jesus often released the power (or presence) of God into a situation to bring about an expected result. He said, “The words that I speak are spirit and they are life.”

His very words carried the spirit and life of God in them. As he spoke to the sick, his words destroyed sickness. He knew how to release God’s presence. The release of God’s presence isn’t always under our control. Sometimes it flowed from him as he passed through a crowd like with the woman who was healed of her flow of blood.

Peter understood that he carried the presence of God. When the lame man asked for alms, Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” (Acts 3:6). What did Peter have? The presence of God. As he released it into the lame man, it enabled him to walk.

The instruction of Jesus was aimed at helping the disciples understand this concept; that they were carriers of God’s presence. As such, they had been authorized and empowered to do more than they realized and they were often afraid to fully walk in this reality.

When the loaves of bread were multiplied, it was the disciples who perceived that the multitude was hungry. They went to Jesus about the problem. They offered two solutions; send the crowd home, or buy them food. Having little money, they suggested sending them home. Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” In His instruction, Christ gave them the supernatural ability to carry out his command and they didn’t even know it. They gathered some bread and gave it to Jesus, expecting him to work a miracle. He blessed it and handed back a handful of bread. It had not yet multiplied. It was when they obeyed his command to feed the multitude that it multiplied. And it happened by their own hands.

Apparently, they either didn’t realize they had worked this miracle or they didn't remember it the following day as they sat in the boat being tossed about in the storm. Had they remembered the miracle of the loaves, they may have rebuked the storm themselves. But in their fear, they forgot the enabling they had received and Jesus had to calm the storm for them. He then chided them, because they didn’t remember the loaves. The disciples often forgot who they were and what they had been authorized and empowered to do. And so do we.

Many of us are fearful of overstepping our authority to operate in the supernatural. We say, things like, “I’ll participate in the supernatural, but only if God leads me in the experience or only if He initiates it.” The fact is - the natural man perceives supernatural experiences to be dangerous.

We're taught to fear the supernatural on the premise that it can lead to deception or harm. I won't tell you that it can't harm you or lead to deception. That would be naive. Satan owns a large chunk of supernatural real estate and it's not hard to find. While I appreciate the danger the enemy poses, I’d like to explain why avoiding the supernatural isn't the solution.

One of the ways God speaks to us is through preachers. One of the ways Satan deceives the world is through men and women who preach a perverted gospel. Should we abandon preaching because the enemy has found a way to deceive people through a false message?

Of course not.

The problem isn't that preaching itself is dangerous. The problem is that many of us are not able to discern truth from deception. The real problem lies in the heart of the ones who hear the preaching. If all God’s people exercised proper spiritual discernment, false preaching would have no audience and pose no threat.

One way God speaks to us is through dreams. One way the enemy speaks to us is through dreams. Should we refuse instruction from God through dreams, simply because the enemy has found a way to use them to deceive us?

Of course not.

The proper approach is to learn how to discern the difference between God’s dreams and the enemy’s and disregard the ones from the enemy. Sorting out dreams is a matter of learning God’s ways, recognizing His voice and His agendas, and learning to interpret the dreams by His Spirit. These are all things that come to us as we mature in our walk with Him.

One way God manifests His mercy is through healing. The enemy has found a way to heal people as well, through various counterfeit forms of healing. Should we reject the ministry of healing because the enemy has used it to deceive people? Again, we can’t reject the legitimate expression of God’s love because some have fallen for a counterfeit. We must learn to discern the one from God and teach others how to spot the counterfeits.

The prophets and apostles traveled in the spirit from place to place doing all sorts of bizarre things. Jesus himself traveled across lakes, alone and with the disciples, supernaturally. The enemy has learned how to transport people supernaturally through experiences like remote viewing and astral projection. Should we reject the idea of supernatural transport merely because the enemy has developed a copycat?

Of course not.

The problem once again is not that supernatural transport is a form of deception, but rather that we must learn how to discern the spiritual pathways of God from the highways of the deceiver and walk only on the ones God has provided.

For some, the answer to the problem of deception is simply to refuse to participate in anything supernatural. For others, the answer lies in only participating if God sovereignly brings the experience to their doorstep. I would suggest that these attitudes are nothing more than fear and disobedience dressed up as prudence and caution. Whether you live a supernatural life or not, you’re subject to deception.

The enemy uses many ways to deceive us including the belief that supernatural experiences are of the devil. The lives of Jesus and the disciples demonstrate the exact opposite. It was their willingness to host and release the presence of God that kept them free of deception. As carriers of His presence they received revelation directly from God on spiritual matters, which kept them walking in the truth.

Jesus is the most supernatural man who ever lived, yet He only did what He saw the Father doing. From this fact, it might appear as if he lived from moment to moment never knowing exactly what the Father had in store for him next. Yet when we read the gospels we don’t see him caught off guard, as if something had just happened that he didn’t expect. He was intentional and deliberate in all that he did.

The Father didn’t drop him unexpectedly upon the waves of the sea. He went there on his own for a specific purpose. When he appeared to Thomas after walking through a wall, no one would suggest that the Father sovereignly tossed him through the wall. Jesus chose the wall instead of the door to make a point. It was a deliberate act, where he exercised his will to do something. When he raised Lazarus from the dead, he knew days in advance what he was going to do and he told the disciples about it.

It doesn’t seem to me as though Jesus waited for His Father to make the kind of “sovereign moves” many of us are waiting for Him to make. He knew His Father’s heart and His will, which allowed him to cooperate fully with the Father’s plan. When he saw the lame, He knew the Father’s heart was to heal them. When he saw the poor, he knew the Father wanted to feed them. And when he saw the storm, he knew the Father approved of his decision to speak peace to it. When the crowd tried to throw him over a cliff, he supernaturally passed through their midst with the Father’s consent. He operated in the supernatural without fear because He knew the proper actions to take. That knowledge came from studying and knowing His Father’s heart.

As we step out in faith, and cooperate with God’s plan, He will give us experiences to help us get to know His ways. As we learn His ways, we’ll grow in confidence that we’re doing the things He approves of.

Some of us receive words of knowledge. What are they for?

To reveal something God wants us to address. Often it’s to alert us to lay hands on someone who needs healing. Words of knowledge are nice. They’re God’s way of prompting us to take action. But we can’t always wait for God to move first. We must eventually take the training wheels off the bicycle. And that means we must learn to initiate the encounter ourselves.

I used to wait for God’s approval before I’d pray for anyone to be healed. As I’ve grown in my walk, I’ve learned that I don’t need to wait for Him to tell me to pray for a certain person. If I decide to lay hands on someone, He usually backs me up. If I miss someone who is open to healing, He'll often tell me.

God began speaking to me a few years ago about spiritual transport (It was His idea, not mine). He brought up the subject and gave me a number of dreams about it. One night, while sleeping, He transported me to Brazil – not to the country itself, but to the heavens over it. Confirmation of the trip came a few months later when a friend told me about a dream he’d had where I met him at a spiritual portal over Brazil. I'd never told him about my experience, so he wouldn’t have known about it.

God desires us to experience these things with Him. I’m not completely certain why, but in the coming days, spiritual transport will be more common. In a recent dream, I saw a representation of the spiritual highway of the kingdom. Its capacity to move people was being doubled.

One of the great questions we’ve been wrestling with in the realm of spiritual transport is whether we must wait on God to sovereignly move us, or if we should learn to do it of our own free will. There are arguments to be made on both sides, but in the final analysis, the question is the same one we ask of all supernatural experiences – must we wait on God to initiate it, or are we mature enough to know when and how to do it ourselves?

One objection often raised is that some of us will “seek the experience” for the sake of the experience itself, instead of seeking God as the provider of the experience. It's true that some of us will be lured into seeking the experience out of boredom, curiosity, or some other foolish reason.

What harm will come to them?

The same harm that comes to anyone who seeks the supernatural as entertainment.

They’ll learn that the enemy is the primary supplier of supernatural entertainment and it’s on his terms that they’ll play. And they’ll suffer the consequences of their immaturity. I think once again, that the problem isn’t the experience per se, but the foolish, immature heart that doesn't distinguish between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Thrilled by anything supernatural, they’re lured into darkness little by little.

I think it's always wise to invite God to be a part of our experiences. I rarely pray for anyone to be healed without asking the Holy Spirit to bring His presence and be involved in what I'm doing. How much more should we invite Him to be a participant in something like spiritual transport?

The issue may boil down to a matter of knowing the Father, His ways and His voice so well, that deception is spotted the moment it appears. If we're honest, some of us will admit that we don’t know the Father’s voice or heart well enough and we fear that if we make a move, it will be in the wrong direction. So we remain paralyzed; afraid to move in any direction.

Papa isn’t looking for pawns that can be moved around a chess board. He isn’t looking for timid creatures paralyzed by fear. He’s looking for sons and daughters, who are willing to accept responsibility, grow in maturity and cooperate with Him in a divine plan. He wants us to know that plan or at least the part that involves us.

Jesus said a servant does not know his master’s business. But after He revealed his plan to the disciples, he called them his friends. And that is how God sees us.

As friends of God we must grow in discernment so that we know when the enemy is speaking or acting instead of God. Part of that process is learning God’s plan, which provides a map for us. Another part is to grow in spiritual maturity, which comes by spending as much time with Him as possible, asking questions, meditating on the answers and trying out the gifts he’s given you.

Yes, we’ll make a few mistakes; we are His children after all and we haven't been this way before. But no mistake is wasted if we learn the lesson that comes with it.

-till next time,

PM

Hosting The Presence of God - Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson teaches on hosting the presence of God.

A Life Of Miracles - Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson is back with some more observations about the life of Jesus and the miraculous. I hope you're inspired...and empowered.

Parkinson's Disease Healed

I posted an interview with Lee McDougal and his healing of Parkinson's last year. This is a second interview with him.

During the 1970's, Lee McDougal was involved in the Nashville music industry through studio production and as a musician performing with many Nashville recording artist and on The Grand Ole Opry.

Then Lee met Jesus in a real way.

After meeting the Lord, he served in ministry for 30 years. After serving as a pastor, youth pastor and worship leader he felt the call to go to the mission field. He has traveled and ministered in 38 different countries. As a result of a serious automobile accident he suffered for many years from physical complications and the progression of Parkinson's disease, eventually living his life from a wheelchair.

While attending a conference with Bill Johnson and Randy Clark he had supernatural encounter with the power of the Holy Spirit where he felt a surge of heat go through his body. He was completely healed. Shortly after being healed, a ministry of signs, wonders, and miracles was birthed. Today the ministry of Lee McDougal is marked with many instant miracles.

Lee's website can be found at Healed Guy

Bill Johnson on Healing

If you need a little motivation or encouragement to heal the sick and help destroy the kingdom of darkness. This might do the trick.

An Apointment With Healing

This is the testimony of a woman who suffered traumatic injuries from a fall while mountain climbing. (The story is told by her husband) Due to age and other risk factors, she was deemed ineligible for surgery. With no other options, they began looking for a divine healing appointment. Bill Johnson happened to be visiting their town for a healing seminar. Her husband made an appointment to bring her to the church the next day to be healed, and she was.

Does God Cause Sickness?

Ready to kill a few sacred cows?

In our first video, Bill Johnson answers a couple of questions; the main one being, does God cause sickness? Leif Hetland and Rand Clark are also present on the platform.

In our second video Andrew Womack challenges traditional teaching on the nature of God and why tragedies happen. Andrew often provokes me to reconsider my beliefs, some of which are more traditions of men, than eternal truths.

Healing at Bethel Church and Shasta Mall

This video shows some of the young Christians in northern California bringing the healing power of God to the Shasta Mall. Words of knowledge are involved, revealing medical conditions that aren't obvious.

I love what God is doing at Bethel Church, in Redding California. Follow the link below to watch an edited video of a service in which many people were healed. You can view this video without registering. If you want to view other videos, you will need to register for a free membership.

iBethel.TV // Bethel Church // Oct 11th Healing service : Dec 02 '09

Raised From The Dead in Africa

This is part of the film The Finger of God, by Darren Wilson. After the short discussion on preaching the gospel, we hear the testimony of a man named Francis, who was brutally beaten to death. At the hospital he was resurrected and healed of his injuries. Heidi Baker and Bill Johnson discuss miracles of healing following his story. If you haven't seen the entire movie, I strongly suggest buying copy. (Or two) After you see it, you may want to give a copy to a friend.

Healing From Intimacy With God

Bill Johnson teaches on healing out of intimacy with God.

Honor and Heresy

This post has the potential to hurt a few people, but faithful are the wounds of a friend. I've written this because I love my friends.

I have some acquaintances that I correspond with on occasion. They present a challenge to me. They often post passages of scripture after making a comment on something I’ve said. It’s rare for these brothers and sisters to make any comment without some kind of reference to the bible. They frequently request others to provide ‘chapter and verse’ when they make statements having to do with spiritual life.

I’ve become increasingly concerned with this behavior and I have a confession to make. I was one such person, not long ago. I’ll describe this from my own experience.

After coming to the Lord in 2000, I began a 7-year journey; relentlessly devouring everything I could find to help me understand the bible. I became an expert of sorts. People used me as a resource for theological questions. I was always quoting chapter and verse. I questioned (and sometimes criticized) ideas, statements and positions that didn’t square with scripture…or rather, my understanding of it. If there were a banner over my life it would have said, “Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.” It was the word, not the spirit that was leading me. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

It was during this time that God showed me how dead I was. I had been born again, but not baptized in the Holy Spirit. I had a dream in which Luis Palau was present at a meeting. A woman at the meeting informed me I was spiritually dead and told me I became spiritually alive when I registered for a Kim Clement concert. That gave me reason to re-evaluate a lot of things. One of them was my obsession with biblical accuracy. I heard pastors say you could be so right that you were 'dead right'. Who knew they were talking about me?

I began having experiences that were hard for me to understand in the context of biblical Christianity. Although the bible has much to say about dreams and their interpretation, I’d never had a dream I remembered as an adult and never hear a sermon on dream interpretation. Suddenly I was having many dreams. God showed up in a few and He had a lot to tell me. Some of the experiences I've had while sleeping defy explanation. I have no memory of seeing, hearing or feeling anything. When I wake, I have an awareness that something 'spiritual' happened. But I can't find words to describe it. I know my spirit man was up to something, by my natural mind had no clue what was going on. I retained no memory of it. I have no chapter and verse for something like this.

It was also at this time that God began speaking new words to me, like 'prophet' and 'healer'. I had no grid for these things. But this was my new identity, like it or not. I reluctantly began the process of transformation, and in this new life I moved from servanthood, to sonship. Having my identity confirmed from the Lord freed me from the insecurity that compelled me to prove to men who I was.

I began having visions, visitations, angelic encounters and seeing miracles. Some of the images I see in visions aren’t found in the bible. Am I supposed to ignore them? How can I interpret them? This is where we have to lay the bible aside to come before God and ask what He’s saying, what it means, and how to apply it. As I hear the voice of God and declare His rhema word for a person, group or season, much of what comes from my mouth doesn’t have chapter and verse attached. Biblical principles should be found in it and the heart of God should be revealed through it. Prophecies must be judged. The question then comes – how do you know you’re hearing from God?

This is a case where relationship must have priority over the written word. I'm not suggesting experience trumps the logos. But God isn't a book. As His children, we must believe that we’re hearing the Spirit of God and trust that He is revealing the truth to us. Unfortunately, there have been errors in the past and there’ll be more in the future. I’ve missed my share of interpretations, and learned from the mistakes. I’m new, and making mistakes is part of the process of maturing.

I see problems in always demanding ‘chapter and verse’ to support statements. The first is, not all ideas and experiences have biblical references. The second is the fact that we don’t all have the same familiarity with the word of God. Most of the people who do this are very skilled in handling the word and know how to use electronic bibles to gather a mountain of verses to support their idea. They scan people’s blog or Facebook posts, looking for ideas that seem out of harmony with their understanding of the bible. When something hits their radar – they make a corrective observation, insert an adequate supply of bible verses and wait for a response. They are not intimidated, but seem eager to engage in a battle of words. They seldom back down. And that bothers me. Remember, I once did this myself.

I know there is much exhortation in the word to avoid false doctrine. But this behavior resembles what a bully does on a playground. Bullies look for those who are weaker and beat them up. It’s usually done out of a weakness or insecurity that torments them. When bullies grow up they become thugs who terrorize everyone around them. The people I’m referring to in this post could be called intellectual bullies. They go around looking for people who are intellectually weaker and beat up their ideas with a superior set of ideas. The references to scripture are nothing more than an iron bar or a baseball bat that says, “Don’t mess with me.” Is this the kind of life Jesus would have us live?

In a continual search for error they have become known as ‘heresy hunters.’ Bill Johnson made a profound statement that forever impacted how I see heresy. (I’ll paraphrase) He said that if you react to error, you won’t arrive at truth – but another error of a different kind. As long as error is your starting point – you can’t arrive at truth. The truth stands on it’s own ground, independent of and in no relation to error. Man wasn’t designed to react to error, but to respond to truth.

God wants us to be a culture that honors its members. Intellectual bullying dishonors everyone involved. This behavior needs to end. In some, a lack of identity may be the cause. Allowing God to tell us who we are can begin the healing process.

The Orphaned Spirit

I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that put a new subject on my radar. I'll call it a 'subject', though it may be the biggest problem in society right now. The dream was about the 'orphaned spirit'. That's a new concept to me. Bill and Beni Johnson showed up in the dream and discerned that the 'orphaned spirit' was the single biggest problem God wants us to deal with right now. Their son was 'locked down' somewhere and I went on a journey to meet him. It was a long dream. So it was only a little surprising when Bill's son Eric came to speak at a church about a half mile from my house a few days after I had the dream. I didn't know Eric was coming until the day before he arrived. Wanna guess what he talked about? If you guessed the orphaned spirit - pick up your "I'm a prophet" t-shirt before you leave.

If you're not familiar with the orphaned spirit, but want to find out more, Bill Johnson does a nice job of explaining it here. If you're a heresy hunter - I'm pretty sure it isn't in the bible, so it'll keep you busy for a while. The problem is one of identity. The orphaned spirit is a mind-set in which we believe no one is able to protect or provide for us, leaving us orphans to fend for ourselves. It isn't just a problem outside the church; many believers are not yet fully convinced of who they are and who their Father really is. The problem of identity is critical to our mental, spiritual and physical health. The two videos below don't mention the orphaned spirit, but I believe they show the effect of it. In the first interview, heavy-metal rocker Kirk Martin shares about his deliverance from darkness and the belief that he needed to be in control of his own destiny. In the second, former Korn front-man Brian "Head" Welch tells how Jesus redeemed him from a life of self - destruction.

Healing - Our Responsiblity or God's?

In the short time I've been interested in the subject of healing, a thorny problem has repeatedly confronted me. I did some thinking on it. Here's what I found out: the Christian world is divided into two camps; or three, if you count those who take the middle ground. At issue is a centuries-old debate about man's responsibility and God's sovereignty; Calvinism and Arminianism. These mind-sets and arguments have infected the waters of healing.

I won't bore you with a long discussion on the theological points of this argument. If you're interested in learning more, you can google it. I had an old friend who insisted on arguing his Calvinistic world-view with me every time we met. He drove me crazy. God mercifully removed this 'thorn in the flesh' from my life. I've never had a desire to return to this debate.

I'll summarize for you the basic points of these two views; Calvinism was named after the reformer John Calvin. It's main emphasis is on the sovereignty of God. There are varying degrees to which adherents follow this teaching. Some are moderate, some are quite extreme; to the point of stating that man is without free will. Arminianism, takes it's name from Jacobus Arminius. Followers of Arminianism stress the reality of man's free will and tend to minimize the sovereignty of God. Both sides will cite piles of scripture verses to support their view.

If the bible gives support to both sides; perhaps both arguments are valid. In searching the bible, that's just what I found. In several passages, the bible reveals the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man in the same passage. I'll give an example.The first part of this verse (in teal) stresses man's responsiblity, the second (in red) discusses God's sovereignty. "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)

Here's another verse, again I'll show man's responsibility in teal and God's sovereignty in red: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” ( Acts 2:36 )

I particularly like this verse because the free will of man is bracketed inside the sovereign will of God. There are other similar verses, but I think you get the point.

I'd like to offer my conclusion on the matter - both views are right in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny. Calvinists are right when they say that God is sovereign over all He does. They are mistaken if they believe man has nothing to do with making it come to pass. Likewise, an Arminian is right in saying we must apprehend for ourselves all that is available in God, but he is dead wrong if he teaches that God is not in charge of things. Much of this foolishness has found it's way into modern teaching about healing.

Calvinism in Healing

Over-emphasis on God's sovereignty is perhaps the biggest problem in healing today. Most people who dare to ask God for healing eventually utter the words,"thy will be done..." It's essentially equal to, "I don't know if I'm worthy of healing, or if God even hears my prayers." Particularly in more conservative streams of the church, there's a pervasive teaching that we can never really know if it's God's will to heal anyone. It stands as a kind of wall between us and God, preventing us from coming boldly before the throne of grace and asking for His healing grace to make us whole.

I'll suggest to you my personal feelings on the root cause of the problem and let you decide for yourself. For centuries the church has been led by 3 of the 5 types of leaders Jesus appointed to the church - the pastor, teacher and the occasional evangelist. (See Eph. 4:11) The apostle and prophet have been absent. I see the apostles as spiritual mothers and fathers who help the church grow into maturity. The prophet is essentially the 'eyes' of the church, taking revelatory information from God and passing it on to the body. The absence has created two problems; one is a perpetually immature body, the other is a body that is blind to the will of God.

In the last century the prophetic gift has slowly been restored to the body, though not yet to fullness. The last 30 years or so has brought a gradual restoration of the apostolic. As we see these gifts restored, there has also been an interesting change in healing. In a recent interview, Bill Johnson and Randy Clark both noted a dramatic upward shift almost every year in the number of people and the kinds of diseases they have seen healed. They both report sudden healing of diseases no one ever saw healed in modern times, and in great numbers.

One of the key tools to healing is prophetic revelation. Healers who are given detailed information from God about medical conditions, demonic oppression, childhood problems and such are in a much better position to see breakthrough than those who pray without them. There is much we can know about God's will in healing specific problems. It's our responsibility to ask and receive then act on it. In the words of Todd White, "God reveals it, to heal it."

We must stop thinking that God's will is a secret we can never know, or that God's plan is completely outside our understanding. Words of knowledge, dreams and other sources of revelation are at our disposal if we pursue them. Even more so, we must believe that God wants to heal a great many people, whether we know it or not.

Arminianism In Healing

My wife suffers from chronic neck pain. She's had more people pray for her in the last year than I can count. Like many people, she's grown weary of it for several reasons. One reason is the comments she receives from some of the people who've prayed for her:

"You need to learn how to receive your healing."

"Jesus paid the price already, you simply need to believe you're healed and you will be."

"The bible says by his stripes you were healed- that means in God's eyes it's already done."

"You have to take your healing by force and refuse to let the enemy steal it away from you".

"Maybe there's something blocking your healing like bitterness or unforgivenness that you need to repent of."

Need I say more?

These are some of the 'helpful' observations we tend give to our bewildered friends when they aren't healed. Like Job's uninformed friends hurling accusation at him, needing an explanation for failure, we blame our brother or sister. It's all on us...man's responsibility. I've found that most people who operate in the gift of healing are extremely Arminian in their thinking, almost to the point of excluding God's sovereignty from the equation. This seems very destructive to me for a couple of reasons.

I've noticed how my wife tends to avoid certain people when they come around. They'll always ask about her neck pain, always offer to pray for her and always offer some observation about a lack of faith or some other problem what's preventing her from being healed. It doesn't take much of this to completely discourage people from seeking prayer. The afflicted person feels condemned and worthless, feeling that the pain of their affliction is better than the disappointment and hurtful, accusing explanations they always hear after they aren't healed.

A man suffers paralysis from a stroke. Over the years he frequently receives prayer for healing, to no avail. One day he's approached by a well-meaning would-be-healer.

Healer: Mind if I pray for you to be healed?
Paralytic: I've had a lot of people pray for me in the past, but nothing ever happened.
Healer: Well, I believe God wants you healed. The bible says, "By his stripes you were healed, that's past tense, it already happened so we need to bring that reality into your body today.
Paralytic: I think God has a purpose for me to be like this. I think he's trying to build character into my life through trial and difficulty.
Healer: Sickness and suffering are of the devil! God wants all his children to be healthy, and the enemy wants to keep you in bondage, we can set you free today.
Paralytic: If God wanted me healed, why didn't he heal me already?
Healer: Healing takes faith. Jesus said if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can say to the mountain move, and it will be done. Maybe there wasn't enough faith to heal you before.
Paralytic: Maybe God doesn't want everyone healed all the time. Don't you think there might be reasons for some people not being healed?
Healer: Jesus is my model - he healed everyone who came to him. I believe it's possible for us to do the same.
Paralytic: OK, you can pray for me.
(a moment of silence for prayer)
Nothing happens
(More prayer)
Nothing happens
Paralytic: Thanks for trying, God bless you.

Which of these men did you feel was more correct in his thinking, or which did you identify more strongly with? Both men have a biblical basis for their beliefs, but each saw the problem from a different perspective. The healer was convinced he could do something to make the paralysis leave. The paralyzed man felt God was in control and had a divine purpose for his condition. Both were right in their thinking. But each of them could only see one side of the coin.

Healers can be blind to the idea that there may be a divine purpose for pain, sickness and suffering. But the the bible teaches that pain, suffering and affliction can be redemptive. The story of Job is a good example. He was a righteous man who loved God. Satan accused Job of serving God out of selfish motives. The only way that God could prove that Job's heart was in the right place was by allowing him to go through a season of loss and sickness. God permitted Job's sickness for a defined period of time and for a specific end.

We often tell people after they're healed, they have a responsibility to keep their healing. I'm not saying there isn't some truth to this idea, but the person is right to ask - if God is powerful enough to heal me, why isn't he powerful enough to keep me healed? Once again, it reveals a theology that leans too much in the direction of man's responsibility, and ignores God's part.

Another danger exists in putting too much emphasis on our part of the healing process....pride. I won't go into great detail, but I'll simply say that when we place an emphasis on man, we take the emphasis (and the glory) away from God. That's a danger we must continually be mindful of.

My wife and I have been discussing her chronic pain. She came to a sober realization about it. Prior to suffering from her condition, she had no way of identifying with others who suffer long-term painful conditions. She confesses that its given her a deep empathy for people who suffer like this. She also knows there's no way she would have been able to enthusiastically support my calling to minister to the sick, had she not been through this ordeal. Most of the motivation I have to see people healed comes from seeing my family suffer from various diseases. John G. Lake had a similar motivation; many of his family members died at a young age, including his wife. I'll go as far as to say that many people who work in healing would never have thought about it, until suffering and sickness became a familiar part of their life. God is able to work His redemptive purposes through sickness, suffering and affliction, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory". 2 Cor. 4:17 (See also Philippians 3:10, James 5:9-11, 1 Peter 1:5-7 )

I love the way Todd White ministers healing to people. He's my personal role model here on earth, Jesus is my heavenly one. But Todd (in my opinion) is extremely Arminian in his approach to healing. When an amputee wasn't healed after Todd prayed for him, Todd blamed himself. I guess it's better than blaming God or the amputee. But I see a problem, either way. Todd was taught that it's God's will that everyone can and should be healed - always. Jesus is our example and Jesus never failed to heal anyone. This belief naturally means that if we pray and the person isn't healed, it's either a problem with us, or the person we prayed for. We already discussed blame directed at the sick person. I think it's equally wrong to blame ourselves. Todd feels that the failure lies with his thinking and belief system. He says that when he gets his heart and mind perfectly aligned with God's will, everyone he prays for will be healed. I hope he's right. But, I'm not betting on it. I have to give my man a lot of grace, he's a fairly new believer and this issue may never have crossed his mind.

The heart of the matter is a shallow understanding of God's purpose in allowing sickness to exist at all. We, as healers must wake up and accept the fact that not everyone will always be healed and there may be a divine plan unfolding that we are ignorant of. I'm not suggesting that God is some perverted deity who enjoys watching us suffer. He isn't. But we can't ignore the fact that God has a time, a season and a reason for all that he does. I think the best approach is to acknowledge both God's sovereign plan and our responsibility in bringing it to pass. We need not blame ourselves, the sick person or God when healing doesn't happen. Recognizing both God's sovereignty and man's responsibility provides a safe and healthy theology for those who endeavor to heal the sick.

Living a Life of Miracles

A wave of healing is sweeping the nation. It's not for high-profile ministers anymore. Anyone can do it, even you. Check out this excellent video and believe that God wants to use you to heal others.

Bill Johnson & Randy Clark on God's Presence

These men see miracles of healing nearly every day. What do they have to say about the presenece of God?

Bill Johnson - a Lifestyle of Miracles

Bill Johnson is interviewed on the 700 club about his perspective on making the miraculous a normal lifestyle.

Just Not Myself - Reacting to Error

Yesterday was a nightmare...I never saw it coming. (some prophet, huh?) This post is from the point of view of the guy I turned into while driving to work yesterday. It's gonna sound different because I wasn't myself yesterday. I'm glad crap like doesn't happen every day.

I arrived at work 20 minutes early - that's weird. I'm never early. Wait - let's back up...

I woke up at 4:15am and couldn't go back to sleep. There I was wide awake...what the heck? After 45 minutes of staring at the ceiling I got up, made coffee and logged in to Facebook.

(fast forward)
When I surveyed the parking lot, I noticed my shiny new rig idling and the mechanic outside talking on the phone...Crap! This is not good! Darin (the Sup de jour) gave me the bad news.

Time for an oil change.

Well, it could be worse. Oil changes are quick, Glen can do them in less than an hour - so maybe we'd only be in a back up rig for a short time. I can deal with that : )

Clocked in, coffee in hand, we were told to line up for H1N1 vaccinations. I seriously thought about bailing on it - I haven't had the flu since I played with pterodactlys in the sandbox....but I caved in. (I hate peer pressure)

After milling around for 30 minutes and not getting close to the front of the line, dispatch told us we had an interfacility call...crap! Darin tossed us the keys to the POS back up and told us yesterday's crew moved all our gear over last night...should be good to go....honest.

My partner rolled his eyes in disgust...the seat-belt light glowed dimly, while the engine quietly slept. Crap!! Someone left the battery switch on. Darin told us to have the mechanic (still talking on the phone) to give it a jump. We advised dispatch of the problem, they called the hospital and delivered the news of our delay. 15 minutes later we're under way...late.

We're not used to running late. We usually arrive early, the paperwork isn't ready, the patient isn't ready and no one's called report to the receiving facility. We can bank on 20 minutes of boredom. Sometimes I do 'hot laps' around the hallways, praying for random patients or irritating the nurses with bad humor. The nurse behind the desk was on the phone getting her butt chewed out by the doc who was doing the procedure on our patient. She promised him we were loading him and about to leave. She gave us a quick report, tossed us the paperwork and asked us to hurry as politely as she could.

I did everything on the way - the 5 minute transport was just long enough to get a couple sets of vitals, an EKG, a quick history and ask the patient what was going on. He was very helpful, and even mentioned that the urologist who was doing the procedure called him on his cell phone and bitched him out this morning for not being there earlier. They set up the transfer for last night, because the procedure was slated for early morning, but they rescheduled the transfer. The irate doc called the staff and the patient and threatened to cancel the procedure. Just amazing, I love people who act that way.

After that transport we hoped to go back to the barn and switch out of our pre-Cambrian meat wagon. No such luck. We went to the west side instead to cover another rig's area. The brilliant idea to do a rig check hit my partner. We found the portable and main oxygen tanks bone- dry....Nice. A call to dispatch and we on our merry way back to the barn. We changed out the empty tanks and moved our gear into our normal rig. Our shiny new one had a couple of gallons of new oil waiting to be broken in.

My partner is a good guy. Sometimes his thorough-osity irritates me. (Don't ask if that's a real word) His inspection of the portable o2 tank on the gurney? Stone cold dead. Crap!

It was just the beginning.

We found 12 pillows stuffed under the bench seat. I'm not sure how the guys on the other shift party, but apparently the feathers fly when they get excited. We had (as usual) one backboard - without straps. The garbage can in back was bloated bag of refuse, spilling it's vile contents on the floor. We found no de-fib pads in the monitor and no idea what our predecessors planned to do if they had a code. There was a key broken off in the door of the main o2 compartment. This is becoming legendary. Braun, in their infinite wisdom switched to a spring loaded lock cylinder last year. All the new rigs come with an exciting new "feature". If you don't jam the key all the way into the lock and properly depress the spring mechanism, the key snaps off when you turn it. We've broken off about a dozen keys on our rig alone. Finger pointing is at an all-time high.

Our second patient was...'interesting' We were told by dispatch she lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex that had no elevators - only an outside stairwell. They were sending another unit with us to help carry her up the stairs. On scene we were warned by the nurse that she was demanding, controlling, pushy, refused to have male nurses in her room and 'fired' some of the female nurses during her short stay. Our informant added this gem to the rap sheet; "she was no stranger to narcotics". YAY!

I broke out a bottle of Rico Suave aftershave, lit a few candles and sauntered into her room - determined to win her over. It worked...she feel in love with us. We had a fairly decent trip with one irritating exception. She had a beautiful vase of flowers (lillies) that we brought along. In carrying them I somehow got orange pollen all over the front of my uniform shirt. It remained there the rest of the shift. About a dozen people were kind enough to ask what happened. I rolled my eyes in disgust.

Coming out of the hospital with the patient, I shook my head in unbelief. Some nucklehead from AMR parked his rig 4 feet behind ours. How the heck were we supposed to load our patient. Don't their gurneys need the same loading space ours do? The EMT shot me a look and asked if he should back up. I said, "I don't know, what do you think?"

Our next transport was a bariatric. Thankfully, it only required us to swap out gurneys. We grabbed the 'wide load' bed and put it in the rig. My partner's obsession with oxygen bottles continued and (drum roll, please).....the tank was empty. The gurney had no pillow and no blanket. A microscopic exam of the mattress revealed every bacteria known to man. Who knows if it had been cleaned in the last month. Our frustration went into high gear. We cursed the lazy worthless slobs we worked with who couldn't manage to do a single friggin' thing right. Dropping off our (very nice) bariatric patient at dialysis, we maneuvered the wide gurney into the room. A nurse poked her head into the room and sheepishly asked if we wanted help. I said, (a bit sarcastically) "I don't know, what do you think?"

(Warning - rant ahead)
OK...we have a bariatric patient. That means they're around 300 lbs, minimum. A lot are 400 - 500 lbs. Some are over 650 lbs. Why does a nurse think for one minute we're going to refuse lifting help? Get your butt in the room and help us! It's a constant source of irritation for us... people who can't or won't do heavy lifting. We pretty much stopped asking for lifting help at the dialysis unit a long time ago. All we every got was attitudes and excuses. A lot of hospital floors are the same way. People disappear every time a large patient shows up. We come to their floor and like cockroaches when you turn the lights on, people scurry for a hiding place.

We have a few EMT's working for us who request an extra unit to assist in lifting when the patient weighs 175 lbs. Two people who can't lift a patient that weighs 175?? No, I'm not kidding....it's becoming a lot more common. Why are these people even doing healthcare? EMS isn't for everyone. Maybe you like the lights or the drama. Maybe it's driving fast. None of that matters. The job involves lifting and carrying people who are disabled. Some are very big. If you need help every time because you can't or won't lift someone, you're a liability. There are other jobs that don't require heavy lifting. Perhaps you'd be better suited in one of them.
(End of rant)

Coming out to our rig, we noticed a shuttle van parked behind us. Yes, we were parked in the shuttle loading area. I'm sorry, but I think ambulances qualify as shuttles, even if we don't have a wheelchair lift. The shuttle was parked exactly 5 feet off our rear bumper. As we approached with our gurney, a woman materialized out of thin air. She introduced herself as the supervisor who was training the new shuttle driver. She sweetly apologized for his park job. Her smile gave away something of what really happened. (at least in my bewildered mind)

(10 minutes earlier) She explained to the newbie, "The ambulance needs exactly six feet of space to unload their gurney. They are not a shuttle van and thus they have no right to park where they did. Do you understand? Good, as you park the van, I want you to leave exactly five feet of space between our vehicle and theirs."

I waited for my partner to go back inside and get the signature he forgot. Sheesh! The shuttle van prepares to leave. I can't believe what I'm watching in the mirror. The van has at least 50 feet of room to back up before they leave. Instead, the driver cuts the wheel away from the curb and creeps forward in his attempt to merge. He crawls within a couple inches of my rear bumper...I can't watch, I close my eyes and brace for impact.
He clears my bumper without hitting me. I'm simply amazed. Stupidity reigns in the heart of men...I just want to go home.

I call dispatch and remind them I need my flu vaccine. They send us to the barn, I snort the vaccine up both nostrils and quickly leave as the stuff drips down the back of my throat...yum.

We get a call to the homeless shelter for a dude with a massively swollen arm. Been like that for a month. Had a DVT a month ago...looks like he still has it. He tells the fire guys his story, they relay it to us. We begin the drive...6 blocks to the hospital. Vitals are good, sats are great. On the way the guy decides to add a few more pieces to the puzzle...diabetic, CVA, heart problems...yada yada. We check his sugar - almost 500...thanks a lot for sharing, pal. I can just hear them now...why didn't you start an IV?? Why didn't you blah blah blah?? 30 seconds to arrival.

Call the ball...

We did our best to tell the story we had so far. But the dude kept changing it. He told us he was taking insulin, but told the nurse he wasn't. Then he told them he wasn't taking his coumadin or any of his medications. He tossed us under the bus. My partner rolled his eyes with disgust once again. I told him don't worry - he's gonna change the story again when the doc sees him and make the nurses look like idiots. If he sees someone else like a specialist, the story changes again. Guys like him make a career out of telling everyone a different story so we all look like morons.

On the way out the door the nurse asked us if we checked out his breath sounds. "Wow, I've never heard such junky sounds in my life, what did you guys hear?" My EMT informed her that our stethoscope was missing an earpiece and a bloody eardrum awaited anyone who used it. I went in a different direction. I thought the lifters in the engine needed adjustment based on the loud tapping sound I kept hearing in the background. I don't know, maybe we should have started him on Levaquin.

The end of shift was fast approaching. Just when I thought the nightmare was over, we had one more problem. Some dingleberry parked a back-up rig in our spot. We have numbers for our rigs stenciled on the ground in front of the parking spaces. It's management's way of bringing it down to the 3rd grade level of personal accountability most of us operate at. But apparently it's too complicated for some. I fetched the keys, once again trying to fix a problem created by lazy mope. To my dismay, the back-up rig (a different one from this morning's fiasco) wouldn't stay running. It turned over, but when I let go of the ignition key, it died. Maybe I could back it up, holding the ignition key on and grind the starter to a burnt lump of metal! Crap!

I went inside & broke the happy news to the supervisor. He rolled his eyes in disgust. 15 minutes later the offending unit was extricated from it's wrongful location and I backed my rig in. Thank God for the end of this day. I didn't pray for a single patient. I did feel like strangling half the people I work with. I prayed that God would never again let me suffer through a shift like this.

I asked God what happened today. The answer is this: I gave a co-worker some advice the day before about reacting to the situations around us. Today I was given an opportunity to walk out my words of advice. It wasn't easy. The advice came from a man I respect greatly; Bill Johnson. He said (paraphrasing) "If you react to error, you won't arrive at truth, but another error. As long as error is your starting point, you're going to end up going in the wrong direction. We are not designed to react to error - but to respond to truth."


I spent an entire day reacting to the errors of other people. It frustrated me to no end. I could have chosen, as I often do, to seek God's truth in every situation and respond to it. Today I chose to react instead of respond. I hope I never make that mistake again.