Aug 30, 2014

Your Identity in Christ

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Pink Glasswing Butterfly by KloverKane
When Jesus walked the streets of Galilee, His acts of healing created division among those who watched Him. Some rejoiced at the miracles they witnessed, while others criticized Him. The same attitudes exist today. Healing, deliverance and miracles are ways in which the kingdom of God is made manifest through us. When we bring the kingdom of God to earth, we invite criticism, because wherever the kingdom goes, it destroys belief systems that are opposed it.

The greatest criticism of healing during the first century came from religious leaders. They had followers who admired their shallow spirituality. The miracles of Jesus drew people away from them and turned their hearts back to God. The kingdoms these men had built were beginning to crumble. Their response was to criticize the new thing God was doing. Little has changed today. Most of the criticism of healing today comes from religious leaders who are building their own kingdoms.

To have success in healing, you must deal with the issue of what people think of you. If you have fear of what others think of you, it may prevent you from realizing your full potential. You must learn to put aside the criticism of co-workers, church leaders, family and friends. Jesus wasn’t popular with religious leaders or his family. He was despised by many people, but the sick loved Him like crazy because to them, He was the fragrance of life. And I believe that kind of life is worth pursuing.

When I became interested in healing, I noticed something in the gospels that I’d never spent much time thinking about. Jesus healed a lot of people. If you don’t think healing is for today or you don’t think it’s your calling, it’s easy to overlook just how many people He healed. As I studied His life, I realized that there wasn’t much else He did that could be called “ministry.” He taught in the synagogues and preached the kingdom as people followed Him. But He spent an enormous amount of time healing the sick. The more I studied His life, the more I knew there was something missing from mine.

The Bible reveals many things about us. When we read it we tend to identify with someone. I might see the heart of King David and identify with him. You might see yourself in Deborah or Ruth. Some identify with the apostle Paul. We all see someone whose life is similar to our own. But almost no one looks at Jesus and says, “I can see myself in Him.”

The people we strongly identify with become our role models. Ironically, we aren’t called to become like the apostles or prophets. God’s plan is for each of us to be conformed into the image of Christ. If we never identify with Jesus, we have a big problem. God wants us to become like Him and that means He must become our role model. But many of us have used a pastor or one of the disciples as a role model instead. If we are to be transformed into His image, we must begin to identify with Him. He must become our model in everything we do. We must allow Him to live His life through us.

The first message Jesus preached was, “Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (see Matt. 4:17). The message of repentance has become well-known, even among those who are not religious. But its true meaning has become distorted over the years. The word repent, which is used in most English bible translations, comes from the Latin translation of scripture. It implies a change of action in an attempt to gain favor with someone. The Greek word used in this passage is the word metanoia, which comes from two words; one refers to a change; the other refers to the mind. The instruction of Jesus was not for people to change their behavior to gain favor with God. He wanted them to change their way of thinking, because the kingdom of God had arrived.

Jesus changed the emphasis and tone of the spiritual conversation. Rather than focus on keeping the law by our own strength of will, He emphasized the love that the Father has for us. He taught and demonstrated through His life and death that the Father loves us more than we can ever comprehend. The good news of the gospel is that God is in love with you. It is only when the heart is gripped by the affection of the Father that our outward behavior begins to change in a real way.

When I became a Christian, I listened to preachers who drilled into my head the idea that God saw me as a worthless sinner. I was taught that He really didn’t like me very much, but He decided to save me, despite my wretchedness. I accepted this view of myself and after a while the word “sinner” became my identity. After years of living a powerless, defeated life, God said He didn’t see me that way. He said that my true identity was a beloved and cherished son – not a worthless sinner.

The more you accept God’s love for you personally – the more your identity as His child will be established. And the more your identity as His child is established, (and your false identity is removed) the greater the power of His kingdom will become manifest through you. Manifesting the miraculous power of God is a matter of understanding and accepting your identity in Christ.

Through many different dreams, God began to show me things that I would do which seemed impossible. He showed me how I would affect people’s lives around the globe. His plans for me were so much greater than the ones I had for myself. Rather than a life of mediocrity, He showed me the inheritance we have as heirs of His kingdom. As sons of God, we have truly been given exceedingly great promises.

Many of us are afraid of becoming prideful. In an attempt to remain humble, we prefer to see ourselves as less than how God sees us. When we see ourselves this way, we destroy the work He wants to do in and through us. True humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself exactly the way God thinks of you; not more and not less.

The key to operating in the power of God is knowing your identity in Christ and knowing how He wants to work in you. You must shed the false identities you’ve accepted from man and receive the identity
given to you by God.

This is an excerpt from my book Divine Healing Made Simple

Jul 26, 2014

Can People Lose Their Healing?

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This is part of an interview I did with S.J. Heald for Heaven Connect. The entire interview can be found here.

SJH:
Can people lose their healing? If so, why?

Praying Medic:
There are two situations that allow symptoms to return after we are healed. In many cases the return of symptoms after healing is evidence that a little more warfare needs to be done. I had a chance a couple of years ago to help my sister in law obtain healing for an occluded artery in her leg. She had poor circulation in her leg for years and her foot was always cold and numb. Her doctor considered placing a stent in the artery to keep it open. One day, I asked if she wanted to be healed and she said “yes’.” I commanded the artery to be open and the circulation to return. She didn’t feel anything different until the next morning, when she woke up with a warm foot that had normal sensation and circulation. Later that day, her foot became cold and numb and she thought she had lost her healing. With a worried heart she asked me what happened. This is a classic case of  how sometimes our symptoms will return after we are healed.

I sat her down and explained that healing and sickness are a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. I told her that God wants us to be healed and the enemy wants us to be sick. She immediately understood. I explained that the enemy brought the symptoms back to convince her she wasn’t healed and that we needed to do some more warfare. I commanded her leg to be healed again and in a few minutes the circulation returned. I told her that all she needed to do was to resist the enemy’s tactics if it happened again. With a smile of understanding she confidently maintained her healing and she’s had normal circulation since that day.

Some diseases and painful conditions are spiritual in nature and the return of the symptoms indicates a return of the spirit and a need to find out why it returned. The bible gives examples of people who had physical symptoms with spiritual causes (see Luke 13:10-13 as an example.) In such cases the spirit must be removed before the symptoms will leave. But when a spirit of pain or sickness returns, it’s often because it has a home in the person (See Luke 11: 21-26.) The key to preventing the return of the spirit and a return of the symptoms it causes is to remove the demonic home.

Demonic homes are created by things we believe about God, about ourselves or about others that are not true, or by sinful behaviors and attitudes that we allow in our hearts. These things give spirits opportunities to exert their influence over us. If you believe for example, that God the Father cannot be trusted, because your father abused or neglected you, the mistrust you have in your heart toward God the Father will allow an orphan spirit to influence your thinking. It will continually remind you that God the Father is like the abusive Father of your childhood and that He can't be trusted. Many people live their entire lives under the influence of such spirits. Evil spirits only have influence over us to the degree that we permit them, and most of what we allow them to do to us is permitted because of what we believe. A slightly different way in which spirits can affect us is through sinful attitudes we have. Allow me to illustrate with one of my own experiences:

I had been seeking permanent healing for chronic neck pain for a long time. I received prayer a number of times and the pain would always leave temporarily, only to return a few days later. One day, a woman praying for me asked if I had anger toward anyone. God showed me in a vision, a person I had been angry with for a long time. I knew that I needed to let go of the anger I had toward them. When I released the anger to God, the pain in my neck immediately left and never returned.

I allowed a demonic home to be created by my anger. When people prayed for my healing, the spirit would leave but it always returned because its home was still there. Identifying wrong views, attitudes and behaviors and renewing our mind to the truth about them (repenting) removes demonic homes. Once this is done, and the spirit no longer has a home, it can be removed and the symptoms usually will not return.

Jul 19, 2014

Jul 12, 2014

My Friend's Healing Testimony

I was blessed (and honored) to share an evening with a new friend named Tom who suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Five weeks after his wedding, he was having a normal day when he noticed his foot felt like pins and needles. A few days later the disease had spread to a point where it nearly incapacitated him. The onset was so rapid that his neurologist gave him little hope for survival. The disease progressed and He was confined to a wheelchair for many years.

All those years while he was in a wheelchair, God used him powerfully to release healing and miracles for others. He learned about healing and miracles from John Wimber and was one of the original members of the first Vineyard church in Phoenix. He went from one healing service to another and saw hundreds of people healed of every kind of disease. Yet each night he went home and wondered, "Lord, what about my healing?"

The Lord reminded him often, saying, "It's not about you."

During this man's time of sickness, God did an amazing work in his heart and healed him of the inner wounds he had received as a child. During this time, the Lord shaped and molded his identity. One day after a particularly awesome time of worship he confessed, "Lord, I love you so much that even if you never heal me... I will still love you more than anything."

That part of his story really struck me. I wonder how many of us who are waiting for our healing could honestly say the same thing. Is our passion for God greater than our desire to be healed? Is it about us, or is it really about Him?

One day he was sitting in a prayer meeting with a group of guys when they decided to pray for the body of Christ separately. They all went to different parts of the building. He was sitting in his chair praying for the church, when suddenly things got a little crazy. He began to feel something like electricity zapping him in the head and he felt something like warm, liquid honey being poured over him. The next thing you know, he was up running through the streets of town completely healed.

In a vision, God showed him a dam with a reservoir behind it. He saw water dripping ever so slowly into the reservoir. Every drop of water that fell brought the water level a little higher until finally, the dam broke. This is how the Lord portrayed his healing. "Every prayer ever prayed for you was like a drop of water in the reservoir. Each one made a difference. Not one prayer was wasted. Now I want you to thank everyone who ever prayed for you."

My new friend has a truly amazing testimony. I've never seen anyone who is so enamored with God. His enthusiasm is off the charts. But it wasn't always that way. He's been through hard times, just like you probably have.

I shared this story to encourage you not to give up on God. He has not given up on you and He never will. Let Him heal you of all the things you need healing from; both physical and emotional. Fall completely in love with Him and let Him show you the love that He has for you and if necessary, wait patiently for your healing to arrive.

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Jul 5, 2014

Why Are Some People Not Healed?


This is part of an interview I did with S.J. Heald for Heaven Connect. The entire interview can be found here.

SJH:Some Christians are filled with faith and live a holy life, and yet they are suffering with illness and health problems. Also there are sick children, such as those with terminal illness like cancer. Why are these not healed?

Praying Medic:
This is a delicate issue and unfortunately, it’s one that has been greatly misunderstood. I don’t think it will help anyone if I tip-toe around this subject, so I’d like to give an honest answer that will probably be hard for many people to accept and frankly, will make some people angry.

Much of the disappointment and heartache that comes from failed attempts at healing is due to misconceptions about God and the kingdom of darkness. Many of us believe that God can heal whomever He wants and that if someone is not healed, it must be because God doesn’t want them healed. That's a bit like saying if someone doesn't get saved it's because God doesn't want them to be saved. There's an entire school of theology built around this idea, but the truth is that divine healing simply doesn’t work this way. Actually, there is very little in the kingdom of God that does.

John Wimber was given a vision from God that illustrated the problem we're discussing. This is how he described it in his book Power Healing:
"Suddenly in my minds eye there appeared to be a cloud bank superimposed across the sky. But I had never seen a cloud bank like this one, so I pulled my car over to the side of the road to take a closer look. Then I realized it was not a cloud bank, it was a honeycomb with honey dripping out on to people below. The people were in a variety of postures. Some were reverent; they were weeping and holding their hands out to catch the honey and taste it, even inviting others to take some of their honey. Others acted irritated, wiping the honey off themselves, complaining about the mess. I was awestruck. Not knowing what to think, I prayed, "Lord, what is it?" 
He said, "It's my mercy, John. For some people it's a blessing, but for others it's a hindrance. There is plenty for everyone. Don't ever beg me for healing again. The problem isn't on my end, John. It's down there."
When people have sought prayer for healing repeatedly to no avail, there is a strong temptation to believe that God has a divine purpose for our sickness. It’s just human nature to think this way. This is despite the fact that the bible teaches that God sees both sickness and death as His sworn enemies and despite the fact that there isn’t one passage in the bible that plainly teaches that sickness is used by God for any kind of divine purpose. In order to better understand how healing works, let me draw a comparison with something most of us are more familiar with.

Healing, like salvation is not a sovereign act of God. Rather, it is accomplished when we do what God commissions us to do. Salvation comes as a result of man proclaiming the gospel. The proclamation of the gospel is a task that has been delegated to man as God’s representative and salvation depends upon our obedience. People are saved when men and women preach the gospel faithfully. If people are not saved, it is not because God doesn’t want them to be saved. It is because we’ve failed to proclaim the message we were given. Healing operates in the same way, through God’s representatives – the church.

God sent Jesus into the world to reveal his will concerning healing. Jesus didn't just heal a few people that the Father chose here and there. He healed entire villages of all who were sick and demon possessed. He also raised the dead and he commissioned his disciples to do the same things He did. If we believe that God wants people to become sick and die at a young age– we must explain why He sent His Son into the world to defeat sickness and death and why He commissioned His disciples to carry out the same plan after He ascended into heaven.

The ministry of Jesus sent a clear message to the world that God is opposed to sickness and death. If it is the will of God for man to be sick, no one in history violated the will of God more than Jesus. Just as God desires all men to be saved, He also desires all men to be healed. Jesus gave us, His disciples all the power and authority we'll ever need to deal with sickness and death. Once He gives us authority to do something, He is no longer responsible for doing it – we are. The ball is now in our court and it has been for 2,000 years. It’s up to us to exercise the authority He has given us.

As God's ambassadors, it is our job to enforce His will here on earth with regard to healing. If we don’t learn how to conquer sickness and death by releasing healing, people are going to die. Most people have never been trained or equipped to heal the sick, raise the dead or cast out demons, even though these are the most basic things Jesus taught His disciples to do. When healing doesn’t happen, it is not because God wants people to be sick– it is because His ambassadors have failed to use the power and authority they've been given. Many of us try to put the responsibility back on God because we don’t want to admit that we’ve failed to take our responsibilities seriously. This is the reason why I wrote my book on healing. My heart’s greatest desire is to train and equip the saints to do the work God commissioned us to do.

Jun 28, 2014

Time to Grow up

A wise man once said "faithful are the wounds of a friend." I need to tell you something that may hurt a little, because I care about you as a friend.

I think it's wise to seek prayer from friends for our problems, whether they're health-related, relational or whether they fall into some other category. Prayer is a powerful thing. But there are problems that cannot be resolved by the prayers of our friends alone.

I have many friends who suffer from chronic aches, pains and illnesses and I have other friends whose relationships have been blown to pieces. When everything seems to be falling apart, there's a temptation to cry out to friends to pray for our problems to be fixed once and for all. Let me reiterate that I am not against prayer, because what I'm about to say next could be misinterpreted as that.

Many of us have not yet learned how to stand against the enemy in our battle against recurring sickness and most of us are responsible for our own recurring relationship problems. Let's take a look at sickness first.

The battle against recurring sickness is something like how we might deal with a criminal who repeatedly breaks into our home. Jesus used this illustration when teaching about how and why demons return to a person after being cast out of them in Luke chapter eleven. (See Luke 11:21-26)

When a burglar breaks into our home, we have a couple of ways in which we can respond. One option is to stand by helplessly and let them take our property and beat us senseless while waiting for the police to show up. An untrained and ill-equipped believer who relies on friends or the anointed "man of God" to pray for them is like a defenseless homeowner at the mercy of a burglar.

Evil spirits are opportunistic, just like burglars. They size up their potential victims and evaluate their defenses. A burglar looks for signs of vulnerability. They look for alarm systems, ease of access, unlocked doors and windows, the absence of a dog, and the likelihood that the homeowner will be armed. They look for homeowners that are the least likely to fight back. Demons do the same thing. They look for points of entry into our lives, through things such as anger, unforgiveness, pride etc.

The first part is allowing the Holy Spirit to remove the things in your life that allow the enemy to have access and influence over you. The second part is to learn how to go on the offensive against intruders when they come around. People who refuse to be trained in spiritual warfare or who never learn how to exercise their authority over the enemy are like homeowners who refuse to secure their homes or fight back against an intruder. They make themselves easy targets for evil spirits and once word gets out in the demonic community that they're an easy target—they can expect to be harassed by even more evil spirits. That's the message Jesus illustrated in His teaching in Luke chapter eleven.

When it comes to healing, many of us are content to let someone else deal with the bad guys. It's easier to find the anointed man of God to pray for us than it is to learn how to withstand the attacks of enemy ourselves. The problem is that Jesus gave every believer the power and authority they need to defeat the enemy, without going to someone else for help. Recurring problems with sickness and disease are the result of us refusing to take our responsibilities seriously.

You can plead with your friends to pray for your healing all you want, but if you never learn to exercise the authority God has given you over sickness, you're never going to remain healed. The spirits that bring  sickness will continue to assault you until you learn to take authority over them yourself.

I have a friend who once asked the Holy Spirit "How do you see cancer?"

The Holy Spirit replied, "I can't see cancer because it's under my feet. I want it to be under your feet."

The enemy is going to continue to beat us up until we learn to put him under our feet once and for all. I'm preaching to myself here as my wife and I don't always do this ourselves, but we're learning.

My wife was recently healed of back pain when she finally understood that the things she thought about herself , about her symptoms, and about God's desire to heal her were allowing the enemy to continue to attack her and keep her in pain.

The first problem was that she couldn't bring herself to believe she was healed as long as she still felt pain. This is a bit of a murky problem because sometimes people feel pain in response to a physical problem, while other times the sensation of pain is due only to the presence of a spirit.  To further complicate things—she had an MRI that showed two herniated discs. You might think that as long as she has herniated discs, she must resign herself to living with the pain, but we know of people who have MRIs showing herniated discs but they had no symptoms of the injury. My wife began to ask, "If some people have herniated discs and don't have pain, why can't I be one of them?"

She also wasn't completely sure at that point that God wanted to heal her. One day she decided to believe that God really did want to heal her and she entertained the idea that perhaps she was already healed. She accepted the fact that it was her beliefs and not God's reluctance to heal her that was the problem. So she chose to believe that she was healed. She also chose to see the pain she was experiencing as a lie from the enemy. Once she got her thinking straightened out, it removed the power the enemy had over her and the pain immediately left.

One of the major lessons we've learned is that the enemy only has the power over us that we allow him to have. Being healed and keeping the symptoms from returning is a battle. Most of the warfare is done on the six inch battlefield between our ears. Now let's take a look at problems with relationships.

Many of us cry out to our friends or to God to have our relationship problems fixed, rather than take an honest look at ourselves and admit that we're the ones responsible for our problems. God is not going to take away the consequences of our bad decisions. As we sow, we shall also reap, and many of us are reaping the consequences of manipulation, co-dependency, selfishness, immaturity and a failure to walk in our God-given identity.

Relationship problems are cyclical. The habits we've developed over our lifetime create the same dynamics (for good or bad) in all our relationships. When the same problems arise repeatedly, instead of  blaming others or crying out to God to fix the other person, we need to look at why we are bearing bad fruit. The fruit of our relationships is determined by the condition of our heart. It is only by changing the way in which we relate to others that the cycle of relationship problems will end. It's a sign of spiritual immaturity to blame others for our problems or to expect someone else to fix them. We must be the one who makes the change.

Most of us have a lot of growing up to do. It's time to take the training wheels off and learn how to live as mature children of God.


Jun 21, 2014

Spirit-led Healing


I was asked by a friend whether we should always wait for the Holy Spirit to show us who He wants to heal before praying with a stranger. This is one of the most common questions people have about healing.
Being led by the Holy Spirit is always our goal, and we need to cooperate with Him in every healing or deliverance encounter. 

While it's true that He will sometimes highlight certain people for healing that we are not aware of, it is not necessary to always wait for Him to highlight people for healing. The question of whether we should wait for Him to show us certain individuals arises when we are uncertain about whether it is God's will to heal all people or only certain ones.

It is difficult to pray with faith when we are uncertain about God's will for healing. We can know with certainty His will toward healing by looking at the New Testament. The gospels give us a clear understanding of the Father's will through the ministry of Jesus who healed multitudes of people of every kind of disease and demonic oppression:

"When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick." (Matthew 8:16)

Jesus never refused to heal anyone who came to him, in fact, it is likely that He spent entire days doing nothing but healing people until He was exhausted. The will of God for healing was further revealed when Jesus commissioned His disciples to heal the sick and cast out demons making no exceptions about who was to be healed:

"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:8)

We see the disciples doing this exact thing in the book of Acts after Jesus ascended into heaven:
“Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed." (Acts 5:16)

The scriptures give no indication that there were any exceptions to healing in the ministry of Jesus or the disciples. If it is the will of God to heal all who are sick and demonized, then being Spirit-led is not an issue of who can be healed, but how they should be healed.

Looking at the model Jesus gave us, we see that with one person, He told them to arise and walk. For another it was a touch that healed their blindness. For someone else it was a little mud in their eye and with another, He told their friend to go home because they were already healed. Jesus used different methods for healing each person based on what the will of the Father was for their unique situation. This is what He meant when He said, "The son only does what He sees the Father doing." (John 5:19)

Being led by the Spirit has to do with the particular method God wants us to use to heal each person. Sometimes it will be a touch, sometimes a command, sometimes we'll ask them to get up from their wheelchair and attempt to walk. Just as Jesus was led to do certain things to release a miracle, we must learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in how He wants us to bring healing to each person we encounter.

Jun 14, 2014

Power, Love & Truth - Steve Harmon


My guest blogger today is Steve Harmon

Two years ago I met a Satanist on Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco where the start of the hippy movement began. God taught me a lot in that experience about how people get set free. It basically works with three components, and it was these three components that Jesus used in His ministry.

So this guy asked me for a cigarette and I told him I don't smoke. I began a conversation with him. He told me he was an Iraq war vet, in the marines. He's homeless and apart of the "Occupy Oakland" movement. We talked for about 20 minutes then he told me that he had a torn rotator cuff that needs surgery. I asked him if I could pray for it to make it well. He said, "No, no...I'm a Satanist bro". He proceeded to tell me all of his beliefs about God and the world. I just listened to him. I then said, "I'm not like other Christians you've met. I love people and I see value in you. There's love in you. There's a big heart that has been covered and people don't see it, but I see it."

He then told me that he has two daughters living in Oakland and that last week he celebrated his 12 year old daughter's birthday. He gave her a birthday cake which was "hash brownies" (Marijuana laced brownies). She got so excited and was jumping up and down saying  "You're the best dad in the whole world!", and he said he started crying when she said that. I actually started crying myself just because the situation was so messed up, but in that, his daughter showed him a form of love and it moved him so much. Up to this point, I just wanted to hold this big guy because he was starving for love.

He told me that he nearly beat a man to death for raping his daughter's friend. He served 5 years in prison for it. He was pouring out his life to me. I asked him again if I could pray for his shoulder and at this point, he felt more comfortable with me and he said, "Sure". So I laid my hands on his shoulder under the signal light on the corner and started to command the infirmity to leave. I prophesied as well, then I told him to check out his shoulder. When he moved it, the pain started leaving. I prayed again and it was completely gone. He was swinging his arm and couldn't get it to hurt. He was shocked because he also had been a shaman and he would heal people, but could never be healed himself.

From this point, I just laid into him the good news of Jesus in a way he had never heard. He was no longer objecting to it. I told him "God has a plan for your life." He started crying  because his mom used to tell him that when he was once a pastor! His mom told him recently that all the seeds he sowed into people's lives, (ten or fifteen of them) had gotten off drugs and were walking with God now. He cried telling me all that and said, "Now look at me. I'm homeless and an alcoholic?"

I told Him, "The Lord is still saying 'yes' to you," then I asked if I could pray the Holy Spirit on him. He said "yes".

I told him, "When I touch you, you're gonna feel something that cannot be compared to any other drug you've had." I put my hands on him and prayed for fire and love. His eyes were closed and tears were coming down his face.

After I was done, he opened his eyes and said, "That was intense!" We talked more and I just kept pouring the love of God into him. After I was done, God told me to tell him that tonight Jesus was going to visit him in a dream. He said, "Okay!" He told me that 16 years ago was the last time he felt God. I told him "16 years from that day God came and touched you again because He loves you".

On the corner where rebellion against the establishment was birthed in the 60's, God showed up in love and in power to tell a prodigal son to come home.

I didn't engage with him and argue all of his outlandish ideas about Jesus and the Father. I ignored it, changed the subject, and told him about the love that I saw in his heart. I kept hitting that point until he finally softened. He was changed from a hardened Satanist into a sensitive puppy dog. Here's how it worked:

Love brings down the walls. Power brings validity to truth. Truth sets the person free. When I first met the guy and he found out I was a Christian, he immediately put up a wall to me. My goal was to get the truth into him, but I couldn't because of that wall. So what did I need?

Love.

Love brings down the walls. It makes the person realize you're not a threat. Once the wall was down, he let me in and then I could display God's power through the healing. Once the power was shown to him, when I spoke truth, he was more open to believe it because the miracle testified of the truth. Many people have walls up and it's because they've been hurt. Trying to display God's power and speaking truth to them can be difficult. Love should be the thing that begins every encounter.

For some people, you'll have to display love to them for a very long time before you'll have a chance to display God's power or speak truth to them. This is because their walls won't come down easily and until the wall is down and they feel safe with you—there's no way they will receive the truth. At the same time, you can't only work in love and expect that everyone will change. Mother Teresa did a lot of loving throughout her life and yet thousands died in her loving arms, scared, depressed and fearful. When love and truth is shown without the power, you can have a person who believes in the existence of a supernatural God, but they have very shallow faith that is shaky and can waver.

The moral of the story is: you need all three.



Jun 6, 2014

Divine Healing Made Simple - Free on Kindle


My book Divine Healing Made Simple is free today (Friday June 14th) on Kindle in all locations.

US - Click this link.

Canada - Click this link.

UK - Click this link.

You don't need a Kindle device to read Kindle books. If you want to read them on an i-Pad, i-Phone, Android phone, PC or Mac computer - go to this link to download the program or app for your device and you can enjoy free Kindle books, too.

I've received many testimonies from people who have tried the things I suggested in the book and guess what? They worked.

I owe a huge thank you to all my friends and readers for helping spread the news about the book. If you'd like to do me a huge favor, let your friends know about the sale so they can pick up a copy. Post a link or send it to anyone who might want to know about it. If you've read the book, and you have time to leave a review on Amazon, I would be grateful.
Thanks,
PM

May 8, 2014

Unicorns are Awesome and so is Jesus

We were early for the transport so I stopped at the nurse’s station to get a report on our patient. Annette was a 16 year old girl who had spent the last three days in the hospital after trying to kill herself. We were transporting her to a mental health facility for evaluation and treatment. There was just one problem. Annette’s mother was addicted to drugs and at the present time she was homeless. Before we could get her admitted to the receiving facility, her mother had to be there to sign her in. And with her being homeless, there was no guarantee she would be there. I’ve had to wait several hours for a parent or legal guardian to show up before a minor patient could be admitted, so when I hear that the parent’s whereabouts are unknown, it always makes me a little uneasy.

I walked to her room and peeked inside and was surprised to find my partner already joking around with her. I watched them for a few more minutes then introduced myself. Annette’s long hair was a layered with a deep red and electric pink. The pink was the same color as the stuffed unicorn she clutched in her hands.

We talked for a while and as I got to know more about her, I took an instant liking to her. She reminded me of my daughter; happy, smiling often and full of life. She didn’t seem like the type of person who would be depressed or suicidal. It was time to leave, so I told her to get her personal belongings together. Holding up her cell phone and her unicorn she said, “This is all I have. I’m ready."

I looked at the unicorn, then at her and said, “Unicorns are awesome. And you’re awesome….therefore you are a unicorn.”  She busted up laughing and I helped her to the gurney.

The trip would take about 30 minutes. I got a set of vitals and started asking about her medical history, prescription medications and allergies. She said she had scoliosis and was supposed to be taking a pain medication for it, but she didn’t have a way to get the prescription filled.
“Scoliosis?” I asked. “How bad is your pain on a scale of one to ten?”

“About a seven most of the time. My back bones pop and make this crunching sound whenever I turn to the left or right.”

I became silent for a few minutes, thinking about my next move. I wondered if she’d be open to prayer and of course, I wondered if she’d actually be healed if I prayed with her. “I’m afraid you might be one of those people.” I said.

She turned to look at me. “One of what people?”

“One of those people I pray with who gets healed.” 

“What do you mean healed?” 

"Well….I pray with a lot of my patients and a lot of them are healed. And you have back pain and I’m pretty sure that if I prayed with you, it would be healed. Have you ever seen a healing miracle?” I asked.
“Yeah….once,” She replied. “When my gramma got sick and she lost the feeling in her left leg, the doctors said they would have to amputate it or else she would die. We all gathered around her and prayed and asked God to heal her. She got all the feeling back in her leg and they never did amputate it.”

“Wow. That’s pretty cool.” I said.

She looked at me. "I don’t just have scoliosis.' She said with a serious look on her face. "I have a problem in my knee, too. Pointing to her fibula and her tibia, she said, “There’s nothing between these two bones in my leg. It’s bone on bone. My knee hurts all the time.”

“On a scale of one to ten how bad is the pain?” 

“It’s about a nine.”

I sighed, looked at her and said, “Well, do you want to be healed or not?”

“Yeah. That would be cool.” She said, smiling.
I moved to a different seat in the ambulance so I could be next to her and explained what I was going to do. Starting with her knee, I commanded spirits of pain to leave then commanded ligaments, tendons, bones, nerves and muscle to be healed. Since the pad between the upper and lower bones of the leg is called the meniscus, and it seemed like her meniscus had deteriorated to where it was no longer doing its job, I commanded a new one to be created.
“What do you feel?” 

“Wow! It feels great!” She exclaimed.

“Go ahead, move it around. Test it out. I guarantee you that thing is healed,” I said with a smile. She moved her leg and flexed her knee joint several times trying to make the pain return, but there was none. It was completely healed. So I asked about her back.
“Are you ready to have your back healed?”

“Yes!”

I asked where the pain was located and when she said it was near the middle of her back, I placed my hand there and commanded the bones of her spine to come into alignment. I commanded scoliosis to leave and commanded ligaments and nerves to be healed.
“What do you feel?” 

“Heat.” She said, grinning. It feels really warm and it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Well that’s because God is healing you.”

I prayed again, but this time I spoke to her destiny. I declared God’s identity over her and asked the Holy Spirit to remove painful emotions and memories and to heal her soul. I declared God's protection and provision. I figured a kid like her needed as much help as she could get. She became very relaxed and in a few minutes she was sleeping on the gurney with her unicorn clutched tightly to her chest. I let her sleep the rest of the way and my fears about her mom never materialized. She was waiting for us when we got there

Unicorns are awesome... and so is Jesus.

Feb 12, 2014

Divine Healing Made Simple - Kindle Sale


My book Divine Healing Made Simple is on sale this week for Kindle users in most locations.
In the US you can download it on Kindle for $2.99.  Click this link to get your copy in the US.
Click this link to purchase it in the UK.
We have temporarily lowered the price in all other locations to allow as many people as possible to take advantage of the discount. If your country does not have a Kindle distributor - you may be purchasing it from the US site at a higher price. We're sorry, but the discount  from the US site is only valid in the US. Please check for the current price in your location.
You don't need a Kindle device to read Kindle books. If you want to read them on an i-Pad, i-Phone, Android phone, PC or Mac computer - go to this link to download the program or app for your device and you can enjoy cheap Kindle books, too.
I've received many testimonies from people who have tried the things I suggested in the book and guess what?
They worked.
The book has done much better than I expected. Sales have been brisk, and the reviews have all been positive. I owe a huge thank you to all my friends and readers for helping spread the news about the book. We haven't spent more than $15 on advertising and the book has been selling extremely well. Thanks for your support.
If you'd like to do me a huge favor, let your friends know about the sale so they can pick up a copy. Post a link or send it to anyone who might want to know about it.
If you've read the book, and you have time to leave a review on Amazon, I would be very grateful. I'll explain in a future message why reviews are so important to authors.
~ till then, happy reading

Jan 11, 2014

Healing In Health Care

StethoscopeThis is an excerpt from the book Divine Healing Made Simple.
I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to see many people healed in the setting of emergency medicine. I think healing and medicine make a wonderful partnership, though not everyone agrees. There are many issues that need to be considered if you want to use divine healing in your medical practice. In this message, we’ll discuss the most common problems and look at some solutions. 

Before I began operating in divine healing, one of the things that bothered me about claims of healing miracles, was the apparent lack of credible testimonies from medical experts. The few stories I’d heard were reported in such a way that made their verification impossible. Symptoms were poorly described, no diagnosis or mention of medical treatments was given and little was provided in the way of diagnostic testing afterward to verify the claims of healing. I found these stories hard to take seriously.
Since then I’ve learned that a lot of clinical research has been done on healing prayer and much of it suggests that the power of prayer can be observed and predicted through clinical trials.
In 1988, Randolph Byrd shocked the world with the results of a study he had conducted five years earlier on the effects of prayer on cardiac patients. Byrd studied 393 patients admitted to a coronary care unit in a San Francisco hospital. The patients were “statistically inseparable,” meaning their conditions and symptoms were all similar.
Patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups – those who received intercessory prayer and those who didn’t. Neither the doctor nor the patients knew who was in which group. Byrd gave the first name, diagnosis and condition of patients in the prayer group to different groups of three or four active Christians from several denominations.
These groups prayed for their patient daily throughout the patient’s stay, away from the hospital, without meeting the patient. They prayed for a timely, easy recovery and one free from complications.
When the study concluded, Byrd found that there was indeed a significant difference in the quality of recovery among patients who received prayer: The prayer group fared better on average than their fellow patients who did not receive prayer. Almost 85 % of the prayer group scored “good” on the rating system used by hospitals to rate a patient’s response to treatment. They were less likely to have a heart attack, need antibiotics or require interventions like ventilation or intubation. By contrast, only 73.1% of members of the control group scored “good.”
Research on prayer has nearly doubled in the past ten years, says David Larson, MD, MSPH, president of the National Institute for Healthcare Research, a private nonprofit agency. Even the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which refused to review a study with the word “prayer” in it four years ago, is now funding one prayer study through its Frontier Medicine Initiative.
Advances in traditional medicine will continue, but they will eventually plateau. Research in the field of divine healing is just getting started. Duke University, John Hopkins and other medical centers are building programs to study and harness the full potential of spiritual healing. The landscape of health care is rapidly changing. Here is a glimpse of what it may look like in the future:
In February of 2011, I had a dream in which I watched a new hospital being built. I walked to the construction site every day to check on the progress, taking a different route each day, trying to find the shortest one.
One day I arrived as the building was nearing completion. I walked to the street corner and began walking up a steep sidewalk next to the building. There was a handrail, so I used it to climb the long, steep slope. I met a man coming down the sidewalk. He was tall and austere in appearance. He was one of the hospital staff. As we met, he glared at me and kept walking.
There was one more element in the dream; in the beginning of the dream, I watched hospital employees standing around a bed, speaking curses that were damaging a patient. They seemed to be unaware of what they were doing. At the end of the dream, when the hospital was completed, the same group of people stood in the same room and prayed for a patient, who was healed by their prayers.
Let’s do some interpretation:
I believe the new hospital represents a new model of health care that God is “building.” My trips to the construction site reveal my involvement (and probably the involvement of people like me) in “seeing” the new model of health care as it is built. The fact that I took a different way each day, trying to find the shortest route would suggest there are longer and shorter paths to seeing the project completed. Our influence is intended to get it done in the most expedient and efficient way possible.
The steep sidewalk is a reminder that we have an “uphill battle” in helping the medical community see the value of divine healing.
The austere man is a representative of the existing medical paradigm. While they may be left “speechless” by what they witness happening, they may not react favorably.
Finally, the group of people who cursed the patient in the beginning and prayed for their healing in the end, could reveal a present problem and the solution to it.
The problem is that many health care workers speak words to their patients that rob them of hope and cause them to agree with sickness and death. We have enormous power in our words and people hold our views in high esteem. When we tell a patient there is no hope for survival, they tend to believe it. They give up hope, even ruling out the miraculous. If we neglect to tell patients that God wants to heal them, we’ve concealed from them what is perhaps the most important fact of all.
The solution is to speak frankly about their chances of survival from a medical standpoint. If medicine has nothing to offer, tell them so and point them to the fact that God isn’t limited in the ways that we are. We need to give them hope that a miracle is always possible, even if we don’t believe it’s likely. That option should never be taken from them. If we truly want the best outcomes for our patients, I think that includes praying for them to be healed.
Divine healing and medicine may seem like strange partners. Divine healing is a matter of faith. Medicine is mostly a matter of science. Our culture has at times identified these two as being in conflict with one another. But the truth is, divine healing is an excellent complement to the practice of medicine. There are many conditions for which medicine has little to offer. The power of divine healing has virtually no limitations. While patients have a high degree of trust in the medical community, most patients also believe in a higher power.
When God challenged me to begin praying for my patients, I had some anxiety over it. I wasn’t afraid to pray silently for patients. That doesn’t take a lot of faith. It was the idea of asking a stranger if they wanted me to pray with them that terrified me. I was also afraid someone would complain to my manager.
In the last few years I’ve prayed in public for several thousand people. About half of these were on the job and half were at stores and other public places. I have prayed for very few people in church settings. That’s right – I pray for many more people outside of church than inside. Of all the patients I’ve asked, I can only remember a few who declined. Keep in mind that I did all this in the pacific-northwest where church attendance is the lowest in the US.
My observation is this: if you’re afraid that your patients don’t want you praying with them – you’re probably wrong. More people are willing to receive prayer than you might think. This is especially true when a patient believes they are seriously ill or on the verge of death.
Operating as a divine healer in health care is rewarding but it does come with challenges. I have met a few people who objected to a paramedic praying with his patients on duty. I had a discussion with a doctor who was offended when she learned that I talked to my patients about God. In her mind my actions were unethical. She believes patients are vulnerable, seeing medical workers as experts. Her fear was that I would abuse my “expert” status and push a vulnerable patient into accepting a religious point of view, without having time to fully consider it. Sadly, Christians have developed a reputation for using high-pressure tactics to convert people to Christianity. While some people may operate this way, it can be a subtle form of manipulation. Is there a reason why discussions can’t occur that allow us to share ideas about faith and God without crossing the lines of sound ethical practice?
When I ask a patient if I can pray with them, I have only two things in mind. One is to get them healed; the other is to introduce them to God in a way that is personal and memorable. I simply invite God to touch them in a way that will allow them to know He is real. And they are fully aware that’s what I’m doing. I allow them to hear me as I ask God to touch them. I don’t preach to them and I’m not in the habit of asking them to believe in Jesus as their savior.
If your motive for praying with a patient is to convert them to your religious belief, people have a right to question your motives. If on the other hand, your desire is to see your patients healed, your motives will be seen as less selfish and more consistent with the goals of sound patient care.
If medicine is about delivering the highest level of care and the best customer service possible, then divine healing should be a part of what we do, at least for those interested in the realm of faith. Yes, there are cultural obstacles to overcome. But at the time of this writing, I am aware of no legal restrictions (in the US) that prevent us from pursuing this avenue of care. Please consult a legal expert in your area to determine if there are restrictions where you live.
Weighing the Risk
Can we expect a few complaints? I suppose we should. Not long after I began praying with my patients I was called into my manager’s office. A nurse in one of the emergency departments saw me praying with a patient and filed a complaint with her manager. Her manager and mine had a talk about it. I found it a bit ironic that this happened at of all places, a Catholic hospital. I worked for one of the largest private ambulance services in the country. In asking his supervisors what he should do about the complaint, my manager discovered some surprising news. None of the managers in our company could recall ever dealing with an employee caught praying with a patient.
In our meeting, I explained that God asked me to pray for the people I transport. I told my manager I always ask permission before praying and I always respect the wishes of those who say no. He said our company had no policy regarding prayer on the job and there were no plans to change that. My manager’s position was very reasonable. His only concern was that I avoid behavior that might generate complaints from our customers. He respected my convictions about prayer. He said I would be allowed to continue praying for patients under two conditions: first, I had to ask permission and second, I agreed to confine it to the back of the ambulance.
Most fire departments and hospitals have some type of chaplain service for their customers, including hospitals with no religious affiliation. Becoming a part of the chaplain’s service may open doors for you to pray with patients and family members, perhaps even staff. The fact that we have these services demonstrates a belief that the spiritual needs of our patients are real and that meeting those needs is a legitimate part of the service we provide.
I would like to know how an organization that advocates spiritual care in one sense, could reprimand an employee for providing it in the normal duties of their job, merely because they don’t have the title of “chaplain.” There is no reason why we should receive disciplinary action because we pray for patients who request it. And there is no reason to believe that any special training or certification is needed to provide spiritual care. Although western culture holds college degrees and ordination in high regard, there is no biblical basis for believing that they qualify us for service. Jesus used simple, uneducated people to work miracles of healing and raise the dead. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t follow that example today.
One fear we have is that of suffering discipline for praying with a patient. I had that fear and it proved to be unfounded. I’m not saying you won’t catch some flak from your supervisor – it’s certainly possible. But for citizens of the US, our constitution guarantees certain rights that we don’t surrender when we come to work.
I don’t advocate a militant or defiant attitude toward prayer in health care. Romans chapter 13 tells us to respect the authorities placed over us and that includes supervisors at work. Humility and a spirit of cooperation will go a long way. God opens doors and changes people’s hearts. I do a lot of prayer in the area of asking God to grant me favor with people as I step out in faith and pray for the sick. If God wants you to heal your patients, He’ll make the way safe, though you’ll almost certainly encounter a little opposition.
I had a dream about this situation shortly after I began praying for my patients. In the dream, I was on the run from the enemy and took refuge in a hospital. I wore scrubs and blended in with the staff. I slept in a bedroom on the top floor where the doctor’s dorms were located.
I was there for many days. Occasionally an agent of the enemy showed up at the hospital looking for me. When I saw them, I’d pull a surgical mask over my face and duck down a hallway or get on an elevator. As long as I didn’t draw attention to myself, the enemy didn’t notice me.
This was a dream of major revelation. It was God’s way of telling me that I was protected and given favor in the setting in which I worked. I could pray for my patients with confidence as long as I didn’t make a scene or draw attention to myself. I think we’re a lot safer than we believe in the realm of praying for our patients and I believe God will reveal strategies to overcome obstacles if you ask Him.
I’d encourage you to pursue God’s heart for your situation. Ask the Lord if you’re supposed to be praying for your patients. Begin looking for opportunities to test the waters. When you start praying with patients, expect to see a few miracles. But don’t be discouraged if you don’t. It was only through months of praying that I eventually saw see people healed.
The nature of our job doesn’t always allow us to follow up with patients. Some people are healed immediately, but they don’t realize it until being tested. Some are healed weeks or months later. Don’t give up. God is faithful. He will honor your obedience, in time.
The book Divine Healing Made Simple can be ordered here: http://bit.ly/DivineHealingMadeSimple
Other excerpts from the book: