Day 21 of my 90 Day Journey to Experience More and I had another family emergency which took up most of my day. I must be doing something right because the enemy is trying to disrupt my journey. However, at the end of the day I was able to go out and approach 2 people. One received prayer for healing and another rejected it. I wasn't able to approach 10 people today but God isn't as concerned about the numbers as much as He is concerned about our hearts (see Day 17 of my Journey). Read on to find out what lesson I re-learned today about my expectation of healing and how that might effect the results. . .
I learned another lesson from the Holy Spirit. In the past 20 days of my journey, I approached people and asked them something like this, "Excuse me. I'm a Christian. Sometimes when I pray for people they get healed. Could I pray for you?"
In my mind, I was expecting only a few people to be healed every week because that is what others either have told me or what they have experienced themselves. My belief was based on others experience or on my own not on what the Word of God says and what Jesus Christ taught us.
Jesus showed and taught the disciples by His example to heal the sick, cast out demons, and to raise the dead. Every time Jesus commanded someone to be healed they were healed 100% of the time. There is no record anywhere in the Bible that after Jesus prayed for someone for healing that they were not healed. Jesus said that, ". . . [H]e who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do. . ." (John 14:12, NAS).
Yesterday I attended a house church because I was intrigued by a report I got a week ago from one of its members. They mentioned that at a resent outreach event in the city that everyone they prayed for got healed. He said that lately 100 percent of the people that received prayer for healing got healed. I confirmed the story with the pastor of his church and he said that on average they have been experiencing about a 50% rate of healing and that recently have had everyone healed that they prayed for. When I asked the pastor why they have such a high rate of healings, he said because they expect everyone they pray for will be healed.
Jesus said we would do what He did and even greater works. So why are we only expecting it to happen "sometimes" and not all the time? If Jesus healed everyone He prayed for then we should expect the same results when we pray for the sick.
I think the reason why everyone Jesus prayed for got healed was because He always did what the Father was doing. John 5:19 says of Jesus, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (NIV). The closer in intimacy we have with our heavenly Father practicing His presence the more we will know what He is doing. Jesus was successful because He only did what the Father was doing. He did nothing by himself. He just followed the Father's lead (see Day 9 - Practice the Presence).
As we become more intimate with the Father and only do what He is doing, we can expect that just like Jesus, everyone we pray for will be healed. Therefore from now on, I am going to raise my expectation to what Jesus showed and taught us that everyone should be healed when we pray for them. Today I changed the way I approached people.
There was a man who was riding an electric mobile cart because he had an infection on one of his feet that wasn't going away. This time I prayed with expectancy that every time I prayed for someone they would be healed just like Jesus. So I said to him, "I'm a Christian. When I pray for people they get healed. Could I pray for you?" Leaving the word "sometimes" out, I prayed with great expectation that he would be healed. I could not observe any physical healing because his foot was covered but I proclaimed that by tomorrow morning all the infection would be gone and he would be completely healed.
When we only expect that "sometimes" people will be healed, we get exactly what we believe to happen that only on occasion people get healed. What would happen if we raised our expectation to the level of Scripture and what Jesus said we would do? We need to start expecting that 100 percent of everyone we pray for will be healed. Maybe we would start experiencing 50 percent or more being healed instead of 5 to 10 percent or less being healed. If we change our expectation to match the Word of God then I believe we will experience even more healings on a regular basis and do what Jesus did healing everyone He commanded to be healed.
I wonder what I'm going to discover tomorrow on the 22nd Day of my Journey to Experience More. Let me know what you think. Your prayers and encouragement are greatly appreciated. Add a comment below and come back often to see what more God is going to show me and do in my journey.
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