HEALING & DELIVERANCE
HEALING & DELIVERANCE
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits who forgive all your sins and
heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love
and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so your youth is renewed
like the eagles’s. (Psalms 103: 2-5)
It is true, God still heals!
Yes, God is still supernaturally healing people today, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ. Yes, of course God also heals naturally using doctors, medicine, surgery and the natural healing power of the body itself. God is in that too. Yes, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are entitled to ask God for both natural and supernatural healing, for yourself and others. Yes, any Christian can pray for the sick and receive healing.
The miracle Gifts still operate today!
Yes, the Biblical “Gifts of Healings” (1 Cor 12) still manifest through some Christians today, with frequency. God is still working supernatural, scientifically unexplainable miracles in our time, for His children. The Bible says that Jesus is the same forever (Heb 13: 8). That means if Jesus Christ ever supernaturally healed anyone, He is still doing it today. God doesn’t change and He doesn’t lie.
Yes, healing was provided by Jesus in the Atonement, when Christ was whipped, bruised and crucified for our sins. Supernatural and natural healing are now available to all Believers, because of the shed blood of Jesus. Healing and deliverance are the “children’s bread”.
Yes, God can heal anything, any condition, any deformity and even raise the dead . It is still happening in our world today. I personally know three people who God has used to raise the dead. God is actually still working “creative miracles” where organs and limbs are being restored. I personally know three people who have experienced this kind of amazing miracle.
The Holy Spirit is still willing to heal physical, psychological and spiritual illnesses, including those resulting from genetics, germs, accidents, birth defects, addictions, sinful choices and demons. In some cases, Jesus Christ is the only way to find healing, because doctors don’t have cures for every condition. Bottom line: Jesus Christ can heal anyone, of anything, at any time!
Yes, “faith-filled” prayer, based on the promises of the Bible, is much better than “faith-less” prayer, uttered with no expectation of healing . And, more “faith filled” prayer is better than less. Yes, more “faith-filled” people praying are more effective than a few “faith-filled” people praying . Quantity, quality and faith make a major difference, if you are seeking a miracle. Faith and prayer alone are worthless however, if not directed to the right God, Jesus Christ. All other gods and faith systems are counterfeits, even though a demonic form of healing can manifest for a season. Satan will use counterfeit healing and miracles to draw people away from the true Healer, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the Jews.
Yes, God wants His children to always seek Him first for healing, before other avenues are explored. Always immediately seek God first for healing. God wants us to ask and trust that He is working on our behalf. He wants us to listen for His leading and to keep praying, even when we don’t see the miracle. And, it is not a sin to go to doctors for help. If it was, Jesus would have told us. However, always remember, doctors are only human, and they don’t know everything. So, when healing is needed, pray to God first, and then do the wise thing and seek medical attention if healing has not occurred. Usually Christians have this backwards, they go to doctors first and when they can’t help, they turn to God.
Yes, God wants you to keep a “positive confession” on your lips. He wants you to have faith and agree with His written Word, the Bible. God wants you to speak His will into existence, as it says in the Lord’s Prayer. God wants His will done “on earth, as it is in Heaven.” This means, everyday things are happening in this world that are not God’s will. The Holy Spirit expects His children to bring the Kingdom of God into our time and space. When this occurs, miracles can happen.
God wants His kids to speak “life” over themselves and others, not “death.” It is Satan or our own sinful nature that puts evil thoughts into our minds. This is why the Apostle Paul said we must “take our thoughts captive”, before they become evil actions.
No, you don’t need to deny reality, or tell others a healing or miracle has happened when is hasn’t. If the arm is broken, the arm is actually broken. But, God does ask us to have faith in His Word and promises, and believe that He will heal you, in His time and way. But, you obey His commands.
Can God’s miracles be confirmed medically? Yes, real genuine healing, both natural and supernatural can be confirmed scientifically. If it is real, there will be evidence. However, realize that most medical people don’t know what to do or say when they are confronted with a genuine, supernatural healing miracle from God. Believers will acknowledge God’s intervention, while non-believers won’t know what to say since it the evidence affects their personal worldview that there is no God.
Can you loose your healing? Yes, ask any doctor. Getting healed naturally, or supernaturally doesn’t make you immortal. However, the healing you have received can be maintained, if you obey God. This is why Jesus often told people He healed to “Sin no more, less a worse thing come upon you” . In reality, all healings are temporary since we all have to die. Then for Christians, the “eternal healing” occurs.
Yes, we should be specific and “name” the miracle we need. Yes, you should “claim” the promises of the Bible for yourself, and others. Believe, obey and have faith in the Word of God. That is faith in action. God expects you to do to show Him your faith. Faith without works is dead. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. All of the promises of the Bible are your inheritance, as a “Born-again” Believer. Don’t let anyone talk you out of your inheritance, as many Christians and churches try to do. Stand on the Word and believe what your Heavenly Father has promised in the Bible.
Yes, it is true, only Jesus Christ had a 100% success ratio, when praying for the sick to be healed. No one else has a total success when praying for the sick, or miracles, no matter how famous they are. God knows that human pride would take over. Therefore, God works through humility. Praying for healing and miracles, without success, results in humility for those doing the praying. All of the greatest, most anointed men and women of God I know, have often experienced failure.
Warning: If you run into someone who claims to have “all the answers”, or “total success” related to healing, hold on to your wallet! No man has all the answers about the healing and delivering power of God. However, it is also true that some Christians know a lot more than others, about the supernatural power of God. As a result, these people have more success praying for the sick than others ( ). Here is a “word” the Lord gave me recently: “The closer you are to Jesus, the more miracles you will see!”
God is Sovereign
God is the ultimate mystery of the universe and He is sovereign.
Yes it is true, not everyone prayed for gets healed. Not everyone witnessed to gets saved either. But, we are commanded to pray for the sick and witness to the ‘lost” anyway, in obedience to Christ. The Bible says we are to pray for the sick (Ja 5: ) so they might be healed. We must obey God, if we expect His blessings. We must do our part and He will do His. As my friend and mentor, Bill Banks used to say, “We do the natural and God will do the supernatural.”
Often, some people we think should get a healing or miracle don’t, while others we think shouldn’t receive a miracle, get one! What’s the deal? This fact is hard to reconcile, even for those of us who have prayed for thousands of people for miracles. In the end, we must trust God and His sovereignty. After all, He knows the future, and the overall plan He is working out (Jer 29: 11). Much about God and His ways can’t be comprehended by us. The Bible says His ways are higher than our ways. But know that God loves His children and desires the best for them, just like we do for our children.
The Bible says God wants us to seek Him and His learn His ways. He wants to reveal His mysteries to us. It should be our desire to receive all the blessings, understanding, empowerment, faith, miracles and healings that God desires to give us. Never turn down anything from the hand of God, because it is always good, though we may not recognize it at the time.
God gets great glory from supernatural miracle and healing testimonies. This is how He defeats the works of Satan. But remember, He can also receive glory from a Believer who is not healed. The Lord can use the testimony of a Christian, in the midst of trials and illness, to bring glory to God. Both testimonies prove God is real. In all things we should glorify God. But, God wants us to continue to seek life and healing.
We should always witness the miracles of the Holy Spirit to others, so they might know He is God. The testimony of Christians facing trials is often amazing. If you are facing difficult times, you are a great candidate for a miracle! Never give up!
The Greiner’s Personal Introduction to Healing
Back in July of 1989, I had a father who was dying of an incurable genetic disease, and a wife who was also slowing dying of a life-threatening, psychological disorder. At the time, I did all I knew to do, prayed all I knew to pray, but it still wasn’t enough to help either of them. My own desperation led me back to the God of my youth, and His written Word. I knew their only hope would be found in God. Even though I was “Born-Again” at age 7, when I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, my understanding of God was very limited. He knew me as a son, but I knew very little about Him, or His ways, even though I was an adult.
I grew up as a “good”, 4th generation Southern Baptist. I was blessed with Godly parents and grand parents, who taught me about Jesus. Frequently, I was in church and church activities, during the first 40 years of my life, even though I fell away from church attendance during my college years and two years of marriage. The only time I ever read the Bible was when we studied selected passages in Sunday school. That was enough I thought. Everything was good. I was healthy, happy and all my prayers were being answered. I had all the God I needed.
Then, in the mid eighties, my beautiful wife, Sherry was diagnosed with depression and Anorexia Nervosa, a mental illness that killed one in five. Then my wonderful father was diagnosed with Alpha One Anti Tripson, a rare, incurable genetic lung disease.
Suddenly, I needed miracles for the two people I loved most deeply, because medical doctors were unable to stop their downward spiral toward death. Desperation drove me back to the Bible, after longtime friend, Jim Beard, gave me a personal “Word” from God in the early eighties. Jim was an archery friend since 1970, who urged me to read the entire Bible. I knew in my spirit Jim was right, and that the answers to all my questions were inside that book. Therefore, I committed to God, at that time, to read His entire Bible, cover to cover. I selected a modern translation, so I could better understand the meaning and prayed each session for the Holy Spirit to explain what I was reading.
As a result, my understanding of God and His ways changed forever after reading the entire Bible for the first time. I learned things about God no one had ever taught me in church, or Sunday school. I discovered that my God was still a miracle working God, a God that was willing and capable to work miracles in our time, if we would simply believe His promises and obey Him. Nothing in the entire Bible said He stopped working miracles or giving His supernatural, miracle working “Gifts” (1 Cor 12;4-11). My eyes were forever opened by the scripture, as I began to seek a deeper understanding of my God. It was during this crisis time in my family that God began to reveal more to me about Himself.
In addition to the life threatening conditions faced by my wife and father, the Texas economy crashed and about 95% of my art collectors went bankrupt. In the fall of 1983, our income dropped to zero in a few months time.
Now, in addition to the possibility of loosing my precious young wife and my wonderful father, I was faced with loosing our beautiful Kerrville land, our home and my art business, which had been very successful up until that time. I was living a scaled down version of the “Job” story.
It was at this hopeless time in my life, that the Holy Spirit of God began to intervene in dramatic ways. I believe it was in response to my desperate prayers, faith that God was going to help my family and sincere search for a deeper relationship with Him. I was 37 years old at the time.
On July 13, 1989 at the Christian Booksellers Association International Convention, held in Atlanta, Georgia, God introduced Sherry and me to a total stranger, named Bill Banks, of Kirkwood, Missouri, a great man of God. It was Bill who introduced us to the “Empowerment of the Holy Spirit”, which results in the supernatural “Gifts of the Holy Spirit” being activated in the life of a Christian. Everything instantly changed, when we prayed with Bill Banks, as we surrendered to God’s will and asked that the supernatural “Gifts of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12) be released in our lives.
We had no theological framework or friends, at the time, to explain what we experienced in Atlanta. We were “normal” Southern Baptists, about to become “Baptecostals!” We learned the Empowerment we received was for supernatural service in the Kingdom of God. We had received an experience that we did not believe existed, which Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians call the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”.
But, at the time we were desperate for God and needed His miracle working power. We didn’t care what you called this “Empowerment” experience, we just wanted it if it would help us and was from Jesus! It was.
Within 12 hours of our simple prayer with Bill Banks, the supernatural Gifts started to manifest in our lives. Sherry and I both sensed instantly after the prayer, that something had changed in our spirits, but we had no frame of reference to explain what we were feeling. That evening, alone in the motel bathroom, God gave me a Heavenly language as I prayed for understanding. This was the personal devotional language, which the Bible calls “Tongues”, and Baptists don’t like!
Within 36 hours of our “Empowerment” prayer, I had to cast out a demon out of a man, by using the name of Jesus Christ, in authority. I had never done this before, had never read about how to do it, or ever talked to anyone about the subject of deliverance! However, the Holy Spirit came over me and words of authority came out of my mouth. The man was instantly delivered of demons, which had been attacking his life and body for years. I was amazed.
Within 72 hours of the Atlanta prayer, after we returned to Kerrville, Sherry and I prayed for Helen Barnes, a neighbor in the hospital. She was instantly healed after our prayers and discharged from the hospital the next morning! We were amazed and somewhat what puzzled. It seemed that our prayers had a new power and authority that we had never experienced before.
The years since then, up until this very moment, have been filled with literally thousands of incredible, supernatural miracles worked by the Holy Spirit of God, when we prayed in the name of Jesus Christ. Sherry and I have personally witnessed dozens and dozens of people healed of physical, psychological and spiritual problems. We have seen crossed eyes straightened, blind eyes see, deaf ears opened, cripples throw down their crutches and walk, cancers disappear and incurable genetic conditions healed, to the astonishment of doctors. We have witnessed the sexually abused and sex addicts permanently delivered of mental torment. We have watched drug and alcohol addicts delivered from chemical dependency. We have also witnessed incredible miracles of provision and finances, not unlike those in the Bible.
However, I don’t want to give the wrong impression. Yes, we have seen many miracles. However, not everyone we pray for is healed or delivered. Not everyone we witness to about the “Grace of God” is saved. Sometimes we know why, and sometimes we just don’t. The reality is that we don’t heal, deliver or save anyone. Only Jesus Christ does that, through the power of His Holy Spirit.
We have determined it is our job is to obey the voice of God immediately, and pray as the Holy Spirit leads. The Holy Spirit does the “supernatural” stuff; we just do the “natural” stuff! However, when we do our part, and have been sensitive to the Holy Spirit, many times a miracle results. On many occasions, multiple miracles result. It is not our fault!
Seven Reasons for Divine Healing and Miracles
Anytime I go back to my study notes from that time in my life after my conversation with Dr. Sumrall, it is always such a delight to go through what the Lord showed me. Let me share seven of God’s many purposes or reasons for healing people—then and now.
1. Jesus heals because He is full of compassion.
A leper came to Jesus, “…beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean” (Mark 1:40 ). What was the Lord’s response? “And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean” (verse 41). It was compassion that led to the miracle. Jesus Christ heals people today for the same reason, so that “…the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance” (Romans 2:4 ).
2. Jesus heals because healing belongs to His children.
Once, when Jesus was preaching near the city of Tyre, a Syrophenician fell at His feet, asking Him to cast an unclean spirit out of her daughter. Jesus said to her, “Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:27-28 ). The Lord saw the woman’s faith and the daughter was delivered. If you are a child of the King, healing should come to you first, even before unbelievers receive their miracle. Yet I watch as those who do not know the Lord reach out in great faith, hungry for the crumbs. And time after time He pours out His healing virtue upon these people. Thank God, healing is often the entry point that helps people receive Jesus Christ as Savior.
3. Jesus heals to bring glory to His Father.
On the side of a mountain near the sea of Galilee, “great multitudes came unto Him…and he healed them…(and) the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:30-31 ). On another occasion, there was a similar response when Jesus healed a paralytic man. “…When the multitude saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God” (Matthew 9:8 ). All glory and praise belongs to the Father. Healing is a wonderful, awe-inspiring faith-builder that should lead to glorifying God.
4. Jesus heals to fulfill God’s promises.
At Capernaum, “they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:16-17 ). When the Master heals, it is a fulfillment of the prophecy spoken through Isaiah. On the cross, Christ took our sickness and infirmities.
5. Jesus heals also to confirm His own Word.
Healing was promised by the Father, then declared by Jesus Christ. He said, “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him” (John 10:37-38 ). Christ knew exactly why He was sent to earth. He came to perform the works of His Father. Miracles confirm the spoken word of Jesus. He heals to fulfill His personal word to you.
6. Jesus heals to show you the power in His Blood.
The prophecy declared in Isaiah 54:4-5 was fulfilled 20 centuries ago: “…he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” The blood of Jesus was shed to forgive sin and provide healing.
7. Every time the Lord heals, the devil’s defeat at the Cross is exposed once again.
The Word tells us, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ). At the house of Cornelius, Peter said, “You know…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10:37-38 ).
