There are no guarantees of healing, no magical formulas. Divine healing isn't magic. There is no promise of perfect healing in this age. Not everyone gets healed. While God doesn't always heal in this age, God always acts in love toward us.
Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor Sermon Podcast
The Healing Presence of Jesus (#5): How to Have Faith for Healing
The Healing Presence of Jesus (#5): How to Have Faith for Healing by Pastor Don Bromley
This morning I'm going to be talking about God moments and how it relates to this whole thing of healing that we've been talking about. Have you ever had in your life just an unmistakable moment where God has acted or God has done something that you just know beyond any shadow of a doubt that that was God? God broke into your life. God did something amazing, something that just let you know in a real manifest and tangible way that God was real and that He was involved in your life. Now for most of us, those things aren't necessarily everyday experiences. We can't necessarily point every single day to something that just was absolutely God moving in just an amazing way. Maybe some of us can, but for most of us it's probably not necessarily an everyday experience. I mean it could be something like seeing a prayer answered in just an incredible way, maybe something like in a relationship that was healed remarkably right after you prayed about it. Maybe you were estranged from a close family member or a friend and you prayed about that relationship and just out of the blue they give you a call or there's some thawing in the relationship or maybe you've been struggling with an addiction. Maybe it was drugs or alcohol or pornography or something else like that and you've seen God just remarkably take it away almost instantly. Now sometimes these God moments, these times where God breaks in, has to do with the healing of our bodies. You know we're in the midst of a series on healing in the church and sometimes these God moments have to do with physical healing. So today I want to talk about that specifically. Maybe you've had an experience like that yourself. Maybe you were sick or injured or hurting in some way and you prayed or somebody prayed for you and you witnessed just a dramatic remarkable healing. Now the vast majority of healings that I'm aware of, okay just before I get into this whole thing of healing, the vast majority of healings I'm aware of come through medical intervention and the natural healing processes of our body. Because God has just you know wonderfully made us and the body has an amazing ability to recover and most of the healings I'm aware of come through medical intervention or just the natural healing that takes place. In the body for example someone has appendicitis and they go into the hospital and they remove the appendix and they heal or for example someone has a psychiatric disorder and they see a therapist or a doctor and they get some wonderful help through medication and counseling or maybe you have a torn ligament in your knee and you go to the hospital and an orthopedic surgeon does surgery and repairs it and you heal. I mean thank God for doctors, thank God for hospitals, thank God for medicine. I mean I know myself our daughter when she was born had high bilirubin levels because her mother's blood had somehow interacted with the baby's blood and her red blood cells were getting attacked and it was creating this stuff in her blood that was really bad for her and I can remember the amazing care that she got, the doctors and nurses and they put her under these lights and gave her fluids and I mean people were just there around the clock. I have never been so grateful for hospitals and doctors and nurses as I was at that time. I mean thank God for that but there are also times when people are healed entirely apart from medical intervention and in ways that don't seem to be attributable to just the natural healing processes of the body. Now in my own experience in the church I've been involved in praying for healing and in some of those cases I've seen really remarkable results and what I want to do since we've been talking about healing I want to invite a couple people up to share a little bit about their first-hand experiences so why don't Connie and Emily come on up here and I'm going to ask Connie to go first and Connie's going to share a little bit with you about her own experiences being prayed for with healing so I'm going to turn it over and let's give Connie a warm welcome because it's always intimidating. Hi thank you. I was baptized here two years ago and I just say that because my life has just been totally blessed ever since and this healing thing you know Dawn's right about the doctors and the nurses. We're all praying for Julie and Eve and thank you Jesus that they came out of that good but I had several healing since I've been here in the last couple of years and the most recent one was I went to the doctor because I had severe burning and I had a problem seeing out of my right eye and I went to an ophthalmologist and he said I had a recurrent corneal erosion and I could not even read when I covered up this my left eye I couldn't read anything on the chart not not one letter and so that week he gave me a prescription for drops and I've been using them but that Thursday at the air in her intercessory group I was about ready to leave I was tired and my daughter is also in that group and she said stay and get prayer for your eye and I said I'm kind of tired she said just stay just let us pray and she put her hands on my eyes and so did Cliff and some other members of the group prayed for me and when they got done I went over to Tyrone's music sheets and I picked up a music sheet because I wanted to see if there was any improvement I covered up my eye and I could not only read the music but I could see that I could read the fine print on the bottom who wrote this eye everything else I was like a Jesus and so that was pretty dramatic for me that was the most recent one and also in that group all these things have happened in that group there's just now some bunch of prayer warriors there one night there was a lady there who had pain in her wrist sometimes people can feel pain for other people and I had a very severe case of tendonitis that I was using brace for and she asked me she asked who in the group had and who had a sore wrist and I I was like reluctant to see anything because I was kind of new to the group and I was a little bit embarrassed about having people pray for me and since then God has delivered me from some of that pride and and it's awesome I love being prayed for now it's just you know I just love the feeling of the overwhelming warmth and love that comes with prayer but Linda and several others laid hands on me and prayed for me and my wrist I haven't worn the brace since it's greatly improved it hasn't gone away totally but it's greatly improved and also several weeks after that I had done something when I was working out and I twisted my knee really bad and another person in the group my daughter this time said is does anybody here have pain in their knee I'm feeling pain in my knee and I said that would be me and though she put her hands on my knee and everyone prayed again for me and and it disappeared I mean the pain was gone immediately the first time though and I think this this was this was the one that absolutely astonished me and as I get more faith maybe I won't be so amazed at this but I'm just always amazed when this happens I had a situation with my neck this the issue of my neck was like with me since the late 80s and I had pain in it all the time and my head was like this because it just hurt to be straight and I would go to chiropractors I chose that raw because I really I just didn't want to do pills and I just have a version of that but I would go to chiropractors when the pain got bad and I wasn't too crazy about having them manipulate my neck either but sometimes I had to because it just got so and I couldn't I couldn't get comfortable asleep at night and and the same group at the air on her Thursday night group they all laid hands on me and people put hands on their neck on my neck and that was pretty dramatic because when I woke up in the morning and I sat up on the bed you know the side of the bed it was like there was something very obviously missing in my life and it was like it was like you know I felt like wow I don't have any pain in my neck and so you know hallelujah thank you Jesus it's just glorious so I think that's all I just I feel like I need to be I need to be shouting these things from the from the rooftops because and not take take it for granted Jesus wants us healed and he's doing it all the time and I need to just say praise the Lord you know so thank you for listening hi Emily and I was healed of depression here about three years ago those of you know me you know that my story it's really not that unusual it's certainly not very glamorous I grew up in a good solid Christian home I went to a church a lot like this one I was total Jesus freak is a teenager like a lot of people went off to college and I had a few holes blown in my world view and it just caused me to say you know I don't know if there is a God and I labeled myself an agnostic and very briefly as an atheist five years ago I graduated from college and I took a job up here that was a little bit more of a high pressure job and I didn't know anybody I was new to the area I had no family up here and I had a couple of friends but really I had no support system and I certainly didn't have a church community and I didn't have a God that I wanted to talk to I certainly didn't think he wanted to talk to me so while I thought of myself as a very fit person emotionally I'd always been very level headed feed on the ground kind of gal I found myself kind of spiraling out of control emotionally I'd gotten into this routine where I would go to work I'd come home I'd ride my bike I'd have dinner and I'd have a couple glasses of wine with a Tylenol PM and I'd go to sleep and I'd get up and I'd do that every day and having all sorts of thoughts of suicide it just wasn't like me you know I'd lay in bed at night just I told myself I'd never really do it but just kind of imagining what it would be like like have a gun in my mouth and what it would feel like if I just did it so I was just more lonely and deeply depressed than I'd ever been in my entire life and I started dating a guy up here who wasn't a bad guy but he wasn't a Christian and it wasn't the answer to what I was looking for when I broke up with them I found myself just devastated I was like I've got nobody at the same time I did have a couple of friends that I knew up here that they had they lived in Indianapolis I grew up with them they'd gone to my church they were my parents age so they were sort of keeping an eye on me and they were coming to this church so occasionally they dragged me along and I'd come along and I'd sit in the back just so they would tell my parents that I was going to church so I wouldn't be any trouble on the home front and about I guess it was three years ago Ken had a word of knowledge up here and he just described my situation perfectly he just said you know I think there's so many years to press and went into some detail and my friend Tammy turned to me and she said you know him you know that's you don't yeah I said yeah I do she said well you want me to go up front with you I was like yeah because you know coming down that aisle the first time you do it is pretty scary but it's worth it and what I remember about being down here is a couple of people laid their hands on me and I just remember sobbing into somebody's wool sweater I don't even know who it was and somebody put their hands on me and they just said they just commanded that depression to leave in the name of Jesus and I felt something just come off of me I mean if it could have been physical if that's how I can describe it that's what it was it was like something was squeezing my shoulders and it just like released and went away and it happened in an instant and I haven't had the depth of depression since then I just remember some point after that I don't remember how long just getting down on my knees in my living room and just telling God okay you win you're real and you can do with me whatever you want to do with me and so I've been able to plug into the church community and anytime I feel down there's there's so many people here who can offer you community and support. It is so wonderful to hear firsthand stories of people who've received healing or been healed or seen it because you know I think all of us are so close to not believing in healing or you know maybe just struggling with this whole idea of can God really heal it is hard in our setting to believe in healing it is challenging and that's why it's so important just to constantly be reminded by stories like that that sometimes God heals just remarkably and miraculously you know it's not the easiest thing to believe that somebody we know somebody with a chronic or a serious condition can suddenly be healed by God's intervention just in the normal course of events I mean it's hard to believe that God could actually heal somebody before our eyes it is so challenging but when we hear stories like that when we heard hear those firsthand accounts it's just such a huge boost to our faith and that's exactly what my goal is this morning it is to encourage our faith and to talk about faith that releases healing faith that releases healing today the text I'm going to look at is in Acts chapter 3 beginning in verse 1 it will be up on the screen behind me one day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at 3 in the afternoon see Peter and John were doing the divine hours and it's you know seriously at 3 in the afternoon they did fix our prayer so at 3 in the afternoon they were going up to the temple no a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called beautiful where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts when he saw Peter and John about to enter he asked them for money Peter looked straight at him as did John then Peter said look at us so the man gave them his attention expecting to get something from see they were making eye contact they had their eyes open they were following the prayer model then Peter said silver or gold I do not have but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk taking him by the right hand he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong he jumped to his feet and began to walk then he went with them into the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God when all the people saw him walking and praising God they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him just a remarkable story of healing now this man the people saw they were jumping and praising God because they were having a God moment they were witnessing and experiencing just an amazing and breaking of God's activity and power in their lives I mean this guy was lame from birth you know that's serious it wasn't just something that had just happened it wasn't something in his head he was paralyzed from the time he was born and Peter prays for this guy and he was instantly healed I mean that is remarkable now before I get into you know things that we want to take into account when it comes to faith for healing one thing I want to say is there are no guarantees of healing there are no guarantees of healing there is no guarantee that each and every time we pray for someone they're going to be healed there are no magical formulas that we have been given that if you do A and B and C if you repent of your sins if you work up a certain emotional state of of feeling faith that you will be healed if you pray the right words then God must heal you you know magic is that idea that if the technique is done right the results are automatic and it's so important we don't fall into that way of thinking that prayer is a technique or it is a way of causing something to happen divine healing isn't magic it is not magic healing involves us in a relationship with God God is not a magical vending machine nowhere in the Bible has God promised or guaranteed perfect healing in this age before Christ's return it might be surprising for some of us but in the early church not everyone was healed not even in the heyday you know not even in the book of Acts which talks about the early experience of the church and it's it's amazing growth not even then was everybody healed in the church the Apostle Paul who is the author of many of the letters we have in our New Testament you know responsible for the early growth of the church that the Gentiles he is writing to Timothy who's young pastor and he says to him stop drinking only water and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses see Timothy had stomach problems Timothy was getting sick all the time and Paul's giving him some advice because water wasn't terribly safe in those days so he said you know maybe you should have a little wine instead of just drinking water all the time well why is Timothy struggling with a bad stomach and frequent illnesses if Paul can just heal him why is he struggling with this in 2 Timothy again Paul is writing and he's writing to Timothy and he's saying and he's just recounting some facts Erassus dead in Corinth and Corinth and I left Trophamus sick in my lead us see Paul is saying his friend was sick so he had to leave him in a certain town he couldn't travel with him anymore well why didn't Paul just heal him if everybody gets healed I mean this is the glory days of the church if everybody gets healed you know if Paul can't heal somebody who can see everyone everyone didn't get well instantly not everyone gets healed in this age not even if the apostle Paul prays for you the Bible doesn't promise that God always or you know must heal in fact it doesn't promise that God must do anything I mean that's a thing about being God you know there's another characteristic of magic that sometimes healing can start to blend into and that's this idea that we can force the gods or the powers to do our will and the thing is God is a free being God is free and God does what he wills and what God thinks is best at the proper time now it is true that God always chooses to act in love toward us he always acts in love toward us God always chooses to bless his children God always chooses to bless us I mean that is important but he doesn't always make us happy he doesn't always do things when we want them done or in the ways we want them done in ways that make us happy that is true blessedness is sometimes different than happiness you know sometimes God is kind of like a good sculptor and he's crafting us and he's shaping us and you know little parts are falling off and sometimes that's how we feel like little bits of us are falling off and things seem out of control and we're asking God where are you you know sometimes God allows that hammer to fall on us and break off a little part and and we're not happy but when we enter this arena of divine healing when we talk about the subject of sickness and healing we're entering into the mystery of relationship with God and God sometimes is a mysterious being you know God alone is all mighty God alone is all wise God alone has the perspective of all of eternity whereas our perspectives are limited I can't answer the question why don't we always get healed but I do know that God has an infinite perspective and he has infinite love for us so what was it back back to this chapter three of acts what was it that released this healing in acts what was it that that was going on there well it certainly wasn't Peter's great prayer I mean look at look again at this prayer in verse six several gold I don't have what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk it's a pretty simple prayer now when it comes to praying for healing this is the first point I want to make when it comes to healing we don't need fancy or lengthy prayers sometimes we think that you know if there's some amazing miracle somebody must have prayed a really amazing powerful anointed prayer for that to happen but here in this case we don't see Peter performing any special rights or made anything intricate or really that impressive his prayer you know if you can even call it a prayer it's so simple it was just a relatively brief prayer of command in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk I mean it's easy to fall into that trap of thinking that God's only going to release something or or heal somebody through some lengthy prayer but it's so important to remember when we pray when we're in the presence of God when we're praying for healing God is there we're in God's presence and if you are in the presence of somebody amazing I mean if you finally had a chance to meet that person who's been your hero for your whole life or some celebrity you've always looked up to if you were in their presence would you do all the talking would you just if you had an hour to get together with that favorite person would you just blah blah blah blah for an hour and then see you later no of course not you'd want to hear what they had to say so that the first step in praying for healing like Ken was talking about last week is to dial things down and listen to God we don't need to dive right in to a big lengthy prayer the first question asked when you're praying for healing is what's what's the Holy Spirit doing here what's God saying to you is the Holy Spirit leading you to pray in a certain direction that you weren't originally intending to pray in some of the most amazing prayer times I've experienced or heard about was when somebody came up for one thing and then they ended up getting healed of something else God was doing something else in their heart that they didn't even say when they first came up so what what is the Holy Spirit leading you to a good principle a good thing to remember is that the more our words the less are listening the more we're talking the less we're listening to what God's doing what the Holy Spirit is saying and the less we're listening the less we're healing because it's so important to see what is God doing what is the father doing that's how Jesus operated now sometimes that can be uncomfortable it can be uncomfortable to come into a situation where you're going to pray for somebody for healing and not just start talking because we're thinking oh well they came up for prayer they're expecting me to do something here they're expecting me to say something and I'm just being kind of quiet but sometimes it can be so good just when we begin a time of prayer just to say let's just take a moment and quietly wait and listen and see what God's doing here what is God saying to us all right second point I want to make about healing prayer is that we don't earn miracles we don't earn miracles from God sometimes we pray as if God awarded us a healing or a miracle on the basis of our worthiness or our goodness instead of God's grace have you ever heard a prayer go something like this oh God Susan your servant is in need she's done so much for other people she's always volunteering and helping others she's truly a woman after your own heart God would you please heal her sometimes if you receive a prayer like that if you're being prayed for like that you can end up leaving feeling a lot worse and when you came in because what's going through your mind is wow I'm not nearly that good I am not you know they only knew I am not nearly that worthy and the longer they go on about your goodness the more you feel like you just want to tear your clothes and say oh God have mercy on me a sinner it's so important to remember that we don't earn miracles we don't earn healing God answers prayers based on his grace and his loving kindness that's why God heals us not because we're good or we deserved it third point I want to make and I know I'm going quickly but have a lot to get through a third point we don't need to go into lengthy prayers informing God of the specifics of the medical diagnosis you don't need to have an MD to do prayer for healing I mean God knows better than any physician precisely what the condition is and what caused it you know sometimes you'll hear people pray a little bit like this well Lord Joe seems to have cracked the upper portion of his tibia when he went skiing last Wednesday there appears to be some collateral ligament damage from what I can tell maybe there might be some swelling around the knee maybe some arterial involvement you know and on and on we don't need to inform God of the of the minutia of what's going on there God knows I mean if you're not a doctor you don't need to collect medical information before you pray for somebody I mean there's nothing you can do with that information anywhere anyway is there I mean the best question is to simply ask well where does it hurt your knee okay let's pray for your knee your back hurts okay let's let's pray for your back fourth point we don't need to beg God when it comes to healing prayer we don't need to beg God for healing it's not as if God is some stingy person who's pity we need to somehow evoke by getting on our hands and knees and begging him sometimes the way we pray reveals what we think of God and and and what kind of a person we think God is when we beg God what's our image of him Ebenezer Scrooge maybe you know God if you're you have any compassion for us would you please answer our prayers next point I want to make sometimes when we're praying biblically we pray something like this father if it be your will will you heal Joe and then and then go on and pray for healing now there's nothing wrong with praying in that way at all there's nothing wrong with praying that way but sometimes when we say that what we really mean is lord I know you're not going to do anything but I don't want to say that because that doesn't sound very spiritual I mean if you actually did heal this person I think I'd have a heart attack I'd be so surprised but I don't want to say that so lord if you be your will you know it's sometimes it's a way of kind of dodging the issue of you know we really don't believe anything's going to happen so it's kind of our little escape clause you know so let's get real with ourselves we don't need to pray that is a way of saying God maybe you're not going to do anything anyway fifth point when praying for healing be brief and direct and don't beat around the bush Peter didn't pray regarding the critical man Lord help him to accept his position in life knowing that he is loved by you knowing that you have his best interests in mind and whatever occurs in the future God whether you heal him or not grant him the serenity to accept his condition and the perseverance to continue we don't need to pray that way what did Jesus tell us to do when it came to prayer really simple ask seek not ask for what you want ask for what you need not you don't have to give a rationalization for why God may not answer the prayer ask for what you want Jesus prayers were simple and they were direct we don't need the flatter God we don't need to inform him we don't need to work ourselves up into an emotional frenzy before we get something from God simply put we don't need to talk so much we don't need to talk so much when we pray instead we want to train ourselves to spend more time listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit next point in our story from acts it wasn't because they're great prayers that America was released and it wasn't because of their great persons it wasn't because they were just amazing people we read in verses 11 and 12 back to the chapter three of acts while the man held on to Peter and John all the people were astonishing came running to them in the place called Solomon's colonnade when Peter saw this he said to them people of Israel why does it surprise you why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk it's not unusual for us to believe that a healing occurred because a special person prayed for them I mean there must have been something about this person that prayed this prayer that was just remarkable you know the closing war or the way he talked or just something that was just remarkable they must have been just uniquely spiritual in a way that I could just never be so in touch with God to have prayed this prayer but the truth is the healer is simply an instrument in God's hands the person who prays for healing is an instrument in God's hands just like the lumberjack that you know the axe is the instrument in the lumberjack's hands Peter correctly deflects the glory away from himself he says you know it's not me let me tell you where the credit is really do it's not because I'm uniquely or powerful or holy I should be worship you do you have to be a special person for you know God's power to be released through prayer now it is true that some people more frequently are used by God and healing than others you know we might say that you know so and so seems to have a particular gift for healing or a healing ministry I mean that is true some people do seem to have more gifting when it comes to healing than others but the practice of healing was given to the whole church not just one or two people the practice of healing was given to the whole church we all get to play as John Wimber used to say when it comes to healing all of us get to be involved in Matthew 28 the great commission this is Jesus you know last words to his disciples Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you everything and surely I'm with you to the very end of the age that means Jesus wants every one of his followers to obey everything that he commanded the original disciples in other words what he commanded them to do is the same thing he's commanding us to do and what are those things again in Matthew as you go proclaim the message the kingdom of heaven is near heal the sick raise the dead cleanse those who have left proceed drive out demons freely you have received freely give this is what God commanded the original disciples to do and that's what he's commanding us to do as remarkable as that sounds that's what Jesus intention was for his disciples from there out including us I mean he says to these disciples go out and heal people and teach your followers those people you're making disciples also to do the same thing we don't just believe in one or two spectacular healers we believe in a healing church we believe in a church where every one of us gets to play that game I mean can you imagine what would happen if you know God could use someone like us just some just some regular person like me to release his miraculous powers in somebody's life I mean what if we had hundreds of people in the church regularly praying for people in their lives who were sick or needed healing you know taking that risk I mean can you imagine you know if one of us if a friend or family member you know a neighbor was talking about how they were sick and we offered to pray for them for healing I mean what we I mean can you imagine the stories that we had a little bit earlier just replicated hundreds of times what a difference that would make and the and the awesome thing about this whole subject of healing is it it's not about us it's not about our unique you know spirituality it's not it's not about us it's about Jesus healing is about Jesus you know I heard a story that really illustrates this well it's a story John Limber used to tell about Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is coming up here pretty soon and it celebrates that the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem before his final you know crucifixion and people were just a claiming him and laying the palms down on the road before him and Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem and everybody's saying hail the king save us Lord well John Limber tells the story from the perspective of the donkey what's going through the donkey's mind is all this is happening as this donkey is walking in the Jerusalem he sees all these people putting up palm branches before him and saying save us oh Lord you know hail to you king and the donkey's thinking himself I didn't even know anybody knew me here this is remarkable I haven't been here for years I can't believe everyone's calling me king and Lord this is incredible I didn't realize my reputation had traveled so far so quickly and of course the point of that story is it's not you donkey it's who's on your back that everybody's a claiming and when it comes to healing prayer when it comes to praying for healing it's not us donkeys it's not our holiness our power our spirituality it's who's on our back it's who's who we're bearing into that encounter Peter explains it this way you know people of Israel why does it surprise you why do you stare at us as if by our power godliness we had made this man walk the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the god of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus by faith in the name of Jesus this man whom you see and know was made strong it is Jesus name and faith that comes through him that has completely healed him as you all can see it was faith in Jesus name it was faith in the person of Jesus sometimes when we're going to pray for the sick we look at ourselves and say well who am I that God would do that through my life who am I that God would work through me who am I that God would listen to my prayer for healing you know I'm so weak it's just earlier this morning I really messed up again I don't know the Bible very well I haven't been praying very much it'll seem kind of fake if I pray for healing I'm not very smart etc etc we need to be clear what is meant here by faith in the name of Jesus what is faith in the name of Jesus you know sometimes we approach the situation we we think that faith is something we have to look inside of ourselves we have to look inside of ourselves for some kind of feeling that we're supposed to have that's what faith is is some feeling that I have to have inside how confident am I how much confidence am I feeling that right now God's going to do everything I ask of him and sometimes we try to stir up that feeling of faith it's almost like you know by by stirring up that feeling we're giving God what he wants so that he'll give us what we want you know it's like our feelings of faith of these quarters and God's the coke machine so how much how much feeling of faith do I need to put in so I'll get what I want if you ever done that if you ever tried to convince yourself that what you're praying for will happen is is like you know I don't feel really confident it's not going to happen but faith is not primarily concerned with our feelings it's not primarily something you feel faith is primarily something addressed to our will it's at the simplest level faith is simply being obedient to God's commission that you that we are called to heal the sick and its simplest level that's what faith is it's not you know it's not just the apostles job to heal the sick it's not just the pastors job or the prayer ministry team's job it's all of our job to pray for the sick it's believing that being obedient to that that's what faith is it's being obedient to Christ's command so if you're feeling unspiritual if you're feeling like you know I just am not the person to pray for this just remember it's not about us donkeys it's who's on our back if you feel unspiritual keep in mind it's Jesus I'm bearing here if you feel you know you're not very smart it says in Jesus are hit all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge you're not feeling very righteous it says Christ Jesus has become for us our righteousness holiness and redemption so you may not feel very righteous and you may be right but it says Jesus is our righteousness when you're going into that prayer situation don't be held back because I've been messing up lately Jesus is our righteousness so final word get our eyes off of ourselves we're the donkeys and let's remember who's on our back when we pray for healing so we're going to take some time to share communion together I want to invite the band to come back up and it looks like we only have time probably for one song in closing so ushers go ahead and come on up and I'm going to say a prayer for the offering is let's go ahead and stand for Jesus we thank you so much that it isn't about us because if it was about us not much would happen and so God we just ask you to just let you let the reality of your presence of how you cover us and protect us how your spirit is here just let that be so apparent I just pray for God those of us who have been reluctant to get prayed for healing because we just don't feel like we have faith for it I just pray Lord God that those of us who in that situation would be willing to get prayed for just admitting you know I don't feel much faith but I want to get prayed for healing just because I believe God can do it or in those of us who feel like we've been called to pray for others who are sick but have been struggling with our own doubts about whether it can happen or whether we're you know we're we're so messed up and we're so you know unspiritual that I think I'm just going to take a break from praying for healing I just pray Lord God that the reality of what it means when it says Jesus has become a righteousness would just become so evident and as we take this your body and your blood Lord God I would just pray that what that signifies would become so real that our flesh and blood is your flesh and blood you are inside of us God we take you into every situation amen so go ahead and start coming up the center and if you would like to be prayed for healing it can be anything we need some plus we need some more guinea pigs we need some more practice praying for the sick so if you'd be willing to do that please hang out on the sides and I'd ask all the prayer ministers just to be available to do some prayer for healing. Before you all secrets I know before you all thoughts are exposed and nothing is hidden from you and nothing is hidden from you Jesus before you my heart is laid there you know you see me you know my heart you see me you know my heart have your way to be my God have your way to me my Savior. [MUSIC PLAYING]