Category Archives: Healing

February 21, 2017 · 9:26 am

Prayers for Healing and Deliverance (2/21/2017)

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If we go to a doctor and learn we have a terminal illness, what would we do next? Call City of Hope? Call Mayo Clinic? Book a flight to a Benny Hinn Crusade? Drive to the closest healing room? Call for a prayer meeting? What?

No one wants to consider these questions, but the odds are that many of us will face such situations during our lifetimes. Shouldn’t we at least prepare ourselves ahead of time?

Just so you know: I’m not against doctors, nurses, and hospitals. I’m not against Benny Hinn nor am I against the healing room ministries nor am I against prayer meetings.

In those days, King Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'” (2 Kings 20:2)

King Hezekiah was thirty-nine years old at the time, had been king of Judah for fourteen years, and according to scripture “had done what was right in the sight of the Lord.” So, what did Hezekiah do after he heard the bad news?

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, “Remember now, O Lord, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. (2 Kings 20:3)

Hezekiah turned away from Isaiah and the other people in his room at the time and sought the Lord. He knew he had standing before the Lord because to the best of his ability he had walked in faithfulness to Him.

The result: the Lord added fifteen years to King Hezekiah’s life.

My prayer today:

O Lord, help us American believers to trust in You with all of our hearts, to not trust in our own understanding, to acknowledge You in all of our journeys, to not be wise in our own eyes, to fear You, and depart from evil so that we will have healing for our bodies and strength for our bones. (Based on Proverbs 3:5-8)

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for new revelations on healing and deliverance for Americans NOW.

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February 14, 2017 · 8:44 am

Prayers for Healing and Deliverance (2/14/2017)

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Maybe you don’t like the spiritual gifts and think, “Yuck! Who wants this Pentecostal/Charismatic phoney baloney spiritual gifts-type of stuff. Not me!”

Relax. Take a deep breath. Now, continue reading.

Let’s say that you and your wife take your daughter to the mall. She is three years old and dressed up in the cutest Bambi t-shirt and jeans outfit. Everyone looks at her and smiles. She’s a doll and you adore her, and would do anything for her.

But because you were in a hurry when you left home, you did not use the restroom, and you need to go – now. You tell your wife.  She rolls her eyes and says, “Oh honey, use the one in Macy’s Department Store. We’ll wait here for you by the kids play area.”

You rush to the restroom, do your duty, wash your hands and leave. As you walk back from the store, you see a flash and hear an explosion from an Islamic terrorist’s bomb. It knocks you down. Glass particles and debris cover your body.

Brushing yourself off, you run to where you wife and daughter were waiting. When you get there, you see bodies all over the floor. Somehow, you find your wife and daughter. They’re dead with blood all over them.

Now, what are you going to do?

Are you going to call the police? Or the doctor? Or your pastor? Or the funeral home? Or are you just going to fall down and cry?

You see, at this disastrous moment, you need the gift of faith, the gift of healing, and the gift of miracles to try and raise your loved ones from the dead. And I guarantee that you would do anything to have these gifts at that time, wouldn’t you?

So, what’s stopping you from seeking the spiritual gifts? Pride. Bad teaching. Laziness. What?

(Taken from Islamic Terrorists versus Radical Christians: New Game. New Rules by Larry Nevenhoven, which can be read in its entirety here.)

My prayer today:

Lord, help us American believers to pursue love, and desire Your spiritual gifts now. (Based on 1 Corinthians 14:1)

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for new revelations on healing and deliverance for Americans NOW.

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February 7, 2017 · 6:15 am

Prayers for Healing and Deliverance (2/7/2017)

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Martin Luther struggled for years as a monk. He fasted, prayed, went on long pilgrimages, and confessed his sins often in the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation, but he had no inner peace.

One day, he prepared for a lecture at Wittenberg University. He read the first chapter of Romans and the Holy Spirit enlightened one verse to his heart.

For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

This one verse sparked the Reformation through Martin Luther. He realized the key to salvation was not giving indulgences to the church or even charitable acts, but rather, faith in God.

We evangelicals now take this verse for granted, but in 1513, it was a profound truth inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle Peter made an interesting point in 2 Peter 1:12 −

For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. (NKJ)

The Holy Spirit has revealed various truths to the Body of Christ throughout history. Martin Luther had the revelation of salvation by faith. John Wesley had a different one. So did George Fox, Charles Finney, Charles Seymour, and countless others who proclaimed revelations to their generations.

These revelations became the “present truths” for their time periods and thereby advanced the kingdom of God. Many endured tremendous struggles and persecutions to pioneer their truths. Yet, we now accept the revelations without even an eye blink.

I believe the following scriptures are a “present truth” for Americans right now:

Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; and do not give him up to the will of his enemies. The Lord sustains him on his sick bed; in his illness, You restore him to full health. (Psalm 41:1-3)

Excerpt from Giving to the Poor: What’s In It For Me by Larry Nevenhoven, © 2014, Amazon eBook)

The Lord has a myriad of ways for us to seek Him AND for us to be healed. One of them is giving to the poor.

My prayer today:

Lord, help us to walk in Your present truth to seek You for our healing and deliverances.

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for new revelations on healing and deliverance for Americans NOW.

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January 31, 2017 · 12:02 pm

Prayers for Healing and Deliverance (1/31/2017)

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“*Emily, if you come to the meeting tonight, the Lord will heal you,” I said into the phone.

This phone call occurred twenty-eight years ago while I was doing some teaching at a small home group. I was an office supply salesman and felt the Lord was going to heal Emily of multiple sclerosis. So, I phoned her that afternoon.

Later, she hobbled into the meeting, using a cane to steady herself. She sat down on the sofa. The other four or five attendees sat down near her.

I opened with prayer and then taught a lesson from the Bible. As I finished speaking, I looked over at Emily and saw her with my spiritual eyes. She was totally healed.

I put my Bible down and walked over to her. I reached out my hands and said, “Emily, let’s dance.”

She took my hands and stood up. We then danced all over the living room. I stopped after a few minutes and asked, “Have you noticed anything?”

“No, what?” she said.

“You’re healed.”

She put her hands to her mouth. “Oh Lord, I’m healed,” she said through tears.

Emily walked home that night with the cane over her shoulder. The next day she joined a health club and began working out. Everyone in the city was talking about her miracle.

But sadly, forty days later, she was worse off than when she first arrived at the meeting that evening.

What happened?

She lost her healing.

How?

The multiple sclerosis symptoms starting attacking her body again, which caused her to react in fear and doubt rather than using her faith and trust in the Lord to resist the sickness. The sickness overwhelmed her.

Looking back, I feel it was my lack of experience that I did not take the time to teach her and follow up to help her fight the good fight of faith.

(*Emily: not her real name.)

My prayer today:

Lord, help us to learn how to submit to You and resist the devil so that he will flee from us. (Based on James 4:7)

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for new revelations on healing and deliverance for Americans NOW.

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January 24, 2017 · 10:18 am

Prayers for Healing and Deliverance (1/24/2017)

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The first person I prayed for healing was one of my favorite aunts who was suffering from cancer. I was so positive that the Lord would answer my prayers, but yet she died a few weeks later.

Her death jolted my faith.

At the time, I had been saved for about four months and had been listening to Kenneth Hagin and other Word of Faith teachers. So, I assumed my faith was good enough to move mountains and heal cancer, but it wasn’t!

I ended up driving by myself from Iowa to northern Illinois to attend my aunt’s funeral. On the two-hour trip, the Lord encouraged me to keep on growing, studying, and trusting Him. AND to keep on praying for the sick whenever I had the chance.

This took place almost thirty-one years ago. I still remember the agony I felt in the car, the tears I shed, the failure facing me, and the decision I had to make — whether to keep on praying for healing of the sick or to join the Christian naysayers on the sidelines.

I decided to trust God:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover. (Mark 16:15-16)

Over the years, I have seen a few miracles and many deaths, but I know this one thing to be true. At some point, heaven will pour out a greater anointing upon believers and death will be forced to let go of its grip on the people we pray for.

My prayer for today:

Lord, help us believers to honor Your word and promises as much as You do. (Based on Psalm 138:2)

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for new revelations on healing and deliverance for Americans NOW.

 

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January 17, 2017 · 2:58 pm

Prayers for Healing and Deliverance (1/17/2017)

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Three or four days ago, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Pool of Bethesda.”

I’ve read these verses many times and felt I knew them well, but just to make sure I checked some commentaries. After studying for a time, I still didn’t feel like I knew what the Holy Spirit was trying to get across to me.

So, I entered Pool of Bethesda on the search line at Google and came up with 744,000 results. A few too many to quickly search in my lifetime, I thought.

I added the word history to lessen the number of results. This time a Jewish studies site – Israel Institute of Biblical Studies – appeared on the first page with an article entitled, “The Pool of Bethesda as a Healing Center of Asclepius.”

The following verses were mentioned in the article:

In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. (John 5:3-4 NKJ and/or KJ)

The article stated the original text did not include verses 3b and 4 (the red words above). It stated a Christian copyist added the extra words many decades later, attempting to add clarification to the writing. Most modern Bibles do not contain these words or have them in brackets with a footnote, stating that they are excluded in the original text.

Even though the word Bethesda means “House of Mercy” in the Hebrew, the article states the Pool of Bethesda was most likely a healing center dedicated to the Greco-Roman god of well-being and health – Asclepius. There were more than four hundred of these healing centers throughout the Roman Empire and were a part of the Hellenistic Jewish traditions.

As for the stirring of the waters, this most likely happened when the Greek priests of Asclepius opened the connecting pipes from the upper portion of the pool of Bethesda to the lower portion.

Now, this would completely change our thinking about John 5.

Instead of our present teachings, it would mean that Jesus, Son of God, walked into a pagan abode to heal a son of Abraham. Then, two later verses would make more sense:

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. (John 5:14-15)

Jesus was telling the man not to depend on the pagan Greek ways anymore, but on God. Then the man let everyone know it was not the Pool of Bethesda that healed him, but a man named Jesus.

My prayer today:

Lord, open our eyes to Your truth so it will set us free from bad teachings on healing and deliverance. (Based on John 8:32)

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for new revelations on healing and deliverance for Americans NOW.

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September 4, 2015 · 8:48 am

Do We Still Cast Out Demons? (Part 8)

dolly sad

 

Early one morning, Smith Wigglesworth was awakened in his Yorkshire, England, home by a rustling sound in his bedroom. He rolled over and saw someone sitting in the chair at the foot of his bed. He squinted his near-sighted eyes and then recognized who it was.

“Oh, it’s just you, Satan,” said Wigglesworth as he rolled over and went back to sleep.

Wigglesworth told this story at one of his meetings, but what do you think?

(An excerpt from Storming the Kingdom by Larry Nevenhoven, 2014, an Amazon eBook.)

It’s easy for us modern skeptics to look at Wigglesworth (1859 – 1947) and consider him, his ministry, and his visions to be nothing more than ridiculous Pentecostal fantasies from the past. But the nation of Sweden and its king, Gustaf V, did not think of Wiggleworth as a tongue-talking charlatan. They took him seriously.

In 1921, Smith Wigglesworth held healing meetings throughout Scandinavia. Thousands were healed and saved. His success prompted Swedish doctors to convince authorities that Wigglesworth practiced medicine without a license when he laid hands on the sick. Thus, the authorities notified Wigglesworth that he was not allowed to lay his hands on the sick when he visited Stockholm. If he refused to obey the law, he would be arrested and sent to jail.

King Gustaf heard about the new law and wrote Wiggleswoth a note asking him to find a way around the city ordinance so that the evangelist could minister healing to the Swedish people.

What did Smith Wigglesworth do?

Wigglesworth arrived on schedule and preached a faith message from the Bible. When he finished preaching, he asked the sick people to lay their own hands on themselves. He prayed a short healing prayer for everyone. As soon as he finished, miracles happened throughout the auditorium. The people who were healed jumped up and shouted with joy, which stirred up the faith of others to believe for their own healing.

The Sweden healing crusade turned out to be one of Wigglesworth most successful ones.

There’s no doubt that Smith Wigglesworth was a unique man, but he never considered his ministry unique. He believed that every Christian could do the same things he did, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons.

Okay, how could Wigglesworth think this way? And what was his secret?

(Continued in Part 9…if you’re interested, the full series to date can be seen here.)

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June 22, 2015 · 10:03 am

Do We Still Cast Out Demons? (Part 1)

dolly sad

 

The sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed laid under the five porches near the pool of Bethesda and in the shadows of the Temple. All awaited the waters in the pool to be stirred up by an angel because the first one to step into the pool would be healed. The others – even though they had waited for months and maybe years – who then followed the first man into the water would not be healed.

An unknown Man walked into their midst. He stepped over and around numerous sick people as if He were looking for one individual. Many grunted and complained that He was in their way and ruined their chances of getting healed if the angel arrived at that moment. The Man ignored their complaints as He searched the porches.

Finally, He walked up to one man and said, “Do you want to be made well?”

The sick man answered by listing his reasons why he had not been healed.

Jesus said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

The man was totally healed. He picked up his bed and carried it away, even though it was the Sabbath.

Then, what followed is described in the Bible as the greatest healing crusade in Jesus’ ministry. Everyone rushed or called out to Him, asking to be healed. And everyone was healed and glorified the God of Israel.

Actually, disregard the last paragraph because it never happened. Not one of the other sick people said anything to Him.

Oh yes! The people saw Jesus heal the man, but as soon as it happened, they turned their eyes back to the pool in hopes the angel might show up.

They couldn’t move past their Temple teachings and traditions to see the Fountain of Living Water standing in their midst. After all, this religious practice had healed a few in the past. Why change?

Sadly, this is where the Church stands today.

So, do we believers still cast out demons?

(Continued in Part 2)

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