Hebrew truth is the experienced truth

Twenty-eight years ago, I, a twelve-hour-old Christian, was obediently praying through a list of politicians given to me by my new pastor Carl Blanford. (1Timothy 2:1-2) After I finished that list, I prayed for my family, friends and enemies. Then I prayed for every person I saw walk by the church. Why was I praying with such fervor and belief? I simply believed that Jesus was real and that prayer worked. My belief was founded in reality, in actual experience from the previous night. Only later did I realize that it was founded in Scripture, also. (John 14:12-14)

The previous three sleepless days and nights I had been in an incredibly demonic battle for my life, soul and salvation. The Lord brought this new pastor into my life, and I was healed by his obedience to the voice of God. The Lord spoke to Carl about me, but he had to do his part. He invited me, a complete stranger, into his home. As I sat listening to him sing hymns, suddenly an evil force surged up my back and arms and fear surged through me. I sprang to my feet and loudly called him Satan! Completely overwhelmed by fear, I ran for the front door. He said, “In the name of Jesus free this man.”  I stopped. Suddenly it felt as if something had fallen off me, and I was in my right mind. He then told me that I could go or stay but if I left, his door would always be open to me.

This incredible demonstration of love through God-led hospitality melted my heart. I stayed, and He prayed with me to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior. After dinner and a bath, I asked God to grant me sleep. Immediately, I had a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit, and I slept as never before or since in my life. My first two prayers had actually been answered and experienced.

The next day Pastor Carl had me exercising my newfound faith by praying for politicians. Four hours later, which seemed like only forty minutes, he took me to a hospital and had me, someone freshly initiated in the battle, pray for the sick. Carl didn’t show me how to pray, but Jesus told me what to do as I approached each sick person! I prayed for a deathly sick church elder, and he was healed! I thought this was normal… till I went to church. I have discovered, however, that this is normal in the kingdom of God!

My authority to collaborate with Jesus in healing was not based upon my Christian maturity or upon a profound, intellectual knowledge of Christ but upon my newfound intimacy and a simple obedience to follow Jesus and do what He did. Apparently, I had the faith of a mustard seed. It is His job to heal. It is my job to pray and collaborate with Him in finding the deeper reasons why people have not been healed.

The more people we pray for, the odds increase that some will be healed

Jesus wants to share His authority with us, with all of us who put our faith/trust in Him. If I do not pray, I miss an opportunity to see the kingdom of God manifest! (Luke 4:18-19) “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:1-2) He later also sent out the “second team”, the 72, to do the same thing. (Luke 10:1-21) Jesus’ three instructions were so simple and important for His kingdom advance–cast out demons, heal and communicate the kingdom of God. Doing this is being obedient to follow Jesus’ commands (Matthew 28:20) and is an act of love toward Jesus and those you are praying for healing for.

Quite often the sick are not healed with just simple prayer but by looking at deeper issues in the person’s life that go beyond just materialistic explanations.

Doctors say that 80-90% of illnesses are caused by psychological or emotional reasons. There can be multiple reasons for physical illnesses—disease, false religious dedications or pacts, curses, inner vows or self-cursing, generational transferences, emotional woundedness and even abuse. Deep causes may be manifesting on the surface level as physical illnesses. If we just pray for the physical symptoms, often we do not see a healing. When the deeper relational/emotional/spiritual issues are prayed for, the physical symptoms are often healed. In Luke 13:10-16, Jesus actually dealt with a spirit that caused a believer, a “daughter of Abraham,” to be crippled and bent over for eighteen years. As He laid hands on her, the spirit left and she was healed. He did not pray for the infirmity, per se, but went to the deeper, real issue.

When counseling/praying with people I ask, “What else was going on when this problem started?”

A woman came with tumors in her breasts. Through a word of knowledge we discovered she had been incested by her father when she began to have breasts. As often happens to victims of sexual abuse, she cursed her breasts (herself) for having them because, as the demonically inspired logic goes, if she had had no breasts, she would not have been abused. Through inner healing she was able to forgive her father, to confess her sin of cursing herself, to forgive herself and to forgive every person she had had a sexual relationship with. Many demons were cast out after this process of inner healing. Weeks later she had x-rays showing that the tumors had disappeared. We had never prayed for her breasts.

Often Demons are involved in the Illness or make it worse

An African pastor, formerly a Muslim and animist, came to me with a rash over half his body. No medical attention or Christian prayer had helped him. Through a word of knowledge, I sensed that he had a sexual spirit visiting him at night. He acknowledged that a ginn (evil spirit-succubus) had visited him every night throughout his life. He confessed his sexual participation, and he verbally renounced the declarations of Mohammad that every Muslim would have a spirit visit from birth on. After casting the demon out, the rash disappeared immediately.

Be patient but persistent.

We prayed for five years in the case of my wife’s diagnosed sterility and then a “breakthrough” came when she was powerfully touched by the Holy Spirit through a pastor’s prayer. This obviously was in God’s timing. We now have three children who all are now praying for the sick.

When starting out in praying for the sick, start small and simple.

Once, a cashier complained of a bad cold and headache. With his permission, I prayed, commanding the headache to stop, the cold virus to die, the blood vessels in his head to open and any spirits involved to stop. He was really surprised, saying that the headache was completely gone! I have won many people to Christ in such natural, simple healing encounters. Doing such will increase your faith. As you obey in the simple, the Lord will give greater challenges.

Just like me, God would like to use you in physical healing. If we step out and try, He will often back our simple faith because He backs obedience to Him. The Holy Spirit will teach us as we go along, and often the healing prayer will be a process. We need to look for deeper issues, and we should be open to opportunities, no matter how small, to pray for people’s healing. We are usually taught by Jesus at the moment we step out and actually do “the stuff” of the kingdom!

Copyright 2018 Gary Hixson