Category: Healing

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Healing Holy Spirit Jesus Preaching Journal Key Article Kingdom of God Ministry

The Gospel Process

There is a process to the Gospel of the Kingdom of God that Jesus teaches.

This process makes ministering with power, faith and love – easier. Knowing this process, you are more than clear about what to do next. Also, how to help someone take that next step.

I call this The Gospel Process.

The Gospel Process underlies the structure of how Jesus Ministered. He taught the Good News of the Kingdom of God. But preaching or teaching that Gospel is not the underlying process, although it uses that process. He often taught us to heal in that context. A context which changed the atmosphere, told an essential truth confirmed in listeners by Holy Spirit. Creating the atmosphere of the Anointed, his Anointing, and the Kingdom of Heaven.

If you want to minister more like Jesus, learn The Gospel Process and put it to work when you minister. When your ministry has been successful, you are probably already applying this process.

Like so much of what Jesus teaches & shows, this can work explicitly or implicitly. (You can look for and notice how he did this in Scriptures. You can learn a lot, especially if this is new to you and when you are ready to learn.)

Ministering healing and freeing people from unclean spirits is much more simple and easy when you understand The Gospel Process and allow it to work in and through your ministry.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God taught in the shortest form in your bible is in Mark 1:15:

Now is the time, the Kingdom of God is at hand (within reach); repent (make a new and better God-oriented, Kingdom oriented decision) and believe (rely, trust, and depend upon the Kingdom of God – and our King).

This scripture reveals the process when you read and meditate on this description. The process looks something like this:

  • (Hear the Word of God, because faith comes by such hearing, with the help of Holy Spirit confirming that truth to our spirit: have faith!)
  • Now. The time has finally come, and the time is now. (No other time is available; only now.)
  • The time – a Kairos moment, a Divine Appointment, if you will accept it being said this way.
  • Make a new decision, turning from your old life and orienting totally around the King and the Kingdom (rule) of God.
  • Believe and trust in the King and his Kingdom.

Now…notice especially the actions, the inner actions of the person hearing and acting on this:

  • Hear God’s Word and choose faith.
  • Make a new decision that totally turns around your life. Turning away from how you’ve been to orienting completely towards your new and alternative way of living – towards the King and his Kingdom.
  • Trusts and believe in God and his Kingdom.

Put those inner actions together and you have a process.

The same process that underlies and is The Gospel Process:

  • Hear God’s word and choose to trust it, having faith. (Sometimes this is done implicitly, and that’s another article)
  • In healing, a person at some deep level decides to be healed, to accept healing. Like the hemorrhaging woman who was so determined to touch the hem of the garments of Jesus (his fringes, or tallis) and receive healing: bringing her faith into contact with his Anointing. Her determination was so single minded and great that it reminds me of the being single and not double minded as in James 1. She already had great faith and determination. (From an experiential point of view, it’s hard to tell any difference between great determination and faith.)
  • In exorcism, like the man who ran to the feet of Jesus before a legion of demons could overcome and prevent him, he ran to Jesus and fell at his feet. He already wanted to be freed! Jesus then used his authority and power (which he gave to his disciples and to us) to tell Legion to leave, and even how to leave.

In healing – with the help of Holy Spirit, faith, love, power and authority – already given by Jesus, we encourage and help someone decide to be healed (or decide to receive healing).

In exorcism, or freeing someone from one or more unclean spirits – with the help of Holy Spirit, faith, love, power and authority – already given by Jesus, we encourage and help someone decide to be freed healed (or decide to receive freedom).

So….

+In each case (healing or exorcism) we create an atmosphere of faith and the experience of the Presence of God (with Holy Spirit and by saying what God says so Holy Spirit can confirm this to the spirit of the person being helped) for God’s work to happen.

+We help or encourage them to make a new decision, orienting around God’s truth instead of orienting around their previous problems.

+To trust, rely on and believe in this new Kingdom of God reality. That is, to believe.

=This, put together, is The Gospel Process. It’s the same process that undergirds the Preaching or Teaching of the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and that works in creating a context for ministering healing or freedom.

I believe this is also true for cleansing lepers (a kind of healing, in my view) and for raising the dead – though I have not yet done these two things. I’m convinced that it’s the same Gospel Process at work.

Oh – and I did not yet mention that this same process undergirds the making of disciples. Again and again – from the first decision to follow Jesus and do what he said, to deciding to receive and act on every other moment of teaching.

The Gospel Process undergirds the entire (every step of) the Great Commission as in Matthew 28!

Now…review this. Follow the links and review what’s written on this page. And pray – talk with and listen to God. And meditate.

Get personal revelation about this through Holy Spirit. Write that revelation in your Journal. Whether it’s a Prayer Journal like mine, or any other journal for this. And if you do not have one, please start one.

And get your own personal revelation and insight on this. Then be a real disciple – apply what you are learning. And as you make other disciples or help disciple other disciples (or as you disciple each other) – share this and help them have their own revelation of this, too. And encourage them to apply what they are learning in their ministry.

Disciples perhaps for generations – and those healed or set free – will be glad for such powerful and effective ministry. Even if they do not know all the details of what happened and how you ministered with power, faith and with love.

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Anointing Conversation with God Discipleship Getting Help Healing Intercession Ministry Prayer

Experience Ministering with Jesus

So…by now I hope you are praying well – having conversations with Father, Jesus, &/or Holy Spirit: one God, three Persons. Getting answers quickly. Getting guidance and persisting. If you are having difficulty hearing God, doing one thing appears to be especially valuable.

I’ll focus on Jesus – which is easier for many of us and is a splendid fallback position when you are not doing as well or being as resourceful as you prefer. You can talk to one, two, or all of the Trinity – one at a time or together.

This is your genuine family. The root and basis of who you really are.

Remember how Jesus ministers: doing as Father shows him or tells him. You can do the same.

So…to minister with Jesus, or through Jesus when you need to depend on him even more and especially when you are not ready to be more active, here’s how to experience this.

Pray. Talk to Jesus. Listen, sense, watch – receive guidance and answers. Ask how to pray. In active ministry, it’s especially valuable to converse quickly and get helpful responses. Here’s how to get quick and reliable guidance from God about how to pray.

Tell Jesus what’s on your heart. Ask for guidance or how to pray, just as in the links above. Or, when you want to intercede and ask God to help – ask Jesus to take care of what is already on your heart. It’s a brilliant way to intercede. Intercession is asking God to do something for someone – so literally do this!

Minister with Jesus. Minister through Jesus. You can do this. And it’s as easy as having a conversation. Because that’s what prayer is – having a conversation where you share your heart and where you are attentive to and allow Jesus to share his heart with you.

He loves you that much. He wants to minister that much. He wants to minister with you and through you. And he loves it when you minister with him – and when you minister through him. He loves this much.

So minister with Jesus. Minister through Jesus. Love and serve, with and through our Lord and Savior. You can do this! He makes it easy.

Put your compassion to work. Add your faith – you only need a teeny, mustard seed size bit of faith. Or have someone pray with you and allow them to use their faith. This is one of many excellent reasons for having prayer partners. (More on Prayer Partners, soon.)

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Discipleship Healing Jesus Preaching Key Article Kingdom of God Ministry Miracles Prayer Success

Jesus Taught a Progression – Going Beyond Disciplemaking

Jesus taught lots of things; in particular, there is an important series of things to do in order to minister more like Jesus. From one point of view, here’s an overview:

First, it’s valuable to know what an Ecclesia is. That’s a Greek word frequently translated as “church” in many bibles, today. And that can be confusing because the meaning has changed over the years.

When the Roman’s conquered a new territory, one of the things they would do was to appoint people to transform the local culture to Roman culture. To teach them how to talk, dress and in many other ways act like Romans. So that when the Emperor would come, he would feel at comfortable and at home. These people were backed up by the power of the Roman Empire.

Jesus apparently borrowed the term and used it to mean local Christians, disciples, who would meet in small groups – such as peoples homes (in addition to public places). Encourage and build each other up. Teach and help one another And, to change and transform the surrounding culture – into becoming a Christian culture with lots of disciples. An Ecclesia is backed up by the Kingdom of God, led by Jesus – our King.

This was a period of extremely rapid growth of the Body of Christ, and this was a huge method of helping that to happen. Ecclesia’s made of disciples were very important to the rapid spread of Christianity.

They practiced what is now called “Marketplace Ministry”. Not in local churches with separate buildings where they sat passively as one mostly person spoke. Everyone participated and many were business owners – fishing business, sheep business, a tax collector. Jesus was a worker of wood – making many different things. Later St. Paul was a tentmaker. At that same time there was also a dealer in expensive dyes. And others….

How were such disciples made? Through Ministry. It went something like this:

-Jesus and later his disciples always began with prayer. Prayer, prayer and more prayer. Always much prayer before growth in numbers ad in effective ministry happened.

–Then to go. Going for the Harvest of souls. Going took several forms, which we will explore later. The key point: people were sent.

-Then the Proclamation or Preaching of the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

-Then in that context, the healing of the sick, freeing those bound by unclean spirits; and also the cleansing of lepers and raising the dead. (I often speak of this as being healing the sick and freeing the bound for a shorter phrasing as well as focusing on what is more usual these days. The other two items are still valid.) This attracts a lot more people!

-Then was the making of disciples (of all ethnos, – all people groups). People who learned and who applied and practiced what they were learning. And reported back to a rabbi for more instruction as needed. Most people went on with their lives, happy for the ministry help. A few even said, thanks. A much smaller number were open to learning and to applying what they were learning. The custom among in Israel at that time (where Jesus was ministering) was that a rabbi would teach, disciples would go practice and report back to the rabbi. Who would give more teaching to help, as needed.

-The disciples would in turn become sent ones, who prayed for their areas, then were sent to represent the Kingdom and make more disciples by going through this progression of steps.

-The disciples who were going through this progression and making more disciples would also meet to encourage, help, minister to, and teach one another. All participated. Leadership had the purpose of helping them achieve unity in the faith, maturity in Christ, and to prepare these people for ministry – and more. Ministry was to be done by people helped by leadership to be prepared to do such ministry. This was the biblical pattern.

And this was the progression. Prayer, then going to help gather the harvest – sent in a few but somewhat various ways. Proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Healing sick, freeing the bound – prisoners and captives. Making disciples of all people groups. Planting Ecclesia’s who prayed massively for the local area, ministered generously – who shared the Gospel, healed the sick, freed the bound (attracting many people), making disciples who again applied this progression that Jesus taught – and who made yet more disciples. Then ecclesia’s were planted who continued these continuing cycles leading to rapid growth.

When this pattern is followed, evangelization and ministry spreads faster better and more powerfully than any other method I have ever heard of. This is what Jesus taught. It’s Scriptural. It works powerfully. It helps Missionaries avoid money trouble, when the other methods of sending are added. (Can’t wait? See Luke 10; and also Matthew 10.)

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Healing Hearing God Holy Spirit Intercession Kingdom of God Ministry Prayer Prayer, Intercession, Angels, Presence of God

Interceding from Within the Kingdom of God

When you pray from within the Kingdom of God – the place God rules from – which is now always within reach – literally. You pray from a place of Love, Power and Holy Spirit Guidance.

The Presence of our Lord is powerful. Within reach, always. The Glory of our Lord emanates from his holy Presence. Some see this as light, other times, missed, other times a weight – being weighed down.

This is a magnificent way to pray.

A lot of us have not thought to pray from here; yet once you consider this, it may be obvious that this is an outstanding thing to explore and learn about. And to do.

This is what Jesus did; and his prayers and commands for healing were – successful! Powerful. Full of compassion.

You can be this way, too. And hear and do what Father shows you, through Holy Spirit. Ministering more like Jesus.

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Some additional thoughts, in response to a request for more on this:

The Kingdom of God is the love, power and Presence of God ruling in a situation or place. Where there is righteousness and joy in Holy Spirit. This is always at reach, at hand rather. All you have to do is reach out in your spirit, your heart. God and his Kingdom are within reach. This is the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

The King is in his Kingdom, this is where Jesus is. You can call on his name, or ask for the other Comforter he sent, Holy Spirit. You have already Holy Spirit in you.

You can always ask for more of Holy Spirit with sincerity – and receive by faith. Your experience may not be dramatic, but you receive more of Holy Spirit when you ask sincerely with faith, confidence and trust in God.

With more of Holy Spirit you can pray for others. You can ask how to pray and receive guidance for that.

Here’s an article about how to have such guidance for prayer, if you are interested and you can learn to minister more like Jesus — doing as Father says and shows. What a wonderful way to pray and minister!

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Discipleship Healing Hearing God Holy Spirit Intercession Ministry Prayer

Healing at a Distance: Intercession

This morning I received a request for further healing help through a friend, for someone my friend knows and cares about. Someone I know of.

I immediately saw a micro-vision, a picture of a heart. And I knew on the inside that I was being directed to send love. That is how I am to respond, this morning. It was fast, and fortunately, I was paying attention and ready.

The flow of love was going well. Agape, the Jesus kind of love, which he has taught me so much about.

I thought at first this would be fast because I got that direction. I was mistaken. The flow continued for a while…and I am not finished with praying until it’s done.

This is one example of how you can pray and receive direction for healing (or other) prayer. Even healing at a distance. And as long as the flow is continuing, you are to continue.

That’s better than what I used to think – well, I do a bit of what I’m told and that’s sufficient. We learn. I learn, you learn. Especially as we pay attention to Holy Spirit.

Keep paying attention, doing as you are shown. Follow Holy Spirit. And continue until it is done.

Praying for healing at a distance with the help of Holy Spirit is a wonderful opportunity you will be given often. Honor this.

Do as you are shown, and continue until it is complete. Minister more like Jesus.