In the culture of the Old Testament, normally people were considered clean, unless they came into contact with the unclean, such as by touching a dead body.
(Various bible translations use “Holy” and “Clean” for the same word; and “Unholy” and “Unclean” for another word. For me, “Holy” is more powerful; and “Clean” is more clear. Which words do you prefer?)
There is an important key principle here:the Unclean is more contagious than the Clean.
There is an important and parallel principle: When the Unclean came into contact with the Holy of Holies, the Unclean became Clean.
This is a ceremonial lesson about Jesus: who is the Holy of Holies and who makes clean whatever he comes into contact with.
So there is another important key principle here:the Holy of Holies is more contagious than the Unclean.
Which has important implications in healing and other ministry.
Jesus, his Anointing, and the Holy of Holies are a great context for ministry, such as preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God, healing the sick or freeing the bound.
The Holy of Holies is a model of Jesus, who makes everything clean, who makes us whole, and who heals who has set us free. Jesus has overcome the world!
Context shapes and even controls what happens; Jesus was a master with the powerful and loving use of context. No surprise, really. But we do have much to learn from him about what he did with context.
This is a very common and too often an unrecognized issue. So much so, that when you are having repeated difficulty with an issue, it’s a good idea to examine the context.Context seems to control or limit what is likely to happen in that context.
Jesus frequently told his disciples to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God. And in that context, to heal the sick and free the bound. Preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God (that is near or at hand) is a context that makes healing and freeing the bound much more easy. When people agree to be ministered to or healed, or to accept other kinds of ministry, a Learning Contract has been established.
Jesus always created what amounts to being a special kind of context for healing or for other ministry: a Learning Contract. An agreement to learn or do something that everyone agrees to implicitly or explicitly. Which creates a powerful context for successful ministry.
When Jesus came into a place, he changed the context. The atmosphere changed: he carried the Anointing and great compassion. Everyone noticed him. Such a context makes healing people and freeing the bound much easier.
You can learn to do this because you carry Jesus in you, and you are in Jesus Christ.
So practice being more and more aware of context, and good timing – which is part of a good context. Minister with greater ease and effectiveness, and celebrate the Life Jesus brings more often and even more joyously.
Help is closer than you probably expect, is easy, and quite rapid. When you do these two easy things:
Ask for more of Holy Spirit.You will receive. Guaranteed. (See Luke 11:11-13.)
Then follow Holy Spirit; intend to follow Holy Spirit. Ask Holy Spirit to help you follow Holy Spirit even more.
Yes, it’s this easy, just:
-1. Ask for more of Holy Spirit, and
-2. Deeply intend to follow Holy Spirit or even ask Holy Spirit to help you follow. (See Gal. 5).
That simple. Easy. Check – now you are more single-minded. You are not so overwhelmed and maybe not overwhelmed at all.
I do this to get help when I am too sad at the loss of my wife. I ask for more of Holy Spirit. Then, automatically, with zero drama, grief is small and Holy Spirit is huge. What a wonderful and easy transformation!
I am operating out of my New Self, not my old self. The same for you. New Self with Fruit of the Spirit, including –
Galations 5:22 – …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.
Frustration in prayer or when standing on God’s Word is painful!
Holy Spirit gives you a revelation of how to apply God’s Word in your life. You act on this and God blesses you wonderfully!
Later, you do it again in a similar situation, and maybe this works for you this time.
Again and again, you depend on different Scriptures – and maybe this works well for you.
Sooner or later something else might happen. It will appear to you that standing on God’s Word is no longer working for you. (That’s not the actual issue, but it may seem to be.)
You will faithfully stand on God’s Word again – maybe in a different circumstance, maybe you are depending on a different Word in Scripture. And it appears to not work for you.
So you double down. And you double down some more. You try harder and harder and it isn’t working for you and you do not understand why this is happening. You are sure it can’t be what it looks like. And you are right – it isn’t what it looks like — only different from what you expect.
Here’s how to get this fixed. Like so many things, it’s easy when you know how. Hard when you are missing a key to what to do and how to go about it.
Here’s what happened and how things inexplicably went wrong – and here’s what to do about it:
Originally Holy Spirit delivered to you an insight, technically a revelation to you – that in response to a certain issue you were to apply and put to work a particular Word from God.
This worked wonderfully well for you.
When the situation changed or you try to do the same thing with a different Word or message from scripture – it may seem like it doesn’t work for you anymore, a puzzle easy to deny and hard to accept. Because you are so certain that being faithful was the key! Standing strong on God’s word was key!And you were right. But you may have missed something important.
The first time when it worked so well you received revelation through Holy Spirit.
After that you chose what scripture to apply to what situation and it seemed not to work. So you tried harder and harder. You continued to double down, and it still isn’t working.
You need God’s revelation! In choosing what Word or message from Scripture to apply and to give you insight to about how to apply that message.
When you try to figure it out by yourself, it may not always work.
Go back to what helped you from the beginning. God’s revelation to you!
Then pause. Stop. Listen. Look. Feel. Be aware of thoughts that appear in your mind. What you experience next may be literally God’s answer to your question.
And it will probably look and differ from what you expect. Why? Because you didn’t know the answer. It’s like something that’s lost: it’s not where you have been looking. AndGod knows more than you or I do.
And because God loves to give us wonderful surprises.
AND, God cares more about your relationship than most or possibly even all answers. God is not a Santa Claus, and not an answering machine, either.
You might not know; you may even be doing both – being empathic and receiving a Word of Knowledge – one of the Spiritual gifts – about someone else.
Add compassion, like Jesus, to your gentle awareness of pain – the healing and ministry is better, easier, faster.
You can do these things for others, especially when you have a Word of Knowledge that allows you to feel and experience what is going on with the other person. You can often do this for others in intercessory prayer.
I wonder if this is is how Jesus sometimes healed. I think probably so.
Jesus as the Word who created all, including us, has given us these gifts to gently and lovingly use.
Jesus literally has created us to heal trauma and pain.
What amazing and wonderful gifts he has given us.
And he has sent Holy Spirit to help us discover, learn about and do these things. Which, with our Helper and Guide, goes so much better, easier and better.
So do as he told us, and as he showed us. Heal pain and trauma in yourself and others with gentle compassion and Holy Spirit.
Do not wait, do not be passive. He tells us today, go: heal the sick and free the bound. With gentle compassion and love, go forth and heal. You do these things.
He has equipped us and given us all we need to do as he says.
Those of you who are (HSP’s) Highly Sensitive Persons or who are highly empathic have been especially equipped to heal this way, with your gentle, compassionate and loving attention, first with front of the mind awareness, then with back of the mind awareness which resolves trauma and speeds healing along. These are gifts from our Creator, the Word. Jesus.
And, you can always ask Holy Spirit to adjust your emotions, energy body, and relationships.
You can have an amazing influence for the Kingdom of God, just by being more full of Holy Spirit. I encourage you to ask to be being more full of Holy Spirit, now. Ask often!
One day, I was shown some possibilities when I was in a conversation with a gracious lady who had family problems that she was telling me about.
Suddenly, these questions came to mind, opening to me many possibilities. You might want to wonder, too. What might you see as possible in your life?
So…here are the questions that just…came to mind….
What do you think would happen if you were so full of Holy Spirit you were contagious with Holy Spirit?
What do you think would happen if you were so full of Holy Spirit your daughter caught it?
What about when your husband catches it?
Could you and your daughter be healed?
Could your husband be reformed and made new in Jesus Christ?
What would happen to your joy? Health? Well being? Confidence, faith, love…?
It was a quiet night about two months after my wife and longtime best friend – suddenly died. In the middle of the night, I heard my dogs stirring. They had all gotten up – I think I saw the last of their waking up and moving. They were walking around in little circles and making somewhat pathetic little whining sounds.
I wondered what was going on. The house was okay, no problems or break-ins. They all seemed healthy, had eaten, had water; none were acting like they had to go out.
They kept milling around in small circles, making these little whining sounds. Very unusual. I had never seen or heard them do this, and they never all got up in the middle of the night, making small circles while whining.
I must have asked for help, because what I did next was highly unusual. I think, by hindsight, Holy Spirit was leading me.
I told them something, and then two true short stories. It went something like this:
First, I told them that my wife Britta was gone and they would not see her again on earth. In heaven, likely; but not on earth. Never again.
Second, I told them about something Britta had said to me one day. She asked, “When you get to heaven, what is it you want to hear?”
I had never thought about that before. I replied, “Well…probably…’well done, you good and faithful servant.'” I felt like I had borrowed someone else’s idea, stolen it, actually. But it is the best I could come up with.
One or two beats later, I asked her – and by this time, as I was telling about this, the dogs were all standing still now – not milling around any more. Silent and staring at me. So I went on with the story. I asked Britta, “What do you want to hear when you get to heaven?” I suspected she had really thought about this. It turns out that she had.
She told me, “All your previous pets are here, in heaven, waiting for you. Wondering where you’ve been all this time. And they are eager and keen to see you.”
Then I told the dogs about something else. About six people had come to me right after she died, telling me they had seen a vision. Most were similar. They saw Britta looking down from the Cloud of Witnesses, some said with one, others said with with two angels by her side. Saying that she was fine, everything was okay – even very good! And sometimes of sending greetings. Sometimes waving.
One of them, a Pastor of a good friend and a man of great integrity, told me that he’d seen two angels and the power from them was so strong it sent him stumbling backwards.
There was one interesting variation. One person saw Jesus next to my wife. Jesus gave her a puppy. (Something that made more sense if you knew how much she loved dogs and if you knew what she first wanted to hear when getting to heaven.) What a wonderful and personal gift!
After I told the dogs all that – it was as if this is what they wanted to hear – they each turned around, quietly making little circles as dogs often do when laying down. And quietly, they went to sleep.
I went to sleep also; I think we all did, having been comforted by Holy Spirit.
Bible Clip Art: Jesus Walking on the Water Matthew 14:26-29
Ministry goes best, is easiest, and most powerful when we minister to those that God gives to us. Jesus did this. (He ministered to his own disciples a lot. Taught them and saved them. A valuable clue.)
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:24; and there are other passages like this.
Woman at the Well, American Gallery
He did make rare exceptions. Such as when he ministered to the woman at the well. A Samaritan woman. He broke cultural and Jewish cultural expectations: he talked with a woman – and a Samaritan, with whom Jews seldom spoke with. Accepted water from her. And he’s previously said he came only for Israel. But she wanted his ministry and desired it strongly! Such was a worthy exception to the norm of ministering only to those who you are called to. It’s sort of a safety exception – allowing unusual ministry.
Minister to those you are called to. How do you know who these people are, what people group it is?
First, seek to remember what God has already shown you or told you that gives clues and hints.
Third, if you still don’t know, ask God how to pray for guidance. He will show you an answer – keep praying for it until that answer is in good effect.
Forth, notice that you get along better with some people who draw the best out of you. They are actually gifted to receive from you and through you. You are gifted and called to minister to such people.
Fifth, avoid temptation: do not try to minister to others unless they want to receive through you strongly, like the Samaritan woman at the well.
If you allow yourself to be busy with those you are not called to, your energy, time and ministry will be siphoned away from those you should be ministering to. You will be tired. You will be much less effective in your ministry. You will be ministering to those whom God never called you to, and disobeying the call God has on your ministry. Avoid such temptations; you will be exhausted and distracted, vulnerable and hurt. And with poor results. Best is to always do as God shows you and tells you to do.
Does your mind wander? Do you have trouble keeping your attention on your prayer session? Do you get bored or not know what to say and do?
Is what you do or learned to do feel like an obligation that you are not keeping as well as you like?
When you have an honest and sincere two way conversation with God, prayer is empowering and exciting. Jesus surprises and delights; does not condemn. Accepts you and loves you as you are. Jesus equips you with whatever he calls you to do. It is never boring. Your mind will not wander. There is no sense of obligation. It’s natural. It’s supernatural. It’s as easy as a two way conversational prayer with our loving Lord.
How? First, by giving up any obligation or ideas about how you should pray. A good way to do this is to simply ask for – and receive by faith – more of Holy Spirit. Or simply deeply intend, right now, to put righteousness and the Kingdom of God first. Second, by conversing with God, having a two way conversation with our Lord.
Here are valuable resources for knowing about how to hear God better, and how to have an effective two-way conversation with our Lord. Crucial key – alternating rhythms of talking, then listening. Write both down – short term memory, no matter how vivid and strong, can evaporate rapidly.
Immanuel Approach – useful for healing trauma and best as a lifestyle.
These approaches are so good that you will do well to learn them.
When you have an honest and sincere two way conversation with God, prayer is empowering and exciting. Jesus surprises and delights; does not condemn. Accepts you and loves you as you are. Jesus equips you with whatever he calls you to do. It is never boring. Your mind will not wander. There is no sense of obligation. It’s natural. It’s supernatural. It’s as easy as a two way conversational prayer with our loving Lord.
Immanuel Approach Pointers – from video notes, he repeats these in each video at the beginning.
-1. Immanuel truth: God is always with us, god is always glad to be with us, and God always wants to connect with us.
-2. Relational circuits: We have circuits in our brains that serve as the neurological hardware for running relationships. And we can connect with each other and with God much more easily when these relational circuits are online and strongly active.
-3. Positive memories and appreciation: We can predictably, reliably, and consistently get these relational circuits online and strongly active by recalling and connecting with positive memories and then deliberately generating, or stirring up, strong appreciation.
-4. Interactive connection with God: We can establish a living, interactive connection with God by inviting God’s presence into the positive memory, asking God to help us perceive His presence, and then noticing whatever comes into our awareness.
-5. The special value of God-connection positive memories:
-Our relationships are memory-mapped – our relationships are carried in our memories.
-Reconnecting with memory recreates, at least to some extent, the same mind-brain conditions that were present at the original experience.
-Using positive memories that include an experience of God’s presence takes advantage of these two pieced of brain science.
-6 Our brains are designed to work best in community:
-Describing out internal mental content, out loud to another person, helps us to feel it’s importance and to recognize it’s meaning.
-Including this piece in our Immanuel prayer will enable us to perceive subtle manifestations of the Lord’s presence that we might otherwise miss, and enable us to recognize and receive subtle interactive content from the Lord that we might otherwise miss.
-7. Immanuel Approach safety nets: At the beginning of the session we set up a positive-memory, appreciation, connection-with-God “home base” and then we can coach the recipient to go back to this home base if we get into trouble at any point later in the session, or if we run out of time at the end of the session and the recipient is still connected to unresolved traumatic content.
-8. Splinter-free memories: It is really important to use splinter free positive memories for the safety net.
What does it mean when someone has been healed or set free and you see them light up? Is it just gladness for their improvement? Gladness, yes. Being lit up? Might it mean more?
What does it mean when they have Holy Spirit? In biblical terms, in the Greek, they have experienced sozo. Which can mean that they have been healed, set free, even saved. Does that mean all of these or only one of these things? I wonder….
Maybe they just have Holy Spirit on them, helping them heal or be set free. Could be. Like the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures, they have Holy Spirit on them just for a bit? Or in them? I wonder…and I do not know, yet.
So I will watch. If after being set free and being healed, they stay lit up with Holy Spirit evident in their lives over a period of time, there is a greater chance that they have Holy Spirit in them and not just on them for a brief time. Meaning it is more likely that they have been saved. I wonder, as I watch for such things, what will I discover and see before me that is obvious? I do not know, and I wonder.
I do know this for a certainty. God is more merciful than we are. God loves more and better than we do. And I do know this: God’s theology is wider, more inclusive and more generous than the theology of we human beings.
And so, I wonder. I will ask our Lord. I will listen. And I will watch people who have received ministry with wonderful success. I will see Fruit of Holy Spirit, or not. I will see obvious evidence of Holy Spirit in them, or not.
And I do not know what will become obvious.
Even if it’s only some ministered to who have such evidence of Holy Spirit, and not all or even most, I will rejoice.
And if I cannot identify any with certainty and confidence that they have Holy Spirit…what will I do? I will rejoice!
For our Lord has saved many of us. Has ministered to many of us. And Jesus is still Immanuel, God with us. And he is coming! Hallelujah!
