The Case for Healing Prayer
This document does not contain instructions on how to pray for healing. It sets out the scriptural basis for healing prayer — it documents our role in healing prayer and explains why healing prayer is an essential part of God’s plan for the restoration of the cosmos.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism says our “chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
By ‘chief end’ I believe the Shorter Catechism means that our ultimate purpose or function is to live in intimacy with God, praising and worshiping Him all the days of our lives. No Christian should disagree with that. But I wonder if that is our ‘chief’ end. Maybe I could put it this way – is it our only ‘chief’ end? Genesis tells us that God created us for a specific function – to rule and subdue the earth. Psalm 8 tells us that “You (God) made him (man) ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet…O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” To rule involves worship, praise, and gratitude, but requires us to reach beyond ourselves and rule to ‘save’ the world, pushing back the darkness, in partnership with God.
When we perform the function for which we were created we are the most satisfied and we walk in harmony with God. How do we maximally glorify God and enjoy peace and joy in Him? By performing our function. So which comes first? Do we glorify God and out of that place of worship, perform our function. Or, do we perform our function and in so doing give God glory and rest in His joy? Is it one or the other or can it be both? Should we say that “our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever by performing the function for which we were created”? My concern is that when we make glorifying God and enjoying Him forever our chief end we can make our walk with Christ all about our intimacy, praise, and worship, and in so doing lose sight of the function for which God created us – to be His priests and rulers with power and authority to defeat the power of Satan and take back the territory.
In the paragraphs below I elaborate on these ideas and try to make the case that healing, especially through prayer, is part of what it means to follow Jesus and is necessary to perform the function for which God created us.
In Genesis 1 God created Adam and Eve, and therefore all mankind, in His image and likeness to rule over the earth; to fill the earth and subdue it. To be made in God’s image is to be God-like. The mandate to rule over the earth as God’s image bearers therefore is to rule, but with our relatively limited powers coupled with God’s awesome power. We are called to be God’s vice regents, his coworkers, to rule in partnership with God. It is our highest calling – His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), acting with authority and power to rule in the way God would rule. They were (and we are) called to be filled with God’s power to make Godly choices and decisions in their own lives, the relationships with others and with God, and for the life and land on the earth.
Scot Mcknight in his book ‘The Gospel of King Jesus’ summarizes these concepts this way: In the creation account of Genesis 1 God “makes humans his Eikons, the God-bearers, and their responsibility is to relate to God, self, others, and the world as co-rulers with God and mediators of God’s presence” in the cosmos. “The so-called fall of Genesis 3 is not just an act of sinning against God’s command, a moral lapse, but a betrayal of our fundamental kingly and priestly roles”.
With respect to the function for which mankind was created, Dallas Willard says: “The human job description (I would call it our ultimate ‘function’), the creation covenant we might call it, found in chapter 1 of Genesis indicates that God assigned to us collectively the rule over all living things on earth…we are responsible before God for life on earth… We are meant to exercise our rule only in union with God, as he acts with us.”
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve thought that because they were like God, they were God. This usurpation, the seizing of God’s power and authority without legal right, led to (or was) the fall.
In spite of this disastrous beginning God did not give up the idea that mankind would rule on God’s behalf and be His image bearers to the entire world. God raised up Abraham and through Him the nation of Israel and in His covenant with them told Abraham “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you…All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Exodus 12: 2,3). Through God’s image stamped on Israel all nations on the earth will see and come to know God and the love and righteousness of God as Israel carried the image of God into the world. Israel was given the fundamental responsibility that Adam and Eve failed to carry out.
Sadly, Israel was not obedient. Through years of idol worship, corruption, self-centeredness, and violent conquest Israel come to despise those nations that lived on and within its borders. They hated all Gentiles; the opposite of the function that God intended them to fulfill.
When Jesus entered the temple on that first Palm Sunday he cleansed the court of the Gentiles and quoted Isaiah 56: 7 “For my house will be a house of prayer for all nations“. Israel failed to carry out its ultimate function. They had turned inward and made God’s call just about themselves. The day after Jesus has cleansed the temple, He withered the fig tree because it had no fruit. The tree represented Israel and the fruit was intended to be repentance, belief, obedience, transformed hearts in the nations which God had placed around and beyond Israel. Jesus was making a statement: Israel had failed to perform the covenant function for which is was created by God
Embedded in this function is the consequence of carrying God to the nations. As God was proclaimed and accepted, the rule of Satan would be diminished and ultimately destroyed. This picture is a prominent theme in Isaiah. For example, Isaiah 58: 9-11; all of Isaiah 35; also Jeremiah 17: 5-8 where Jeremiah uses the desert versus the well-watered garden as metaphors for the world without God and the world with God. God’s plan from the beginning was to have mankind rule over a world of health, wholeness, life, righteousness, and innocence. After the fall, God’s plan was to restore the earth and all of its life back to the pre-fall condition. In fact, to a better condition. We have the Holy Spirit which Adam lacked. And this rule included the restoration of health, the elimination of disease and infirmity (Revelation 21:4).
And then God took matters into His own hands – He graciously sent His Son. Jesus made it clear that his function was to do the Father’s will, to accomplish the Father’s purpose. Jesus’ function was the same as Israel’s: to restore creation by taking the image of the Father to the ends of the earth. In fact, Jesus was the fulfillment and continuation of Israel’s story.
Jesus tells us clearly when He stands up in the synagogue in Nazareth and quotes part of Isaiah 61 in Luke 4 why He came: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed (those who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity in the Amplified Bible), to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4: 18, 19, NIV).
Isaiah 61:1-6 contains more information: to heal the broken hearted, to set people free from chains and darkness, to give us crowns of beauty, anoint us with the oil of joy, and clothe us in garments of praise so that we become trees of righteousness planted by streams of living water so that we might display His glory once again – so that we might become what we once were, the bearers of God’s image. Isaiah continues, and Jesus surely understood that those hearing His proclamation (His mission statement or Manifesto in our terms) in Nazareth would understand these words as well: they (we) would “rebuild the ancient ruins, and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generation”. I take it that this part of Isaiah 61 refers to more than devastation of physical cities, although it does mean that, but also hearts broken by betrayal and death made whole, bodies healed from disease and addictions, minds renewed, the restoration of relationships between people and between God and mankind, and the lives devastated by emotional and physical trauma, anger, bitterness, resentment, hatred, and unforgiveness made whole, and on and on.
Rebuild, restore, and renew. And we would do this. Not on our own, but in partnership with God. Isaiah closes this part of scripture with these words “And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God”. Here are the words that tie us back to our ultimate function, our ultimate purpose: we are to be rulers (Genesis 1) and priests. In Hebrew the word ‘priest’ can also mean chief ruler, prince, principle officer according to Strong’s Concordance.
We get more insight into these offices when we study the word ‘anoint’. In ancient Israel, anointing or the rubbing on of oil was used to signify or prepare one to be a king, priest, or prophet. For example, Samuel anointed Saul in 1 Samuel 10:1 before the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. In Exodus 29 God tells Moses to consecrate Aaron and his sons by placing turbans on their heads, anointing their heads with oil, and dressing them in tunics. In 2 Corinthians 1:21 Paul writes that we have also been anointed and have received His Spirit in our hearts – a mark of the offices of King, Priest, and Prophet. In Revelation 5, John writes: “With your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God and they will reign on the earth.” We are Kings, priests, and prophets.
Jesus gathers all of these ideas and predictions into one concept: The Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God there is healing and wholeness. The Kingdom of God now, also called the Kingdom of Heaven, is the first fruit of what is to come. It is the restored creation. And God, through Jesus, has given us the responsibility to release the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world through the offices of ruler, priest, and prophet. In this way we, in partnership with God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, drive back the darkness. We are to govern the world on God’s behalf, we are co-laborers with God to restore creation back to God’s original plan, condition, and function, culminating in the glorious picture of restored creation in Revelation 21, 22. Or as Paul says in Colossians 1 “And joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of His Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”.
What is our ‘chief end’? I would say to do the above. To achieve this end God has given us the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we could not accomplish the function for which we were created. Jesus also gives us power and authority. In Matthew 10, Luke 9, and Luke 10 Jesus gives authority and power to push back the darkness. He commands the disciples to go out proclaiming the Kingdom of God is here and then emotionally and physically healing all who come forward and driving out demons (spiritual healing). And then in the Great Commission Jesus tells the disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations (accomplishing Israel’s original purpose), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” For me, of all the commands Jesus gave the disciples, the one that would have been foremost in my mind was when He said to the 12 and 72: “go out there by yourselves, tell them the Kingdom of God is here, and heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead”. And they did!!! If I was one of His disciples, I would never forget that. In Mark 16 Jesus gives a similar command: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation…And these signs will accompany those who believe:…they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well”. Jesus gave His disciples other commands, such as the one about prayer: “when you pray, say…” We regularly pray this way, but for some reason pay less attention to His command to heal the sick, etc.
The great danger in all of this is that we will become usurpers like Adam and Eve or that we will somehow make this function about us, like Israel; or me, John. This is why the chief end of the Westminster Catechism is essential. As we glorify God with our worship and praise, as we stand in reverent awe of Him, and as we enjoy the gifts He has given us, knowing that they come from Him, we will keep the proper perspective on our function. We will know that all healing comes from Jesus; He is the only healer. All restoration, all transformation, and all life comes from Jesus. As we glorify God, we ensure that we remain in proper relationship to Him.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28, 29).
But still, we have the function to be rulers and priests of our God. We must act. And God has entrusted us with these roles over the earth. Not that God won’t occasionally jump in, but He has called us to perform this function and we must do it, or else it will not generally get done. As I thought about this, the image of a house on fire came to my mind. It is not the fire fighters who put out the fire; it is the water they spray on the fire with their hoses that extinguishes the blaze. The fire fighters and their hoses represent us. The water, the living water, that flows through us represents the Power of God, the Spirit of Christ. I suppose, occasionally, a huge rain storm can put out the fire, but generally if the fire department does not show up, the house will burn to the ground. But without the water, the fire cannot be extinguished, even if the fire fighters are on the scene. It is their responsibility to be sure their equipment works properly and they are connected at all times to the source of the water.
Prayer is the primary tool or vehicle by which our function is performed. Prayer is how we stay connected to God, receive the Holy Spirit, glorify God, and push back the darkness. Prayer is the most important way that we heal people spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Healing is an important way for the Kingdom of God to be released into the Kingdom of the world; although it is certainly not the only way. In many cases, Jesus commanded demons and sickness to leave. But the early church also depended upon prayer. Both of these ‘tools’ are available to us.
I believe that healing plays an important role in how we perform our function as Priests. To heal is most fundamentally to restore to health and wholeness. Health is defined by the World Health Organization as “optimal functioning with freedom from disease, and abnormality; broadly any state of optimal functioning or well-being”. I define healing as restoring to God’s original intent, purpose, condition, or function. To restore is “to bring back to a former, original, or normal condition”. Based on the Latin ‘restaurare’, restore means to ‘repair, rebuild, and renew’ (close to our functions described in Isaiah 61 mentioned above, and the root word for restaurant).
When Paul wrote in Romans 1:16 “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” I think he was talking about the salvation of the whole man in the Kingdom of God – spirit, soul, and body. Three words speak to me about healing in this verse.
First, Gospel. While the Gospel is certainly the idea that we are justified by faith, and all that implies, there is more. Jesus said many times “I must preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:43). In Mark 1, Jesus said “The Kingdom of God is near, or at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel“. And in Matthew 4:23 “Jesus went throughout Galilee…preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people”. In Matthew 12:28 Jesus settled, in my opinion an important issue about the Kingdom of God when he said “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” The Kingdom of God is here, but not in its fullness. And Jesus makes it clear by His actions and His words that in the Kingdom of God there is healing and wholeness. I believe that Jesus’ words and purposes are the same today as they were then.
Second, there is the word power. The Greek word for power is dunamis, which means in the Greek “force, specifically marvelous power, usually implication a miracle itself” (Strong’s, 1411). Most of the miracles of Jesus were healing and deliverance miracles. I believe that part of what Paul is saying in Romans 1 is that the power of God for healing His people is now available for those who believe. Jesus, speaking about miracles to Philip, tells us that we will do even greater things than Jesus did (John 14: 11). Philip would see this for himself. After Pentecost Philip went to Samaria. “When the crowds saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city” (Acts 8:6-8). The Kingdom of God has arrived in power.
The last word is salvation. The Greek word for salvation is soteria (Strong’s 4991), which means to rescue physically or morally. It also means health. It is a derivative of Strong’s number 4990 – soter, which means savior. Soter derives from 4982 – sozo, which has among it’s meanings to heal and make whole. Jesus came to save (sozo), not just for heaven, but in this life, now. And not just spiritually, the whole person – spirit, soul, and body. Jesus comes to give us abundant life. Sin, sickness, and death are Satan’s triumvirate or trifecta, the triple curse. These are absent in the Kingdom of God/Heaven; the Kingdom is sinless, sickless, and deathless. One of the reasons Jesus healed the sick was to convince them to believe in Him. Evangelism in the New Testament was always accompanied by signs, wonders, and miracles, especially healing miracles. But in order to release the Kingdom Jesus had to defeat sin, death, and disease. I believe the most fundamental reason Jesus healed is because it is His Nature to heal. He is Compassion. His nature is revealed in Exodus 15:26: “For I am the God who heals you”. The Hebrew word for heal is rapha, which men to ‘cause to heal and make whole’. It is from this passage that God gets His name Jehovah Rapha. Salvation involves healing for the whole man, now, and in the future.
In the Kingdom of God, through the power of God and salvation, we observe people, cities, and even nations being brought from a lower state of brokenness to a higher state of health or wholeness: disorder to order, enmity to harmony, sickness to health, lost to found, brokenness to wholeness, death to life, slavery to freedom, unholy to holy.
All of this, including restoration, reconciliation, and redemption of spirit, soul, and body as well as relationships, organizations, political entities such as cities and nations, and even the earth itself can be captured in one word – ‘healed’. Spiritual healing often involves deliverance or the casting out of demons. Healing of the soul is usually the healing of deep wounds or trauma to the heart. Physical healing is manifested as disease, tumors, broken bones, congenital defects are repaired and the body is restored back to its original and intended condition. In each case, the power of the enemy is defeated, people or places are set free, brought from darkness to light, and the dominion of darkness is pushed back one person or one place at a time.
Healing is necessary for mankind to accomplish the fundamental purpose for which God created us – to release the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world; to defeat the power of sin, death, and Satan; to push back the darkness and restore God’s creation back to it’s original condition. There are two reasons why healing is important:
1) We are the agents, as rulers and priests on behalf of God, assigned to accomplish these functions. But we cannot release what we do not have within our hearts. Healing will not happen through intellectual arguments about what certain passages of scripture mean. Healing occurs through the supernatural release of the Holy Spirit in response to prayer and through the outpouring of love and grace into another person’s life. If I am deeply wounded to the point that I have turned inward in my own life, finding my value in man’s approval, my accomplishments, material possessions, sex, drugs, including food, or another idol, I will be incapable of releasing the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world. Finding value in idols leads to hearts hardened by fear, bitterness, anger, resentment, addiction, depression and many other manifestations of broken-heartedness. Before I can accomplish the function for which I was created my broken heart must be healed – I must find my value in Jesus instead of the world (self).
This healing will mostly be emotional but could also include physical healing. I was healed of atrial fibrillation when I cried out to God that my ministry would be impacted if I had to rest in a chair most of the day. To love my enemies I must receive the Father’s love. To receive the Father’s love, the things that hinder the flow of that love into my heart must be removed. I must be restored, not completely or perfectly, but to the extent that God’s love can begin to heal me. Then I can begin to accomplish the function for which I was created, to release the Father’s love as rivers of living water into the lives of others.
2) We push back the darkness and release the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world to restore, renew, and rebuild creation the same way Jesus did. As we grow in power, as we walk increasingly with the Holy Spirit, and as we receive the love of the Father and see ourselves as God sees us, accepted and valued, we are used by God to rescue people from darkness, slavery, and death through the love of Jesus, the kindness and grace of Jesus, and healing of their spirits, souls, and bodies. This requires our own healing. Each time one person is set free from addiction, depression, cancer, or some other disease or infirmity the kingdom of the world/darkness is pushed back.
Healing prayer is one of the principal weapons in our war against Satan. Jesus tells us that “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved (sozo). He will come in and go out and find pasture (the Kingdom of God). The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Satan comes to steal peace and joy, kill life and liveliness, and destroy relationships. We counter this, in large part, through healing prayer as Jesus, working through us, restores the person’s life back to His original intention, condition, purpose, or function; the Kingdom of God is released one person at a time into the kingdom of the world, Satan is defeated, and darkness is pushed back.
Although we are rulers and priests, Jesus is the healer. We have power and authority, but in the end only Jesus heals. And no healing can occur apart from His presence. First, His presence, followed by love, and then healing. All healing glorifies God, restores part of God’s creation, and pushes back the darkness. Most fundamentally, we don’t just want healing, we want the Healer.
As I wrote above, Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is here. “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, the Kingdom of God is among you.” Paul tells us “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power”. And while incarcerated in Rome “Boldly and without hindrance he (Paul) preached the Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ”. But the Kingdom of God is not here perfectly. McKnight puts it this way – speaking of the early Church and for that matter the Church today:
“They were Eikons like Adam and Eve but with a major difference: they had the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit could transform them into the visible likeness of Jesus Himself. As Christlike Eikons they are assigned to rule on God’s behalf in this world…They now rule in an imperfect world in an imperfect way as imperfect Eikons. But someday the perfect Eikon will come back and He will rescue His Eikons and set them up one more time in this world. This time, though, it will be right because Jesus will be the temple, and the garden will become the eternal city, and it will be filled with peace, love, joy, and holiness. All usurpations will end, and everyone will serve Jesus in the power of the Spirit to the glory of God the Father. Humans will govern on God’s behalf in the way of Jesus. Forever.”
Restore, reconcile, save, power, Gospel, Kingdom of God: all of these words are either rooted in healing or are associated with healing. Healing touches the whole man, spirit, soul, and body. Healing describes relationships between man and God, man and other men, and the fractured inner part of each human being. Healing is one of the threads that is woven through the entire Bible. The early Church did not need a lot of instruction on healing. They lived with healing every day, for them it was a natural part of their walk with Christ. In the 21st Century, healing is alien to most of the western Church. We even try to diminish the power of God today by saying that healing was for then, but not for now, as if God’s essential nature and plan for His creation has changed (my advice to cessationists: don’t travel to Africa, India, or South America. It will rock your world).
We are imperfect rulers and priests. Not everyone gets healed because it is an imperfect world. But Jesus calls us to healing. Jesus demonstrates deliverance and healing and ties it closely to the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. And Jesus tells us it is possible. “If you have faith (and in this passage, the Greek is translated as “the faith of God”) and do not doubt…you can say to this mountain (and cancer is a mountain) go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done.” This, I believe, is our chief end.
In Jesus name,
John