Jesus gained authority over sickness and disease as well as over sin and death, and He has given us His authority to heal the sick and to cast out demons. Therefore, He expects us to exercise the authority He has given us when we pray for the sick. This is why we are looking at some prayer styles that allow us to exercise this authority. Some authority prayer styles include:
- Commanding Healing In Jesus' Name
- Blessing Body Parts To Function Properly
- Casting Out Infirmity
- Finding/Removing Roots That Enable Sickness
We discussed the first two in previous lessons, so now let's look at the rest of them.
CASTING OUT INFIRMITY
There are spirits that cause sickness and infirmity. In fact, most of the people who I pray for have some sort of spirit causing the infirmity that needs to either be cast out or have its assignment against the person canceled. There seems to be demonic involvement in a lot of sicknesses. So when I am not sure what is causing a person's physical problem, I make sure that I command any spirits that may be involved in this infirmity to leave.
When Jesus prayed for the sick, a lot of times He healed people by casting out demons. If the demon was the cause of the physical problem, the physical problem will often go away when the demon leaves. The Bible makes it very clear that demons can cause many different types of health problems. Most of the time, the Bible does not call the demons who cause sickness "spirits of infirmity" -- it just calls them demons. Sometimes the Bible calls the demon by the name of the malady it causes, such as "a deaf and mute spirit" (Mark 9:25 NIV) or "deaf and dumb spirit" (Mark 9:25 NKJV).
But the Bible does not use the term "spirit of infirmity" very often. The only time we find the words "spirit of infirmity" in the Bible is in Luke 13:11, where it says, "And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up." (The NIV translation does not name the demon, it says "...who had been crippled by a spirit...").
The term "spirit of infirmity" is a popular term today, but not in the strict sense of Luke 13:11. Instead, the term is used to refer to demons that make people sick. Different people use the term differently, so let me describe how I uses this term and how it effects my praying for the sick.
I believe that there are two different types of demonic sickness. One is caused by low-level demons whose only assignment is to torment people and make them sick. These demons have no particular right to torment a person with sickness, infirmity or disease, they just do it because they can get away with it -- no one is making them stop. This type of demon is a freeloader and it has no right to be there. But it will remain until someone comes along and makes it leave. And this is what I am talking about when I use the term "spirit of infirmity."
Spirits of infirmity are "free loaders" -- they don't have any sort of legitimate right to make the person sick. Let me use an example from professional hockey to demonstrate the way freeloaders operate. Ed and I are season ticket holders for the local team. We have really great seats in one of the more expensive and popular sections of the arena. Some people who do not have these great seats look for empty (used) seats in our section. If they find a pair of empty seats, they will come and sit in them, even though they did not pay for the ticket and have no right to be there. When the person who has the ticket comes to the seat, they politely challenge the freeloader's right to be in their seat by saying something like, "Excuse me, these are my seats" and showing their tickets. At that time the "freeloader" will vacate the seats because they had no right to be there. But if no one comes and challenges their right to be in those seats, they stay there the whole game.
Spirits of infirmity behave the same way. They have no right to make a person sick, but they will come and make someone sick anyhow. And they will stay there causing health problems until someone tells them to leave. Since spirits of infirmity don't really have a right to be there, it is very easy to get rid of them. You simply use Jesus' power and authority to tell them to leave. They pretty much have to go when you command them. Because they don't have anything to attach to, they can't try to hang on and resist you.
There is another type of demon that can cause sickness and infirmity. But this demon is not a freeloader, it has some sort of legitimate reason, or "legal right," to torment the person. That right may have been passed down from sins of ancestors, or from some sort of soul tie or ritual curse. Or the person may have opened the door to the demon through some type of sin or unforgiveness. There are many different reasons a demon can "cite" as their "legal right" to that person. If they have a legal right, they won't usually just leave when you tell them to. They will resist and try to hold on to the person until that legal right is taken away. Ministering to the type of situation is more involved than simply commanding a spirit of infirmity to leave, and we will look at it in more detail when we talk about deliverance.
FINDING/REMOVING ROOTS THAT ENABLE SICKNESS
Sometimes there are reasons that people are sick, and we have to deal with the reason, not just with the symptoms. There are many different things that can cause sickness.
If the cause is a demon, then we have to discover why the demon has attached to the person and remove the things that the demon is holding on to. If the person is harboring unconfessed/unrepented sin, then we want to help them repent. If the person has been involved in any type of occult or pagan dedications, we want to help them renounce these things. If the person is under a curse, we want to break the curse. If the person is holding unforgiveness in their heart, we want to help them forgive. Once we deal with anything that the demonic spirit claims is their "right" to be there, then it is very easy to get rid of the demon by commanding it to leave. First we do inner-healing "ministry" to get the person free of whatever the demon holds on to, then we pray in authority to get rid of the demon.
However, not all sickness and infirmities are caused by demons. Sometimes bad things just happen to people -- they get caught in fire and they get burned, or they get hit by a car and incur serious injuries, or maybe they get around someone who has something contagious and they catch it, etc. In those cases, there is nothing to remove, we simply use the authority Jesus has given us to command healing, to command sickness to leave or to command the body part to work properly.
However, some sicknesses and infirmities are caused because of a person's lifestyle or bad habits. For instance, some people are sick with heart conditions because of their lifestyle and eating habits. One example is when a person has high blood pressure because that person eats fatty and salty foods. If you pray for the person and their blood pressure goes down, it will start to go up again if they don't change their lifestyle and eating habits. God is not into "futility," and often He does not heal someone who is making themselves sick until they become willing to change their behavior. For instance, God is not likely to heal someone who has lung cancer if they intend to continue smoking cigarettes after they get better. But once they become willing to give up the bad habit that made them sick, then God is more likely to heal them.
There are times when the person has no choice in the matter, and God does punish them for that. When the person's environment is making them sick and they have no control over it, God does not hold that against them. For instance, a person may have digestive disorders because they eat a diet that is too starchy and too fatty. But if the person is destitute financially and cannot afford to eat healthier food, God is not going to withhold their healing because of what they eat.
More on Praying For Physical Healing
ESTABLISH A BASELINE
When you pray for someone who is sick, try to establish a baseline so you can tell when there is a change in their condition. If I pray for a person with vision problems, I get them to look at something a distance away to see if they can see it (or maybe read it), etc. I figure out what they can and cannot see before I start to pray. If they are hard of hearing, I will whisper at different volumes into their ear until I determine what they cannot hear. If they say they have a specific problem, such as a backache or headache, then I ask them, "Is it hurting now?" I ask them to show me where it hurts and I try to quantify how much it hurts.
I check their condition before praying to "establish the baseline" so that I know where they are starting from.
If the person has some sort of physiological problem, such as a withered hand or a partially paralyzed leg, I ask them to move it as much as they can -- that way I can see what they are capable of before I start to pray.
After I pray, then I have them test it out again to see if there is any change. Sometimes their complete healing comes instantly. If there is a complete healing, I ask them to try to make it hurt, or I ask them to do something they could not do before. An example would be asking a person with a back problem to reach down and touch their toes.
There are some conditions where you can't establish a baseline because the condition can't be directly observed but has to be medically tested, such as kidney failure or high blood pressure. Don't attempt to establish a baseline for that type of thing. Have them go to their doctor to have their doctor evaluate their condition after you think a healing has occurred.
WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS, KEEP PRAYING
Sometimes healings take longer than we expect. Keep praying as long as something seems to be happening. That means if the person is experiencing some sensation, such as heat or tingling, keep praying. God is on them and is touching them. Bless what He is doing and keep on doing it with Him. If someone reports the pain is decreasing, then keep praying and maybe it will go away all together. If someone has an improvement in their condition (which you can observe because you took a baseline), then keep praying and see if you can get them to 100%.
At times, healings are instant. But most of the time, they are gradual over a period of sustained prayer. Let me give an example. One time I prayed for a lady who was paralyzed in both hands and arms. I prayed for the whole condition (restore mobility in both arms), but nothing happened. I decided to pray a second time and I changed my prayer strategy a little. I prayed for one small body part at a time, praying for each joint separately. I took the index finger of one hand and prayed it by commanding healing in the joints and ligaments and nerves of that finger. After a little while, she was able to move that finger, she could bend and unbend it.
But everything else remained paralyzed. If I stopped praying at that point, that probably would have been all of the healing she received. I did not stop, I took the finger next to it and prayed for it. We went one finger a time until she had mobility back in all of her fingers. Then I started praying for the wrists. After that I prayed for the elbows and the shoulders, one at a time. At the end of the prayer, she was a bit stiff and clumsy, but she could move her hands and arms and fingers. It took about two hours to pray but it was certainly worth the time to see her mobility restored!
My general guideline is that if nothing happens, I usually pray a second time, just in case. If something happens but the healing is not complete, then I pray some more. If I have the time, I will keep praying until the healing is complete or until the condition stops improving. I have had people that I was praying for get tired of the prayer and suggest I stop. But I suggested we keep going as long as things were happening, and they agreed. After a while their healing was complete and they were happy that we had not stopped.
My general philosophy is that I like to keep praying as long as God appears to still be doing something.
INSTANT VS GRADUAL HEALINGS
When Jesus healed people, some were instantly and completely healed, like the man with the withered hand. Jesus told him to stretch it forth, and then it worked perfectly from that instant onward.
Some of the healings did not happen when Jesus prayed, but happened afterwards. Let me give an example from Luke 17:11-17. Ten lepers asked Jesus to heal them. Look at what happened in verse 14: "So when He saw them, He said to them, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.' And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed." The healing did not take place until after they had received prayer and left.
And others began to get well when Jesus prayed for them, but it took some period of time before the healing was complete. We see that in Matthew 15:28: "Then Jesus answered and said to her, 'O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.' And her daughter was healed from that very hour." Notice the phrase, "from that very hour." That means the girl's healing began the instant Jesus spoke that word but it took some period of time until her symptoms all left and she was 100% better.
There was even a case recorded in Mark 8:23-25 where Jesus had to pray for someone more than once. The first time He prayed, they received a partial healing. So He prayed again and they were healed the rest of the way. "23So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. 24And he looked up and said, 'I see men like trees, walking.' 25Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly."
It is important to understand that not everyone who Jesus prayed for was instantly healed. Jesus is probably the greatest and most successful healing minister to walk the face of the earth -- and even some of His healings were partial and required additional prayer. Even some of Jesus' healings were gradual and took some period of time.
We must understand that not all healing is instant. We will have some people who are partially healed. When that happens, I like to follow Jesus' model and pray again. We will have some people who start to be healed as we pray for them, but they will need to allow some time to pass (an hour or two or maybe even a day) before they are completely well. Healings happen that way. So be prepared for it and allow for it when you pray for people.
PHYSICAL HEALING PRAYER
I would like to summarize the main steps I usually go through when I pray for someone and God has not given me explicit instructions on how to pray for that person:
- In Jesus' name, command the disease to leave, or command the body part to work right or command the healing to come forth.
- I always suspect a spirit of infirmity, unless God tells me there is not one present, and I command it to leave.
- Bless the body part to function the way God created it to work.
- If there are no results when praying for a believer, ask God to reveal root causes and deal with them. You may also want to interview the person for obvious things like unforgiveness or unrepented sin.
- Test to see if healing occurred. (I usually take a baseline before I pray so that I can tell how much improvement there is.) In outreach meetings, send people with healings up to give their testimony. If healing is only partial, you may want to pray more, as God may do more healing.
- Be sure to tell them that sometimes the devil tries to bring symptoms back, so if the symptoms return, they need to command them to leave in Jesus' name.