A group of Singaporeans before embarking on a night of Street Healing (6th August 2011)

Introduction

I thought I’d provide a little update on what’s been happening over the past 6 months regarding Street Healing in Singapore. For those not familiar with all this Street Healing business, the Street Healing movement has exploded all around the world in the past year or so – about the same time I started to get involved. I, along with many people in Singapore and around the world, took a huge leap into practicing Street Healing after listening to Curry Blake of John G. Lake Ministries (JGLM), whose teachings I’ve written quite a bit about on this blog. Since the middle of last year, a group of Singaporeans from different churches have gotten to know each other through mutual appreciation for Curry Blake’s teachings and our desire to pursue and grow in the healing ministry. We’ve met to discuss and practice healing (i.e. pray for each other and our friends who need healing). We’ve also attended healing events in Singapore like Randy Clark’s School of Healing and Impartation at Cornerstone Community Church in March 2011 and The Elijah Challenge in October 2010. We’ve brought some friends over to Singapore to minister and learn from like Jessie Campbell of Australia in November last year and Roger Sapp in April this year.

South Africans ministering healing in the streets of Geylang

South Africans and Singaporeans in a restaurant in Geylang before our Street Healing / Treasure Hunt adventure (January 2011)

In January this year, a group of about 20 young Christians from South Africa came to Singapore and we had a great time of fellowship with them too. I’m going to share a bit of what happened here because I haven’t done so in this blog before and the testimony below is sure to encourage many. In addition, what we did with this group of South Africans that day eventually led to what the group of us are doing in Singapore now, which I’ll share later on.

Anyway, it started when I got to know James Preston, a pastor in a South African Church, last year. Both of us are bloggers and we have similar beliefs, having been impacted by Christian leaders like Bill Johnson, Andrew Wommack, Rob/Ryan Rufus, Joseph Prince and Curry Blake. We were (are) grace-based and into the supernatural (healing and the prophetic) and believed in Street Healing. We also had a mutual appreciation for a theologian called Michael Eaton. That was how I got to know about him: he wrote about Michael Eaton on his blog and I wrote him about it. I read Michael Eaton’s book No Condemnation about 13 years ago and it impacted me a bit. The book is a very scholarly take on some important aspects of the grace message – the doctrine of assurance and also the role of the 10 Commandments in the Christian life. Michael Eaton is the kind of theologian I like a lot as just like his good friend RT Kendall, he’s scholarly and yet charismatic – combining the best of Word and Spirit.

It’s amazing how God connected us. James was planning to bring a group of about 20 young Christians from his church to Singapore for the primary purpose of visiting New Creation Church. So we arranged for the South African and Singaporean group to meet up together for fellowship and some ministry. So in January this year, a group of us Singaporeans met up with their group and had a good time of fellowship, discussion and prayer one night. We thought of bringing them to Geylang the next night to eat and do some Street Healing. So the following night we all met up again and did some Treasure Hunting / Street Healing after dinner.

I want to share this testimony provided by James, who partnered with one of our Singaporean friends Joseph when walking the streets in Geylang:

Did Joseph tell you what happened at the Massage Parlour with him and I? It was amazing, and actually one of the most powerful encounters I have had doing such ministry! I hope you don’t mind, I will get into some detail here…

We saw the wavey blue neon lights Graham had prophesied about earlier, and we hovered around waiting because we knew God wanted to do something.  Nothing happened.

So we walked around the block again, and on our second time coming up to the restaurant with the wavey neon blue lights, Joseph spotted a lady sitting at the counter of a massage parlour wearing a pink shirt and with black hair and a pony tail. With 4 of the words of knowledge confirmed (Blue lights, pink shirt, black hair, pony tail) we knew God had an appointment.

So we stepped inside saying we had a “message from God”. We were immediately greeted with a cold response saying “massage only” as obviously Western men have a bad reputation around there. With a big smile we assured her we didn’t want her services, but wanted to bless her with a message. (At this point I had no idea what the message was, but I knew for sure God had one, as He set this up, so I spoke as though I did have a message, because God did.)

She was still very reserved, and then her boss walked in, a Chinese doctor. He took a seat behind the counter, and she moved over to a smaller chair. We said we had a message of blessing for him and his business. (This was the first thing that came to mind, and I know that as a Son of God a business should naturally experience blessing if I speak it out over it. Whether this is conditional on what type of business it is, I don’t know. I was going with what I was feeling.)

The doctor asked how much we would charge, or what we wanted in return. I assured him we wanted absolutely nothing, and that we were messengers from God with a message of blessing for him and his business. At this point the lady in the pink shirt (who was completely switched off) started looking a lot more interested. Let me just say everything was being translated through Joseph. Without him I doubt we would have seen the same results. I was blessed to be partnered with him.

Anyway… so the Chinese Doctor was quite surprised we wanted nothing in return, and openly received prayer for his business from us. I asked if we could all hold hands, which him and his pink shirted assistant agreed to. We held hands and I started praying over the business (without translation if I recall correctly). As I started drawing the prayer to a close, I had a word of knowledge (by way of impression on my heart) that the assistant had pain in her left leg in her thigh area. She looked totally healthy and around 20 something yrs old, so it certainly wasn’t by looks. She said she did have pain and that she had a sort of rheumatoid arthritis which caused her pain down her left leg, so this opened her up. It’s amazing how the prophetic does that. I guess that’s what the gifts of the Spirit are for!

I then felt to pray for her legs, to see if one was shorter than the other. Which was interesting for me, because I have never done that in ministry before! But did it, and it seemed like one was just slightly shorter than the other. So we prayed, and when we opened our eyes, it looked as though they were completely in line! Even the “DR” inspected it and seemed amazed! So this naturally built faith for her leg. So I asked her to lay hands on her leg where the pain was, and I would lay hands on her hand. I didn’t want to lay hands directly onto her leg (even though she was wearing jeans) our of respect.

So we prayed, and declared the pain to go and the life and power of Jesus to flow through into her body. She started giggling and saying she could feel heat going through her body and tingling! We told her that was the Power of God flowing through her and healing her. By now she was smiling and laughing, and full of faith. So much so that she asked us to pray for her left arm, because she had injured it and she couldn’t move it above half way behind her back. She had seen and felt God heal her already, and so wanted full healing in all her body!

So Joseph and I laid hands on her left arm and prayed again. Very simple, declarative, authoritative, loving prayers, and she felt the same thing. Heat and tingling. She tried to do something she couldn’t do with her arm, and she was completely healed! Praise God!

By this time, the DR had seen all this and was stunned. He then mentioned Joseph that he had had a stroke 2 years ago and the right side of his body had become lazy. So we sat him down, and we prayed with him, Joseph taking the lead here, and again just declaring all pain to go and life and healing to flow into his body. We asked him to stand up and walk around a bit, which he tried to, but he said he was only “a bit” better, so we prayed again. Short and sweet, and he started walking again, this time better but saying he was about 50% better. So we prayed again and he tried to walk again and this time he said he felt much better and stronger!

I don’t always make a call or suggestion to receive Jesus, but we both felt like Jesus had something further to do, and so Joseph asked them if they knew who healed them. He told them it was Jesus, and he asked if they wanted to receive Jesus into their lives. With big smiles on their faces they both agreed! It was such a privilege to lead them right there and then through a prayer of accepting Jesus as their Saviour, and then praying for them to both be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

We left it at that.  By then it was half an hour over time to meet back, so had to get going, but took their card to hopefully stay in touch with them in the future. What a testimony of God’s goodness! God loved these two so much, and he had a plan to meet with them that night. And they were both so ready to receive the Love of God!  For me, this is what it is all about!

Street Healing in Little India

There were other testimonies also of healing and God’s love being poured out in Geylang that January night. Esther and I ministered to many Bangladeshi migrant workers on the streets of Geylang. We approached a couple of people sitting down and asked if they had any pain. As they had pain in various parts of their bodies, we laid hands on them and prayed for them. Pain started to go away and other Bangladeshis walking by who saw this unusual sight of Chinese Singaporeans laying hands on their fellow countrymen started standing still and observing what was happening. When the Bangladeshis told of their healing, more people asked for prayer and we managed to pray for others and see quite a few healed.

We kept in touch with these people and told them to call us if they have any problems or need any healing. In June, one Bangladeshi called us and invited us to his apartment in Geylang to pray for his friend’s sickness. And then another Bangladeshi called us in July and we met up with him in Little India. We ended up praying for his friend for a long time as the pain wasn’t going away. Gradually, many migrant workers started observing us close by and we asked if they had any pain in their bodies. Many of them had pain because a lot of them were involved in physical labor jobs. For the next 45 minutes or so, Esther and I prayed for between 20 to 30 migrant workers and the majority of them had their pain healed. As it was getting late and we didn’t prepare to pray for so many people, we had to leave with dozens still left not prayed for but we promised to come back the following week.

Since that time, we’ve been to little India three times in the past two months, bringing other Singaporeans. Each time, it’s been very exciting and we’ve gotten to see many migrant workers healed. We’ve also been able to make friends with many migrant workers and thank them for their services and work in Singapore. Some Singaporeans in the group came for the very first time to see what it’s all about and they went beyond observation and got into the act of praying for the sick and actually saw God use them to heal people in the streets for the very first time in their lives – and that’s been exciting for them. We believe that every Christian is called to heal the sick and resurrection power is already within them (Ephesians 1:18-19) to do so. A lot of us (all ordinary Christians and not pastors) have gone through this journey of ministering healing for the past year. We’ve still got a lot to learn and grow in this area, but we are glad to come alongside other Christians in Singapore to encourage and empower them to begin this journey of healing.

I believe God is restoring the supernatural and healing to His Church as the end draws nearer. His Church was always meant to move in the supernatural and even do greater works than what Jesus did (John 14:12). The Church was always meant to go out into the world to demonstrate God’s love to the world and do the works of God, and not just rely on bringing the world into the Church. This Street Healing movement that’s been sprouting up all around the world in the past year or so is something no one could have fathomed 5 years ago. God is doing something powerful and we want to invite any Christian in Singapore reading this to join us. You’ll definitely be transformed by the experience of praying for these people. And you’ll realize how easy it is to see God heal many through your hands. By no means do we get everyone healed, but we have seen so many healed and we’ve begun an exciting journey.

Let me end with 3 testimonies from various ordinary Christians who have been praying for the sick in Little India the past month or two and seeing results:

Testimony from Esther:

…after i’ve prayed for a few people, i believe some got healed. i was honestly SURPRISED that they got healed. HAA! but that encouraged me and made me see that wow… if i can do it, ANYBODY CAN!

this sat i prayed for a girl with pain from her calf down. after prayer, she tested her leg out and without even speaking to me, she went straight out and spoke to her brother (who brought us to her). she was completely healed and was surprised that the pain would leave her completely

there are still many who didn’t get healed and i know its a journey, to learn to have faith even when healing doesn’t happen, and to discover why they don’t.

and its only gonna get more exciting!

Testimony from Robert:

Hello, I wanted to share a little bit of my experience. As I began to pray, there was actually a feeling of unworthiness inside, but I just continued to see my righteousness in Jesus Christ. Anyway, it’s not about me, it’s about Jesus and His love for them.

I did not listen much from Curry Blake, but learning from Roger Sapp and Jon, I started the prayer with a reminder of Jesus’ work on the Cross not only for them but also for me, as it could be my faith also that will heal them. And then I started commanding the pain/sickness to be gone as what Jesus taught about commanding to the mountain. And then I ended with again a confirmation that healing belongs to the person.

About 90% whom I prayed said they are getting better/healed. Many answers not in a very convincing way,as if they are also unsure about it. But at least there were 2 instances where I really see a big smile after I prayed for, one when I prayed with Esther, and another when I prayed alone. The person even saying with a big smile, “It is good!”

The challenging one is when a person is asking for a prayer where there is a bone coming out a bit in his hand, while there is no pain at all. I am not so sure either, I was praying for something similar with my own hand, but did not see the result yet. So I just kept convincing myself that nothing is impossible in Christ. I even prayed that God’s power comes so that the people can see how great He is. Nothing happened, and after two to three times, the person’s friend asked him to leave.

I was not sure what to do when healing did not come, I saw how Jonathan did and I think it’s a good way to end with the faith that God is still working and the healing could happen tomorrow or the day after, so we should keep on believing for the healing to come!

It’s an awesome experience, more people should join us and experience it. God is working!

Lastly, a testimony from Michael:

Praise God Praise God! I am writing this to encourage all who had not turned up for the healing prayer at Little India. My wife Sandra came with me for the first time and nothing prepared us for the surprise God had for us… :D

… We prayed for a young man who complained with a toothache which to his surprise (and ours) left almost instantly! And he started to shared excitedly with his friends… :) There were many with back problems and GOD IS SO GOOD…….He healed them!

One had pain on both heels……Tony, Sandra and I took turns to pray for him. When the pain from one heel (foot) left he was quick for the other to be healed (by laying of hand). And we claimed healing for the other as well and Jesus healed that too! To make sure he did not politely fake it, I got him to walk briskly with me…

“Any pain? “……”No pain!” By which time I was over the moon! I was rejoicing and thanking God for His amazing love…..

There was one guy who in his broken English asked…..”What profit you to do…… this?” It is the love of God for them to see them free from pain…… we replied.

I am sharing this to testify of the goodness and awesome love for people….. For all we know, some of these workers may be living in sin….. our own lives may also be altogether with doubts and unbelief…… even.

Yet God in His love and sovereignty sees beyond all that.

HE IS FAITHFUL to what His Son Jesus Christ has done ! And he healed more than 90% of those who came forward to be prayed for.

Indeed the name of Jesus was magnified and glorified that night……All Glory to Him

I was so happy when the Holy Spirit turned up with so much love and power!

Just to encourage anyone who is wondering if God will use him/her. I was like that once. Remember this God IS good….and that is His glory….. Exodus 33:18-19.

…God heals not because we are good but because He is good. We obey by being available for His goodness to flow through……… with His love, His joy and His peace….. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches……. John 15:5

For those interested in coming alongside us, growing together in the healing ministry and loving and blessing the people in Singapore, we welcome you! Drop me an email at jonathan at stillhaventfound.org.

I recently purchased some of Steve Thompson’s messages online. Really good stuff! Thanks to Brandon Lee who put a lot of Steve’s videos up on YouTube which got me interested in Steve. Good grace-based, supernatural stuff!

One thing that really struck me was his description of MorningStar University’s “faith courses”. In the first part of his first message in his “Developing a Sustainable Supernatural Life” series, Steve said regarding these faith courses:

We don’t push people, we gently encourage them and we provide an opportunity for them. But we provide increasingly significant and risky opportunities. We would send our students out on what we call our “faith courses”. Faith course 1 required them to go really around the city and to attempt some different kinds of ministry or some different types of exploits. They would have to go out and to prophesy to someone at the bus station. Or they would have to go and pray for somebody. We weren’t looking for them to have success to begin with, just that they could step out and attempt something. Because for a lot of people who have been caught in fear, the attempt itself is the success they need to have at that point.

Faith course 2 – they would go out maybe 1 hour / 1.5 hours away.

Faith course 3 – we would send them out in teams of two or three into cities within about a 6 or 8 hour drive of the city. They would have a list of items they would have to complete over about a four or five day period. They had to prophesy to a government official. They had to heal a homeless person and record the healing either on audio or video and bring it back. Now, not pray for their healing – they had to heal them. Other things they had to do. They had to get a hundred dollars worth of groceries for a needy family and then get the name or the address of the needy family by prophetic revelation and go and deliver it to them and then tell them that was from the Lord and encourage them, bless them. They would also have to get two or three room nights at a three star hotel or better for free – in other words, without using their own money to pay for it – while they were on the trip. Breaking and entering was not allowed!

It was a very cool sort of environment. How many of you would say, “That would make me nervous a little bit”? Ya, sure it would… We consciously set an environment that was helping people confront and get past their fears, and to develop an understanding that God would show up on their behalf. That God would meet them if they’re willing to take some risks. (2:43 onwards)

Wow! This is the first time I’ve heard of these “faith courses”. Friends from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) tell me there’s a culture of encouraging the supernatural and risk-taking like people going up to you to give you a word of prophecy, etc. It’s a culture of risk, yet also a culture of grace because people fail and you’re still accepted. And that’s really cool because I do think it’s important to have an encouraging, challenging and grace-filled culture in order for people to grow in their faith in these areas. Such a culture will enable people to overcome their fears and take the risk to do crazy stuff like prophesying over strangers – because you know that if you fail badly, there’s always grace available!

MorningStar’s “faith courses” and the assignments the students have to do really challenges me to believe God in a greater way! I mean, getting a two or three nights stay at a three star hotel for free!!?? That’s outrageous! But that’s totally possible – everything is possible for him who believes!

Since listening to Curry Blake on healing and being with people in the United States doing the stuff on the streets last July, I’ve grown in my faith to pray for people for healing on the streets. I’m no longer afraid of approaching people on the streets and praying for their healing. I’m starting to slowly move out to prophesying to people and I hope to improve in this area over the next year. It’s still something that’s a challenge for me especially since I’m not that much into “general” prophecies (vague ones which you don’t know whether are inspired by the Holy Spirit or just something anyone could probably come up with that would apply to most people because it’s so general and hard to miss) and so I do have high standards for myself in this area. And now I hear of these “faith courses” and some of the ridiculous stuff that people are asked to believe God for!

Being in the charismatic church for a long time, you hear a lot about people sharing about how God told them to do this or that. Which is really cool! But all this also kind of makes you feel that unless you have some specific direction from God, you shouldn’t do things that require faith like trying to heal everyone you see or believing God for something big. Last year when I encountered Curry’s teaching on healing, it made me realize that you don’t have to have a so-called “rhema” word from God to pray for someone’s healing and expect them to be healed. You can just lay hands on the sick and believe God wants to heal this person and that the person should get healed based on His eternal and unchanging Word (i.e. the Bible). Since then, my paradigm of what we can do in Christ has shifted and is continuing to shift. I’m learning we don’t have to have some clear word or direction from God to do crazy and ridiculous things. God sometimes does give us a clear direction but I’m starting to think that he gives clear direction not because that without it (i.e. the clear direction) He wouldn’t show up if we had mere faith alone (and no clear prophetic revelation) because somehow our faith wasn’t based on His “rhema” word… No, I believe He totally would show up! After all, the Word of God says everything is possible for him who believes. It’s about faith.

Of course, sometimes God does give us clear directions, but that’s probably just to encourage us in our faith and prod us on. Without them, we could achieve the same things if we could believe for it. That’s what the Bible says, after all! The people whom Jesus praised for their faith didn’t get their healing because they had some “rhema” word that said, “Go, my child, to Jesus and He will heal you.” On the contrary, they went by faith based on their knowledge of how good Jesus was and in response to what they have been hearing about how Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. God didn’t give them a word to go to Jesus! There was no supernatural leading for them. Just as in their day they heard reports about Jesus, in our day we go by the eternal Word of God.

These faith course assignments confirm the fact that it’s about faith. We move by faith. God will honor our faith. The fact that the MorningStar leaders decided that they’re going to challenge their students to believe God for some crazy stuff speaks volumes. In the first place, the leaders seem to believe that everyone can achieve the assignments. Of course, no condemnation if some groups don’t. But the assignments are there to be achieved. I’m sure God didn’t tell the leaders, “OK, for this upcoming faith course, I want you guys to get the students to do these assignments…” (If God did tell them, it was probably to tell the leaders about what kind of assignments would be at the students’ level of faith so more would be successful, rather than anything else) These assignments probably weren’t based on specific revelations from God, but the general principle in the Bible that everything is possible for him who believes. They could have come up with different crazy assignments. It wouldn’t have mattered because I’m sure the assignments weren’t based on supposed specific revelations from God of what God will do for these students.

Seeing what we can do for God from this paradigm and perspective is very liberating indeed! We don’t need specific revelation from God to step out in faith. We don’t need specific revelation to pray for this person on the street and expect them to be healed. We don’t need specific revelation from God to rebuke hurricanes and storms and expect our words to carry authority and power. No, the Word of God already tells us we ought to be healing the sick, using our authority and power (it’s God’s but He’s in us!) for good and it also says everything is possible for him who believes. Everything includes believing God for a two/three night stay in a hotel for free! If we believe for that and it doesn’t happen, does that mean we were wrong to believe for it because God didn’t give us a specific word to do so? I don’t think so. I think it just means we need to grow in our faith. As simple as that. No condemnation and let’s slowly grow in our faith.

But what about Jesus saying the He “can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19)? Doesn’t this seem to mean Jesus (and therefore us) need to wait for specific divine directions everytime before we heal people or do something that required faith? Steve Thompson addresses this issue in his message “The Bottom Line” in his “Developing a Sustainable Supernatural Life” series:

I’m going to go out on a limp a little bit here. But this idea that Jesus only did what He saw His Father do. The Scripture says in John that if all the miracles were written that the world itself could not contain the books of the things that Jesus did… My translation is that Jesus did a boatload of miracles… He only did this stuff three years or three and a half. And so in a 24 hour time frame He couldn’t have been having this instantaneous vision all the time to do what He saw His Father do. Here’s what I believe. I believe Jesus would see somebody sick and He would go, “Oh, I could see my Father healing him.” And he just walked up there and healed him. Not that He saw it in a vision. But He could see His Father doing that because He could see His Father’s heart. (23:55 onwards)

I know many charismatics do have an interpretation of the above passage (and others similar) that makes them wait for God on some specific direction or revelation or vision or word before they act. I think that’s the wrong interpretation of the Bible and it contradicts what faith is all about and the power and validity of the written Word of God. It also doesn’t take into account the fact that Christ is in us and that we’re one spirit with Him. We’re united to God. God will back us up whatever we do because we and God are one! Of course this can be abused, but the abuse of this relationship with God doesn’t mean this relationship doesn’t exist. God is more gracious than we can think. Sometimes people use their faith for stupid and wrong things and God still blesses them. Why? I won’t get into all this but I do think God is more gracious than we could ever think. That doesn’t mean we abuse our relationship with God. It ought to make us want to please Him more.

Anyway, for those who have been through MorningStar University’s faith courses, I would love to hear from you guys. I love to hear testimonies of God responding to faith as it encourages me. So do share your stories in the comments section. Thanks!

P.S.: I was told by Tim Jorgsensen (who wrote a very good book entitled Spirit Life Training) that MorningStar got the faith course idea from Trevor Yaxley’s “First Wave Army” training from Lifeway College in New Zealand, where Rick Joyner and Steve Thompson also teach.

The First Wave Army training is described in their website as a “one year catalyst for the call of God on your life designed to challenge you physically, spiritually and mentally, preparing for influence in all spheres in society.” I think the training activities they do are very interesting – and not your typical stuff included in a Bible College. It includes “physical outdoor training and activities designed to promote greater discipline and character”. And it seems that students have to wake up at 5:30am every morning! :)

Listening to Curry Blake and then reading Tim Jorgensen’s book (forwarded by Curry) has made me think about the relationship between the physical and spiritual, and the importance of physical discipline in the pursuit of the spiritual.

Here are some stuff I’ve been learning and thinking about recently (the past 6 months or so) in relation to my own personal spiritual life. They are mostly practical spiritual disciplines that I’ve been working on and that I hope to work on more in 2011. A lot of these (e.g. tongues, meditation – and the related visualization / imagination and declaration / confession – and fasting) have to do with releasing that perfection that is already in our spirits into our soul and body which I discussed briefly about in The place for “more” in the New Covenant – Part 2.

1) Tongues and Revelation Knowledge: I started speaking in tongues about 14 years ago when God changed my life in a Pentecostal church. However, I’d never used this gift that often, nor understood its importance until recently. Over the past 6 months or so, various people from various sources have pointed me to Dave Roberson’s ebook The Walk Of The Spirit – The Walk Of Power (for a better pdf format of the book – i.e. fewer pages with more words per page – go here). It’s supposed to be one of the most definitive books on tongues and has transformed the lives of many people. Dave also has an audio series that can be downloaded for free here. However, I’d recommend reading the book because unlike Andrew Wommack who gets straight to his point, Dave can be painfully slow at doing so! I know most people wouldn’t read the whole book, but I’d recommend everyone to read at least chapter 2. If you’re game for more, chapters 6 and 7 are good too.

Dave started his full-time ministry as a pretty clueless guy yet praying in tongues about 8 hours a day. After 3 months, God used him mightily (healing, prophecy) in one meeting. This is what Dave wrote about what the Holy Spirit told him regarding why the power of God came during this meeting:

Son, this anointing didn’t suddenly come upon you because it was predestined for this meeting from the foundations of the world…. It came upon you because you have uncovered a spiritual law: praying in other tongues for your personal edification. That law carries with it an ironclad guarantee to build you up on your most holy faith in your spirit – that part of you from which faith comes. You have found something you can do on purpose to edify yourself – as much as you want to, as long as you want to. Through praying in the Holy Ghost, you can build yourself up above a walk where your physical senses hold you in checkmate and convince you that God’s Word isn’t so, to a walk that is vibrant, Spirit-charged, and free in the Holy Ghost.

This book has impressed upon me the benefits of praying in tongues and has put in me a desire to know more about the benefits of tongues and pray more in tongues especially. Before reading this book, I would pray in tongues only occasionally – e.g. sing in tongues during worship with occasional short spurts of praying in tongues at other times lasting no more than a few seconds. Through this book, I’ve learned that praying in tongues is a simple way of edifying oneself on purpose and the more one does it, the more edified one will be. Now I am starting to pray in tongues at least an hour a day (sometimes while playing aloud Roberson’s Tongues for the Believer Bonus Prayer CD recording where he leads his congregation in over an hour of praying in tongues) and couple that with tuning in to receiving revelation.

One particular thing I learned from the book is the link between tongues and receiving revelation knowledge that I have seldom heard being taught. Andrew Wommack also has an excellent teaching on this topic called Revelation Knowledge. Besides getting into Dave Roberson’s stuff, I’m also looking into resources by two of Dave’s friends: Gary Carpenter and Jim Martin.

Speaking of the importance of praying in tongues and the link to revelation knowledge, John G. Lake actually has this to say:

I want to talk with the utmost frankness, and say to you that tongues have been to me the making of my ministry. It is that peculiar communication with God when God reveals to my soul the truth I utter to you day by day in my ministry. But that time of communication, with me, is mostly in the night. Many a time I climb out of bed, take my pencil and pad and jot down the beautiful things of God, the wonderful things of God, that He talks out in my spirit and reveals to my heart.

And here’s Kenneth E. Hagin on tongues:

I experienced the greatest miracles in my ministry after extended times of praying in other tongues. Not 15 minutes, not 30 minutes… I’m talking about one hour, two hours, three hours. Then I would hit a gusher…

2) Meditation, Visualization, Imagination and Levitation: I know renewal of the mind is key to one’s transformation (Rom. 12:2), but how does one renew one’s mind. Yes, there’s knowledge and I’ve been a huge reader and lover of knowledge for the past 15 years. But I know there’s more and that’s where meditation comes in. Linked with meditation is visualization or using one’s imagination – Richard Foster said that “the inner world of meditation is most easily entered through the door of the imagination”. Admittedly, I’ve been reading more about how these help and how one does these things than actually doing it, but I’m hoping to increase my time spent on meditation, visualization and imagination.

I’m aware of the sometimes negative connotation attached to these words within the Christian community. It can sound so new agey, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done in a Christian way. Three people whom I’ve been learning from (and will continue to learn from) in these areas are Mark Virkler, Peter Tan and Gregory Boyd.

One of my first encounters with visualization was from Mark Virkler’s great book on How To Hear God’s Voice, which I wrote about here. Peter Tan has tons of his materials here. He was actually an early mentor of Pastor Prince but now the New Creation people who know him are quite wary of him. His teachings and beliefs are quite unique and interesting, I have to say. One area he’s strong in is visions and visualization and I’m open to learn what I can from him. I hesitated to mention him here because he is a very controversial figure – I don’t want to say why publicly. But I trust there are no Sunday School attendees here :) but that those reading this are mature and discerning enough to take what they think is good and leave behind what they don’t agree with. While I do think I’m responsible for what I write here on this blog, I know most people who actually read all this stuff are adults, critical thinkers and mature enough so I don’t need to play the “nanny” role here. I believe in learning from everyone, but everything we hear and believe has to line up with the Word of God and we all are responsible for making sure that is so!

I had read of Gregory Boyd as an advocate of Open Theism before but never really read anything from him until I knew Curry Blake highly recommended his God At War book, which by the way is an awesome book. As I started to find out about his other books, I realized what an interesting writer he is. He’s a non-charismatic evangelical who has a very good mind – he did his doctorate at Princeton Theological Seminary and MDiv at Yale Divinity School. He’s written tons of books but three books have captured my attention in relation to the mind, visualization and imagination: Present Perfect (on contemplation), Seeing Is Believing (on imaginative prayer) and Escaping the Matrix (on the mind and neuro-science). I like to read about Right-Brain (the visual, intuitive) stuff from the academically-inclined Left-Brain dominant authors because they are the ones who can truly help Lefties understand and move in Right-Brain stuff. And it seems that Gregory Boyd, like Mark Virkler and Peter Tan, is such an author. Gregory Boyd’s Church has an awesome website where all his sermons and teachings can be downloaded for free. Here are some free stuff related to the above topics: Experiencing Jesus Workshop (based on his book Seeing Is Believing), Escaping the Matrix Conference and Animate (on imagination). By the way, while I’ve questioned the biblical basis of a lot of inner healing practices which seem to take a lot from Theophostic Counseling, I’ve become a bit more open to such practices having read Boyd, who seems to advocate pretty similar practices and provide a basis for them.

Andrew Wommack also has good teachings on Meditation (Meditate The Word) and Imagination [Hope and Imagination and You'll Do What You've Imagined (start from 16:37 onwards)].

Oh, about levitation. That was… just a joke :) Well, I do believe levitation by Christians is possible. Walking on water will become more common in future and also being translated from place to place (Acts 8:39-40) – check what Quantum Physicists are discovering regarding teleportation! I believe such miracles will be more common the closer we are to Jesus’ coming again! What’s preventing us from doing so now? Our unrenewed minds and the lack of revelation concerning these miraculous things. I take God’s Word seriously when He says everything is possible for him who believes. Our faith is the only thing preventing the “impossible”. Already, Christians have experienced the above things (levitation by God’s power, being translated from place to place, etc.) and I believe it’s only a matter of time before it’ll be commonplace for Christians to move in such miraculous powers. As we gradually hear more of such experiences, we’ll build our faith up to expect these things for ourselves, building upon those who have experienced them in the past.

3) Confession and Declaration: Related to meditation is confession and declaration. I’ve been listening to one of Curry Blake’s Dominion Bible Institute (DBI) course which stresses the importance of personalizing scriptures and confessing/declaring them out loud to renew one’s mind. This is something I’m hoping to implement more in my own spiritual life.

I think there are at least two purposes of confessing/declaring Scriptures: 1) renewing our minds 2) expressing faith. Many times we’re taught that doing so is an expression of faith. But we can confess and confess and yet not get what we confess! Why? Because we’re not confessing as an expression of faith. What we say doesn’t flow from faith within. Yet if we don’t have faith, not to worry as confessing God’s Word (which I think is a form of meditating over Scriptures) also helps us to renew our minds that we may have faith.

I think this is the reason why some people continue to confess Scriptures yet don’t get what they are confessing (e.g. healing) until after doing so for quite some time. The reason is because while they thought they were initially confessing and declaring out of faith, they actually didn’t have faith. But the confessing led to renewal of the mind which led to faith. And when they finally confessed out of faith, they got it! My hypothesis!

4) Prophecy, the Right Brain and the Mid Brain: Mark Virkler was the first person who alerted me to the fact that hearing God’s voice is easier for Right Brain dominant people because God’s voice comes in spontaneous thoughts. Right Brain dominant people are not so logical or analytical and because they deal better with the intuitive and the visual, they tune into God’s voice (which often comes in spontaneous thoughts or pictures) better.

Besides starting to practice visualizing – which would help in developing or activating my right brain, I hope! – I’m also in the midst of reading this very interesting book, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. While this groundbreaking book is for teaching Left Brain dominant people to draw by tapping on the Right Brain, I bought it to understand more about the Right Brain and how I can tap on it more. I can’t draw for nuts and I’m not intending to master drawing, but I believe the theoretical knowledge and practical exercises found in this book will aid me in functioning more with the right side of my brain.

I am also starting to step out more in prophecy. The Bible tells me to desire the prophetic gift (1 Cor. 14:1) and that’s what I’ve been doing. And along with the desire to move in this gift needs to come the practice of it. My desire to move in healing has made me step out to pray for everyone on the streets I can. I haven’t seen the kind of results I want, but that’s all part of stepping out in faithfulness and obedience if one wants to grow. The same for prophecy. If I want to grow in this area, I’ll have to be willing to look like a fool when the word I give is totally off. OK, I’d rather look like a fool when approaching people on the streets and getting rejected, or when praying for the sick and not seeing healing, than giving a prophetic word that is way off! Haha. But I need to start to do more of that! :) That’s the risk involved if one wants to grow and learn and improve.

I’m hoping to spend more time just being in tune to my spontaneous thoughts and pictures in my mind. Even during the day, I’m hoping to get more in tune with God and lean my ear towards hearing if He wants to say anything in any normal daily situations. I’m trying to implement the practice of asking God for a word (or words) on Sundays for the following week – then I can see how accurate my hearing was as the week passes. I’m slowly starting to try to get some prophecies and words of knowledge for friends and  see how accurate they are. I’m sure I’ll get lots wrong initially, but if I don’t try and learn and improve, I’ll never grow! I’ve had a tiny bit of interesting success so far, as well as I’m sure pretty bad failures :)

In relation to all this, recently I discovered the interesting concept of “midbrain activation”. The midbrain is supposed to manage the function of the right and left brain. Supposedly, as we grow older, the midbrain loses its capabilities and one side of the brain tends to dominate, resulting in an unbalanced use of the brain. There are now midbrain activation courses to train children (adults are probably too old to be trained in this area) to activate their midbrain. Supposedly, one result of activating one’s midbrain is the ability to do various activities blindfolded – e.g. sorting cards according to colors or numbers. My cell leader’s son was actually able to do these activities blindfolded after attending the course (more information for such courses in Singapore can be found here). Anyway, all this is interesting because it’s somehow related to the prophetic in a way. Recently I’ve been reflecting upon the idea that many so-called supernatural or spiritual things can actually be explained scientifically. I heard Curry Blake say something like the miracles of the New Testament can be explained by Quantum Physics. Not that such supernatural things are not of God, but perhaps God made it such that many supernatural things can actually be explained in a scientific manner – e.g. Quantum Physics explaining the power of words, etc. Some of God’s spiritual “laws” are in a sense also scientific “laws”.

5) Silence and Solitude: Moving in the prophetic and hearing God’s voice I think requires a lot of quieting one’s soul and being alone. At least in the beginning stages. For people used to the noise and distractions in this modern world, it really takes discipline to spend time alone with God in silence. I tend to always want to play worship music during my “quiet time” to prevent too much silence! Haha! It can be difficult to spend much time in total silence and solitude. But I’m trying to discipline myself to do so, especially in 2011. I’m hoping to intentionally spend regular times in total silence and solitude, tuning in to the Spirit. And also go for a silent retreat in a far away and quiet place for a few days or more about once or twice a year – something like what Blogpastor did which was organized by Listening Inn.

6) Fasting: I’m hoping to fast more in 2011. As I mentioned here, I’ve been learning to see fasting not as a discipline to get more power or to move God to act. Power is already within us; we just need to learn to get it out of us. God doesn’t need to move; we need to learn how to move. Some good quotes on fasting that reflect this view:

Fasting doesn’t get you power. Fasting gets you out of the way so power can flow easier. (Curry Blake)

Fasting does not change God or cause God to move. Fasting changes us and makes it easier for us to move. (Curry Blake)

Fasting is to get things out of the way that is preventing me from knowing I already have everything. (Rob Hotchkin)

Our fasting doesn’t move God; it moves us to a place where we can receive from God. (Dave Roberson)

One thing I’ve been noticing is that many men powerfully used by God actually spend a lot of time fasting (and praying in tongues, for that matter). And so I do hope to incorporate this spiritual discipline into my life more.

You aren’t in the process of trying to get anything from God. Everything you’ll ever need in the Christian life is already present in its entirety in your spirit!… The rest of your Christian life isn’t learning how to get from Him but rather discovering how to release what He’s already placed within! (Andrew Wommack, Spirit, Soul & Body, p. 9-10, 16)

Continuing on from here, one way of reconciling and understanding how one can have everything in Christ yet still need to ask for “more” is through understanding Andrew Wommack’s Spirit, Soul & Body model. I call it Wommack’s model not because it originated from him or because it’s unique to him, but because he’s one of the clearest exponents of it that I’ve come across – and I learned it from him. Wommack argues that when we’re born again, our spirits are perfected but not our soul and body. All the New Covenant truths are true even if we don’t feel it – because they are true of our spirits. We may not experience or feel the perfection because what we feel is normally in the realm of the body and soul, whereas the perfection is in our spirit. That’s why we still struggle (in our soul and body) a lot and don’t minister like Jesus, etc. To experience more perfection in our soul and body, we are to grow and bring these from the spirit and into the soulish and physical realms.

Therefore, the “more” and the “growing” is all about living out that perfection that is already in our spirits – i.e. bringing more of that perfection from our spirits into our soul and body. We’re not getting “more” of something we don’t already have in Christ in our spirit. We have everything in Christ already in our spirits. The “more” is in releasing more (of the everything we have in Christ in our spirit) into our soul and body. That’s why Mike Reyes’ response to me about the place for asking more was that the “more” is in “seeing” more, not in “getting” more – for we already have everything in Christ. But how do we “see” more (perfection, healing, joy, peace, etc.)? We’ll see more healings when we get more of the everything we have in our spirits to flow out of our spirits (through our minds – that’s why renewal of the mind is imperative – Rom. 12:2) to our bodies and into the other person’s body. Wommack’s tripartite model of spirit, soul and body is an interesting way of looking at it. As in all models, it may not be perfect, but could help in us understanding things. And it helps us understand what the “more” is. Whether one adopts Wommack’s model or not, one can’t deny that there is still a sense in which there’s “more” for Christians. Yes, we have everything in Christ, but there’s still somehow “more” for us – more of releasing or tapping upon this everything that’s already in us.

I’ll try in a subsequent post in this series to touch on how one can release and live out that perfection that is already in our spirits. While I like the theoretical stuff, I love the practical too and this (how one can live out that perfection) is something I’ve been reflecting upon and learning about the past few months – and trying to practice too!

P.S.: At this moment in my Christian life, I’m quite influenced by the above model and way of seeing things. Of course there’s so much to learn about this area (as in all areas!). I’m aware that there are different views out there in relation to this topic (which is closely related to Sanctification). In the first place, many theologians – e.g. the Reformed-Charismatic Wayne Grudem – would argue against viewing a person in a tripartite fashion. I’m sure that different views result in different applications and practices for the Christian and so it’s important to get one’s understanding right. I’m certainly no expert in this area, nor have I reflected enough on this. But I think in general Scripture does point to the New Covenant truths of having everything in Christ, yet also points to the need for “more” in a Christian’s life. And I think Wommack’s model is helpful when trying to understand how to reconcile the two.

Three church associations that have been influential in my Christian life and thinking are Vineyard, Sovereign Grace Ministries and Newfrontiers. I first became familiar with Vineyard (in the mid 1990s when God changed my life) through their worship songs (Vineyard were “in” before Hillsong came along!) and also the Toronto Blessing (the Toronto Airport church was initially a Vineyard church). John Wimber (one of their founders) was a giant in Charismatic Christianity and I was really attracted to their balance of Word and Spirit – as well as their heart for the poor. I came to know Sovereign Grace in the late 1990s when they were still called PDI – see here and here. What attracted me to them was the fact that they were both Reformed in beliefs, yet Charismatic in practice. At that time, I was very attracted to the Reformed / Calvinistic tradition because of their solid teachings. I considered myself Reformed and Charismatic then and Sovereign Grace / PDI was really at the forefront of this growing “movement”. I probably know the least about Newfrontiers but my impression over the years (for various reasons) has been that it’s a church association that’s strong in both the Word and the Spirit. All three have some Reformed influences – the most being Sovereign Grace Ministries. I’ve actually moved away from the Reformed tradition, but understanding this rich heritage has helped me a great deal in terms of my understanding of Scripture. Not that I agree with a lot of the distinctives of the Reformed tradition, but it’s given me a great foundation to build on.

Right now, I don’t really follow much of Sovereign Grace Ministries because I think it’s too Reformed and not very charismatic at all – which I think is sad. They also seem to have a lot of problems with control and authoritarianism. However, I love their cross-centeredness and their music is pretty good in terms of having meaningful and biblical lyrics. As for Vineyard, I still greatly respect them and they have a lot of good resources and a good balanced charismatic heritage to learn from. I find myself still learning from this very broad “tradition” and my only regret is that they don’t have more resources available for free on the internet.

But I want to talk here a bit about Newfrontiers. Admittedly, I don’t know a lot. But I’ve always had this strong impression that if you compare UK Christianity with American Christianity, UK Christianity somehow is more balanced in terms of Word and Spirit. I think this is partly to do with the rich theological heritage in that part of the world. So you actually get a lot of charismatics that are very well-grounded in the Word and aware of various historical traditions, which I think is the strength of Newfrontiers. In America and elsewhere, you get lots of charismatics without any familiarity with past Christian movements to build on and that’s why many go astray so easily or they focus on the wrong things – not so much the Vineyard, but more so for a lot of independent charismatics. In the UK, many charismatics appreciate the past and want to build on it and thus they are somehow better able to combine Word and Spirit. After all, this is the place that gave us people like Martyn Lloyd-Jones and RT Kendall, respected leaders that are strong teachers of the Word of God yet open to the Spirit.

I’ve listened to a lot of Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack, Bill Johnson and Curry Blake over the past few years. I’m hoping to complement all these charismatic teachings with listening to (and reading) some teachings that can be found free at Newfrontiers’ Resources page – especially their take on different aspects of charismatic Christianity and other stuff that I haven’t been focusing a lot on (I’ve been focusing on healing a lot the past few years, and while that’s an important element of God’s Kingdom, there are other things to be learned). They have lots of good resources there – browse the past events for many interesting teachings. To get a closer look at where Newfrontiers is coming from, look at their Book Store and you’ll see that while they sell books by prominent Charismatic leaders like Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle and Mahesh Chadva, they also sell lots of books by good non-charismatic evangelical leader like John Piper, DA Carson, Tim Keller, etc. I think that kind of balance is awesome! I don’t necessarily agree with John Piper and DA Carson on a lot of things, but I respect them and I think there are things to learn from them. I wouldn’t go near what they have to say regarding charismatic beliefs like healing, but I do believe God has granted them wisdom in other areas – and most definitely God has not deposited all wisdom and revelation only in the charismatic Christian world!

While I’m pretty independent in my thinking, love learning from many individual ministers and am very open to new teachings and revelations, I also do believe in learning from communities and groups like Newfrontiers and Vineyard. You know you can’t go too far wrong with these two established groups – and in fact, you can learn a lot from them.

Admittedly, with all groups, there’s generally less freedom to be radical in one’s beliefs and there’s that need to conform. That could be bad. Tradition can be limiting and I don’t want to accept something just because many people have always believed in it that way. For example, my view on healing at the moment is more radical and I’m sure would be different from Newfrontiers and Vineyard. On the other hand, I think it’s important not to go at it too much alone (just me and the Holy Spirit, thank you very much!) or think that we can survive without the community of believers and learning from the past or other traditions in the present. In my opinion, this could be equally as dangerous as being limited by tradition. I believe God gives truth to community and there’s safety there. This is not to say we are to be beholden to what others think, but God is surely at work in communities and there is much we can learn from different ones. Let us learn from different groups and traditions without being limited by them.

OK, the title of this post is a bit corny. What I’m trying to get at is simply that I think those who want to move in healing should learn from Curry Blake before going on to Bill Johnson. I love both people and both people have blessed me and continue to bless me in my journey. However, there are clearly slight differences in teachings and emphases between the two that make me say that one should listen to Curry’s 19 series Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training before reading or listening to Bill Johnson. This is not to say that one is better than the other. At this moment of my journey, I feel both complement each other and it’s not an either-or thing. I’m still learning from both and reflecting upon the implications of both views. But I do feel that Curry’s teachings on healing are more foundational and will inspire greater faith to actually step out and start one’s practical healing journey.

I’ve mentioned a few times already on this blog that I was introduced to Bill Johnson by my cousin (based in Australia) in 2008. Reading Bill and knowing what had been going on in his ministry got me interested in healing. However, it was only in 2010 when I encountered Curry Blake’s teachings that my journey accelerated and I started to pray for the sick. Before that, I read almost all of Bill’s books and I listened to tons of his messages but I still felt I was not yet ready. I thought I would be one day. But I felt I still needed to get closer to God and be led more by His Spirit. However, a few months after first getting to know Curry’s teachings and getting to know others greatly influenced by them, I was praying for people. I still have a long way to go but Curry’s teachings got me started and stepping out and that’s very important. I place a high value on stepping out and practicing because progress and growth accelerates the moment one steps out.

My cousin with whom I wasn’t really in contact during this time dropped me a message recently which confirmed my experience. He wrote:

One of my friends recently introduced me to Curry Blake’s stuff, and I got his DHT and I have been going through it when I do get time. (Work has really been limiting me exploring all this stuff further). What I like about Curry Blake’s stuff is how rooted he is in the Word, and focusing on the fact that you have Jesus and the Holy Spirit and therefore you can do the stuff by virtual of who you are and what you have, and that healing people is your duty. If you don’t heal the sick, you are actually being disobedient!! This point was not as clear to me (to me anyway) when I was going through stuff by Bill Johnson/Todd Bentley/Randy Clark and co., when there was more of a focus on words of knowledge, and healing by the manifest power of God/word of knowledge, rather than by raw faith. This wrongly gave myself and my friends an excuse when we went out on a Treasure hunt, and we went by a person limping etc, to chicken out and not pray for them. We would think –> God gave us a word for a shoulder, not a leg, therefore it must not be the “right timing” for God to heal them, rather than stepping out in faith, and correctly thinking that God wants everyone healed all the time, at any place, as he has already commanded us to go out and heal the sick.

Like my cousin said, Curry’s focus is on healing by raw faith (and authority) and obedience to the Word (our commission). I think that should be the foundation for healing if we’re to get ordinary Christians involved. Words of Knowledge (WOK) and the manifest presence/power  of God are all awesome and aids healing greatly, but not everyone is going to move like that in the beginning. Too much focus on WOK and one may feel that they ought not to pray for the sick unless they have a WOK about it. And when you hear wonderful testimonies by those influenced by Bill that include specific leadings of the Spirit through WOK and visions, etc., that result in amazing healings, you kind of wonder whether you can actually pray for the sick and get them healed since you know you don’t get those sorts of experiences. This is how my cousin felt (at least in relation to WOK) and this is also how I felt. Sure, I believed that I ought to be healing the sick, but because I didn’t have such amazing spiritual experiences and leadings, I thought I wasn’t ready yet. That’s why I never stepped out for years.

Let me be clear. I don’t think Bill actually says you shouldn’t pray for the sick unless you have a WOK or leading of the Spirit, or that you shouldn’t expect healing unless you have all that. In fact, I think he would probably believe the opposite – that you should pray for the sick and expect them to be healed whether or not you have a WOK or leading. For example, in a recent sermon (10th October 2010) entitled Being a Bride, Bill said:

So many times people would just tell me they were waiting on the Lord. It sounds spiritual but its usually a laziness that comes out of the absence of faith… The Apostle Paul had a heart for Asia. So the book of Acts tells us that he was going to Asia and the angel of the Lord stopped him and said, “You’re not to go there”. So he went, “Alright, I’ll go to Bithynia.” So he starts to go to Bethynia and the Lord stops him and says, “You’re not to go there”. What does that tell you? It tells you he’s responding to the word that said, “Go”. Many people won’t go till God visits them. How much more does He have to do to make it clear what we’re supposed to do with our lives. I can tell you out of experience there are many times I have to operate out of a gift, not out of the inspiration for a moment. It’s a raw obedience to a call. The Word of the Lord x amount of years ago was this. I feel no anointing, no special inspiration for the moment. But in pursuing His will out of obedience to His declared Word as revealed in Scripture, in this pursuing of the Word comes the presence, the inspiration, the power, the anointing. Oftentimes He affirms those acts of obedience just because we say, “Yes”. We’re basically saying to Him, “You don’t need to give me goosebumps all along the way for me to obey. I will obey you regardless.” (12:50 onwards)

In the above, he’s very similar to Curry in recognizing that we don’t need a leading of the Spirit to step out to pray for the sick – simply because we ought to do it in obedience to the declared Word of God (although I dunno what he meant about him having to operate out of a “gift”). However, this is a very recent sermon and I’m not sure if he’s saying all this to correct the misimpressions he’s given in the past through his past sermons. Maybe or maybe not. I think perhaps he’s always believed the above, but he’s also touched a lot on things in relation to healing like the prophetic and the presence of God. Therefore, while he does believe in the above, the important point I’m trying to make here is that because a lot of the healings in his ministry and those influenced by him come as a result of WOK or some specific leading, many people get the misimpression that one ought to experience those things as normal before one can go out healing the sick with confidence.

On the other hand, no one can listen to Curry and not feel that we should be healing everyone that is sick. Bill moves strongly in the prophetic but Curry doesn’t. Curry goes by the Word of God. He wouldn’t rule out the prophetic – he just doesn’t flow strongly in it and doesn’t depend on it to get him to pray for the sick or to get him to expect healing when praying for the sick. Moving in the prophetic is definitely helpful and it’ll aid one’s healing ministry dramatically I’m sure. The three down sides I think of focusing too much on the prophetic or the tangible presence of God in relation to healing are:

1. There could be a tendency for those moving strongly in healing through the prophetic or the tangible presence of God to expect healing when praying for the sick only when directly led by God. Or even worse, to pray for healing of the sick only when directly led by God.
2. Even if such people still pray for every sick person (and not only for those for whom they have a leading), because they are so used to healing through the prophetic or tangible presence of God and focus so much on that, they may subconsciously lower their level of expectation of healing when they pray for healing of a person without that tangible presence or leading of the Spirit. For example, Roger Sapp shares here how “most of the healings I had… were related to the WOK. I would get a WOK… and then my expectation would be raised… If I didn’t have a WOK, I didn’t really have much expectation in the area of healing.” I believe WOK is used by God to aid the healer or the recipient’s faith. However, an over-reliance of WOK could actually result in the healer actually lowering his/her faith in the absence of WOK.
3. There could be a tendency for believers who don’t move in the prophetic or experience regularly the tangible presence of God to not step out or not pray for healing with expectation because they feel that they need such experiences to pray for healing or to expect a healing.

Please don’t get me wrong. If I could regularly attend any Church in the world to learn from them, it would be Bethel (Bill’s church). I have so much to learn from him and his church. And I would love to attend Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) one day too. But I believe that foundation-wise, Curry’s teachings are much better – and I think a bit more grounded in the Word.

Listen to both, but listen to Curry first. Then step out and start praying for the sick. Continue to listen to Curry and also learn from Bill and others. I believe that as you proceed on your journey, you’ll have lots to learn from Bill. The prophetic and hosting the presence of God are all good stuff (and trust me, I desperately want a more intimate relationship with God and to experience more of the prophetic and His tangible presence), but I don’t think they should ever be the foundation or the predominant emphasis of a healing ministry. In fact, I will also add that these should also never be the foundation or the predominant emphasis of the Christian life in general because we’re called to live by faith, and not by sight or experience. I may be wrong, but that’s where I am at this moment in my journey.

What i am calling for, what I believe God is inviting us into, is simply what has been achieved for us by Christ at the cross. More, not something over and above the cross, not an optional extra or a reward for good behavior, but the ongoing reception of the benefits of the cross.

…The “more” is merely an appropriation by us through the application of the Spirit of what was achieved by Christ at Calvary. We have everything in Christ. There is no more to be given, but there is more to be taken.

(Simon Ponsonby, More: How You Can Have More of the Spirit When You Already Have Everything in Christ, p. 26, 61)

Since encountering Curry Blake’s teachings on healing, I’ve been reflecting upon the tension between what Bill Johnson and Co. emphasizes regarding ministering healing and what Curry Blake emphasizes. I explored this difference in my post Two Ways To Minister where I contrasted 1) “Praying for more of God (experiencing more of Him, His touch, His anointing, His leading) in order to be more effective to do His Kingdom work” with 2) “Knowing what you already have in Christ by faith (His anointing, His presence, etc.) and thus going out to do the work of the Kingdom”. My conclusion in that post was that both approaches to ministry aren’t mutually exclusive but that the 2nd approach should be the foundation for ministering healing.

In this series, I want to be a bit more nuanced and explain how the above two approaches to ministering healing can be seen as complementary, rather than mutually exclusive, and at the same tackle the issue of the place of “more” in the New Covenant.

The importance of understanding the New Covenant

I’m a huge believer in the importance of viewing things from a New Covenant perspective. Certainly, there has been a change in the way things are from the Old to the New Covenant and the Bible clearly states that this change extends to the kind of people we are now (as compared to those in the Old Covenant) and what we have now (as compared to what saints living in the Old Covenant had). The New Covenant is called “new” for a reason – because something new has happened! Some things have changed.

While Joseph Prince is a New Covenant preacher par excellence and I’ve learned tons from him, I first encountered the importance of understanding the New Covenant through what people call Biblical Theology (or Redemptive-Historical Hermeneutics). As I mentioned a bit here, Biblical Theology has taught me the importance of understanding each passage of Scripture in the context of where it is in the progressive history of salvation. Wikipedia defines Biblical Theology as studying

the Bible from the perspective of understanding the progressive history of God revealing Himself to humanity following the Fall and throughout the Old Testament and New Testament.

The key here is understanding “progressive history”. Any doctrine or practice we see that may be relevant and essential to people thousands of years before Jesus’ first coming may not be applicable to us today. In fact, even some things that occurred during Jesus’ ministry and shortly after he resurrected (but before the Baptism in the Holy Spirit came for the believers) may not even be applicable to us as Christians living post-Pentecost. All this is because history is progressing and God relates to people differently at different stages of His salvation story. We all know that we no longer kill bulls and goats for forgiveness of sins because Jesus has come and sacrificed Himself on the cross. But do we also realize that other practices in the Old Covenant are no longer applicable and relevant to us Christians in the New Covenant?

It’s thus important to understand what’s “new” in the New Covenant and not to blindly assume that Old Covenant models of doctrines and practices apply to us believers in the New Covenant just because they are in the Bible. What we may see as godly practices of saints in the Old Covenant may not be something God wants us to imitate in the New Covenant simply because things have changed!

The New Covenant in relation to ministering healing

One thing Curry Blake emphasizes a lot in relation to ministering healing is the New Covenant. As New Covenant believers (as opposed to Old Covenant saints), we are new creations who have everything already in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17, 2 Pet. 1:4, 1 Cor. 6:17, Col. 2:10, Eph. 1:3, Eph. 2:6, 1 John 2:27, etc.) so our focus should be on understanding this new identity and going out to heal the sick. We shouldn’t spend time waiting on God for “more” as if we don’t already have everything already in Christ. Rather, the truth is that we have everything in Christ and lack nothing and therefore we don’t have to wait on God but God is waiting on us to move. We shouldn’t be praying for revival – we should go out and create revival because we are revival. We don’t need to pray for breakthroughs or “pray through” to get something because Jesus has already provided the breakthrough on the cross.

The Old Covenant mindset, which a lot of charismatic teachings and practices are based on, is all about not having enough, about needing something more, about getting something. It is focused a lot on getting from God because we don’t already have – be it forgiveness of sins, His presence, His anointing or power or whatever. On the other hand, the New Covenant mindset is about understanding we have everything in Christ and going out with that confidence to do the works of the kingdom.

The above understanding of the New Covenant in relation to ministering healing that Curry teaches is what has transformed and challenged many believers. It’s been transformational because a lot of us were still operating under an Old Covenant mindset and thinking as Old Covenant people. Encountering Curry’s teachings forced us to come face on with the truth that as New Covenant believers we actually do have everything already in Christ (anointing and authority to heal the sick, the presence of God always with us, identity of being a son of God, etc.). And understanding all this has given us the confidence and faith to go out and lay hands on everybody we can!

The above is all good. These New Covenant truths have transformed my life and caused me to step out. Yet throughout all this, I’ve been reflecting: is there a place for more? Surely, while we all have Christ in us, we don’t minister much like Christ at all! There seems to be something lacking as we certainly don’t see results like Christ! As Simon Ponsonby quoted Vaughan Roberts in his book mentioned above:

In Christ we have everything, but manifestly we aren’t living in light of all we’ve received in Christ. (p. 26)

Biblical support for “more” in the New Covenant

So I’ve been thinking about the biblical support for “more” in the New Covenant the past few months – especially in the light of encountering different healing ministries (some of which still preach about “more”) as mentioned in the beginning of this post. Admittedly, some ministries preach “more” from an Old Covenant mindset that shouldn’t be applicable to New Covenant Christians. Others may speak of “more” in such a way that I’m not sure what to think of it (biblical or not?, Old Covenant or New Covenant?, etc. – more about this kind of “more” in future posts!) So I thought of doing a bit of my own study on the “more” in the New Covenant. Below are some points based on Paul’s letters to the Ephesians, Colossians and Corinthians.

1) While Colossians 2:10 says we “have been given fullness in Christ”, Paul in Colossians 1:9-11 prays for more knowledge, wisdom, understanding and power:

…we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding… being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might…

2) Similarly, while Ephesians 1:23 says that the Church is the “fullness”of Christ, Paul in Ephesians 1:17-19 prays for wisdom, revelation and knowledge (of many things!):

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit (or a spirit) of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength,

3) In Ephesians 3:16-19, Paul prays for strengthening of the inner being and a greater knowledge/experience of God’s love – so that “you might be filled with all the fullness of God”:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

So obviously, while the Church is the fullness of Christ (Eph. 1:23) and we have been given fullness in Christ (Col. 2:10), there’s still a need and prayer to “be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19, KJV) or to

be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]! (Eph. 3:19, Amplified).

Hmmm…kinda sounds like a cry for “More of you, God!” doesn’t seem so out of place after all!

4) The next verse (Eph. 3:20) mentions a truth commonly declared to encourage us that God can do impossible and amazing things (“…who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”). It is interesting to note that this truth seems to hinge on how much His power is at work within us – “according to his power that is at work within us”. Perhaps that’s why Paul prays in Ephesians 1:9 that we may know “his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Could it be that we do need more knowledge (and experience) of His power in order to see more of His amazing acts?

5) Beyond his prayers above, Paul exhorts us in 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 14:1 to desire spiritual gifts. While we’ve been “blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph. 1:3), we are still told to desire spiritual gifts!

6) And in Ephesians 5:18, we are told to be filled with the Spirit – which implies not a one time filling, but a continuous filling of the Spirit. As Simon Ponsonby writes,

…the fact that in Acts we see the same people filled with the Spirit successively and manifestly (Acts 2:1-4; 4:8, 31; 13:9), and the fact that we see Paul’s prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3 and Colossians 1 for the Christians to know a deeper, richer, fuller experience by the Spirit, all rather takes the steam out of those who point to having “got it all”… Paul makes it abundantly clear: There is abundantly more! (p. 169)

Therefore, while there are passages that speak of having everything already in Christ, there is clearly a place to ask for “more”: more knowledge, power, wisdom, understanding, revelation, strengthening of the inner man, experience of God’s love, fullness of God, filling of the Spirit (or a deepening experience of God’s Spirit) and spiritual gifts. How do we reconcile all this? I’m not totally sure but I intend to give it a try in this series of posts.

I have to admit that some parts of the prayers of Paul above are quite difficult to understand and interpret. You can go to many commentaries and they’ll probably interpret various phrases differently. Nevertheless, while I may not fully understand what the above passages that speak of “more” mean, nor fully understand how one can be perfect and have everything in Christ yet still need to ask for “more”, I’ve been praying through those passages for myself. Those are not Old Covenant passages that we can easily dismiss, but are New Covenant prayers and exhortations that apply to New Covenant Christians.

A few weeks ago, some friends and I tried to raise the dead. I’m amazed even as I write this. What audacity we had in thinking we could raise the dead. I mean, just thinking about this was totally out of my paradigm a few months back, let alone actually going for it. And yet this group of foolish believers desire to take God at His Word and believe that Matthew 10:8′s call to “raise the dead” is something that applies to us. Curry Blake has got to take a large part of the blame for such foolish thoughts and actions on our part, since his teachings have challenged us to obey the plain meaning of Scripture and believe that we too are called to raise the dead.

Here’s the story. I got to know this person (A) through my blog about two months ago. We met for the first time at Mike Reyes’ meeting, after which three friends and I went to A’s place to pray for a family member who was in a bad state – cancer, tumor, etc. We prayed for about 30 minutes and saw improvement. Some of us came back 2 other times to pray for him but soon the person suddenly died. Having also been influenced by Curry’s teachings, A called us to raise the dead. Some of us went and prayed to raise the dead for about 3-4 hours on the day of the death and 1-2 hours the next day. We still continued to believe even as we went to the wake and the service.

How exactly did we pray to raise the dead? What exactly did we do and say for the many hours? Well, none of us had ever done this before and maybe what we did wasn’t correct, but we did what we would do with a sick person. I’m still pondering over short faith-filled prayers vs. continued long prayers and the tension between aggressiveness and rest. For example, do we just pray a short prayer of faith and believe that the person will be healed or raised from the dead eventually, or do we continue to pray until the person is healed on the spot and the person rises from the dead there and then? If we pray for a long time, is that an expression of a lack of faith and trying to “work” for the healing (thus not “resting” in the finished work), or is praying a long time good because it expresses the aggressiveness needed to see the healing (raising from the dead) manifest?

Anyway, we declared the truth of God over the person, we sang and worshiped God, we spoke to the person to wake up and arise as Jesus did in Scriptures and we laid hands on the body and imparted life. When the casket guy was on the way to pick up the body, the body had already been dead for about 24 hours by then. He told us that the body should normally be taken away for embalming within a few hours of death and because it’s been such a long time after death, we had to be careful of bacteria from decomposition of the body. Well, that advice came a bit too late because we had already laid hands on the body for many hours. Laying hands on a dead body can be a bit freaky but we believed Romans 8:2 like John G. Lake – not only that nothing would harm us but also that the Spirit in us that gives life would be imparted to the dead body as we laid hands.

When we first decided to raise the dead, we actually faced some difficulty dealing with the Christian casket services. We needed a registered doctor to certify the death so that the police would leave the place and we could get some time to pray to raise the dead. As Curry mentioned, never allow the body to be taken to the mortuary because then you don’t get to pray much there. Anyway, the casket services normally provide both the doctor certifying the death and the rest of the arrangements needed (coffin, wake, funeral, etc.). When I helped to call a Christian casket service to ask if we could just get them to send the doctor to certify the death because we believed that we would not need the other services (why would you need the other services if the dead is raised?), they couldn’t understand me at all and continued speaking to me as if I were talking nonsense. I got so frustrated with trying to explain that we’re Christians and we believe in raising the dead because they responded pretty much ignoring what I’d said. Yes, a pretty foreign concept it is, raising the dead. You can’t blame them because that would have been a foreign concept to me too a few months back. The fact that raising the dead is a foreign concept for almost all Christians today shows how far we’ve fallen from the norm of the Bible and early Christianity.

Well, the person didn’t wake up despite hours of prayers but even during the wake service, we would still hold on to him being raised. When the Christian minister mentioned that this person was called to the Lord and acted as if it was over, we would just quietly reject that. When we viewed the body, we spoke to the person to wake up and arise, as Jesus did. Why accept defeat when it’s not over yet? Be it unto us according to our faith.

So what happened in the end? The dead person did not rise up. Why not? I dunno. Our lack of faith or our unbelief? Most probably. What I do know is that even as I laid hands on a dead person for hours, smelling the stench of death, I knew it’s not God’s will that a person dies this way. It brings no glory to God and it’s sickening. Sickness and death through sickness is sickening and I hate it. And I know God hates it too. Yes, we all have to die if the Lord tarries, but not this way.

I know thinking this way is pretty radical. Thinking we should be raising the dead is radical. Thinking that no Christian should die of sickness is radical. But I believe the only reason it’s radical is because of our Christian traditions based on a form of powerless Christianity. I can’t believe that if I so hate sickness and death, Daddy up there thinks any differently. The compassion for the sick and the hatred towards sickness did not originate from you or me, as if we’re somehow more compassionate than God. It’s the Christ in us who so hates sickness and disease and who has compassion for those facing it. It’s the mind of Christ in me that cannot accept all this.

“Yes, God hates sickness and disease but that’s only going to be fully eradicated only when Jesus returns again”, some may argue. Yes, total eradication will occur then but the only reason why the sick are not being healed and the dead are not being raised now regularly is because we’re not doing it – not because God doesn’t want to do it through us NOW! Our prayer and desire ought to be that God’s Kingdom come on this earth NOW! That’s God’s desire too. And I believe we’ll see more and more dead being raised over the next few decades before Jesus returns. And I’m going to be part of raising the dead. I have absolutely no doubt about that…

P.S.: I’m getting in touch with The Dead Raising Team to see what they can teach us.

Healing Resources: I’ve added a page (see the menu above) on Healing Resources for those interested in some resources which have helped me (and continue to do so)  in my journey into healing. I’ll be updating the page regularly as I come across more good resources on healing.

Singaporeans interested in healing: There’s also a healing forum for Singaporeans or those living in Singapore – Singapore Healing Forum – to gather and discuss things related to healing. Regular meetings on studying and practicing healing on the streets would be organized and advertised in the forum here. We welcome you to register at the forum, get involved in the discussions, get to know other Singaporeans and learn with the rest of us :)

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them. (Henry David Thoreau)

I’m an unashamed idealist. I’ve written about Christianity and idealism as it deals with poverty and missions and also tons of stuff on poverty which are very idealistic and radical. And as I start to reflect upon what got me interested in healing and why Curry Blake’s teachings on healing have impacted me so much, I’ve come to realize it’s because Curry is very idealistic in his teachings on healing. That is, he presents the ideals from the Bible and says we should aspire to do healing like how it’s done in the Bible and that we can do healing like how it’s done in the Bible. No compromises or watering down – just the ideal Bible standard.

As for other teachings on healing, the high standards of the kind of healings we see in the Bible tend to be watered down. Complex theology is created because of failures in healing and real life experiences. The end result is that we’re being told that healing can only be done consistently by some specially anointed Christians or that there are tons of conditions if people want to get healed (or if we want to heal people) and tons of reasons why they don’t get healed, etc. Such a complicated healing theology, tempered too much by real life experiences rather than drawing solely from the eternal Word of God, never made me interested in healing. It’s too tough, too complex and not worth my time. I’ll just leave it to the experts, thank-you-very-much!

I remember one day going to one of the healing rooms in Singapore. I was told that the team praying for healing would first get the person’s information and then have a time of prayer before inviting the person into the room. The prayer would be a time to be sensitive to the Spirit to listen for His directions. Upon hearing this example of how healing is done, I was just reaffirmed in my thinking that this healing business is not for me but for super spiritual Christians who can hear God so easily.

Now, I’m not dissing the prophetic and want to move more in the area of the prophetic – and I think getting Words from God has its place in relation to healing. But it never occurred to me until I heard Curry that Jesus never ministered like that. Now as I go through the Gospels and Acts and study how Jesus and the early Christians moved in healing, I see how simple it all is. That’s the standard in the Bible.

Jesus never dug into a person’s past to see if there’s any unforgiveness in the person’s life preventing the healing. Never in any healing passage in Scriptures was unforgiveness or even sin a barrier to healing. It’s never mentioned (or at least seldom mentioned, depending on your interpretation) in the Bible that Jesus or the early Christians who healed had to first listen for God’s direction or strategy – or be “led by the Spirit” – on how to perform the healing. Rather, most cases of healing were very simple and straightforward and less spiritual than many make it out to be. Many times Jesus healed with a few words, not long prayers – let alone long counseling sessions.

Now, I’m not saying that the common healing methodology doesn’t have results. They do as I’ve heard a lot of testimonies (e.g. how getting the person to release forgiveness resulted in physical healing) which seem to affirm their healing theology. But having results doesn’t necessarily reflect that their way of approaching healing is right. God doesn’t bless us only if we get everything right. If not, no one would be blessed. Also, certain ways of doing things may be good – but for different reasons claimed by the common healing methodology. Lastly, while experiences are important, we should ultimately go by God’s Word, not our experiences.

I’m still learning and don’t have the results that many people who adopt the common healing methodology have so I’m careful not to speak so much. I believe in learning from as many people as I can. But one thing I also do strongly believe in is not compromising on the standards of the kind of healing set by Jesus and the early Christians. The Word has priority over our experiences and our experiences have to rise up to the level of the Word of God – and not the other way round!

Jesus and the early Christians in Scriptures healed almost everyone that they prayed for instantly. Even those that weren’t healed instantly were healed within hours or maybe days – definitely not weeks or months.

Jesus healed everyone who came to Him – there was no barrier that prevented a person’s healing like sin or unforgiveness or whatever. If there’s any condition for healing, it’s having faith and/or not having unbelief/doubt and this condition is never seen as something difficult to attain. Someone has to have faith and not always the person being prayed for. In Scriptures, sometimes it’s the person praying or the friend/s of the person being prayed for. Therefore, the focus on believing shouldn’t always be placed upon the person being prayed for, which seems to be the focus of most healing ministries. In fact, let me go further and say that there are places in the Bible where Jesus told his disciples to heal the sick and lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. This implies that the authority/power and responsibility for the healing rest upon the believer praying, and not the person with the sickness being prayed for. This is backed up by the times when Jesus and His disciples actually initiated healing the sick – and not just healing only those who came to them in faith. Therefore, the focus of most healing ministries on the faith of the receiving party, in my opinion, doesn’t totally reflect how healing was done by Jesus and His disciples.

Jesus is our standard. In fact, He said we’ll be doing greater works than He did. Whatever that means, it surely implies that we can do at least what He could do. Yet of course that’s not what we see nowadays.

One book on healing I really appreciate is Roger Sapp’s Performing Miracles and Healing* which can be purchased at his website All Nations Ministries. Unlike many books on healing I’ve read, the huge bulk of this book is just going through all the passages that mention Jesus’ and the early Christians’ general and specific healings. You’d think that would be a brilliant idea, wouldn’t you – having a book on healing that just goes through all the passages on healing. I mean, to learn about healing, shouldn’t we be intensively studying Jesus’ and His disciples’ healings? Yet this is the only book I know that actually spends the bulk of space on these important passages. The findings are startling. Like what I mentioned above, almost all healings were instant, Jesus healed everyone who came to Him, there was no unforgiveness or sin that Jesus had to deal with before healing the sick, etc.

That’s our standard!

Certainly I’m not there yet. Nor do I know anyone who has that kind of success that Jesus had. But I’m not settling for anything less than Jesus’ standard. I won’t be satisfied till I see that kind of success. I’m not being greedy nor do I have too high an opinion of myself – I’m just claiming what ought to be mine, and yours too if you so desire. If others are satisfied by a lesser standard, that’s fine by me – but I won’t be. I’ll learn from all the great men of God on healing, but I’ll not be limited by them. The Word of God sets my standard.

Yes, I’m idealistic because I don’t believe in allowing human wisdom and experiences to temper the ideals set by the Bible. The Bible says it and I believe it and I want to learn and grow until what’s promised in the Word takes place in my life.

* I don’t agree with everything Roger says or his emphasis on the faith of the person to receive healing, but it’s a great book nevertheless. Besides studying the passages where Jesus and His disciples healed (which his book is great for), I think it’d be good to study Jesus’ commission to His disciples (e.g. Mark 16, Matthew 10, Luke 10) too which seems to place more responsibility on His disciples to heal the sick than on the sick to have faith.