The Australian national co-ordinator of JGLM, Enzo De Vincentis, will be in Singapore (or around this area) from around 16 to 25th March 2012 or so. As my readers know, I’ve been hugely impacted by Curry Blake and JGLM and I’ve written a lot of blog posts on the teachings by Curry Blake (Overseer of the John G. Lake Ministries) and JGLM. It’s been 1.5 years since I first heard the 19 mp3 series Divine Healing Technician (DHT) by Curry Blake which transformed my thinking on (and practice of) healing and my life. I’m a huge believer of drawing from different people and not following just one and I’ve drawn from many other teachers / practitioners when it comes to healing – people like Joseph Prince, Roger Sapp, Andrew Wommack and Bill Johnson. But if I had to choose one message on healing, the choice would be easy. It would be by Curry Blake and JGLM. When it comes to healing, I do feel his message is the most biblical one. If you want to know why, you can read my previous posts like Why You Should Eat Your Curry (Blake) Before Paying The Bill (Johnson), Bruce Latshaw On Vineyard’s vs. John G. Lake’s Healing Model, Two ways to minister? – Part 1, Curry Blake of John G. Lake Ministries and Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training course – Part 1.

The reason why Curry’s and JGLM’s healing message has impacted me so much is because it’s different. I’ve been around charismatic circles for a while but I’ve never heard healing taught the way it’s taught by Curry. It’s radical. Most healing messages are NOT like what you’d hear from Curry. In fact, Curry destroys a lot of sacred cow teachings on healing or related to healing that is prevalent in charismatic Christianity and which has held a lot of us back from moving in the power of God. It’s Curry’s message which has challenged so many people to step out and practice healing. Curry is not a big name simply because a lot of people cannot accept the message he teaches and the way he destroys a lot of sacred cow beliefs. So he doesn’t move in the big name circuit like Bill Johnson (who, by the way, I love) but over the last few years he’s slowly built a following because of the impact the message has produced in people’s lives. One of the areas where his impact has been felt a lot is on Facebook where hundreds of people all over the world are connected because of their passion for healing which, for many, first began after having heard Curry.

Having said all that in praise of Curry Blake’s ministry, let me just say I’m not affiliated with his ministry in any way and I’m sure I don’t agree with everything that he teaches or says – I think if anyone agrees with everything that any other person teaches, it’s either because the person isn’t very smart or doesn’t have a mind of his own. I know some stuff I would say differently or even believe differently. But I love JGLM because I have not heard as biblical a message on healing (overall) as I have from there.

Anyway, I wrote all of the above because many have not heard of Curry. If you haven’t, you need to listen to his 19 mp3s on healing (see above). You may not agree with everything, but you’re guaranteed to be challenged to think more about what the Bible says about healing.

Hosting JGLM in Singapore

OK, anyway, the main point of this post: In March 2012, a group of Australians led by the Australian national co-ordinator of JGLM Australia will be coming to minister in Singapore. Because Curry or JGLM isn’t yet well-known here, I’m helping them to find ministry opportunities here. If your small group or your church is interested to find out more about hosting this group of people from JGLM Australia, let me know and I could put you in contact with them. The dates again are 16th to 25th March. I’m trying to arrange for a trip for them to Johor and Batam during that time. But Singapore comes first! They can do a 1-2 day healing conference. Regarding expenses, I probably can get some people to cover most, if not all, of the expenses, so this shouldn’t be a great concern. So you can contact me at jonathan at stillhaventfound.org to find out more and I’ll be glad to chat more and share with you more about Curry Blake and JGLM.

Those who’ve followed this blog will know how much Curry Blake has influenced my thinking on healing in the past year. The other person whose teachings on healing have impacted me is Roger Sapp – I wrote a post about his teachings here. Both are similar in desiring to “train” people to heal the sick, rather than be seen as a great man of God who moves in healing that you and I probably can’t move in. Both also have a firm belief that it’s God’s desire to heal everyone all the time. And both also would disagree with the typical “list of hindrances to healing” that most charismatic churches would teach that tends to result in disqualifying ourselves for healing – rather than in what we should be doing which is looking to Christ and seeing how we’re 100% qualified in Christ to be healed. And from what I know, both seem to be very successful in healing the sick.

The main difference would probably be in emphasis: Roger focuses more on the finished work of Christ (and resting on that) while Curry tends to stress the authority believers have over sickness – and the resulting aggressiveness we need to have. Roger’s teachings focuses slightly more on the faith of the sick to receive healing while Curry focuses slightly more on the faith of the person praying for the sick – and how we should be able to heal the sick on our own faith.

I’ve learned from both and will continue to do so. One thing I really like about Roger’s ministry is his relaxing style which is really in keeping with his focus on the finished work and resting in that. Just watch this:

For where you can get more resources (some free and downloadable) from Roger, check out the “Roger Sapp” section of my Healing Resources page.

Roger will be teaching his Christ-centered Healing Seminar (and of course also demonstrating healing) in Malaysia, Batam and Singapore from 15th to 24th April 2011. For those interested to attend his seminars, here’s the information:

1) 15th to 17th April in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at The New Covenant Church.
2) 20th April in Batam, Indonesia. Singaporeans who wish to go to Batam can contact me – we’ll be in Batam the whole day for a teaching for pastors and leaders there.
3) 22nd to 24th April at Christian Gospel Mission in Singapore.

I’ll be there for all his meetings so anyone can contact me for more information if you’re interested to attend.

I’ll end with a testimony on Roger Sapp’s healing journey:

Testimony from Roger Sapp

In the winter months of 1972, I received Christ as my Savior, Lord and Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I can honestly say that I believed in divine healing from the beginning of my walk with Christ, and even had a number of personal healings and a few creative miracles of my own in my developing relationship with Christ in the two decades leading up to 1992. Reflecting back, I can see now that my theology of healing was very complex and impractical. I also occasionally suffered from sickness, and healing did not always seem available. My experience of healing during those two decades seemed mysterious, generally unreliable and unpredictable. This was true of my own experience as well as my prayer for others.

In 1992, I had a breakthrough in healing that transformed my thinking on this matter. In the summer of 1992, while praying about another matter, the Spirit of Christ unexpectedly said this to me:

Why don’t you receive Me as your Healer in the same way that you received Me as your Savior?

By asking me this simple question, Christ initiated in me a series of events and a renewed interest in what Scripture said on this matter. I began to meditate on Scripture and came to new conclusions on healing. I began to discover that my healing theology of twenty years was not really based on Scripture, but on my erratic healing experiences and what others had taught from their erratic experiences. Because my experiences had matched theirs, I accepted what I heard as being the truth, without serious examination and comparison with Scripture.

Because my experience of healing was unpredictable, unreliable and often seemed mysterious, I had adopted popular modern healing theology that reflected that experience. However, I was unaware that I had accepted many aspects of unbelieving philosophy on these matters that are common in western culture. I had socially acceptable, but scripturally wrong explanations for why healing did not occur. Inwardly, I knew there was something wrong with my experience. However, my intellectual explanations of healing, or why God did not heal, certainly matched my experience.

As I began to examine my beliefs in 1992, I could not reconcile what I then believed with Scripture. It was apparent that my beliefs were not in harmony with what Christ demonstrated and said about healing. I realized that my theology didn’t focus on Christ’s example and teaching, but somehow had set Him aside as a special example, one that could not instruct me. Because of this, my theology of healing relied heavily upon the Old Testament and a few New Testament verses regarding the lives of the followers of Christ. Subsequently, I knew more about Paul’s thorn in the flesh and Job’s sufferings than I knew about the many detailed Gospel accounts of healings and miracles in Christ’s ministry. I knew more of the cultural explanations for the value of sickness than I knew of Christ’s words to the suffering people He encountered.

However, Christ did not allow me to continue in that mindset. In a matter of a few months, not only was my theology of healing transformed, but my experience as well. First, I was completely healed of a thirty-year problem with chronic sinus infections and the blinding headaches they caused. Secondly, my wife Ann experienced healing of frequent migraine headaches that would last two or three days. She was also healed of severe asthma that required serious daily medication. My family’s overall health improved dramatically. All of us experienced a reduction of suffering from illness and pain.

Within a short time, I began to see healing and creative miracles on a much greater scale in my public ministry. In some situations in my traveling ministry to local churches today as many as 85% of the people attending are healed of some sort of condition. Many of the healings are visible to the congregations. Normally, in these kinds of meetings, I begin by showing Christ’s willingness to heal by praying for people with injured and painful bad backs. Most often, all are visibly healed and are then able to bend without pain for the first time in a long time. When others there see this, this normally releases faith for healing of physical conditions that are not necessarily visible. Some healings are minor conditions simply causing discomfort. Some healings are very serious conditions which are extremely painful and often life threatening.

While the Lord grants healings as I travel today, the main focus of our service to Christ today is not healing the sick, but is rather equipping others to heal the sick. Every equipped servant of Christ ought to be teaching, discipling and leading others into the experience of ministry rather than just demonstrating their gifts. If a minister knows how to heal the sick, then that minister ought to be teaching the people of God how to do this. If he knows how to cast out demons, then he should be teaching others how to do this rather than just doing it himself. If a prophet knows how to accurately prophesy, he should be teaching the people of God how to accurately prophesy. Likewise, the evangelist should be teaching others how to evangelize rather than just doing the work of evangelism himself. Therefore, I am focused on releasing believers into the Christ-like ministries of healing the sick and performing miracles. My hope is that those that we train will excel in helping the suffering find healing and therefore glorify Christ by doing the greater works that He speaks of in John 14:11-14.

The end of the age draws near. The Church must come to maturity and complete the harvest of souls. Christ-like power in healing and miracles must accompany the Gospel to bring the masses to Christ.

As I’ve been on the topic recently on the different models of healing, I’d like to share some insight on Vineyard’s vs. John G. Lake’s healing model by Bruce Latshaw. I got to know Bruce through his website when searching more on John G. Lake. Bruce is the senior pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship at the Barn and the founder of two healing rooms. He also conducts a seminar on The Healing Secrets of John G. Lake.

Many people (including myself) have learned a great deal on healing from Curry Blake, the prophesied successor of John G. Lake and General Overseer of the John G. Lake Ministries. Bruce Latshaw seems to be another person who has studied John G. Lake’s writings, life and healing ministry extensively and so I thought I could definitely learn much from him about healing in general and the healing beliefs and practices of John G. Lake in particular. I’m a big believer in learning from as many people and as many views and traditions as possible, believing that most/all traditions and perspectives have something to teach us. Of course, ultimately we go back to the Word of God. Even as I’m currently formulating my own beliefs and practices regarding healing, people like Curry Blake, Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack, Bill Johnson, Roger Sapp and Mike Endicott have greatly influenced me. Bruce Latshaw intrigued me not only because he’s studied John G Lake and healing extensively, but also because he’s a Vineyard pastor and familiar with the Vineyard perspective on healing. This is interesting to me because I have a great respect for the Vineyard church association and John Wimber and his vision of every Christian (not just great men of God) being able to “do the stuff”. After all, Wimber and Vineyard have had a huge impact (and I think a pretty positive one) on Charismatic Christianity. Having said that, I’ve also been moving away from the Vineyard’s view on healing as I know it the past 6 months.

I’ve got permission to quote the email exchanges I’ve had with Bruce and so below will be quotes from Bruce interspersed with my questions and some of my comments too.

Our email conversation took off when I responded to his statement that he’s “not sure the teachings of Lake are entirely kosher with Vineyard’s theology of healing but they are almost identical to Wimber’s in Power Healing” by asking him to elaborate on how he thought Vineyard and Lake’s view on healing differed. I like comparing different models because it gives us clarity on what’s at stake and the different perspectives available and all this aids us in formulating our own view. Also, I had already been observing a difference between Vineyard’s model and the model I’ve been learning from Curry and some others so I was interested to hear his perspective. He responded:

My comparison/contrast of Wimber to Lake regarding the current Vineyard view of healing is very preliminary. Wimber himself, at least in statements from his book Power Healing, seems very close to Lake’s. However, in the practice of healing, it does appear to me that Wimber (and Vineyard healing practitioners currently) depended (and depend) primarily on the operation of the Spirit’s gifts of healings to minister healing.

I think something very fundamental we need to understand in our healing ministry is exactly where we go to in Scriptures for the biblical promise to heal. Curry talks about various ways of healing – e.g. our Commission given by Jesus (e.g. Mark 16:18), Holy Communion (1 Cor. 11), gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12-14) and getting the elders to pray (James 5:16). In the above, Bruce seems to be saying that the primary Scripture Vineyard people go to is that on the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12-14). This seems to line up with some Vineyard and other documents in the past.

In a The Briefing article written in 1990, it was written of John Wimber and his view on healing:

Given the very low percentage of healings, we asked John Wimber if he considered that his healings were like Jesus’ or the Apostles’. He quickly and rightly saw that they were quite radically different. We asked about the claims of his books and his previous teaching that the powerlessness of evangelicals lay in their failure to pray for and claim the Signs and Wonders of the Kingdom, seen in Jesus and the Apostles. He replied that thanks to the advice of Jack Deere, he had come to understand that the current miracles fit into the New Testament not at the point of Jesus and the Apostles and the coming of the Kingdom, but in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and the gifts of healing.

Jack Deere wrote a Vineyard response to the above article, mentioning:

Wimber was trying to explain to the men that he himself did not claim to move in the power of Jesus and the apostles, and that he now recognizes that there is a difference between the ministry of the apostles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to the whole church. The apostles and a few others walked in an extraordinary realm of power in the Holy Spirit. The quantity, quality, and consistency of miracles in their ministries, according to the New Testament picture, is on a different level than the giftings given to the whole church in the first century. John was trying to explain that he no longer was teaching that the whole church could move in the same quality of miraculous ministry that Jesus and the apostles moved in. However, the whole church could move in the gifts of the Spirit. If the church were to do that, much of the powerlessness and deadness in the church would be remedied. This change of mind, therefore, was not about the cause of the powerlessness of the church today, but rather about the precise way in which that powerlessness is to be remedied.

In the above, it’s clearly seen that Wimber changed his mind after talking to Jack Deere (a theologian). Rather than going to say the Commission passages by Jesus (e.g. Mark 16), he now (or then) went to the 1 Corinthians 12-14 passages on the gifts of the Spirit. It’s interesting that it seems that one of the reasons for his change of mind is because the quantity, quality and consistency of miracles and healings he sees doesn’t seem to be up to the level of the Apostles – and supposedly this lower level of miracles seems to fit in well instead with the spiritual gifts passages. I think this is extremely significant. I don’t know if this belief is still held by Vineyard today, but I think it really matters where you go to in Scriptures to find your belief in healing for today.

I would disagree with Wimber here. I don’t want to allow my experience to inform my interpretation on Scripture. If we don’t see much consistency in the miraculous today as compared to the Apostles’ ministry, the solution isn’t to justify that by going instead to the spiritual gifts passages (which he sees as justifying the lower quantity and quality of miracles). A consequence of going solely to the spiritual gifts passages (and saying the Commission in a sense doesn’t apply to us anymore) is that you’ll lower your expectation and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Is our miracle healing ministry at the same level of Jesus or the Apostles? No, definitely not. But this just pushes me to want to see that Scripture becomes a reality here and now. It makes me want to see our experiences live up to that of Scripture, rather than causing me to allow our experiences to inform our interpretation of Scripture.

Bruce continues:

…This is evidenced by the five-step prayer model’s emphasis on “seeing what the Father is doing” and waiting on God for specific leading from the Spirit before one diagnoses or administers healing. During the healing process the Spirit’s other gifts of words of knowledge and discerning of spirits are often utilized as well. Ex-Vineyard pastor Randy Clark’s healing methodology emerged from Wimber’s perspective and depends a great deal on the Spirit’s gifts, specifically words of knowledge.

This is in stark contrast to Lake’s assertion that the healing he moved in and trained others to move in was NOT dependent on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The healing he ministered, he maintained, was based on two “elements”: faith in God’s word, and the power of God released through the healing minister via his/her saturation in the Holy Spirit. (For Lake, fluctuations in healing result were caused by differences in the measures of faith and power released by healing minister(s) in a healing event. For Vineyard, why some people are healed and some are not is explained by absence of the fullness of the coming kingdom of God, not deficiencies in humanly mediated faith and power.) As Wimber and Vineyard healing ministers prayed (and pray) for the sick, they pray and watch what the Spirit is doing as if the Spirit is wholly independent of them – that they are there only to invite the Spirit to come and act apart from the healing minister. Personally I do not think this is what happens when healing occurs in a Vineyard context, but the language used and understandings advanced produce this perspective, in my judgment.

Lake, on the other hand, saw healing virtue flowing directly from the Holy Spirit located in the spirit of the believer, released through the operation of faith in his/her soul, and often using his/her body as a kind of conduit of spiritual power. (Lake’s favorite mode of healing was laying on of hands because he saw his hands as “contact points” between heaven’s “lightning” distributed through his spirit out into the being of the one needing healing.) Rather than occurring apart from him, healing came through the believer, whose spiritual condition and capacity to contain and release the Holy Spirit were vitally important to healings and miracles.

I think one could legitimately summarize Wimber’s perspective as “healing by the spiritual gifts of healing” while Lake’s is “healing by faith in and obedience to the word.” To me both are effective forms of healing that God uses. I move in both as directed by what I sense to be the leading of the Spirit in specific situations. I see the two complementing each other wholistically, two parts of one complete healing ministry.

Also, in seeming reaction to the abuses of the “faith/prosperity” teachers (of which there have been many), Vineyard healing ministers can discount the place of biblical faith in the healing process. I believe in some cases faith for healing is not even considered necessary for the Christian to pray for the sick since the believer’s job is just to invite the Spirit to come and do the healing by Himself. By contrast, Lake was very insistent that faith is, biblically, deeply connected with healing. However, unlike some healers mistakenly taught in his day and still teach today, Lake never required the sick to have faith. (If they did, all the better, and he did want them to develop faith for healing as much as possible). But Lake did require his healing ministers to have faith if they expected to be successful in the healing ministry. In the same way Jesus located the reason his disciples could not bring healing in some cases as their “smallness” of faith. The Greek indicates not that they had no faith but that they had insufficient faith. Could this mean that faith is spiritually quantifiable? That more of it exists in some Christians than in others? And that insufficiency of faith may be at least one real cause of the sick not getting healed?

The modern church does not like to hear this. We prefer to believe that we basically don’t have much at all to do with what God does or does not do on earth because we don’t enjoy being accountably on the hook for anything. Personally I feel this is primarily the result of hyper-Calvinistic theology that over-emphasizes the sovereignty of God while ignoring the co-partnering of God with man–and man’s place of responsibility in that partnership. Vineyard itself, it seems to me, is predominately Calvinistic, not Arminian, in its understanding of the Bible. So the movement suffers, in my view, from passivity stemming from its theological foundations. This has bled over into its theology of healing as well.

The irony is, of course, that when it came to “doin’ the stuff,” Wimber was amazingly activist. There was not a passive bone in his body when it came to healing the sick. He showed incredible perseverance, bold action, and deep, radical faith in the truth of God’s word concerning sick all who are sick. I believe that he exemplified quite well the understanding Lake promoted concerning healing. But the prevailing view of Lake I receive from today’s Vineyard ministers is something like, “He was an early Pentecostal, right? We don’t buy that Pentecostal faith and prosperity stuff and all the hype that goes with it.”

One thing I got from the above is that while it’s good to be led by the Spirit, sometimes that can actually justify us shrugging off our responsibility to have faith (and power) for the healing. By all means be led by the Spirit and operate in the gifts of the Spirit, but the more foundational way to get healing done ought to be by faith (and power), which I elaborated more in my previous post Why you should eat your Curry (Blake) before paying the Bill (Johnson). Related to this is the issue of whether the Spirit operates wholly independently of us (Vineyard’s model) or in a way more dependent on us  – i.e. our spiritual condition and faith (Lake’s model). I tend to favor the latter model which I think generally results in a more active faith.

While there may be a negative tendency for those who focus on the role of faith for healing to blame the sick for not having enough faith when they are not healed, this doesn’t mean we avoid speaking of the role of faith for healing. Perhaps this abusive tendency and the primary focus on the Spirit (rather than our faith/authority) to heal has led Vineyard to be a bit more passive and downplay the role of faith in healing. However, emphasizing the active role of faith in healing doesn’t mean we blame the sick if they are not healed for like Curry, Bruce states that Lake would never want to blame the sick for a lack of faith – he’d want to see the person praying to have faith for the sick. A focus on the responsibility to have faith for healing is thus not at odds with a compassionate ministry if we take it upon ourselves to have faith for the sick and never blame the sick person’s faith for not getting healed.

I’ve been reflecting on the hypothesis that there are two ways to get people healed:

1. By faith/authority and this comes through renewing our minds with the Word of God. This is something that people like Curry (and Wommack, Sapp, Endicott and the Word of Faith movement generally) seem to emphasize a lot on.
2. By the power of the Holy Spirit flowing out from us into the sick body we’re praying for – one may want to call this the anointing or presence of God or whatever. This seems to come through spending time with God and being intimate with Him. This way is something that people like Bill Johnson seem to emphasize a lot on.

So I asked him to comment on my thoughts above and he wrote:

Concerning the combining of the faith and power dimensions in healing, Lake actually taught that faith and power (Holy Spirit power of course) were the two vital “elements” in the healing dynamic. This is why I trust Lake’s writings. I believe that he ministered out from a balanced approach to healing even though he is lumped, unfairly, into the early Pentecostal “faith teachers” like Bosworth and Kenyon.

He seems to be saying that Lake is balanced in seeing both faith and power as vital elements and we shouldn’t separate them and minister by just one of the elements as some may do – I think he’s implying Bosworth and Kenyon (and perhaps also the faith teachers nowadays) focus solely on faith.

I also asked him how we can increase our faith. His response:

I believe we increase our measure of faith by abiding much in the Word, particularly in those passages related to healing – meditating on them, asking the Spirit to reveal truths to us concerning them, and by practicing over and over what we become convinced of. Also I think our faith is increased as we place ourselves into spiritual “atmospheres” of healing, where the faith of a person or a group is strong toward healing and we then witness manifestations of healings, which build our faith. These generally happen in a conference or seminar context, though some churches, like Bethel or some Vineyard churches when Wimber was alive, are steeped in an atmosphere of expectant faith for healing.

What I got from the above: the importance of meditating on passages related to healing (what Roger Sapp does in his good book  on healing, Performing Miracles and Healing which can be purchased at his website All Nations Ministries, and what he did for 1-2 years for hours daily before he really flowed in healing). Also, what Bruce talks about above regarding immersing oneself in spiritual “atmospheres” of healing is I think the more corporate version of what occurs when one is mentored by a man of faith and then letting the faith and everything rub off him onto you as you associate yourself with him. One can grow in faith through constantly being in such corporate spiritual atmospheres or through also going alongside a mentor and learning from him and catching his faith and spirit through association.

How about the way we can increase in power, which according to Lake is tangible? Bruce replied:

Lake taught that the Christian could increase the measure of Holy Spirit power in his/her own spirit by 1) cultivating intimacy with God – speaking to and listening to Him – through prayer, and 2) declaring the truth the Word over his/her life – what we would call now “confessing” or affirming the truth of our identity in Christ. Lake also said, “Praying in tongues has been the making of my ministry.” So praying much in tongues was a key for him too. To me personally, prayer is the key to power. Of course there are many biblical kinds of prayer, all of which are edifying. I find that for me prayer that is vocal, declarative, and authoritative is the kind that best builds up and releases God power through my spirit.

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.

Besides Curry Blake, Andrew Wommack, Joseph Prince and Bill Johnson, one particular minister I’ve learned and am learning from regarding healing is Roger Sapp. Curry Black and Andrew Wommack focus a lot on authority and dominion. Bill Johnson focuses on the presence of God and intimacy with God. Like Joseph Prince, Roger Sapp focuses on Christ and His finished work. None of them neglect the other areas – it’s just that their emphases seem to be different. I think, broadly speaking, they all complement each other and we can learn from all of them.

Meditation on Christ as a route to better understanding our authority in Him

Recently, I read this interesting Facebook Note by Roger Sapp – which can be found here – where he talks about how he got healed of cancer. I quote a portion where he mentions the importance of meditation on Christ for his own healing:

I broke into full-time healing ministry in the early 90’s largely because of daily meditation on Christ as Healer for two years. Since that time, I have seen the Lord heal more than 25,000 people. In April 2009, I decided to meditate on Christ for my own healing. I had created a deck of healing meditation cards for that purpose. (I still use these cards to meditate and have created another deck as well. We offer these decks in our ministry now). I used these cards to meditate on Christ, seek Him and confess my faith in Christ in my private times with the Lord. Typically this was for an hour each morning but sometimes, I carried the deck around with me and if I was waiting for something or standing in a line, I pulled out the cards and began to meditate. I kept some cards in my car. If I was stuck in traffic, I began to meditate. I had some cards in the bathroom. You get the picture. (My wife and I have used these cards nearly daily since April 2009. We both feel very focused on Christ and what He has done for us.)

I like his sharing because it is very practical. For him, it was all about meditating on Christ and His finished work – getting Scriptures into him. It’s about getting our mind off ourselves and our sicknesses and other things and focusing it on Christ and His finished work. For a good article on meditation on Christ by Roger, see here.

In the comments to the Note, he was asked by someone, “Did using your authority come into play with receiving your healing?” His response was:

Yes and no. I am always aware that I have authority over the devil and over sickness but my emphasis is to keep Christ at the center of my life. In my view, too much emphasis on my authority begins to make it about me rather than… Jesus. Our authority comes because of His completed work at the cross. That’s where I focus. I don’t have any trouble with someone commanding a healing, but I just have them confess “This healing belongs to me because of what Jesus has done” and they often receive their healing without a single “command” given by me. On the other hand, in deliverance ministry which occupies a little of my time, I often use my authority over the devil but seldom without the phrase “in the name of Jesus” and reminding the demons of their defeat at the cross. Just a matter of emphasis and style I suppose.

What Roger wrote about how “too much emphasis on my authority begins to make it about me rather than Jesus” is pretty thought-provoking. Elsewhere in Facebook he wrote that “the more you focus on yourself and your authority, the more you will undermine your faith in Christ.” Interesting thoughts…

There are many cases where we use our authority over the sickness and it doesn’t go. Sometimes we’re told to keep persevering and keep commanding our sickness to go and it will eventually go. To be honest, I’m not too sure if that’s the solution. I think if we truly know our authority, sickness will go when we command it to go. If it doesn’t go, it’s because we don’t truly understand our authority and persevering in commanding a sickness to go may not work if we don’t truly understand our authority. Then, maybe we should go back to meditating on Christ and what He has done to renew our minds so we may understand the authority we have in Christ better. Perhaps sometimes people focus too much on authority because they think that by focusing more on authority, we will understand our authority more. But maybe understanding our authority comes not through focusing on it, but through focusing on Christ. Therefore, the means to better understanding and exercising our authority is to know Christ better – and that can come through meditating on Christ and what He has done.

The above is similar (in some ways) to faith to receive healing. You don’t get (more) faith by focusing on faith. You get (more) faith by focusing on Christ. As Roger wrote elsewhere in Facebook,

When someone starts telling me about their faith or how long they have believed, this is not true faith that they are speaking about as they are subject and object of the statement. True faith doesn’t talk about itself. A person with true faith talks about the object of their faith… Jesus Christ. They do not talk about “their faith” or how long “I have believed”. This reveals a focus on themselves. The object and subject of true faith is Christ. It is never ourselves.

Ordinary believers participating in healing the sick while those healed go to the stage to testify

On Friday and Saturday last week (29th and 30th Oct. 2010), I attended The Elijah Challenge at Bethesda (Bedok-Tampines) Church in Singapore. Before the course, I was a bit familiar with it, having gone through some (not all) of their materials, which can be downloaded here (videos and manual). The Elijah Challenge is all about equipping ordinary believers to heal the sick for primarily evangelistic purposes and it has had some impact throughout the world.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good course. While I wouldn’t agree with everything taught, and there are some things I’m still reflecting upon, I think there’s a lot of good there. The teachings are quite (not totally) similar to Curry Blake and Andrew Wommack in terms of focusing strongly on the authority and faith of the believer. For me, I’d like to complement this perspective (on authority and faith) with the teachings of people like Bill Johnson, Joseph Prince, Roger Sapp and Mike Endicott.

It’s a pretty short course (perhaps about 4 hours teaching in total) and so it can’t go into everything related to healing. But the purpose of setting a foundation of equipping believers to heal the sick was, I think, definitely achieved.

Two strong points stood out for me in The Elijah Challenge. Firstly, the presentation is extremely organized and clear. Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) course is awesome and more comprehensive but it tends to lack organization (especially his manual!). I’ve always felt the main points of Curry’s DHT can be condensed into 10 hours or less (instead of about 18 hours) of teaching. If you’re passionate about healing, Curry’s DHT would blow you away and you’ll learn tons. But if you’re not committed to last through 18 hours of teaching, The Elijah Challenge gives a good short foundation for those new to healing that will make you yearn for more (then you can go to Curry and others).

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, was the practical demonstrations of healing that actually involved audience praying (or commanding healing). This is simply priceless and I can’t speak too highly of it. There were about maybe 700 to 1,000 people attending the course. As far as I know and can tell, the church is not charismatic. The people were probably not accustomed to seeing a lot of healing. (By the way, this is another good point of The Elijah Challenge – it is able to reach out to non-charismatic churches too). So I don’t think these were people who were passionate about healing and the miraculous. Throughout the course (after about an hour of teaching or so), William Lau (the founder of The Elijah Challenge and the teacher on this occasion) called for a demonstration of healing. He did this about 5 different times throughout. He first called people who were sick to the front, then he called for people to come and pray for them. He never prayed for the sick but got others in the audience to do so – led by him speaking out the words. There were probably hundreds of people who participated in healing the sick.

The course culminated in a healing rally on Saturday night. William preached the gospel, linking it to healing. Basically, he told the unbelievers that Jesus can forgive their sins and the proof of it is the fact that He can heal the sick and they are going to see the sick being healed. After the gospel was preached, the sick was called to the front to be prayed for by specially trained counselors. When people were healed, they went on stage to testify of their healing. There were probably dozens of people coming to testify of their healing. Not a lot of “big” healings – mostly pain and the like going away.

It was really awesome to see hundreds of people seeing real life demonstrations of people being healed before their eyes. And also to see many people actually participating in healing the sick probably for the first time. I would think that what they’ve gone through would make at least some more open to pursue healing and moving more in the healing power of God. One can only imagine what could happen if the church adopts fully what they’ve learned and continues on pursuing more.

P.S.: Those who attended The Elijah Challenge (and also those who didn’t) who want to get to know a group of Christians who desire to learn and move more in the healing power of God, come and participate in Singapore Healing Forum and join us for one of our weekly meetings where we study and practice healing.

P.P.S.: Elijah Challenge Asia’s official report of the event can be found here.

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.

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.

It’s been a pretty crazy week or so of healing – and along with that learning and reflection. I’ve been getting bolder since Saturday’s meeting and have prayed for tons of people everywhere I go. It’s also been good gathering with other brothers and sisters who have been running with this healing message and encouraging and challenging each other to pray for people.

At Church

The past two Sundays (15th and 22nd August), I prayed for about 5 people in total from New Creation and all of them (at least according to what they said) received healing or felt better in one way or another. Approaching church people and Christians is easy because you know they’ll definitely be open to receive prayer. Of course most probably don’t actually expect anything to happen when you pray!

On 15th August, I entered the service, saw wheelchairs and thought I’m going to pray for these people after service if I have the opportunity – I didn’t have the opportunity later as I was praying for someone at the end of the service. During the time when the invitation to receive Jesus was given – a time when some people leave – I saw a lady leave the auditorium limping. I hesitated for a while then just left my seat and ran out to approach her. I prayed for her and commanded pain to leave her shoulder and it did. We exchanged information and I’m hoping to visit her house with my friends to continue to pray for her and her family. Later in the evening I approached another lady limping and using an umbrella as a walking stick to walk. I found out she was an usher from New Creation and I commanded pain to leave her knee till it left and she was able to walk much better – without using the umbrella.

And last Sunday (22nd August), I prayed for a lady on wheelchair recovering from a broken/fractured ankle in a cast. She didn’t really have pain unless she moved her foot at some positions. After prayer, I got her to try moving it to see if there is any pain and she said she couldn’t feel any pain anymore. I approached a guy carrying a Rock bookstore plastic bag who was limping in the MRT. While waiting for the train, he shared with me his physical problems resulting from an accident years ago. One of his legs was very slightly shorter than the other and so I got him to sit down and stretch forth both legs and I commanded the left to grow. I believe I saw it grow, though I told him to go back and confirm that with me. I also prayed for his right leg that had many problems. We exchanged contacts and so I’ll follow up with him.

Crazy Monday

The previous Monday (16th August) was a crazy day with about 8 people being touched by Jesus’ healing love – all while I was just going about my normal daily routine. I met Alastair in Chinatown before he left Singapore in the afternoon. On the way there I approached a foreign worker with a bandaged thumb, prayed and all the pain left. Before Alastair and I left McDonald’s, I approached a guy with awkward/restricted hand movement that I had been observing in Macs. I commanded pain to leave his hand a few times and he could lift it up above his shoulders. Later in the afternoon outside my office, I was talking to a friend on the phone. A guy limping walked past and I immediately stopped him and asked him about his leg. While still on the phone, I prayed until the pain was completely gone and he was able to walk normally. During my break I went to Bukit Merah Central (as I normally do) and I prayed for a guy selling tissues whom I had prayed for a few weeks ago. Pain left his knees and then his eyesight dramatically improved according to him. The funny thing is that I came back two days later (Wednesday) and he said the pain and his eyesight returned to what it was before – and I had to get that fixed again. I’ll be following up with him.

At the Central, I approached a person who was limping and after asking about his pain, I asked if I could pray for him. He was hesitant and wondered why someone who help him for free. I told him I’m just there to pray and I’m not asking for anything in return. I prayed and the pain left. Later, I bought some stuff at NTUC FairPrice and saw an Indian cashier lady talking openly to her customers so when it was my turn I struck up a conversation and asked her if she had any pain in her body. She said she had pain and I prayed for her shoulders till pain completely left and then started on her ankle. But because she was a bit uncomfortable as she was meant to be working, she invited me to visit her to pray for her and her husband after hearing that my friends and I would go anywhere (including homes) to pray for people.

After work, I saw an old lady limping when walking along an overhead bridge. In my best (not very good!) Mandarin, I asked her if she had pain and then asked if I could pray for her. She said, “No”. I started to walk slowly ahead of her (she was walking in the same direction as I was) and then looked back and commanded the pain to leave her legs in English. She saw what I was doing of course and then I said to her in my pathetic Mandarin, “It’s better right?”. She kind of nodded, then that opened an opportunity to lay hands on her legs and continue praying for the complete healing. I left after and while I can’t be totally sure if all pain left, I know she felt better.

On my way back home close to midnight, I approached a guy on my path and asked him if he had pain in his body. He said yes and I prayed for him as I walked a while with him. He was very open to me praying and placing my hands on his shoulders as we walked towards his car. By then, there was only about 5% pain left according to him.

At a hospital

On Tuesday (17th August) and Wednesday (18th August) night, I met up with one (17th) and three (18th) other friends to pray in a hospital. On Tuesday morning, I prayed for a Christian colleague of mine and sore and pain completely left his hand. Interestingly, I found out later that just like when I prayed for his hurting back/hip which I mentioned here, while the pain left completely upon prayer, it came back again for a short while but then left forever soon after.

At the hospital, my friend and I prayed for a few people in wheelchairs with diabetes, liver cancer, etc. There weren’t any visible manifestations. We met a young guy who’s attended FCBC for many years. We prayed for his high blood pressure. He said he’s homeless and jobless and I gave him some money when he asked. I prayed over it and asked God to bless the gift and that he’ll be able to get a job soon. I also left him my contact and asked him to contact me if he needs anything and he’s called me a few times since (he told me he’s found a job!). I want to help him more and yet I don’t know how to. I know most people and even Christians would just say that we should be careful that this person doesn’t depend on us and all that nonsense. These people may be a burden to society and even Christians, and yet I know Jesus deeply loves the outcasts and marginalized of society.

We approached a young lady who was on a crutch. Her knee was broken and completely dislocated. It looked very awkward – not just a fracture or break, but it was quite out of position. To be honest, I didn’t know how to pray for her. We prayed and I commanded the knee/leg to be totally normal and in place but nothing visible happened and we just left her. I felt bad in a way. There has to be more – like a miracle that sorts out the problem totally. I’ve been kind of thinking how to pray for such a thing in future. I heard Curry mentioned he prayed for this person with club feet and something else and he got her to get out of her wheelchair and walk after prayer and soon after walking, every step got better and her feet was back to normal. So who knows, maybe I should just get the person to walk and expect the miracle to manifest as the person walks!

We came across two Indian ladies in the food court who were not patients. Both of them got completely healed of knee pain and one of ankle pain as we prayed and then asked them to walk to test it out. One thing I’ve been learning is getting people to try it out like we did for these two ladies. We got them to walk around and then pain completely left. That step of faith completed the process of complete healing in a way.

We approached this guy with a neck brace and talked to him. He seemed genuinely happy and open to talk as he told us about his neck/spine problem. We prayed for him then arranged to meet him the next day as we were coming again Wednesday.

We also prayed for three men who were patients and back pain left in one and almost all pain left in another person’s leg. We also prayed for their other conditions without any visible/tangible manifestation.

Outside the hospital, we approached a lady with a bandage on her wrist. All pain left. The same for a guy we approached along an underground walkway with a bandaged knee. In a shopping centre near the hospital, I saw a young guy limping a bit. I put my hand on his shoulders and asked him about his pain. He didn’t really want to be prayed for but too late – I pointed to his ankle and commanded pain to leave. After hitting it twice, it left. Then I told him Jesus loves him!

The next day (Wednesday) at the hospital and outside, we saw pain leave a patient’s head and another patient’s knees. Pain in the hips of an old lady left and a young girl on a wheelchair had pain leave her fingers. The four of us also spent some time with the guy we met the day before with neck/spine problems. We had a good talk with him, prayed for him and managed to share God’s love with him. I know he was definitely touched to see strangers spending time talking to him and praying for him. I’m hoping to meet up with him at his house this coming week to pray for complete healing for him before his operation.

Other healings

During the rest of the week, we prayed for other people individually in the course of our daily lives and saw healings – mostly pain leaving. One healing that encouraged me was when I prayed for my domestic worker who was coming down with a fever/cold. Nothing happened when I prayed but I told her not to take the medicine, but to wait a while. And after a while she felt completely well! Haha. I’m getting her to listen to Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) training and I told her that she’ll be healing people when she returns to Philippines!

Some thoughts

Pain seems to be the easiest to see go away. This isn’t always the case for I’ve commanded pain to leave but haven’t always seen all pain go away. But it happens most of the time.

My friends and I want to grow and see greater healings. We’re not contented with just seeing pain leave. We thank God for how far we’ve come and yet we’re not satisfied. We’re spiritual gluttons and want to see God’s healing power move in a greater way through us. There are people suffering from different types of conditions and Jesus has paid for their healing already.

Now, of course I’m taught that one healing is the same as the other and there are no harder healings. But then, I’ve seen pain leave so easily, but I haven’t seen much else – yet! It could be my mindset limiting my faith to see other healings which could actually just be as easy as the rest? Something to think about.

Going to hospitals is definitely challenging. We hope to visit a hospital one night a week to pray and learn along the way. In the hospital you see so much greater need – much more than just the need to see pain gone. I dunno how to deal with a lot of what i see but God will teach me along the way.

One thing I’m still reflecting a lot upon is whether I should be concerned if there’s no visible or tangible manifestation upon prayer. On one hand, I have to remind myself that this doesn’t mean that the person won’t recover. There are many cases in people’s healing ministry whereby the person gets healed or recovers soon after and not immediately upon prayer. On the other hand, I also hear instances of immediate manifestation and healing when one prays – not just a simple few seconds prayer and then end the time there, but an extended prayer time that results in a definite manifestation and healing (e.g. heat, electricity, actual moving of bones, etc.). This extended prayer time doesn’t mean prayers are long, but that we pray short prayers (of command) then wait and do this over and over again until we see the manifestation. The point is to pray and wait until something happens – and not to end things straight away after a simple prayer. I watched this YouTube by Pete Cabrera and noticed that parts of the video was edited out for the sake of time. I asked Pete how long it actually took from the time he started praying/commanding till the actual manifestation and he said 10 minutes tops.

As mentioned above, I want to visit the person with the neck/spine problem and just pray and command his bones to be normal until something happens – and not give up too quickly. Regarding the person I prayed for with polio I mentioned here that didn’t get her leg lengthened, I wanted to carry on commanding until something happened, however the couple wanted to stop so I stopped. However, I believe that had I continued, the leg would have grown.

One thing I’ve noticed is heat coming upon a person sometimes when I pray and lay hands on them. That’s something new for me as I don’t think this has happened through my prayers/laying of hands before. But heat is always good! It shows God is working.

I’m also still struggling with my own healing and not seeing results, but pushing on and pressing in! Not giving up on anything because this is just the beginning of an exciting journey and I truly believe that as I continue to seek God in this area, He will teach me and I’ll learn more and more things.