For the next two weeks, we will focus on our prayer life. This week, I want to share with you why I believe that prayer works, even for healing. Healing prayer is effective for more than the body. Whether your mind, your emotions, your relationship with God or your body needs healing, all prayer and its effectiveness are the same.

This week, I want to focus on Biblical reasons we can be sure God hears every weak whimper of prayer and that it is the inclination of His heart to bless you with the best answer possible for you and for His glory. Next week, I will share more about the practical process of prayer. I will be sharing quotes and information from the life of the most inspiring man of prayer I have ever studied, George Muller as well as others.

Lesson One: Why I Believe in Miracles through Prayer

James 5:16 

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Let me give you an example of how I saw that Scripture proved true in front of my very eyes:  

My friend Julie and I prayed for a young mom from the time she had her first symptom of cancer. This was over 25 years ago  in our small group at another church. The young woman was referred to an oncologist who took xrays and CT scans and confirmed that she had uterine cancer, but he couldn’t treat her because he did not take her insurance. She went to a second oncologist who wanted to take his own scans, and he confirmed the cancer, but he said he couldn’t treat her because he said she had no insurance! The young woman thought surely this was a mistake, however, it turned out to be true. Her husband, just weeks before she was diagnosed by the first doctor, had forgotten to send in the check for the premium. They researched grants and all kinds of programs and finally found a third oncologist participating in a program that would pay for her surgery and treatment. So this third doctor also took scans. He came back with the news that the cancer had by then spread everywhere.

You know when Jesus healed in the Bible, he didn’t even have to be in the same room with the person. The story of Jesus healing the centurion’s servant in Matthew 8:13 is a great example of that. (This faith-building passage is printed at the end of today’s lesson.) Every case is different, but in the case of our young friend, Julie and I felt we should go to the hospital the day of surgery and pray for her in her room. We scheduled to meet with her an hour before her anesthesia prep so we would have plenty of time to pray. We went, and as soon as we got in the room the nurses came and said they were ahead of schedule and were taking her right into surgery- and there was no time to pray. I remember we prayed anyway over our friend as they wheeled her down the hall. These were speed prayers—not elegant, well phrased prayers  and all the time we’re praying the nurses were saying, “You can’t go back here,”  but we were holding her hands on that rolling gurney and blurting out short prayers.

When they opened her up, she had no cancer anywhere. Not a whit. Here is what I learned from that.

1. God’s delays may be to bring Him glory. If one doctor had said she had cancer and was proven wrong, people could have said he made an error or that that the xrays were wrong. But we had watched as our friend endured changing doctors 3 times and having to endure having 3 different sets of films, with 3 confirmations of cancer. Without a doubt, the cancer had been there and now it was gone. 

• God’s delays may be to strengthen our faith. After that, How much do you think I believe in God’s ability to heal after this experience? How eager am I to tell people who don’t have strong faith that God heals today just as he healed lepers, blind people, and kings in the Bible? He is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow.

The Faith of a Centurion Matthew 8:5-13

⁵ When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ⁶ “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” ⁷ And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸ But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant,^[c] ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel^[d] have I found such faith. ¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

Lesson Two: God Heals It All: Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual Needs

Many people today are suffering from depression, anxiety, extreme stress, and mental illness. In fact almost everyone experiences one of these at one time or another. One of the most beautiful examples of healing in that area was in my mother’s life. I was honored to have a front row seat to the healing that took place in her life and how no one could doubt her healing was from God.  As a little girl, I did not realize that this type of healing was possible through Jesus Christ, because I did not know my Scriptures like Matthew 4:24 back then:

So his (Jesus’) fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.

The Bible stories I read as child focused on physical healings like an issue of blood or blindness. It would have given me so much hope if I had understood this verse and that Jesus went about healing the soul and the mind as well. And He still wants to do that for us today:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8          

Throughout my childhood, My mother had been told by several psychiatrists over the years that her condition could never be cured. But she never gave up praying for healing. I watched my mother pray for healing from my earliest toddler memories. She was not healed when I was a child. She was not healed when I was a teenager or young adult. God’s timing of her healing did not take place for decades—after I was well over 30. But my mother never wavered in her belief in God’s ability to heal.  She never looked at the no’s she got year after year as if there was something wrong with God. So many people today feel comfortable questioning God’s sovereign will and timing about healing. They say, “Why did God allow this or that? How could a good God allow such suffering?” And let me tell you, my mother suffered when she would have her episodes. No one ever wanted to be healed more than my mother. She would have terrible remorse over things that happened when she was not herself. But my mother’s faith that God is a good God and that He loved her very much was not diminished one drop by her earthly setbacks.  She just continued to pray, decade after decade. 

And eventually, my mother’s simple, unschooled prayers were answered. She just talked to her Jesus and He answered her. Yes, He used doctors and medications, but those had only limited effects until one day, her serious symptoms just lifted for no medical reason. When I realized that my mother had not had an episode in years, it shook my soul in a good way. God had used this painful thing in my mother’s life to teach me about His faithfulness, His power, and His goodness. The two major lessons I learned from my mother’s prayer life are:

• God uses our weaknesses to strengthen and teach others.
• God responds when we persevere in prayer.

My mother’s illness taught me that God can heal in hopeless situations. Her example taught me not to look at any situation as too big for God, and that God’s will is sovereign over the knowledge of even the most respected human beings.

My mother never sat down with me and gave me a lesson on prayer or told me what to do. Her example was my teacher. All my life, I would see my mother steal away into the privacy of her bedroom and we would all know she was going in there to pray. It was hard for her to get away from her 3 kids who would even follow her into the bathroom, but she would see when we were involved in watching a tv show with my Dad or some other distraction, and out of the corner of my eye I would see her make her escape. My mother loved 2 things: chocolate and Jesus. And the look on her face when she would head to that time alone in prayer looked like there was a big old chocolate pie waiting in there for her. Without ever lecturing me one time, she planted in my mind that prayer is a wonderful thing and that extraordinary, special things can happen when you get alone with God.

Lesson Three: The Third Reason I Believe in Prayer is the Healing I Have Experienced.

Psalm 30:2 says, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.”

That is my personal testimony. That may surprise some people because I still have some minor residual pain and weakness.

We are all just a breath away from life-changing events. When I went into childbirth 36 years ago, I thought I would be like all my friends, have a hard 24 hours and a week of recovery, and then I’d be back to normal; but my experience was different.  It would change my life forever. Because of a mistake made by an anesthesiologist, I experienced neurological damage that the doctors could not fix.

It bothers me that people ask me if the chronic back pain I still have today has shaken my faith in prayer. NO!!  I have seen so much healing and so much answered prayer. If you knew what I started with and the gloomy prognosis I was given, you would understand that when I think about my experience, I am filled with gratitude.

When I remember that meeting when I was diagnosed in 1989, I see that I have had healing that defies what my wonderful doctors described that day as inevitable. The mood in the room was somber. I thought it was strange that the neurologist who was treating me brought in another busy neuro-surgeon from Emory. I thought it even more unusual that my doctor asked me to have my husband present at the meeting.  In the meeting, my husband and I were told that no surgery would ever completely correct the damage that had been done. In fact, my condition would degenerate, my pain would get worse, and my  husband and I needed to prepare for me to be gradually more and more disabled. We needed to get full time help right away, not just for my infant, but for me.

Most of the things that the doctors said that day that were going to happen to me in my future, never happened. God holds my future. God overruled these excellent but human doctors. I still have some pain and weakness from the waist down, but it is much less than predicted and that makes no sense to anyone. I cared for my baby, worked full time and have been able to do anything I’ve truly needed to do. Yes, God has used gifted doctors and treatments like radio frequency ablation to treat symptoms, but the real healing is something that only God could do. He has gone beyond what the doctors said was possible. And I learned this valuable lesson from my injury:

• God uses our pain to equip us for ministry.  Shortly after I was diagnosed, I began meeting all these people who were addicted to opioids and other pain killers.  I had never met anyone like that in my life. This was no accident. I had been offered opioids and painkillers and had refused them after I had been released from the hospital. I had a baby. I was a working mom. Somewhere in there, my husband left. I couldn’t take them. I was afraid I would sleep through my baby’s cries in the middle of the night. So I didn’t take the medications.

God equipped me to say to these women addicted to prescription drugs, “You can live well without these drugs. With the Lord’s help, you can do this.”

My pain was my equipping. I often thought of Paul and His thorn and this strengthened me when people who did not understand the Bible would tell me I wasn’t being healed because I did not have enough faith. I always felt that Paul and I sort of understood each other.

The first thing I would say if you have chronic pain is to ask yourself, Have you seen some healing that you haven’t acknowledged? Have you given Him thanks for the healing and the doctors He has given you to help you?

The second thing I would ask you to pray about is whether God may be equipping you through your pain for something He wants you to do?

Below are some verses I have seen proven true in my own life. Praise the Lord!

Isaiah 55:8-9                                                                                                                                                                             For my thoughts are not your thoughts,    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.                                                                                              NOTE:  And HIs timing is not our timing. Trust Him with this!)

1 Peter 5:10
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Romans 5:3-5
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Lesson Four: JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO!

Healing prayer is real and has been going on in the Christian community for thousands of years. We should be open to healing prayer, but not every type of prayer from every type of person. Be sure you are praying with someone whom you trust and who is Biblically sound. Right now, it is very trendy to talk about healing prayer that people say is from the Lord but is not. There is so much false teaching on healing prayer now than I have ever seen. Be alert. Satan and untrustworthy people have gotten into this wonderful area that should only belong to the Lord.  Test everything against the Scriptures.

Ask yourself a few questions about the type of prayer that is being offered. Is this prayer characterized by the following:

1. You can find examples of that type of prayer in the Bible.
2. The focus is on God’s power, authority, and mercy and no one else’s. Today, some people are passing themselves off as prayer guides. They imply that they have special training or authority that you don’t have. They may refer to a certificate or a title or position they have in prayer in their  organization. This is not Biblical. You can speak to the Father in prayer as powerfully and clearly as anyone. It takes no credentials to have your prayers answered except that you have accepted God’s free gift of salvation. Come humbly and He will be open to you with no help from a so-called expert.
3. Are you in a church that is passionate about teaching the Bible in its entirety? Is your church adamant that no parts should be left out or watered down? Is the person praying with you a member of your church and believes in the inerrant Word of God? If not, you need to find out what they do believe before you join them in prayer. If they do not believe in the entire Bible is the true Word of God or if they are soft on some parts, run.
4. Has the person praying approached the throne of prayer in a humble, respectful, reverent way? God is not your equal and should not be treated like a pal. Yes, He loves you and Jesus is your friend, but He is a friend whose power and position deserves respect and recognition for His greatness. The boldness we have when we approach the throne comes from knowing that He will answer any prayer no matter how impossible if it aligns with His will. Some people distort that boldness and seem to demand things from God or tell God He has to answer them. That is a perversion of true boldness.
5. Go to someone you trust on the subject of prayer. If you have any questions about the other person you are praying with or even about the motivations of your own heart, confess to a friend who can give you Biblical counsel.
6. If the prayers you hear lean heavily toward asking for money, elevation of self or position, or other selfish requests, pause and examine if this is the prayer that is closest to God’s heart. Prayer should be heavily weighted toward praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. Don’t let the balance shift because your focus is on you and not Him.

Lesson Five: Why George Muller Inspires Me to Pray with Absolute Belief that God Hears and Cares about Every Prayer.

Years ago, I read this story about the great pastor and writer George Muller, and it had a huge impact on my prayer life. I did not have his kind of prayer life, but it made me desire to pray with the same faith and confidence that were planted deep in his soul and was unshakeable.

Muller’s heart reminds me of the heart of Jesus. He cared more for others than he did himself. One of the burdens of his heart was for children of the poor, especially the orphans of London in the 1800s. While still pastoring, he opened an orphanage that eventually cared for over 10,000 orphans. Money was always short, and he had many miraculous answered prayers that met their needs. He went on to open more orphanages and 117 Christian schools. He did not take a salary for the last 68 years of his ministry. He was often criticized because the elite said he was elevating orphans and children of the poor “above their station in life.”  (Andrew Murray, “George Muller and the Secret of His Power in Prayer,”georgemuller.org

I hope this story inspires your prayer life as it did mine:

“The children are dressed and ready for school. But there is no food for them to eat,” the housemother of the orphanage informed George Mueller. George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. “Mr. Mueller,” he said, “last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in.”

Soon, there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children. Georgemuller.org

I am told that those around Muller were wondering at his decision to set the empty bowls and cups on the table, to call children to come sit and wait at that empty table, and to wait for those long minutes looking at the emptiness. They had been waiting for monetary donations so they could buy bread and  milk, but the donations never came. Instead, God had the baker and the milkman deliver their specific needs just in time.

He will meet your needs, too, if you pray with faith and wait.