Sections 4 and 8 titled "The Sanctifying Work of Jesus," and "Jesus’ Spirit and Psychology of Follow-Up" deal specifically with this issue in the context of this section. Therefore I encourage you to go through the discipline of those sections to understand the application of this section.

No where is the value of the principles of this concept more meaningful or more important than in the area of healing through prayer. When someone approaches us for prayer in the area of the physical, we can never assume anything about its reason, cause, or cure outside of Jesus choosing to reveal it to us through the Holy Spirit.

Physical problems center in who man is. Given a hundred people with the same physical problem, you can have a hundred different root causes. Consider the alcoholic. His problem can be chemically centered, psychologically centered, spiritually centered, or demonically centered. This is true of stomach problems, epilepsy, cancer, arthritis, and hundreds of other physical ailments.

I am not an expert in this field by any stretch of the imagination. This is why I have included Francis MacNutt’s book, Healing, as part of this training program’s curriculum. Many top leaders in this field consider MacNutt to be one of the top ranking authorities on the subject of healing through prayer. When I speak of healing, I am talking about the healing of the whole man, because physical problems can be centered in any area of who man is. One does not need to be an expert or a theologian to be used of Jesus in the area of physical healing through prayer any more than there is any set formula for Evangelism, except one: JESUS! Jesus is the only sure formula for success in Evangelism and He is the only sure formula for success in healing through prayer.

What is required to be successful in healing through prayer is the same thing which is required to be successful in Evangelism: first, get all the objective facts; second, take it to Jesus in prayer through worship and praise and in Spirit and in truth; third, ask yourself if the subjective revelation lines up with the Bible; fourth, ask yourself whether or not it lines up with all proven facts not mentioned in the Bible but not contrary to it; finally, fifth, if all four criterion agree then pray only for the person’s physical need as Jesus instructs you to through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the only one who knows the root cause of a physical problem. Therefore, only as we let go of our own presuppositions and strife concerning each individual healing need and approach Jesus as a child knowing nothing, through worship and praise and in spirit and truth, can we be able, as Jesus allows, to come to a knowledge of what the root problem is. Once the root problem is known we are then able to more intelligently approach Jesus as to how He wants us to pray so that there is permanent healing and not just temporary relief.

For example, I had a brother come to me once for prayer for a stomach ailment (objective facts) that he was suffering. I started off by praying, "Lord Jesus show me how to pray?" I then began worshiping and praising Jesus, looking to Him for His guidance. The Lord then gave me a word of knowledge and said to me, "Just pray for him in the Spirit." According to Jesus’ instructions I began praying in the Spirit for this brother. After I had been praying in the Spirit for about a minute I looked up and saw this frown come over my friends face. I stopped praying and asked him what was wrong. He replied, "The Lord just gave me the interpretation of your tongue and the interpretation is that my stomach problems are centered in resentment toward a brother I know and that if I will forgive that brother and let go of that resentment, my stomach problems will cease." This agrees with Scripture (Ps 103) and facts outside of Scripture in the fields of medicine and psychology.

Now, I could have just prayed, "Jesus heal this brother’s stomach in the name of Jesus." Jesus might have immediately taken away the symptoms, but two hours later his stomach problems would have been back because I would have prayed amiss, not having gotten to the root of the problem.

There are some other very important Biblical factors that need to be discussed if we are to fully understand the proper approach to prayer for healing. These elements will be dealt with extensively in Section 5 titled, "The Ministry Work of Jesus;" and Section 6 titled, "Receiving the Ministry Work of Jesus." Therefore I will wait until that section to go into other case counseling examples of prayer for healing with in my own experience so as to relate these other factors in those cases.

When we look to Jesus for instruction as to how to pray for a person’s healing, and not assume any reason for the why, Jesus can then through prayer lead us to the root cause of the problem. Then, as the Lord leads, we can get them to the right doctor for proper medication, or if Jesus leads, pray for an immediate healing right on the spot and have a permanent cure because we got to the root or heart of the physical problem.

The constitution of man is complicated and so we can never assume by appearance a reason for a person’s physical problems. Only Jesus knows the root cause of any physical problem and so only as we look to Him through worship and praise in Spirit and truth can we be sure of being most effective in praying for a physical problem. Jesus is the person’s answer to his physical need, not we ourselves.

Harold Hill in his book, How to Live Like a King’s Kid, gives many examples of complicated physical problems and shows how through Jesus-dependence, no physical problem is so complicated that it cannot be dealt with when approached properly through prayer in the way discussed in this chapter. For this reason I also included this book as part of this school of Evangelism.

In the medical professions, or in counseling, or psychiatry certainly the objective facts must be taken into consideration first, but at the same time it is a well known fact that a major part of people’s physical problems are centered psychologically and spiritually.²¹ Therefore once all the objective facts have been taken into consideration the doctor or counselor should then take it to Jesus through prayer so Jesus can show them any hidden factors they are unable to see on the surface because of the limits of science. This will lead to a more proper diagnosis which will then lead to the right cure the first time instead of possible weeks, months, and years of practicing psychiatry and medicine amiss. The Bible states that, There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Prov 14:12). Jesus very clearly supported the profession of medicine (Matt 9:12, Col 4:14), but He did not support the profession of medicine without prayer.

A case in point given in the Old Testament was about King Asa of Judah. King Asa looked to everything but Yehovah for the answer to his needs. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, 2 Chronicles 16:12-13 records:

"Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek Yehovah, but the physicians. So Asa slept with his fathers, having died in the forty-first year of his reign."

For two years Asa went to the physicians for help concerning his disease, but because both he and the physicians did not take the Lord’s counsel into consideration through prayer he went through tremendous suffering and died. Without the Lord’s counsel the physicians were not able to diagnose the problem correctly or come to the right solution for a cure of the disease. This was because they were only treating the symptoms, not the real cause or problem which in this case was spiritual. To practice medicine and counseling without prayer is extremely dangerous and a gross sin against man and God plain and simple. It is pride and arrogance and malpractice at its fullest.