An Effective Healing Prayer

There is much division within the church concerning the subject of healing. Some claim the Bible only promises spiritual healing, not physical. If this were true, then why bother with putting those who are sick and afflicted on a church prayer list?

When we are praying for someone who is suffering from an illness or an injury, do we pray that God will make that person sicker or do we pray that the injury develops into something life threatening so that person can depart this world sooner? After all, heaven is a much better place than here, so shouldn't we help speed them on their way? This line of thinking is offensive to us.

We always pray for the sick and injured to recover. Death is the result of a curse and the Bible calls death the last enemy to be defeated. When a person is cured of an injury or a sickness it does not change the fact that they still have an appointment with death. "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment," Hebrews 9:27

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10. The primary purpose of restoring our physical bodies to good health is so we can have a fuller, richer life to give us more opportunities to give glory to God's name. When we are cured of an illness or injury, it extends our lives but it does not change our appointment with death. In John Chapter 9, Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. The disciples asked Jesus if that man was born blind because of some sin in his family. Jesus said, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him". Verse 3.

Healing reveals the work of God in us. This is supposed to be a witness to the world of the power of God and get the world to believe and trust in Him.

It is my belief that many who are afflicted with some kind of sickness cannot overcome the attacks of the enemy of their body because they haven't been taught how to pray effectively. This article is based on the teachings of John Cahill, who visited our church and taught us how to have effective restorative prayers. I had never heard scriptures taught this way before. After putting this type of prayer into practice, I can tell you my wife, Carolyn, was cured of the condition called gastroparesis. In layman's terms, gastroparesis is a paralyzed stomach. Food is not properly digested causing the afflicted person to throw up all the time. The result of this is malnutrition and slow starvation. My wife was literally starving to death.

From November of 2014 until May of 2015 she had lost 62 lbs. There were a few times I thought death would get the victory over Carolyn. I was contemplating what life would be like without her. Mother's Day was the last day that she threw up. Now Carolyn can eat whatever she wants and has gained back 13 lbs. She is even concerned that she may gain too much weight back. She was completely healed without any logical medical explanation for the miraculous restoration of her health. What cured her? I can tell you it was not medicine. It was a simple but effective prayer along with faith.

Before I tell you what the prayer is, let's examine the basis for the prayer and why it is such an effective prayer. Many churches had Carolyn on their prayer lists and I am certain those prayers helped with her recovery, but Carolyn had to do her part for the complete recovery to take place.

Let's examine why we get sick in the first place. When God gave the law to Israel, they were supposed to keep the commandments so God could bless them. The Israelites failed miserably. They were not able to keep the law because they all were born under the curse of sin. All people have a sin nature thanks to the sin of Adam and Eve. Man's very nature is to rebel against the laws of God. The more laws that were imposed, the greater the rebellion.

The result of this rebellion was the curse of the law instead of God's blessings. Deuteronomy outlines the results of the curse of the law in Chapter 8.

Verse 35 states, " The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

The result of this curse is skin cancers, acne, leprosy, boils, and any other skin affliction you can think of. Yet, the curse goes even deeper.

Verse 59 states, "then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses."

This is why we get colds, flus, bubonic plague, cancers, measles, mumps, aids, and many other life threatening diseases. We are under the curse of the law. The curse does not stop here.

Verse 61 states, "Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed."

This tells us that the curse of the law will bring even rare and unknown diseases until our bodies are killed by those diseases. The curse of the law paints a pretty dismal picture and doesn't give us much hope. Galatians 3:10 sums up the curse of the law for us, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Israel taught us that it is impossible for man to perfectly keep all of God's laws, so mankind suffers the curse of the law. However, there is good news. We call it the gospel. We know that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin and my sin so we do not have to worry about spending an eternity separated from God in a place called hell. Does the sacrifice Jesus made go beyond saving us from an eternity in hell? Is there a benefit for the life we are currently in? Consider the following verses, Isa 53:5 "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." Most churches take this statement "by His stripes we are healed" as meaning we are spiritually healed but this has no bearing on our physical selves. However, consider this verse, Matt. 8:17 "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.”

Christ "bore our sicknesses". This means even our "sicknesses" were nailed to the cross. I know that when we die, there is no more sickness, sorrow, tears, or death if we have trusted in what Christ did on the cross to take away our sins. Can this not also apply to our physical ailments as well?

We have established that we get sick because we are under the curse of the law but Galatians 13 - 14 states, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

Chris has redeemed us from the curse of the law. So why do we still get sick? I think one of the reasons is that we simply don't know how to say an effective healing prayer. We will run to ministers who claim to have the power to cure people, but many of those people are just running scams. What is the missing ingredient that makes our prayers to get ourselves back to good health ineffective?

I believe that Psalms 107:2 answers this question, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,"

We, the believers in Christ who make up the body called the Church, are simply not saying we have been redeemed. This is the key to an effective prayer for bringing us back to good health.

This is the prayer that I led my wife, Carolyn, in every night: First, we thanked the Lord for the curse of gastroparesis because gastroparesis was a result of the curse of the law. Second, we thanked the Lord for redeeming us from the curse of gastroparesis thanks to His sacrifice on the cross. Finally, we ended the prayer by saying, "For I am the redeemed of the Lord." Psalms 107 states, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so."

Carolyn has been and is completely healed. Did God do it? Who else could have done it? This reminds me of the verse in John Chapter 9 when the Pharisees were asking the blind man questions about Jesus. His answer was, "One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” Verse 25.

I am writing this article for all who are afflicted with an injury or a disease. You can say an prayer that can restore your health. If you say this prayer and are healed, remember to give God the glory.

The Healing Prayer

Thank you Lord for the curse of (whatever you are suffering from).

Thank you Lord for redeeming the curse of (whatever you are suffering from).

For I am the redeemed of the Lord. Let the healing begin.

Copyright 2015 by Gary Goodworth