How To Pray For Healing
A letter from Pastor Mark Dahle
Over the past two decades I have seen so many types of healings that it has led me to an inescapable conclusion: People can be healed of anything. There are no conditions that are too difficult for God. I’ve seen people healed of cocaine and heroin addiction. I’ve seen people who were healed of back pain, of cancer and of deformities. Anything can be healed.
More remarkably, you don't need an expert. In a short time you can become more effective in praying for healing -- a few simple techniques will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your own prayers. You can pray for yourself or for others, for people nearby or far away.
Prayer is not a substitute for medicine. You should continue to pursue the best medical advice you can find. But as you do, don't neglect prayer, a treatment path that is free, available to all, and has no negative side effects.
You can easily become more effective
Many years ago, I had a headache that never let up. I even had it when I slept. Some days the pain was almost more than I could stand. If you’d said I could be free of headaches for the rest of my life, I’d gladly have paid thousands of dollars. But my healing was free. I learned what was causing my headaches, and ever since I have been released from all that pain.
I've seen someone released from the pain of arthritis with one ten-second prayer.
I know a young man who was healed from drug addiction after just one prayer.
I watched a group visit the home of a woman who had cancer. The group had never prayed for a cancer patient before. But after one visit, their friend was healed. The cancer never returned.
I watched a group of people pray for a man with leg braces who could barely walk. The next year I saw him easily walk into a room with the braces in his hand, put them "I used to need these."
I can’t predict the variety of ailments that people will be released from as a result of your prayers. But I know the power of God is enormous. When you join your prayers to God’s intentions to heal the universe, amazing things will happen.
Prayer is more like
baseball
than it's like a light switch
Many people quit praying after a while because they want prayer to work like a light switch: You flip the switch and the light comes on. People quickly learn that prayer isn't like that. Sometimes it "works" and sometimes it doesn't. Discouraged by cases where prayer seems to be ineffective, some people quit. As a result, they don't later experience cases where amazing things happen.
Life is complex. Prayer is more like baseball than it's like a light switch. When Babe Ruth came to the plate, you never knew in advance what might happen. He often struck out, swinging and missing three times in a row. But if you watched long enough, you could be sure you'd see a home run. Nobody told Babe Ruth, "You need to quit. You have too many at bats where you swing and miss."
No! It's expected in baseball that great players won't succeed in every attempt. But you also know that if they keep at it, amazing things will happen.
When you pray, you won't be able to predict in advance which times you'll "swing and miss" and which times you'll hit home runs. But if you persist in times where "nothing has worked (yet!)," you'll see amazing things happen. You'll see people healed of cancer, back pain and life-long conditions. By your prayers.
Today is the day to respond
Now is the time to start helping people and to start getting practice.
Here's a few simple tips for getting started. And remember: People with a low success rate have great results when they persist.
1) Ask God’s power and love to flow through you.
2) Pray every chance you get. Be open for opportunity.
3) Ask people what they want.
4) Listen for clues of what God wants to do. These clues can show up as intuitions or as feelings in your body. If you experience something, ask the other person if they experience that.
5) Ask permission to touch the person’s head or shoulders while you pray. It's okay if they say no, but energy is often transmitted by touch.
6) Pray what God’s word teaches, not your doubts.
7) Tell the disease or the person's body what to do. Don't hedge. Be direct.
8) Ask people how they're doing and what they're feeling for clues of how to continue.
9) Don’t quit early.
10) Get in an environment that encourages practice and has people who can help you improve. Many churches have healing teams you can join and learn from.
You can pray for healing
Here's ten reasons why you want to
1) Unlike other treatments, prayer is free.
2) Unlike other treatments, prayer has no bad side effects. None.
3) Unlike other treatments, prayer takes very little time.
4) Because of those first three, you have no risk in trying prayer.
5) Many times you'll be able to see people recover after just one prayer.
6) In cases where nothing seems to happen after your first prayer, you can easily learn what to do next.
7) Like learning how to ride a bicycle, your initial efforts to learn how to pray for healing might feel awkward. But once you master the skill, you never forget it. You can use the skill any time, any where, for any one.
8) The world is full of people who need your prayers.
9) Put the name of someone you love in the blank: ___________ can be healed.
10) Put the name of a country you care about in the blank: ___________ can be healed.
And here's a bonus reason: You can start right now, with no further training. Who's someone that needs to get better? Ask God to heal them! Be specific.
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Mark Dahle is pastor of La Jolla Lutheran Church, 14 miles north of downtown San Diego, California. He has seen people healed from cancer, back pain, heroin addiction, and a wide variety of other diseases. His popular workshops on healing range from 45-minute introductions to the topic to four-day retreats. Mark teaches people with no experience to effectively pray for others in one or two hours. To schedule a workshop, please write. |