Earlier, I said there were 16 avenues of divine healing found in the Word. The third avenue of healing found in the Bible is through “declaration’: This can be found in mark 11:24:
“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
At first sight, you might ask yourself what the difference is between declaration and prayer. Aren’t they the same? Not exactly. In prayer, you are asking God the Father to fulfil your request, in the Name of Jesus. In effect, you are presenting a petition to the Father in Jesus’ Name. That is prayer. Jesus said,” whatever you ask for in prayer…” like we previously discussed.
Take a look with me, however, at Acts 9:32-35:
” 32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
Notice that Peter didn’t pray in this account: He simply made a declaration; “ Jesus Christ heals you…” In more than one instance, I have spoken to pain or to a disease and commanded it to leave, in Jesus Name. Strictly speaking, this is not prayer. You are not addressing God, you are addressing a situation or sickness in the Name of Jesus, using your God-delegated authority in Christ. You’ll see also that this ties in with Acts 22:13, where Paul is giving an account of his healing:
12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
Again, you will note that Ananias did not pray, in this account. He simply made a declaration to Paul. So this is the third avenue the Lord has provided. Do you have the boldness to use it? What have your experiences been in the area of declaration?
Wouldn’t you say this is the same as a prophetic word? It seems to me to be so, speaking to the dry bones sort of thing.
Hi Ryan,
This is a great question also and since the Bible describes prophecy as being for edification, encouragement and comfort, one could interpret it that way. I was looking at the future element of prophecy in healing ministry, which speaks to a future event, obtained from the mind of God e.g., “tomorrow morning, at 8am, you’ll wake up healed…”.
That is different from a declaration e.g., “The Lord heals you”. There is no foretelling then – it is simply a declaration. So the difference is essentially the futuristic aspect of prophecy vs. the ‘now’ aspect of the declaration.
Shouldn’t you call this healing commanding or speaking to the sickness or even to specific body parts to be healed?
I recently trained via The Elijah Challenge and they use commands in healing. See my intro page which leads to their site:
http://www.newchristian.org.uk/elijahchallenge.html