The role of intercession has always been critical in church history. Webster’s Dictionary describes intercession as “prayer, petition, or entreaty in favor of another”. Pentecost was ushered in through prayer and intercession (Acts 2); Paul and Barnabas were also selected and sent off the same way, with fasting (Acts 13). Intercession is selfless prayer and with fasting, is doubly potent. If a church chooses to become a Healing Church, I believe it is ‘mission impossible’ without intercessors.
Actually, such a renewed focus will require three levels of prayer organization. First and foremost is a small core of intercessors who will pray for the new ministry on a daily basis. These are the most important. Due to the amounts of time they will need to spend praying individually and corporately, a pastor cannot be a full member of this group. The next level is a larger prayer group that meets regularly (perhaps weekly) and offers prayer for the healing ministry as one of their activities. Last is regular prayer in the church congregation for healing.
Back to the small core of believers, frankly, like Gideon’s 300, these are the most important – many of the miracles and healings you will get during the day will have been obtained at night by these faithful ones. Intercession is powerful and if you have members with a passion for intercession in your church, be very glad. Sadly, few of our churches feel the need for intercessors and all-night prayer has become an oddity, replaced by activity. If you are called to intercession personally, seek out the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as it will help you immensely.
The next issue that is critical in this renewal is training. Poorly trained healing workers are the best tool to drive people away from your church, never to return. They can do so much damage. If you went in to see a doctor and was told that the person seeing you was a person who “had a passion for medicine”, but had undergone no formal training, you would probably head for the exits. However, the attitude in churches seems to be to throw in folks who have a “passion for healing”. What a huge mistake we make! Workers who couldn’t rub two scriptures together or have unresolved issues are dangerous in healing ministry.
I’ll say it again; any church seeking a healing ministry must train their workers. If you cannot train your workers, get a trained person in to do it for you. I will discuss training in my next post, but some key areas are (a) Personality, including compassion (b) Communication Skills (c) Christian Character and (d) Knowledge of the Word, especially regarding healing. Over time, it is also essential that they discern their spiritual gifts.
