Christians are urged to pray for others through the healing power of Jesus Christ. You simply have to risk believing that Jesus continues to bring healing of body, soul and spirit. And also that as a Christian, God can and will empower you to pray not only for the healing of others, but also for your own healing.
There is a “Process of Healing Prayer,” which can assist your efforts. Take note: The American Medical Association has endorsed healing prayer and touch as a “complementary therapy” with proven efficacy when used in conjunction with the standard forms of medical healing. Such prayer can make a real difference, and sometimes the difference. Here it is:
A. Analogy of threefold process of exercise: warm up, exercise, then cool down. All three are important for healing prayer.
B. Preparation for healing prayer: the warm up:
1. Turn to God
2. Invite God’s presence. “God, come and be present to, with and in us.”
3. Praise God. “God, You are the Source of love, light, healing and wholeness.”
4. Pray for faith. “God, increase our faith; we believe, help us in our unbelief.”
5. Pray for protection. “God, protect us and our loved ones from the evil one.”
6. Pray for guidance. “God guide us to do Your good and holy will.”
7. Pray for Christ to take charge of prayer and entire healing process.
C. Healing prayer: the exercise:
1. Turn to the one to be prayed for; establish full contact.
2. Open channel of “fellow-feeling” or compassion or affection.
3. Ask the other what is to be prayed for, listening with one ear to them and one ear to God.
4. Enter into prayer together, whether with or without laying on of hands.
5. Visualize Christ taking charge and healing; image the person you are praying for being healed; see them as whole and functioning as healed; see the Lord working through you — and don’t be surprised if you sense the Spirit warmth, light, and electrical-like power coming through your hands. After all, you are the body of Christ, and Christ is using your hands.
5. Pray as the Spirit moves, with moments of silence as well as of speech, knowing that God does not need the words, but we do. Take your time. Think of prayer as a “soaking in” of the Spirit, rather than as an immediate dousing, followed by an “over and out.”
6. Anoint with holy oil or water (optional).
D. After healing prayer: the cool down:
1. Ask about the current state of the other.
2. Listen, again with one ear to the other and one to God.
3. Assure the other of the continuing effect and effectiveness of prayer, for the healing can and often does take place later.
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