On Praying for Others

One of the encouraging reponses I get to God in the ICU and Prayer, Medicine and Miracles, is people wanting to pray with others, particularly for healing. They often email me with questions. How do I start? How can I be sure that God is calling me to this? What happens if I pray for healing and nothing happens?

Well, here are some of my thoughts and my experience.

If you feel prompted to pray for healing, go for it. The only response to any gift that God gives us is to start to use it. And more often than not, once you take the plunge, you will know whether it is God or not. In my experience there have been many more times that I have ducked out of praying and discovered to my regret that it was God prompting me, than times when I have prayed and thought afterwards that God was not prompting that prayer. Sometimes it’s better to say, “I’ll pray unless You tell me not to.” It stops you from chickening out!

The big thing is not to get hung up on performance. It’s not up to us to heal. All we can do is to be obedient and to pray and leave the results in God’s hands.

We don’t have to explain any lack of healing. I just do what I think God has called me to do and leave it up to Him. When Dorelle and I visit the hospital to pray, my prayer beforehand is always, “Lord, let me, like Paul, not come with fine sounding words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” (1Cor 2:4) So far we haven’t seen any dramatic healing while we’re there, but we’ve seen plenty of people weeping as we’ve prayed, with a sense of the presence of God, and we’ve seen others open up and start sharing where, before we prayed they were quiet and reserved.

We often can’t see what God is doing. Very often the healing is internal, which is more long lasting than a physical one. Nevertheless, God healed physically as well, so I do long for that and expect it.

When John Wimber, one of the most influential people in praying with signs and wonders following, started to pray for the sick, for the first six months, he saw no-one healed. Then suddenly, God broke through and from then on his ministry was filled with extraordinary power. The more you pray, the bolder you will get and the more results you’ll see.

I’d love to hear about the experience of others in this field.