Mission Trip Prayer & Authority | Ep 5

A brief explanation of spiritual warfare and healing prayer Spiritual Warfare:   In closed countries there is an obvious presence of spiritual warfare that may seem different than what you may have experienced in the US. Simply put, Spiritual Warfare is the presence of demonic activity that attacks an individual, group, church, or ministry to try to thwart the work of the Gospel. We can be attacked or tormented by spiritual forces in a real and tangible ways while trying to minister. In many places around the world, people are much more open to this reality than we (westerners) are. At first this may seem unusual or scary, but by biblical standards it is completely normal.   “Casting out demons, or exorcism, was a regular and frequent part of the ministry of Jesus, and he taught and commanded his followers to do the same. This command has never been abrogated, and the ministry of deliverance should be even more important today, when the forces of evil are so rampant.”[1]   We can see in scripture many examples of the presence of dark forces as well as our need to pray effectively for the dismissal of the presence of evil.   Ephesians 6:12- For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We have to acknowledge the real presence of evil. 2 Corinthians 10:2-4For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.4 For theweapons ofour warfare are not of the flesh but havedivine powerto destroy strongholds. Christ has given us tools/weapons in prayer to destroy the work of the enemy. Luke 10:17-20 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord,even the demons are subject to us in your name!”18 And he said to them,“I saw Satanfall like lightning from heaven.19 Behold, I have given you authorityto tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power ofthe enemy, andnothing shall hurt you. Evil is subject to the name of Jesus. Jesus has given us authority to pray in His name. Mark 1:38-40 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. Demons were present IN the synagogues. Faithful people and churches can be affected by demons. Mark 3:14-1614 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach15 and have authority to cast out demons.  We (like the disciples) are called to preach AND have authority to cast out demons. 1 John 4:4Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The underlined portion references the Holy Spirit that is in you. The Holy Spirit power in your is actually more powerful than the evil (demons) that are in this world.     Authority Matters In Spiritual Warfare   In the Luke 10:17-20 (above), Christ tells His listeners that He is giving them “authority” over all the power of the enemy. This means that there is a spiritual hierarchy that is all under the headship and authority of God through Jesus (Matthew 28:18). Christ has given us authority to pray over physical and spiritual places. Our authority is not limited and is effective when praying for othersas Jesus did.[2]   The physical world mirrors the authority of the spiritual realm:   Authority in the church: The head pastor has authority in the church andis the leader.[3]In order to honor his/her position, we should only teach or train things that are welcomed or approved by the pastor. This has both physical and spiritual implications. Authority over your hotel room: When entering any hotel room, you can pray for cleansing of the space spiritually. When renting a hotel room, the occupant has the legal right to occupy the space. If previous guests have invited any evil

Transcript

Hey everybody, welcome to the ever free podcast.

My name is Keith Peeler and I'm here with my amazing wife Megan Peeler and we are all about prayer, aren't we? 

We really are.

And the purpose of the ever free podcast is to be naturally supernatural as we share stories, biblical principles, concepts and tools that are going to help you find freedom in your relationship with Christ.

In this episode, we're talking about what it's like to be on the mission field, how to pray with authority, pray for physical healing and a brief intro to prayer walking.

Hope you enjoy it.

Okay friends, so today what we're talking about is the idea of spiritual warfare on the mission field.

And so many, many years ago, Megan and I went to a closed country south of the United States and experienced some very tangible warfare.

I remember one particular experience.

We were in a hotel room and as we were praying with the team that we were with, I had almost a vision or a sense.

And I don't know if I saw it with my eyes or I just could just know it was...

This is the hard part about like remembering back 12 years ago, but I remember feeling like I saw darting eyeballs, like eyeballs and I had this feeling like we're being watched.

In this particular country, that was a very strong reality both in the physical sense, we were being watched in this communist place, but then in the spiritual sense, we also had that feeling.

So we're putting this podcast together for you if you're headed on a mission trip, if you're going into a closed country or a country where spiritual things are more a part of their worldview.

If you're from the West like we are, our scientific worldview tends to overcome sometimes the worldview of spiritual things.

So we have to recognize the worldview of the people that we're going to minister to.

So we put together a few ideas about what this is.

And the first thing I want to read to you is a quote from the Tyndale Bible dictionary and it says this, and I think this is on page 373 of the Tyndale when discussing demons.

"...casting out demons or exorcism was a regular and frequent part of the ministry of Jesus, and he taught and commanded his followers to do the same.

This command has never been abrogated, and the ministry of deliverance should be even more important today when evil forces are so rampant."

So this is...

That is not what I was taught in Bible school.

But it's in the Tyndale Bible dictionary here.

Holy cow.

That's a lot.

It is a lot.

But it is true.

As we have said in the beginning, we are continuationists, meaning we believe the work of the Holy Spirit to be alive today in the same way that it was alive in scripture and in the times of Christ walking on the earth.

So that is our theological background.

If you have a different theological background, we welcome you, but just recognize that you may have a difference there that you can sort out with Jesus and with your pastor and with those folks that you have trusted.

We really believe in authority.

You're gonna hear us talking about authority.

So wherever you are coming from, whoever you're coming from, we really recommend that you speak with your pastor, you speak with other wise men and women in your life to really discuss this so that you can be under their authority with total, you know, openness.

And we have nothing to hide here and we have nothing to fear.

We're just simply sharing the things that we've learned in these last 10 years of being in this ministry.

So thinking of that, I brought up a couple verses.

Some may be familiar to you all.

The first one is probably most familiar, wouldn't you think? 

I think so.

Ephesians 6, 12.

Yeah, why don't you read that, babe? 

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

So we recognize this from a scriptural standpoint, but I don't know if I did many years ago.

Now I do recognize the very real presence of cosmic powers of this present darkness.

That's just, I'm reading from you, Ephesians.

So the first point we want to make is that we have to acknowledge the very real presence of evil, not just within ourselves, not just our sin, okay? 

But we have to acknowledge that there is a presence of evil tangibly in the world, in the spiritual realm.

And that's what Ephesians is.

Why don't you read now 2 Corinthians 10, 2-4, babe?

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Okay, so right out of Corinthians, Christ has given us these tools, these weapons, in prayer to destroy the work of the enemy.

How do you feel about that, babe? 

Empowered.

But then I'm like, okay, so show me how to use these weapons, Lord.

Well, that's a good point.

I'll kind of do a quick tangent here.

If you're listening here, the main thing that we have learned is to just trust God.

To hear God is to listen to Him, and the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf when we don't know what to pray.

So when we're feeling overwhelmed or confused, or like we don't know how to do this, like, okay, God, show me.

That's a great prayer.

Help, help, help.

And you know, I mean, God used different examples of healing, even in the Bible, when He was showing the tools and the weapons that He used.

I mean, for healing, He used dirt to heal someone's vision and their eyes.

So I feel like He's creative, and He wants us to be just as creative and trust that the Holy Spirit's going to lead us sometimes.

Maybe to even do bizarre things in prayer.

Jesus did unusual things.

He did.

And the purpose was to get people's attention.

And so if God is asking you to do something unusual, try it.

Right? 

Step out.

Okay, here's the next verse that we were reading.

Read Luke 10, 17 through 20.

The 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.

And He said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.

So this is a very clear verse that says that evil, demons, dark angels, whatever you want to call the presence of supernatural things in this world that are not of God, it is all subject to the name of Jesus.

And Jesus has given us authority to pray in His name.

And I think this is where some people get nervous because it's like, but I'm not Jesus.

No, you're not.

And you don't have any of the power of Jesus, but you do have authority in His name to pray in the way He did.

And not only do you have that privilege, but it's a command.

We are called to pray on behalf of one another, with one another, and for the sake of dismantling whatever's getting in the way of our lives and the life of Jesus.

All right, now this is from Mark 1, 38 through 40.

And He said to them, let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.

And He went throughout all of Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Okay, now this is something that we don't like in the church, okay? 

The demonic was present in the synagogue.

Now, this may make you uncomfortable, but unfortunately it is in our scriptures that this is where Jesus went.

He went to the synagogues and there was a demonic presence in some of them or in the people or in the places themselves.

So we have to acknowledge the fact that demonic realm, the spiritual realm, is a reality.

I was speaking yesterday.

We're hosting a fundraiser in Dallas and I was inviting some friends from Dallas to this meeting and we were talking and the woman I was speaking with said, I feel like I'm just drinking from a fire hose.

Like, how did I read these scriptures before and not see this? 

And the reason she's seeing it is because there is tangible evidence in her life now.

She and her husband are engaging in a ministry in their church and stepping into this ministry, she has felt the effect.

There's what she called pushback or there's tension because of this, they're stepping out in faith to do this ministry.

And as we were talking about tools she could use in prayer, she was extremely thankful at how helpful actually understanding this idea of authority is.

Alright, so Mark 3, 14 through 16.

And he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

So again, we just like the disciples are called to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

And then our last verse for this section is 1 John 4, 4.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

This is my favorite scripture.

I think this one is the scripture that we quote probably more than anything.

1 John 4, 4.

Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.

Well who's the he that's in you? 

The Holy Spirit.

Yeah, and so the Holy Spirit that's in us.

Yeah, it's empowering.

It's allowing us to step into freedom.

It's giving us the ability and the authority to pray in Jesus name with power.

Absolutely.

And so this leads us to another thought.

So again, this podcast is intended for folks that are maybe going into a country or in a place, it could be in our own country actually here in the United States too, where spiritual warfare is more prevalent, okay, and a way of praying and submitting to the authority of God is understanding this authority.

So babe, why don't you walk us through just an understanding of authority.

I know we've talked about this, but we're going to flesh this out even more for the sake of going into a new place so you're not in your neighborhood, you're not at your church, you're going into a place.

So how does authority really help or the understanding of authority help us engage in those places with confidence? 

So when we're working under the authority of the church, we need to understand that we are submitting to the pastor and we want to only do what the pastor approves in that body.

And it's really important that you're not going to overstep your pastor or go over him in any way to what he believes.

Especially when you're going into another church, like when we're on that mission field, like the trip that we're going on next week or I'm going on next week, we're actually partnering with the church.

So we don't want to come in outside of that invitation.

Right.

And you know, there's all different faiths that have all different understandings and beliefs about spiritual warfare and about authority.

And so we want to really respect where that pastor's at and bless them.

And so another authority that matters that we need to know about is if you're going on a mission field and you're staying in a hotel room.

Sometimes when you walk into a hotel room, if you're sensitive to spiritual things, you might walk in and feel unsettled or uncomfortable.

And so this is when you're renting a hotel room, you actually have authority as an occupant of that room to ask the Lord to come and cleanse your hotel room of any previous stuff that happened in that room.

Go ahead.

Well, and what, you know, to that example of those darting eyes, when we were there in this closed country 12 years ago, we didn't have that understanding.

So we felt a victim to the environment until we learned this principle that we have the authority.

So we could have just prayed over that hotel room because we're the legal tenants of that room to be able to cleanse it.

And it wouldn't have had any effect on us.

Right.

And in that situation, it wasn't just you that was feeling that heaviness.

I mean, there was a group of us that were in the room feeling the exact same thing.

So I think just being aware that when you, I mean, renting a car even, not just a department, like that matters too.

So taking authority over that car is important.

Another type of authority that we have is authority in our home.

So whenever we're entering our home, we can just ask the Lord to cleanse the space and anything that tried to walk in with someone has to leave in Jesus name.

And so there's a way that we can enter into our home and just, I mean, we believe there's a spiritual car wash that washes people off when they walk through our doors.

Yeah.

We, I mean, I think you're hearing that, like, I like to pray with pictures a lot.

And so, you know, that car wash, I prayed when we first moved in, I did this at our last house in Dallas was, all right, Holy Spirit, would you just put a Holy Spirit car wash at the front door? And, and anybody that walks in here is just cleansed and blessed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Right.

So we have found that to be a place of peace in our home.

So people walk in and they say, wow, there's just something about the atmosphere in your home that feels peaceful.

Right.

We get that a lot.

Yeah.

And I, I say that's because we've taken authority over our space.

And because we are the homeowners, we have that authority.

So I would bless you guys to do that, to go into your homes and pray over your space and ask the Lord to anoint it and cleanse it of anything that was there before.

Yeah.

And so now that's your home.

But then as you're going on a mission trip, now, when you go into, if you're invited into another person's home, how does authority work if I'm going into somebody else's house? When we're going into someone else's house, we are blessing them.

We want to really focus on blessing and not binding or casting out anything that's there previously, because we don't have the authority because we're not the homeowners.

Right.

And so I think the best way to walk into someone else's house is just to focus on your personal protection, your protection in Jesus name, and then also the blessing of the home.

Yeah.

And then when you're praying with them, you know, if you're visiting a new person, if you're sharing the message of the gospel, they may ask you to pray for them.

And in that case, that, that permission is the authority that you need to pray.

Right.

Right.

Now, in some homes, Santa Ria has been a part of their home if you're overseas.

And so when dealing with that, we're no expert on that particular religion, but I know this, I know that part of the rituals of that religion is for spirits to indwell a person.

Okay.

So my Christian worldview would recognize that those spirits are demons.

And so if, if Santa Ria has been welcomed in a home, then you have to ask the person who's in that home to say, Hey, do you, do you still want to submit to this other religion? Do you want to submit to these other rituals that you've practiced? 

If they say no, that's permission, right? They're recognizing, no, I don't.

Now I want to give my life and my heart to Jesus and submit to his authority.

So when that authority is then given from another religion or from, from something that even if there's, there's been voodoo or witchcraft or something else in the home besides the Santa Ria religion, then when they're ready to say yes to Jesus, they are, they're now submitting that.

And then you have that permission to kind of come alongside them and to pray for them and to pray with them.

So, you know, just as a basic example for you, like if you're going into a home, you know, we, we might pray like this, right? 

There's no magic formula or words there, but we want to, we want to honor where we are, we want to honor the people and then recognize the authority of Jesus.

So, you know, we might pray something like, okay, in the name of Jesus, we've been given authority to pray over this home.

So we renounce any curses, blood packs, agreements or rituals that may have invited evil into this home.

We are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and now apply his blood to every area of this home and to the occupants of this home.

The blood of Jesus has the power to bind the work of the enemy and to break every chain that is present.

So any dark force that is present here must leave.

You are no longer welcome or invited into this home.

And by the authority of Christ, you must now leave and never return.

We send you to the throne of Jesus Christ right now and forbid you to enter any other place.

We pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

So here's what I'm doing when I'm praying that, right? 

I'm just acknowledging the authority of Christ.

I'm acknowledging the power of his blood and we're simply, that blood is the atonement for our sin and it breaks those curses and chains.

So we can bind the enemy with the blood of Jesus in that way.

Now you can use your own words, you know, asking the Holy Spirit to lead you is the best way to pray for people.

And on that mission field, when you're heightened and your awareness is heightened, you're probably going to be praying in the morning or the evening for the people that you're serving.

You're going to have a much higher expectation and focus on that.

Now there are other issues around physical spaces.

What would you want to say around like if you're in a physical place, how would you, let's say you're leaving someone's home and you're walking down the street, how would you pray as you're walking down the street? 

I would ask the Lord to give me words to bless the people.

And I would pray protection over myself, but also just ask the Lord what the street that I'm walking on, what the people are enduring, what they're going through, ask Him for words of encouragement to give to the people.

So I would specifically be listening on behalf of the stores and the people that I was passing.

Gotcha.

And in that right, like being aware and careful, like when we're in this closed country, we're not legally allowed to share the gospel in the streets, right? So we're not going to, we can't do that, but we can be invited into homes.

And so praying for invitation, praying for God to open the door physically, spiritually, supernaturally, is a way of asking the Lord to show us who we're supposed to minister to.

Well, and that's what prayer walking is.

It's asking the Lord to give us opportunities to minister to the people that He loves, God encounters.

So we are, there's an expectancy that we're going to see God directing us and leading us.

And we've done that in our old neighborhood.

We did that, we do that here.

So it's really a way to engage with God and listen to what He's asking us to do.

Yeah.

Why don't we flush that out a little bit? 

I mean, I think we're going to talk about podcasting a whole episode on prayer walking, but as a primer, again, if you're headed to on a mission field somewhere, the idea of prayer walking is simply this.

It is intentionally blessing and praying over the ground, over the territory, over the space that you are going into minister to.

And it's like, yeah, I think of the walls of Jericho, right? 

Like how did those walls come tumbling down? The Lord told them to march around the city seven times and to pray.

And the walls came tumbling down.

Such an interesting way to bring down a building.

It's not the worldly way.

Yeah.

Right? 

But God can lead us as we ask Him, God, what do you want us to do? 

And when that's happening, He might lead us to pray up and down a street, or you can prayer walk the church that you're going to be serving.

You can prayer walk the marketplace.

Or the schools.

I mean, we did that a lot, is to prayer walk our schools, asking the Lord to bless the school.

And we knew what was going on in the schools because our kids were there.

Sure.

So we were praying for the families of the schools and the teachers of the schools.

And see, I mean, we saw transformation happening in our schools because we walked and prayed.

But you're going to be on the field in a place where you don't know what's going on.

So as you're there, now you're asking the Holy Spirit to show you.

Now, if you're partnering with people on the ground, you can ask them as well, Hey, what's going on? 

What's your sense of what's going on in this neighborhood? 

Is there something that we can pray specifically for that is helpful? 

And again, that's where the partnership of being in line with people is a helpful thing.

So as we're prayer walking in an area, as we've just mentioned before, here's how we might prayer walk.

I'm walking down the street or I'm in a home or I'm at the church or whatever, whatever location I'm in, I can just say, all right, Holy Spirit, would you lead me? S

how me how to pray.

Now, when I'm praying this, I'm praying with my eyes open.

I'm praying, walking.

I'm not praying with my hands raised high, okay, making a scene.

I am, I'm incognito, okay? 

I'm trying to get into a neighborhood and see what's going on.

And that might prompt people to engage me.

So while we were in Dallas, we had a group of men from a church come to teach them about how to prayer walk.

And I had mapped out different streets of our neighborhood because I knew my neighborhood and I sent them out two by two, kind of that whole biblical example.

And I said, here's what you're going to do.

You're going to go out, you're going to pray with your eyes open.

You can speak blessings.

And as you're looking at different homes, pay attention to what stands out to you.

Let's say you're walking by a house and you notice an old beat up car.

What is that car telling you?

Is it telling you that this person's going to restore this old car? 

Because it's a classic and the idea of restoration may come to you.

Or are you seeing a beat up car where it's feeling really decrepit and broken down? 

Maybe the family is in a tough spot.

So that physical thing that you can see can be an inspiration of the Holy Spirit to lead you to pray.

I would and I would tell them, okay, you see that broken down car? 

It's at 444 Maple Street.

So you can pray a blessing.

Father, in the name of Jesus, would you bless 444 Maple Street? 

And Lord, if this is a broken down place or there's something going on here, would you redeem it? 

Would you bring it back to life? 

Would you fix what's broken there? 

That might be a very simple way to be led by the Spirit by physically engaging.

On that particular training, I had two men and as they were walking down the street, two guys came out of a house and said, hey, what are you guys doing? 

And so as I instructed them, I said, you know, don't lie about what you're doing.

Just, you know, don't project it.

But if someone asked, you share with them.

And so they were able to say, well, we're here from such and such church and we're, you know, partnering with Keith Peeler's ministry down the street here and we're just prayer walking over the neighborhood.

Is there anything that we can pray for for you? 

And the guy said, well, actually, I'm the pastor right down the street from that church.

So I'm really glad you guys are here.

Yes, here's how you can pray for our church in this neighborhood.

And they had this awesome chance encounter that the Lord had ordained because they were willing and available simply to be there on the street.

So prayer walking is really a lot of fun.

It doesn't have to be scary.

I know some of us are afraid of conflict or afraid of kind of putting ourselves out there.

But when we trust God to do that, amazing things can happen.

In fact, we had a story yesterday from a woman we were praying with.

And after we prayed with her, she had a repairman in her house, didn't she? 

That's right.

And as that repair, she asked the repairman to hang back.

Would you mind relaying that story anonymously, of course, to share with our listeners? Yeah, she had a strong impression that she needed to ask this repair guy if he had any thing that he needed healing for.

Like physically? 

Physically.

And he was like, yeah, I do.

Well, he wasn't going to say what he needed healing for.

So then she directly asked, and he needed a new kidney.

And so she prayed in faith over this guy.

And she said she was challenged, but blessed.

And he was challenged, but blessed.

And it was just a way for her to step out.

And she's actually encountering more and more words of knowledge that the Lord is giving her to step out and pray for people for healing, which is awesome.

And it's just paying attention to the promptings of God through the Holy Spirit.

Here she is, just a couple of guys fixing her dishwasher, a washing machine or something.

And as she's talking to them, she's like, you need to talk to that guy, is what's going on inside her head.

And she was obedient and she just tried it.

And here's the thing.

When you're doing that, you're blessing the person.

It's encouraging them that you're willing to share your faith in this way.

Even if they're not believers, you're engaging them in a way that can help them understand that you believe in a God who heals.

Which leads us to the next part of this teaching on physical healing.

Now, I did not grow up in a church where I saw physical healings happen with regularity.

But over the last 30 years of my life, I've prayed for people and sometimes I've prayed and I've seen them physically healed instantaneously.

Other times I've prayed and I have not.

And to this day, I don't have a solid answer for that.

There's no formula that I can pray to make sure it works.

But I do know that I want to pray for healing.

So here are some ideas about how you can pray for physical healing.

What would you say your experience has been like with physical healings? 

I think I felt fearful that, oh my gosh, what if they didn't get healed? 

Right.

And that was a huge hang up for me.

And I think that's a common thought for a lot of Christians is, well, what if God doesn't want to heal you? 

And here's what I know is that I need to remember what God called me to do.

And he called me to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons in his word.

And so when I'm praying in Jesus name, I'm not taking responsibility for the healing.

I'm just being obedient to what God's called me to.

That's great.

And I feel like when I do that, I'm surrendering the outcome to him.

And I'm not even carrying that burden of worry.

I'm just, I'm submitting it to the Lord and letting him do what he does.

Yeah.

And I think part of this is a worldview issue, right? 

Because this closed country that I'm going to, it is very common for them when visiting people in homes that they will ask, my daughter's sick, would you pray for her? 

I heard a testimony from this team about a man who prayed for a child who was dying and they prayed and then they had to leave the country the next day.

They went back a year later and that one year old kid, it was an infant at the time they prayed for him, that one year old kid was sitting in the lap of that mama when they went back the next year.

Praise God.

It was amazing.

And this is from, you know, kind of a normal stand up lawyer from Dallas, Texas, you know, but his prayer in faith, he was trusting God for that.

So Mark 5 34 says this, and he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well.

Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.

So there's an element of faith that goes along with this.

Now, our faith does not activate the miracle.

It's not our faith that does the healing, right? 

I've seen this abused in a lot of different places where someone will come in preaching healing and will tell somebody in a wheelchair, now get up and walk in Jesus name and they can't or they won't.

And I've seen a person, apostle or a prophet or a pastor, whatever they're calling themselves, say, where's your faith? 

And that is a form of spiritual abuse and will not be tolerated.

And so that if that's your posture, I would say, please check your heart, because this is not about what we can do.

It's about what the father is doing.

Luke 5 18 through 20.

And behold, some men were bringing on a bed, a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.

But finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up onto the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

And when he saw their faith, he said, your sins are forgiven.

And Jesus is tying that back there.

But when he saw their faith, and here these men, they're going through the physical exertion to break into a home through a ceiling and lower him down, because their faith was if Jesus can get in front of this man, then he can be healed.

And they did that out of their love and out of their encouragement.

Now I've got a quote from a book that I wanted to read from a good friend of ours named Bill Randall.

And here's the quote from his book called the life Jesus made possible.

One thing we see in Scripture again and again is God's concern for the sick.

Jesus showed that by healing people everywhere he went.

As Matthew recorded, Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

That's Matthew 4 23.

Ministering to the sick was such a significant part of Jesus ministry that nearly 40% of the gospel narratives deal with some aspect of healing.

Jesus sought out the sick, giving those who suffered his special attention.

No one can refute the fact that Jesus has always been tender towards those plagued with infirmity and disease.

That's I love that quote.

I love Bill's heart.

I know him.

He's amazing man.

But I love that quote because it succinctly puts into place and it challenges my worldview that Jesus heals people and that pushes me into that.

And I think when we have the posture of expectation, I think that's a really big word.

But when we have expectant hearts to see God do what he says he's going to do, the outcome is just amazing to watch.

And so we get to see the power of God on display when we pray with expectancy.

That's right.

And it's not, it's not our expectancy that activate.

We are not God.

We don't activate God's blessing, right? 

But it's our expectancy that leads us to pray and to partner.

God's already doing the work.

He's just giving us the opportunity to come alongside him.

And when I'm expectant, then I take that opportunity more often.

If I walk into a home and I don't expect someone to get healed, I'm not going to pray for healing.

That's right.

But if I walk into a home and I have an expectation, you know, Jesus wants to heal some people, then I'm going to go, Hey, is anybody sick? 

Should we, could we pray for you? 

Are you sick?

Let's pray for you.

Right.

Which reminds me, we have a good Catholic brother in Dallas who lived in our old neighborhood and he was coming over.

We were doing some home brewing together and he was coming over to borrow something.

And he came in the door and he was kind of hobbling.

He could barely walk.

Barely walk.

And I said, Hey, brother, you know, what's going on? 

You okay? 

He said, man, kind of blew out my back.

So I'm just trying to, trying to take it easy.

And I said, all right, kids, come over here.

Let's go.

Let's lay hands on, on Mr.

So and so.

And I got my kids off and they're just looking at me like, Oh, here we go again.

And so they, they come and they lay hands on our friend and we start praying.

I put my hand on his back where it hurt.

And I said, all right, in Jesus name.

Yeah.

We were asking what the pain level was.

What pain level was he at? 

And then we started praying.

Yeah.

And so I put my hand on his back and said, all right, in the name of Jesus, a father, would you just bring healing over John's back? 

Would you just bless him and encourage him and, and allow him to just walk in your presence and to literally walk, Lord, would you help him walk? 

And I stopped.

So, okay.

You know, how is it? 

He's like, whoa, it was like a eight or a nine, but like, I think it's like a six now.

It's like, okay.

Yeah.

Let's keep praying.

We're not done yet.

You know? 

And there was an expectation there.

So when he walked in, I saw he was hurting.

My expectation activated my motivation, which was to see the love of Jesus touch my brother.

Which he did.

And he did.

And we prayed some more and he got down like level two or something like that.

And he's like, huh.

And he was shocked and surprised.

Yeah.

And we were shocked and surprised.

And yet at the same time, like, yeah, of course Jesus just did that.

That's amazing.

So if you're out there and you're walking into someone's home and you're on the mission field, here are some things to keep in mind.

Just like the previous part of this on the idea of authority is there, there's a coming into their home and asking about this ailment is this ask what the ailment is, right? 

Don't just assume that you think you know what's going on with the person.

You can ask what the pain level is if there's a physical pain.

And as you pray, you can get feedback from them, right? 

Just like I did with my previous examples.

You lay hands on them.

If it's appropriate, you always ask for permission to lay hands on somebody.

And then you can just pray a blessing over them and pray that way.

And similarly to kind of whatever, again, there are no magic words here.

It's more about how the Holy Spirit is leading you to pray.

And the other thing I would say is this, don't be afraid of silence.

If you're stuck, just wait, listen for a minute.

We tend to be impatient as Americans, I think in general.

I, at least I'll speak for myself, maybe you're not that way, but I am.

And so I've had to really teach myself to just sit and pray and not expect something to happen immediately, but to be open in case it does.

And then if you are in a different country where they don't speak your language, then be patient too.

There's a translation time that happens and trust your translator, especially if you're partnering with people that are sharing the gospel, they will often have more time, more experience with praying for healing and praying for salvations than you do in their country for sure.

And the last thing about praying for healing or praying with authority or praying as you're on the mission field is simply this, be yourself.

Don't try to be anything that you're not and trust that God made you the way He made you so that you can participate.

When you're on a team going into a country, you have a variety of giftings.

You're not going to have the same personalities.

Some of you don't need some more alone time.

Others are going to be like right in the middle of the party the whole time.

So be yourself, allow God to use you as a part of that team and be naturally supernatural.

So as we're wrapping this up and you're thinking about like maybe mission teams that you've been on or things like that overseas, are there any other wrap up thoughts that you would want people to know about on how to really trust the Lord or what's your heart want to say to people going on a mission trip? 

I think you need to be ready to have your life changed forever.

Whenever I've been on mission fields, it feels like I'm giving access to people's lives and culture and experiences that I just had no idea about.

And so I think it's a really good idea to go in open-minded, but also ready to step into some uncomfortable situations, but to see God working in your life and in the people that you're there to minister to.

Absolutely.

And so as we close out, remember this, you are partnering with what God is already doing there.

You're not coming in bringing anything that those people need.

You are there to partner with what God has been doing and has been about.

And so your partnership with them is the posture of learning from them as much or more than you're actually bringing with you.

And that open posture, that true partnership posture is really helpful so you can do exactly what Megan just said.

Okay, friends, we are so glad that you might be headed out somewhere and pray for your trip, pray for your family when you're gone, and pray for those that you're going to encounter in the way that the Holy Spirit leads you.

We hope that these things have been helpful, and we'll look forward to talking to you on our next podcast.

See you soon.

Bye-bye.

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