When Healing Ministry Is a Spiritual Battle

I have had the privilege to minister in 46 different countries around the world. My main message, “You have more power and authority than you realize and more power and authority than you are currently using. You aren’t waiting on God to give you more.” 

Having gown up in church my entire life and having been taken as a boy to see many ministers who operated in healing and prophetic, I always wondered why I wasn’t seeing more happen in my life and in our church. I prayed very respectful prayers, asking God to come and heal individuals, but it just didn’t happen. 

I was always using the classic, “Lord if You would just heal them, it would be such a great testimony to spread your fame.” Or I would pray, “You should heal them because they are an intercessor in the church and it would prove who You are to so many if You would heal them.” One day the Lord rebuked me and I heard Him in my spirit say, “You need to stop asking Me for healing and speaking to me as if you want healing more than I do. I want to see them healed more than you do!”

I was perplexed by this message. The Lord then began to instruct me that I was given authority and power that I wasn’t really using. I had this notion that I had to be good enough to earn the Lord hearing me to heal others or that I needed to have read my Bible and prayed enough (all of which I do and need). But I then began to realize none of us can be good enough to deserve what He did on the cross and gave so freely. 

He then began to speak to me about studying the Scriptures on how Jesus and the disciples prayed. I noticed they were praying drastically different then I was praying. They weren’t asking for a thing. They were thanking the Father then commanding the body to be healed. So why have we developed a posture of requesting something that has already been given to us? 

Why are we discouraged with the lack of seeing healing in our churches amongst Christians when the majority of places did healing was right out in the open in the public with unbelievers? Pastors are constantly asking me to consult them on what has gone wrong when they used to see healings, but then it seemed to ebb or stop all together.

Don’t Give Up

We must realize that even as some of the greatest spiritual opposition is coming against the church, some of the greatest power we experience is in the advancement of the kingdom. The fastest, most dramatic healings I see occur on the streets, often in areas of great spiritual darkness. Jackie Pullinger once asked, “You want to see a revival? Plant your church in the gutter.”

Our simple acts of faith in praying for healing in these environments are like a weapon of mass destruction against the kingdom of darkness. Sometimes it feels more like trench warfare. As we’ve continued to send teams of people to certain areas in our city, we’ve seen the numbers of healings begin to grow exponentially.  

We’ve come to see certain zones as healing “hotspots” that were originally some of the darkest and most intimidating places to approach. It’s like once the enemy suffers “casualties” in that area, he begins to run screaming the moment he sees us coming. 

Healing is the kingdom of heaven breaking in, and it doesn’t come without resistance. James 4:7 says resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Too many times we miss out on healing, blaming lack of faith on our part or on the part of the person being prayed for. 

I’ve seen people healed when I had no faith, I’ve seen people healed who had no faith, I’ve seen people healed when neither of us had faith. But the act of praying for the individual was always required to see something happen.

Robby Dawkins has been speaking and writing full time and is currently based out of the Vineyard Church of Central Illinois since 2013. Having been in over 46 countries around the world, God has used him to help build the church internationally as well. He has ministered in many Muslim countries and in 2 of the top 10 most dangerous countries according to Voice of the Martyrs magazine. Visit him online at robbydawkins.com.