a question about praying for people..

[MoNiCa4316]

:wave: I asked this in the general P/C forum, but I thought I'd ask it here too, just to get a variety of responses. I hope that's alright!

"I have a question for those who have the gift of healing or deliverance through prayer...
Let's say you meet a friend who is ill and needs healing..and you decide to pray for them. Do you usually feel the Holy Spirit telling you to do so? Or do you just go right ahead, trusting God that He will answer?
I don't have the gift of healing, but I'm just curious :)
thanks!

monica"

:)

[CatholicFlame]

Ohh, I like this question Monica. :thumbsup:

Well lemme first say that if someone asks me for prayer, I can't think of any reason to decline them. So I guess with taht said, in the situation that you are presenting, I would definately pray for them. Now maybe you are asking if me doing so would mean that the HOly Spirit is guiding me? hmm, most likely yes. I say that because it is a situation where someone needs help, and the other person can help, and it gives glory to God. Well I can't think of anyone else who guides into situations like this escept the Holy Spirit!

hehe

well you might also be asking if we should be guided by the Spirit in our prayer for them. I do think that we should. If we cannot hear a word from God on what specifically to pray, then I suggest just praying for healing and deliverance if that is what is apparently needed. Sometimes the Lord does reveal things to us as we pray over a person, but that is not typically neccesary fro you to pray for them. It helps sure, but still your prayer is still good in God's eyes.

I hope that this helps!

peace be with you in the love of Jesus

[MoNiCa4316]

thanks! :) well then so what if they don't ask you to pray for them...and you decide to anyway, do you feel the Holy Spirit 'telling' you to do that..or do you just think 'well they're ill, so they need prayer'? ;)

[CatholicFlame]

Very good question.

Well I learned that the best and only truly christian way to pray over someone is to ask them if they would like that. It is probably wrong to put your hands on someone without asking, even if they do need it. In fact, you could probably cause more harm than good by doing that. Emotionally they could be really hurt by something they are not ready for yet.

So I just ask and if they say yes, then Praise the Lord.

I think that to pray for someone can be in different forms: for example, you can pray for them without them knowing (this is very inobtrusive and also pleases God), then you can pray with a person together (many people like this, although usually since it was your idea, you lead the prayer but this is without laying on of hands). Many feel comfortable with this. You can just ask if they would like to pray with you.

And thirdly, You could pray over them. Now this does not usually happen unless the person feels really comfortable with you and trusts that you are a loving person. Of course there can be other reasons why someone might not want you to pray over them, like a fear or something tht they don't want to be revealed, but yeah, always ask first.

I guess you have to kinda see where the situation is and hopefully the Holy Spirit will lead you to say the right thing. If all else fails, pray for them and ask the Lord to heal and bless them, In His name.

:amen:


What do others think about this? Springrain and Peaceful and everyone else? I definately do not have the definitive answer about healing prayer. I am still new to this and am still learning too.

[MoNiCa4316]

thanks, that helps :)

[Peaceful Dove]

I agree with Catholic Flame.
I am in Healing Ministry and am part of a four person team that God sent down to Anaheim this past September. He hand selected us. None of us were suppose to be going. At any rate, we all left from Redding and ended up on the same team. We were trained togehter at the School of Healing Prayer, prayed there together, witnessed healing miracles together and when we got home, kept the team together. I am now in charge of Healing teams in our Prayer Group, training what we eventually pray will be four Prayer teams.
We have one man in our Prayer Group who has been in the Renewal for about 30 years and has been teaching across denominational lines the healing gift of deliverance. He has the gift of healing and is a leader in one of our other teams. Eventually we would like to have a team for Deliverance ministry, one for Inner healing and all of them, Healing teams.
Now, we pray over folks at our healing services, when a need arises and any one of us (hopefully more than one of us) is available. We have been sent out to hospitals to pray for healings. Mostly we are asked. However, there have been times when the Lord has urged me to pray silently for someone. Unless someone shares with me that they are ill or something, I rarely initiate laying on of hands. I might ask if they would like prayer but tred very lightly.

[MoNiCa4316]

Thanks for sharing :) the Healing Ministry sounds awesome! :thumbsup:

[hawko]

I have had occasions where the Lord spoke to me specifically to pray over someone, and in those instances, the person was healed. At other times, when I see that a person is ill,(either spiritually or physically), I automatically pray for them. Currently, I have a long list of people that I am praying for.

[Peaceful Dove]

I have a prayer list, too.
At our Friday night Prayer meetings, we have a specific time for intercessory prayer. This is the time that I lift up the names on my list.

You know what we do? Because everyone has some sort of prayer list, and it would take so long listing the needs, we pray first for the Holy Spirit to pray for what we need for us and then as we go round the circle, all we do is speak out the person's first name. We know that God knows all the circumstances in that persons life and every need. So, we lift up the person and let God be in Control.
Occaisionally, there will be an urgent and extreme need. In those cases, I might sit in proxy for a person if they are not there and have a prayer team do the praying over me.
I know, I know, it is not scriptural. However, we have been doing this in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal for 40 years and God honors it. We have had folks healed at exactly the time the proxy was prayed over. So, we do continue to do this.
I seem to remember many years ago, a person getting a Word that this was ok with the Lord.

[Springrain]

The only things required is FAITH

[Peaceful Dove]

bump