How Do You Pray For Healing?

This morning, I was heading about in my daily rush; which had been exacerbated by the fact that my son missed his school bus this morning. In The course of trying to get a late child to school, I stopped at a fast food restaurant to get breakfast.

The purpose of this, of course, was to save time. Isn't that how most of us operate in this time stressed world we live in? Without a second thought, we opt for the things that are most convenient.

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As I was about to indulge in the food that I had purchased, I started to pray to ask the Lord to bless our food. The standard prayer that I started to pray was something like this:

"Thank you, Lord, for this food we are about to receive. Let it be a blessing to our bodies. In Jesus name we pray, Amen."

As I started to ask Him to bless the food, I was caught by a thought. The thought was, how could I possibly ask Him to bless this food, when I knew very well what this food was? Here I was, asking God to bless something that I knew was bad for us. How could I ask Him to bless something that I knew was toxic for our bodies?

I realize that it would be stupid, and ridiculous to even think of asking Him to do something like that. It would be tantamount to asking God to contradict his own integrity. It made me see why many people's prayers for healing don't seem to be heard. Not only do your prayers have to be specific, but in addition, they have to line up with God's word.

This means then, that you have to line yourself up with God's word; because if you are not lined up, and something is amiss in your spirit; the answer won't come. In other words some people get an answer in 2 minutes and some people have to wait 20 years.

The reason for the difference in time on answers, is because some people are already lined up and ready to receive, and some people are not. There are people who think they are ready to receive, when in reality they are not yet spiritually mature enough to receive what they are asking for.

And we all know and have seen evidence of the fact, that some people mature, and other people never mature. It is the same in your spiritual life.

Are you still repeating the same lesson over and over again? The circumstances may change, but the lesson is the same. Maybe God leads you to the same set of scriptures time and time again? And perhaps this is been happening for years now.

Let me tell you when you know that you are caught up in something like that. I used to walk around saying that Abraham was my biblical mentor. Why?

Because at that time in my life, everytime I opened my bible, it fell open to Genesis chapter 12. And it doesn't matter how much of a gap in time there was, between the last time I read the bible and the current time that I was attempting to read it for some guidance.

The results were always the same. Apparently, I had not gotten past this particular point. I will still dealing with Abraham because I was still missing it, just like he was.

During that time of my life, no matter what, I always opened up to genesis chapter 12. And then I'd say to God, "Again? We're back here again?!"

Despite my protestations, He would simply tell me to read it. So, I'd sigh, and read it over yet again. And after reading it again, I'd be amazed at the fact that once again, I had found something new that I had not seen before. Once again using the same man, God increased my awareness.

The results of abraham being my "biblical mentor" for so many years; was that I grew and developed spiritually, learning a lot of lessons from Abraham's stupidity.

Additionally I recognized the fact that I suffer from the same "dis-ease" that he suffered from. All of this, I documented in my study on Abraham; which stunned my mother; making her aware for the first time, of my writing abilities.

Additionally it made me cognizant of the fact that I had been missing God. What was Abraham's dis-ease? He was inattentive. He kept missing God because he wasn't paying attention.

This point brings me back to what I was saying earlier about how I was praying over my food. The fact of the matter is, that most of us are still very childlike. In fact, we are like infants with regard to what we pay attention to.

Think about it. Babies, pick up things and put them in their mouths because, either the look or color of it is interesting; the smell or feel of it is fascinating; or the texture has captured their imagination.

Whatever it is that caught their attention about that colorful, shiny, texturized object; it mandates that they put it in their mouths. So it is with us.

Just like infants, without a thought, we put things into our mouths. Usually, we make our choices based on the same mindless attention grabbers that catch the attention of infants. Babies have an excuse. We don't.

Therefore, it stands to reason that if we are not paying attention to what we are putting into our mouths; we have no business or right to ask God to heal us when we get sick. If I am putting something in my mouth that I KNOW is toxic, or that I KNOW has poisonous chemicals in it; I have no right to ask, or expect God to bless it.

Subsequently, I had to change the contents of my prayer. At that point my prayer sounded like this:

"Father God, Thank You for the food that we are about to receive. I know that this is not the best choice for our bodies. So I am asking You to bless our bodies so that our bodies are able to separate out whatever is good for us in this food; away from whatever is toxic and bad for us. I ask that our bodies are able to absorb the good nutrients, and that You will help our bodies to be able to eliminate the bad and toxic stuff in the food. In Jesus' name I pray, amen."

The definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviors over and over again, yet expecting different results. It is both unrealistic and unreasonable to expect God to heal us, if we are conducting ourselves in the same manner that got us sick in the first place.

Such prayers in the midst of insanity are a waste of everyone's time. These are what are called faithless or fruitless prayers. Expectations on God to answer these types of prayers are also faithless.

If we truly walk by faith, we understand that change is a necessity. In America, too many of us want to stay in our nice, convenient little comfort zone. We think that's when all is well in our little world, that God is on our side. We want to praise Him only when things are going well for us. Yet, we walk by faith. "By" faith, means that we take each step in accordance to a faith based vision God has given us.

Sometimes, when we are in transition, we tend to get depressed. The reason that depression comes, is because we have not increased our own awareness. In other words, some research needs to be done.

If we are asking God for something, time needs to be invested in the God who is going to be the provider of those answers. This is so we can find out exactly what it is that we need to do to find those answers; or how to align ourselves to receive them.

It's just like when a writer is going to write a story. Usually he starts out with an idea of the beginning and ending of his story. However, it is usually the steps in between, the path in the middle; that is the mystery that he needs inspiration on.

It is the same with us. We usually have a good assessment or idea of where we are, and where we want to be. Where we fail, is in the fact that we don't ask God where HE wants us to be.

Please know that God hears all prayers. However, He does not answer all prayers. This is a scriptural fact. God only answers the prayers of His children. Rest assured, that is specific for a reason. Everyone may think they are a child of god, but unless you have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, you are not a child of God. There's a big difference between the two.

God only answers the prayers of authentic children of God. These authentic children of God are called "the rightous". In regards to all others, He hears your prayers, but He is bound by his own integrity, and His own Word; to answer only those prayers that come from His blood covered (or saved) children - His adopted family.

This is what I was referring to, when I stated earlier that you must be lined up within the will of God. If you do not believe that his son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for your sins; and you don't love him with your whole heart; you are not a child of God.

The first requirement is to believe. The second requirement is to walk by faith. And in walking by faith, you cannot rely solely on the teachings or experience of other men. It's incumbent upon you to invest some time in studying the scriptures for yourself. The scriptures hold the key to everything you want or need to know. However, your intention must be to discover God's will.

Many people take the scriptures out of context, because their intention is not to discover God's will, but to justify their own. Additionally, in the course of your studying; there are many other resources that can be utilized to support the information that you are finding within the scriptures.

In so doing, you grow as a person, and you expand the base of your mind's information. Such an expansion in information and ideas, can be the basis of a paradigm shift that will cause your faith to increase, your confidence to grow, and your situation to change.

As the Scriptures say, it is by the "renewing of the mind" that we grow, that we change; and that we can be open to receive the answer to our prayers. Therefore pray and walk in faith and wisdom.