Pastor Glenn Kennedy of Yomitan International Church in Okinawa, Japan, leads a medical mission yearly that reaches out to the Philippine Islands. A group of volunteer doctors, dentist, nurses and lay persons join the mission to bring medical relief to the underprivileged in the Philippine Islands. I joined the group for the 2018 mission.

I had mixed feelings about the mission as I flew from Los Angeles to Manila, Philippines. On the eighteen hours of flight and layovers I contemplated the idea of both medical healing and miraculous healing. My travel was mostly silent as we chased darkness across the Pacific Ocean. We lost a calendar day due to the date line that we crossed over. Silence was broken by snores of fellow passengers and an occasional video to tease the mind from the airline cache. What was I doing going on this trip? Would I really see God heal blind eyes? Would we see spiritual deliverance? Or would I merely be a gofer boy for the medical staff that was treating the people?  I wondered, would the theories and ideas that I drew from the scriptures show evidence in healing in the people’s lives that we encountered? I also wondered whether I was being foolish by going on a mission that I was clearly not qualified to be on.

The first day was spent in a Manila hotel where we waited for a flight the following morning to Kalibo. I enjoyed getting to know the fellow missionaries in both fellowship and adventure. We walked about five miles exploring Manila.  I wondered at the chaotic traffic where two lanes of traffic became four to six as all cars ignored highway lines and merged and flowed like water swirling down the street. The lanes of traffic were crowded with jeepney’s, tricycles, motor (cycles), cars and other vehicles all vying for the desired positions in the street to take the shortest route to their destination.  It was an absolute marvel to watch all the chaos without a single accident. The beauty of the city was bitter-sweet. Absolute beauty was mixed with unbelievable poverty. The contrast was a five-story modern mall, “Mall of Asia” was contrasted with undetermined square miles of street vendors who sold everything imaginable. Poverty was mixed with the illusion of abundance.

We boarded the plane for the short flight to Kalibo on the next morning. Everyone was in good spirits and cheerfully dealt with the rigors of modern air travel. As we flew into the Island, I noticed many, many miles of roads that were lined with sparkling structures. As we drew nearer to the ground I discovered that the sparkles were the sun’s reflection off corrugated metal roofs. That evening after arriving at the hotel, we went for a walk in the surrounding town to observe more poverty and street vendors like that of Manila.

I was asked what part of the mission that I wanted to help in. Many options were available. I answered that I will go where I am most needed. At that response, Ruby, one of the fellow missionaries told me I was needed in the prayer ministry.  Great… Now I had done it. God was forcing my hand. I volunteered for the prayer ministry. The confirmation by Ruby established what my family at home had suggested before I left America. Three of my daughters suggested that prayer was where I belonged.

In the following discussion, I want to make it clear. This is not a diary where I kept record of all the healings that I was involved with. I am also certain that looking back on it, some of the healings may be on the wrong dates. But, to the best of my knowledge, the record is accurate. At one point I was asked to note which healings I prayed for and which one others prayed for. I refused to do this for a few reasons. First, I am concerned that if we kept a who-done-it log, some of the prayer warriors would start competing for numbers. I felt that this was dangerous and could quickly become a point of pride. Second, I felt that it changed the focus of what God was doing. Each miracle that we took part in was glorious in simplicity. Lastly, I just did not like the idea, it struck a wrong chord in my brain.  My gut reaction to the suggestion was repulsion.

With that said, I wrote the following accounts on days following the account. Some had a few days pass between writing. For those who accompanied me on the trip, I apologize if I am inaccurate on any of the dates. Please also note that the following accounts are only the accounts that I was involved in. The fellow team of prayer warriors have many of their own amazing stories to tell as well.

Day One: Libacao: 130 people prayed for, 51 people miraculously healed.

The trip to the first site was about an hour from the hotel over rugged roads. Our bus was exclusively used by the prayer team. We spent part of the time in instruction from an experienced faith healer, Mike.  He advised us on the basics of faith-based prayer. The rest of the trip looked much like a youth bus where we sang short songs, gave words of encouragement and prayed. We arrived at the site joyful. Mike shared with us a thumbnail sketch of the lessons that I will outline later.

On arrival we unloaded the medical equipment from the Philippine military truck and distributed it to pertinent areas. These men were a wonder, they were our constant protection at every site.

Then we paired up, boy-girl and started praying our way around the school campus that we were using. We prayed for spiritual protection, prayed for the doctors and evangelism ministry. Then we returned to the prayer room to wait for the people to filter their way through evangelism, medical and dental and pharmacy then to meet with us last.

The first day was spent learning. We prayed for people, unsure of how to pray for healing. God answered prayer. We saw a multitude of people healed from headaches, and body aches. We prayed for poor vision and saw sight restored. We prayed for hearing and saw it restored. Some faces were covered with absolute amazement while others carried gentle smiles and an assurance that the problems were gone. I was honestly surprised every single time that God healed. I did not know how to pray, what to ask for, or really even how to start on prayer like this. But, God answered, and healed almost every time. We also prayed for many families, spiritual walks, employment and a multitude of other problems. We have no way of following up these prayers or knowing how God will answer them. Follow up is left to the local pastors in the area.

Day two: Banga, 218 people prayed for, 93 people miraculously healed.

The second day we went to a different site. We again spent the time in prayer on the bus and discussed problems we had encountered the previous day. Mike suggested to us to pray with our eyes open. This was for several reasons, first it is a gage of how God is moving in the person’s life. Secondly, it is a protection against demonic hostility when we encountered people influence by demons. Good advice. We were also encouraged to shorten the prayers. Some of us were praying long flowery prayers that focused on saying all the right words, so that God would heal. These had to be shortened to compensate for the flow of people that needed prayer.

The morning was slow. I was still unsure of how God was working through our prayer.  I am no spiritual giant. Yet, God was using me. I did not know how to pray, yet, God was answering prayer. I did not know what to do when I encountered the mass of maladies that our doctors were unable to treat. There were also the treatable cases that God chose to heal instead.

We blanketed the area in prayer and protection, then converged on the prayer room. I dawned my tallit, prayed, and started praying for people. I prayed for many maladies that morning. The count at noon was three miraculous healings that I had witnessed. Sight, hearing, headaches and body aches. I also prayed for some people that were not touched. Many people asked for prayer for families, personal walks, and good health. I encouraged each person edifying them with statements of faith, “God loves you”. “You are special in His sight”. “You are a princes/prince before God our King”. The edifications were endless and tweaked slightly for each person as the spirit led. I was wondering if the previous day of healing was an anomaly.

The afternoon was a constant stream of healing. Eyes were cleared, ears were unstopped, and numbness removed from bodies. I was in constant amazement.  It seemed that we could not pray a wrong prayer. We were so busy by the end of the day praying and seeing healings that we were swapping interpreters, prayer partners and sometimes winging it on our own.  We did not have enough interpreters, so we did the best we could with the resources at hand.

We went to the hotel tired, elated and excited.

Day Three: Kalibo, 242 people prayed for, 81 people miraculously healed

The third day we visited another site. Healings were fantastic. I encountered one blind girl that simply would not heal.  It was a puzzle to me since we would pray for her and she would start seeing light. We prayed on since the prayer seemed to be working. One prayer warrior that we call Mamma Kora is experienced with the mission and understands these prayers. She prayed for her and had her able to follow her finger with her eyes. Things were looking very hopeful that God was going to restore her sight completely. It seemed that when we prayed the sight would start returning only to snap back to her original state. It was like trying to pull a stick out of mud. We watched her regain sight, then lose it again. Although we were certain that healing was happening, we were unable to bring her to a place of freedom. We eventually had to surrender our efforts.

We found out that she had gone to the local witch doctor to get treatment for her condition.  I am not certain of the magnitude of the demonic oppression or possession. It seemed clear that for whatever reason, God was not going to heal her. I cannot help but wonder if she determined not to turn away from witchcraft or the influence of it.

Earlier that morning I had prayed for a man who was blind in one eye. The other eye was blurry. We prayed for him. His seeing eye was a little better but not healed. We had him close his eyes, place his hands over his eyes and I placed my hands over his. Ty joined me in prayer as we sought God and asked for healing. We commanded the blindness to leave in the name of Jesus and prayed fervently for a few minutes. God answered. When this man took his hands away, his face lit up with pure joy. He told us that his vision was all better. He could see perfectly out of both eyes.

We prayed for a myriad of blurry vision, headaches, and other physical problems. God healed people all day long. We were to the point that we were surprised when God did not heal.  Almost all blindness was healed. Almost all deafness was healed.

We discovered through the day that the local witch doctor was much cheaper than the regular doctor. A demonic curse was present with the people. This made healing more difficult. Knowledge is power and with this knowledge, we were able to bind up spirits that were restricting healing.

Fourth Day, Aliputos, 155 people prayed for, 62 miraculously healed

This day was a marvel because of the healings and because of a spectacular vision that Nazareth, one of our Philippino interpreters, shared with me. He watched Hihiani and myself walk around the property praying for various rooms. We prayed our way from registration to evangelism, then to medical and dental areas, onward around the campus until we were at the pharmacy and prayer room. I was short on photos so as I went around I was snapping pictures. It was a relaxed, leisurely stroll since the supply truck was delayed due to a logistical error with the army.  Occasionally, I would blow the shofar on the trip around the campus and high-fived the little children that were playing along the pathway. I was just enjoying the trip, joyful for the opportunity to pray, take pictures and prayerfully blow the shofar at the delight of the children. I did not know that Nazareth was watching us. Here is the story he told me to the best of my recollection:

“I watched you while you were walking around the rooms. There were waves of colors following you, like displaced light, kind of like a wave following you. I asked God what kind of color that this was. God told men that it was a heavenly color, not found on earth.” He pointed to an area where some children were playing that I stopped to high-five and interact with. “When you played with the little kids, there were two children that were also there. They were different, they had scrolls in their hands and were transparent.”  “I watched you as you continued around the buildings and watched the light follow after you.”

“When you blew your horn, an amazing thing happened. The light went up in the sky, it exploded and covered the campus and twinkled like stars. It looked like planets were hovering over the campus, I could even see the rings of Saturn. I sensed that we were covered with heavenly protection”.

I had shared with the group that morning that we were ministering on the Sabbath.  I expected God to give us a double blessing since God blessed the day and made the day holy. I simply was not prepared for what God was about to do. Just like the other days, we had a relatively slow start. The supply truck was very late and many people became frustrated and went home. We ministered anyway, once the truck arrived it was quickly unloaded by a team that was now efficient.

I remember a family that I prayed for that simply ripped my heart out. There were three sons. The tendons in the back of the legs of the children did not attach at the back of the knees but bypassed the knees to reach the ankles. Their legs were bent so much that walking was impossible. The children were impossibly deformed because of this. They had to be carried everywhere. I am not even certain that they could talk correctly. We prayed fervently for miraculous healing. But, none came. I wished for a way to direct them to a surgeon for corrective surgery. It seemed that the surgery would be relatively simple. It would take a good surgeon to attach the tendons in the right places. They were very poor and left without an answer. I showered them with affirmations of God’s love, although genuine, it felt hopelessly shallow. I felt like a fake charlatan who was putting on a magic show.

I was distraught, broken and had to excuse myself to prayerfully shed tears after they had left. I have never felt so useless in my entire life. I prayed fervently that God will direct a team toward them or in some way make corrective surgery available. I felt as if God was saying that many of His children are like those children. Unable to walk, and spiritually impoverished so that they are unable to find a cure for the sickness.  Unable to walk away, I wiped my eyes and returned to the people who were trickling in at the time.

Another lady came in and asked for prayer for a large soft bump on the back of her head. Our surgical team was simply overbooked and unable to take any more patients. They were sending patients to us that they were unable to get to. We prayed for her, consoled her and flooded her with encouragement. It looked like a bump from a broken derma, but I am not a doctor. We prayed fervently, and assured her that the bump must not be serious since the doctors had sent her our way. We also encouraged her that since the bump had not grown in two years, it was most likely not dangerous. We prayed for the spirit of fear and depression to leave her. We also prayed that God would dissolve the bump. Her attitude changed to one of peace when the depression and fear lifted. She went away delighted.

Then we had a third case. Our dental team was unable to treat a wisdom tooth that was impossibly complicated. Without x-ray machines and a full dental office, they were unable to treat her problem tooth. We prayed for healing for her. She felt encouraged. But we were unable to verify the healing since her jaw was still under anesthesia from the dentist examining her. We also prayed that if God did not choose to heal her that He would open doors so that she could get to a regular dentist for help.  I was feeling pretty discouraged by this time.  It was time for a breather.

Things had slowed down and then Hiiani had shared with me Nazareth’s vision at this point. I left to find Mark, our photographer, videographer to get him to document Nazareth’s testimony. In the meantime, I found Nazareth and heard the vision from him first-hand.  In an effort to find Mark, I stuck my head in the principle’s office where they had refreshments for us. He was not in there so I said hello and continued on my way. I was chased down by one of the helpers in the principle’s office. She shouted across the campus at me “Joseph, what is your surname?”  I answered her and she beckoned me to go with her to the principle’s office. One of the other prayer warriors was there and had her hands on a young man who looked to be in distress.

I walked in and they all turned toward me and sang “Happy Birthday” to me in a Philippino flavor. I have never been more surprised or delighted in my life. These friends that I had met that morning simply lit up my life. After singing, I found out that the young man was indeed in great distress. He had a migraine headache that was traveling all over his head. His body was aching also. We prayed for him and he smiled at the instant healing. His mother, the school principal, asked for prayer. She had body aches as well and a slight headache. They were instantly healed. We also prayed for cancer since she has had kidney cancer and is on the road to recovery. Then another lady stepped up. She had vision problems, one eye was blurry, and she had a headache. She was healed, and her sight restored. They started lining up for prayer. We prayed for several people and saw God heal them all.

I felt on the spot, what would I do if God did not heal?  I think that God was showing me an important lesson here. He can heal, does heal, and heals on His schedule.

Off day: Sunday worship in the community.

We were released to go to several churches for our Sunday break. I prayed for two people. One who had a headache cured. Another had blurry vision and a headache. She was also cured. I prayed for several for spiritual strength, growth, and for a distant healing of a sick child. God was showing me that healing was not limited to the mission.

It was a delight to share a meal with the Pastor and his family. We were treated to a tasty meal of water buffalo meat and prawn shrimp. Both magnificently prepared by the pastor. I try to eat biblically clean whenever possible. The water buffalo was my best move for this.  The others on the team assured me that the shrimp was beyond belief. They asked me why I did not want the shrimp. I bent the truth to honor them. I assured them that shrimp does not agree with my system. This was also truth since my life system is focused on Torah. They probably thought I was talking about seafood allergies.

Day 5, Madalag, 288 people prayed for, 71 miraculous healings.

The day started with a warning from the local pastors that demonic oppression was common in the area. Gods and goddesses are commonly worshipped in the area. The problem that was associated with this was the witch doctors. Often the witch doctors would perform healing rituals for the people. I do not know if they were effective or not. In their wake, they left people who were demon oppressed or possessed. Take your pick. What was important to us was a wake of demonic influence.

We walked around the campus and prayed sincerely. We bound up the spirits and covered the area with prayer. My partner and I stood in the gate to the campus and declared by the blood of the Messiah that no demonic force would be allowed to enter. Then we walked around the campus and repeated the prayer. Each area was prayed for and each doctor was immersed in a prayer shield. We prayed for the angelic hosts to unsheathe their swords and be ready for battle. We added an additional prayer also. We encountered a shrine to Mary. Almost all Catholics pray to Mary. My concern was for the tag-a-long demons that may be entertained by this experience. We prayed that every evil force associated with the shrine would be bound up and unable to be effective for the duration of our visit.

The major focus of prayer was on families. I prayed continuously for constant protection for each family represented. I encouraged each family and showered them with blessings from the scriptures. I also engaged in spiritual warfare where families were under demonic influence.

One person came in who shared with me an interesting story. He stated that anytime he took a shower blood would fly from his mouth. The abnormal nature of this story threw up red flags in my head. I asked him, “have you consulted the witch doctor?”  His reply was negative. We started praying for him and seeking out the source of his problem. He then volunteered that he was offering sacrifices to four local goddesses. This man was under so much oppression that he was unable to take a shower and had not had one in at least six months!  We prayed with him, bound up the demons and demanded that they leave the man. Upon delivering him from the influence of demons, we led him to salvation. We assured him that through the Messiah, he is now protected. We also did a lot of other spiritual counselling.  His headache and body aches were instantly healed after we prayed for him.

The twist with the weather was a muggy, rainy day. The people still came. The flow was steady for the entire day. This was the Monday back to ministry after a short Sunday break.  Things that started off slow began to pick up tremendous speed by the end of the day. One of the local pastors asked me to anoint he and his wife. I assured them that I was not a pastor but would be glad to anoint their ministry. I prayed as God directed me. Shortly after this, three young men came to me and asked for an anointing. They were going on a mission into one of the hostile Muslim areas of the Philippines. Three Marine prayer warriors were in the room. I asked them to pray over these men to send them out to spiritual battle. While they prayed, I stood back and prayed as well. God was not finished yet. The entire staff of translators that we had in our area came forth for anointing. With the help of the rest of the prayer team, we anointed each one and prayed over them.

This day was over the top. We finished the day off strong. One of the staff of the hotel brought her child to us after dinner. She had heard about the healings and asked us to pray for her boy. He was about eight years old. He had a huge growth around his throat. His throat appeared to be swollen. He also had a significant sized lump attached to his throat also. This was a hard lump.

We prayed for him.  Swelling dropped significantly and immediately. The lump appeared to have shrank some. We checked with them and prayed some more. When we finished praying, the lump had reduced to a very small size and the swelling was no longer there. His mother was delighted.  After praying for him, we asked the mother to bring him back if the lump was not completely gone by morning. We did not see him again.

Day 6, Malinao, 292 prayed for, 121 miraculously healed.

The adventure began as we bounced along a paved road that was constantly transitioning to dirt in the van on the way to the mission site. We jiggled and bumped along only to hear a thumping sound that was unusual. Our van had a flat. We patiently waited as the driver changed out the tire. This made us late getting to the site.

To add to the mix, the room that we were to use as a prayer room was no longer available to us. We were asked if we could combine the prayer room with the pharmacy waiting room.  This was complicated further by the small problem that no electricity was working on the site. The morning was not starting out good. But we were cheerful. We gathered as a group, prayed in a group prayer for guidance and for the filling of the Holy Spirit so that we would be effective in ministering to the needs of the people.

We split up in pairs and began walking and praying around the campus. We had developed a process of praying our way around through all the stations so that the entire ministry, medical and dental areas were soaked in prayer. Half way around, we were distracted by an errant generator that was needed by dental which ran their sanitizing equipment. The ministry of the morning was not starting off on a good note. Yet, we maintained our joy and spirit of excitement with the prayer team.

When I returned to the prayer room, prayer was already in full swing. From the start of prayer, it seemed as if every prayer was immediately answered. Don’t get me wrong, we had several prayers that were not answered.

We prayed for eyes, headaches, body aches, and saw them instantly healed. Healing headaches was so common that we started referring to healing a headache as “easy”. I was beginning to wonder if it was simply “too” easy. At this point, we had a woman push her epileptic child in in a wheel chair. Tears poured down my face while I realized that although God was completely capable of healing the child, I seriously wondered if God would heal the person. Her mother had an aching back. This was healed instantly. We prayed fervently for the daughter. Healing was simply not coming. Since I doubted that the healing would take place, I excused myself and allowed others of the team to continue praying for the child. They eventually abandoned the effort as well. God, for whatever reason chose not to regenerate the epileptic child. I was wondering if perhaps I was the problem. Perhaps, my doubt was blocking other people from being healed.

After the epileptic child, God seemed to confirm His plan through my prayers. I watched person after person being healed. I watched those with cataracts looking with delight on chalkboards to read perfectly from a distance. I saw one lady with a crippled right side who walked in like she had a club foot, walk perfectly and dance in front of me. Another fellow that was blind in one eye suddenly had sight in it.

Then a man came in with a lump on his neck. I prayed, asked for help and soaked the person with prayer. God simply was not going to remove the lump. We prayed and saw the lump decrease, but it would not go away. I walked the man over to surgery to see if they could remove the lump. It was fairly small by this time. The lump was inoperable with the equipment that we had on site. I walked back to the prayer room wondering if I was doing something wrong.

I returned to the prayer room in a quandary. Almost immediately upon returning, one of the prayer team grabbed me and pulled me toward a woman who was surrounded with other warriors. It was obvious that the woman was possessed, she was shaking and writhing almost as if she was in an epileptic fit. Her two-year-old child was screaming in terror… I wondered, why did they drag me over here? I am not experienced in this type of warfare. Yet, I jumped in, grabbed one arm to support the woman and then began to command the evil spirits to leave the woman. There was already a large amount of Chaos in the prayer room, so I commanded the spirits in Yeshua’s name to be silent and that they were to release the woman. I spoke this out loud forcefully. The woman calmed down and looked at us.

We presented her with the Gospel and led her to salvation. I warned the woman against being lazy in her Christian walk. Prior to receiving the Gospel, we assured the lady that the healing she had would stick since God gives freely. But if she chose not to populate her house with Yeshua, I would not be surprised if the demonic would soon reclaim possession and according to the scriptures this would be seven times worse. We then hooked her up with a local pastor who promised to welcome her into the congregation.

This was sandwiched with more healings. It seemed as if God was going to heal everyone. Then I had a lady walk in with a lump in her stomach. She showed me where the lump was located and asked for prayer. My prayer partner and I began praying. We prayed that God would reduce the lump. She felt the lump and it shrunk slightly, but was still there. Chiharu, one of the other prayer partners let me borrow a little anointing oil. I anointed her head, prayed for her and had her husband hold her hand. We then prayed for their marriage and children. We wrapped up the prayer time. As an afterthought, I asked the lady to check her lump again. She felt, felt, pulled her blouse up a little to feel under it, and felt inside her pants, the lump was gone. She was noticeably freaked out. I laughed and praised God that she and experienced a healing.

A little later, we were praying for a man’s back pain. We stopped praying in order to ask him how his back was. Before I could say anything, he loudly stated that he could hear again. His hearing was healed.

The last hoorah on this day was a mass of conversions. The translators and friends of the translators on this day came to a believing faith in Yeshua. Fifteen translators came to know Yeshua as their Messiah.

Day 7, Camilizan. 251 people prayed for, 80 people miraculously healed.

The day was fantastic, we were warned at the beginning of the day that there was a strong Catholic influence in the area. At the beginning, many were refusing to go through the outreach classes. We prayed hard about this and waited to see what would happen. On the other days we had a lot of prayer for eyes. God corrected the vision of many people on those days. On this day, back pain, knee pain, and joint pain was the major complaint. Every case that I prayed for was healed. I prayed for two people for their eyesight. Both were healed to where they could see clearly.

We discovered later that the reason for joint pains was because most of the people were rice farmers. The people were involved in extremely hard manual labor. They also had a high rate of diabetes and high blood pressure.

There was also a reluctance for people to accept prayer due to the Catholic influence. One lady was in distress. She was concerned that if she declared Yeshua as her Lord and followed Him exclusively that her child would be left behind. I asked her to clarify, how old was her child and why would she have to leave it behind? I found that her child had died at 2 years of age. She felt that she had to offer Masses, prayers and such which would eventually deliver the child from purgatory. She was in bondage to the church. Her very soul was chained to protecting her dead child. I used David’s son with Bathsheba as an example in an effort to teach her that she was now free and her child was in home with Yeshua (2 Sam 12:23).

The majority of my day was spent praying with couples, families with children, and individuals about their families. The focus for me was on leading people to understand their Messiah. Three people that I prayed for came to the saving knowledge of the Messiah as we walked through their family issues. This proved to be tedious since there was a lot of religious ideas that we talked about.

Spiritual bondage was a significant factor in the area. The school that we were ministering from had a complete shrine to Mary with a full meditation area. When we first arrived at the campus, several of us surrounded the shrine and bound the spirits that were involved there restricting them to silence in the Name of Yeshua. We repeated the procedure that we had done before because of the evil spirits that were integrated into these shrines. With many of the people, Mary was integrated with the local goddesses. On this site, worshippers had left gifts for Mary around her statue. Local gods were extremely powerful.

Western Christians do not understand the power of these local demonic gods.  We treat religion as if it is a fast food variety. Many Christians think that since they have Yeshua as savior, the demonic forces will naturally bow down to us. We effectively underestimate the power of the dark side. We in turn, have become weak and ineffective since we set our standards incredibly low.  From our discussion earlier in this book, it is also abundantly clear that we, as Christians, have blended pagan gods with Christianity.

Final days:

The final days of the mission was spent traveling. We flew from Kalibo to Manilla. Then after spending the night, returned home.

Healing prayer that worked on this mission:

I will discuss the aspects of prayer and the simplicity of its use. There were several areas that I will remark on which drew on effective prayer. Many of these area’s may seem to be unusual when you think of traditional prayer warriors. Bear with me. I cannot count the number of miraculous healings that I personally witnessed during this trip. This prayer works. For the purpose of Illustration, I am going to use a headache to describe methods that I saw work for effective healing.

PREPARE THE AREA: Each day prior to opening the ministry we walked the campus and soaked each area with prayer. Nazareth’s testimony demonstrates how incredibly effective this is in the spiritual realm. Proper preparation of the ground will open the best possible conditions for effective healing and spiritual warfare. Pray over every area that is used for any type of ministry and build a spiritual hedge of protection around them (Hosea 2:6-7). Pray that God will place the warring angels around these areas to keep the evil ones out. Finally, ask God to protect the entire area from any evil influence (Eph 6:11-12). If you are on a mission field such as we were, pray a hedge around problem areas. If you see something that you are concerned with, pray that God will prevent its power from being used. Be specific. Also be certain that God will protect His people (Heb 12:1-3).

DIAGNOSE: What do you want prayer for? Oh, a headache. On a scale of one to ten, one being the smallest headache and ten being the worst ever, where do you fall on the scale? Do this for any problem. This helps in a couple of areas. First, it helps with discernment and determination of how you are going to pray. Second, it will offer a standard by which you can interpret healing.

Suppose for example that you are praying for a headache. The headache is on a migraine level with pain so intense that you can see it on the face of the target person.  Later it drops from a ten to a five where a medium headache remains. Since the intensity has dropped, God has performed healing to a degree. On our trip, headaches simply disappeared, fully healed. There were a few slow starts where we prayed a second time. Most who requested prayer were healed completely on the first prayer.  If you pray for poor vision and the vision goes from a person not seeing words at all on a blackboard to where they can read three-inch letters, you have victory. Sight was moved from a level of virtual blindness to where a person can function again. Most of the eyes that we prayed for moved to perfect or near perfect vision.

PHYSICAL TOUCH:  Enough cannot be said for physical touch. The only areas I would not touch was areas where pain would be caused by the touch. If the area of pain was on the private areas, such as a woman’s breast, I would have her place her hand on the area of pain. Then I would either hold her elbow, hover my hand over hers, or touch the back of her hand if it could be done safely.  I would often extend my hands toward the area while praying for healing.  Safety in this area protects both the person praying and the recipient so that they are not distracted or offended.

I cannot stress enough the importance of physical touch. I also cannot stress enough the matter of personal safety. Always honor a person by asking if you can touch the area affected. If they are unwilling for you to lay hands on them, hold their hand or hover your hand over the area. This also offers protection against the possibility of a person feeling that you are violating them in any way. Personal space has been elevated in society today to a point of almost religious proportions.

Why is personal touch effective? I cannot answer this question. We are effectively offering our bodies for the Holy Spirit to act through us with His touch. We have no power on our own; all power comes through the Spirit of God acting through us. By touching the affected area we are demonstrating that we are confident that God will heal. Jesus was constantly touching people, we are simply following His lead. I really do not know why it works.  These are a few possibilities. On the physical realm, physical touch calms people down.

In the case of a headache, I often asked the person where their head hurt. If I was unable to understand, I asked them to place my hand on the affected area. If the head hurt all over, then it was a matter of moving my hands around their head while praying. I have a lot of practical knowledge concerning headaches due to my wife’s past brain surgeries. While I am praying, I am also moving my hands from pressure point to pressure point to encourage healing. To help you understand, pressure points will reduce a headache over time. Often these help a headache if the technique is held for twenty minutes or longer. The longer the holds, the better the result. I was moving through the various points and praying for one to two minutes. After this, the headaches were simply gone. No drug or massage technique can work this fast.

We, as a team found that when we used our knowledge of medical technique, healing was more effective. If I was praying for back pain, I would stroke the back, or massage the area of pain while praying. If praying for an ankle, I would hold the ankle, moving it gently and praying for restoration. I held arthritic hands gently, sandwiching them between my hands. Some on the team were involved in rehabilitation of patients, they moved various joints and such praying fervently that God would restore. If the area was gross or disgusting to touch, I would touch it anyway. We always kept hand sanitizer for personal protection.

This was also important when touching children that had flu’s or cough’s. There were several cases each day where I held small children with one hand on their chest and one on their back while I prayed that lung congestion would be cleared. I often felt the rattle in their chest diminish as I was praying for them. This was good because by interpreting the signals from their bodies, I was able to understand when they were healed. Other than physical touch, I had no way of knowing if these children were better. Even considering physical touch, I could also have been interpreting the signals wrong. How do you know with a small child, or a person who has no ability to communicate?  Although I felt the rattle in the chest go away and felt a reduction in fever, I never claimed these as healings on young children. Only God knows if they were healed or just relaxed in my hands. I surely hope and pray that every single one were fully delivered from sickness. Only their parents know for sure.

A few examples:

Touch for hearing: Place your hands over the ears. Pray for complete restoration. Pray for regeneration of the various parts of the ears. Be specific. If a person informs you that they lost their hearing due to an accident, work noise, or other natural cause, use this information. Pray according to your information.

Touch for stroke victims: I moved my hands over areas affected, gently touching each area as I prayed. I prayed for regeneration in the brain and for God to recreate the connections between the cells so that the body functions properly. I prayed for restoration of control to the affected side. God answered this for me four times that I can recall over the mission.

Touch for numb or limbs that have lost their feeling: One specific case that I prayed for involved a woman who could not feel her hands well and could not feel her feet. They simply had no feeling. I held her hands in mine and prayed for restoration of feeling. Then I held her feet in my lap, and prayed fervently that God would restore feeling to them. Her hands were already healed when I started praying for her feet. After praying I gently scratched the bottom of her feet with my fingernail. She jumped in surprise. Feeling was restored.

You have the idea now. When possible touch, hold, or massage the area that you are praying for. Use common sense. A man would obviously not touch the private areas of a woman. Remember to use safe boundaries for sensitive areas. Keep your prayers specific.

PRAY: Speak directly to the malady. Using the headache, “Father, I ask that you will calm this headache. Bring relaxation to all the muscles, nerves, neck tension, or whatever is causing the headache. I ask for perfect peace/shalom over this area. In the name and through the power of Yeshua the Messiah. Amen.” Change this prayer to fit the need. This is not a wrote prayer, but an example. No prequalification’s are necessary.

Pastor Tino, a local pastor/evangelist, has become a very good friend of mine over the short trip. He had failing eyesight several years back. The doctors felt that that they could repair his sight through surgery. Instead they left him totally blind.  Pastor Tino and I were talking, he made the most profound statement regarding prayer for healing.

“Healing is simple, we just ask and pray, and God will do the rest.”

When you take away all the mysteries, all the fancy words, and all the gobelty-goop that faith healers and good efforts to coax God to heal… we are left with this simple, profound truth. Only God heals. Tino expounded further on his simple statement:

“Much prayer, less work to be done, less prayer, more work to be done.”

Tino nailed it. Praying and asking is the critical factor that is the axle for the wheel of healing to spin on. Without it we have nothing but a useless game of chasing the tire.

It is vitally important to pray with your eyes open. This is awkward for most who have been taught to pray, “eyes closed, head bowed”. However, praying with the eyes open is a safety factor for you as a prayer warrior. Eyes closed opens you up for potential hazards.  I heard several stories about how a demonized person inflicted physical harm on the one that was praying. If eyes were open, personal injury would have been avoided. Eyes open also offers a tool for sensing how the prayer is progressing.

CHECK: Once you pray for a person check to see their status. Ask them, is your “headache” better? (Fill in the quotation with whatever you are praying for.) Is it better, or the same? Using the scale of one to ten that we used earlier, where does your headache land now?

RETURN TO PRAYER:  If the answer is negative, or if the answer is simply a small reduction in intensity, return to prayer. I found on the mission trip that this was a faith building point for prayer partners. I was often directed by an urging of the Holy Spirit to draw in a third party into the prayer. I would very quickly bring the person up to date. “John has a very bad headache, it has come down slightly. Please pray with me for his headache. Go.” I am not sure how this is going to work on the local level. I am certain that God is going to heal. Many of the warriors that I drew in had already been briefed on the process. Yet we had many floaters who wanted to experience the prayer and healing but were needed or simply wished to serve in other areas. The prayer team kind of freaked some of the staff out.

You would simply start the process over again. This time you move from the simple prayer to a more specific prayer.

Engage the participant: Make sure that you were understood clearly. We had translators who were able to help us communicate with the recipient of prayer. Some were high school age and upwards. Most had a decent understanding of the English language. Some were local pastors who understood English very well. These were some of the more difficult translators I worked with. The reason for this is very simple.

Imagine that you are the recipient who is being prayed for. The one praying for you starts praying in some kind of language that you may have heard but have no working understanding of. You hope that as they pray, they know what they are asking for.  You hope that they say the magic words to coax the great God to have favor on you.  Your desire is flooded with misgivings, hope, and confusion. In short, you are engaged in the prayer, but only as an inactive recipient.

This is one of the reasons that I have difficulty with someone ripping off into tongues when they are praying for healing. The recipient may be great with tongues. They may even have the gift themselves. But in this scenario, they are not engaged in the prayer. In my opinion, just like with the Philippino’s who could not understand, all tongues do for the recipient is to generate confusion and anxiety.  They may be perfect if you agree with the person that you are going to pray in tongues for a bit when you get stuck and simply do not know what to pray for. I encourage you to use extreme caution with tongues in this setting. The success rate of prayer for people who had a clear translator and those who did not get a translator was exponential. The rate of answers in these cases was almost a hundred percent.

This was the problem with the local pastors and sometimes with the translators. The environment was extremely noisy. We had anywhere from three to six teams of prayer warriors at a time praying for a recipient. We had translators translating, people shouting, praying, kids crying, and a myriad of other things going on at the time. The poor translator either was not hearing the prayer to translate or did not understand the importance of translating the prayer.

I often faced the translator, even if it was a pastor, and instructed them. “I need for you to translate what I am praying so that the person we are praying for can hear every word.” I noticed that when this was done, prayer was much more effective. Often translators and pastors would join me in praying and forget the vital need for the recipient to hear the prayer. We worked with some great prayer warriors.

On this same note, when my confidence was built in a translator, and I was sure that they were believers, I would recruit them to pray. “Please pray for this person in your language so that they can understand what we are asking God to do.”

We could attribute this understanding to “faith building” but I feel that that is a misconception. Sure, faith is being built through prayer. The building though is miniscule or microscopic since they have not seen God do anything yet. What we are really doing is “engaging” the person in prayer. They are becoming an active participant who is actively agreeing with you in prayer for the healing. Their fears and misconceptions of what you are praying for are benched since they know clearly what you are asking God to do.

I have stressed this twice already but want to make sure that you the reader understand the importance of this step. The recipient must know what you are praying for. The success rate of prayer with a person who understood the prayer was incredible. With my translators, I would slow down, pray specifically and slowly and wait to hear them translate.

Avoid machine-gun prayers. I heard several who ripped off in rapid fire prayer. They prayed so fast that I had to take a breath for them. Instead of punctuation, they used “Jesus”, “Father God”, and such to punctuate every sentence. It’s almost like, I have to get it out quickly before someone interrupts me. Maybe God will answer the prayer if I sound holy enough and make the most sense to Him. Relax. Pray. Pray sincerely and make sure that the recipient understands what you are asking God to do. Speak slow enough for the recipient to hear and follow you.

The “correlation” effect: Using the scenario above. Just because you pray with a machine-gun prayer one time and God answers, does not mean that every time you pray machine-gun, that God is going to answer. God will answer if you speak extremely slow or if you machine-gun. I watched it happen. God seems to answer more when the recipient clearly understands the prayer.  The correlation effect comes into play when we do or say something that sounds good and seems to effect a desired response. The desired response in prayer is an answer. If I pray and punctuate my sentences with “Jesus”, and then the prayer is answered, it is tempting to think that the punctuation of “Jesus” effected a miracle. This is simply not the case. Instead, we are creating both extra work and dabbling on the edge of confusion. But, it really sounds pious!

Let me give you the example of the Tallit. During the entire mission trip, I made every effort to pray with my tallit around my shoulders. For someone who does not understand the tallit, they may correlate that since I am praying for the sick and they are being healed, the tallit must be holy in some way. The tallit must be helping get answered prayer… Nothing could be further from the truth. The tallit is a prayer shawl, true. But by itself it has no more power than a dish-rag. Mine is not even as good as a dish-rag since it does not absorb water well.

The power in the tallit is in checking my attitude. It reminds me that I am standing in place as a servant of God. The tzit-tzit on the tallit remind me that the only power that I have is through the Word and by the grace of God. This falls back on the command from the scriptures to wear a garment with tassels on four corners to remind us of Torah (Deut 22:12; Num 15:37-41; and the warning Matt 23:5). The tallit reminds me that I am a worm who has no power at all. All power in prayer comes only from God. All power in my life only takes place if I put God’s word into action. God is in control. The tallit sets my mind in the right place.

Anointing oil can be another correlation. When we do not understand the purpose behind anointing oil, it quickly becomes a prop for the show. Anointing oil was used for a myriad of uses in the scriptures. Its original function was to consecrate the priests that stood before the Lord. Later it was used to consecrate kings. This demonstrated a covering over the kings. The epistles tell us to anoint the sick so that they will recover. Jacob (James) tells us that if we anoint ones who are sick in the name of the Lord, God will raise him up and their sins will be forgiven (Ja 5:14-15).  Understanding why this works effects power in prayer. The oil is not magic, it is simply oil. Coupling the oil from the truth of scripture brings about a powerful dynamic. Anointing oil can be used because it correlates with healing. Or, Anointing oil can be used because it represents exactly what Jesus was doing. Jesus anointed people with oil and they were healed (Mark 6:13).

No one deserves to be healed: It is time for a mental checkpoint. None of us deserve to be healed. We cannot be “good enough” to qualify for healing. No matter how well we follow Torah or keep the commands of the Bible. Pastor Tino is an excellent example. He lives an exemplary life, righteous in every way. Yet, we prayed for him at least three times for healing from blindness and he was not healed. He is such an awesome sport though. He is always willing for people to pray. Perhaps, this time God will answer. He is confident that one day God will restore his sight.

I have heard it said and addressed the fallacy in this book of “there must be sin in your life and therefore God will not heal you yet, repent, then approach God for a healing”. Hogwash! This only places guilt and confusion on the recipient. God has purposes for healing and purposes for not healing. However, let me reiterate, we do not deserve to be healed. We deserve nothing.

EXPECT GOD TO HEAL: God heals. God will heal. God wants to heal. Yeshua’s name is literally Salvation. This is a fact that I mention in my prayers for healing. It is a reminder both of the nature of the God that I serve and an encouragement to the one I am praying for. Yeshua came to deliver people from the bondage of sickness. Those with skin diseases, blindness and deafness are especially noted. One of the earmarks of the Messiah that we discussed earlier in this book focused on these very people. The lepers, and blind men in the Gospels reminded Jesus of this mark of the Messiah. Look back on previous chapters to see the discussion.

During the mission trip, I saw the power in praying this exact prayer.  Stating the truth of the Messiah may have been an intellectual exercise, or possibly a point in prayer. It did help to center me in prayer when the going got tough.

In summary. Remember: Diagnose, Pray, Check, Repeat. I will suggest that if you go three rounds in this cycle, it is time to abandon ship temporarily. This is where we step back and wait to see what God does. Keep prayers short, specific and focused. Avoid showmanship. This is about the Messiah, it is not about us. These truths were gleaned from the trip.