A few years ago I was browsing the bookshelf of a good friend when I noticed Ken Blue’s book Authority to Heal. Picking it up, I was intrigued with this book that claimed to have “answers for everyone who has prayed for a sick friend.”
Unfortunately, I was unable to read the book even after I borrowed it due to another journey God was taking me on at the time. As such the book sat on my book shelf – begging to be read…..
Then a couple weeks ago I was attending a webinar by Derek Morphew about world missions and the Kingdom of God. At the end of the webinar, Morphew listed some helpful books upon different topics – one of those books was Ken Blue’s book. This reference made me sit up and dust off the book – and I am glad it did because it is the best book on healing that I have read to date.
So what is the book about? Well, Ken Blue starts off the book by pulling weeds – or as he puts it, “Clearing the ground of theological hindrances.” These are misconceptions about the healing power of God floating around in Christian Theology. [@more@]
This selection was actually the best part of the book – at least for me. Blue tackles such issues as “Sanctification through Sickness”, “Divine Determinism”, “Faith Formula” and the “Secular World View”.
After pulling the weeds, Blue spends the next five chapters laying the foundation of fight to heal and the Kingdom of God. He shows that it is God desires to heal the sick, that the fight is real and that we have the victory both here today and in the future. This is another powerful selection as Blue really lays the foundation for a Bible view on healing.
It is during this selection that Blue tackles the questions of why some people are healed and other are not. Why some times the healing takes place right there and other times it is a delayed action… These are not easy questions, but I think Blue does a great job at answering them while using Jesus as our example and model.
The last selection of the book is very practical – namely it is about how we, as believers, can walk out Jesus’ command to heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse leapers and raise the dead.
One thing I love about this selection is that Blue talks about the various healing models in the Christian church today: Anglican-Episcopal, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, etc. Granted he doesn’t go into much detail as that is not what the book is about – but he does take a look at them and confirms what God is doing in each of the Christian traditions.
Blue also lays out a very simple prayer model that can be used within any church and by anybody. It is the model developed out of the beginning of the Vineyard Movement to help empower the church to live out the Bible and to do the stuff.
- Interviewing – as questions about why the person wants prayer. This could be as simple as asking where it hurts and what happened.
- Choose a Prayer Strategy – A lot of times the root problem is not the issue described during the interview period. During this step, we should be asking God what He is doing and how we should pray. Is the problem spiritual? Physical? Or emotional?
- Pray for Specific Results – When we pray we need to pray for the issue(s) that God has shown us as well as the issue(s) given to us by the prayee. If it is for a hurt leg, then pray for the hurt leg – be specific and try to stay away from vague and general prayers.
- Assess the Results – After you’re done praying, ask the prayee is they are still in pain or if they felt anything. This is not a time to “fake” healing or claim the healing in faith. It is a time to be real, if your leg still hurts, then it still hurts. Pray again. If the pain is gone – praise the Lord!
- Post Prayer Direction – Some healings are instantaneous why others take longer. This is the time to give the prayee some direction; however, it is not a time of counseling. We let the prayee knows where to go for further prayer or, if the case may be, we let them know what they experienced so they wont be afraid of the touch of the Lord.
As you can see Authority To Heal by Ken Blue is a powerful book. I would recommend it to all believers – even if you have been praying for the sick for a long time, it is still worth the reading. Shoot, I have been teaching the pray model for a few years now, yet I learned a lot by the reading of this book.