Q & A with Francis & Judith

by Francis & Judith MacNutt
Summer 2015

Q: I feel called to the healing ministry and perhaps to start a healing center. How do I go about that and what do I do about the fact that there are not many prayer ministers in my area?

A: The most important step to take before you do anything is to make sure this is what God is calling you to do — because the call is what brings the anointing. The next step is to gather intercessors. Before you do anything, make sure intercessors are in place. Knowing that you have people who are committed to praying for you and for the ministry is crucial. Once those two things have been established, we would suggest that you begin by going to local pastors and churches and talking to them about the need for healing. You will be surprised by the number of pastors who are open to that discussion. Out of those discussions, you might begin to find like–minded people and prayer ministers to come alongside you. Once you have these things in place, the prayer ministers will come. They will be drawn by the Holy Spirit. Practically speaking, you could begin to offer times of training and invite whomever is interested. Our Schools of Healing Prayer^® are a great resource, either the CDs or DVDs. You could begin to train people in your area. We see that happening all the time, all over the world.

Q: What is DID?

A: DID stands for Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is a term that used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder. Dissociation is a much better description because it is not a form of mental illness. Dissociation is a natural response of the brain. For example, how many of you have been driving in the car and you arrive at your destination with no memory of how you got there? That is dissociation. Obviously, that is a healthy example of dissociation; your brain has an incredible ability to take over for you and to multitask. The very word dissociate describes what happens. A person dissociates away from their core personality. Often, you will hear the word alter instead of personality when referring to DID. Alters are formed when a person experiences trauma and dissociates as a way of escape, or even survival from their current state or personality. Depending on the magnitude of the trauma, there can be as many as 50 alters which become like storage places within the personality for traumatic events. As prayer ministers, we must understand how complex this is. We must be loving and patient with people who have been diagnosed with DID. We must also understand that DID requires more than just prayer ministry. It is important to know who the therapists (preferably Christian) are in your area so you can refer prayer recipients to them for the care they need if you suspect DID. The best scenario is when the prayer ministers and the therapists can collaborate and work together, with the consent of the recipient. Never share information with anyone outside of the prayer appointment without (written) consent of the recipient. Also, we find that an alter can also react in a way that resembles the demonic, so it is important to have discernment in this process, because we do not deliver people from alters. If you are a prayer minister without experience in this realm, it is important to seek the authority of the leader who does have experience in this realm.

Q: How do you minister to people, such as military chaplains, who work with members of the armed forces who then commit suicide?

A: There is a lot of death within the military ministry, whether through war or suicide. When something like this happens, it is important to understand that these people, the chaplains as well as the leaders, have experienced trauma. If there is a specific trauma, we listen to the Holy Spirit to guide us through the trauma and all of its many effects. Coming to grips with a loss due to suicide can be a long and complicated process. Grieving a loss and releasing a person you care about is very difficult. When you look at someone who is in the role of a chaplain, there is not only that great sense of loss because of how bonded they are to their group, but there is often a great sense of responsibility. There can be guilt or even blame, leaving them wondering if they could have done more. That is one of the tragedies of suicide; beyond the loss of the individual, people are left wondering if they did enough to help. Additionally, not everyone picks up the signals of suicide and so it can come as a complete surprise. Therefore, these people need a great deal of love and care. They need to be able to release the ones who have died into God's care and to trust that in God's mercy, He is with them. The Holy Spirit is the best guide for the specific needs of inner healing for them and possibly deliverance for these traumatic experiences.

Q: Can you talk about grief?

A: In our Schools of Healing Prayer^® at CHM, we teach very thoroughly on the emotions because they are often the reason people come for prayer ministry. People get stuck in an emotion that takes over. Grief is the emotion you will more than likely run into the most in prayer ministry. Almost everyone we see will have at least one small pocket of unresolved grief. At almost every conference we give, when we have time for some sort of ministry response, a large percentage of what we hear has to do with grief. "I lost my job," "my spouse left me," "my child is suffering," "we're struggling financially," etc. This is all grief that they are carrying because of their circumstances. What is so beautiful is that we as prayer ministers simply need to call on the Holy Spirit, who is the great comforter, and all of that sorrow is released. The Holy Spirit really knows how to get at grief and deal with it. For people who get stuck in grief with no reprieve, we suggest counseling alongside prayer ministry. Counselors are trained to unpackage and process grief with their clients.

Q: At CHM, you pray to send things to Jesus for Him to deal with. I have heard other people pray to send them back to hell, where they came from. Can you explain why you pray the way you do?

A: The simple response to your question is that we would rather leave it up to Jesus. He is our only authority. We also do not want to treat something that is not evil as if it is. As in the case of DID, some people think a reaction is demonic, and since we don't always have discernment, we want Jesus to deal with it. We would rather not send something to hell because it is not our decision to make whether or not that is where it came from or belongs. We believe it is Jesus' decision. He is the Judge and so we leave that up to him. Also, in prayer ministry, we find that it is a much more loving way to minister. When a prayer recipient hears us sending things to hell, that can be alarming, especially in the presence of trauma or fear. When they hear us sending things to Jesus, it comes across much more loving. We do not want to put fear into our prayer recipients. Additionally, we have no authority in that realm. We have authority to do what the Holy Spirit is telling us to do and that is to command the demon to leave a child of God. We know that Jesus is present while deliverance is happening, so we just send them to Him. Jesus is present with His authority; we are simply His representatives. We believe that when a demon comes out of a person, it goes over to Jesus and kneels down. We have been given that image by so many people who see into the spiritual realm. It is interesting because if we do not say "go to Jesus," the demons come out but they linger. We would much rather know that they are at Jesus' feet.

We have to remember that demons are powerful beings and we do not want to have to deal with them any longer than necessary. It is a very serious battle we are stepping into when dealing with the demonic — but we do not have to be afraid because we know the One who won the war. However, we still treat Satan and the demonic realm with respect. We do not want to mock them. It really concerns us when we hear people ridiculing or mocking demons because that is engaging with that realm in a way that could be very dangerous. Our tactic at CHM is to say what we have to say and be done with it. Do not engage the demonic in conversation; just send them to Jesus. Tell them not to come back. Seal the doors that led to their opening and be done with them. It is an evil realm and Jesus is the one who defeated them, so we let Him deal with where they go.

Q: Can someone who has no faith or belief in God be healed?

A: We believe yes. Look at the life of Jesus. For example, the Syrophoenician woman was healed at a distance and she was a Gentile. She probably did not have much faith and she did not believe. The people whom Jesus was praying for (and healing) were not believers. Jesus said, "Go and proclaim the Gospel. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons. Proclaim that the Kingdom of God is here." Doing the works of Jesus causes people to know that He is real. So yes, people who have no faith or belief in God can absolutely be healed. That is how Jesus drew people to Himself; He healed them and then they believed. One of our favorite examples of someone who was healed without faith was Lazarus. He was raised from the dead and had no faith as a dead man in the tomb.

Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM. Judith MacNutt is author, teacher, conference speaker and co–founder of CHM.