by Judith MacNutt
Apr/May/Jun 2012

As a Christian, when you are actively involved in the Kingdom ministry of bringing healing and freedom to suffering souls, you will come to the attention of our enemy, Satan, who will want to stop you. Sadly, we have witnessed the fall of many leaders who were tragically removed from ministry by dark forces assigned against them. Unfortunately, few mainline denominations teach the essential prayers of authority necessary to protect oneself and one’s family. The more involved you are in ministry, the more you need protection. I remember a few years ago my coworker Linda and I were in Hawaii preparing to minister in a large Presbyterian church. We arrived in Honolulu a few days before the conference to get over jet–lag, which also gave us the opportunity to rest, sight–see, and shop. Everything was care–free for a couple of days. The harassment began the first day of the conference and continued throughout the weekend. The attacks ranged from minor annoyances to direct confrontations with the enemy. After many years in frontline ministry, I have learned that these encounters are not a coincidence! They are strategically timed to coincide with ministry events and they are meant to discourage, exhaust, and ultimately stop the ministry and the people involved in it.

Jesus’ world view highlighted the existence of the unseen world of demons and angels and the clash between two Kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Many Christians have not fully embraced this battle in the unseen realm and therefore rarely give much thought to demons or angels. Dr. Charles Kraft, a friend of ours, writes in his marvelous book Christianity With Power, “Though many westerners retain a vague belief in God, most deny that other supernatural beings even exist. . .Indeed, unlike most of the peoples of the world, we divide the world into what we call ‘natural’ and what we call ‘supernatural.’ And then we largely disregard the supernatural.” (pgs. 26–27)

In Matthew 6, as Jesus was asked by His disciples to teach them to pray, He taught them the essentials of what to cover in praying for our daily needs. Many great truths are contained in the Lord’s Prayer but one in particular related to spiritual warfare: Deliver us from evil. Jesus actually used the words, ‘deliver us from the evil one.’ Jesus did not teach about a vague, mystical, ethereal, illusive evil. He referred to the ‘evil one’ as a personal enemy in the supernatural realm who seeks to destroy the Kingdom of God. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are given authority to deal with Satan and his demons. To read more on this topic, please read my husband Francis’ book, Deliverance from Evil Spirits. In this book, you will find thorough explanations for the demonic realm and how it can affect our daily lives as well as practical applications for help to pray against this evil influence.

In addition to our own authority against the enemy, we have the assistance of God’s holy angels, who are committed to helping us overcome the devil. Pope John Paul II taught that ‘the battle against the devil, which is the principle task of Michael, the Archangel, is still being fought today, because the devil is still alive and active in the world.’ (during a May 24, 1987 visit to the Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel). God has assigned the great Archangel Michael, whose name means “one who is like God” to lead the battle against Satan and the demonic realm. God has placed countless numbers of angels under Michael’s direction in this age old battle. In John’s account of the end of time, Jesus returns to earth accompanied by Michael and his angels, and Satan is cast into the depths of hell. Until that time, we find it encouraging to know that these mighty angels are on our side in this battle to protect us and to usher in God’s Kingdom.

Angels work tirelessly to protect, encourage, and strengthen believers. Some of the most touching stories in the Bible are those where angels are ministering to our Lord Jesus and the early believers such as Peter and Paul. According to Billy Graham,

These thoughts from one of the world’s foremost, beloved spiritual leaders help us understand the daily battle in which the angels are involved on our behalf.

The following story was submitted for my book Angels are for Real by our dear friend, Mike Evans (page 131):

To read more about angels and spiritual warfare, please read my new book Angels are for Real. In it are more stories of angelic encounters and more teaching on spiritual warfare. May the Lord protect you with His holy angels.

Judith MacNutt is author, teacher, conference speaker and co–founder of CHM.

by Francis MacNutt
Apr/May/Jun 2012

All of us in the healing prayer ministry deeply desire that all Christians will come to believe that healing really takes place on a regular basis when we pray for the sick. Nevertheless, among those who believe in healing prayer there are two points of view that seem to be in conflict. This conflict centers around what we mean when we call something a miracle. Both points of view differ, yet they also have elements of truth that we must put together in order to see the whole picture. Let me explain.

One group is enthusiastic and gives an exciting testimony about what they sense God is doing on an almost daily basis. To them, miracles are common. They see God’s hand at work almost every day of their lives, even though they also try to be honest and admit that not everyone they pray for seems to be healed. The other group is a more cautious group. This group also believes in healing prayer but is much more evidence–based and rational in their approach. They are often known to think that most “charismatics” are much too free in their approach and are much too quick to call a healing a miracle. The medical community, in particular, is not ready to call something a miracle unless there is hard measurable evidence that healing has taken place through prayer, not just through natural causes. (Realizing this, in 1999 we did a scientific study led by Dale Matthews, MD, in praying for rheumatoid arthritis, a medically incurable disease.)¹

At times my own approach in our conferences has been criticized. I’ve been told that I call a healing “supernatural” too quickly when it might possibly be the result of the “power of suggestion” or the “placebo effect.” These are scientific–minded Christians who are quick to recognize that more than 20% of sick people are healed when they believe that something extraordinary might take place. To them it’s not miraculous; it’s just the power of suggestion. One of my friends whom I was trying to convince by telling about the wonderful healings that I had recently seen said, “Francis, you are simply a charismatic figure, and when you pray for people more than 20% are going to get well through the ‘placebo effect!’ Isn’t that what you are talking about?”

One of the best example of this rational approach is the Medical Bureau of the Shrine at Lourdes, France, where thousands of sick people visit daily seeking healing. With those thousands, only about one healing every two years is declared to be a truly miraculous healing. Lourdes has six conditions that have to be met for a miracle to be proclaimed, and it’s almost impossible for all six conditions to be present. For example, one condition is that the person cannot be receiving any medical treatment that could possibly lead to the cure. So, if the person has cancer what are the chances that he/she isn’t receiving medical treatment? We have prayed for cancer patients who have been healed but it’s hard to prove that the prayer is the reason for the healing.

Christians who come from this kind of intellectual background can be very critical of the typical charismatic groups who talk so easily about miracles. They might ridicule charismatics for praying for the provision of a parking space. And they might be totally turned off by the dramatic healing spectacles they encounter on religious television.

Now, both of these viewpoints are, I think, very understandable from their special points of view. Christians who have experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit can be in either one of these two camps. The important thing is that we appreciate where the other group is coming from and not look down on them as being over–emotional enthusiasts or, on the other side, as intellectual control–freaks. We need both, but not in excess. We need enthusiastic testimonies about what God seems to be doing to bless His people, and we need scientifically–minded believers who are willing to write up case–histories, and ask physicians to attest to an occasional miracle of the stricter sort.

Since some of my background is medical, I cringe when I see a healing service where spectacular results are over–emphasized while they ignore the great majority of the sick who seem to be improved — but are not completely healed and who will need more prayer after the healing evangelist leaves town. We are trying to reach all the people in our country (or in the entire world) who are open to the truth about Jesus’ healing, provided it is presented in a way that seems honest, with clear examples of recent healings to which we can testify.

Was it prayer that caused the healing or was it medical treatment or was it the amazing natural resistance of the human body? Or was it a combination of all these channels of healing? Usually, we can never be sure. Nevertheless, God is behind it all because He created the human body as well as medicine. We therefore have a wonderful reason to thank God whenever healing takes place, because God is always somewhere in the process, whether the healing is miraculous or whether it happens through ordinary natural remedies. In all things we have an excuse, as it were, to praise God. When the human body heals itself God is in that process, too. And yet sometimes God intervenes in an extraordinary way. Those who are sensitive to the presence of God can thank God for all the ways they sense He helps us even without proof of an extraordinary intervention.

I want to be one of those who recognizes the power of God in the ordinary wonderful things that happen in our lives. At the same time, I realize that I cannot prove that prayer alone causes the healing. I do not expect that the healings we see almost every day here at CHM can be shown to be miraculous in the strictest sense. As human beings we describe events and healings as “miraculous” and recognize that we are speaking loosely. At other times we want to speak more strictly and show that a healing probably qualifies as a miracle, strictly speaking.

We have recently heard about a healing of someone diagnosed with dementia. Dementia , as far as we know, continues to get worse in the natural course of events. And yet we have a friend who received prayer and the dementia — that had progressed to the state that he had to give up his driver’s license — has now had his license restored because he proved to the licensing bureau that dementia no longer affects his decision–making ability.

The healing ministry is so exciting because we are continually finding new areas that Jesus wants to heal in our lives, and we are also finding new ways in which to pray more effectively. For example, a major health problem is Post Traumatic Stress syndrome (which used to be called “shell–shock” or “combat fatigue”) in many veterans who return from Afghanistan and Iraq. This condition never gets totally resolved in the natural order, and so, when remission occurs, it seems the most likely cause of the remission is that God intervened in a truly miraculous way.

At any rate, those of us in the healing ministry need to recognize that there are at least two ways that we can talk about the miraculous and that we need to speak in both ways and be aware of the difference. We must realize that both are true and not scorn one of the views as either hyper–rational or overly enthusiastic.

All of us need to appreciate the desire of church authorities to be cautious in making claims of healing when they cannot be proven — which is most of the time. But we can rejoice at all times when the sick get better and we can praise God, because God is ultimately behind any healing that happens, whether natural or supernatural.

This study can be obtained on DVD from the CHM bookstore and is titled Shall We Pray?

Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM.

by Graham Cooke
Apr/May/Jun 2012

Be Thou My Vision

What is your image of God? How you see Him is how you see yourself. It determines how you view your life, your church, even the events that are going on in the Body of Christ. If you fail to see Jesus as your Prince of Peace, that may be why you cannot find any rest. Seeing Him as your personal Prince of Peace means you’re not allowed to worry anymore; peace and worry simply cannot co–exist. The way we live is profoundly shaped by our image of God.

Are you a sinner who struggles in the love of God, or are you a lover of God who occasionally struggles with sin? How do you see yourself? The more you have the wrong picture of God, the more religious and legalistic you may become. Modern Pharisees are people who do not know who God is for them. They don’t understand the nature of God. They don’t live in His compassion or mercy. They live by a rule book, and lose sight of what He is really like, much like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time. They couldn’t recognize who Jesus was or His revelation of the Father. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” Jesus tried to explain. “The Father and I are one and the same.” Even when He performed signs and wonders, a historic way of recognizing God, they couldn’t figure it out.

We must see God as our provider, or we will always be anxious about our needs being met. Every time we are in need, it should be an adventure because we are not intimidated; instead, we should be fascinated about what God might do. We must believe He is our provider and become intrigued by how He might meet our needs.

An Active God

God is not passive in our circumstances, but active on our behalf. We cannot be resigned to our situations — we must be constantly looking for the power of God to break through. Many of us have just learned to put up with things; the western world is completely passive to the things of God. We put up with all kinds of nonsense in our culture, our society, our communities, and our families. When our backs are against the wall, we should fight with everything in us. Instead, when our backs are against the wall, we wither. We must not become resigned to the situations around us; we must constantly look for the power of God to break through for us.

What is your perception of God when you pray? Is He inclining His ear toward you, or do you feel as though you have to persuade Him, or trick Him, into listening? If your image of God is that He is interested and delighted in you, your whole prayer life and approach to Him will be changed. You’ll love prayer! For many Christians, prayer is a chore, something we have to do in order to get our weekly allowance from God. Our view of Him is so skewed that we cannot come to Him properly. When distortions creep into our picture of God, the negative effects are felt in every part of our life. Those issues ripple through our relationships, values, ethics, integrity, love, joy, and peace. It affects our righteousness and purity.

We need to reflect wisely upon our image of the Lord’s nature. What is it that God wants to be to you in this current season of your life? That is the question we must have the answer to. We must know what it is the Holy Spirit wants to upgrade in our life. Every test, every conflict we face in the months following the upgrade will test us on those breakthroughs. God is not punishing us when things go wrong; troubles don’t arise because He can’t protect us. God will not reject us, even if we’re not perfect. When we do well, God approves of us. When we do poorly, God accepts us. He is compassionate either way. The love of God is never less than 100 percent; He just doesn’t know how to be otherwise. He is unchanging and consistent. He takes joy in the fact that He is the Lord and that He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; we can be confident of who He is for us.

Intimacy and Favor

When God is cemented at the fore of our hearts, we see our relationship with Him deepen in ways we never thought possible. There is a place in the Holy Spirit set aside for every one of us where we can make the enemy tired, depressed, weary, confused, and exasperated. It’s a place where our relationship with God has a profound effect on the enemy and the people we live amongst. What we think about God can shatter the hold of darkness on our friends and family. Our intimacy with God should be our most intimidating weapon against the enemy. We have all seen people trying to operate in authority when they just don’t have it — it’s painful to see. As well–trained charismatic Christians, we think getting louder is how we should try to take authority. But our authority comes out of who we are in Christ, and our capacity to intimidate the enemy comes out of our intimacy with God.

The Lord’s favor is available to every single one of us. It’s favor to understand God, to go to a deeper level in Him, and to upgrade our vision and image of who God is for us. It’s part of coming into the next phase of accomplishing the impossible. It’s a necessary revelation of who God is. It’s amazing how God works. When you move into a deeper place with God, the stress that flows out of your life and ministry actually cements and establishes your upgraded relationship with Him.

The antidote to stress and crisis is upgrading our fellowship with God. I know there are different things on my agenda this year related to my call, and I know that makes me vulnerable. I’m going to have to wade through some stuff about myself, fight my feelings of inadequacy, and battle insecurity. I’m confident where I am right now, but when God increases the call in my life, I know I have to go back to working through all of those issues again. I have to translate my weaknesses into joyful vulnerability. I must upgrade my relationship with Him, becoming more intimate than ever before.

What distinguishes a true believer, someone who is walking in the spirit as opposed to their soul — mind, will and emotions — is the favor that ties into our intimacy with God. In Exodus 33:15–16, Moses made it clear what he needed from the Lord during the next season of his life:

Favor comes from having the presence of God traveling with us. We know we carry that favor when He lives among us. We are people of His presence; we must learn how to abide in it. We must learn how to rest, dwell, and remain in God’s arms.

Article taken as an excerpt from his book The Nature of God: Upgrading Your Image of God and Who He Wants to Be for You.

Graham Cooke is author of several books, as well as founder of Brilliant Book House and My Emerging Light.

an interview with worship leader Kelanie Gloeckler, by Liz Bailey
Apr/May/Jun 2012

We were created to worship. Everything about the way we were wired by our Creator God summons a response from deep within to worship. Turning our gaze to heaven and tuning in to the heart of God through worship is one of the most powerful weapons we have in the Spirit. In 2 Chronicles 20, as Jehoshaphat was made aware of the great army that was bearing down on him in battle, he knew that his first and most important response was to fall down before the Lord in worship. As the people of Judah prepared for battle, they sent out singers and musicians ahead of the army to give praise to their God whose ‘love endures forever’ (v.21). I love to imagine the faces of the enemies of Judah, as the praises of God’s people were heard and the Lord fought on their behalf. This is not your average battle plan! Our enemies have no power over us when we lift up the name of Jesus!

CHM has had the distinct pleasure of working with prophetic singer, songwriter, and worship leader, Kelanie Gloeckler. Kelanie is on staff as a worship leader at New Life Christian Fellowship in Jacksonville, and at IHOP–Jax (International House of Prayer) as a worship leader, teacher and mentor; she also travels extensively around the country leading worship and teaching at various churches, conferences and worship schools. At CHM, we have a desire to learn more about the role of worship in healing. Kelanie has been used by God to help us in our conferences. Recently, I sat down with Kelanie and interviewed her about her journey as a worship leader. Here is a little peek into the heart of a gifted and anointed worshipper:

Liz: How long have you been leading worship?

Kelanie: Twenty years. I started leading worship when I was 15 or 16, basically as soon as I could figure out how to put a few chords together on the guitar. I was a relatively shy young lady, so leading worship wasn’t something that I naturally had a huge desire to do — I had absolutely no desire to be on a stage or in front of people. But there were just little things along the way, cumulatively, that got me out of my shell.

Liz: You are known as a prophetic worship leader. What is prophetic worship?

Kelanie: A basic, fundamental definition of prophetic worship is the other half of the conversation of worship. Most people associate worship with singing songs in a congregational setting. It isn’t totally wrong to think this way, but a vital piece is missing. In worship, we’re singing to the Lord and about Him. Prophetic worship happens when we step from that place into the place of His response back to us in song. It’s like the other end of a phone conversation. Because we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, He’s always present and He’s always speaking to us. However, we aren’t always tuning in. In prophetic worship, we are intentional about understanding that He does want to say stuff and He wants to do stuff when we’re all together worshipping Him. There’s an activation that happens during this time. For me as a worship leader, sometimes I’ll get a sense of a theme that’s on the Lord’s heart and I might turn that into a phrase, a simple declaration that I can sing over and over again which enables the worshippers to come into agreement and declare it together. I find that when I’m obedient to follow that ‘faith trail’ with the Holy Spirit, a lot gets activated in that moment. If I wasn’t obedient, things would be missed. For example, I might start to release something prophetically in a song, maybe a certain theme of releasing hope, or something that causes people to respond by being freed from addictions. There’s so much activity going on during that kind of prophetic flow — it’s so cool how the Holy Spirit can be speaking so individually to everyone in the room while we’re corporately together singing the same song.

Liz: After twenty years of leading worship, how have you changed personally? How has God transformed what you understand worship to be?

Kelanie: It has changed a TON. My paradigm, my understanding of worship was just fine when I was younger but it was just so . . .tiny. When I really felt and heard the call of God on my life in this direction, I had no grid for where I was going. In the beginning, it was just that I loved to worship God and I loved to sing. Fast forward to college, I was exposed to some worship music that was unlike anything I’d ever heard before and something inside me resonated — I was like, woah, this sound is inside of me and I didn’t even know it existed. I was blown away. Something shifted and was awakened on the inside of me and the next thing I knew, that’s all I wanted to do. I wasn’t satisfied anymore with just singing the songs; I wanted to stay on them and see what God would do. That created a lot of boldness in me because it took a lot of faith. Most recently, my involvement in IHOP has focused me in a new way. It has really marked me in my understanding of worship, and being a Mary of Bethany at the feet of Jesus; of being an Elijah, a forerunner voice, preparing the way for the Lord, being an Anna who just lived in the house of the Lord. It’s a totally different mindset.

Liz: What do you see as your primary role as it relates to the body of Christ?

Kelanie: I’ll tell you what it’s not: it’s not to be a cheerleader; it’s not to work everybody up into a froth so that they think that they had an encounter with God. I really want to see people genuinely encountering the Lord in a way that is transforming and life changing. I want to help create an atmosphere and lead people to Jesus — get them to focus on Jesus because that’s where it all happens. If you need healing in your body, it’s done in Jesus, so focus on Jesus. If you need deliverance, if there’s anxiety or stress in your life, if your marriage is in trouble, it doesn’t matter what the need is, focusing on Jesus is where you find the answers. I am a presence–driven person; I want to go into the presence of the Lord, period. And I want to help people connect with the Lord in that way and be changed. The Holy Spirit will do so much inside of us if we have a willing heart, even during worship. In that moment, sometimes things happen almost instantaneously — something lifts off of us, or joy comes. Some people have real supernatural encounters during worship. As we continuously gaze on the Lord and learn how to stay in that place, we abide in Him. There is also that ongoing transformation that’s happening day by day and then one day we wake up and realize ‘wow, I’ve come a long way.’

Liz: In Judith’s new book on angels, there is a section on the Seraphim, the angels who are assigned to the Throne Room of God to worship Him. How does this reality impact the way you lead people in worship?

Kelanie: It has everything to do with it. The Seraphim, aka ‘the burning ones,’ are perpetual worshippers of God. They are continually magnifying the worth of Jesus Christ. They never get tired of worshipping; they never cease to cry out about God’s holiness and His glory. Heaven is our inheritance and our eternal home. It is the dwelling place of God and because of that, it is important that we pay attention to what is happening in that place. The glimpses we get (in Scripture) concerning the activity going on in the heavenly sanctuary are not put there just to make us homesick for a place that we hope to get to one day; they are put there because it is God’s desire that the worship on earth would be in alignment with and would be a true reflection of the worship in heaven. Praying ‘Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ means that we are asking God to release on the earth what is in heaven — and one of the primary things that Scripture shows us about heaven is the incessant worship of God on His throne. Just as the Seraphim have been given the role in heaven to worship God, we have been given a role on earth to minister to the Lord. Our worship, our prayer, and our intercession going before Him actually impacts things here and changes the atmosphere around us because when I am worshipping, I am interacting with heaven. My voice is being heard before the throne of God. My prayer, my intercession is rising up like incense in a real place, before a real throne. I’m not just flinging words up into the ethereal realm — I’m actually interacting with a real place. Psalm 22 says ‘God is enthroned on the praises of Israel’ so we understand this concept that God literally inhabits our praise. Just in the same way He is surrounded by worship in heaven, He desires to be enthroned in worship on the earth. It is so awesome that we get to worship Him as His sons, His daughters, and His bride.

Liz: How do you feel worship ‘sets the stage’ for healing?

Kelanie: Worship goes hand–in–hand with healing because we are focusing on Jesus, the healer. Our hearts are being prepared to receive from Him. I believe that worship really contributes to an atmosphere of faith. Where there are people who need a breakthrough, whether in their physical body, or in their emotions, they can receive from Him. Worship increases our awareness of who He is. I love in Ephesians 5 when Paul says ‘be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in songs, hymns and spiritual songs’ (v.19). I have always thought that it was really cool that he emphasizes ‘speaking to one another’ because in our times of worship when we come together as the church, we always think we are singing to the Lord but there’s also another dimension where we’re singing to one another and exhorting one another through worship. For example, when I make a decision to press in to God and worship Him, I am helping contribute to an atmosphere of faith that may bring about the breakthrough for somebody else. People need to encounter God and that can often come through worship. And whether He chooses to heal someone in a moment or whether it’s a progressive thing, being in the atmosphere of worship is really healthy for our bodies and life giving. Saturating yourself in God’s presence affects us profoundly on a physical and emotional level. Compare this to being bombarded by negativity. Negative words can affect us in a negative way, because our bodies hear and respond — I believe that’s why we see healing take place in direct connection with an atmosphere of worship.

Liz: Thank you Kelanie. We ask the Lord to continue to bless you as you continue to press into His heart.

After the enemies of Judah were defeated, we read in 2 Chronicles 20:

The battle started with worship and ended with worship. That was the priority. Worship was the weapon that led Judah to victory.

I love the presence of Jesus. I love to worship. Without question, the most significant healings that I, personally, have experienced have been in the midst of worship. I long for that day in eternity when we will join with the mighty host of angels surrounding the Throne of our great God; but I also rejoice in the reality that my role as a worshipper here on earth is crucial and valid. As Kelanie said, we are His sons and daughters, His bride — and living as these means that our worship of Him releases His Kingdom here on earth as it is now in heaven. What a remarkable inheritance!

Liz Bailey is the Events Coordinator for CHM.