I think we can all see that this approach might not work.
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What I am afraid of is that good people will come to CHM and attend a School of Healing Prayer and pray for an impartation of the gift of healing then they will tell their pastor, “I attended CHM’s school on how to pray for healing, and I’ve asked for an impartation of that gift, so I am now offering myself to lead the healing ministry here.” Becoming a good preacher takes time ordinarily, a fifteen–year–old will not be as effective a preacher as he will at 30. There are so many natural, human gifts that go to making a good preacher that it’s presumptuous to expect to preach effectively by simply appropriating the gift of preaching. And then suppose you prayed for that impartation, and then the person approached the leader of their prayer group or their pastor and said, “I now have the gift of inspired preaching, and I’d like you to offer me the pulpit next Sunday, so I can try out my new gift of inspired preaching.” I think we can all see the difficulty with this approach to improving the preaching in our churches. And that wouldn’t be so bad, except that when we pray for inner healing or deliverance, we are dealing with wounded human beings and we cannot afford to hurt them.Ī second good comparison would be if someone prayed for the first gift in Paul’s list, which is often translated as “inspired preaching.” Suppose that someone came to you and asked you to pray that God would impart to them the gift of inspired preaching. Furthermore, people who seem to lack common sense don’t seem to recognize that flaw. But if we lack common sense, we are likely to make practical mistakes all the time. Haven’t you seen this? Of course, we all make mistakes from time to time. The aspiring prayer minister may have an admirable Christian character, but in addition to having a healing gift, he/she also needs just plain common sense. This will radically affect the way the person prays with people, and the lack of common sense will impair their healing ministry - and they may actually harm people without even being aware of it. Ordinarily, God builds his special gifts upon the natural, created human gifts he has already given us “Grace builds on nature.”įirst, suppose there is a good Christian person who seems to lack common sense. Mainly, I think it’s because God doesn’t seem to work that way. And I don’t think we necessarily receive the special gift of being a healing minister by asking God for an impartation of that gift. Everyone gets to pray.īut Paul also says in 1Corinthians 12:28 that the special gift of healing is given to some, but not to everyone. And so all of us are empowered to pray for healing from time to time - and we should expect to see healing take place, especially in our homes. The heart of the gift is the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit dwells within every Christian. Take, for example, the gift of healing, which we experience at CHM so much.
The difficulty is that it is not totally up to us to choose our gifts, but we need to recognize the gifts that the Spirit has already given to us. And impartation is certainly a healthy, life–affirming attitude for us to have. We honor God more by seeing him as generous rather than as a miser. Ordinary Christians are encouraged to see God as a source of blessing and goodness, who loves to bless in abundance - God is not a miser. The encouraging aspect to the idea of praying for impartation is that Christians, who so often hang back and let the pastors do all the ministering, are taught to be more assertive and launch out in ministry. Paul simply chose as leaders those who had already shown gifts for teaching and administration. After evangelizing for several months in a city, Paul chose those who would be his successors. He looked around at members of his community, then prayed, and then he chose. The first thing to note is that Jesus, in choosing the 12 and the 72, didn’t ask for volunteers. There is something wonderful about this practice, the practice of impartation, but it is accompanied by some real difficulties. Similarly, for years people have asked us to pray for them to receive the gift of healing to empower them to minister in their homes or churches. One of the latest practices in healing conferences is for leaders to pray for people to receive an impartation of various spiritual gifts, such as prophecy or healing.
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