Jesus and demons - Mark 1 and 16 - preach, heal and drive out demons

Today my aim is to teach you how to pray for the sick. In the Vineyard we believe in preaching the gospel, healing the sick and driving out demons. We will learn how to do this and then do a practical and pray for some people.
1.       Do this a lot? you may have slipped into bad habits and could do with a refresher.
2.       Done it but not a lot? I want to remind you how to do it and encourage you to make praying for the sick a bread and butter part of following Jesus.
3.       Little or no experience of this. Sceptical. That’s OK, just listen in and watch.

I want to spend a few minutes explaining the biblical truth that underpins what we do and why.

Please open your bibles and start reading at verse 1 of Mark 1 – what is the first thing Jesus says?

1:14, 15
Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, “The time has come”, he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.”

As he does this what happens? Demons are jolted into action and people get healed (verses 23ff and 34).

This is really important to get into your understanding. When the kingdom of God is preached; when his presence is declared; when we declare the good news of his kingship and love for his creation; when we call people to repentance and to turn back to God - the kingdom comes.
And where the kingdom is, the enemy retreats, darkness is dispelled; lies and destruction are replaced by truth and peace.

Think of it like the declaration of peace in a war-torn land. When overwhelming, huge, fully equipped and armoured peace-keeping force are welcomed by the local people. Everywhere you look there are the tanks and soldiers of the peace-keeping forces. The bad guys take some pot shots but are quickly rounded up and driven out. There is no space for them, no life-blood, no opportunity, nobody wants them there and they can’t survive.
That is what it is like when the kingdom comes. Sickness and the enemy have to go.

Now you say to me, but David I get ill and I am a Christian. I pray for people and sometimes they get healed and sometimes they don’t.  Yes that is right. Because the kingdom has not yet fully come. We see it in part but one day we will see it in full. How will we know? When there is no more death.

The starting point of praying for the sick is not a magic prayer or a leap of faith but the declaration of the kingdom of God.

Let’s look at the end of Mark. Chapter 16:14-20
Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. ¹⁵ He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on people who are ill, and they will get well.’ ¹⁹ After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. ²⁰ Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Jesus upbraids them for their lack of faith – not just a nagging doubt, which we all get, but a stubborn disbelief – and then repeats his command: Go into all the world, preach the good news … drive out demons, heal sick people.

There are questions asked about the authenticity of this passage but it retains its place in scripture because it is consistent with what Jesus has been saying and doing all the way through Mark and because it is fulfilled in the rest of the book of Acts (which records the story of the early church doing just what Jesus has commanded).

I started out sceptical about praying for the sick. I had to repent and believe that God could do this if he wanted to. I got a notebook (pre PDA) and wrote 1-100 down the side and began to record every time I prayed for the sick. I never got to 100. I became convinced that Jesus will work with us and confirm his word enough to make this the best thing I can do with my life.

I have lost count of the number of people I have prayed for over the years. Some got spectacularly healed, some didn’t. But no one has ever said to me, I wish you hadn’t prayed for me, I wish you hadn’t told me that Jesus died to forgive my sins and that He loves me.

I know what it is like, just at the point when you are called to take a risk and speak truth, to declare the kingdom, to pray for the sick, to drive out a demon. Just then you begin to think, I am not good enough, I will look stupid, I don’t know enough, what if nothing happens … you step back from the brink. The kingdom is not declared and then nothing happens.

The command is to preach the gospel, pray for the sick and drive out demons. The promise he gives us here is that he will work with us and confirm his word. We have been promised that he will be with us through his Holy Spirit. It is one of the reasons we worship – because when we worship his presence comes. We are a people of the presence.

Maybe Jesus is saying to you, hey, what’s with the stubborn unbelief? Come on! Wherever you are in this, it is time to be obedient to Jesus’ command. Take a risk, get stuck in and go for it. You will see the lost saved, the sick healed and demons driven out.
I think it is the most exciting and satisfying thing you can do with your life.

So how do you pray for the sick?

Prayer ministry is meeting the needs of others with the resources of God”, John Wimber

THE FIVE STEP HEALING MODEL

Step One: The Interview

Question: Where does it hurt?

Listen on two levels: the natural and the supernatural.

Step Two: The diagnostic decision

Question: Why is this person ill or in pain? What has caused this?

1. Discernment
2. Symptoms and causes
3. Emotional traumas
4. Accidents and abuse
5. Clinical assessments
6. Demonisation

 
DEMONISATION
I have explained in previous talks that the words possession and oppression and the like all derive from the same word which is best translated “demonised”. This is the word we tend to use in the Vineyard. When we drive demons out of people it is often called deliverance. There are three occasions in Mark which describe this in detail (1:23 - in the synagogue, 5 - in Gerasene, 9 - the boy with the evil spirit).

On no occasion does Jesus go hunting for demons. In every case he helped people get free from demonic evil spirits that were afflicting them.
 
That is a good guide for us. We don’t go looking for demons (they are there but we don’t try and dig them out), we proclaim the kingdom and we seek to help people get free. Just like Wimber’s definition of prayer ministry I used before, this is all about people.  We are surrounded by souls created and loved by God. We are called to bring good news to these people and pray for their healing and deliverance.  It is all about the person and the restoration of their dignity.
 
As you pray for someone you may discern that the enemy has a foothold, a sort-of permission to be there. What may be needed is some time of pastoral counsel to deal with that first. Because the prayer of deliverance is often a relatively short one. You simply use the authority that God has given you to restore the person to freedom by commanding the demon to go - because he no longer has any rights.

Step Three: The Prayer Selection

Question, “What kind of prayer is needed here?”

Remember that when we pray we are filled with the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that had the power to raise Jesus from the dead lives in you. You can go into ministry full of faith that the Lord chooses to use you to minister to the people he loved and died for.

Healing prayer usually falls into 1 of 2 categories:

1. Prayer directed to God (petition)
   • Holy Spirit come – declare the kingdom of God.
   • This is a common way in which you will probably find yourself praying. The simplest form is, “Lord, please heal Fred of his condition.”
   • Equally valid, and perhaps more effective, is for the person for whom you are praying to ask for healing. This means that they know you didn’t do it and raises faith in their hearts. If they declare lack of faith it provides you with an opportunity to encourage and instruct them about God’s desire to heal.
2. Words from God (revelation)
   This is where we speak words given to us by God, not to God. This is closer to the dynamic we have been reading about in Mark where Jesus sent the disciples out to preach and to have authority to heal the sick and drive out demons. We go as emissaries of God, with authority to instruct sickness and demons to go. At the end of Mark he says, “Go into all the world”.
   • Command: you may feel an increase in faith and find yourself saying, “Be healed in Jesus’ name.” Often accompanied by other manifestations that indicate God is at work – warm hands, a tingling sensation, oil or water on your hands, a rush of heat, a conviction of faith.
   • You may speak to the condition itself, the actual body say. Or you may speak to an evil spirit that is causing the illness. You may say, “I break your power over this person in Jesus’ name.” Or, even shorter, “Stop it”.
   • Pronouncement: this is similar to a command but comes after the healing. Usually accompanied by a sense of peace, the job is done, the battle is over. You can say, “The Lord is healing you right now” Or “the Lord has healed you” or “the Lord will heal this condition in 6 days time.”
   • Prayer of rebuke: Again similar to a word of command. You discern that an evil spirit is the cause of the complaint and you pray, “In the name of Jesus, I rebuke you, evil spirit. You have no right over this person’s life. Go.”
   • Prayer of agreement: this is where you and the person or another agree in the sense that you have become aware of what the Lord is doing and agree about that together. So you pray, “Lord, we agree together and bless what you are doing in healing, delivering this person.

The main thing to remember is that here is a person, loved by God who is damaged. You are speaking to the damage and taking the authority given to you by God to bring the kingdom and the power for restoration and healing.

As you make the prayer selection you continue to listen to the Lord and seek his ongoing direction and counsel as you pray

Step Four: Prayer Engagement

Question: How effective are our prayers?

• Discretion/dignity
• Comfort, position
• Eyes
• Then pray
   

Phenomenological responses

• Shaking & trembling
• Falling over
• Drunkenness
• Pogoing, contracting limbs or facial expressions.
• Laughing and sobbing
• Prolonged praise

 
We don’t pray for physical manifestations, we pray for the Holy Spirit to come.

Talk to the person you are praying for
“What is happening?” "How are you feeling?"
Find out if there is any change. Measure.
You may go back a couple of steps and go to a different prayer.
There are four main areas in which we seek healing:

1. The spirit
2. Healing of past hurts
3. Healing the body
4. Demonisation
    

Step Five: Post-prayer counsel

Questions: What should they do to keep their healing?

What should they do if they have not been healed?

Whatever else people must be led to experience and believe that primarily God loves them.

Counsel:

1. Read the bible and study
2. Pray and set aside time for devotions
3. Worship – both on their own and in the corporate gathering
4. Give their money to the church
5. Find somewhere to serve
6. Become part of a small group