Naturally Supernatural : Healing - Clare Gageler

Introducing the Naturally Supernatural Series and Concept Amen. Amen. Well, it's great to be back, and Claire's going to bring a talk that she has on her heart today. Speaker 2 Amazing. So we have been away for a couple of weeks and as you know that's a long flight when you're heading over to the UK. So I had a lot of time to think and to pray. Not really, I was just we had a good time away, but we really did miss you all. And we do really sense that on our return, we've just since the Lord kind of like nudging us into a new little mini series that we're doing, which we are calling naturally supernatural. And one of the things that I really love about the network we're a part of, which is who we were visiting in the UK, is this sense of ministry and of experiencing the power and the reality of God in a way that is not hypey, it's not weird. It's certainly full of power. It's certainly amazing things happening, but it's just really relaxed and it's really normal. And so this sense of naturally Supernatural, when I was there and hearing amazing stories about what God is doing, I wasn't being like, oh, I wish that could happen at our church. Like it wasn't like that sense in me. I was like, hang on a minute, this is happening at our church. Like we need to celebrate this more. We need to talk about it more. Like this is happening and God is doing some amazing things here at neighbourhood. And I think I, when I sort of had that moment, I was like, OK, we need to take a couple of weeks and just flesh this out because God is moving at neighbourhood. And I, I think in this next few weeks, you're going to hear a lot of stories, a lot of different people sharing a lot of different perspectives on things. But you know, we've just come out of a massive teaching series on the Nicene Creed. We called it, What's a Christian anyway? And there was a lot of great teaching. But I, I think sometimes you need a sort of move and, and go from like a really sort of like teaching intellectual space. And sometimes you just need to do the stuff. It's time to get on with it and just have a crack. And so we are a church who believes the Bible. We are a church who believes in the power of the Holy Spirit. We spoke about that in what's a Christian anyway? We believe in the visible and the invisible. You know, we believe that God came for us and for our salvation. We believe in the Holy Spirit. So when we talk about naturally supernatural, I think it's important that we sort of switch head spaces and take all of that sort of learning that we've done over the last couple of months and hold it, don't let it go, don't check your brain out of the door. But also we're going to do this stuff. And so this is going to be really encouraging, I believe, miniseries for you. So what do we mean by naturally supernatural? Now, this was a phrase coined by the late John Wimber, who ended up starting the Vineyard movement in the USA, and he coined this phrase to describe his ministry. John was well known for sort of like power ministry where he would just move in the Holy Spirit, people would get healed, people would be filled with the spirit. It was very, very exciting. But what he would do is empower everybody and then he would send them out or he'd be like, no, no, you can do this. I'm going to go get some lunch and I'll come back while you keep ministering. And he was very relaxed, oddly relaxed. But he described it as naturally supernatural. And being naturally supernatural is a distinctive of neighbourhood. So if you're new here and you're trying to figure out are they are they super hyper charismatic or are they super like evangelical? Like if you're trying to put label on us, all the best. But this this is something that you will begin to pick up about neighbourhood. We want to be a naturally supernatural church. What does that mean? It means that everyone gets to play. So you can be uniquely yourself and God can still use you. And what it means is that you have no pressure to perform. Like you don't need to put on a three piece suit and like be allowed talker. You can act normal. God is still going to show up. It opens up ministry opportunities out in your world, not just in your church. And what I love about being natural, supernatural, naturally supernatural, is that people who are outside of the faith context or perhaps are only exploring faith or it's not really on their radar yet, they're not really put off or intimidated when you minister this way because prayer isn't weird and prayer isn't hype and prayer isn't manipulative. And what we find as you engage your faith in this way in your context, is that people's receptivity to Jesus and God and faith just grows exponentially. Finally, being naturally supernatural paves the way for people to actually experience God's loving and healing presence in a way that doesn't feel threatening or embarrassing. So in our secular world where the supernatural is like witchy references in Hollywood or it's like really like old TV shows, and that's what how people understand supernatural contexts. The comfort of God's Holy Spirit, His love, his healing power when it's exhibited in a natural way is for many people the start of a faith journey for themselves. Jesus' Willingness to Heal: A Core Principle So let's give you a heads up of some of the topics today. We're going to be talking about how to share your testimony, how to pray for others and have prophecy or words of knowledge and not be strange about it. And we're going to talk about healing. We might talk about spiritual warfare. We'll see how we go. But each week we'll look at some aspect of the Christian life and offer a chance to be filled with the Holy Spirit afresh and practise what we're talking about. South Jesus was naturally supernatural and he wants us to be too. He wants us to be like this. When he sent out the 72 disciples or whatever number it was, he sent them out and said, you can do this. And I love in the in the gospel where people come back and they say it works, Pete, like demons have been being cast out in your name and like people are getting healed in your name and like all this stuff is happening in your name. And he's like, yeah, that's exactly right. And we see in Matthew 29 says go into all the world teaching and doing what I have commanded you just as I've taught you. And we we know that there is authority in the name of Jesus. And I'll come back to that in a few minutes. But today we're going to talk about healing. So when it comes to naturally supernatural healing, I borrowed this from a friend, Chloe, who is got an amazing book. Actually, if you want to read a book about healing that's really accessible, let me know. I'll give you a good wreck. But she says when it comes to just doing this normally and being normal about it, what we're talking really is about healing happening in everyday locations, at the gym, at the coffee shop, at your home, at your office. We're talking about everyday people. So not just professional pastors or travelling healing ministers, we're talking about everyday ailments. So not just the life altering, life threatening God if you don't come through, this is the end of my life stuff. Although God does move in those scenarios. But things like headaches, migraines, eczema, everyday ailments, everyday language. So normal words, no fancy gear, no like towels or oils and stuff. You know, you can use that stuff, but when we're talking about supernaturally supernatural healing, we're talking everyday locations, everyday people, everyday ailments, everyday language. So I'm going to get ready. We're going to intermix a bit of a bit of teaching with heaps of stories. Going to be fun. Ready. Yeah. OK, great. So the first thought that I want to share is that Jesus wants to heal what I love in Matthew 81 to 4:00, if we get that on the screen, Cooper, it says now when Jesus had come down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. A man with a skin disease came, kneeled before him and said, Lord, if you want, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched him, which would have made Jesus ceremonially unclean, touched him saying I do want to. I love in some in some translations a bit more formal, it says Lord, if you're willing, and Jesus says I am willing. Instantly the man's skin disease was cleansed. What I love is that Jesus doesn't take on the impurity and the social impurity of this guy's skin disease, but His Holiness and healing overcomes this man's impurity and his disease. Love that, Come on, Jesus said to him, don't say anything to anyone, which is like a red rag to a ball. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest. Offer the gift that Moses commanded to be ceremonially clean, and this will be a testimony to them. What I love is that God blesses people with healing. He loves it, but it's usually for a good reason, and that is so people can have a good testimony about God. So not only is Jesus willing to heal, but it's usually for that missional purpose. So big question from this passage for us as we take it away is are we willing? Are we willing to have compassion like Jesus and to have ourselves be moved for the condition of other people and be and allow ourselves to be used by God and allow God's healing power to be at work in our life and in other people's lives? Are we moved with compassion? A Violinist's Miraculous Shoulder Healing Story Are you ready to hear a cool story? OK, so this is a bit of A2 parter and it is from friends who are out of town. So I first heard this story on a podcast and then weirdly about a week later, the person who is is the subject of this story came and visited neighbourhood. They live in South Australia, but they came, we had lunch with them and I got to hear her version of the story straight up. So first let's hear the podcast version from Al Gordon, who is the pastor of the church that sent us out. And let's hear what he his perspective, and then we'll hear Nikki's perspective. Speaker 1 Final thing is we just notice that when we stop and we make room for the spirit. Speaker 2 Of God and. Speaker 1 We make space for the Spirit of God and we don't try and manufacture or rush or progratize or get in the way like we had this time at Renaissance Last two weeks ago. A friend was speaking. It was a great talk. It wasn't particularly like, you know, it was just like a great talk and it talked about the glory of God. And we just sat there afterwards and the presence, we didn't do ministry time. The presence of God was so thick in the room. Yeah, but people didn't move for 20 minutes. You know what? There's a room for like 1100 people and mostly in the early 20s and like, you know, normally phones are out, people are chatting, you know, people are Instagramming or whatever Tik toking Pete, you'll know more about this. But I'm, I'm like looking at this room, nobody is moving and it's deadly still. It's almost awkward. I'm like, what do I do? And I'm saying the guy's preaching, what do I do? What do we do? What do we do? And yeah, this lady comes up to me that evening and said she sat there and she felt this weight of the presence of God rest on her. She's a professional violinist. She's flying from Australia to London for this conference, had been off sick for a year because she had a a really severe injury in her shoulder, couldn't play professionally from the top violinist in Australia. She's on horse tranquillizers for the pain that morning. It was so painful she didn't even come to the event and she just felt sat there on the presence called this extraordinary sense of heat on her shoulder and she got up to go and get lunch and she said my I can I can lift my arms. I couldn't do this 5 minutes ago. No one had prayed for her for healing like that is not in the manual. You know, final thing is that's. Speaker 3 Exciting that you're wanting to share my testimony. Thank you. Speaker 2 This is Nikki. Speaker 3 Basically, I have had an injury, well I had an injury for 18 months which basically rendered me not being able to do my job at all. So I was on work cover and I was just not getting better. The surgery that I was looking at having was quite risky and it was a real catch 22 because the surgeon said if I have the surgery, it doesn't necessarily mean that the pain is going to go away. So I might get the function, but the pain would still be an issue. And so it's basically just living with chronic pain and unrest and able to play like a little bit, but it would always just make it worse. And, and I had a long period of time where I was like, Oh my goodness, I don't know if I'm going to be able to be a violinist anymore. And it's like, you know, just working that out with God. Like, what does that look like? And why God would you bring me here and then, you know, not heal me when I really feel like I'm meant to be playing music with my life. And so I guess what's really cool about what happened at Renaissance is that I feel like the miracle that happened to my shoulder was just such a small part of what God wanted to do. So essentially, I was sitting in the service at the conference and there was this beautiful time of just stillness in the room. And it was real, I think, consecration time. Like people were just so moved by just the power of God and, and the room was silent. And then after a few minutes, people started singing. Speaker 2 Holy, holy you, Lord. Speaker 3 God Almighty and it was just this beautiful holy moment and the first thing from my mind was healing, but I felt just spontaneous heat and weight that on my shoulder and I knew immediately I was like, this is crazy. I've never felt this. Speaker 2 Before. Speaker 3 And I just raised my hands because I just knew God was healing my shoulder. It was just such a profound sense of like warmth and well, actually heat, like hot hotness, not just warmth. So I raised my hands and began to worship. And ever since then, I have not had to take any pain relief whatsoever. I, I've been completely healed. I think my, I, I, after 18 months of not playing the violin full time, you lose a lot of your, I guess, muscle memory. And so it has definitely taken time to build back the resilience in my shoulder. But as far as pain and the actual injury, it's just been completely healed. Like there's just no, no remnant of it at all. Speaker 2 Come on. A Dentist's Wrist Healed Through Prayer How incredible. God wants to heal. Jesus wants to heal Sarah. Sarah and Sarah Lee. Come, come, come, come up here. Come here. Well, this is a story. OK? So it was nice to hear from a stranger. Even better to hear from a friend. So I know you've shared this story before, but let's share it again. Tell us what was the problem with your wrist? Speaker 4 Well, last year. So I'm a dentist by trade. Speaker 2 We love a dentist. Speaker 4 I've been practising for 10 years and it was the first time I started getting a pain in my right hand, my right wrist. And I thought OK, well you know, dentists get aches and pains all the time, so it might be just one of those things and go away. I spent a week just waiting and seeing, but after a week it started getting so painful that I couldn't lift the blanket off when I got out of bed. So I had to ask my boss to take over things like extractions because I couldn't use my right hand. Just really light kind of pressure. And he got quite worried and sent me to the GP. And the GP then sent me for scans and talked about income protection because, yeah, we were thinking I might not be able to use my hand again and that was my livelihood. So unfortunately I didn't have income protection, Yeah. So I was just getting quite worried. I was doing alpha at the time here at. Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. So say a bit about. So you'd invited some friends from work? Speaker 4 Yeah, so I invited a a few friends from work, about five of them, they're all non Christians. And so it was during that time, it was third week of alpha and. Speaker 2 When What happened? Speaker 4 I was leaving with my husband after Alfred finished and Claire was vacuuming, cleaning up and we were just about to exit the door and she just kind of looked over and said, hey, what can I be praying for you guys about? And I just kind of went blank because I didn't want to bother her. She's packing up. She probably tired. I didn't even think my hand was, you know, needing prayer. It just didn't come to my mind. But my husband, David, he immediately asked, how can you pray for Sarah's wrist? And she just turned the vacuum off. And I was like, oh, no, don't disturb her. But she walked over and she put her hands on my wrist and, and she prayed. And the prayer was quite striking to me at the time. The words that were prayed were Lord, please shrink the cells and the tendons and and these words just kept ringing in my head as she was praying it. And I just had this revelation of God's character in that moment that wow, God loves my tendons. And it, it just astounded me because I never thought of God like that, that God would love the most minute details of who I am, not just yeah, just just felt insignificant to bring that to the Lord. But the Lord would, you know, care for my tendons. So. Speaker 2 So we prayed for your tendons and for your wrist in general, but then did anything happen? Like what happened? Speaker 4 Yeah. So I went home and I was kind of nervous. And the next day I was like to Dave, should I, you know, try? And he's like, no, no, no, don't try it yet. So I didn't try it for three days before I went to work. And the third day I, I tried it and it was absolutely no pain. And I had told my boss I would, you know, not go that week, but I said, I'm back. I'm fully functional. Speaker 2 That's amazing. And let's give her a hand and thank you God. Thank you God. All right, we have another one. Instant Relief from Nerve Pain in Trish's Back Trish. Trish, you here? Yeah. Come, come, come. All right, so we have another story, little, little quick one, and come, come, tell us. Come. All right. So what was what was wrong with you? No, What? What what did you need here? I'll. Speaker 5 Hold this. Oh, OK, Nothing's wrong with me. I'm fine. Speaker 2 Spoiler alert, no. But tell us what was what was wrong the other week? When was this? 2-3 weeks ago, yeah. Speaker 5 Yeah, I think 3 weeks ago I was helping a patient out of her chair onto a Sarah Steady and she had her ulcer leaking on her leg. I had no idea she was a one assist so I helped her and so I was on her unparalysed hand and she as she fell she kind of pulled me and I did my back, which I didn't expect way too young for that, but I did my back and I was like oh it feels like a slight strain and so I'm fine. And then on my drive home that day I realised I couldn't even turn the steering wheel because it was just like stinging pain made it home. And then I realised that night that when I stayed in a position for about 5 minutes or so, the pain started to go from my mid back to my right leg just fully nerve pain, stinging, throbbing, everything. Speaker 2 OK, that sounds awful. And then what happened when you came for prayer? Speaker 5 Well, I came to church that Sunday and I was seated down, couldn't even focus on what was being said. I was just in so much pain. And then I was even about to ask Trey if we could go out and get me some Benadol because I was just like, I can't do it. But then they asked if we, if anyone, wanted to come for a prayer. And I saw Monica walking up and my eyes were fixed on her. And I was like, I'm going. But yeah. What surprised me was when I walked over to her, she was like, I was about to just come to you. So obviously it didn't occur to me in that moment. But then when I went home and thought about it again, I was like, oh, she saw. She saw that I was in pain. So obviously, yeah. But anyway, I came to her, she asked me what happened, and her and Bertha laid their hands on my back along with Trey, and they prayed for me. And at first I did feel loved. I felt really loved. I felt seen. I felt that I had people around helping me and listen. Speaker 2 That's nice, that's nice. And was that the end of the? Speaker 5 Story. No, no, no. Not even close. At first, I didn't feel much. But as they went deeper into prayer, it was similar to that video. I felt warmth, but it was hard for me to believe. I thought, you know, I mean, three people were laying their hands on my back. Surely warmth. I'm going to feel warmth. So I was like, yeah, OK. And then Monica stopped, and she asked me. You pray as well. You pray for your healing. And so I started praying. And it was, it was in a split second, I'd say like the click of a finger. I just the pain down my leg was just gone. And throughout the prayer, I was kind of like leaning on one leg. And then I put my leg down and like, it was fine. And I just cried. I don't know. It took me a while to kind of understand or even accept what was going on. I was like, surely this is just because I believed it. And so, you know, now I'm feeling it. But then even days after, no pain down my leg. Speaker 2 Yeah, Praise God. Thank you. Well done. Well done. Amazing. This is so exciting. Yeah, we're good. This is so cool. Hey, isn't it so good to see what God can do? So this is amazing. God truly does care and he does want to heal. So here's the big take away from this idea of Jesus wants to heal is that we should care and love enough to pause and to pray. I love what Trishy said about Monica spotting. I love that Dave was like, no, no, no, wait, no, no, don't go home. Sarah, let's pray for you. And I love this. It's we should do that. And the other big take away is that big and small, He wants to heal it all. Come on. So I do want to just say he's so sweet. Addressing Unanswered Prayers for Healing with Faith Now, the big thing I do want to call out here, which I know is probably in the back of most people's mind, is like, what about when healing doesn't happen? Because this is a big blocker for me. And I'm sure for a lot of us, when we don't really want to ask God for prayer because we're kind of worried it won't happen. And I will just call out the elephant in the room and say that sometimes we pray and we pray and we pray and we pray, and God doesn't heal. And I don't know why. I don't know why. But here's what I do know. God always answers prayer. He is never not answering your prayers. And so if He answers and gives you healing wonderful, praise Him for it. If He is present with you, praise Him for it. If He doesn't give you your request but shows up in another way, praise Him for it. What I do know is that whether it's in this life or in glory, you will be healed. I don't know why it doesn't happen for everyone all the time. I weep and weep and weep when it doesn't happen. But I want to say don't give up. Don't lose heart. Even if you've been praying for years, don't give up. You know, we do when we're praying for our friends to come into faith and to a knowledge of God and we ask them or we share our faith once and they don't meet God. We don't just stop. We just, you know, we keep looking for a new opportunity to pray for them, to love them, to show them the kindness of God. And it's the same with healing. We don't give up. So I would also say if healing isn't happening, don't ignore the resources that God has made available to you. Take the medicine, do the treatment plan, do the stretches that the physio gave you. Look, God's promise is healing. He will deliver on His promise. But He does put amazing people around us and we live in an age where there is wonderful medicine and wonderful medical care available. So when healing doesn't happen, just know you're not alone. It's not because of your sin. It's not because of something you've done wrong. It's not, I don't know why. What I do know is that God always answers prayer and that in this life or the next you will be healed. Our Authority to Heal in the Name of Jesus So second thing Jesus wants to heal and then he wants us to heal in his name. So it's in Jesus name that healing happens. It's not in our cleverness, it's not in our boldness, it's in his name because he has the authority. It says in Matthew 817 that Jesus healing miracles were to fulfil the prophecy from Isaiah that says surely he took up our sickness and disease or our sickness and our infirmities upon the cross in one Peter 224. It says by his scars we are healed. So it's it's like we're waiters in the restaurant. This is what the Christian life is like. We're waiters in a restaurant, but the food is made by God. We're just delivering it. That is our part to play. And you see that this authority, if you're taking, if you're just the waiter and you're just delivering what is there, it's not your food, you didn't cook it. You're not the instigator of it. You're not the author of it. You're not the one who has the authority, but he does. And So what you need to recognise is that when you have that authority and when you understand who it sits with, you can pray boldly and what I love from Jesus example in mark one and mark 2, we see deliverance from demons. We see people healed from fever, from leprosy. In Mark 2 he talks about, he talks to the man who's paralysed and he says a very plain language. He says get up, take up your mat and go. And what I love with all of these is that Jesus uses plain language. Again, that everyday language, everyday ailments could be paralysis, could be a fever and he's speaks directly to the condition and he and he invites us to do the same thing. So when we pray for healing, we do it in the authority of Jesus. Jesus is so bold and he can speak so plainly because he knows he has authority. And so he, he speaks plainly. He says, you know, fever leave in the, you know, come out, take up your mat and go because he knows he has authority. He doesn't need to fluff around and we don't need to either. So speak it like you mean it. I love that the disciples left us an example of this. In Acts chapter 3. They see a man begging by the temple gate, really well known beggar, and he's obviously just asked them for money. That's what beggars would do. And so he asked them for money and they stop it. They look at him and they have the same word that Jesus has when he sees someone who needs healing. It's like this gut visceral reaction of I have to do something compassion and in their compassion they say silver and gold I do not have. But what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, in his name. Get up and walk. And the man got up. They helped him to his feet, I think, got up, walked and went dancing into the temple praising God. And everyone was like, isn't this the guy who sits out the front begging? This is an incredible example. So some more stories. A Golf Ball Sized Brain Tumour Vanishes Are you ready? OK, let's go. So we need a heel in his name. Now, a few years ago, Zach and I were ministering at another church and one of our colleagues, her husband really unexpectedly got diagnosed with a massive inoperable stage 4 brain tumour. It was right here on the base of his brain stem. And the description and the MRI showed it was about the size of a golf ball. So they said, look, we can't do anything for you. We could give you some palliative treatment to prolong your life, enough time for you to sort out your insurance and to say goodbye to your family. That's about it. You got about two weeks. Devastating. Of course, we prayed and prayed and prayed. These are beautiful, faithful people, friends of ours. And so we we prayed, of course. And they're so faithful. They're like, look, we've had a wonderful life and if we want, if you know, if this is God calling Neil home, then we want to die. Well, we don't want to be raging against it. We want to die with peace and dignity and love of God in our hearts, all of this. So pray for a good death. That's the prayer point. So we prayed for a good death and then like also sneakly on the side, supernatural healing. So we honoured their requests. Like Lord, if it is his time and you're taking him, give him peace, give him comfort, give him some reprieve from the pain, all that sort of stuff. But also, if you want to heal the brain tumour, please do that. And literally those were the sorts of prayers we were praying. It was so weird because he lasted longer than two weeks and then he lasted a month and then it was two months. The brain tumour was wasn't growing, but it wasn't shrinking at all. He would have Mris weekly or fortnightly. So they have these images to document what happened. And this would it start kicked off around June, end of August. She comes in white as a ghost. And I thought, Oh no, it's happened, comes in white as a ghost and says the tumour gone. And they said she had, he had an MRI like last week and then he has an MRI this week and it was a golf ball sized tumour and now it's gone. She's like, we've already cashed in his life insurance. So there was all these always logistical challenges, but she was absolutely flabbergasted that God had done this thing. And you can see she won't show them to anyone. But we always had this sneaky look of this brain where there was just this massive tumour in the right in the middle and all of the brain was just rippled up and squashed into his skull. And then, you know, 2 weeks later, nothing there. Perfectly normal brain. God heals today. Unexpected Deliverance from Vaping and Energy Drinks All right, we have another text on the screen from someone here, and it says, hey, hey, Claire. This is from July last year. Hey, Claire, praise report. I have no idea what happened when you prayed for me last night, but when I got into the car I shook very violently, tried to use my vape and I couldn't. Then I heard quite strongly from God that vaping is not his will for me. So I pulled over and dumped all my vapes in the bin and I've had no cravings today. Praise God I go. This is so funny because this person came down the front for anxiety prayer. They were like, I'm really anxious, can you pray for anxiety? Pray for anxiety. God did something else. I said I appreciate I came depressed and whatnot, but who knew that the next step of God's plan was to take the vapes away. I said, that's amazing. I have so little faith. I texted him the next day, which is not screenshotted. And I said, how are your cravings today? And a week later I was like, and how are they this week? And it was fun. He goes, he came, he came the next week to church. He goes, you wouldn't believe it. I'm off the energy drinks too. And I said, are you kidding? I'm like, how many energy drinks were you on? He goes, he was on 6A day and he had completely quit, have still quit the energy drinks even today, which is amazing. So God still heals all right. A Congenital Heart Defect Miraculously Healed And we have another text from Sarah for little Kaya. It says, Hey Claire, Josh and I would really love some prayer. We've had our ultrasound come back with them wanting to recheck baby's heart as there might be a congenital defect. Feel free to share with anyone that can pray for us. I was like yeah, absolutely. Prayer team. We got them praying and they got their scan and said hey, so bug does have a small hole in his heart but they're pretty confident it will heal up. We've got to wait till the 28 week scan. Great. We're praying for our 28 week scan now. Baby Kaia, it's his first Sunday at neighbourhood. Here he is. Does he have a did he have a hole in his heart? No. Brilliant. Thank you. Praise God. Simonette's Mum's Kidney Disease Miraculously Reversed All right, one more from our congregation. And this is from Simonet now. This is what Simonet said. She said, my mum is a breast cancer survivor, been in remission for 13 years, but was on a drug that was causing a lot of side effects. The dose kept getting increased and in February this year, she was diagnosed with stage 3, a kidney disease and it could have even led to organ failure. Her initial doctor basically said there's no reversing it, you're stuck with it. He was super rude. That was at Redacted hospital. Here's the here's the prayer request. Hope you're well. Mum's in surgery. My sister and her church are praying. This is the deal. Like could you please pray for a miracle? Now, obviously, Simonette says, obviously we had you guys praying, my sister's church praying. She was tested again later and it was reversed. There are so many layers to this story. Let's have a picture of Simonette's mum. She's gradually and safely weaning off this drug, hopefully by Christmas. I pray every week for full body healing for my mum and so does her sister at her church. So Simonette, that's your mom. Come on, come on. So if you're sitting here and you're like hearing all these stories, let me reassure you, God is still healing today. It can be big stuff, it can be little stuff, it can be your wrist, it can be a brain tumour, it can be sciatica pain and nerve pain down your back and leg. It can be anything. But God still heals today. Practical Tips for Naturally Supernatural Healing Prayer So how do you pray for healing? How do how with all these crazy stories, do you be naturally supernatural about it? Here are my top tips. I would say you need to ask and then pray. So here is how a really easy way to ask if someone wants to pray. If someone says, oh, I've got a massive headache, I've had it for three days. What you can say with full integrity in your heart is in my church, we often pray for healing. Can I pray for you? Oh, I've just had this sore back. It won't go. In my church, we often pray for healing. Can I pray for you now? People are way more spiritually open and tolerant than you give them credit for. Most of the time they're going to say, yeah, OK, sure. And then what happens is you don't get out your shofar and like a modesty cloth and like the oils and all of this, what you do is this. You say just what we've talked about in the name of Jesus headache go Amen. How do you feel? Or you could you know, if they're a believer, you could say receive your healing. Amen. How do you feel? In my church, we often pray for healing. Can I pray for you? And if they say yes, then you pray for them in the name of Jesus sickness. Go. You don't have to overcomplicate it. You don't have to get all technical about it. It can be as simple as that. It's Jesus who heals. You're just the waiter. He's cooking up something good for your friend. OK, so receive your healing in Jesus name, in the name of Jesus sickness, go. Here is another sort of caveat that I know that you're probably thinking and go, if I put myself out there and I pray for the person at the gym and they don't get healed, what do I do? Have I just committed social suicide? What to Do When Healing Doesn't Happen Instantly No, don't. What's the worst that can happen? That they're still as bad as before? God works in mysterious ways. Watch that space. All right, here's what you do. Look at Mark 822 to 25. This is super interesting because this is the creator of the universe. And notice what he has to do since they came to Bethsaida and some people bought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him because he had a reputation for healing. And he took the blind man by the hand and let him outside the village when he spit on the man's eyes. Don't recommend that you do that unless you're really, really sure that God, God is telling. When he spit on the man's eyes, he put his hands on him. Jesus asked. Do you see anything? How do you feel? Do you see anything? Can you put weight on both legs now, Trish? He looked up and he said, I see people, they look like trees walking around. Now, this is not some precursor to Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And Jesus goes, hmm, we're not quite done here. So if he's the chef in the kitchen, it needs some more seasoning. So he goes again. Now, if Jesus has to do this, we might need to as well. So once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. If Jesus had to pray more than once, you can expect to do that too. So what if someone doesn't receive their healing? Pray again. If they're open to it, pray again. You can pray for them right there and then. You could continue to pray for them privately at home and ask them, how are you doing? How are you feeling now? Complete Healing from Celiac Disease and Allergies Now if they get a partial healing, this is what is so fun, a partial healing. You go. Thank you God for a partial healing. Can we pray again and see how you feel now This has happened to a few of my friends. So my friend Mon from True North, we're doing joint prayer gathering with True North and the Rocks and a few other churches soon. So Mon from True North, she put this on her Facebook in May. On the 7th of May she says I don't really have any words except thank you Jesus. I'm healed of celiac disease, dairy and soy allergies. Six weeks ago I felt God say I was going to be able to eat a Big Mac by the end of the year and felt an and felt an unlocking of freedom in my life. Praise God. Four weeks ago I had my last allergic reaction from a crumb of gluten at a restaurant. So this is 4 weeks of healing that she's writing this. She obviously wanted to test it out. She says I've had this for seven years. My friend came up to me last week out of the blue and said she was fasting and believing healing for my digestive system and my other close friends as well. She didn't know that I'd had that moment. Six weeks ago over the weekend at a church girls event, I got pressed 3 times. The first time I asked for it and the second two times people just kept praying for me and I felt and a massive encounter with God. The first time I tried and reacted to a cup of milk. Bummer by the end of the third time to her boldness and faith. Hey? By the end of the third time I believed something was surely up and after believing and eating a tiny bit to a whole jam doughnut, I realised that I had been completely healed. Normally within 10 minutes of eating gluten I'd usually have a headache. Then weeks of toilet issues, get malnutrition for ages and I'd be getting sores in my mouth and my body. I've never felt more energised and normal and it is only God who could have done this. I called my doctor this week. She couldn't believe it. This is a complete God story of him moving and doing a crazy thing in my life. God is good all the time. So come on, she says, if you need me, I'll be eating everything. Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And living in these goodness and power in my life. Praise the Lord. Persistent Prayer Overcomes Paul's Chronic Back Pain All right, so another one of partial healing. I'm Monica. Mum, Mum, Mum, come, come up here. Tell us quickly. Tell us quickly about this story of Paul, because this had a real impact on me because this happened when I was a child and I've always found it really interesting. So quickly. We have a friend, his name is Paul. And tell us what? Speaker 6 Was what was that? OK so Paul had a back condition. He was 6 foot four. We were all in our 30s and he couldn't lift his toddler. He had been a builder so he well a labourer and so he was a strong guy, but he was in so much pain. Used to take him half an hour of very specific manoeuvres to get out of bed in the morning. Speaker 2 That's huge. And then what happened with Paul? Speaker 6 So Paul had been asking God for healing and we went to a prayer meeting together. We lived in the country and we came down to Perth. He went down for prayer and he said that he felt he was really excited. We were staying at my parents' house. We're all living there 3 generations. Anyone looking for three generations for your bingo? Anyway, anyway, so we were all staying there together and Paul and his wife were staying in my mum and dad's caravan. We went to the meeting, he got prayed for. He said he felt lemonade going through his back when he got prayed for. Like it was just like fizzy up and down, up and down, up and down. And the the pain was gone at moment. And yet there's more to the story that's a bit. So the next morning we're all staying together and his wife Sass comes running up to the house absolutely terrified. She said the pain is back, the pain is back. And having had a whole night free, they were not pleased about that. And they said, what do we do? What do we do? And we were just mad enough about the power in the name of Jesus. We said, look, just get down there and tell it to get lost in Jesus name like he was healed last night. We're not letting that sucker back in. And so they said it took 45 minutes of the two of them down there stamping, just going in Jesus name. No you are not taking this away and the pain left like it just like gone and pain free day. Next day woke up with the pain again 30 minutes stamping in Jesus name. No. And it was just so unusual. But after I think it was nearly two weeks, Paul was there was no more in the morning. It didn't. But he really had to push, right? Speaker 2 There you go, Jesus name. There you go. Medically Verified Healing for Zach's Smashed Thumb Now, I know, I know we're running hot on time, but medically verified, we love it. We love a medical verification. All right, so Zach, I'm going to tell you a story for you. Remember when you smashed your thumb at Focus? Thumbs up for Zach. All right, so he's he squashed his thumb. The doctor said you had. It's like when you boil a potato and smash it just before you roast it. That's what his thumb looked like. And that's what had happened. It was bleeding so much. Poor Davian was holding it like in a vice like grip, just trying to stop the blood for hours. And OK, so when we went to Armadale emergency, they said definitely arterial damage, definitely we'll lose the nail, definitely bone damage, definitely reconstructive surgery needed. Definitely plastics. If you get any feeling back you know that would be unusual. And we're sitting there and we're like Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. But we will get the X rays and all of that. Anyway. We went into Royal Perth the next morning after getting the IT all bandaged up. The guy in plastics was like why are you even here? It's just like a cut and we're like no arterial damage, loss of nails, surgery required, reconstructive sensation, nerve damage. And he goes, no, I'm going to give you some antibiotics and some wound care and you can go home. So we had been praying all night. Praise God for a partial healing. You still needed to do your wound care and your physio, but you got it done. Faith and Persistence in Emily's Endometriosis Healing Last story for today is from M. I hope you don't mind me taking a couple more minutes, is that right? OK, couple more minutes. Emily, come up here. I want to tell you a story about partial healing and the sum of the answers to prayer. Or bring her up. Bring her up. After this, we're going to have a quick practise and and then we'll finish up our service for the day. So Emily, talk to us about what you have been praying for healing for for many years now. Speaker 7 Yeah, so I guess for the last 15 years or so, I've been, I guess, managing chronic pain pretty regularly, like most days of the month. And then, yeah, I guess there was no answers. The doctors couldn't find exactly what was happening or what was wrong. And so I was on very strong pain meds that pretty much knocked me out for, yeah, a long, long time each time. Speaker 2 Yeah, and what did you end up getting diagnosed with? Speaker 7 Stage 4 endometriosis in not just my uterus, but like in other organs surrounding it. And that had just happened. Like my, we just got married. So it was sort of like this 15 year journey and then got married and then got this diagnosis. And they essentially said based off all the lesions and all the damage and scarring that we can see, like you won't be able to have children. Speaker 2 Clearly, if you're listening on podcasts, Emily is holding an infant and it is hers. So what happened? Speaker 7 Yeah. So they were like, you need to start IVF, like right now. Not probably, won't be likely. They're like there's this tiny little bit in your uterus. Like, do you see that on the scan? Like that's where it would be implanted if you were to get pregnant? No. Speaker 2 I remember Matt saying he goes there was I looked at the scan so it's less than a centimetre of unscarred space and now look at her. Little Bethany is here. You guys can see naturally God is good. And what I love about this story is God is so faithful. Bethany is beautiful. You guys are amazing parents. We're still praying for your healing and we still believing for it. Have you been healed from endometriosis yet? Speaker 7 Not yet. It's still something that we're praying and believing for. And yeah, I was saying to Claire the other day when we're talking about this, like I think sometimes in the waiting and in the in between, like, yeah, there's, there's this faith that comes and you see facets of God that you couldn't know if things just came quickly. And so over the last 15 years, I really have learned like the kindness and closeness and compassion of the Lord that I couldn't have known if, couldn't have, but may not have in the same way have known without it so. Speaker 2 Beautiful. Let's give her a hand with quiet 1 Quiet 1 Quiet one. Bethenny's asleep now. Final Thoughts on God's Healing Power and Presence Would you stand with me? Would you stand with me? Natural. Supernatural. The way we pray for healing is very, very simple. In the name of Jesus sickness go the way we introduce that concept is by very simple words everyday language. In my church we often pray for healing. Can I pray for you? And we're going to give a chance for people to be prayed for healing in a moment. But what we're going to do first is recognise that this is ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is God. This is God who heals. It's him who heals not any magic words or any magic actions or any magic items. It's the power of God. And what I love from Scripture is that God longs to give you His power and His presence through His Holy Spirit, who is available to everyone.