Faith, Identity, Compassion & Intimacy

This is part of an interview I did with S.J. Heald for Heaven Connect. There are 21 questions in this interview. This is my reply to one of the questions. The entire interview can be found here.

S.J. Heald :
Is divine healing all about faith, or are there other criteria?

Praying Medic :
There are (in my opinion) many other factors to be considered. Faith is important to healing because it is usually by the exercise of faith that healing is released. In that sense, faith is like the trigger of a healing gun, to use a crude analogy. Another element that is important to healing is knowing and fully embracing our identity in Christ. This is a bit of an enigma, so allow me to explain what I mean by that:

Many people “know” they are sons of God in some sense of the word, but the knowledge they have is only an intellectual agreement with the idea, and nothing more. Most of these people have adopted something else as their functional identity; which is to say – the identity from which they operate most of the time. For some people the role of being a mother is what they have assumed as their functional identity. Others have taken on their job title or their favorite hobby as their identity. When you ask them who they are – they generally reply that they are a stockbroker, a nurse, a mother or a race car driver. The identity that we hold highest above all others is the one from which the issues of our life flow. Sadly, when people who identify themselves by their occupation enter retirement, they frequently suffer severe depression. They feel as if they have lost their identity and this sense of loss causes many of them to attempt suicide.

When you find someone who without knowing your agenda answers the question “Who are you?” with something like, “I’m an ambassador of the King of heaven” or “I am a son of the most High God,” you’ve found some one who has probably adopted their true identity in Christ and more than likely they are seeing miracles happen regularly.

I once saw myself as a worthless sinner saved by grace. That was the identity I had taken on. I never saw anyone healed when I saw myself this way. It took about a year for me to go from that identity to seeing myself as a beloved and empowered child of God. Once I finally accepted my true identity, I began to see miracles pretty regularly. The change in identity brought a change in the way I impacted the world around me.

In addition to faith and identity – love and compassion are important keys to healing. It was said of Jesus that “He saw the multitudes and had compassion on them.” Love and compassion were the things that motivated Him. The motives of your heart determine the direction of your life and the direction you travel determines your ultimate destination. Unless you develop love and compassion, you’ll be motivated by something else such as fame or greed. Motives other than love and compassion drive us in the wrong direction and will always lead to ruin. The key is to allow the love that God has toward us and others to be the motivating force behind everything we do.

Intimacy with God is one more key to seeing healing and miracles released. While it’s possible to release healing without knowing God very well – it’s difficult to operate in the fullness of His power without being familiar with His ways. When we set our minds to healing the sick, we not primarily about the business of healing; we are ambassadors representing the King of heaven to people who may not know Him. Having a strong relationship with the Holy Spirit is the foundation of healing. Knowing what God wants to do and how He wants to do it can only come through a strong and active relationship with Him. Time is the commodity of relationships and spending time with Him is how the relationship grows.