Upgrading the engine behind healing and miracles

All healing, miracle & prosperity ministry attracts interest - so the question then becomes what are we teaching when they come?  What are they going to hear?  Now that we've finally attracted some interest, what kind of things will we tell them? 


Be healed.  Be whole.  Have a miracle. Give a miracle.  Be prosperous. <---- All great starts!


Now we've got to say something else, right?  What am I going to say?  Is it time to go back to encouraging them to live right?  The Bible does say that the ministry of condemnation has some glory.  True, but then I remember that it also said that the ministry of righteousness has much more glory.


Great, so I'll use the word righteousness to tell them to live right?  No, wait, that sounds just like the ministry of condemnation.  Oh yeah... the ministry of righteous is them receiving a free gift of God by accepting Jesus Christ... confessing Him as Lord believing in their hearts God raised Him from the dead.  Hey, I could actually teach them to rule and reign over people's problems (not people) by the abundance of grace and that free gift of righteousness.  Now I'm cooking! 


Preaching and teaching to the multitudes interested in what we have to say is very important.  Our culture has been raised on decades of preaching and teaching, many times without healing and miracles.  What we don't want - is to get the healing and miracles part down and then go back to teaching the core of traditional religion.


Traditional religion wraps itself around unGodlike descriptors such as:  desperate, broken, unworthy and nothing.  We treat people as lowly dependents who need, need, need God to reign over them.


"Submitting to God" isn't necessary a bad idea.  But if I just say the phrase without actually doing what He asks, then I go back to creating more generations of traditional religion.  What if submitting to Him requires me to reign like Christ on the Earth?  Uh oh!  I think that may be a curse phrase to popular religion.  After all they did try to stone Jesus for daring to rise up as actual divine Family of God.


Some tips for upgrading your engine behind healing and miracles:

• If you don't see it in the life of Christ, then don't try to get people to identify with it.  His ministry wasn't desperate, poor, broke or inglorious.  True He was broken so we can be whole.  Some things He did for us are not meant to be repeated by us, such as:  He suffered the punishment of sin so we can enjoy the rewards of Heaven.  He identified with death so we can identify with abundant life.  When it comes to ministry though, His model is best for our ministry!  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely give, freely receive, bless business men, multiply fish and bread, take a donkey ride, befriend a bunch of sinners... you get the idea.
  

• Don't try to take on the characteristics of those Jesus healed.  Your goal is to be like the Master, not the blind man, woman with the issue of blood, etc.  Creatively help Christians see themselves as the glorious Sons and Daughters of God in action.
  

• Develop sermons for saved, healthy, prosperous, comforted, whole people.  Never beat people up just to try to get a good altar call.  You are likely speaking to a bunch of Christians who've already accepted Christ, and you beating them like sinners will seriously damage their faith.  Remember, healing is not meant to keep the people sick so you and I have jobs.  No, we can be encouragements to use the Body of Christ's wholeness as a force of good.  Note: "comfort" is not necessarily a bad thing.  Jesus wouldn't have called Himself a "comforter" or the Holy Spirit a "comforter" if it was bad!
  

What are some ways you can think of upgrading your engine?