Yorba Linda Vineyard

Because we live in a world with so much pain and suffering, we see a real need for God’s help and healing. The hurt and broken are desperate for someone to bring them healing and hope. Speaking of Jesus, Matthew 9:36 says, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus was moved with compassion to bring healing to those who were sick and suffering. Continuing to offer God’s healing and mercy to those in need is at the heart of a compassionate Kingdom ministry. The church today is meant to be an expression of God’s love and compassion to those in need.

I’m always praying about how we can cooperate more fully with what God is already doing in the area of healing. We know that God is already weaving, wanting, and working healing and restoration in many lives. It seems evident that when we come together to worship him with expectation, there is an incredible outpouring of healing.

On a regular basis, we hold healing meetings at The Vineyard Church in Duluth, MN. Every few weeks, this gathering is set aside to worship through song for 45 minutes, followed by a teaching about the healing ministry of Jesus, and then a couple hours praying for one another. It feels risky to stand up in front of the church and say, “We are having a healing service so bring the sick to this gathering.” Immediately you realize people will take you up on your offer and the room is going to be filled with everything from Swine Flu to paralyzed and cancer-ridden bodies. And then to complete the invitation I’ll add, “Come with expectation because we always see the Holy Spirit come and touch so many lives with all kinds of healing.” We don’t know exactly what God is going to do, but we can expect that he is going to bring physical healing of the body, healing to the emotions, healing to the spirit, healing to our relationships, and also deliverance from demons. Our desire is to expect and believe (have faith) that he is ready to come, and then invite and welcome the Holy Spirit to come, and then watch and bless as he pours out healing.

There is a single mother of three children in our church who suffers from acute Chronic Lymes Disease. Her symptoms were so severe that she was unable to function, work, or even go out of her house except to her much needed doctor’s appointments. She had been all over the state seeking medical help—the best doctors in the field—and any kind of treatment to reduce her symptoms. She has undergone months of intravenous anti-biotic treatments that left her with little hope of ever recovering. The disease has affected her brain and nervous system and she suffers from severe tremors constantly. She saw that I posted on my Face book status that we were having a healing service and to “bring the sick.” She contemplated how she could even get there and almost didn’t come, but she somehow made it. She could hardly sit in the room because of the tremors, and could not even come up to the front for prayer, but two people went and sat by her and they prayed for her. She saw some improvement. Within two weeks, her doctors told her she was much better. She came to another healing service, and again was unable to come up for prayer, but someone approached her and began praying for healing. The tremors ceased instantly and the peace of God washed over her. It has been three weeks and the tremors are still gone and other symptoms are vanishing. She is being healed as the Kingdom of God comes crashing into her present reality. She is being made whole by the power and presence of God.

When I think of the guys that cut a whole in the thatched roof of a house that was too crowded to enter because Jesus had such a large group of followers, I think to myself—those guys had some serious expectation (Mark 2:4). They knew that if, somehow, they could just get their friend to Jesus, just being in his presence would change something and he would experience healing.

In Mark 5:25-34 there was a women who was culturally considered unclean from years of bleeding, and she was pressing through the crowd to get to Jesus. She knew that somehow, if she could just reach out and touch the hem of Jesus’s garment and just be in his presence, something would happen and she would experience some kind of healing. That took some serious expectation on her part. 

Another young single mother in our church was diagnosed with a rare blood disease that had never been seen in someone as young as her before. Her blood platelets were very high causing coagulation and clotting that could kill her from a stroke or heart attack. She was given high doses of chemotherapy that over time would cause more serious illness, and the sad prognoses was that she would unlikely live more than 5 or 10 years at these high doses of medication. She had been receiving healing prayer often over the last several months. This week, her doctor, in amazement, said that tests revealed she no longer needed the medication and that her symptoms were gone. According to him, there was no explanation for it, and they needed to stop treating her because she clearly had no symptoms of the dreaded blood disease. He told her that her very complicated medical case had suddenly become normal and “boring.” To this woman, and everyone who knows her, she is a living miracle of the healing power of God.

We never know what God is going to do, but we know he is going to do something. So we come into his presence and we ask him for healing and there it is, right before our eyes, because he is compassionate and merciful. When we experience God’s presence and power, he makes us whole. When we are moved by the compassion of Jesus to offer healing to others, we see his Kingdom come in their lives and make them whole.

Brenda Gatlin and her husband, Michael are the Senior Pastors of The Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota. Michael and Brenda are also involved in overseeing Church Planting for the Midwest Region. Brenda is an Area Pastor Care Leader, serving seven churches in Minnesota and Wisconsin for the Midwest Region of  the Association of Vineyard Churches, USA.

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