Article by Teresa Chang
My friend and I went to minister at a youth group led by one of my friends in Northern Virginia. She also invited several of the church leaders from her church. During the night, we activated the students to pray for healing, and at one point an older lady was brought in who had severe knee pain for several months that kept getting worse and worse. Well, that night God healed her knee! She was so touched that Jesus would heal her knee that she broke down in tears. She encountered the powerful love of God that night!
What does it mean to live a lifestyle of healing? In simple terms, it means we connect with the heartbeat of God, who loves the broken and downtrodden; He isn’t willing even to damage a bruised reed. Mercy and healing can be so embedded in a church that God’s people become known as people of love.
How to Build a Lifestyle of Healing in Your Church
1. Promote your vision for healing.
“But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings.”
— Malachi 4:2
A lifestyle of healing means we have a consistent value for healing that is seen everywhere within the church, from the core leadership team to the youngest child attending Sunday school. We pray for the sick in the supermarket line and on Sunday mornings.
Essentially, living a lifestyle of healing means
we know how to love well.
When we see people at church who look downcast, we ask them how they are doing and it isn’t a rhetorical question—we ask because we care. We want deep connection with others and to bring healing to them.
2. Identify and remove any internal challenges to loving others.
How would you answer the following questions?
- How does your church do when it comes to loving others?
- Do you feel like your church loves others the way Jesus loves them?
- How does your church treat “sinners”?
- When new people come to your church, do they feel loved and accepted?
Our actions prove our values. It’s one thing to say we love others, but it’s another thing altogether to show we love others. To know what we actually value, we have to look at how we manage our money, spend our time and assign our talents. These things “prove” what is truly important to us and our churches.
Does anything need to be adjusted in your church so your congregation loves people the way Jesus does?
3. Share your vision with the body and give them the opportunity to learn.
Give people the opportunity to learn about healing and to develop the necessary skills to live a healing lifestyle. You can begin to do this by preaching about healing from the pulpit on a regular basis, hosting conferences on healing, bringing in special speakers, etc. In every way, show people what a lifestyle of healing could look like.
