Randy Clark: Power to Heal
Power to Heal is divided into seven sections, each with several chapters. These are, “Activate,” “Intimacy,” “Prayer,” “Testify,” ‘Perseverance,” “Words of Knowledge,” and “Faith.” The first chapters are heavy on scripture to provide the reader new to the healing ministry ample evidence of the validity of the healing ministry, and that the healing ministry is something that every believer is mandated to carry out. (It may seem strange to most Pneuma Review readers, but there are many Christians out there who still have to be convinced of these things.)
Chapter nine in section three “Prayer,” is the heart of the book. “The Five Step Prayer Model” describes how Clark’s healing teams carry out their highly effective healing ministry. The steps are: the interview, the prayer selection (the use of either command or petition prayer), the prayer ministry itself, the re-interview, and lastly, post-prayer suggestions.
The Rev. Clark’s book is especially good in stressing the importance of perseverance in prayer. For instance if in the re-interview it is found that the supplicant has experienced a little healing change, it is important to pray again, perhaps several times, until real relief and healing is obtained.
Randy Clark’s insights and style of healing show much influence form the ministry of John Wimber. For instance, the Rev. Clark wants the healing ministry to keep eyes open so that he or she may monitor bodily changes on the supplicant as they are being prayed over. Also from the Wimber tradition, there is much accent on the Gifts of the Spirit as part of the healing ministry. Clark urges his readers to use “words of wisdom” during the healing prayer process. That is, saying things under the Lord’s prompting that the healing minister does not know naturally about the supplicants’ life, but are pertinent to the injury or disease. This is the major stress and innovation of The Power to Heal.
One of the best parts of this book is his understanding that there are healing principals, but not laws. God is sovereign over the healing ministry. For instance, a high level of faith facilitates dramatic healings. Yes in general, but God can and at times heals persons even when the minister’s faith is weak and expecting little. Power to Heal also contains many stories of miraculous healings, such as from Parkinson’s disease and inoperable brain tumors. It also has the innovation of “prayers of impartation” directed to the reader. I found that especially refreshing. (Yes, I have been baptized in the Spirit for a long time and been in the healing ministry for a long time, but we “leak.”)
I have been reading books on healing prayer since I first came to the Charismatic Renewal in the 1970’s. There are many books out there that are excellent, including the works of Francis MacNutt, and the break through work by Charles and Frances Hunter, How to Heal the Sick,[1] which brought to attention the fact that command healing is normative to the New Testament. Formerly, as I taught a healing class my text would be the Hunter’s work, with references to the MacNutt’s classic Healing, especially to his chapter on “Eleven reasons why people are not healed.” [2] Now I will add the Power to Heal as a principal text. I suggest the Power to Heal for all teachers of the healing ministry, as well as Christians who have never read a single book on healing prayer.
Reviewed by William De Arteaga
Publisher’s page: http://destinyimage.com/catalog/power-to-heal/
Notes
[1] (Kingswood: Hunter Books, 1981).
[2] (Notre Dame; Ave Maria Press, 1974).
Category: Spirit, Spring 2015
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