The Banqueting Table of Mercy

Lately I've been thinking about the number of healings and miracles you hear about in the Gospels performed by Jesus. Jesus went on to say we would do even greater things than he did and yet it seems that healings and miracles are rare.

Why don't we see these things more often? I wonder if the problem is on our end and not God's.

Tom and I were big fans and followers of the late John Wimber. We have all his books which are out of print now. In his book, Power Healing Wimber talks about praying for many healings before he started witnessing a single healing. The reason he kept praying for healing for people is because it was biblical and he was trying to be obedient to what he felt convicted in scripture to do. 

The turning point for him was when he was called to come over to a man's house to pray for his sick wife. The man had been out of work for some time and finally had a job interview. His wife however came down with the flu and couldn't take care of their children. The man called John and asked him to come over and pray for his wife to be healed so he could make it to the job interview. On the way over to the man's house, John was nervous. His thought process was, "Man, they really believe this stuff!". He arrived nervously, prayed over the man's sick wife and then turned to explain to the man why sometimes people are not healed. He noticed the man's eyes got big, John turned around and the woman was out of bed, completely healed! 

When John drove away from the house he said to God, "You got one!!!"  Next thing he knew, he started seeing an open vision. He had to actually pull over to the side of the road because it was so distracting. The vision was of a big honeycomb dripping with honey. The honey was landing on people. Some received it and some brushed it off out of annoyance. He prayed about this and the Lord said, "John, my mercy is there, you need to learn how to position yourself under it. The problem isn't on My end. Don't beg me for healing again!"

I think the reason we don't see more healing, miracles, provision and just everyday blessings in our lives is because we have a distorted view of God. We don't see him as a loving Father who gives good gifts to his children. We have a poverty and orphan mindset. Instead of being confident in our relationship with him and sitting with him in high places, eating from his banqueting table, we beg him for the scraps that fall under the table.

Now, I'm not saying that every person we pray for should get healed. We all need to die at some point. Even Wimber recognized that some sickness is unto death and he would ask the Lord before praying with someone if it was a sickness unto death. If he felt it was, then he would pray in a different direction and pray for peace for the person and their family. 

If we at least want to see some people healed that we pray for however, I believe it starts with having the right mindset and seeing God as he truly is.

I think to get a good idea of the type of God we serve, we can look at the female pelican. If a mother pelican doesn't have any food to feed her hungry babies, she will tear at her own flesh and feed her own flesh to her babies.

That is the kind of God we serve! He would rather suffer himself than see us suffer! He not only died a gruesome death for us but he gives us his flesh and blood to eat in the Eucharist! He has given us everything! He has never held back and he never will hold back from us! His mercy is abundant and overflowing!

All we need to do is position ourselves to receive!