The Works He Did You Can Do: Here’s How
John 6:28-29:
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
You don’t have to puzzle over how to do the works of God. Jesus told you how. You’re going to do them by faith. You’re going to believe the words of Jesus, whom God sent.
John 14:12-14:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Jesus said that if you believe in Him, you will do the works that He did. What were His works? There is no record of him helping old ladies across the street so that they wouldn’t get run over by speeding chariots. There is no record that He volunteered two nights at a local food bank. There is no record that He helped plan a party at the local orphanage. Those would all be worthy causes, and certainly Christians today would be serving Jesus by doing these things, but those kinds of things are not what Jesus was talking about in the passage above, as there is no record that He did them. He had to be talking about the things of which there is a record. Jesus’ works were preaching, teaching, healing the sick and casting out demons. Since those were His works, you can do those works if you believe in Him. That doesn’t mean not to do the other kinds of things; it means that you can do Jesus’ works as well as those other things. (If you do those other things to the least of people, you do them to Him, according to Jesus, and you’ll get your reward. There is a lot more to Christian ministry than healing, but this book majors on the healing part. That doesn’t make other ministries unimportant.)
Jesus did not leave you in the dark about how you would do these things. You do them in His name. You lay hands on the sick in Jesus’ name and they recover.
You cannot get this power and authority by attending a Bible school or training center. You cannot get this power by showing up faithfully every time the doors open at your church and serving in the helps ministry. Those are good things to do, but you cannot do anything to earn or deserve the right to have God use you. Jesus’ blood and your new birth have already made you worthy to be used. He has already given you the power and authority to do His works. Whether you ever act on this fact or not, it is still true. You could lay hands on the sick even if you are not currently doing so. There is nothing you can do to get this power if you are already baptized with the Holy Spirit. You already have it. Bible school can’t give it to you; the school can only train you to use what you have already been given as a Christian. It is a tragedy that so few of us take advantage of what we Christians are able to do.
Salvation is not a feeling; it is a fact. You do not always “feel” saved. You will not always “feel” like you have the authority to lay hands on the sick in the name of Jesus and see them recover, but you do have that authority. If you wait until you feel some kind of power on the inside, you will probably never do the works of Jesus. There are exceptional times when you feel the anointing come on you to minister in the gifts of healings. But ordinarily, you will not feel like anything will happen when you lay hands on a sick person. You can either act based on your feelings or based on the facts. It is a fact that you are authorized to minister healing to others in the name of Jesus. I have found that when supernatural manifestations kick in, it is usually after I have already done my part to start praying in faith without having sensed any special anointing. I did my part, then God did His.
Also, it is a mistake to think that healing is only happening if you feel something happening, or if the person shakes uncontrollably, falls over, or whatever. I remember a series of meetings a friend and I did on a certain Caribbean island; he laid hands on a man with a blind eye who had just gotten saved at the altar. NO ONE felt anything – I didn’t, my friend didn’t, and the man didn’t. Based on experience, it didn’t work. He just walked away from the altar normally, left the service still blind in that eye, but at least before he left he was exhorted to keep his stand of faith that he believed that he received when he prayed. Based on what we saw and felt, he didn’t get any healing, though.
However, he woke up the next morning screaming, “I can see! I can see!” His blind eye was completely healed when he woke up. His mother came and got saved that night as a result. You can’t go by what you see at the moment. (Or DON’T see, if you’re blind!)
You don’t have to wait until you feel a special “unction” (anointing) to pray. You should let the Holy Spirit lead you, but He has already told you through Jesus’ words that you can do Jesus’ works. You have just as much right to lay hands on the sick as you would if Jesus appeared to you personally and said, “You have power over all sicknesses and all diseases and all demons. I authorize you to be a vessel of divine healing. Go and lay hands on the sick in My name and they will recover!” Any statement Jesus made in the Bible carries as much weight as it would if He appeared to you in person and said it to you One-on-one.
Usually, you feel the power of God move through you after you have started laying hands on the person. Even then, you may not feel anything. What do you do then? You believe in the words of the Son of God, who said that you can lay hands on the sick in His name and they shall recover. You ignore your feelings that it isn’t working. You ignore the devil’s taunts that you are just embarrassing yourself and that you’ll look like a fool when nothing happens. You have to just hit the “mute” button on your thoughts sometimes and go with your spirit man! Jesus did not promise that either you or the person you lay hands on would feel something when you prayed. You are supposed to believe Mark 16:15-18 instead of relying on your feelings.
Jesus was moved with compassion. It will help you minister healing if you have compassion on people. You have to be sensitive to people’s feelings. For example, it is not a good idea to tell the grieving relatives at a funeral, “If he had just been in faith, he wouldn’t have died.” That will not bless anyone. Nor will it help anyone to say, “Jesus healed you 2,000 years ago, and if you don’t receive it, it’s your own fault!” Although these may be true statements, you are supposed to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
Don’t stop laying hands on the sick even if someone doesn’t receive. There are reasons why people don’t receive, but it is always right and proper to offer to lay hands on sick people. What if you preach the new birth to someone and he fails to receive it? Are you going to stop preaching the new birth because you conclude that it doesn’t work? What if you lay hands on someone and he dies the next day? Keep going; don’t let a failure discourage you. (Besides, as one famous healing preacher said, everyone you lay hands on is going to die someday!) Did you stop riding a bicycle forever after the first time you fell off when you were learning how to do it? Do you stop believing that sin shall have no dominion over you just because you got mad and yelled at your spouse this morning? No, you keep working at it. The same goes for laying hands on the sick.
Even if you “blow it,” don’t let that stop you. I was in a service they were recording on video, and I was laying hands on a woman’s head, and all of sudden I started getting all these mortified looks, and I couldn’t figure out why. I just kept going and the looks got more and more dire. She was moving around some but I sort of held on, and what I didn’t realize until it was too late is that I had a bulldog grip on her wig and I was doing a good job of pulling it off her head! I can laugh about it now but it was definitely not funny at the time, especially since this was going on video! I had no idea that her hair was fake – I wasn’t even considering the possibility – but I sure found out! Sometimes you just have to learn from your mistakes, keep going, and do things a little differently next time!