Healing Work Only God Can Do

By Kyle Davison Bair

Harley entered my office defeated. His head drooped, he wouldn’t make eye-contact, and he barely spoke. He had been this way for months.

After four hours he left my office triumphant: his head up, his shoulders relaxed, and his face radiating joy. I’ve seen Harley frequently at church in the months since that appointment, always smiling and eager to greet anyone around him.

In those four hours we tapped a resource of incredible power: God.

Harley didn’t need advice from me. He didn’t need a lecture, a reprimand, or even a listening ear. He needed power. Using The Steps to Freedom in Christ as our guide, we examined seven key areas in Harley’s life. We asked difficult questions and took stock of his life. At each step we prayed. Hard.

Harley confessed sins and shortcomings. He renounced counterfeit religious experiences. He asked God to forgive him even as he forgave everyone he could think of who had sinned against him. We asked God to speak and we paused to listen. We dealt with fears, failures, and family influences. Through it all God listened, God spoke, and God healed.

In short: God did the work only He can do.

Move Out of the Way

As a pastor, one of the hardest lessons to learn is how to get out of God’s way. Early on, I obsessed over solving people’s problems. I became a private-eye pastor, analyzing why they were suffering and how they could change. I found all the right Scripture verses to throw at them, expecting that if they heard all the right information, their problems would disappear.

And I hurt far more people than I ever helped. Transformation does not come by information. It does not come by human effort. And it never comes by a pastor trying to solve all your problems for you.

Only God transforms. Often we let our pride shipwreck our lives, refusing to let anyone else take control. We pass this pride on by insisting that a checklist of tasks can solve every problem with more effort. But only God transforms.

Scripture tells us clearly: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2). Conforming to the world is easy: keep trying to solve your problems by yourself without God’s power.

But God wants to break us out of that pattern. Therefore, He does not tell us to transform ourselves, but rather to submit to Him. When we stop acting and start listening, then God can speak. As God speaks, He renews our minds. That transforms our lives.

When Harley stepped into my office, I could have given him checklists to solve all his perceived problems. He may even have followed a few. Yet this human effort would not transform his life.

Instead, we prayed. As we did, God transformed his heart. Harley suddenly realized how he needed to change. His realizations closely matched the advice I would have given. But this way he wasn’t taking another person’s suggestions. His face lit up as the Holy Spirit opened his eyes to these realities directly. When he left, he wasn’t obsessed with or fearful about checking the next item off the list. He left in joy, excited to do what God revealed to him.

Let God Do the Speaking

God speaks in many ways. He can renew our minds as we read His Word, listen to Scripture-saturated sermons, or grow through Spirit-driven discipleship. But so often, the most immediate and powerful transformation arrives through the simplest means of all: prayer.

Through prayer we connect with the God who gives life to the fullest. Through prayer He can speak to us, heal us, and restore us—if we will pause long enough to listen.

That is why I treasure ministries like Freedom in Christ (which incorporates The Steps to Freedom in Christ mentioned earlier; ficm.org), Transformation Prayer Ministry (transformationprayer.org), and Prayer Resolution (crossresources.com). They are full of wisdom and godly counsel.

But their power comes from leading people straight to Jesus. He alone possesses the power to heal our pain, speak the truth we need to hear, and give rest to our weary souls. Jesus can accomplish all this and far more. But we will not have if we do not ask—or if we try to do the work ourselves.

God is more powerful than you and I are. Let Him do the work that only He can do. If you do, you will see your life (and the lives of those you want to help) transformed.

KYLE DAVISON BAIR is prayer ministries pastor at New Hope Church in New Hope, MN. He is also an active participant in a network of Twin Cities prayer leaders.