The Role of Feeling Power and Seeing Vision When Praying for Someone

When we lay hands on the sick to recover or lead a person into salvation, are we to feel a flow of divine power and see this power (or the Holy Spirit) entering them, or do we take it by faith? And what is the role of love in this entire process? Let’s see if we can answer these questions.

God’s healing power

Light flashes from his (and our) hand, there where his power is hidden. (Hab. 3:4 GNB)
The power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. (Lk. 5:17)
Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My garments?" (Mk. 5:30)
A Working Definition of Energeo - The power of God available through the Holy Spirit and experienced as active, flowing energy that accomplishes God’s works. We feel energized by it. It feels like active energy (see this blog).

God speaks to Emeka Ojoko through two-way journaling

Lord, what do You want to say to me? What are the practices that I need to focus on and internalize and live out of?

"Let love lead you. Don't lay hands on people because you want to see My power move through you. Lay hands, and pray, because you care about what the person is passing through and you want to see it end. Compassion is the key.

"I do not move because I want to prove anything. I move because I love and care for people and I want to see their situation change. Let that be your motivation and you will see more of My power channeled through you.

"When you lay hands, don't expect to feel anything. You may feel, but don't rely on that as proof that I have moved or am moving. Your proof is in the inviolability of My word. I have promised to move when you pray out of compassion and I will each time you do so.

"Check the motive, the feeling, and the thought in your heart when you pray. If you do not detect love, do not pray. Ask Me at such moments to show you My feelings for the person. Ask Me to channel those feelings through you. When you feel the flow of emotions, pray and lay hands through that.

"Yes, your father is right when he says sickness is rooted in demonic activity. Rebuke them. Bind them. Cast them out. The healing will come when the legal right of the demon is revoked.

"I desire to do much good through you. This is how it will happen."

End of Journaling

Emeka’s Question: The blog (I Release Divine Energy / Energeo) states that I should expect to feel some heat or tingling in my hands when I pray for people. It was also recommended that I should use the eyes of my heart to envision light passing through my hands into people when I lay my hands on them as I pray.

My journal seems to contradict this. Please help me resolve the apparent conflict.

Mark’s response

Your journaling is 100% correct. I do believe those things also. Just because I expect to feel the energy flow, does not mean I need to feel the energy flow. As God says, it is flowing anyway. You could ask God what He wants you doing with the eyes of your heart as you are praying for folks. When you are asking God to show you His love for the person, look to see vision. Where is He? What is He doing? Is He touching them? Is He smiling? Is there compassion in His eyes?

This phrase in your journaling is exceptionally powerful: “Healing will come when the legal right of the demon is revoked.”

That principle is one reason I look to see if God’s healing power is flowing into them, or being hindered from flowing into them. If they have unconfessed sin, which in turn is giving demons the legal right to be present and inflict infirmity, then God’s healing power will not overcome that legal right. If I am looking to see the healing power flow, and instead I see it is swirling around outside the person and not entering them, then I will be asking the Lord why it is not entering, and it is likely because they will need to repent of some sin.

My testimony of seeing and feeling when leading a person to Christ

As I was leading a person who had come to me for marriage counseling to the Lord for salvation, I explained that as He made Jesus Lord of his life, Jesus would enter his heart and become his Savior. Jesus would give him the solutions to heal his marriage.

He said he was ready to get saved, so I led him in a salvation prayer which involved repenting for his sins, and asking Jesus to be his Lord and the Savior of his life. I then laid my hands on him and prayed for him to receive the Holy Spirit.

At the close, I opened my eyes and saw his eyes were still closed so I closed my eyes and looked for vision to see what had happened. I saw the Holy Spirit swirling around him and NOT entering. I thought, “That is a WRONG vision. He just welcomed the Holy Spirit into his heart and life.” My first instinct was to try to change the vision and "push" the Holy Spirit into him, but I quickly stopped that with the realization that I had learned to TRUST flowing pictures because I believed they were coming from God's River which flowed within me, and my mechanical manipulation of what was flowing would just distort God's revelation to me.

So I opened my eyes again and since his eyes were now open too, I asked him, “What did you experience?”

He said, “Nothing.”

I thought, Yikes! We just did everything correctly. He should be feeling the kingdom emotions of joy and peace (Rom. 14:17). However, since he felt nothing, and the vision I got was that the Holy Spirit did NOT enter him, I tuned to my heart, asking God, “Why?”

The word that lit upon my mind was “repent.” So I said to him, I think we need to go back and talk about repentance some more. As we did, I discovered he planned on not reconciling with his wife but divorcing her and marrying another woman he had fallen in love with.

I explained that making Jesus Lord, meant he needed to obey Him and follow Him, reconcile with his wife and not divorce her. He said he was unwilling to do that.

I told him, "Then Jesus is not your Lord and Savior." He left, understanding that he was not saved, which I’m quite sure was much better than leaving with the false assumption that he was heaven bound.

Summary reflections – I have seen people healed when I laid my hands on them and saw and felt nothing (probably because I was not sufficiently centered down into my spirit and LOOKING and sensing).

On the other hand, I have seen people NOT receive a full manifestation of their healing when I DID see and feel God’s healing power enter them. In this case, I assume the healing is going to be an ongoing process and they will need to engage in healing soaking prayer.

One thing I am totally convinced of is that COMPASSION is the carrier wave of God’s healing power (Matt. 14:14).

Follow-up dialogue between Emeka and Mark

Response from Emeka - This is great stuff, sir. The teaching that the proof of salvation is that the confessor receives Holy Spirit radically changed my thinking on the subject. I used to think that once someone says the words of the "sinner's prayer", that was it, they are saved for life. I never could understand why I couldn't see any change in some people's lives after they prayed that prayer (i.e. they continued in their old sinful ways, without remorse). Your teaching cleared that up for me.

I have never looked to see what Holy Spirit may show when I lead someone in salvation; much less of looking to see what God may be showing when I pray for people (or myself) over different issues.

I will incorporate this into my praying (and whenever I lead any person to Jesus) so I can be sure something actually happened during the prayer. I admit, though, that I hear more than I see. That is, I get flowing thoughts more than visions.

Response from Mark - Well that is wonderful news that change and growth are occurring in your life. And I agree with you. I hear more than I see. Many people tell me that. But any skill we focus on developing WILL become stronger as we continue on. So practice looking for vision and you will find you see more and more as you go along.