Before the breakthrough you can have gone through many problems. When you go back and tell other people about the experience you have had in most cases they will not listen. They close their eyes, ask you to shut your mouth. But you do not give in because you know that some day what you have seen will come to pass. The old philosopher Plato also wrote about this phenomena. He had an illustration. That we sat in a cave and looked at pictures moving in front of us. But some few people saw the real thing, not the pictures. They saw the world as it is in reality. When they tried to tell others about this that the real world is not the same as the world you see with your eyes, they were killed and persecuted. But what you know is so preciuos that you do not give in. In spite of persecution you go on and tell about the real world. You go on, again and again untill they listen to you - untill they see the same thing that you see. Then the breakthrough comes and that is what evangelism is all about. 

We tell about the kingdom of God, about the supernatural. that God can move in today life and do some extraordinary for us. Most people in the church are looking at things as the people in the cave. In the letter to the Hebrews we read that in the old covenant they all did that. But when Jesus came they started to see the real thing. When I first read the life story of Oral Roberts I got my first glimpse of a breakthrough. That something was possible that was beyond human resources. That God could remove sickness from a person. To be frank my belief was very small. The book gave a remarkable picture of a ministery where sick people were healed. It was something that was far beyond my way of thinking. When I got whole in a teeth I had to go to the dentist. I knew the pains concerned with the kinds of irregularities we experienced, and did not have belief for even the smallest sickness - even the colds that came from time to time. However here was bigger things. Roberts was healed from tuberculoses. And in meetings from coast to coast in America thousands were healed from various deceases. But that was far away - in America. 

I know that others got the belief in divine healing from the book "healing the sick" of T.L. Osborn, and in this book there also was an attempt to give a theological interpretation of healing. God can heal sickness according to his word.-There is some biblical pinciples that is the foundation of healing - and if you find these principles you can be healed. In other words: Divine healings are something that are connected to preaching of the Bible. Osborne put up some principles that was important to follow. This was my first understanding that there is some conditions for the healing. I do not know if Osborne had found the right conditions, but at least - he tried to put up some rules. If it is something you must work to get, it can be more precious than if it is something not attainable. We had learned from Lutheran theology that you could not get anything from God by your own efforts. Everything was given by grace. If you are in good health you shall thank God for that. But if you are sick and in pain you shall also thank God for that. God is superior in your situation. You cannot do anything to or fro. 

But think of it! We can move closer to God by our own effort, and also find health. Could that give life a real meaning and are the rules worth while? Certainly for those ones sick to death and with no other alternatives than prayer, and may be also for a coming preacher - who always compared the preacher ministery to other professions. It must be better to become a healing preacher than a doctor, pianist etc.. If a preacher can get hold of the healing ministery he or she must have the most important job in the world. However, a description of miracles is one thing, another thing is to see a miracle with ones eyes. When will God do so, and is it possible in my own world, in Norway? That was the big question. Other questions could be: What will it cost? Is it worth while to go for it? Is it better to do another job? I never believed that you could go direct into a service. A doctor need at least 6 years education, and he or she must concentrate on it and become a doctor. In the same way I have always regarded the healing ministery. You must go for it. If you want healing for your own sickness you also have to go for it. In Mark. 7. the women with the blood decease talk to herself. If I can touch with his garment, I will be healed. Jesus asked the man that had been paralyzed for 38 years what he could do for him. He had noone to throw him into the water when the angel came down. The arrangemet was like that the first in the water when the angel came, was healed. In that way - they had to be thrown into the water. 

In Norway people did not regularly believe in miracles of this kind at that time, and though they still do not do so, the situation is more open now. Before healing preachers were regarded as crooks and bad people. The only churches that wished them welcome were the pentecostal churches. This is changed now. Today we have alternative medicine and the society has recognized other medicine than the regular. We have many preachers travelling around, and they are also on TV. In my early youth healing preachers come to the country now and then, and they were forbidden to pray for the sick. The question for many was this. Why cannot God heal the sick in spite of the situation. Why is it necessary to ask the people to come forward and be prayed for? And when the preacher is denied to do this, then the healings does not take place. In my church, Filadelfia, Oslo the famous preacher, William Branham come for a meeting. The whole city was alerted. Thousands of people gathered and the police had to use horses to keep the crowds in order that gathererd. He could preach, but he was not allowed to take people forward to pray for them. We knew that Branham had a marvellous healing ministery. People that did not understand anything about the gospel could be touched by him, and be healed. If you later asked them what happened with them, they could say: He gave me a sort of treatment, and I was suddenly healed. His ministery was connected with an angel who touched the people. He had no theology of healing the way Osborn had. 

The meeting with Branham was one of the first meetings that at least was arranged concerning prayer for the sick in Oslo last century. But his healing ministery was limited due to the rules from the government. Others followed. We were young at that time and very open for everything that happened around us. Those first preachers started up, being the first impulse, paving the way for others. The basic preachers in USA were A.A.Allen, Kathryn Kuhlman and others. Together with Oral Roberts and Osborne they represented big preachers not coming to a small country like Norway. So everything was based on rumours. I knew that Roberts put his right hand on people and they were healed. He had some kind of power in his hand, I believed. Today Benny Hinn is the most well-known in the field and he also have some sort of contact-point. He leads big crowds into whorship with beautiful songs, and then the healings start to happen. Benny Hinn is very well-known in Norway due to the TV-program "This is your day". The program is seen every day in Norway both on local-TV and on sattellite.

 Now it has gone nearly forty years since I first heard about healing with prayer. But what was not regarded important was the cost to get it. In my twenties I took miracles mostly for granted. Today I understand that you must work for it. You must not take them for granted. They has something to do with belief. And this aspect has been much emphasized the last years. The healing ministery has followed as a part of the faith-movement in Norway. And in this respect other foreign preachers have had influence in Norway. Younngi Cho from South Korea and Kenneth Haigin from USA have been important the last twenty years in the faith movement. As I have told I have learned that you must have a glimpse of the supernatural to go further in the kingdom of God. That's how your faith grows. If your christian life only is about what you can see with your eyes you loose out the most important thing in your life.The best is to get it from the Bible in the first place. You read and there is a lot of things concerning prayer for sick in the Bible. 

Primarly the supernatural came to us from other books and the rumours concerning preachers. I got it from reading a book, but I also was inspired by the preaching in the meetings and the bible -stories. You use the word of God and then miracles happen according to what the word of God says. But we cannot take it for granted that miracles will happen. One time I came to a big crusade in Norway. I had lived in the countryside for a while, prayed and read the Bible. The crusade was on a place where there was a big camping. Many tents and cars were at the place. the problem was all the rain. It had rained and rained for many days, and people started to pack to go home. then I placed myself on the camping slot and cried out: Here will neither rain or dew unless on my word. In the Bible I had read that this was what the prophet Elijah did in Samaria. Very short afterwards the rain stopped and people did not go home. The strange thing is that I did not bother so much about the incident. I took it for granted that when I use something from the Bible - as with the prophet - it would happen also in our time. For me this was granted. When I went up to the meetings that were held in a big hall, I saw a man sit two seats in front of me. He definitely had problems with one of his eyes. Suddenly he rose up, and started to shout: I was blind on one of my eyes, my now suddenly I can see clearly on both eyes! I was not so surprised about neither the miracle at the camping or the healing in the meeting. It was something naturally for me. That when things could happen, they also would happen. God would do it. It is later I have learned not to expect too much, but to work in cooperation with the holy spirit. That is the only way a miracle can have a meaning. 

For young people it is very easy to take healing for granted. That is because they do not have so much serious illnesses. they get a cold, they pray to God, and believes that God will heal them from the cold. And that happens also because a cold heals itself after few days. But for elder people with serious illness things are more complicated. If the illness do not heal itself they are really in for a problem. If they stop to take medicine and only prays they cannot expect things to happen the same way as in their youth. The sickness can kill them - the point with self - healing is not present anymore. Now it is only God who can heal them, and then the problem with sickness is much more complicated. A friend of mine told me that he never took medicine. He only prayed. Look at me, he told - I am always in good health. Well, of course - if you are in good health - and always have sickness that will go over by itself - you do not need medicine. That is why he never took medicine. He had no serious sickness! Medicine is for seriously sick people - to prevent them from dying, and eventually help them to get well again. Some people regards the side-effects of the medicine as something that makes them sick, and as long as they do not take medicine they regards themselves as well. The side-effects from the medicine are far less than the threat from the illness. We cannot mix this with belief. You must take your medicine if the doctor has told you so - in spite of the side-effects - if not you can die. 

When you base your life on the supernatural, it does not mean that you deny or neglect the natural. Jesus knew that his life was based on the supernatural, but all the time he had to think of the natural. He went out into the desert and was tempted by the devil because he was hungry. For forty days he fasted and prayed. The devil attacked him and then the devil left him for a while. He came to the synagogue of Nazaret. There he stands up to read from Esaias. The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach the gospel. Then he gives them his program. He shall preach, he shall open blind eyes. He shall preach about the kingdom of God. They will not accept it and tries to kill him, but he goes on. He heals the sick. He goes into the house of Peter mother in law and then he threatens the fever. But Jesus neither took the healing ministery for granted. It had something to do with his authority and anointing. Sometimes he could heal them - and sometimes not. But he underlines his healing ministery as something important. As a sign for his authority. In John. 14. Filip says to Jesus that he doubt his auhority. Jesus ask: Do you believe in me - Filip. If you do not believe because of my words - do believe because of my works, Jesus says. Jesus promise Filip that every time he do a work in his name and for the glorification of him, a supernatural thing will happen - when he prays for it. He also tells Fillip that he shall do greater things than Jesus did himself. We could say that Jesus will do greater things through us than he could do when he was on the earth. Now he sits at the throne of his father and has sent the spirit so he can be many places at the same time and with greater authority. 

However - the healings and other miracles shall stay in a certain context. They shall be used in a situation of evangelism. Usually we call them signs. They are signs that there exists another world where sickness do not exist and they are signs that Jesus has made this world free for us to enter. He has prepeared a room for us. We have the choiche to say yes or no to him. That is the basic of healings. Many people believes that God exists. But not so many believes that Jesus is the son of God. And this is the faith that triggers healings. You must believe that Jesus is the son of God. Then the miracles can happen. Jesus also experienced the problem that people would not accept his ministery - and he also warned the diciples that people would not accept them. This is the same situation that we talked about in the beginning of this article. So he had to overcome this problem. There had to come a change of athmosphere in the country. And how should this happen? As I told about the governement in Norway started to ban the healing preachers when they first came. The athmosphere was too bad for healings to take place. Something has happened since. 

Today they plan to abolish the governement law that stopped them at that time. People must be open - not for the healing - but for Jesus - for christianity. Now they pray for sick on TV, also on the state TV. The preacher Svein Magne Pedersen has prayed for sick on state TV several times and people say they are healed. Jesus was the son of God. But he had to experience the problems of the world. When he first preached in the synagogue they were amazed of his preaching. But they also started to quarrel. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? Then Jesus answered: And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. This is not the way a diplomate talks. Jesus also had to experience the problems of seeing the supernatural and experience that people oppose to it. Afterwards they threw him out of the synagogue, and tried to kill him. He could not do so much in Nazareth. In fact Jesus did not make much success in creating an athmosphere for healing in the synagogoue og Nazareth. 

God wants an athmosphere for healing. Benny Hinn talks very much about this, and he tries to create this athmosphere by having the right music in the meeting. This can be a way to go because music brings people together, but in the Bible we see a more dynamic way to create the athmosphere. We shall go into the houses. We shall make friends with people and bless them. Luke. 10. The first priority is to be a friend. God puts more emphasize on that element than the extraordinary - we shall not use the supernatural to make problems. The argentinian preacher Ed Silvoso has launched the idea of prayer-evangelism. In that context we have to overcome some problems before we shall preach the gospel. Silvoso writes about the importance of friendship, forgiveness and acceptance. I think this aspect is very important also concerning healing ministery. Every supernatural thing, spiritual gifts, - also healings - creates problems and can split a church. That is the reason why we must make friends as the first point. 

The pentecostal movement has experienced more miracles than any other movement in hundreds of years. But the movement has also experienced a lot of splits and problems. They started immediately. The problems were there from the beginning. Bible tells about the church of Korint. They had all the gifts - also healings. But they quarelled all the time. Is it not better not to have miracles if they quarrel abut them all the time. Friendship is more important than miracles. Blessings is more important than signs. If the signs creates problems. Better not do them. Wait untill you are friends. Better to wait untill the athmosphere is better. 

In Luke. 10 Jesus experienced a better athmosphere. And then he started on the real healing ministery. It is definitely a change of athmosphere from Luk. 4 til Luke 10. We must understand that healing shall be in the context of evangelism. This phenomena has been underlined by many teachers the last years. Ed Silvosos prayer evangelism is in many ways a form of evangelization that utilies signs and wonders in connection with healings. The first to empasize this was John Wimber in the book "Power-evangelism". At the time when Wimber wrote his books on powerevangelism christianity experienced a whole new view on personal evangelism. Up till that time everything in the church regarded as important was preaching in revival meetings. But in the 70 ths. one started to recognize personal evangelism as the real thing that created growth in the christian community. Rational personal evangelism had been accepted as a useful tool to bring converters to Christ. With rational one means that you must use some intellectual talk to get into contact with the person. On a scale from minus 10 till 0 one could measure have fast you could bring a person to conversion through intellectual arguments. A basic principle was to start with something that could as fast as possible get the person to concentrate on spiritual things. With power evangelism Wimber wanted to speed up the process of rational evangelism. By a power encounter the person you witnessed for should be so surprised that he or shee immediately went from a situation of minus 10 til 0 on the scale, thus being able to receive Jesus as personal saviour without rational arguments. 

Wimbers well known example of power encounter was this: One day he was on the flight. There he saw a man sitting i front of him. And he saw the word "broken marriage" or whore on his forehead. He talked wit him about it. If you do not convert from this God will take your life. The man was so surprised and told he had left his wife together with another woman who was with him on the fight. He decided to go back to his wife, ask forgiveness and turn to Jesus. He had gone immediately frm minus 10 till 0 on the scale. That is how power encounters work. With prayer Evangelism Ed Silvoso takes evangelism even a bit further than Wimber. All previuos ways of evangelisation has concentrated on geting the person into some sort of regret.