~~Spirituality and Healing Course

Proposed Syllabus:

Duration:            Five Sessions of around 60-90 minutes each (7:30pm to 9:00pm)

Structure:        Short worship time
Plenary
Question time (if appropriate)
Practical and prayer time.

The aim is to 'prime' a team with some basic knowledge of, and confidence in, the ministry of healing as something for each one in the Body of Christ to participate in. This is really only to be a 'fly-by', as it were, with the aim being really focussed on practical application and demonstration. Ideally this should be followed on at some future date with further group study on the subject. Each one of these topics is a course in its own right!

Also, all of the issues looked at here should always be exercised in the context of community accountability and pastoral oversight. No one is and island, especially in the Church!

Sessions:

i)        Understanding Healing In The Bible

Purpose: To contextualise the work of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of healing though the Body of Christ as normative and necessary for the 'Missional Church'.

ii)      Spiritual Disciplines – Being In A Place Of Encounter and Challenge

Purpose: To introduce people to the tools and techniques that facilitate encounter with God.

The doors of  prayer, fasting, meditation, solitude, simplicity….in the context of community.

iii)    Personal Holiness – Being Right With God And Others

Purpose: To emphasis the importance of being a ‘broken vessel’ – broken, yet healed and cleansed by the love and grace of Jesus – and our call to a life of dependency on Him (the hard road…the narrow gate).

Dealing with the importance of character over gift. Nurturing the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’, confession – keeping ‘short accounts’ with each other and with God, devotional Scripture reading (Lectio Divina) and ‘Practising the Presence’ of God.

iv)    Hearing God – Listening For The Still Small Voice

Purpose: ‘My sheep hear my voice’ – a look at revelatory gifts for the whole body.

The context of ‘prophetic’ in the New Testament.

Hearing God ‘in the mind’ – Scripture as our guide and ‘plumb-line’

Hearing God ‘in the spirit’ – pictures, impressions, thoughts, visions

Dreams – the picture language of the spirit.

v)      Praying For Healing – “Doin’ The Stuff!”

Purpose: A look at the practical issue of ministering to others and an opportunity to pray with each other within this context. Also emphasising the importance of giving people dignity and choice, as well as the imperative and mechanism of confidentiality.