Brian Schwartz, MD &amp; Mark Finley, DDiv OBJECTIVES 1. Discuss the value and importance of praying with (for) patients. 2. Identify “do’s and don’ts” in clinically based prayer. 3. Demonstrate how to begin praying with patients.

AMEN 2019: Christ in You

<p>Brian Schwartz, MD &amp; Mark Finley, DDiv OBJECTIVES 1. Discuss the value and importance of praying with (for) patients. 2. Identify “do’s and don’ts” in clinically based prayer. 3. Demonstrate how to begin praying with patients.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Breakout Session C

Fred Lee

Jane Lee

Reflecting Christ to Your Community as a Healthcare Provider

Lyndi Schwartz

Food As Medicine

Mark Finley

Brian Schwartz

Team Building: Praying With Patients

Brad Emde

The Glymphatic System, Glaucoma, and Outer Space

Jeffeory White

Christianity in the Workplace

Well, Father in heaven, we just again thank you for the opportunity to be here for the Amen Conference.

And as we specifically study your word and talk about examples of the power of prayer, just pray that this could be effective to encourage each of us to do this better, more consistently, and in an effective way in our practices.

Teach us Jesus' method of reaching the heart, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

It's always nice to teach when people are in the audience.

If you didn't have anybody, it would be more difficult.

Twenty-five years ago, I was flying to an appointment, and my son was sitting next to me.

And he turned to me and he said, Dad, you're going to be really interested in this article.

And He handed me USA Today and there was a front page article that was titled, Does Prayer Make a Difference?

It talked about studies that were done in intercessory prayer and the impact that that was having on patients.

I became really interested in that, so I contacted Larry Dorsey.

I was with it as written television at the time and I said, Dr.

Dorsey, I've always been interested in prayer.

You were featured on CNN, you were featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, you were making the news circuits, the Sunday morning shows.

I'm a Christian, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist.

Adventists have a large medical facilities all around the world.

Now what I didn't know was something about his Eastern mysticism leanings at the time, which I discovered quite a bit later.

Dorsey believed that when you prayed, there was a kind of an energy that left you and entered into the other person to promote healing.

He also believed that you could pray for petri dishes and the bacteria would grow more rapidly.

So I began to learn a lot about Dorsey, but he is the 1 that at least opened the door for me to begin to study intercessory prayer, and certainly not Eastern mysticism, so don't get nervous.

It was really interesting to navigate that TV interview that I had with him and to keep us on the biblical track.

Why does intercessory prayer work or does it?

Does it make any difference if you pray for your patients or if you don't pray for your patients?

There are 3 things I think about intercessory prayer for our patients that really we need to consider.

Number 1, when patients are prayed for, they themselves feel more confidence in the practitioner that prays for them, and with that positive mental attitude it releases positive chemical endorphins that help the healing process.

I think that when a patient has confidence in the provider, it makes a dramatic difference, and so God creates a spiritual atmosphere.

Secondly, when patients pray, when they pray for themselves, there is very good scientific evidence.

There is about 208, the last I checked, studies that have been done on religion and healing, faith and healing, And the evidence I think is overwhelming that people who have spiritual leanings, people that pray, people that study the Word of God, people that attend church, tend to have better health outcomes than those that don't.

And I think when a person prays and they have confidence in God, it gives them a sense of divine interaction in their life.

But there's a third area, and that's the area that I want to spend most of my time with you on, and that's this.

That God works through intercession in ways that the human mind may not fully comprehend or understand, in ways that he would not work or didn't work if we didn't pray.

That God intervenes, that as Christians we believe that God moves powerfully and He intervenes in life because of prayer.

I want to look at the theological basis for that before Dr.

Schwartz comes on and gives us some practical examples of intercessory prayer.

So the question is this, does God interact with human beings in a process of healing in ways that the human mind may not fully comprehend or understand when we pray, and if we didn't pray would those same outcomes take place?

Is God doing everything he can to work the process of healing with your patience whether you pray or not?

And if indeed he is, what difference does intercessory prayer make?

Or maybe God is doing everything he can, but our prayers enable God to do more than he could have done otherwise.

Let's look first at the biblical theology of intercessory prayer.

You find that, I think, in some of the most clearer places in Paul's epistles.

We're going to go to 1st Colossians chapter 1.

Now Paul has likely never been to Colossae before.

He's gotten word from Epaphis that there are heresies in the church, so Paul begins to pray for the church at Colossae.

I want you to notice the specificity of Paul's prayer.

It's not that Paul is present influencing the church because he's not there.

He's in prison in Rome, Colossia is in Turkey.

And if you look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 9, it says, Paul says, for this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

So Paul is in a dark, damp, dirty dungeon in Rome.

He's on his knees praying that the church in Colossae will be filled with the wisdom of God.

Then it says in All spiritual understanding, verse 10, that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

So Paul prays for members of the church at Colossae that they would be fully pleasing to God, that they would be fruitful of good works and increase in the knowledge of God.

Verse 11, that they would be strengthened with all might according to the glorious power for all patience in long suffering with joy.

So Paul prays that they will be filled with the very power of God.

He believed that as his prayers ascended to heaven, that God would send angelic forces, that he would send his Holy Spirit to people in Colossia.

You find that also in the book of Ephesians.

Paul again writes Ephesians about at the same time that he writes Galatians, I rather Colossians.

We look at Ephesians chapter 1 and Paul says this.

He says in verse 16 of Colossians 1, that we do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

He's not praying for anybody in this prayer, he's praying for the church in Ephesus, that God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what the hope of his calling is.

So Paul is praying that they could see clearly.

So evidently the Apostle Paul believed in intercession.

He believed that when we pray, God does things when we pray that wouldn't happen if we didn't pray.

Ellen White reaffirms this in Great Controversy, page 525, when she says, God will do in answer to the prayer of faith that which he would not do did we not thus pray.

God will do in answer to the prayer of faith that which he would not do did we not thus pray." God will do an answer to the prayer of faith, that which he would not do if we would not thus pray.

And then Ministry of Healing 509 says, prayer and faith will do what no power on earth will accomplish.

So if indeed that is true, and it is, it's biblical, why is it true?

Why does God act in certain ways when we intercede for somebody who is ill.

Isn't he facilitating healing before we pray?

We find some help in understanding this, in understanding free will and the great controversy between good and evil.

There are many passages in the Bible that urge us to pray.

There are very few passages in the Bible that tell us what happens when we pray.

1 John chapter 5 is 1 of the only chapters in the Bible that take the curtain aside and help us understand what happens when we intercede for others.

You are looking there at 1 John chapter 5 verse 14 and onward.

Now this is the confidence we have in Him.

Now the confidence is not in ourselves, the confidence is not in our prayers.

That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Series

Breakout Session C

Team Building: Praying With Patients

Transcript

Description

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