Praying for someone's back

April 26, 2024

A strong, pain-free back is important for an active, healthy life. Back problems are common however, so it's not surprising that we often prayed for many people suffering from various kinds of back pain in our home fellowships, church gatherings and conferences over the years. Here are three stories that illustrate some of the kinds of things that can happen when you minister healing prayer to people experiencing back problems.

1. The team approach

At a Vineyard conference a man who came forward during ministry time said he had been experiencing almost constant mid-back pain for years. After interviewing him, three of us decided to take the man downstairs where we could minister to him in a more private setting. The three of us laid hands on him and began praying for the man, who was standing in the midst of us. One of us took the lead and began asking God to release his healing power on the man's back. The second member of our team was praying in tongues. I remained silent and waited for the Holy Spirit to give us a word of knowledge about the man's condition.

After a few moments I saw in my mind what looked like a vertebrae that glowed warmly, so I began to pray out loud and say "Touch that vertebrae with your power, Lord, heal it." At this point the man we were praying for was twisting his torso and moaning. It sounded like he was in pain, so we continued with our prayers, each of us praying independently according to how we felt the Holy Spirit was leading us.

After about five minutes of praying, we looked at each other and decided to stop praying. "How are you doing?" one of us asked him. The man opened his eyes and began to slowly twist and bend his torso. Then he looked at us with puzzlement in his eyes and said, "The pain is gone."

"Really?" we all said? "Try bending right over, but be careful, do it slowly."

The man bent over and touched the floor, then stood up straight and said, "No pain."

The three of us who had been praying looked at each other with wonder and some excitement, but the man merely looked puzzled and somewhat apprehensive, perhaps fearing that he might only experience a temporary reprieve from his pain. But since the man seemed to be healed, we blessed him and he left to go back upstairs.

Looking back on our prayer session, it struck me afterwards how poorly the three of us had functioned together as a team. We had prayed independently of each other and had not shared with each other what we thought might be the root cause of the man's pain or how we should pray effectively for him. We also didn't discuss our prayer session afterwards to see what we could learn from it or what we might have done differently.

And yet the man was healed, for a few years later I ran into him again and he confirmed that his back was still healed and he was no longer experiencing any pain! But he still looked puzzled when I talked to him about it, and I probably should have probed his mind further in case there was some missing spiritual dimension to the constant pain he had been experiencing. But we were both busy and had other things to do, so we parted and moved on.

2. Persist in prayer

The second story illustrates how persistence in ministering healing prayer can, over a period of time that may range from weeks to months, can eventually result in healing. This story was told by my friend Ken and has been excerpted from chapter 3 of my book Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships which you can read online or download as a free PDF.

Anyways, here is Ken's story of how his back got healed in our home fellowship:

When I joined the house church I was experiencing back pain almost continuously. The group prayed for me every Sunday for over a year until my back was finally healed. I received a lot of love from that group and it encouraged me to pursue God and pray for healing for others.

While this story is short, it illustrates several important things. The first is that home fellowships provide an ideal environment for people to learn how to pray for the sick. A second observation is that when someone gets healed of a debilitating condition, the result is often that they start praying for others to be healed—that's kingdom multiplication happening through the expression of God's power! And finally, don't give up when you pray for someone's healing—keep on praying until they get healed!

John Wimber brings this last point home on page 158 of his book Power Healing when he says: "There is another reason—I believe the most fundamental reason—why more people are not healed when prayed for today. We do not seek God as wholeheartedly as we should. In other words, God is able to do greater miracles than we have yet seen, if only we would persist in seeking him."

3. Seize the moment

The third story happened at the end of a time of fellowship in our home when those who came were standing in the entrance getting ready to leave. One of the men bent over to tie his shoelaces and suddenly let out a yelp. "Ouch! My back!"

"What's wrong?" we all cried. "I can't stand up, I've thrown out my back again!" he said, as he remained stooped over. "This has happened to me before, and it'll be days before I can stand up straight again. Oh, damit!"

At this point my wife Ingrid suddenly rushed over to the man, laid her hands on his back, and said "Be HEALED in Jesus' name!" The man's torso suddenly jackknifed upwards and he stood up straight. I asked him how his back felt and he twisted his torso and said, looking somewhat bewildered, "Fine, there's no pain". We all felt somewhat stunned, but we hugged each other and praised God and everybody went home.

There are various ways one could explain how this healing occurred e.g. the Spirit came upon Ingrid, God gave her a gift of faith, she was moved with compassion, and so on. But the point is probably that she saw someone hurting and decided to act by praying for him, immediately and with expectation that God wants to heal.

I wish I was more like that.

Anyways, be blessed everyone, and be healed :-)

--Mitch (with edits by Ingrid)

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Taking a break for the summer

July 13, 2026

Hey everyone, summertime is short here in Manitoba so we're taking a break until September 1st. Be sure to come back then to check us out again. In the meantime feel free to browse our books and blog and other free resources for helping you grow your fellowships. Blessings! Mitch and Ingrid

The kitchen sink

June 18, 2026

By Mitch Tulloch Here's another God Story for those of you who read our blog. We love telling these stories from our life because people can learn from them that God is real and that He loves you and has a plan for your life . A few months ago our kitchen sink got plugged and wouldn't drain. This was a real problem for us because not having a working sink in the kitchen makes it hard to prepare meals and wash dishes! So we called a rooter service and they sent a guy who tried to clear it, but his drain snake wasn't long enough to get all the way down to the blockage. (Our kitchen is on the upper level and our house has several levels.) He then called a second guy who had a 50 foot (15 meter) snake and we anxiously waited for him to arrive. The new guy discovered that our main sewer drain also seemed plugged, so the first thing he did was clear that. Then he used his snake to clear the problem with the kitchen sink and was successful. Fixing the problem, which involved calling two plumbers, took almost the entire day and cost us more than six-hundred dollars. Argh! So we thought the problem had been solved, but then yesterday I noticed water starting to pool in the kitchen sink again. I turned off the tap and the water slowly drained away, but it was clear that there was a partial blockage down at the bottom of the drainpipe that connects under the kitchen sink. Oh no, I thought. Will we have to spend hundreds of dollars on the plumber again? Is this problem going to start recurring frequently? Will we have to tear open the basement wall to expose the drainpipe to fix it? How much will that cost?? My glass was quickly becoming half-full, not half-empty. In other words, I was fearing the worst. Better try to fix this myself first if possible, I decided. So I poured some Drano into the kitchen sink drain, waited a half hour, and then poured a bucket full of hot water into the sink. The water pooled and drained ever so slowly. Rats. What to do? I told Ingrid about the problem and I could tell from her expression that she was worried too. I texted our friends Ken and Bonnie and asked them to pray about our situation. Then I sat down and worried. After wrestling with my anxiety for a while, I thought: Wait a minute. Isn't God my Father? Hasn't he promised to help us in times of difficulty? Now what was that promise He gave me about a dozen years ago...oh yeah, it was this: My hand will be constantly with him, he will be able to rely on my arm. (Psalm 89:21, Jerusalem Bible Translation) So I prayed, "Lord, I need your help. You said your hand will be constantly with me and that I can rely on your arm. So please show me how I can fix this problem." And immediately two things came to mind. The first was that it would be best to wait until morning when the drainpipe has fully drained before trying the Drano approach again, and this time to pour a whole 2.3 liter bottle into the drain because the blockage is way down in the basement and there's a lot of meandering pipe between the sink and the blockage. The second thing that popped into my head was the phrase "boiling water." Aha, I thought: a pail of hot water from the bathtub faucet is at most about 50 degrees Celsius, but a big pot of boiling water heated on the stove will be near 100 degrees so it should have a much greater dissolving effect on any gunk blocking the drainpipe. So was that God who put those thoughts into my mind to help me unplug our drain? Of course! How do I know? Because of His promise to us in James 1:5 which says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." Anyways, the next morning I got up early, poured a whole jug of Drano into the sink, put a big pot of water on the stove, waited 30 minutes, and poured the boiling water into the sink. It went down pretty fast. Then I filled up a big bucket of hot water from the bathtub and repeated. The sink drained quickly. Then as a final test, I put the stopper in the sink and filled it right up with hot water and pulled the stopper. The water went down like a stone falling from the sky. Thank you, Lord!!! Lessons learned Reflecting on what happened, I can think of five things that I should remember when problems like this arise: First, remember the promises that God has given you! These may be Bible verses that have "jumped off the page" when you read them, knowing that God specifically means them for your attention. Or they may be prophetic words given to you by others, or words the Holy Spirit has spoken into your heart directly. Whatever way God speaks to you, write it down so you won't forget it, and read them over periodically to keep them fresh in your heart. Second, ask your brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for you! Ken and Bonnie are our longtime friends, and the four of us have walked through many difficulties and challenges in life together. That's what belonging to the Body of Christ is all about: Christians helping Christians because we're members of the same Body. And when one part of your body (your arm, for example) is in pain, your whole body feels it and wants to help. Third, face your problems with courage. A few years ago I was facing some serious difficulty and felt overwhelmed. I turned to the Psalms and was reading one of them in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, when I came across the word ἀνδρίζου (andrizdou) which is usually translated in English as "be courageous" or "take courage" but literally means "be manly" or better "be a man!" That word really spoke to me at the time, and it helped me successfully face the difficulty I had been experiencing with confidence and courage, knowing that God was on my side. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). Fourth, address issues before they happen. I used to be a terrible procrastinator, and still am sometimes. I had set a monthly reminder in Outlook that I should use Drano on the kitchen sink once a month, but having put off doing this for several months look what happened. But I've learned my lesson (I hope) and am going to be more serious about maintaining our kitchen sink now. Once a week I'll heat a pot of water on the stove and pour boiling water into the sink. And once a month a whole jug of Drano is going into it. Finally, don't forget to worship and pray. After we went to bed yesterday, Ingrid woke up worried in the middle of the night. So she began singing an old Vineyard worship song to herself: Lord I will put my trust in You And I will not faint Lord I will put my trust in You... ( lyrics for song ) Then Ingrid prayed and asked the Lord to give her a pleasant dream to quell her fears about the situation. And he did — she fell asleep again and slept soundly, and towards morning she had a wonderful dream about us being with her family laughing and having fun together. Look at how much our heavenly Father loves us, who are His children through Jesus! Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. (Psalm 54:4 NIV)

Chapter 1 is now available!

June 17, 2026

Chapter 1 of our latest book Simple Kingdom: Word and Spirit is now available for reading on our website! Work is progressing steadily on this new title and we've decided to make each chapter available as we finish writing them. You can read the chapter here . More coming soon!