For many years, I have been teaching that marketplace ministers have a joint "kingly/priestly" anointing, and that Christians in the workplace should both "do business" and preach. By this, I mean that if we are called to the marketplace, we have a God-given gift to do business and bring money back to the House of God, while at the same time taking every opportunity to preach and teach.

"Kings" can go places "priests" never can, and use their business and professional occupations to allow them to enter nations otherwise closed to the gospel. As a businessman, I have been able, over the years, to get close to government and business leaders in China, Vietnam and the former Soviet Union. None of those countries would welcome me as a preacher/evangelist.

I was cozily comfortable in this rubric, until, as so often happens, I was shocked out of my "comfort zone" by a revolutionary idea—that marketplace ministers also have a divine mandate to heal the sick! I know of course that, according to Mark 16:18, all believers can lay hands on the sick, "and they will get well."

But in terms of teaching in marketplace ministry forums, it had never occurred to me that, if we are to do the same things as Jesus, and "even greater" things (John 14:12), then healing the sick is not an "optional extra" but a firm command. Jesus Himself preaches, teaches and heals the sick.

Jesus Had A Healing Ministry

It came suddenly as a revelation, a spiritual reality, while recently listening to Rev. Dr. Ulf Ekman speaking at a service in City Harvest Church, Singapore. He was teaching on the absolute centrality of the healing ministry to Jesus—that healing to Jesus wasn't just an optional extra.

Quoting (among others) Matthew 9:35, Ps. Ekman said: "Healing is central to Jesus, not on the fringe—it is the power of God. Healing is a foundational, apostolic ministry given to us as part of the Body of Christ.

"Jesus preaches, teaches and heals wherever He goes—and so should we. We are in Christ, and part of His Body, so we also are to preach, teach and heal wherever we go. It is simple: we are always supposed to do what Jesus has always done, and He is always the same yesterday, today and forever.

"He preaches, teaches and heals. He is anointed to do all three, and so are we. We have our heart full of Jesus, our mouth full of His Word, and our hands full of the anointing to heal. Healing is Scriptural (Is. 53) and healing is commanded. We are commanded to go into all the world, preaching and making disciples, and laying hands on the sick so they will recover (Mark 16:15-18)."

Then as if to drive home the point, Kong Hee in City Harvest has been preaching on the importance of friendship evangelism—how we can obey the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) and the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40) by doing four things:

The Pattern Of Jesus

Quoting Luke 5:1-11 and Luke 10:1-9, Kong emphasized that the pattern of Jesus was always to reach out to others, help them and meet their needs, and then, and only then, talk about repentance and heaven. This should be our pattern too: "Find a need and meet it, find a hurt and heal it. People don't care what you know, until they know how much you care," he said.

So what all this has driven home to me, in no uncertain terms, is that as marketplace ministers, we have a clear three-fold mandate: not just to "do business" and generate finance for the Kingdom, and teach and preach the gospel, but also to heal the sick!

Jesus tells us nowhere that we are to just "pray" for the sick, He tells us to HEAL the sick! He says: "Go to the lost sheep ... and as you go, announce this: 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with skin diseases, drive out demons" (Matt. 10:7 and 8). He ordained His 12 disciples, sent them forth to preach and to have "power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils" (Mark 3:14 and 15 and Luke 9:2; 10:9). We are His disciples—and whatever we see Him do, we are also to do.

There is no better example of the power of meeting needs through healing, and then bringing people to the Lord, than famed evangelist Benny Hinn. Benny has brought untold thousands into the Kingdom of God all over the world, and has done this by first meeting a basic need of people—the need to be healed.

Having read many books and articles on marketplace/workplace ministry, with teachings on areas such as the "cultural mandate" (based on our original job description in Genesis 2:15 to work and find significance in our work), decision-making God's way, biblical economics, conflict resolution, integrity, time management, stewardship etc. (all good and valid topics of course), I have yet to find one telling marketplace ministers to go out and heal the sick!

And yet, as Christians, we are to be like Jesus and do the things He did in the Bible. What He did time and time again, wherever He went, was to heal people. Right at the beginning of His ministry, when He came back from being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He healed (Matt. 4:23), to the very end when He was hanging on the cross between two criminals, He healed (Luke 22:51).

Yes, we are called to obey the Great Commission, and to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom throughout the world as a witness to all nations (Matt. 24:14). And yes, we are called to obey the Great Commandment, to love God, and to love people (Matt. 22:34-40). And the Jesus-way to do both these things, to love people and bring them to the light of Christ, is first to open their heart by meeting their practical needs and healing them.

Missionaries say, "The hungry stomach has no ears." In the same way, the person who is hurting, diseased, sick and injured also will be "hard of hearing" until he or she is healed.

Healing In The Marketplace

Healing is central, not peripheral, and it is as central to the ministry of the Christian business and professional person, government leader, schoolteacher, lawyer, journalist and musician, as it is to the ministry of the pastor, missionary, church counselor and youth minister.

Whether you are called to serve inside or outside the walls of the local church, you are called to minister healing to a hurting and sin-sick world. As a member of the Body of Christ, you have full and open access to the gifts of the Spirit, including that of healing: 1 Corinthians 12:7-9 (HCSB) says, "A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial ... gifts of healing by the One Spirit," backed by the "word of knowledge," faith, wisdom and miracles—a veritable cornucopia of powerful tools for healing and deliverance.

God gives us everything we need, if we but choose to reach out and take it. He empowers us totally, always giving us precisely what we need—when and where we need it—to carry out all the tasks He has given us in the most effective way possible, whether inside the local church, or out in the marketplace.

As marketplace ministers, our pulpit is our workplace, whether it be the business office, the university, the courtroom or the parliament—that is where we are called to minister, and to fulfill our destiny and our divine mandate.

Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe—in My Name:
• they will drive out demons
• they will speak in new languages
• they will pick up snakes; if they should drink anything deadly, it will never harm them
• they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.

(Mark 16:15-18)