5 Types of Impartation

Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses.
Deuteronomy 34:9

Impartation isn’t a word that every Christian tradition uses, but every Christian tradition does it in one form or another. To “impart” means “to give, convey, bestow, release, transmit, or confer.” For example, “The teacher imparted knowledge to her students.” Or, “The spices imparted flavor to the dish.”

Impartation carries with it the idea that something of value is being released or transmitted from one thing and given to another thing, or from one person to other people. Within the Body of Christ, there are at least five different kinds of impartation that exist for different purposes. With each of these five we’ll examine the primary mechanism used for impartation, the purpose of that type of impartation, and identify those who do the imparting.

1. Impartation of Truth

Primary mechanism: teaching

Purpose: Upgrade for our mind/thinking

Who does it? Anyone can impart truth, but some are particularly gifted who have the gift of teaching.

The impartation of truth can be seen in nearly every Christian tradition. Teaching and preaching are the primary ways that truth gets imparted either through a sermon, seminar, or bible study setting. The apostle Paul charges his protege Timothy to do just that:

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
2 Timothy 4:2-4

2. Impartation of Wisdom/Character

Primary mechanism: modeling

Purpose: Upgrade for our actions/decisions

Who does it? Anyone can impart wisdom, but some are particularly gifted with wisdom and are more seasoned with life experience.

The impartation of wisdom and character happens primarily through modeling wise living and wise decisions. It happens by spending time with people who have learned important lessons from life experience. It happens less by instruction and more through conversation and life together. It’s about watching someone live well and imitating what they do. Paul said it this way to the Corinthians:

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:1

3. Impartation of Life/Courage

Primary mechanism: encouragement/affirmation

Purpose: Upgrade for our heart/confidence

Who does it? Anyone can impart life with their words, but some are particularly good at it who have the gift of encouragement.

The impartation of life and courage happens through the spoken word, specifically, words of affirmation and encouragement. Words are often more powerful than we realize. James 3 reminds us that words can build up and tear down. The proverbs remind us that words can impart life or death:

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21

4. Impartation of Authority

Primary mechanism: impartation prayer/laying on of hands

Purpose: Upgrade for our responsibility/authority

Who does it? Anyone can impart authority, but it most often has to come from those already in authority who are raising someone else up.

In most Christian traditions this kind of impartation is most clearly seen in the ordination ceremony of new pastors. Often, a group of elders will lay their hands on a young pastor who is being ordained into vocational ministry and will impart or confer their blessing and authority onto the young minister. While most people assume this is just a ceremonial rite of passage, throughout scripture we see the laying on of hands confer a real transference of authority. In other words, this isn’t just for show. Something is really being transferred in the spirit realm. We not only see Moses do this with Joshua (Numbers 27:18-20) but we also see this happen with the deacons in the early church.

“…choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
Acts 6:3-6

5. Impartation of Anointing/Spiritual Gifts

Primary mechanism: impartation prayer/laying on of hands

Purpose: Upgrade for our spiritual gifting/anointing

Who does it? Anyone can pray to impart increased anointing and spiritual gifts because, ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit doing it, but some are particularly gifted who have the gift of impartation.

While most Christian traditions understand the reality and importance of the first four types of impartation, only a few actually understand and practice this kind of impartation. I have personally been on the giving and receiving end of this kind of impartation (mostly the receiving end) and it is very real and very powerful. With this kind of impartation, there is a transference of anointing, power, or spiritual gifts when one person lays hands on another (sometimes a transference of all three!). We see this kind of impartation happen both in the Old and New Testaments and we need more of it in the Church today. Here are some samples of it happening in scripture:

Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him.
Deuteronomy 34:9

The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.”

So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.
Numbers 11:16-17, 24-25

Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
1 Timothy 4:14

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
2 Timothy 1:6

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. These two went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. (For the Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then Peter and John placed their hands on the Samaritans, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:14-17

Just as some people are particularly gifted with teaching or wisdom or encouragement, the same applies here. Some people in the Body of Christ are particularly gifted with impartation. What it means to operate in any spiritual gift is that the Spirit seems to move more powerfully when a person is operating in a gift than when they are not. Again, we see this truth play out with teaching and leadership and other spiritual gifts.

But the same applies to those who are gifted with impartation gifts. When a person who is gifted in this way prays for the impartation of anointing to happen or the impartation of gifts to happen, the sheer volume of impartation that happens in the room is more. This is why, if we want powerful teaching, we need to sit under a person gifted with teaching gifts. And if we want wisdom, we need to be around people gifted with spiritual wisdom. Likewise, if we want to receive an upgrade in our spiritual gifts, power, or anointing, it is helpful to receive prayer from a person gifted with impartation.

There may be more than these five types of impartation, but these five are extremely important for the Church today. If we want to raise up the next generation to live like Jesus, it’s going to take a Church that is able to impart all of these things in all of these ways.

Intensive Prayer Sessions

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-24

At our church we have an intensive prayer ministry where one can schedule a 2-3 hour prayer session with our prayer team members. These sessions are all about a person taking the next step in being sanctified “through and through” in their “spirit, soul and body.” We use an integrated approach because we try to address the whole person. It’s also an integrated approach because we as prayer ministers try to use every spiritual gift and tool available to us in order to help the person we are praying for. Our goal is: 1) that they feel loved (by us and by the Father) and, 2) that they walk away more free than they walked in. If we do those two things, we’ve been successful.

In order for a person to feel loved by us, we have to operate with care and compassion. We employ the supernatural gifts of the Spirit (listed in 1 Corinthians 12) and we do so in ways that are careful and kind.

In order for a person to feel loved by the Father, we must facilitate an encounter with the tangible Presence of God. Just knowing, in one’s head, that God loves you is a good first step but is often insufficient in bringing life-change and freedom. As prayer ministers we are responsible for ushering the person into God’s tangible Presence. This means that we move beyond a mere head-knowledge of God’s love into a place where the person actually experiences God’s love. This can show up emotionally as the Spirit touches a person’s heart. It can also show up physically, as they tangibly experience God’s Presence in their body.

In order to facilitate a divine encounter, we must utilize every heavenly resource and every spiritual gift available to us. Practically speaking, this means moving through five major avenues of encounter. These are the five main ways that God puts His love on display and makes His love real for the person receiving prayer.

Prophetic Words: In the morning before we pray for an individual, we ask the Lord, “How do you see this person?” Then we wait and listen to what the Spirit has to say. We write down thoughts and images that come to mind that we sense are not our own. These are words from the Lord or sometimes called “prophetic words.” Listening to the Spirit like this takes practice. But the more you do it, the more accurate you become (as is the case with nearly every other spiritual gift). After a brief orientation, we deliver these words to the person and tell them to “eat the meat; spit out the bones.” In other words, we’ve done our part in listening and telling, now you do your part and discern what is truly from the Lord.
Inner Healing: After we give the prophetic words, we usually move into a time of praying for inner healing. This is when we address things like heart wounds, unforgiveness, harsh words spoken over a person’s life (especially by those in authority), generational sin and curses, fears, sexual brokenness, addictions, etc. These are areas where the enemy likes to attack people. If these are not addressed, they function like open doors and windows in a person’s life allowing the enemy easy access to wreak havoc. Most of our prayer time is spent on these. People experience tremendous release and healing as we pray through these issues.
Deliverance: While inner healing must come first, sometimes we recognize (either through demonic physical manifestations in a person’s body or just through the gift of discerning the spirits) that the enemy has not only attacked a particular part of a person’s life but has actually infiltrated it. Deliverance ministry is when, in the authority of Jesus, we function as police officers commanding demonic spirits “off of” or “out of” a person’s life. If a spirit is simply “attached” to a person (picture a vulture with its talons dug in someone’s back), we command it to get “off” in Jesus’s name. If a spirit has gotten “into” a person (picture a thief hiding out in one room of a person’s house), then we command it to get “out” in Jesus’s name. If a person is heavily demonized, we often see strong physical manifestations occur at this point as the demon never wants to leave. So in its attempts to stay, it causes bodily sensations, bodily pain, or bodily movements. In extreme cases, it will try to take over a person’s face and voice. But, in many cases, demonization is only at the level of “attachment,” and these things simply lift off a person at the name of Jesus.
Physical Healing: We also like to address people’s physical needs during these prayer sessions. There are two kinds of physical ailments that we address. The first is simply a physical illness or injury caused by something natural. In these cases, we pray for Jesus to come and physically heal what is broken. We’ve seen the incredible healing of the Lord get poured out as we prayed and people could feel the sensation of heat while Jesus was healing them.
The second kind of physical ailment is when the physical illness or injury is caused (or prolonged) by a “spirit of affliction.” These little demonic spirits are assigned to cause people bodily pain or sickness. Once they are cast out, the pain or sickness ends. It’s fairly easy to determine if it is a spirit of affliction causing the problem because, as soon as you start praying for healing, the issue worsens or suddenly moves. I’ve seen neck pain “move” to the shoulder as we prayed and then to the arm. This indicated that it was not a physical cause but a spirit causing the issue. As we commanded it to leave, it went down the arm and out the finger tips.
Impartation: We sometimes (not always) conclude our prayer sessions with impartation. Impartation prayer is when we recognize that the Lord either wants to give this person a brand new gift of the Holy Spirit or He wants to fan into flame what is already there. So as we pray we ask the Lord to freely do in them and give to them what He has freely done in us and given to us. We essentially ask the Holy Spirit to fill this person to overflow, ignite the gifts that exist in them already, and pour out new gifts to them. If this concept is new to you, here are some scripture verses to check out (Matthew 10:8; Numbers 11:16-7, 24-25; Deut 34:9; 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6).

By the end of these prayer sessions, I’ve seen people radically transformed by an encounter with God. Usually, at least two of the above avenues of encounter end up being really profound for the person to experience. Occasionally, we have people who get profoundly impacted by all five avenues of encounter. Those prayer sessions are really memorable. The person is never the same after that. When we have a tangible encounter with the Lord, it’s nearly impossible to ever be the same again.

Understanding Physical Healing

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life.
2 Kings 20:1-6

We can learn so many things from this dramatic healing of King Hezekiah. First, prayer changes things. I don’t like it when people say, “Prayer doesn’t change things; it changes us.” Nope. Prayer does both.

Hezekiah got a direct word from the Lord through the prophet Isaiah that he was going to die from the illness he had. Then, Hezekiah cried out to the Lord and the Lord healed him. Prayer matters. Prayer for physical healing matters. The fatalistic idea that “God’s going to do what God’s going to do” is a poor understanding of God’s sovereignty. God has chosen to be in covenant relationship with His people, which means that what we pray and what we ask for in prayer has an effect on things.

Secondly, most people don’t understand the connection between “small” healings and “big” healings. All miraculous healings are “big” in the sense that God chooses to divinely heal. But what I mean is that people don’t seem to care much about physical healing until they or someone they love is in Hezekiah’s position with an illness that is heading toward death.

I’ve encountered this attitude with people in my own church and people I’ve talked to about physical healing. They ask me why I think praying for physical healing is so important. They always use the argument that it is more important that people get saved and experience the loving community of the church than it is that they get physically healed. But this argument borders on gnosticism (an early heresy that thinks “spiritual” things are of ultimate importance while “physical” things don’t matter).

When a person doesn’t understand why I get so excited about “small” healings like a injured knee getting healed or a migraine problem going away, I start asking them about whether they would have that same cavalier attitude about stage 4 cancer getting healed or someone with traumatic brain injury getting healed. In every case, the person who was relatively indifferent about physical healing two seconds ago suddenly agrees that physical healing in those situations is supremely important. And what becomes clear is that they don’t understand the connection between the knee getting healed and the cancer getting healed. Most people don’t.

First of all, Jesus did not make this distinction between small and big healings. He healed blindness and He healed fevers. He raised the dead and He healed crippled hands. Jesus treated sickness as an attack on the body that God created. Whether it was a fever or blindness, Jesus wanted it gone.

Secondly, any spiritual gift must be used faithfully in order for it to grow. We accept this as a truth of the Kingdom when it comes to gifts like teaching or hospitality. We intuitively understand the parable of the talents applies not just to our financial resources but also to how we steward our spiritual gifts. This line of the parable should be ringing in our ears, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things“(Matthew 25:23).

The gift of healing (1 Corinthians 12:9) is no different. As we are faithful to pray for smaller physical needs and see God heal those, our faith grows. As we are faithful with “smaller” miracles, God can begin to trust us with “bigger” ones. When the apostle Paul talks about spiritual gifts in Romans 12, he teaches that we operate in our gifts in accordance with our faith (Romans 12:6). So while different gifts are given simply by God’s grace, we grow in these gifts by faith. We must exercise our faith as we use our gifts in order to mature in them.

So, when it comes to gifts of healing, praying for the “smaller” healings is what prepares you and your faith for the day you pray for life-threatening illnesses. Indifference toward small healing is a recipe for powerlessness and doubt when you need a big miracle. This is how all spiritual gifts work. If you’ve never preached to a group of 200 people, you wouldn’t assume you could step into a stadium full of people and preach an amazing sermon to thousands. Yet, this is exactly how we treat healing prayer.

Someone might say, “But couldn’t God move powerfully anyway?” Yes! Of course He could. He could also help that person who’s never preached to preach an incredibly powerful and moving sermon to a stadium full of people. God loves to do that! But on our end, we are being irresponsible and arrogant if we are relying on God’s sovereignty to bail us out of our indifference.

Paul’s advice to his protege Timothy was, “…be prepared in season and out of season…”(2 Timothy 4:2). This advice applies to all the spiritual gifts. And when it comes to healing, being prepared means we are praying for small and big miracles alike. It means we grow in our ability to hear the Holy Spirit’s guidance in healing prayer. It means we are seeing “small” healings happen and allowing those to build our faith.

So we celebrate every healing, big or small, because it is a tangible expression of God’s grace. We pursue and celebrate the healing of every disease, big or small, because healing is a sign of God’s Kingdom breaking into this world. We pray for healing because it is an act of love and compassion that was modeled for us by Jesus. Cavalier indifference toward physical healing is an unbiblical and irresponsible reaction that dishonors Jesus’s activity in the world.

What was important to Jesus should be important to us as His followers. And clearly, from reading the Gospels, physical healing was extremely important to Jesus.

Is it important to you? Who have you prayed for recently?