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I didn't know much about the Christian healing tradition before I found it alive and well, tucked away in Room 7 at St. Paul's UMC. Intrigued (and without medical insurance), I wanted more, so I talked to the facilitator, Hal Weeks. Moving away from friends and family had been difficult, and settling in California presented a level of stress that had taken its toll on my health. Flu, anxiety, migraines, mysterious aches and pains, and despair, presented many wonderful opportunities for healing. Hal suggested I attend his prayer and healing class--what did I have to lose? Besides any misconceptions, I thought.
So I went a few times, first to observe, then to take a leap of faith and see what it really was all about: I asked for healing. It is important to ask, I learned, for healing as much as with any of God's gifts. It is important to be sincere and come before Him with the faith of a child.
That is when things really started to happen!
I had been sick with a sinus infection, miserable and achy, and I just couldn't kick it. I approached Hal and asked for healing prayer. He put his hand on my head and prayed. In moments, the clogged sinuses drained--as did a sense of depression I recently had been battling. Gone, just like that! I marveled on my walk home how beautiful the world looked, as if I had forgotten. And I noticed in the days and weeks that followed this small miracle that I was getting stronger--my body, my immune defenses, my mind and my spirit. I knew this was for real.
I soon had a chance to see how powerful God's healing Spirit is. Firsthand, I experienced the phenomenon I had seen (with much skepticism, I admit) performed on television so often that it was almost cliche: falling under the power of the Holy Spirit, bam! flat on the floor. If it was a gimmick, it was surely rooted in something real, wasn't it? I was about to find out. It's not just falling--what I felt was much more powerful than that. Hal had been praying for healing for me, for some relatively minor physical complaint. I don't even remember what it was--but Jesus sure saw something in me that needed attention. As we stood there, Hal's hand on my forehead, his prayers dissolving into something unintelligible. I sensed Something barrelling toward me like a train, I could almost see it coming. Then that "Something" hit me right in the gut and literally threw me down. (my thanks to the person whose hands caught my head just before the moment of impact!) There I was, on my back, not able to move or speak. I didn't feel heaviness; on the contrary, my body felt very empty, very light, like a shell, but I was stuck to the floor and couldn't get up. But I didn't want to. I had become aware of a golden glow in front of me, formless, but if you asked me to describe it, I would say it was like a beautiful smile. I reciprocated. Then I started laughing. I couldn't stop, nor could I stop the tears that, to my surprise, were streaming down my face. What a joy! What a wonderful sense of peace had suffused my entire being! Hal helped me to my feet and, as he steadied me, patiently explained to the class that this was a normal reaction, "Holy laughter" I think he called it. It certainly was!
Later I began to realize what had happened that evening. It came in small recogitions--that I felt no fear, that I was more capable of compassion. That my heart felt bigger and my eyes could see more, and that I felt a vital, personal connection with God, as well as gratitude most profound. As my understanding of the transformation grew, fearlessness and compassion grew in me into something I wanted to share, something I felt compelled to share. It was as if, instead of struggling on footholds up a craggy rock face, I was suddenly boosted up to the mountain top with two feet firmly planted on the solid rock. From that place, the next thing to do--obviously--was to help others up, to share the power of God's love in banishing the fear that so often cripples us, to let people know, in gestures and actions as well as in words, that everything is all right there for you, the love, the promises, the healing, the joy. You don't have to struggle, you don't have to hurt. All you have to do is ask. He will answer with a smile.
Marryann Rada August 8, 1999
Copyright: Copyright (c) 1996-2005 Michael Fackerell · · Generator: TopicTree 0.8 · Generated: 09 Feb 2012, 08:14 pm AEST · Last modified: 2005-05-22 10:08:02 · 13 ms · Not to be served, but to serve...
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