Cold sores would really drag me down and I used to get a lot of them. One particular morning I awoke and there on the side of my mouth was a cold sore. I stood gazing in the mirror at it and while doing so I became very angry. So, I ‘cursed’ the detestable thing, it had no right to disfigure me, to drag me down, and I told it so! Normally they would last for days, even a week, but this one failed to mature and had disappeared by the end of the day. What is more it didn’t come back then or later. So very occasionally when one has the audacity to appear it gets the same treatment.
For some time, I had been suffering abdominal pains and also experiencing reflux. Did I have ‘ministry’ for this – no. In the event a gastroscopic examination of the oesophagus, stomach and duodenum was performed, using an endoscope, the results of which indicated a hiatus hernia (quite common in the over fifties and of no particular concern), and a stomach ulcer. Various biopsies where taken and I was told to return for a second gastroscopic examination in one months’ time when the result of the biopsies would be available, and a course of treatment prescribed. The endoscopist who performed the first examination did the second one also. Talking to me afterward he said that there was no sign of an ulcer, and he was, at a loss to explain why since I had not received any medication. Was this the Lord’s intervention? I really don’t know but I gave Him the credit anyway.
In writing the above I am conscious that I am venturing into the whole realm of ‘Healing’. The problem is that our bodies are subject to ‘aging’, even decay from a very early age of around 30years, and mine is no exception especially being now in my ninth decade. Should I expect perfect health? Should I get ‘ministry’ for every ailment? Does God indeed heal today and if so, why? These topics and more I will be exploring under ‘Musing’, but for now I will relate further some of my personal experiences in this area.
My wife and I were invited to a Leaders Conference held at Westminster Hall, London under the teaching of John Wimber. I had already been exposed to teaching by David Watson relating to the workings of the Holy Spirit and this conference was pivotal in my understanding and practice of the Healing Ministry and Power Evangelism. For some two weeks before the conference I was withdrawn, not wishing to talk to anyone and quite reflective. John, in typical fashion, would do some teaching then break off to demonstrate after first ‘Waiting on the Lord’ and inviting the Holy Spirit to come. Almost immediately a lady in front of me sank to her chair and a few people ‘ministered’ to her. I remonstrated with the Lord because nothing was happening to me, then, wham! That was the first of a number of times that week! For my wife it was very different. She had a lump in her breast for which she was waiting for its removal medically. A good friend of ours knew this and persuaded her to go for ‘ministry’ during which time she felt her breast leap and that was it, her lump had totally disappeared, no medical intervention, and it did not reappear.
On another occasion I had been away for a weekend of training culminating in us trainees being part of a ministry team at the Saturday night celebration. Normally ‘ministry’ would be undertaken in pairs but this night there were so many asking for ministry that I was sent to minister to a lady on my own. Imagine how I felt when I realised that she was surrounded by friends, had been suffering for quite a long time and was wheelchair bound. My training informed me that first of all you ask the person what they want and then you ask the Lord what He wants to do. They are not always the same!!
In the event the Lord simply told me to take her hand and pray for each of her finger joints. Well, how does a prayer like that go, no one had told me! I think I managed to get about half a dozen words out when her husband exclaimed, rather excitedly, that she had not been able to do that for years, that is move her fingers! At this point I was thankfully called away to ‘minister’ elsewhere. I say ‘thankfully’ because I simply do not want any praise or adulation, the glory must go to the Lord. A long time afterwards a lady came to me in the street asking if I was the person who had ministered to …. I answered with a cautious affirmative but got away as quickly as I could. There is always the temptation to take, if only a little bit, the credit for what the Lord has done or is doing, so I hope in reading this you will say with me – Praise the Lord for He, and He alone, has, and still does, great things.
We were on furlough and after the Sunday evening service we invited a number of people to our home. A couple turned up who we had no idea who they were. The husband told a story about how he had received a call early one evening from a third party to go and visit a woman who was confined to bed with a back problem. Although they had only just got back into the country after a long flight from abroad, he was sufficiently obedient enough to go immediately on this mercy mission. Arriving at the house he was confronted, at the front door, by the woman’s husband who was not a believer although his wife was. He said to the husband that he had been sent to pray for his wife! The upshot was that the wife’s back was totally cured, much to the husband’s surprise, and he gave his life to the Lord that night. I have a feeling that this is probably where the healing ministry really lies, rather than a cure-all for all our sometimes-petty ailments.
Being the rather sceptical individual that I am I had the opportunity to check this story out with the lady and husband concerned and they confirmed it for me. I had an opportunity to come across this gentleman sometime later. He had quite a prophetic gifting and I met up with him again in some rather interesting circumstances.
We used to have quite a few single people from our church visit us at home. On one occasion while sitting in the lounge, my wife suggested that we pray for one of the two ladies present. There were just four of us in total. I started to pray one of those general type prayers when I felt the Lord speak about praying in tongues. My response to this was that since we were in a group there must be an ‘interpretation’, and as far as I was aware neither my wife nor the other lady present had this particular gift for it was not encouraged in our church. The response from the Lord was something like “not your problem”, then quite involuntary I began praying in ‘tongues’. I had just uttered the first clause when the other lady present suddenly broke in and ‘interpreted’ it, and this went on clause by clause. It was quite an extraordinary experience. I pondered this for a whole week finally saying to my wife that I needed to speak to the ‘interpreter’ so visited her at home the following Saturday. Seems she did not have this gift but while I was praying in English, she had a similar conversation with the Lord as I had, and she too spontaneously ‘interpreted’. For her this was a life changing experience but even more so for the lady we were praying with. She decided to go to a Pentecostal church for the morning service the following day. It was a church she would not normally enter under any circumstances. At the end of the service a rather large gentleman whom she did not know came up to her and asked if he could pray for her and rather timidly, she consented. He then proceeded to pray into things that she told me later no one knew about, not even her mum. This was the gentleman that I mentioned previously.
Hers was not a physical healing but something deep inside her spirit. For me it is wonderful and quite humbling to see how the Lord ministers to the whole person.