At the time of this event, I had been starting my days with devotions that included a systematic reading of the Bible. On the recommendation of others, I had been reading through the Bible by reading one chapter of Proverbs, several Psalms and then a few chapters of a given book. Additionally, I would try to include a reading from a daily devotional book. The system seemed good, for it was certainly helping me to be more disciplined in my study habits.
But despite my persistence in sticking to the system, I wasn’t seeing the changes in me that I had wanted and hoped to see. Neither did I see much change in my prayer life, which seemed to me to be rather empty. The prayers that I typically prayed each day (usually right on schedule) were short and impersonal. I just didn’t know much to pray about. I also had little understanding at that time of the two-way nature of prayer, so I was spending very little time listening. Therefore I wasn’t giving God much of a chance to actually have some kind of meaningful conversation with me.
Then in April 2006 that all changed when my husband and I attended our first CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) Partner Weekend in Virginia Beach. A number of good things, even miraculous ones, happened that weekend. One of those concerned another one of the women who was in attendance that weekend.
After dinner one night, the hosts had stood and prayed for attendees who needed some form of healing, giving words of knowledge as they received them. After the prayer, one of the hosts took a microphone to anyone who wanted to testify to having received healing that night.
A few people did stand and give testimony. One of them was this woman of interest, for her testimony changed me. Though I don’t remember from what the woman was healed, I do the words that I heard her testify to having said just before healing occurred. The woman had said, “Oh, God! Don’t let me go home again in the same condition in which I came!” Apparently the woman had been dealing with a health problem for some time. Yet her plea indicated to me that she still believed in a good and great God who could make things right in her body right then and there, and He did. It all struck me as being so personable.
The next day, time was allotted near the end of a session for people with health issues to be prayed for individually. A pastor on staff, at the request of one of the hosts, came over and laid his hand on my shoulder. After asking a couple of questions, he began to pray. My husband and a few other people joined him, placing hands on me also.
During the prayer, I stood in the middle of the small group with my eyes closed and my head bowed. Suddenly a light flashed so brightly behind my closed eyelids that my body reeled backward and my eyes flew open. I quickly scanned the room to realize that I seemed to be alone in having seen the light. I closed my eyes again and remained standing until the prayer ended. Though my heart knew that something big involving God had just happened, my mind had no way at that moment of processing the event.
Then that evening something else out of the norm occurred as my husband and I were walking down to dinner. Suddenly my husband stopped and looked at me with surprise. “You aren’t shuffling!” he said. He was right; I wasn’t. I was walking normally, and my toes weren’t curling up either, as they had been doing for some time from the PD.
Though that weekend I did “go home with the same condition with which I had gone,” I did so, knowing that the other woman must have done so also at least once before. But this time she went home with the healing she needed, as did I. I had seen the light, and God knew that in that was the healing that I needed the most to receive from Him then.
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ADDENDUM: After attending the CBN conference, my husband and I attended three more faith conferences that were put together by other ministries over the next year. Below are tables that have been compiled to summarize some of my experiences that occurred at those conferences and at home.]
|
Time/Place |
Event |
| April 2006
CBN Retreat, Virginia Beach, VA |
I “saw” a blinding light while being prayed for. My left toes uncurled and my left foot no longer shuffled. My ability to sleep all night returned for a while, as did my sense of smell
|
| November 2006
Randy Clark Conference Hershey, PA
|
I was sitting alone in a left aisle seat in the back of an auditorium waiting for the next session to begin. A dark skinned woman dressed in a beautiful brightly colored floor-length caftan and turban walked up the almost empty aisle and sat down next to me. Speaking with a strong foreign accent, she asked if she could pray for me, saying that God had healed her completely from AIDS. Then, as she laid her hand on mine, she said that it was okay for me to touch people when I prayed for them. Right then I knew that God had sent her, as she had said. I had been allowing the embarrassment of my shaking and my fear of diseases to keep me from laying hands on people in prayer. All that I could do in that moment was cry. The woman stood up, stepped past me, and headed back down the aisle toward the front of the room, I looked away for only a split second and then looked back in her direction. But in that moment, the woman was gone. I couldn’t find her. The auditorium doors were behind me, and the room was not yet crowded. I should have been able to at least spot her outfit, but I never did see her again. Whether or not she was an actual angel, I don’t know. But I am sure that the message she delivered came directly from God. |
| November
2006 Hershey, PA (cont’d) |
At the beginning of one of the sessions, a young woman got up from her seat part way across the room from where I was sitting and came over and sat down on the floor beside me. After we exchanged some quick hellos, she said that she was there to pray for me. She jumped right in by closing her eyes and silently praying. Then after only a few moments, she opened her eyes and pointed her index finger at the center of my forehead while asking me if I felt any electrical tingling there. Astounded, I said yes. I had actually felt that tingling off and on for the last several weeks but hadn’t thought much about it. The young woman, however, seemed so concerned that she immediately began praying for “it” to come out and go. At the same time, she did a hand-over-hand motion of pulling “it” out. Apparently, whatever “it” was, “it” did just that; for afterward the tingling stopped.
|
|
December 24, 2006 Christmas Eve service Big Canoe Chapel Georgia |
Near the end of this service, communion was going to be served. In preparation, the minister prayed, asking God to provide the congregation with a number of things, the last of which was strength. I had previously received so much prayer for strength that I immediately thought, “Not strength again. I’ve already had enough prayed for strength. I need healed!” But after I went forward and received communion, I returned to my seat feeling differently. I had heard what sounded to me like a booming voice say, “You have been made strong in Christ Jesus.” I can tell you now in 2020 that every day I have a need for even more strength from Jesus. |
|
January 2007 Lakewood Church Houston, Texas |
During a short trip to Houston, my husband and I attended Sunday morning worship at Lakewood Church, where Joel Osteen ministers. Between the initial worship music and the message was time for anyone needing prayer to go to the front and receive individual prayer. That day, I did go forward, and a man did pray for me after I told him about having Parkinson’s disease. As he prayed, he suddenly asked for my release from rigidity. At that moment, every muscle in my body relaxed. To this day, I have not again had the degree of rigidity that I’d had prior.
|
|
January 2007 Randy Clark School Lexington, SC |
Three major events happened to me during this conference that would require too much space to write about them here. But, fortunately, all three have already been put in writing: one in this book and two in another. 1) A physical healing that I received is described in “The Lesson of the Radiance” in The Lessons of the Cross. 2) An experience that I had concerning the sealing of my spirit is told in “The Lesson of the Sealing” in The Lessons of the Cross. [Note: The Lessons of the Cross is available online at https://thisiswhathappened.net/ and in print.] 3) The event of God revealing Himself in me is described in this book’s introduction, “The Experience.”]
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