Why some people stopped God healing them
Brendan Mc Crossan
Why some people stopped God healing them
You would think that when a person is receiving healing power from God that they would be ecstatic with joy, that they would be so grateful to God for feeling his beautiful touch and his healing love flowing through them. But I have found in 30 years of healing ministry that this is just not how people are. You would think a cripple would want to walk, that the blind would want to see, that they would be straight up with you and God that there would be no deceit, yet it happens and I have now written about these healing’s that God was doing and those being healed stopped it for one reason or another; or in one case healing was stopped by the parents of a crippled child. Believe it or not this happens and I write this to help those who are beginning in a healing ministry to encourage them to persevere in praying with people, people are fickle as Jesus knew, one day they shouted ‘hosanna’ and the next, ‘crucify him.’
I am a firm believer in soaking prayer, that’s when you spend time just praying with the person until their healing comes through fully. You would also find that this way of praying is time consuming but worth it as you see the person slowly being healed and restored. I personally believe that this way is the best way to pray with people because in taking time with them a few things happen. One is that you get closer to them and bond with them, two they open up to you easier and share with you intimate secrets from their very soul, they open up to you and you are given the responsibility of these secrets being between you and them and God, never to be disclosed to anyone, even your wife or husband, otherwise you will lose your ministry, as no one will trust you. A person has to know deep down if they can trust you with their innermost darkest things and never feel under condemnation, you are taking the place of Jesus and they need to know they are loved unconditionally, never judged. This is a great responsibility that God has placed on you, to never betray a confidence and to never ever judge anyone.
PraiseGod forhisgraceon my life,Ihavehad enough darksecretsofmy own,soInevercould say I was shocked when someone revealed their innermost thoughts. People watch your reaction as they share with you things about themselves and they will judge whether to trust you by your reactions. Usually God will prompt me to share some dark secrete that I kept in my life with the person I am praying with, “if” they have a similar secrete. Then the person feels relaxed with me as they now know something about me that wasn’t nice and I trusted them with me.
This doesn’t happen all the time, only when a person needs to get rid of guilt, something that is crushing their spirit, and I share God’s forgiveness and mercy with them as I share my old secrets. I have no dark secrets now as they are all confessed and healed but I will bring that part of me up to the person I am praying with if I sense they need to hear it, so they in turn can repent like me and get rid of it without condemnation.
Thirdly, a person receiving soaking prayer, when their healing fully comes receives healing inside and outside spiritually and physically, they are total healed and usually the illness won’t come back because the root cause has been dealt with.
Most times I see people whom I prayed with being healed instantly or in the space of a few minutes and most of them stay healed because I usually ask the lord, for the root cause of their illness and the Holy Spirit reveals it through word of knowledge, or discernment, the gifts of
the Spirit. But in some cases their pain came back, and it was usually caused by resentment of unforgiveness, which I discovered from those who come back again for prayer. The people in the following stories I prayed with in soaking prayer, except one.
I write all this about praying with people for the benefit of the reader who desires to minister healing to other.
True healing is time consuming and worth every minute.
The people I write about below were receiving healing from the lord and then they or someone else stopped it, but this didn’t stop me from praying on with others over the years, these were lessons I learned about human nature.
Polio victim
While on retreat in Larne Northern Ireland at Drumalis retreat centre, I was asked could I come and pray with a woman who was crippled with polio as a child.
As Sister Augusta, my retreat leader and personal friend and I were going to the room to pray with this woman I asked did she want to get healed and Sister Augusta replied; she said she did, when I told her about you. When we entered the room where the woman was waiting there was a large crowd of her friends with her.
As I looked at this woman, I had a sense immediately that she didn’t really want to be healed, that she was content being crippled. I asked her did she wish to be healed and she replied yes. The very moment I touched her power went out of me so strong that it lifted her up from the chair she was sitting on and she began crying, her friends were actually holding her down in the chair as they also felt the power of God go through this woman and physically lift her. I knew by the word of knowledge that this woman needed to forgive some and I whispered into her ear and asked her to forgive the person the lord named to me. She admitted she knew the person but said she didn’t wish to forgive, I talked with her awhile trying to get her to understand that her bitterness towards this man was keeping her bound in polio, but to no avail. So instead of stopping as normally I would do when on a one to one I decided to pray on with her, so as not to embarrass her in front of her friends. As I prayed the power of God came upon her so powerfully that it lifted her off her chair and stood her on her feet to the amazement of myself and to the amazement of everyone there. I never felt the power of God like this before, and as she stood there I told her to let go her crutch and begin walking, she refused to try and no matter how much everyone encouraged her she held tight to her refusal. I was only a young Christian at that time and was amazed that someone who was experiencing the fullness of God’s power and grace upon them could refuse point blank to make the effort to walk. The power of God was actually moving her forwards as we talked and prayed and she fought against it with all her strength. Then the lord told me to stop praying and to let her go back to the meeting room again. I stopped immediately and dismissed her encouraging her to keep trying to walk unaided.
Inside I knew she was also in resentment at me for putting her in this situation, but I had to let her go with her resentments.
I have never felt the power of God like that up until this moment as I write this ever again, a power so great that it lifted her right off the chair and started moving her forward not of her power but of his power, it was awesome.
Two years later I again met this woman at the same retreat centre, and I made my way towards her and spoke to her. I asked for forgiveness for praying with her because I knew she didn’t want it. I told her I was informed she had asked for my prayer, and she said she did but never expected it to work; and that is why I prayed with her, believing she wanted prayer. She confessed to me that she was having an affair at that time with the man I named, and didn’t want to stop, but he did that’s why she needed to forgive him she was in resentment at him, but now the affair was over, but she still didn’t want healed as she said she grew up crippled and didn’t see herself as crippled, she could manage everything ok. I hugged her and she hugged me and we parted.
All of God’s power was on this young woman and she refused to stop sinning, forgive, and end her affair so that she would be healed, but was content to be crippled. Nothing could be done for those who don’t want prayer, I have since learned from that situation and now I ask everyone no matter what, do they want to get healed, do they want prayed with.
Friend’s grandson
I was asked if my friend and I would pray with my friend’s grandson who was invalided and had water on the brain, no nerves or muscles going down into his lower body, they were all bunched up at the base of his spine. He was spinal bifida and because he had water on the brain he had a shunt in his brain to drain excess fluid away. I don’t know how to spell the doctors words and the spell check doesn’t either, lol. We had arranged to go down to my friends sons home two days later, and as we entered the front door I sensed the Holy Spirit say to me don’t pray with the child, his mother does not agree with us praying for his healing.
The child’s father greeted us and welcomed us in and told us the boy would be home in just a short while the school bus was a little bit delayed. I noticed immediately the mother wasn’t present so I let my friend do most of the talking.
A little while later we heard the school bus pull up and the boy was helped out and into his home. When he saw my friend he gave a great big smile and said; “hullo granddad, did you see Man United playing last night?” He was obviously a football fan. He wheeled himself into a comfortable position where he could see both his granddad and myself and I shook his hand and introduced myself to him. I asked him would he like to be healed and he replied excitedly he would, I asked him what would he do if God healed him and he could walk and run, and he said he would become a footballer.
I talked along with my friend and kept stalling and I eventually asked where the mother was and was I feeling right that she didn’t want us praying with her son. Her husband informed us that she didn’t agree that God wanted to heal her son and it was flying in the face of God to ask for healing for such a loving and caring little boy; he was about twelve years old. I said I wanted to wait until the mother came home and then we would talk with her before praying or not praying.
Eventually the mother arrived home again, and was taken aback to see us still there. We talked with her about her son and about healing and explained that healing was God’s will, not sickness and disease; eventually she explained that her close friend had a daughter who was
dying with cancer and this girl was offering her suffering up to God and her friend told her God was angry at her for wanting her son healed, that God wanted this little boy the way he was. That is why she objected to us praying with him, my friend showed her everywhere in the bible where Jesus healed all who come to him seeking healing, and she then agreed with her husband that she wanted the little boy healed. So we said a little prayer as it was getting late, and I asked the boy would he read some healing scriptures every day when he came home from school and he delightedly replied indeed he would. I left him some healing scriptures, showing it was God’s will to heal him.
We agreed to come a few days later and begin praying in earnest. The little boy was delighted to see us and told us he did his healing scriptures faithfully. We again soaked him in prayer and asked did he feel anything as we prayed. Remember this child had no nerves or muscles going down his legs or in his feet, and he was a stony white color all the time. He said he felt nothing as we prayed then he lent his elbow on the wheelchair arm and put his hand on his face and lent on it. When he sat up again taking his hand down from his face his mother squealed out; “Oh my God, he has color!”
I didn’t know that because of his sickness he couldn’t produce color that is why he was stony white.
This was the first sign that God was answering our sincere prayer, and this encouraged the mother to believe God would heal her son.
Over the next few weeks we would go down two days a week and soak him in prayer, he always continued to read the scriptures on healing and quoted them to us when we arrived. His father told us he went into his room every day when he returned home from school and took his scriptures with him, and prayed to God for his healing.
One day as we prayed with him he stopped us and said wait to you see this, and he pointed to his right foot, and as we watched intently he moved his foot by himself just a tiny little bit but he moved it, and it was impossible for him to move it as he had no muscle or nerves going down into his legs or toes, remember Spinal Bifida means the nerves are tangled up at the bottom of the spine, I don’t know if this is the case for everyone with spinal bifida but I was told it was with this little boy. When he moved his foot we shouted out praise to God and he beamed at us with a reddener, his face bright red, full color had also come into him over night and his color was the same as everyone else’s. Then I asked could he move the left foot but he replied no, he felt nothing there but had feeling in his right foot and leg, just a tingling, but never before had he experienced any sensation. Then we began praying for the left leg asking the lord to send the nerves and muscles down the leg into the toes. His little brother was in the room with us as we prayed and he got down on his little knees and stared without blinking at his left foot. We prayed for a while then asked did he feel anything and he replied no. Then the little brother let out a squeal and said he moved his left foot, we weren’t looking at the foot we were looking at the boy as we talked with him but the little brother was still focused on the left leg and foot, and saw it move. We all sat and stared at the left leg and foot and asked the boy could he move it, he tried with all his might but nothing happened and then he looked at us and said; “I don’t feel anything,” and as he did so, out of the corner of my eye I saw his foot move and the little brother let out an other squeal saying; “look it moved.” We all stopped talking and stared at the foot and I asked the boy to try and move it, this time as he tried the foot began moving slowly sideways on the wheelchair foot paddles. Oh how we praised and thanked God for this miracle he was
doing right here in front of us. The boy sat there moving his feet side to side smiling deeply saying thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.
My friend and I left that home delighted with what we seen God doing, and were looking forward to our next visit in a few days time.
Meanwhile the parents had to take the boy to the hospital for his usual check up, and as the doctor examined him, the doctor asked what doctor examined this boy on his last visit? He said every report is wrong the boy was diagnosed that he was dying with just a few weeks to live on the last visit. And other medical facts were wrong judging by this present MRI and scans, that in fact these medical figures were wrong as things I didn’t know about were now showing up as normal, in fact the shunt to the brain had disconnected and was just sitting there in the brain doing nothing, the boy’s brain should have swelled up and he should be dead by all rights. By his examination he said the shunt appears to have disconnected weeks ago, he said I just don’t understand it, and the boy said, “Jesus is healing me,” and of course the doctor ignored him. There were other medical things wrong with this little boy that I have forgotten about and these are the main ones I remember, but all the other medical problems were healed and were now showing up as normal, it was an amazing occurring miracle and was being verified by the doctor, Praise God!
I called for my friend to go and pray with his grandson a few days later but he made an excuse that he wasn’t able to go that day and for me to go ahead. When I parked my car outside the bungalow I had this sense that the parents were stopping the healing and didn’t want us to pray with the boy any longer.
The husband opened the door with a little bible in his hand and motioned for me to enter, and then he informed me that they were stopping the praying with their son as the bible said. “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” And he showed me the scripture he was referring to, I began to argue with him quoting scriptures to him that Jesus wanted to heal his son, but the lord stopped me and shut me up. I said you have had a medical report verifying your sons healing and you see for yourself what God was doing, why are you really stopping us from praying?
He said his wife was stopping the praying because her friend with the child with cancer said we were defying God by trying to force a healing on a child God choose to make spinal bifida, and it was in his spinal bifida that he was a blessing and they were doing wrong, so he explained to me that his wife went to a local priest who told her the same thing her friend told her and because the friend and the priest were important people she didn’t want us to pray with her son any more.
I left their home that day with such a heavy heart, I cried all the way home and phoned my friend and informed him what happened, he didn’t seem surprised, and said, “oh well praise the lord anyway.”
This child in my opinion was robbed of his healing and I heard that he gave his parents a difficult time later. Then I heard one day from my friend that his parents took him to Lourdes with the wife’s friend and her daughter with cancer, and after they put him down into the water in Lourdes and then back in his wheel chair he began standing upright as the power of God came on him and his mother and her friend held him down in the wheelchair as he screamed at them, struggling to stay standing, but they overpowered him and forced him down into the wheelchair until he stopped struggling. I can’t answer why a mother would do this but I am
not God and I don’t judge her or condemn her, she let fear dictate to her, and the influence of her friend and the priest put a fear that God would punish her by letting her son get healed. Sadly I heard a few months later the boy took sick and died, I was broken hearted because I couldn’t even go to his funeral in case I would upset the parents by my presence. He was such a great little boy with such a great faith; I never come across a child with such faith as he had, I still think of him and what a demonstration he would have been of God’s love for us and to everyone in need of a healing.
Tony B
At my local prayer meeting one night after the meeting was over I was approached by a lady who asked could I and George Mc Cann pray with her as she wanted the gift of tongues. I agreed and said I will go and get George and then in about five or ten minutes after she got her tea in another room come into the main room and we would pray with her.
I found George and we went to pray together for a while to prepare, and as we prayed the lord spoke to me and said; “to show you it is I the lord who heals;” “the moment Margaret enters the room she will immediately begin speaking in tongues.”
A few minutes later Margaret entered the room and made her way up towards us at the top of the room. As she sat down she told us excitedly, that the moment she entered the room she began speaking in tongues.
As we talked with Margaret she said could we say a prayer for her husband Tony. Tony was dying slowly as his throat was closing in and he could no longer swallow and was on liquid food, Tony twenty years ago had a stroke and was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, he could no longer swallow the complan, as his throat was closing and Margaret was afraid he would die anytime on her.
We prayed for him and asked the lord to heal Tony’s throat and help him swallow. The following week after the prayer meeting Margaret approached me and informed me that the next day after we prayed with Tony, he asked for fish and wrote on the arm of the chair with his finger he wanted fish like his mother used to make. Margaret said she was shocked but got the fish and prepared it and gave it to him, then she turned away and stood praying at the sink that he would not die, she was terrified, then she heard Tony knock at the table and she turned around and saw that he had ate all the fish up, and he wrote that he wanted more. Margaret told me she was petrified watching him eat the fish because it was like a ‘goo’ fish like his mother made, ‘goo’ as she described it. He ate the whole 1lb of fish; afterwards he asked Margaret could she get me to pray with him for healing. So she was asking me now could I come and pray with Tony and I agreed. I told her I would ask George but he couldn’t come so I decided to go alone and arranged a day to see Tony. The day arrived and I went to Tony’s house so full of confidence, I would pray with this man and God would heal him and everyone would know it was me who done it was my attitude. I met Tony and we went into a room for privacy and I began praying with him all the time expecting him to get up out of his wheelchair and walk, but after praying for a few hours I began to feel desperate inside; nothing was happening, {By the way this was just the third person I ever prayed with and I was just a new Christian of a few weeks} The longer I prayed theworseand worseI was feeling, therewas no sign whatever of any kind of healing, and there was me expecting him to be healed; after all I prayed for his throat healing last week and he
got healed, so he should be healed by now, what was wrong. Eventually I knew I had to stop and I gave up; inside saying to the lord, “Lord I can’t heal him,” Then I told Tony I had to go and would return another day if he wanted me to, hoping he would say no, it’s ok. He smiled and nodded ok and my heart sank, but I touched him on the leg and made a joke smiling saying the lord will heal him. He looked up at me with a shocked look on his face and wrote on a piece of paper, “I felt that” I answered didn’t you have any feelings before, and he wrote, “not for twenty years but I felt you touch me.”
I was elated and inside I heard the lord say to me, “now you know it is I the lord who heals not you.”
Then I remembered the lords words when Margaret asked me to pray with her for tongues, and the lord said to me that, ‘she will speak in tongues as soon as she comes through the door and you will know it is I the lord who heals.’ I never connected what the lord said to me until now; Margaret asked for tongues then asked for healing, later. The lord knew she was going to ask for healing for her husband Tony and was letting me know in advance that it was him alone who was the healer.
Over the next few weeks I came and prayed with Tony and the lord did amazing strange healings with him. For some reason he would heal Tony on different parts of his body, for instance he healed Tony’s knee and then he healed a little bit of his leg, and then a little bit of his foot, never the whole lot, sometimes there would be healing in a part of Tony’s leg and a few inches away he would have no feeling and on the other side of that he could feel for about an inch or two, then nothing. I don’t know why the lord was doing this but I was not going to enquire after being told I wasn’t the healer but God so I kept my big mouth shut for once. Sometimes I invited others to join me in praying with Tony I wanted to encourage them into praying for healing as they witnessed Tony being healed gradually, and they came but didn’t keep it up and so weeks later I was back on my own again praying with Tony.
One day I went up to Tony’s home and as I knocked at his door I was pleasantly surprised when Tony himself answered the door with a big smile on his face, this was the first time he had walked in twenty years and just before I knocked he heard me talking to someone outside his home and he wrote to Margaret, that he was going to answer the door to me, and he just stood up shakily but still stood and began shuffling to the front door about fifteen feet away, and he made it and when he opened the front door he stood there proud as punch and welcomed me in and we went into the room where we prayed, and sat down. Tony explained that he felt a burst of healing power on him and so he rose to his feet in response and that’s why he answered the door to me, he was exercising his faith. That day as we prayed the lord done even more strange healings with Tony, still healing him in bits and pieces, and began freeing his right arm which was bent up to his shoulder and twisted he was able to bring his arm down almost straight after we prayed, and his fingers began slowly to straighten out then stopped. When we finished praying that day Tony wrote on a piece of paper that he was planning to go to the prayer meeting on the Tuesday night and he was going to walk in himself to show everyone he was being healed by Jesus.
Tuesday night came and I arrived at the prayer meeting went up two flights of stairs and was about to enter the meeting room when a prayer meeting leader pulled me up and said “I should not be praying with people as I wasn’t a part of the prayer team, and that God would never use meforhealing, and God told him this. Atthatmomentsomeoneopened themeeting roomdoor and I saw that Tony was sitting there, he looked and saw me and smiled at me and waved,
indicating that he had walked into the hall where the meeting was and walked two flights of stairs unaided and was sitting there waiting to praise God.
I looked at the man who pulled me up and told me God won’t use me for healing and I told him not very nicely what he could do with himself, and I left him standing there fuming. Walking over to Tony I watched as he stood up and greeted me, he told me he got a lift in a friends car and had walked unaided by himself into and up to the prayer meeting and that Margaret was coming later on.
A few weeks later I went to Tony’s home and as I got to the front door I saw Tony sitting in his wheel chair at the door sunbathing, and people passing by would nod sympathetically at him. I knew immediately that Tony was seeking attention as he was no longer getting it from Margaret and the family in the same way, they were saying to him, “your being healed do it yourself for a change,” they were doing right, and Tony didn’t like that. I told Tony as I prayed with him I knew what he was doing sitting at the front door in his wheel chair instead of an ordinary chair that he had begun sitting in. I told him I was paralyzed when I was young and knew he was seeking attention and he laughed and wrote he was. I prayed with him and the lord poured more healing into him so that his tongue which was like a birds tongue began to open again and become normal again, and he tried speaking and began making sounds as he exercised his tongue and he eventually could say words, they were slurred, but he was beginning to speak again. I left him sitting trying to praise God with slurred speech.
A few days later as I was praying before I went up to visit Tony, this sense came over me that this was my last day with Tony and I told Rose my wife the feeling I had. When I got to Tony’s home Margaret greeted me at the door and welcomed me in and said Tony was waiting for me in the front room, that’s strange I thought as he always waited on me before going into the room. When I entered the room Tony was sitting reading the Bible and he indicated a passage of scripture to me that said about St Paul sharing in the suffering of Christ Jesus. Tony wrote that is what he wanted to do and he wanted to stop getting healed and wished to suffer for Jesus. I was saddened to hear him tell me this but I accepted his wishes; deep down I knew he really missed all the attention and fuss he received, and that this was really the underlying truth, as I said before I was paralyzed and I knew how much control you exercise on those around you doing everything you wanted them to do for poor you, and that control had ended for Tony since he could now do things for himself. I departed feeling so sad that God never got to heal Tony as Tony stopped him from continuing. One Year later all the healing Tony received left him and eventually he died.
Mary’s eyes
Mary approached me one night and asked could she come for prayer to our little worship hour a group of us had started upstairs in our local church. God was touching people during this hour of worship and people were receiving healing.
Next day Mary arrived and after everyone had left except for George Mc Cann and me, she approached George and asked for prayer, she sat down as we directed in a chair and I asked her what she wanted prayer for. She replied she wanted her eye healed as she was blind in one
eye. We began praying for healing for her eyes; and immediately the lord showed me a picture of the man at the pool, where the angel stirred the water and the first to enter got healed, and where Jesus asked him did he want to get well. Then the lord said. “Tell her to be specific!”
I stopped praying and asked her Mary is there something on your heart that you find more important than healing for your eye? Mary immediately burst into tears and said there was, but she didn’t like to say it as it was private. Then she said her daughter’s marriage was falling apart and that was more important than her eye, she was used to only seeing out of one eye. So we switched our prayer to her daughter and for healing in her marriage, as we prayed Mary received the gift of tongues and we had a settling inside of all of us that the marriage was going to be ok; and it was restored later on, inside a day or two of our praying and the lord saying, “be specific.”
Gypsy Child
Could you come and pray with me for a gypsy child who was dying of cancer in a nursing home run by nuns a friend phoned and asked me. I answered her “of course I’ll come.”
Next day she called at my home to collect me and we went off to the nursing home for sick children. I took with me some blessed oil so that we could anoint the sick child and pray with her.
Arriving at the nursing home I was introduced to the child’s parents who were sitting by her bedside, along with a couple of nursing nuns, who were looking after the children in the home. I talked with the parents for alittlewhilemaking sure that they wanted us to pray with thechild, they agreed, and I turned to the child and I asked her did she want to get well and she said no. I was surprised by her answer but thought she was too sick to care; she had a cancerous tumor in her brain.
I anointed my friends hands and explained about anointing with oil and the parents put their hands out also so I anointed them also and one nun who remained. Then began praying with the child, as we prayed the lord spoke to me and said; “this child will save her people.” I thought praise the lord he was going to heal her miraculously. We prayed for quite a while then I sensed the lord say its time to stop so I stopped and we excused ourselves and left.
On the road home it suddenly dawned on me that I anointed everyone in the room but I didn’t anoint the sick child, and I said so to my friend. I thought it so strange; the child was the only one who should have been anointed and she herself was not anointed.
Next morning I had a phone call from my friend and she told me the child had died during the night. I was devastated, I thought that this child according to God was going to save her people, those word’s he spoke to me as we prayed with her.
My friend informed me that the child would be taken from the nursing home the next morning at ten o clock to the local Catholic chapel, and that a procession of the entire gypsy’s would follow her hearse from the nursing home. We arranged to go to the service together I was to meet her at the church. On the day of the funeral a fierce storm was blowing by the time I arrived at the chapel, met my friend and together we went in.
Outside the storm was getting worse and you could hear the wind howling. The funeral service was a very sad event and my heart went out to the poor parents, not only had they lost a dear child but they had to bury her during a storm.
After the service my friend and I stood at the entrance of the church watching the cars depart to Cockhill cemetery in Buncranna Donegal. Then we parted, saddened by the failure of our prayers to keep this little child alive.
Later that day I sat and listened to a tape by some preacher talking about praying with the dying and saying don’t feel bad when someone your praying with dies, you have helped them cross over into the lords kingdom.
A little later I got a phone call from my friend telling me there had been a terrible accident, three of the mobile homes that the gypsy’s lived in were lifted by the storm and dashed against the rocks on the other side of the road from where they were parked. Thankfully there was no one in them at the time she said as all were at the funeral, then she said that is what the lord meant when he said to you; “this child will save her people.” The little girl’s family lived in those caravans her brothers and sisters and cousins shared three caravans between them, and those were the caravans that were destroyed by the storm, she did indeed save her people, only not in the way I imagined. But God knew that the storm would kill the whole family and he prevented it by bringing the little girl home, he did use her to save her people. I learned never to doubt what God said in future.
I saw the news report that night on TV and the news showed the caravans had smashed to pieces and the news reporter said if there had been anyone in them they would all have died. God is good.
Deformed woman
I was asked to come to Coleraine to a house meeting and pray with some people, and the lady who invited me invited some of her friend around to hear me speak and hopefully get them saved and healed.
When I arrived and entered her home I was introduced to some people including a deformed woman, sitting in a wheel chair. I sat down and the lady who invited me to come to her home told the people gathered why I was there, they obviously were surprised to say the least because it was obvious to me they thought they were invited for a nights visiting. When the lady told them I prayed with people for healing and she told them of the miracles she witnessed in another home in Coleraine, I saw a look of terror come into the eyes of the deformed woman, as the lady said to her get him to pray with you and you will get healed.
None of the people there really wanted prayer or salvation on anything to do with God really so I steered the conversation around to the place where they lived and talked about the seaside and how the town was doing with all the good weather we were having, It was a seaside town you will have gathered. I avoided talking about Jesus and healing until one guy began to cross examine me, not in a nice way, but antagonistic sarcastic way criticizing God. I talked politely with him and didn’t argue with him, saying he had his mind already made up and nothing I said would make any difference to him and he laughing agreed with me.
A Littlelater everyoneexcused themselves and left except for myself and thedeformed woman. As the lady was escorting her guests out, I spoke to this woman and said Don’t be afraid I wont ask God to heal you, because the lady who invited me suggested it quietly to the women as her other guests were leaving.
The woman said to me she didn’t want to get healed as she was born like this and it was her way of life and her husband was the same as her, and she didn’t want to get healed and her
husband left in a wheel chair, she was latterly terrified I would pray anyway and I reassured her I would not, then I had an idea, I asked her if there was anyone that she would like a prayer said for tonight and she replied yes a friend of hers needed prayer, so I informed her that if this lady insisted, I would pray with her but not for her healing but for her friend and she agreed with relief. When the lady came back into the room she insisted that this deformed woman get prayed with. I winked at her and she agreed and we went to a different part of a long living room and I prayed for her friend, not for her but the lady didn’t know this and sat there praying aloud.
The deformed woman thanked me and asked about Jesus and I told her about salvation and forgiveness and left it at that, I didn’t ask to accept Jesus into her life I left her with no pressure on her at all. Then I left shortly after that never to return to that lady’s home. Never ask people into your home, church or meeting with hidden agendas, it is deception no matter how good your intentions are, and is not of God and won’t be blessed, and can cause terrible repercussions. Tell people outright what is happening and leave it to them to decide to come or not.
Margaret’s prayer
Margaret a friend and I were praying with a woman for a healing and as we prayed the lord healed the woman of all pain. Then Margaret said she had a pain in her back. I asked her would she like a prayer and she said no! And laughed, saying, ‘I’m on DLA benefit. I couldn’t claim my benefits if I were healed so no, I better not get healed.’
I left it at that, thinking I would rather be healed than be on benefits, but it is amazing how many Rose my wife and I prayed with that didn’t want healing because they were on benefits, they come for healing and as they were receiving healing the realized they would be doing wrong claiming benefits while healed, and so stopped us praying. Unbelievable but that is human nature.
The blind man
John came to me because someone told him of my praying with people for healing. John was blind he said since birth and had never seen before. Rose said to me; “there’s something not right about this guy,” but I couldn’t see anything he seemed to be ok and do I agreed to pray with him, and I also asked a friend Gino to come and pray with me for John and could he bring his video camera.
The first day we arranged to pray with John we met in the local chapel where I had access to a room above the church. Gino set up his video camera, I wanted to catch on camera John’s miracle so others could see it and believe that God is healing God, and a part of me want people to see that when I prayed with people God healed them, so I had a big dose of pride going on.
Anyway as we sat down to pray I noticed in Johns eyes that they were clouded there was cataracts in each eye, a grey cloudy film over his eyes.
The very moment we began praying with John, the cataracts disappeared even before Gino could film them. I was excited because I believed that the lord was going to heal my first blind man. I am going to cut a very long story as short as possible. When we prayed with John one day he told us he could see colors and light, and he pointed out places where he could see light in the room and he pointed to the different windows where
daylight was shining in, then he said I was wearing a red shirt, and Gino a green one, we were so excited then a thought came into my head; how can he tell colors if he has never seen before. Gino challenged him on this and he replied he was able to see a little bit when he was very young, then Gino asked him why he claimed he could never see and he made an excuse, and I believed him, not Gino he remained suspicious of him. We prayed with John for about a month, then I noticed he began talking to me differently his tone was different when he spoke with me than when he spoke with Gino, I began to get wary and didn’t know what it was but something was defiantly wrong. John continued to receive healing in his eyes he could see almost clearly at one time telling us he could now see our faces but blurred. When I held his hand as we prayed with him and Gino held the other hand I began to get a weird feeling each time I held his hand, something in the way he squeezed my hand made me uneasy. I began thinking is John begging to look at me like a father figure, and I had no wish for that to happen. Then one day he told us all his healing had disappeared again and everything was dark again. ThisshookusandthistimeIwentbeforethelordandsincerelyaskedGodwhatwashappening and the lord told me that John was lying to us from the start and was continuing to lie to us. I was shocked, Gino had a bad feeling about John Rose had a bad feeling about John and I was blinded by pride and couldn’t see because I was operating in my belief that God loved him and would heal him because the bible said so, but never once did I ask God if he wanted us praying with John, I needed to repent fast and seek the face of God properly before praying with John. On the next session we had arranged with John Gino stayed away and I met with John on my own. I confronted John in the nicest possible way and he lied to me I asked him was he homosexual and he replied, “no way!”
I knew now that he was lying about many things that I left out to protect his identity, and confronted him with each lie and he then confessed that he did lie from the beginning, and continued to lie right up until this moment. I told him I could no longer continue praying with his as it was a waste of time, until he made himself right with God and decided there would be no more lies then no more praying. He said he would go and sort things out with God and then ring me later on sometime.
I never heard from John until about a year later when he phoned asking for prayer and I knew instantly he was in deception again because Instantly I heard his voice on the phone I sought God’s advice and the lord advised me don’t. I told John I was sorry but couldn’t pray with him as I had too much happening and that was the truth anyway. He hung up and Later on I discovered that John had been living with a man for about one year.
It’s shocking I know to discover that people are prepared to lie to you about their healing and worse still lie to God about it also.
I listened to my wife a lot closer ever since, if she says she has a bad feeling about someone I always check with God first before I decide to do anything and I advise you the reader to do the same don’t be like me and not listen and think your doing the healing, there is only one healer, Jesus Christ.
Jim
Jim was ill for many years and was in a wheelchair for 19 of those years with M S, I was asked to come and pray with Jim by his wife, and when I first visited him I found him to be a very nice man. I began praying with Jim and over a period of time the lord began healing him, eventually he stood up one day and began to walk, backwards I might add but walk he did. When Jim was first diagnosed with MS the first sign he had the disease he told me was he
stopped sweating, after the first prayer session with Jim during the night Jim woke up covered in a sweat. This was the first encouraging sign that God was healing him. Over a period of weeks of soaking prayer Jim began walking as I said, though be it backwards, but he was walking again after nineteen years of being unable to even stand except for a few moments as his daughter a nurse transferred him from the wheelchair to the toilet. One day as I prepared to go and pray with Jim I sensed the lord tell me I won’t be back again after today. I told Rose and asked her to pray for what ever was wrong. When I got to Jims home I was invited in and sat down and we began to chat, Jim, his wife, and myself. Then Jim asked could we go into the next room where we normally prayed and so we went in and I sat down. Jim then proceeded to tell me that he wasn’t going to go on with the healing because he was worried that if he got total healing what was he going to do about his friends, he explained that his friends were fellow MS sufferers and they met twice a week for games and fellowship. Then he said what would I do financially, I would have to go back to work as a plasterer again and I don’t want to I’M better off on benefits, and not only that but I might go back to beating my children with a heavy belt and he told me he used the buckle on some of them as kids. I sat there disbelieving what I was hearing and I was shocked by his excuse about using a belt on his kids again as they were all married and living away from home except for the nurse who was about twenty five at the time.
I had to respect his decisions and leave it at that. Jim had received tremendous healing from God and knew it but choose to end his healing anyway, that was his choice, I was devastated again, someone giving up after receiving healing, and I was just a young man just a few years into the healing ministry, and people giving up their healing was beyond what I could understand at that time.
But people are people and have their right before God to do as they choose. It almost put me off praying with people soaking prayer, because of the time and effort I put in hours and hours of praying, but it didn’t because I still would pray with People for hours and hours to get them healed, so be encouraged for every one you don’t get healed God heals a dozen others. Healing is God’s thing and not yours I’m sure he must have felt disappointed that these people all ended up stopping him from healing them but he is God and his back is broad enough to cope with all this, in my case I had to let go and keep on praying with people. I have seen God heal 1000’s over the last thirty years as Rose and I prayed with them, and it was worth the time spent with each one. God deserves all glory, we of ourselves have nothing to give except our willingness to give and that is all he asks from us to love one another into health in Jesus name.
Footnote;
Why would anyone write about apparent failures in healing? I didn’t I wrote that God desired to heal his people and the people choose to end their healing, or not be healed. I write that it is the will of God to heal it is in his very nature love desires the best for others as scripture tells us, and God is love. I write as previously stated at the beginning of this book it is to encourage you the reader never to give up, for the tiny minority that change their mind about receiving healing the majority of people wish to be healed.
I don’t want you the reader to ever get discouraged if someone you pray with does not get healed there is probably a good reason. That’s why Jesus didn’t heal everyone who was pressing in for a healing he knew who wanted healing and who thought they did, he knew the difference.
I encourage you don’t give up even to see one person healed and free is worth it all. Amen.