A Healing Place

by Michael Simon
Mar/Apr 2010

Many people don’t realize that there is a famous healing place that God has continued to use long after the visionary founder was no longer involved. This is a unique concept in an era when ministry depends so heavily on a “star system” or one person’s name recognition and ministry. The founder was Bernadette and the place is Lourdes in France. Considering Lourdes as a model of success and the many “stars” whose ministry came to an end when they left, Francis and Judith MacNutt along with the boards and leadership of Christian Healing Ministries know the coming International Center for Healing will continue to bless people for many years to come.

The new center will allow even greater exposure across different age groups and cultures. CHM will be able to provide training and ministry through the internet using the technology that is now available. Web streaming, web classes, live meetings, and more will increase our capacity and expand the ministry, allowing us to touch people across the globe. We will have greater accommodations for those who are able to be on campus during teaching and ministry, as well as a serene landscape for them to enjoy and commune with God.

Our friends who have received training in healing prayer from Christian Healing Ministries or who have received prayer, have frequently expressed a strong desire to pass it on to their children and grandchildren. This can be done and is being done. As an encouragement to parents, grandparents, and the younger generation, I would like to share excerpts from a dialog with Josh who recently attended the School of Healing Prayer^® Level I with his wife Anna. Josh and Anna are in their late 20’s and live in South Carolina.

Q: Who introduced you to healing prayer?

Josh: My mother. She has been following the MacNutts for over 20 years and has been ministering healing prayer for about just as long.

Q: What was life like before?

Josh: As a kid my brother and I lost my Dad when I was about 3 years old. My grandmother helped raise me, and my mom later remarried my current dad. My step–dad and I never got along much until, probably, just this past year or so. I am very grateful for him these days, but there were some rough years for sure. Early in my life, I remember having anger and rage problems, depression, and I was always getting into trouble. As I grew up, it increased into some serious drug and alcohol problems. I was actually told by my professional soccer coach that it would be a good idea for me to go to rehab. I was at my end and didn’t really want to live.

Q: How did healing prayer help?

Josh: I must say I was influenced quite a bit through my mother and spiritual mothers that had either prayed for me or done healing prayer sessions with me. They always seemed to just “love on” me no matter what. They asked if they could pray for me one day and I thought, “What do I have to lose?”

If it was not for these women doing so much healing prayer and bringing inner healing, deliverance, and an infilling of Jesus’ love into my life, I don’t know how I would function or if I would be alive to this day. It was through these first hand experiences — the love from my mother and these women — that won me over. The love they showed me made me want to always be around them; I knew they had something I didn’t have — peace, joy, and hope.

Q: What would you tell a peer who isn’t sure about healing prayer?

Josh: I would encourage everyone with a Christian background or not to learn about healing prayer. I have a close group of 25 friends that are Christians. Over half of them have had drug or alcohol problems, and four of them have left the gay lifestyle. Some have had depression and suicide problems. Many have experienced the loss of a parent, divorce, or abandonment. The thing is, these are Christians, not my non–Christian friends. Many of these friends grew up or went to church as kids or even had a dramatic salvation experience. This unfortunately is my generation for the most part. It seems pretty dysfunctional even though we live a regular modern day life as musicians, artists, teachers, businessmen, athletes, and so on. Healing prayer is not to make you feel ashamed, but to bring healing life, joy, peace, strength, freedom, and the love of Jesus into areas of your life that don’t have it. Healing prayer has also helped my marriage immensely.

Q: Who encouraged you to come to the CHM School of Healing Prayer^®?

Josh: I don’t know if I was ever really told, “Josh, I think you should go to this…” I do know some people who went and were greatly blessed and thankful. However, if it were anybody that did, it would be my mother.

Q: What would you say to parents who are considering encouraging their children to come?

Josh: I would say go for it! Do it with grace and love. You don’t have to say, “This is what you need.” I found out how awesome it was and I wanted my friends to experience it too. Get them a book, if they read, or tell them what it is. A lot of young people have never heard of inner healing or they have a false perception of it. Just explain how awesome the freedom is that you can have and feel. It’s real.

Q: What did you get out of the School of Healing Prayer^® Level I?

Josh: My wife and I came home on the same page for the direction of our lives. This is a miracle in many ways. We have been married for just over two years, and have a baby on the way. We both felt our view of God and the blessing of healing prayer truly was all about love and that love was the key to bringing transformation, and in getting rid of the false–self or the life that just is not authentically you (who we are). I would say I received great insight, understanding, and good biblical teaching on how to authentically be who I truly am. I left feeling more freedom. I am better equipped to be a much greater blessing to my wife, new baby, family, and community around me. Yes, we are both coming back.

Michael Simon is the Director of Development for CHM.