A Healing Place
by Michael Simon
Sept/Oct 2010
Did you know that happiness is contagious? That’s what researchers at Harvard University and MIT found recently. That’s right. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, written by Rachel Bernstein, research which applied “a mathematical model developed to track and predict the spread of infectious diseases” to emotional states over time, “it appears you can catch happiness.” They found that connecting with a happy person “increases the probability of becoming content by 11 percent.” They also found that catching contentedness will last about 10 years before returning to neutral. So you can spread happiness. If you know where the happy people are you could go to where they are and catch some happiness. Movies have made light of finding your “happy place,” a place of safety and freedom. The very reason this resonates with us is that there is a great need for that safe place where we can experience freedom and respite.
What about spreading healing? Could healing be contagious through contact with someone who knows where to go to experience the love of Jesus and healing? I would be curious to see the results of that study. In fact, why don’t we give it a try? Let’s spread the message of the future healing center: A place of refuge, safety, holiness - a healing sanctuary for all. The future healing center will be a place where the wounded and hurting can sense the love of Jesus healing their broken heart. Is this an oxymoron: contagious healing? It is clear that it was part of the Gospel message of Jesus. When Jesus gives His mission statement in Luke 4, He says, “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Experiencing a kingdom with this kind of freedom and healing is contagious. For the hurting, this is Good News, and more than hearing about it, they want to be touched by it. In reality, they want to experience the benefits of the promise.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to meet the needs of those who have lost their jobs; those struggling with the pain of unemployment - to provide a place for them to come to be healed; to offer hope so they can be spiritually and emotionally renewed for a brighter future? What about the 320,000 Christian churches in America? Might they need a resource center for training and equipping their members in healing prayer to meet the needs of their community? Training that is consistent with the historical Church, the Bible, and the supernatural? What about the over 2 billion Christians around the world, might they need the same? Might all those suffering from pornography, divorce, abuse, incurable diseases, sexual issues, grief, and loss need a place where they can find help? The answer is yes. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done and do greater works because I am going to the Father.” The future healing center will allow us to do greater works and meet the needs of this generation and generations to come.
We want to pass on to you our contagious joy. We now have three-dimensional renderings of the future healing center. They are being integrated into a printable booklet to share later this year. We are already starting to show the drawings at schools and conferences via a slide show. If you have been impacted by this ministry, we need your help. We need friends of Christian Healing Ministries who are willing to volunteer to get the message of the future healing center out to our friends around the country and help us raise the money to build it. For more information on how you can help, give us a call at 904-765-3332.
Please join us. Let’s spread happiness and healing - it’s contagious!
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Michael Simon is the Director of Development for CHM. |
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201005_04
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CHM History