A Healing Place

by Francis and Judith MacNutt
Mar/Apr 2011

If you have prayed for the sick you have probably been around when the power of healing has been so powerful that it was almost palpable. It does seem to be especially strong at certain times and in certain places. People struggle to put it into words, but they often say something like, “I felt a heavy anointing at the meeting tonight.”

More healing seems to take place when there is this “anointing.” Another word commonly used these days is “impartation” and people travel many miles to pray for an impartation. Sometimes there seems to be an extraordinary degree of anointing which brings with it a greater power to heal that seems to come directly from God.

new center drawingEven before Jesus was born the Israelites experienced this spiritual ‘density’: “Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God1.” The Hebrew word for God’s glory (kabod) has a primary meaning of ‘weight’, and so one of its effects is that people fall down under its “weight.” Those Hebrew priests were so weighed down that they had a hard time walking around to perform their duties.

This special presence of God’s glory seems to be connected with certain prayerful people. We remember that when the Apostles walked by, their very shadow was enough to heal people (Acts 5:15). At other times this anointing was transferred by touch so that items of clothing touched by the Apostles healed people. “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, who were cured and evil spirits left them” (Acts 19:11–12 NIV).

A more recent example occurred around the year 1840, when a remarkable Lutheran pastor, Johan Christophe Blumhardt engaged in a powerful spiritual battle to free a woman from demonic possession; afterwards the entire village of Möttlingen (in what is now Germany) seemed to be filled with an amazing spiritual power, so that visitors who simply walked down the street were struck by a deep spirit of repentance which led them to repent and change their lives. Sometimes the sick were healed when they were near Blumhardt. In his humility, Blumhardt did not pray for anyone to be healed, nor did he preach about praying for the sick. Nevertheless healing would just spontaneously happen when people visited this little German village (population 550). Although Blumhardt didn’t advertise the healings, the reputation of the village as a haven for the sick gradually became known by word of mouth, so that people would come from miles around and many were healed, both spiritually and physically. Blumhardt never preached about healing, nor did he pray for the sick, but he became so famous that his Lutheran superiors warned him to stop it (as if he could) and sent an official emissary to tell him that healing was solely the function of physicians — not of religion — and that he should stay out of it.2

Even though Blumhardt, in obedience, did not preach about healing, pastors from all around the Black Forest area came to visit Blumhardt’s little town, and some, just by coming, were spontaneously healed.

Certainly, the ordinary way for people to be converted is through hearing and reading the gospel, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if the sheer presence of God became so weighty that people would be overwhelmed just by God’s love and power? The very atmosphere itself would be so filled with the Shekinah glory of God that, without human effort, conversion would take place.

Which brings us to the point: how can we prepare our own cities or churches to be places that are anointed by God as special places where divine healing just happens? The first obvious condition is, of course, that it be a place where deep prayer goes on, and where Christians who believe in healing pray for the sick and oppressed.

I think as we become more prayerful, God’s special presence will become more tangible, and the sick and oppressed will be healed and liberated just by coming to a healing place such as Christian Healing Ministries. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Just by doing what we should be doing anyway, becoming more like Jesus, suffering people will be consoled and healed.

Out of God’s love and mercy He has called Christian Healing Ministries to build such a place. A healing place, where you, your family, and your future generations will come to be in His presence and receive healing.

Please pray for us as we continue to work toward this vision God has given us. We also ask you to pray how God would use you in helping us with this extraordinary work.

1 2 Chronicles 5:13–14
2 An excellent biography about Blumhardt is The Awakening by Friedrich Zuendel, Plough Publishing, 2000.


Francis and Judith Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM.
Judith MacNutt is author, teacher, conference speaker and co–founder of CHM.
Mar/Apr 2011