HOW THE LORD HEALED ME
In the fall of 1969, I asked the Lord to baptize me in the Holy Spirit, and began to experience a new awareness of the reality of the spiritual dimension of the Christian walk.
However, within a short time, I found that the joy of spending long times joining in praise and worship with fellow believers turned into a pain, because I found my back very painful. I thought at first it was the fault of the chairs. But then my knees and ankles began to swell, also. I went to the doctor, and he diagnosed the problem as an attack of acute arthritis of the hips, knees, and ankles.
I prayed about the problem. I fussed about the problem. I tried to live with the pain - but didn't do a very good job of it.
In May, Grace and I attended a meeting of the Order of St. Luke the Physician (associated with the Episcopal Church) in Canton, at a downtown Presbyterian church. The afternoon workshop program was not very inspiring, and the evening speaker, a psyciatrist, was rather dull. At the close of the meeting there was a service of anointing for healing, with elders from the church, doing the anointing. I went up for prayer, without any particular faith or feeling. I felt that since I had come for this, why not get the whole program.
I don't recall any feeling or response to the anointing or the service. We drove home, went through the Sunday services at Wickliife Presbyterian, and then on Monday, I drove with a friend to a pastor's conference in Western Michigan. It was there that the realization hit me that the pain was gone. God had healed me. It stayed gone too, even though another doctor told me that sometimes arthritis comes and goes.
I praise the Lord. He taught me about His power to heal, so that I can ask Him for help for other people with the kind of faith that comes out of personal experience, not just a theory.
1989
Pastor Hugh Gowman
"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquitites, upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole. And with His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5