Bill:
We've been a part of the vineyard for a little over a year now and coming from 31 years in a conservative Baptist church I was not used to the movement of the Holy Spirit during a normal service in physical healing. I'd seen the Lord work in my life over the years and my mother has always told me to "pray specifically to God, as He knows it already" but I never as precisely as the last 6 months. I'm used to "well, we'll pray about it." or "I'll pray for you" Not specific words of healing... God doesn't do that... ummm, Yes, He does, and now I believe it, He healed me through a word to our ministry team. Twice.
Last year my knee was hurting and swollen, I feared ACL or something torn, I was scared of surgery and did nothing about it. On Sunday, while I was on the worship team, a member of the prayer ministry team calls out for healing of a right knee... "oh man, that's me"... I look at my wife in her seat and point to my guitar... "I can't go" I word with my mouth to her. So after church I found the one who gave the word and told him about my knee and he and someone else from the prayer ministry team prayed for me. My main concern was surgery and I wanted God to heal it without needing surgery.
So I had scheduled an MRI to see what was wrong, my Dr comes out and said that the results were fine and I WOULD NOT NEED ANY SURGERY.. I apparently hit my knee very hard, bruised the femur and had fluid on the knee and it would heal by itself over time...
so this wasn't immediate, but my prayer was answered by God's grace...
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
about the beginning of spring this year my right shoulder was giving me trouble, (man the late 30's are getting scary, thank God for His ministry of healing in our church!!!) It felt like it wanted to come out, and kept me up at night with pain trying to find a comfortable position for it. This went on for a while until a Sunday when I was playing with the worship team, again.
Someone from the Prayer team read of the list of things the Lord had placed on their heart and while standing behind him with my guitar on he read the exact words, "someone who's right shoulder hurts as if it might be a torn rotator cuff" and about fear of surgery. Well, of course being with the worship team, I can't just leave the stage and go get prayer, I have to stay put. "Oh well," I thought and forgot about it.
But God didn't...
I can't tell you when, but I know that within the next week or so, I realized that I slept well but still didn't put 2 and 2 together. Coming from my prior background I do know that God heals through prayer but was blind to the fact that His will is worked through those who pray diligently seeking healing for our church. so I wrote it off as psychosomatic or a coincidence.
Once I admitted to myself that my shoulder was perfectly fine I then realized that the Lord healed it! I had full movement of it and it did not bother me at all. I know He did it, and what solidified it for me was that I was roughing around with my son Shane and he punched me in the right shoulder and immediately apologized for "hitting me in my bad shoulder" to which my response was, "Shane, I don't have a bad shoulder, the Lord completely healed it, it doesn't hurt anymore!"
So coming from one who has a totally non charasmatic background and literally did not believe in words of knowledge and spoken words of healing, I am proof that God is alive in our church and using people to bring healing to us physically and spiritually.
We've been a part of the vineyard for a little over a year now and coming from 31 years in a conservative Baptist church I was not used to the movement of the Holy Spirit during a normal service in physical healing. I'd seen the Lord work in my life over the years and my mother has always told me to "pray specifically to God, as He knows it already" but I never as precisely as the last 6 months. I'm used to "well, we'll pray about it." or "I'll pray for you" Not specific words of healing... God doesn't do that... ummm, Yes, He does, and now I believe it, He healed me through a word to our ministry team. Twice.
Last year my knee was hurting and swollen, I feared ACL or something torn, I was scared of surgery and did nothing about it. On Sunday, while I was on the worship team, a member of the prayer ministry team calls out for healing of a right knee... "oh man, that's me"... I look at my wife in her seat and point to my guitar... "I can't go" I word with my mouth to her. So after church I found the one who gave the word and told him about my knee and he and someone else from the prayer ministry team prayed for me. My main concern was surgery and I wanted God to heal it without needing surgery.
So I had scheduled an MRI to see what was wrong, my Dr comes out and said that the results were fine and I WOULD NOT NEED ANY SURGERY.. I apparently hit my knee very hard, bruised the femur and had fluid on the knee and it would heal by itself over time...
so this wasn't immediate, but my prayer was answered by God's grace...
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
about the beginning of spring this year my right shoulder was giving me trouble, (man the late 30's are getting scary, thank God for His ministry of healing in our church!!!) It felt like it wanted to come out, and kept me up at night with pain trying to find a comfortable position for it. This went on for a while until a Sunday when I was playing with the worship team, again.
Someone from the Prayer team read of the list of things the Lord had placed on their heart and while standing behind him with my guitar on he read the exact words, "someone who's right shoulder hurts as if it might be a torn rotator cuff" and about fear of surgery. Well, of course being with the worship team, I can't just leave the stage and go get prayer, I have to stay put. "Oh well," I thought and forgot about it.
But God didn't...
I can't tell you when, but I know that within the next week or so, I realized that I slept well but still didn't put 2 and 2 together. Coming from my prior background I do know that God heals through prayer but was blind to the fact that His will is worked through those who pray diligently seeking healing for our church. so I wrote it off as psychosomatic or a coincidence.
Once I admitted to myself that my shoulder was perfectly fine I then realized that the Lord healed it! I had full movement of it and it did not bother me at all. I know He did it, and what solidified it for me was that I was roughing around with my son Shane and he punched me in the right shoulder and immediately apologized for "hitting me in my bad shoulder" to which my response was, "Shane, I don't have a bad shoulder, the Lord completely healed it, it doesn't hurt anymore!"
So coming from one who has a totally non charasmatic background and literally did not believe in words of knowledge and spoken words of healing, I am proof that God is alive in our church and using people to bring healing to us physically and spiritually.
This testimony was taken from an actual email sent by a person from the church in September 08.
