We are beginning a healing prayer gathering. We are now in the final stages of planning the renovation of the second-floor space in our main building, which will become our Urban Prayer Retreat Center. Before creating a physical space for rest and healing, we want to become people of prayer ourselves and grow into a church that is truly a community of healing. With that hope, we will begin gathering this coming Friday at 10 a.m.
This will not be a gathering where someone with special healing powers, including myself, heals the sick. Rather, my hope is that our entire church community will grow in its capacity to embrace those who are hurting and wounded.
I want us to become a community where those who come carrying pain can say, “These people truly share my pain. They genuinely care about me and pray for me.” I hope they will experience that kind of love and compassion among us.
There are wounds and sufferings that human effort alone cannot heal. That is why we long for God’s supernatural work. But we will never present God’s sovereign work as though it were the power or achievement of any human being. We will simply come together in prayer, trusting in Jesus Christ, who loves us and reaches out to touch us.
I believe that the healing rain of God’s grace will fall upon us, little by little, reaching deep into our hearts and bringing us back to life.
More than thirty some years ago, I had a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit. After that, whenever I encountered someone who was sick, I would lay hands on them and pray. I witnessed a man who had lost his way in life come to faith in Jesus Christ. I saw a woman who had lost touch with reality regain her clarity of mind. I also witnessed physical healings.
Then one day, I decided to stop. The main reason was that I felt I was trying to act as though I possessed something spiritually that I wasn’t even sure I had. At the time, I also believed that healing ministry was simply not my calling.
But New York is a place where the need for healing ministry is tremendous. Last Sunday afternoon, I met a member of our English-speaking congregation who is suffering from cancer that has spread to several parts of the body. Despite the pain, he greeted me with a radiant smile and said, “Pastor, I still cannot forget the warmth I felt when you prayed for me. And every day, it is the strength of our church members’ prayers that helps me keep going.” There was such deep sincerity in those words about finding strength through prayer amid suffering.
When I shared my idea of beginning a healing prayer gathering with our ministry team, everyone welcomed it enthusiastically. And so we are beginning this ministry, believing that nothing would please God more than to see His beloved children healed of their pain and suffering.
God has not given me the spiritual power to make people fall backward when I pray for them. But He has given me, at least in some small measure, the gift of helping those who have fallen to get back on their feet.
And now, I am praying for the gift of healing as well.