Berserk2
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In the last few days, I have applied "healing hands" with mixed results. Dwayne is in the last stages of pulminary fibrosis and needs high oxygen doses to breathe. When I visit him to pray and lay on hands, he rallies, breathes easily, and is easily engaged in conversations about his hunting and fishing triumphs. Family members call me their "prayer angel" and I dearly wish I could live up that affectionate label. But I'm only slightly heartened by temporary reprieves. Complete healings happen too, but in my experience, they are quite rare. The reasons why are a frustrating mystery. I'm fully aware that sometimes my faith is stronger and more effective than other times. Why this is so I can't say--beyond the fact that I have much to learn about healing states and someitmes (for unknown reasons) I'm just not in the right mood. When Dwayne was unconscious, he said he felt intense heat and great comfort from my "healing hands." The flow of heat energy from my hands buoys up my confidence, but leaves me discouraged when I learn that improvement is only temporary. Also, when hope soars in your presence, the crash of dashed hopes is painful, even if there is temporary improvement. Ultimately, these prayer vigils are about love and the refusal of love to give up easily. Sigh, I'll see how Dwayne is doing in ICU tomorrow. His family is gathering from around the country.
Eric Pearl has been on Coast-to-Coast a few times. I just read some of the single-star reviews of his book and agree that witnesses have detected the telltale signs of a fraud--shills and pretalk promoters. In my experience, people who are truly miraculously healed often want to be checked out to maximize their inspiring impact. I recently watched a video of a South African Christian preacher, Angus Buchan, who was addressing a huge Muslim crowd (of several thousand) that largely ignored him--until he laid hands on and healed a nearby Muslim confined to a wheelchair, who was known to many in the crowd. His wheelchair was a familiar presence in the town square. When he jumped up, ran around, and demonstrated his healing, the crowd went, well, berserk and hundred of Muslims were converted. The real thing, though rare, has an amazing impact when witnesses know the before and after of the person in need of a healing touch.
Sometimes, I have the faith to bring an Alzheimer's patient into prolonged lucidity and heart-warming rationality. But then, I hesitate, wondering what to say next, and suddenly the mind is gone. What did I do wrong (or right), I wonder? I'm confident that there is an art to the use of faith for making dementia lucid. I'm ecstatic when I succeed, but depressed when I fail or when I seem to be on a role and then lose focus and with that the mind that has come out of hiding. I'm confident that presently hidden laws of healing will be identified, perhaps not in my lifetime, that make faith healing far more consistently effective.
Don
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