It is not unusual to see some Christians gathering and praying together for healing after a worship service. This always reminds me of the parable of the talents in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-29). I had been learning about healing prayer in the church I previously attended, and was told to use it in prayer since we had learned it in conjunction with the teaching of the parable of the talents. So, I have often used it in my praying.
The Word spoken to us through the Son is easy for both kids and adults to understand. However, we cannot miss that God´s love is hidden in each of His Words.
In the parable of the talents, the man who received one talent replied, “I went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid my master´s money. I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. “Is this man God like? I do not believe so, because “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Talents mean gifts, abilities, or capacities, and are often mentioned in our church. We are already saved as it is written in the Romans 10:10: “It is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ” Not only we are saved, but each of us is given talents.
We shouldn´t act the same way as the man who received one talent, but I think that we Christians have a duty to return God´s love.
So why don´t we go and join a circle of prayer for healing? When we make full use of the talents entrusted to us through evangelism and church ministry, and do the will of God, we will experience the glory of God who “performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.” (Job 9:10), which will enhance our faith further.
I once touched God´s love which surpassed my thoughts. In autumn of 2003, I had just left a church in Queens and found a denomination which had a worship service in a small chapel in Manhattan.
At that time it was very rare to have a church advertisement on the Internet, but by responding to the ad, I was able to participate in the worship service with some understanding of that church. There was one thing about this denomination that strongly attracted me.
It was that the denomination made plans for a trip to Israel once a year. A year later, I applied for this trip. One day, just a month before I left for Israel, a sister who went to a church in Queens contacted me. She asked me to go and see Sister H., who had undergone a major heart operation.
After the three days, I wasn´t sure whether I should visit her before the worship service, but then I went to see Sister H. in the ICU in Elmhurst. To my big surprise, she turned red all over her body up to her face, probably because her organs didn´t fully function within a couple of days after the operation, and she was swollen like a balloon.
I wholeheartedly prayed to the Lord, laying my hand on her, asking Him to restore her to good health. The following week, I couldn´t get her out of my head, and went to see her in the hospital before the worship service like I did the previous week.
Amazingly, she was healed with her whole body back to its original shape, and with her skin back to normal. Although she was in a vegetative state, floating in a very deep sleep, I gave thanks to the Lord, sensing that she escaped death.
The following week after that, I went to see her in this vegetative state, and prayed to the Lord that she would recover consciousness. Then I made up my mind not to go and see her anymore.
However, the Sunday after that week, just the day before my departure for Israel, I was awaked by a great dream. In that dream, I found before me someone in a white robe with long hair lying down on the floor, pillowing his head on his left arm.
Since he was turning his face opposite me, I was wondering who he was and walked around to see him. Then I met his gaze. He was not sleeping. In that moment, I woke up in surprise and excitement. His eyes were the eyes of Jesus who revealed the very truth, and who truly matched the description of the scripture in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
After that, I simply couldn’t contain my excitement. I took Sister B., and drove her there at top speed to see her friend, Sister H., in the hospital room. In arrival, even more amazingly, she was wide awake with her eyes open, and was definitely aware of us. The day before yesterday, Sister B. telephoned me after a long interval, and told me that Sister H. wrote to her that she was getting along very well.
At the time of the operation, I had been informed that Sister H. developed complications due to the diabetes she had suffered from for a long time, and a vessel to the heart had ruptured. Additionally, I learned that she had had a major operation to amputate her leg. I heard later that she was transferred to the rehabilitation center. When I visited her there again with Sister B., she was in better shape than before. Now she leads a full life in Japan.
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father´s Son, will be with us in truth and love. II John 1: 3
Daniel Asano