A DAY OF FAITH

Yesterday at 10 a.m. EST, we entered The Healing Rooms and were warmly greeted by several smiling, kindly women. The interior of The Healing Rooms is a pleasingly-decorated, house-sized structure with flowing rooms, some with French doors. Soft music wafts throughout, and on the walls are beautiful religious artifacts such as crosses, pictures of Jesus, even a Jewish prayer shawl draped on one wall.

Several more arrived, "intercessors," they're called, people who love to, and feel called to, pray for others. Some, I knew; others I didn't, but it felt like I did. The spirit of Christ (love of God?, however you want to word it), flowed from their eyes and faces.

We watched a short DVD of a minister connected with The Healing Rooms who delivered a powerful, succinct, faith-building, short talk/sermon, that in that peaceful, quiet setting made some of us say, "Amen" and "Yes, Lord, I believe" and "Yes, Lord, I RECEIVE!" He pointed out in the Book of Isaiah in the Bible that it says, "By His stripes we WERE healed" NOT "are," and he explained that that meant that Jesus HAD ALREADY DONE THE WORK OF HEALING on the cross. All we have to do is RECEIVE it. Man, my faith was soaring.

Then the woman in charge told the group to go into the Intercessors' Room, a pleasant, dimly-lit, large space with high-backed rocking chairs lining the walls; think "comfortable." She told them to intercede, and she motioned for Milton and me to follow her.

She took us into another room where three more women were, one who'd greeted us on arrival. We sat down, and for about 45 minutes, they "shared" (don't ya just love that favored word of Christian comedienne Chonda Pierce (WEB SITE) J). Each had prayed for me the day before and received "words" from the Lord about me, things they never could've known.

One said as she was praying for me, she saw a large heart, and even though she wasn't Catholic, she immediately thought of that big red heart on Catholic artifacts. She found it on the Internet, she said, and that large heart represented God's love for me, AND, it represented ME, for I had a big heart of love, she said.

Tears flowed.

"Tell them what happened to you, Kristy, when you were a young teenager," Milton said. "Our youth leaders used to take carloads of teenagers to revivals and youth meetings," I said, "and one night, they took us to a tent revival. The preacher preached awhile, and then he stopped and pointed at me, and said, 'Young lady, come to the altar.' My heart just about jumped out of my chest, but I did as he instructed and stood there trembling. He looked into my eyes and said, 'All evening, as I preached, I looked at you, but I couldn't see you. All I saw was a giant heart. God spoke to me and said that you have a heart of compassion and love. When you see a drunk or a derelict, your heart aches. When you see a down-and-outer, you weep inside. Young lady, God is going to use this heart of compassion for His Kingdom and His glory. He has special plans for you.'"

I'll never forget that night as long as I live, and throughout my life, I've watched that prophecy come to pass as we've ministered to, oh, I don't know how to estimate how man.

This was a wonderful word of confirmation.

The next lady asked if I'd ever had any fear of getting cancer. Bingo, again! I told her my oldest brother came down with liver cancer in 1992—a huge shock to our family since cancer doesn't run in our family—and within four months he was dead. I was standing by his death bed when he went to Heaven, and I wondered then, Will any of the rest of us get cancer? Oh, Lord, don't let it be me! I couldn't take it, if that happened?

The next lady asked if I had any fear and if I had any guilt. "Did you ever do anything in your past that you were ashamed of. I smiled. "Can't think of anything. I became a Christian at age three, and all I've ever known is loving Jesus and wanting to work for Him." "No guilt?" she asked again. "Well, come to think of it, I think I have a guilt complex. If I accidentally brush someone in a store, I say, "I'm so sorry," and proceed to profusely apologize. If someone does something nice for me, I almost feel guilty accepting it. For example, a couple came by today who have brought so much food to our house in the five or so weeks. Lush meals. I said, "I'm hoping to be better real soon so you won't have to keep doing this." As I was saying this, I remembered what the woman in The Healing Rooms said to me, and I repented of it.

Back to The Healing Rooms. The woman said, "Will you repent of fear and guilt?" "Yes," I said, "I will. I am amenable." She led me in a short prayer, confessing these things, and said that they would LEAVE me. "Amen," I said.

Several made brief comments about healing and about receiving healing, and it was all so good, and my faith just kept soaring.

Then, THEN, a short little lady stood up, grabbed her Bible, stood in the center of the room, and said, "I see a BOOK." She talked for a few minutes, and these are the phrases that stood out to me: "BOOK!" "PAGES AND PAGES!" "A NEW (OR ANOTHER) CHAPTER!" Milton and I stared at each other. She didn't know I was an author, and she certainly didn't know that one of the biggest prayers of my heart has been, "Lord, somehow, let me finish my 'big book' (long-length, heart-touching, faith-building novel) I've been working on for two years, the one which I feel You 'gave' to me." Milton and I wept and wept.

Then someone read portions of Isaiah 53, and then they circled my chair, gently lay their hands on my shoulders, and as I heart the intercessors from the Intercessors' Room praying aloud in fervency, these women began to pray individually. They each had a powerful prayer, and Milton and I soaked them up. Then they circled Milton's chair and prayed for him, asking God to give him strength and peace and lots of other things.

After that, we hugged all around, and then we went into the main part, and Milton peaked into the Intercessors' Room, and said, "I want you to go in there for a few minutes before we go." We went in there, and the music flowed, and we prayed all together, creating some noise, but it was SO good and SO faith-building, and then I started dancing, and we laughed and we cried, and then they asked Milton to down, and they all circled him, and prayed prayers that shook Heaven's rafters. He wept and wept and wept.

That was our day.

When we had gone into the Intercessors' Room when we came out of the room with the handful of women, someone said, "How'd it go?" I said, "I have peace, joy, love, and HEALING!"

It was a day of faith!

"Thank You, Lord, for letting me experience what I did. It has built my faith to…outer space height?...no, higher than that. You are a good God, and I can't wait to see all the things You are going to help me accomplish. Amen."

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As we left the two-hour session, one of the leaders handed me a copy of a pencil drawing of a laughing Jesus. "This is what God showed me Jesus looks like when He looks at you."

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These pictures were taken in the Intercessors' Room. We didn't get any pictures in the "inner" room.

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Later today, I hope to post our daughter Jennifer's take on what happened in The Healing Rooms TO HER. I marveled as she told us. Look for it later today, hopefully.