Testimonies of Healing

Sometimes God both humbles and blesses us at the same time. I happened to be flipping through the TV and saw an ad that Benny Hinn (a healing evangelist) was coming to town. I did not have a good opinion of him and told the Lord so. The Lord told me not to judge His servants and then instructed me to volunteer my services at his crusade as a worker. At the training meeting, I was assigned to be an usher captain. I also came the day before the meeting to help set up.

I arrived a bit late, so they did not really need me. I was going to leave (go home) but God stopped me and told me to go pray over the seats. (By the way, I am told that there are 18,000 seats in the arena). So I started to go back in, and was met by two of the Benny Hinn staff. We got into a conversation during which time I shared that God was prompting me to walk around the seats and pray. Then encouraged me to do so. Since they were staff, with official badges and everything, I took that as "official permission" and started walking through the seats, praying.

June 24, 1999

Fairly early in the service, Benny gave an altar call. So many people steamed forward that there was no way to count them all. I happened to be assigned to one of few areas where there was a stairway down to the main floor. Our section had many of the new converts coming through it, and there were literally people as far as the eye could see. They streamed down the aisles, filled up the front and there were so many of them that did not all sit on the lower level and a few were standing the staircase leading down there. It was incredible. I could literally feel the Lord's joy at all of these new believers.

Not long after that, they took an offering and that kept me so busy that I lost track of what was going on.

Then it was time for a bit more worship and healing prayer. The power of God was so tangible in the room. I was assigned to stand at the little steps from the bleachers to the main floor, and keep people from going down prematurely. So I was right there in the thick of it, and it was SO powerful. God's presence was tangible. I closed my eyes and worshipped during part of this, and I opened them and looked around during part. God's presence was on the people--you could see Him so tangibly on many of them. It was a beautiful sight, and powerful as well.

God had told me He was going to heal a lame person in a certain section as I prayer-walked the grounds and prayed on Wednesday afternoon. Well, I ended up being assigned to that very section. When it came time to give testimonies, one of the first people down was a woman who was carrying a cane, waving it joyfully in front of her and practically dancing down the steps. I said to her, "Looks like you won't be needing that any more!" She replied something like, "Not any more, but before this I could hardly walk ten steps!" Wow! I was SO blessed that God allowed me to see the very healing He'd given me the word of knowledge about the day before!!

Let me just share a few other things that I saw. I will prefix it by saying that not everyone was healed, but many people were. I saw a lady get up out of her wheelchair and walk! It was such a lovely sight. I saw one of the prayer team helping a toddler walk for the very first time--it's deformed legs straightening before my eyes as I watched. The father was following behind with tears of joy streaming down his face.

During the testimony time, I was stationed on the main floor, right down where the action was. That meant I got an awesome view of what God was doing. I was just guiding people where they should go, not working directly with them. But some were so excited that they just had to tell me what God did for them. They shared stories of chronic pain leaving, people moving necks and backs that used to be unusable, a teenage girl who was healed of "chronic depression", a woman carrying her leg braces and lifting her knees very high with a look of absolute rapture on her face. God did so many awesome things!

There may have been some fakes in the crowd just trying to get up on the stage to be prayed for. There may have been some people who were caught up in the emotion of it all. But one thing I am absolutely sure of, the Holy Spirit was tangibly present and there were a lot of very real and very powerful healings.

I wish I should share the expressions on people's faces with you as they discovered they were healed. Oh God, it was so awesome. There was man who had chronic pain for over 11 years and it was suddenly gone! There was the woman who felt the warmth of God go through her and burn away cancer in her body.. God was on the move!

June 25, 1999

Friday was the final day of the Benny Hinn crusade. As expected, God showed up big-time. I was serving as an Usher captain, overseeing 6 ushers that were servicing about 2000 seats. There are an amazing number of "situations" that come up and need individual attention, so believe it or not, I missed most of the service--except, of course, when it came time for the altar call and healings/testimony parts. I got to be right in the think of it then.

My favorite "situation" to handle was a woman who came and got me during the evening service. The service had been going for about 1/2 hour, all worship, and God's presence was already tangible in the room. She had a problem that she needed help with--she needed to accept Jesus right then and she could not wait for the altar call!! So I took her outside of the main auditorium to a quiet corridor and led her to the Lord. She had all these things that had been at her in her life. Her husband wanted a divorce, her oldest daughter was getting rebellious and unmanageable, etc. She was literally overwhelmed at what was going on in her life. I prayed for those concerns and then had her pray with me to invite Jesus to be her Lord. As she repeated the salvation prayer after me, God's peace washed over her. You could see a change in her muscle tone as she "relaxed" into His peace, tears streaming down her face and a smile on her lips. Isn't God wonderful!

So many powerful things happened during the ministry time on Friday. I could not begin to recount them all, so let me share just one story. There was a lady in the testimony line who was standing there holding a cane and worshipping God for all she was worth. The line had been moving very slowly, and she had been standing in front of me for quite some time. Many of the people around her where agitated, because they thought the line was for people who wanted to be prayed for regarding healing, not a testimony line for those who had been healed. They wanted the line to move faster.

Meanwhile, this lady ignored them all and kept worshipping. I was careful not to touch her because that is against Benny Hinn's rules. I softly prayed to bless what God was doing on her. God was obviously touching her. Oil formed on her forehead. A little later, gold dust appeared on top of the oil. After a while the woman opened her eyes and looked around. I told her that God was really touching her and about oil and gold dust on her forehead.

She said "Really??" I said "Yes!" The next thing I knew, she grabbed me in a big old bear hug and said "Thank you!!" I told her God was the one who touched her and I had nothing to do with it, but she was so thrilled. She began to tell me a bit about her story.

Her friends wanted her to go forward in her wheel chair but she refused, deciding to walk up with her two canes "in faith" that God would touch her. She only had one cane as she told me this story, and was not even using it, she was just holding it. She explained how she could not walk without two canes--one was not enough. I asked her what happened to her other cane and she had no idea. It still did not occur to her that she was not using the one she still held.

As the talked, the Lord came on her again and the color of her skin changed from a pallid gray to normal skin tone. I knew God was doing something incredible. I did not touch her, but I stretched my hand in her general direction and prayed out loud, "Lord, thank you for the way you are touching her. Lord, we just bless what you are doing in her." She started worshipping again, with her arms up stretched and the cane dangling from her hand. The line moved a bit, and she stepped forward, still worshipping and not even using the cane. She was now about 8 steps away from me.

About then, a ministry team member came by. There are not very many ministry team members, and one had not been by in about half an hour. I motioned her over and pointed out the lady with the dangling cane to her, saying that I thought God was really touching her. The ministry team lady did something that was a real treat for me. She invited me to go with her to minister to this lady. (Remember, only Benny Hinn and his small ministry team are allowed to lay hands on people and pray for them.) So I was delighted to go with her and "help."

She asked the woman what God had been doing for her. The woman was so blessed that she could hardly answer, other than proclaim how magnificent God is. She also managed to inform us that the pain is gone.

"How long have you had the pain for?" she was asked. "For over a year," came the reply. "How frequent is the pain?" "It is constant. I am always in pain but now it is gone!"

She started worshipping again. The ministry team lady asked her about the wheelchair, and the woman explained that she could walk without it, providing she use two canes. I had my hand lightly on her back as she talked to the ministry team woman, because she was getting so drunk in the Spirit that she looked like she might go down any moment. The ministry team woman asked her, "Well, has that changed since God has touched you tonight?"

"I don't know" the woman replied.

The ministry team lady began backing away from her. "Shall we try it?" she asked.

The woman unconsciously took a stop towards her and then another, still holding (and not using) her cane. But she did not realize she was walking. "Oh, I can't walk without a cane, it's just not possible ... hey!!! I am walking!!!" You should have heard the delight in her voice as she realized she was doing the impossible.

Needless to say, the ministry team lady pulled her out of line and took her up front. I watched them go, tears of joy in my eyes.

About two hours later, I finally had a chance to sit down for a few minutes. I sat in the front row seat of the bleachers, near the staircase. I closed my eyes and worshipped for a few minutes. It felt so good to sit down and so good to worship.

"Teresa, open your eyes and look." God said.