Sharing of God's Miracles

by Anne Early
Jul/Aug 2007

The Holy Spirit was generous in a magnificent way at the joint conference of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Service and Christian Healing Ministries, Inc., in Jacksonville, April 30th — May 5th! For many attendees that week long will be remembered as a time of great blessing. Since it is not possible to share all the wonderful testimonies that have been received, we hope the following account of multiple healings and gifts will give you a glimpse into the awesome work of the Spirit during those very special days. We thank Barry Clemson for letting us share with you.

“I was blessed during the conference with four miracles: the healing of my shoulder, receiving the gift of tongues, restoration of hearing in one ear, and spiritual/inner healing.

“First: the healing of my right shoulder that was severely restricted in motion. For the last ten years, I had not been able to move my arm freely without considerable pain. During Mike Evans’ talk, I went forward when he invited anyone in pain to come for healing. He then asked the other participants to lay their hands on each of us while he prayed. As hands were laid on us, Mike prayed for the group of us who were in pain. My shoulder was completely healed! Now I can do push–ups with no pain, and the range of motion is as great as ever.

“Second: at the end of the practicum Tuesday evening (a time when we received instruction in praying for healing), our practicum leader and four of the women prayed for me to receive the gift of tongues. I received this gift, and now I speak freely in tongues as the Spirit leads.

“Third: after 35 years of deafness in one ear, my hearing was restored. Thirty–five years ago I had a terrible fever that almost killed me, and it did destroy the nerves in my right ear. Thursday, I asked for healing in that ear, and after just a short prayer, I could hear again.

I did not realize the full extent of the miracle until the next morning. With only one ear there had been no sense of direction; it had been next to impossible for me to locate a voice in a crowd. When parts of the brain are unused for a long time, those parts get assigned to some other function. For 35 years, my brain had received no input to the section that determines where a sound is coming from. I had dared to hope that over years, or perhaps months, my brain might once again learn to sense directions. To my amazement during Friday worship, when people in various parts of that large crowd spoke, I immediately looked right at them. I didn’t have to visually scan the crowd, trying to find the speakers; I simply looked right at them. The healing had fixed the nerves leading to the ear and recreated the proper neuron structures in the brain and retrained the brain to interpret the new inputs — all in just a couple of minutes. My scientific, rational mind keeps reminding me that all of this clearly is impossible. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to care about the impossibility of it all!

“Fourth and most wonderful of all was what happened to my heart. I am Pennsylvania Dutch (i.e. reserved, unemotional and stoical). Furthermore, that cultural syndrome has been reinforced in me by my training and career as a scientist. I am not (rather, was not) one to display emotion in public. Tuesday at noon I told the prayer ministers that my religion was mostly in my head and I wanted to move it to my heart. They prayed for my heart — as did Allan Panozza later. The Spirit worked on me all week, and by Friday morning I found myself running around kissing people. During the dancing Friday morning, one of the priests from India, a person I never had even met, was both dancing and blessing people at the same time. When he got to me, I grabbed him and planted a big kiss on his cheek, and kept on dancing. Then I ran over and kissed the women from our church. Finally, I kissed Allan Panozza on the podium in front of the entire crowd.

"Well! In my culture this is truly bizarre behavior. The Holy Spirit grew my heart about three sizes and there is no going back.

“I was inundated with miracles. I was crushed by miracles. I was reborn by miracles. I will never be the same again.”

Thank you, Holy Spirit! Thank you, Barry.

God also testified to it [salvation] by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (Hebrews 2:4).