Joseph Trance

Snow

~~ It was my first time.    I placed my hand on her paper along with the two other Healing Room workers.  The paper was upside down so that we couldn’t see what she ahd written.   I closed my eyes.  I felt a rush of panic because I had nothing.  I didn’t know, couldn’t see anything.  I would not be able to help her in anyway.  “Father, if you are really here, then give me something… anything…please.”  I whispered.  Then I heard it; one word and it made all the difference, and changed me forever.
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      The first time I experienced the gift of  “Words of Knowledge”  was when I became a healing room worker.  I had heard of the Healing Rooms Ministry and had wanted to be a part of them, but it took me two years after I’d taken the training to actually start as a volunteer.  The ministry was started by John G. Lake in the late 1800’s  and continues today as the International Association of Healing Rooms.  The main headquarters of the ministry is located in Spokane Washington.
 My experience as a crisis intervention counselor in college had deepened my desire to help people and I learned a lot about how to problem solve using crisis intervention techniques. .  It was interesting that Crisis Counseling was based on the work of Carl Rogers who was a devout Pentecostal Christian.  I could see how his client -centered therapy techniques were valuable in helping people through crisis. The basic premise of person centered therapy was that people know the solutions to their own problems; they just need someone to help them listen to themselves and realize what they know. 
I learned crisis intervention techniques during my college years and became a hotline crisis counselor in the seventies, and became a crisis intervention trainer in the eighties.
 But there was something missing despite all the techniques of opened ended questions, mirroring techniques and being a non-judgmental voice that could help a person realize their own solutions to their crisis.  There was something of the soul that was missing in all of that.  Sometimes people would come to a solution that was based in the flesh and while it would solve their presenting problem, it wouldn’t fix the deeper issue that was spiritual.
  I sat and listened to the Healing Rooms training, looking for that something more.  I remember Marilyn the director saying that all you had to do was trust God, open yourself up to Him and that He would do the rest.   The basic premise of the Healing Rooms is that as a worker you can’t really do anything on your own to help someone through their problems because people are so different and only God knows what they really need.
    “Just do what the Holy Spirit says to do, and do that.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of God showing up that makes all the difference.”   That was Marilyn’s number one law; Just do what God says to do.
A basic Truth in Healing Room secession was that:
  “God is present in these sessions and it doesn’t take Him long to show Himself if you are really opened to Him.  He can do some amazing things in a very short time, if you let Him.” 
I had to “let God” be present.
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         I opened my eyes and blinked.   Had I really heard it?  Had I really heard God?  It was so strong in me.  But there was doubt as well.  So much doubt.  I know what I had heard, but it didn’t make any sense, at all.  In fact after thinking about it was ridiculous.  “I can’t say that,” I said in my head.  It makes no sense. I opened my eyes. 

       Bob the leader of the secession was looking at me. 
“You start, Joe.   You have something.”
“I…I don’t.”  
Bob smiled and nodded his head, “Yes, you do.”
  I looked at the woman who was just waiting.
“I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I heard one word.”   I felt a rush in my spirit.  Like a wind inside me. 
“I heard one word.   Snow.  Does that mean anything to you?”   I shook my head, not believing that I just said that.  We were in California and it was ninety degrees.
But then the woman’s eyes grew wider and she visibly shook.   Tears started to steam down her face. She looked at me,
“Snowball,” she said.
“Snowball is the name of my son’s dog.”   She cried then.  She had come for prayer about a situation with her son.
“How did you know?”  She asked. 
“How did you Know?” She asked again.
“I didn’t,”  I said.  A calm came over me and I said.
“But God did.  And He is here.”  

 

All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Joseph Trance.
Published on e-Stories.org on 08/12/2014.

 
 

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