What Makes a Loving Church?

Church 

See how the qualities of a true church body touch so much on Christian Love.

We Face the Trials of Life Unexpected. Photo by Bill Hunt (c)

 2010.

Mary and I sprouted in the garden of spiritual life like tiny new green sprigs. We learned the precious blessings of God's love can overcome the hard trials in life. We underwent financial, employment, and pregnancy challenges. Each time, the prayer groups we belonged to locked arms with us and poured forth amazing love.

Disaster struck. My wife and I returned home from a week long Thanksgiving vacation. Mary traveled the long drive suffering the flu as well as enduring her pregnancy condition. She was miserable. She couldn't wait to arrive home to her own soft, comfortable bed.

As we finally drove up to our house in the trees, everything appeared normal. But when we opened the door to our home, terror struck our hearts. It was raining inside the house! Unbelievable! Strange! Peculiar!

Everywhere, water was dripping heavily from the ceiling. The house was soaked, the furniture was soaked, the clothes in the closets were soaked.

It looked as if a demon from hell 

raided our house!

I called the repairmen. They discovered our furnace supported a humidifier automatic control valve which malfunctioned. The humidifier continued pumping water into the atmosphere of the two-story house the whole week long we were absent.

Prayer group friends from our church came to our rescue and hosted us overnight. Next day, working together, we dried out the house, dried off the furniture, and dried up the clothes. A certain husband tried to do a lot of talking to reassure his pregnant wife. 

As cool weather approached, being a country girl from Upstate New York, my wife somewhat fretted about the clothes her growing children wore while we lived on Philadelphia's exclusive Main Line.

One day a lady from the prayer group delivered three green garbage bags she said contained "used clothes." Her own two daughters outgrew them, she said, but these would likely now fit our two young daughters, Monica and Emily.

Looking at the garbage bags, Mary waited for her husband to return home from work before she emptied them out on the living room carpet. When he arrived, she dumped the bags, looked, and gasped!

She started going through them 

like it was Christmas morning!

The clothes actually arrived in store mint condition, three piles of clothes for her two little daughters! Beautiful matching dresses. White gloves. Assorted play clothes. And two beautiful navy blue fall coats with gold buttons. Even son Brian received a tough pair of play blue jeans.

As a husband, I just sat pleased watching my wife's delight, amazed at God's gift to my family. I asked one major question in my heart, though.

"If God can take care of all our needs so well, why do we fear?"

– Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE: Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box. Have you gone through severe trials and found Christians would show love?

For life, meditate on the Word day and night recommends scripture. We need the power the Bible and prayer give us for everyday living.  Read the Bible in your own language, the one you are most comfortable with. Francis A. Schaeffer considered the New International Version the most accurate translation. To carry, you might like the best selling NIV Compact Thinline Bible.

A Baby's Healing, Persistent Prayer

Healing

God heals a tiny, new born infant from a congenital hip.

Every Baby is a Gift from God, (c) Dan & Mandy Hunt, 2010.

Well, we have a Blessing God! The admissions office prepared to place Mary in a more affordable open bed maternity ward in the Bryn Mawr Hospital on Philadelphia's Main Line.

However, I found her, instead, sitting up in a very nice private room. She wanted "rooming in" with her baby, totally disregarding my fears that we just couldn't afford it.

"Well, we have the space," said the 

head nurse. “And I'm the boss.”

The members of our wonderful prayer group rallied around us like mother hens, making sure we would not be financially disabled.

When the new doctor delivered, actually his third birth, he proudly held the tiny new born, Joanna, high for the mother, the father, and the nurses to see. Everyone rejoiced. I welcomed two little beautiful dark eyes.

“Hello, little one!” I said.

But something seemed strange. Her leg hung off to the side. I didn't tell Mary what I noticed. One nurse suddenly supported the baby's leg by wrapping her in a blanket and rushed her off.

When the orthopedic surgeon arrived and gave the baby a physical examination, he explained the problem.

"Your baby has a congenital 

hip," he said.

"Her leg is loose in the hip socket. The socket is too big to hold her leg. This may take several months, even a year, to heal. It may bother her for years or even the rest of her life. I will see you again in four weeks for an x-ray to check the condition."

For the next four weeks, the baby wore a very thick, unsightly, foam diaper over her regular cloth diaper to support her leg.

We took her home from the hospital, but that was not the end of the story!

Our large university prayer community of nearly two hundred people gathered around and prayed over baby Joanna.

The large nearby prayer community of another two hundred people also prayed over baby Joanna.

And when Mary attended the smaller morning women's prayer meeting, a powerful group, they also prayed most intently over baby Joanna.

A well known Philadelphia cleric, Brother Panky, just happened to walk in, and he held the baby and also prayed very intently over her.

In four weeks, mother and baby, now well prayed over, returned for the check up with the unbelieving orthopedic surgeon.

He took an x-ray and looked at it.

He looked at the leg. He pulled the leg.

He turned the leg around and around in the socket as if it were a hand drill. 

Then he sat down in front of Mary very quiet in his big, office leather arm chair and thought.

"There is no difference between the 

left hip and the right hip!" he admitted.

"Well," he said, "sometimes it comes back later in life." Mary did not accept that futuristic comment. 

Of course, she also made it a point to inform the doctor that everyone had prayed over her baby for healing. He remained silent in his chair thinking as Mary left the office.

Children are a reward from the Lord. (See Psalm 127:3.)

– Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE: Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box. Have you prayed for healing in infants or children?

Read The Prayer That Heals: Praying for Healing in the Family or Praying for Your Unborn Child, by Francis MacNutt. These books encourage families to pray together for miraculous healings of body and soul. 

You, too, can pray for Healing

Healing

God's healing love touches a woman suffering from chronic internal hemorrhaging and a little boy with infected ears.

Jesus With the Children (ChritiansUnite.com)

Mary and I first heard about God's wonderful healing power when her singing co-ed friend, Penny, came to visit us in the State of Maine! Mary's friend experienced a new relationship with God, and she effervesced to share with us.

For three days and nights, on the first days of the New Year, she talked excitedly about the genuineness of God's saving love, the personal redemption of his Son Jesus, and the wonderfulness of his healing power.

She led us in prayers of personal repentance and salvation. Late into the darkness of each night we talked about the Lord until 3:00 am, the wee hours of the morning for three nights in a row. What a time! Her visit completely changed our lives!

“You, too, can pray for healing,” she said.

Soon, within just a few months, I attended a spiritual conference in Augusta, not forgetting the teachings of our friend. A lovely woman there continually suffered for two years from chronic internal hemorrhaging. She asked for prayer.

The Holy Spirit did not delay. I laid hands on her head and commanded the healing in the name of Jesus, as Penny had instructed. The woman left the room and came back. She returned to the room with a joyful face, walking determined right up to me.

"I'm healed," she said, 

"I'm completely healed!”

Soon God moved our little family to Main Line Philadelphia. The first time I visited this big city church, I felt like a stranger in a strange place. During the break, I overheard two women talking against the wall.

"I don't know what to do with my little boy," said one woman to the other.

"For two weeks he's suffered pain from infection in both his ears. The doctors and the tubes haven't helped him. He's sitting over there now, crying. He's always crying. I just don't know what to do. I feel helpless."

The mother deeply agonized over her son.

The Spirit prompted me with increasing pressure to pray for the boy. This was something new to me. Being a stranger, I felt great reluctance to act, but the Spirit continued this pressure on my heart.

"Lord, I'm new here. Nobody knows me.”

I stepped slowly around to the other side of the church. A little, sandy-haired, eight-year old boy sat on the steps at the altar, surrounded by concerned adults. He sobbed in pain, holding both his hands over his ears.

He looked up toward me with 

tears rolling down his cheeks.

I couldn't stop the smile that came over my face as I realized how much God loved him.

God's compelling love can be irresistible.

I walked to him, knowing in my spirit God would act. The people around him strangely stepped back and made way for me as if directed by divine presence. I said nothing. Obeying God, I laid my hands on both his ears and commanded the healing in a very short prayer.

"I command you to be healed in the name of Jesus. Be open. And pain be gone."

That's all I said. When I let go, the little boy took his hands off his ears and excitedly began to chatter with his mother relating his victory. His pain disappeared. Everyone around him just watched.

I walked away, humbled by God's tremendous Love.

– Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE: Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box. Have you experienced a healing?

Francis MacNutt's ministry of healing prayer is beautiful. He has ministered to thousands of people. Read this book for guidance on healing prayer.  

Healing by Francis MacNutt.  

Never Suffer Spiritual Thirst Again

Holy Spirit
Jesus instructs a progressive lesson on a very special gift.


  

Woman Under Anointing of Holy Spirit, photo by Bill Hunt (c) 2010.

You've heard of progressive dinners, people going from house to house to eat the next serving of a neighborly meal. All through his ministry, Jesus served a step-by-step progressive lesson essential to his disciples, that many people miss. Here it is, in brief!

How important is it to you?

Jesus talked with Nicodemus who visited him in the dead of night.

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit”  (John 3:5-6 NIV).

Jesus did not reject the woman at the well who experienced five husbands.  Indeed, he promised her a gift.

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

He publicly proclaimed the meaning of the streams of living water.

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39).

The condition for receiving the Holy Spirit 
is love and obedience to his commands.

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you”  (John 14:15-17).

Jesus leaves the Holy Spirit with us to remind us of his teachings.

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”  (John 14:26).

The ultimate purpose of the Holy Spirit 
is to testify to Jesus.

"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me”  (John 15:26).


He is the divine Spirit of Truth who speaks from the Triune God.

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you”  (John 16:13-14 NIV).

The Holy Spirit is the divine Gift Jesus offers to us, the streams of living waters welling up to eternal life.


 – Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE:  Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box.  Have you received the empowering Gift of the Holy Spirit?

How to Pray for the Release of the Holy Spirit by Dennis Bennett is a very informative book to read. Dennis Bennett is a very solid teacher. 
   

Healing Streams of Living Water, II

Inner Healing

God's miraculous love heals not only the hurts of the human body but also the cries of the human heart.

Streams of Living Water, photo by Bill Hunt (c) 2010.

“See Jesus present to heal as you pray.”

Mary and I attended a powerful conference in Philadelphia on the healing of memories taught by Ruth Carter Stapleton, sister to President Jimmy Carter.

This beautiful lady described the wonders of God. The Holy Spirit's presence actually flowed through some two thousand people all across the vast auditorium as she talked. Ruth prayed for healing of the memories in those present.  

People felt the anointing of the powerful Spirit, worshiped uninhibitedly, and visibly cried unashamed.

Jesus anointed the huge crowd with streams of living water.

“As the person recalls a hurtful incident in his or her life,” Ruth spoke, “in your ministering prayer, see Jesus present. Picture how Jesus ministers to them so lovingly.

“Jesus tells us he is always with us. Is this so hard to believe?”

She went on.

“In serious hurt, picture yourself climbing into God's lap as 'Daddy-God, Abba.' And receive his healing love. No situation is impossible with God. We must minister the healing truth of the scriptures.”

Our friend, Jesuit Bob McDougall, a charismatic, explained his observations to me.

“I never saw anyone 

so completely healed.”

"I served as a psychologist for twenty-three years in the Canadian prison wards," he said. "And I never saw anyone so completely healed. Now, in the Holy Spirit's anointing, I see people wonderfully healed. Normally, approaching such levels of emotional healing would take months or even years of counseling."

Jesus anointed Bob McDougall with streams of living water and empowered his ministry.

One lady in our prayer group severely suffered from her husband's past abuse, betrayal, and recent divorce. We'll call her Jan. I asked Jan if she would like prayers for inner healing.

“I cannot tell you how awful it is,” said Jan. “It is like my life is over. There is nothing left for me. I never planned such a thing.

“My heart is ripped from me 

and stomped on.”

Mary, my wife, supported us in prayer. I gently led Jan through her memories, even of her early childhood up to her later marriage.

Graciously, the anointing presence of the Holy Spirit filled the room. The room was super-charged with his presence. Jan allowed Jesus to touch each memory one-by-one through prayer.

This healing relief so excited her, she joyously proclaimed it to her friends and family.

“The church is talking about it,” said one gray-haired lady. “Jan's personality is completely changed. She is laughing and joyous to everyone she meets. She's telling all about her healing. She's like a completely different person.”

Jesus filled Jan with the 

streams of living water.

She reminded me of the woman at Jacob's Well.

“Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ'?” (John 4: 28-29 NIV).

In our hurting world today, I think, we seriously underestimate the healing power of prayer and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

We have a dynamic divine gift that we are barely using. It's so easy to say --

“May I pray with you?”

– Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE: Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box.

WINDOW SHOP your choice of books here on Inner Healing and Healing of the Memories. Note the Five Star Ratings and the number voting!

Healing of the Human Heart

Inner Healing

God's miraculous love heals not only the hurts of the human body but also the cries of the human heart.

JESUS DID NOT REJECT THE WOMAN. Art by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1890.

Destructive relationships bruise the human heart. The heart stores the pain of these wounds deep in the memory, even for a lifetime. The Good News is Jesus brought forgiveness for sins and healing for the whole heart, mind, body, and spirit. His sacrifice is complete.

We can hear Jesus tenderly ministering healing to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well by showing her he knew her past.

“Go, call your husband 

and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

“You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is quite true” (John 4:16-18 NIV).

The women who suffered the torment of unstable relations with five husbands is more than surprised. In fact, she is shocked. Jesus did not reject her.

As he talks with her, Jesus promises her springs of living water welling up to eternal life. He admits to the woman that he, indeed, is the Messiah. She, in turn, proclaims this to the townspeople, and they all come to believe in him.

Mary and I shared the healing news of Jesus with members of our prayer group in Philadelphia. Around a flowery tablecloth at the suburban kitchen table of one couple, we chatted away one evening, sharing our wondrous experiences in the Lord.

However, every time I began talking about God's work, the attentive, curly-haired wife strangely started to tear.

"What's wrong? Are you ill? 

Do you have pain?"

She only burst into tears, wiping her eyes, unable to speak. The tears flowed. I didn't understand. 

"No," smiled her husband broadly, a bit more perceptive than I.

"She loves your talk about the Lord." The streams of living water flowed in their hearts that evening.

On the beach Jesus re-affirmed Peter three times to heal Peter's three denials.

“Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?”

“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” (Peter replied.)

“Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17 NIV).

The streams of living water washed Peter's heart.

(To be continued.)

– Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE: Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box.

WINDOW SHOP your choice of books on Inner Healing and Healing of the Memories. Note the Five Star Ratings and how many voted!

Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Fire

Holy Spirit

Jesus, himself, received the powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit and overcame temptation by Satan.

JESUS BAPTIZES WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

(Art by Nora Kelly, Ireland, PD)

Rugged John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John preached a gospel of repentance along the Jordan River. He wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild honey.

“You brood of vipers!” he warned 

the religious Pharisees.

Brood of vipers! When I first arrived in Silver Springs, Florida (1984), the news reported a distraught, blond young woman ran all bare foot through the picnic area, swam the Oklawaha River, and disappeared into the primeval growth.

Rescuers found her body in a brood of black water moccasins, poisonous snakes. Of such, John considered the religious Pharisees. Jesus later used the same image.

Fire is symbol of purification. A farmer burns his fields to clean the grounds of weeds and impurities including viruses and bacteria. As such, repentance is the fire that cleans the sin of men and women.

When Jesus arrived at the Jordan, John baptized him with water. The Holy Spirit came on Jesus, and God the Father spoke audibly.

“This is my Son, whom I love; 

with him I am well pleased” 

(Mathew 3:17 NIV).

Jesus is God and man, but he functioned in his manhood as an example. Thus, he observed the customs of Jewish culture and religion.

He spiritually received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He prayed in continual unity with his Heavenly Father. Even, as we can.

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to fast and to pray for forty days and to overcome the temptations of Satan with victory.

The three temptations appealed to the flesh for bread, to the heart for spiritual pride and power, and to the intellect to worship the devil, himself, in exchange for the kingdoms of the world. (Sounds like contemporary politicians.)

Jesus answered the Devil 

in three powerful statements.

“It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'” (Matthew 4:4 NIV).

“It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test'” (4:7).

“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only'” (4:10).

Scripture tells us, the angels came and ministered to Jesus.

He showed us throughout his ministry how to live, filled with the Spirit of God. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

– Bill Hunt © 2010

NOTE: Please let us know your thoughts in the comment box. Have you ever experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?

WINDOW SHOP your choice of books on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Pentecost. Note the Five Star Ratings and how many voted!