WE PRESS ON: A WOUNDED HEALER’S RESOLVE: (Revelation 22:1-5)

we found you shivering in the cold

wounded and abandoned

we drew near, embracing with His Healing Touch

walking in transparency and grace

the windows to our souls swung wide before you

an offering of spiritual intimacy and friendship

affirmation for a damaged pilgrim

longing to recapture significance and destiny

who could know the depth of the pain?

the debilitating rejection

“They must not know.” “I will recover; I will conquer!”

so we trod on with “our heavenly callings” –

“our ministries”

closing the shutters on that part of the soul

needing His Piercing Light more than any other

seeing through a glass darkly

we observe only the edges of this severe turbulence

the scars of our own journey dim our vision

we naively move towards you

thinking we see more than we do

the tremor hits us unaware,

a scream from that shut off place

the knees buckle from the shock

transparency is always a risky thing

the alternative, though, is simply a slow withering death

to walk naked in His Revelation and Light

love, acceptance and forgiveness

must rise along the same path

as our fears, self-doubts and failures

the discarding of the carnal baggage for His Healing Balm

requires grace, community and a lifetime

forever hindered by

the deceptive presence of false wholeness

“I have recovered…that’s behind me now…I’m over that”

“I can see clearly now the rain is gone”

we want to be there – recovered, made whole

so we convince ourselves, believe the words

and we cope - fabricating the tattered remains

into a patchwork picture of restoration

we walk it out, looking fine in the mirror

and to others, until…

until the light of His Glory shines

and the demons in the dark places cry out

lashing out at the instruments of His Peace

vulnerable vessels of His Grace

fleshing out their own transformation

wounded healers being healed themselves

by the River of Life

we move away in bewilderment and wonder

the barriers erected in our brokenness

are not easily overcome

still - we press on

knowing that the healing is in the oil not the vessel

and all gives way when He pours

Mark D. Cooke - 01/28/1998 - Revised, 3/19/2007

The Great Physician is Healing Today

“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” – Jesus of Nazareth to His disciples (Matthew 10:8)

On June 11 & 12 of this year, over 200 doctors, from around the world, gathered in Brisbane, Australia for a conference entitled “Spirituality & Medicine”. With much documentation they heard testimonies and reports of miraculous healings all across the globe and made presentations on how Faith & Medicine are partners, not adversaries in the process of healing.

It is not uncommon to meet someone, know of someone, or even be that someone who has had a miraculous, healing touch, and “somehow beat the odds” of a severe diagnosis, and yet we still live in a rationalistic, skeptical society where speaking of the power of faith, if not frowned upon, is certainly seen as shallow or naïve.

In the fall of 1987 while serving a church in Charleston, SC, God confronted my own skepticism (and arrogance) in a most dramatic way.

I was the main speaker for Charleston Southern University’s Campus Ministry retreat, and I had just completed a number of sessions on “Living the Spirit Empowered Life”. The retreat had gone well, and I was feeling quite pleased with the students’ responses and their reception of me, when a young lady, who was actually a very new Christian, approached me.

“I really appreciated all you had to share with us, and think what you shared is true. But I have one question.”

“Yes?”

“If what you taught is true, shouldn’t we pray for Marty’s knee?”

(Marty Youngblood was the full-time Campus Pastor who had torn his knee ligaments the day before the retreat playing volleyball, but since he was in charge of the retreat, he came on crutches, swollen knee in pain, and pumped full of meds.)

Marty was standing nearby, as I responded sheepishly, “Well, yes, I guess we should. Marty, can you come over here? Do you mind if we prayed for you?” What did he have to lose? Several other students gathered round; we unwrapped Marty’s knee; I gingerly laid my hand on it and began to pray.

In disbelief I literally felt the kneecap move & the swelling go down, and in amazement (and equal disbelief), Marty ran across the lawn and back, completely healed and restored.

That was the beginning of a lifelong journey, where God has continued to strip me of pride & faithlessness, and I continue to grow bolder in expecting & believing that the Great Physician is healing people today.

Do people get healed every time I pray? No. But since that retreat almost 25 years ago, I have been blessed to see many touched by the healing grace of God, all around the world, and I pray more expectantly, believing the Church’s testimony that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.”

Almost 2,000 years ago Jesus declared about his ministry, “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” And today, doctors in Brisbane, along with many others, make that same declaration.

God’s healing grace is closer than you think. May you know He’s healing touch today!

July 5, 2011

Mark D. Cooke