Nine people reported an immediate physical healing and 5 people responded for salvation when I prayed for the sick and preached the gospel at King’s Church Horsham last Sunday.
It was my fifth time speaking there, and we got off to a terrific start. Fifteen minutes into the sung worship time, I prayed a healing prayer over everyone in the venue who wanted physical healing. When I asked whether anyone had been healed, we had a great response.
One older man said that he’d broken his ankle 30 years ago playing football. (He told me later that he’d had a metal plate put into it, which 10 years ago they offered to take out, but when they opened him up they found the bone had grown around the plate, so that the plate couldn’t be taken out). Anyway he’d had pain in his ankle for 30 years, but now he said that the pain had gone.
A young man, who later responded for salvation at the end of the meeting, said that he’d had a back problem for a month, that had now been healed.
Another football injury was described by Adam, who said he’d damaged his wrist a year ago (I think) during a fall on the pitch and he said that the pain had gone during the healing prayer.
Another middle-aged man said he’d had problems swallowing for some time, but that now he could swallow normally.
Amy said that she had a long-standing problem with her shoulder, and that she’d experienced healing.
Another lady said she’d had pain in her thighs for years, which made it difficult for her to stand, but she said the pain had gone.
Anyway, after the initial blanket prayer, we then invited anyone who’d not yet been healed, to be prayed for 1 on 1, and the first person I prayed for as I wandered into the crowd was Richard who’d suffered neck pain since an accident on a water slide 20 years ago. He came on stage to say that he’d recovered the freedom of movement in his neck that he’d lost.
There was a tremendous report from Ian, who said that he’d fallen out of his loft and damaged his back. He said that he’d been taking pain killers because the pain was so bad, but that his spinal pain had now gone.
And then the last and perhaps the most memorable story was from a 13 year old girl who said that she’d dislocated her hip when she was 5 years old. “My hip had come out” and when she told us about her healing, she said to everyone’s delight “My hip has never been better.”
So those were 9 stories I can remember, there might have been 1 or 2 more, but anyway, after Jos Wintermeyer ended the time of worship, I moved into an evangelistic talk, and had a tremendous surprise about half way through when I recognized the legendary former Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and England football team captain Alan Mullery. I know Alan, and have invited him to share the story of how he became a Christian when I was working for our church in Reigate 15 years ago, but I had no idea that he was now in Horsham, and as I was delivering the talk I had in my mind a famous photo of him swapping shirts with Pele at the 1970 World Cup. He once told me an amazing anecdote about bumping into some Hollywood film stars walking on the beach with Jimmy Greaves in Monaco.
Anyway back to the sermon, which landed with 4 men responding for salvation, and one lady afterwards, so it was great to see them coming forward and putting their trust in Christ.
So it was an excellent morning, and then afterwards we all walked out of the sports hall and onto a field a Tandridge School, where after a BBQ lunch and bouncy castles etc, 8 people were baptised. I gave a brief explanation of baptism and then they each shared their story before being immersed in a large paddling pool. I guess there were around 400 people at the event on the field, which is a sort of annual church fun day.
Many thanks to my friends Phil & Heather Playfoot, who made me feel so welcome. King’s Church Horsham are one of the churches who support me financially so it was great to be able to support them in their outreach to their community.