I joined OSL at the invitation of a friend at church. She was in a church study group where each member chose a different topic to research and report back to the group. Christian healing ministry was on the list, and she chose it. The group leader referred her to Rev. Roger Perks, a retired Presbyterian minister attending our church. One Sunday, she realized she was sitting right behind him and introduced herself. He had founded the local chapter of the Order of St. Luke, and she attended some meetings at his invitation. Another friend and I listened to her account and decided to attend an OSL chapter meeting with her.
When I met Roger, he could explain, in his wonderful bass British accent, that healing ministry was the way to share God’s love in a material way. Jesus left his disciples with the commission to heal the sick and cast out demons as well as preach the gospel to the whole world. There is no reason Christians today should not be inviting the sick and anxious to the healing Jesus can give! Healing, in effect, it God’s “show and tell”. This really spoke to me, and in time I joined the Order of St. Luke. I really cherished the times Roger would explain showing the love of Jesus through healing, which he did at every meeting, and miss his presence now that he has passed on to Glory.
However, I was already aware since childhood about Christian healing ministry. I was raised in the Baptist tradition, where one prays a prayer of faith to invite Jesus to be one’s Lord and Savior. As a child, I understood this as “inviting Jesus into your heart”, and I prayed this at my mother’s knee when I was five years old. For me, this became the true start of my life of faith, and I shared the good news about Jesus to the kids at school whenever I could! Sometimes they had to tell me to stop!
My parents’ little Baptist church went through a charismatic renewal during the time they were between pastors, and they often participated in Spirit-filled prayer groups with much prophesying, speaking in tongues, laying on of hands and resting in the Spirit. These events were not strange to me, and while I observed, I was blessed with the meaning of what was happening and enjoyed growing in my own faith as my parents grew in theirs. There was a time a friend came over to play, and she complained of a stomachache. I laid my hands on her and prayed in Jesus’ name, and she became well!
My mother took my sister and me to hear the great speaker and Christian healer Kathryn Kuhlman speak at large events where I saw many people receive healing. Even our pastor’s wife received healing in her shoulders! At church, my parents reported on other healings, including the lengthening of a leg of a woman in pain from having one leg shorter than the other. As I grew, I kept these things and pondered them in my heart (ref. Luke 2:19, KJV).
As a member of OSL, I seek to share the love of Jesus in the world through the ministry of Christian healing. I pray “Come, Holy Spirit, Come!” and “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” As God’s Kingdom spreads, he will manifest it in many healings and wonders, and so I work and pray for the further establishment of God’s Kingdom among us. Amen.
by Elizabeth Shoemaker
