The church is not new to charismatic renewal or healing, but the frequency and level of anointing has been unprecedented in recent days. Senior Pastor, Scott McDermott, said, “We’ve always believed in healing, but didn’t see much healing…some, but just not much – that’s the truth.” The church did not give up in their pursuit of the healing touch of God and continually prayed for healing and for God’s power to break through.
“I was committed to keep praying,” said Pastor Scott, who has held his position at the Crossing since 1993, “I longed to see it and believed there could be more.” After many seemingly fruitless prayer attempts, even some of the more vigilant saints in the body were becoming weary and discouraged. This can present a tricky situation for a pastor who wants to encourage people to believe God for healing yet sees his sheep losing hope and feeling disappointment.
The Crossing places a strong emphasis on people’s emotional wholeness and freedom in Christ as well as their physical well-being. The “Prayer and Care Ministry” uses the Word of God and prayer to facilitate emotional healing through the power of the Holy Spirit. “As a pastor you have a heart for hurting people as well as for healing. You understand the tension people live in and you want to show them compassion.”
Many in the Western church have felt this tension, believing with all their heart that God is, Jehovah-Rapha, “the Lord who heals” (Exodus 15:26), yet seeing little to no evidence of His power manifested. Dr. McDermott, an adjunct professor in the doctorate program at Perkins School of Theology, is a man deeply committed to sound teaching as much as he is to charismatic renewal. “It’s easier to have a theology of a God who heals than have an experience of healings. I spent a lot of my research time trying to explain, ‘Why not?’ instead of exploring how to see more healing.” After a while, you begin to try and explain the unanswered prayers for healing in order to ‘allow God an out.’”
Over the last year, God has removed any confusion about His ability to heal creating a “heavenly shift” in the atmosphere at the Crossing. A miraculous transition has begun where the theology of healing is no longer greater than the manifestation of it. Instead physical healing has become a regular part of the Sunday morning worship.
“When God starts showing up, you first ask yourself, ‘Is it real?’ You start to test it. You hear the stories of people getting touched, and you back up and say, “Why is this happening now?” Although Pastor McDermott believes that the years of prayers and fasting laid a good foundation for the church’s healing ministry, he acknowledges two specific forces that broke open the seal to the healing power of God.
The first happened in September of 2006 during a healing conference held at the church. The conference featured Randy Clark from Global Awakening ministries along with Bill Johnson and Leif Hetland. The ministry trio imparted a wealth of knowledge and insight about the healing power of God and invited conference attendees to minister healing to one another. They also prayed for physical healings and reported an estimate of over three-hundred healings that took place over the four day event.
Additionally, Clark and his ministry partners purposed to impart the healing anointing to conference participants through prayer and the laying on of hands. This “impartation” had personal significance in Pastor Scott’s own life and ministry. “The day Randy prayed for me, I actually felt something come on me and go through me. That conference was definitely significant in this church’s history.”
The second breakthrough came as a revelation of God’s sufficiency and the pursuit of His kingdom. Instead of “begging” God to come and heal, members of the Crossing began to release the kingdom of God on the earth through prayer. This is a theme common in Bill Johnson’s teachings and his book, When Heaven Invades Earth. In his book, Johnson explains the importance of the words “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” found in The Lord’s Model Prayer. He writes, “This is the primary focus for all prayer – if it exists in heaven, it is to be loosed on earth. It’s the praying Christian who looses heaven’s expression here.” 1
Pastor Ed Reistetter who oversees the healing ministry at the Crossing with his wife Carol explained how they teach others to pray for healing. Instead of petitioning and even begging God to heal, they practice prayer that declares God’s heart for healing as revealed in His Word. “Your will is to heal Lord.” “You’ve paid the price Lord.” “By the stripes on your back we are healed.” This type of prayer builds faith and expectancy because it is based on the unfailing Word of God, Reistetter explained.
The Reistetters also oversee the “Healing Room” ministry of the church. They have modeled this ministry after the Healing Rooms pioneered by John G. Lake in Spokane, Washington and today is operating in that city under Cal Pierce. “We adopted the basic model from Spokane using three prayer ministers in each prayer room and having a receptionist – like in a doctor’s office. The new aspect we added was a soaking prayer room, where people can quietly sit or lay on the floor listening to quiet Christian music before or after healing ministry.” said Carol. The couple has trained over fifty church members who are now agents of God’s healing touch in this ministry of the church.
In fact, what has made the more recent healing phenomena noteworthy, apart from the numerous manifestations of healing, is that those ministering healing are laypersons - people who make no special claims of having the gifts of healing. On Sunday mornings after worship and praise, people who are ill are invited to stand up for prayer. Occasionally there are words of knowledge shared with the congregation concerning a certain sickness that God has in mind to heal that day. Those seated around them are then called upon to pray for their fellow brother or sister in Christ. “It’s the time of the saints”, said Pastor Ed who referred to this prayer format as the “serendipity effect”. “You never know who will stand up, behind or before you to receive healing.”
Pastor Scott also made note of this phenomena. “Often we are drawn to one special person, and clearly God has used people who are set apart for healing ministry, but we are seeing that God just moves as we surround people in prayer. The fruit of this is unbelievable. People with little or no experience, who never felt qualified, are now praying for others and overcoming their fears. God is using them and they are shocked! Their faith in God is increasing. So now what they are doing is taking [the power of God in prayer] to the marketplace and even extended family members with confidence.”
Pastor Ed accounts, “A woman from our church was praying for a co-worker who had a severe rash and the rash disappeared…and it was a Hindu woman [who received the healing].” The healing stories continue.
One woman, a long-time member of the Crossing, stood for healing one Sunday morning service after hearing the testimony of another woman who was healed of a calcium deposit. She also had a calcium deposit on the same hand as the woman sharing the healing testimony. As those around her gathered to pray, the deposit became warm, turned red and then disappeared completely.
After the calcium deposit disappeared, this joyous spirit-filled believer came to a Sunday school class after the church service and declared to her fellow classmates. “Look at my finger!” as she waved her middle finger proudly to those in the class. “God just removed a calcium deposit from my hand! Touch it for yourself and see!” The deposit and the pain were gone.
The next Sunday morning, she shared her testimony of God’s healing work before the congregation. At that time, those who had calcium deposits were invited to stand up for healing. Another woman stood who had a calcium deposit on one of her fingers from birth. She was then invited by Pastor Scott to pray for her and she too was healed.
That’s one of the interesting phenomena that has taken place at the Crossing. Those with healing testimonies are sharing the work of God publicly and it’s having a healing effect on others with similar maladies.
Carol Reistetter gave Bill Johnson credit for bringing this understanding to the congregation in his teaching entitled, “The Power of the Testimony”. Concerning the power of one’s testimony she explained, “Most people think the importance of the testimony is that when we hear about healing, we are encouraged to pray for more. But the real principle is based on Revelation 19:10, which says, ‘For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’ The power of the testimony is simply an invitation from God to do it again.”
One woman, a member who was familiar with this principle, sat in a Sunday morning service with a heavy heart for her friend who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. As she sat in service, she was thinking how great it would be to have a testimony to share with her friend. She then started to move her foot and sprained ankle only to realize that God had miraculously healed her. God answered her prayer in her own body. She got up and started jumping around in the church’s hallway.
This level of excitement is becoming more common among the members of the 153 year old Methodist church as they see, hear and experience God’s healing power manifested before their very eyes.
The Reistetters explained that the healing work is not always instantaneous, but quite often progressive in nature. For this reason, the Reistetters encourage those they pray for to continue to press into God even when they don’t see their healing come quickly. “We want people to follow up, so we give them post ministry instructions to pray for themselves and continue to seek the Lord and press in for healing”, said Ed.
And the testimonies continue to pile up. Currently the churches database has on record a list of healings that include multiple categories of illnesses: ankles, Arthritis, Asthma, back issues, Calcium deposits, Cancer, Deviated Septum, digestive issues, eyes, food addictions, hands, heart conditions, kids with developmental diseases, knees, liver, Lyme disease, Migraines, nicotine addictions, orthopedics, shoulders, Strokes, Thyroid Disease, TMJ, Tumors, Turrets.
Not every person who’s been prayed for has been made well. In fact, there are certain areas of sickness that have been tougher strongholds to break. For example, though they have seen people with cancer healed, there have been others who were not. This has not altered the church’s stance that God is willing to heal and that nothing is too difficult for Him. They continue to seek the Lord for greater victory with the same spirit of faith and persistent prayer that existed before this recent wave of healings. This is a church that firmly believes God rewards those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
While the church has a strong belief that God heals supernaturally, they do not in anyway forbid or counsel people to avoid seeking medical treatment. “Some people are reluctant to go to doctors, but we are a ministry that believes God heals through physicians.” Ed explained. His wife Carol had a hip replacement surgery a few years back. God did not intervene to eliminate the need for surgery, but He did work to accelerate the healing process post-surgery. “Within an hour, I went from having no ability to walk, to walking and I went home immediately.” She overheard a physical therapist saying, “She is now where someone would normally be in 30 days.”
This is not the only time God’s healing work has surprised professional medical workers. One man in the congregation was scheduled for rotator cuff surgery and God intervened and completely healed him. When he returned to the surgeon to have it tested and requested an MRI as proof, he was told it was unethical. The doctor explained that he could see the man was healed. He could do things now that he was not capable of before, the doctor explained. And he refused to send him for another MRI.
One of the more amazing testimonies of healing comes from Ron “Skip” Gilleo. Skip was diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease and cancer. After receiving several rounds of radiation, Skip lost his ability to walk. The doctors had told him that he would never walk again, but God had a different plan.
Last December, Skip received prayer for healing during a service at the Crossing. Several people prayed for Skip. Then one church member, who serves on the church’s trained altar team ministry, asked Skip to try doing something he previously could not do. This is a common practice taught and exercised within the healing prayer ministry at the Crossing because it requires faith on the part of the person receiving prayer.
“I tried bending my knees while standing – quite a feat for me. It worked! Then the very next week another prayer, another miracle! I walked all around the church – something I hadn’t been able to do for two years!” God not only healed Skip’s body, he saved his soul. Skip received Christ as his Lord and Savior, a long-awaited answer to his wife Pat’s prayers. In April, Skip was baptized at the church.
No one can foretell what the future holds for the Crossing church and healing ministry. Pastor McDermott admitted, “I realize, I’m not in control of the wake that we leave behind, but the course that we set. Proclaim the good news, heal the sick, set the oppressed free, care for the poor. I think that’s the agenda of the Kingdom. That’s what life is all about, it’s about His kingdom.” (Matthew 6:33) These are great words and vision from a seasoned man of God who does not take for granted the Lord’s mercy. Skip, another grateful but less experience saint, put it another way as he closed his healing testimony before the church congregation, “It just doesn’t get any better than this!”
Pierre M. Eade, 2007
