Healing Grace

By Stephanie Convey

Many of us had the privilege of attending the Becoming Whole Conference in October. It was a time of teaching and of receiving ministry related to the barriers that can keep us from receiving all of God’s love for us, and through us. These barriers can be from pains and wounds from infancy (and before), our childhood, patterns in our family of origin, lack of father or mother love, wounds from abuse of any kind, or from our own poor decisions. Based on the conference evaluations, one of the topics that really resonated with our community, was working toward an understanding of dysfunction in our families of origin, and how God can break patterns and lies that took hold and still bring us pain or cause us to sin (knowingly or unknowingly) today. For example, you may have deep disappointments related to your family relationships; you may have been rejected or excluded when you didn’t meet up to expectations (spoken or unspoken); you may realize in retrospect that you were expected to maintain an unhealthy communication dynamic in your family. The upcoming three monthly healing services on Saturdays will be focused on this topic. There will be a short time of teaching, followed by the opportunity to receive prayer from prayer team members. Facing these dysfunctions can be painful. But here’s a spoiler alert: all families are dysfunctional! Thank God we serve a Redeemer. Not only does God heal and save us from ourselves and from darkness, He also redeems it all, even the seemingly unforgivable things I’ve done or that someone has done to me. That’s Amazing Grace!

There are several opportunities at CTR to receive prayer ministry for healing:

•  go to the back of the sanctuary for prayer after the 11am service
•  tell the church office that you would like to sign up for “in-depth prayer”, which means receiving prayer ministry for a few hours, which allows more time for going deeper
•  come to the Saturday healing service once a month at the church (new series starts January 21)
• email one of the priests/ministers and ask if they would be willing to pray with you for confession or other needs

Prayer needs are always kept private and confidential; the prayer team takes this very seriously. Any situation in which you long to see God’s healing touch, can be a reason to ask for healing prayer. Letting other people pray with and for you has a spiritual significance to it. We are instructed to pray for one another, and with one another (James 5:14-16) (Matthew 18:19). It’s part of how we become one, just as Jesus prayed that we would (John 17).

I encourage you, yes YOU, to jump in! If you don’t need prayer, consider asking for a blessing, and see how God might move in your heart and life.  And always feel free to ask for prayer not knowing what you need it for. God knows what you need, and ALWAYS acts in Love. Don’t be afraid.