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Overview
Many years ago, Agnes Sanford was cured of acute depression by a minister who believed in the healing power of prayer. Subsequently, she herself became very active and successful in healing others of mental and physical ailments by drawing upon the same resources for inner well-being. In The Healing Gifts of the Spirit, she shares the simple, practicable ways of self-help she discovered, and gives step-by-step advice on how to help others.
She discusses not only her own cure but also the gift of healing in general and its growing recognition in the contemporary church. She devotes a chapter to the gift of miracles, and another — especially interesting — to the gift of tongues. Her exploration of these topics is richly inspiring, offering readers one of the most detailed, informative discussions of the nature, dynamics, and potential rewards of these unique manifestations of God's presence. At the same time, she demonstrates how anyone can draw upon this healing power for good in the world.
As evidence of how these gifts can — and do — reveal themselves, the author cites many examples from observation and personal encounters with the healing power of the Spirit.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780060670528 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 08/15/1984 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Sales rank: | 502,052 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.51(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
To the Mental Depressive
I Was Healed, First Of All, Of Mental Depression. Do you know what mental depression is? Let me describe some of its symptoms, that you may read them and rejoice. For they were healed, every one, so that to remember them is a delight. When I wake in the morning nowadays, and my mind turns to the day's plan, I recall the days when I dragged myself out of bed and thought, "Another day; well, I have got through a lot of them and I'll probably get through this one too," and I laugh. As I glory in the sunshine, seeing how it lights blue flames upon tree leaves and how it sows the lake with diamonds, I recall the days when sunlight lay upon my soul as heavily as blackness and I thank the Lord that those old days are gone. As I remember the cold fear that at one time would hold me in an agonizing grip if husband or child did not come home on time, I am amazed that nowadays I cannot recall the actual feelings of terror that would send my heart hurtling into my stomach. Nowadays when decisions come to me with lightning speed I remember with wondering joy the old days when it was almost impossible to decide whether to cook rice or potatoes for dinner; when I would stand in the middle of the kitchen floor, head in hands, in an agony of indecision, trying to start the faltering battery of my mind.
Was I crazy in those old days? By no means! And no more are you, those of you who read this. Your emotional tone has dropped too low, that is all. Why? Weariness. Exhaustion from too much tension in your business or from the constant confusion of house and children or from thestrain of holding down the bitter memories of the past or from the battle of the soul against anger and resentment-or from all of these.
Then what shall one do? Rest? That is good but not good enough, for one comes back from vacation and again plunges into turmoil. Then shall one seek to understand oneself and to correct all those matters within one's soul and within one's life that have bound one with chains? There are times when this is possible, but there are other times when it is not. One in the condition which I call mental depression — a condition of such darkness that the pilot light of the soul seems to have gone out — cannot deal alone with the haunting specters of the past. Countless thousands today go to doctors of the mind, and happy are those who have a wise counselor and who can afford to pay him. But far more thousands of thousands cannot avail themselves of professional help and one hopes they will never need to do so. For there are other ways.
One other way is to seek and find the nonprofessional help of a person powerful in prayer and skilled in the understanding of the mind. Such a person can instantly turn on the light in the darkness, and this I know right well, for it has happened to me not once but twice. The first time the change that took place in me through the simple prayer of faith was comparable to the change that takes place in a gas stove when one lights a pilot light that had gone out. This change did not automatically solve all my problems any more than the lighting of the pilot light automatically cooks one's dinner. But the light was there. The power to think and, even more important, to feel had returned. And from that light one could light all the burners, one after another, and could learn to cook with them.
For some thirty years the light stayed on, burning now brighter, now lower. Then there came a time when the pressure of life and its sorrows once more dimmed the light. This time, however, the light did not go out, for I had learned how to feed and to tend it in ways that I shall shortly describe. Indeed, I did not realize that it was once more burning low. I knew that the sorrows of life had increased upon me, but assumed that this was the inevitable result of age and of the tensions of my life. But the Lord sent to me someone who saw my need more clearly than I did, who insisted upon praying for me with faith and vigor, and who quite without any co-operation from me turned on the flame of the spirit with a fire that burned more deeply and more brightly than ever before.
As it happened, both who prayed for me at these different times were ministers.
Therefore take courage. This is not a battle you must fight alone. There is a power that watches over you whether you know it or not. There is the Creator who made you and who therefore cares — as every creator cares for the thing he makes. Being a creator, however, and not a magician or despot, He has given you the wide range of free will and therefore He cannot, or will not, overrule your own power of choice. If you are far away from Him then, you can choose to come back and at least to be near enough to Him so that He can help you.
In The Healing Light I described the prayer of the minister for the healing of a child's illness — the prayer which first opened my mind to the possibility of a direct intervention of God's power. For, like so many who walk only in the dim light of their own feeble minds, I believed that God no longer "manipulated7 His creation; in other words, that creation had ceased.
The Healing Gifts of the Spirit. Copyright © by Agnes Sanford. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.