Mark’s Healing Journey

Mark’s Healing Journey

One late summer evening everything changed for me. I had turned twenty-five years of age about a month before, and I had been looking for answers for some time. Walking into the meeting hall I was wondering how I came to this point. I was a professed atheist, a workaholic who hardly had time to sleep; and here I was coming to this place to spend a whole evening with people I hardly knew, listening to some speaker from the Midwest that I didn’t know either. What was I thinking? This is how I got there….

I had become quite ill over the previous year. I had been to a number of doctors, including a specialist; but no one could figure out what was wrong with me. I was a fairly successful sales rep for a hardware distributor, and my territory was in southern New England. It was a beautiful place to live, especially in the fall; but I really didn’t appreciate it at the time. I was far too busy working night and day, seven days a week, to notice. This fast-paced lifestyle and my around-the-clock work habits eventually took its toll on me, and I began having episodes of pretty severe physical symptoms from some unknown illness. These symptoms included my heart beating rapidly and palpitating, breaking out in a cold sweat, and shallow breathing, accompanied at times by dizziness. It got so bad earlier that summer that I could hardly drive to my customers’ stores. Today I know that they were panic attacks, brought on by high levels of work-related stress. At that time, however, no one I knew had the expertise or experience to make that diagnosis.

On one particularly bad day while I was still hours from home, I began suffering frequent episodes of severe panic attacks. These were only exasperated by the heat and humidity of the day, especially since my company car was not air-conditioned at the time. To make matters even worse, the radio announcer kept reminding me over and over again that the temperature was a steamy 102 degrees. He kept repeating this witty play on words because the radio station I was tuned to was 102.9 FM. I used to listen to that station back then because they had a nice mix of oldies and current hits. That day, however, the constant reminders of the 102-degree temperature didn’t help my state of mind or my symptoms. You would think that I would have had the presence of mind to change the station, but in that part of New England there weren’t a lot of other options. All things considered, though, it probably would have been worse turning the radio off. If I was left alone with my thoughts, I would likely have felt even more stress. At least the radio was somewhat of a distraction from my symptoms.

It took me a very long time to make it home that day, having to stop along the way to cool down and catch my breath. Finally, after arriving home hours later than normal, I poured myself a cold drink and went downstairs where it was cooler. I collapsed into my easy chair exhausted from the day and found myself saying these words, “God, there’s got to be more to life than this!” I just didn’t understand why this was happening to me. I had everything that should make me happy. I had a beautiful wife whom I loved and who loved me, a wonderful young son, my own home, and a sports car, all of which should make me happy. Why was I so miserable? Why was I in such physical and emotional turmoil?

“God, There’s Got to Be More to Life Than This!”

At the moment that I said those few simple words, “God, there’s got to be more to life than this”, I felt something change on the inside of me, down deep in my belly. It was almost imperceptible, but I felt like something clicked inside, knowing at the same time that everything would be all right. Ironically, I had completely missed the fact that this day was also my birthday. Little did I know how appropriate that was because the events of that day, my 25th birthday, would alter the course of the rest of my life.

About the same time that all this was happening, my company opened a new account with one of the largest retailers in my area, and we became one of their hardware suppliers. Although they had agreed to use us, they were slow getting started. I decided to spend more time there hoping to get things moving. This gave me the unexpected opportunity to become acquainted with the store manager. He was a really nice guy and very knowledgeable about our industry, and he appeared to have taken a liking to me.

I found that the manager was not only passionate about work but that he had other interests, as well. Some of these went much deeper than running a store or a company. I wasn’t really sure what these interests were all about at the time, but I was intrigued by the fact that he knew something about life that I didn’t. He eventually invited me to come to a meeting at the offices of a local manufacturer to hear a speaker from Chicago who was also his mentor. This speaker was a retired aeronautical engineer who had become a pastor. I was told that the speaker was scheduled to speak on various topics related to the spiritual side of life. I felt in my heart that I should go; and since my life was falling apart anyway, what would it hurt?

I decided to go hear this speaker from Chicago, but I didn’t want to go alone. I invited my wife and my mom, and the three of us joined the store manager and his friend at the event. I can’t recall what the pastor’s topic was that evening, but I do remember quite vividly what happened.

Healed in a Flash

The five of us were sitting in the back row of the meeting hall. It was a nice facility that could seat a few hundred people comfortably. About halfway through the pastor’s talk I began to have the symptoms of a severe panic attack. Not wanting to embarrass my host or myself I stood up to leave. Beginning to move down the aisle I happened to look up at the speaker who was teaching at the front of the room. Suddenly I saw a bright white light completely encircle him, and then I saw him bow his head. The next thing that happened was truly amazing. As soon as he dropped his head a bolt of brilliant light shot down from the front of the room and hit me. That lightning strike was so strong that it literally threw me back into my chair. This flash of electricity surged through my entire body and then slowly dissipated. I sat there dazed, wondering what had happened. It was then I realized that all my symptoms had disappeared. I was completely healed from the panic attacks that had plagued me for years, and I have been free from them ever since.

This was just the beginning. Since that day, the day in which I encountered the healing power of God I have seen many healings. I have learned that God wants us well and that His Son Jesus Christ came to make healing available to everyone. I also learned that there are certain principles that when rightly understood and applied can help us all receive and keep our healing.

A list of seven healing principles is available at the Training Tab.