A HEALING SERVICE

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Last night, Mary Ann and I attended a healing service conducted by the Rev. D. Michael “Mike” Peterson at Leominster Assembly of God in Leominster, MA. Mike Peterson is an old friend. (Yes, we’re both getting old!) I met Mike and his family back in 1976 at the old Walpole Assembly of God church. In those days, he worked full-time as a plumber. Mike had a powerful testimony: he was well known in Walpole as a heavy drinker and a tough guy, and had been completely “saved” and transformed by the Lord Jesus Christ. The former fighting drunk was now a fine Christian young man. Mike often sang “special music” at church. Everybody loved to hear him sing because he has a great singing voice, almost as good as Elvis Presley’s.

In the late 1980s, Mike began spending a lot of time with me. He was taking Bible and ministry correspondence courses through the Assemblies of God and he told me and several close friends that God was calling him into a healing ministry.
I remember that many were skeptical about this. One woman told me, “Mike is calling HIMSELF into the ministry.” Behind Mike’s back there was a lot of doubt and skepticism about his declared calling. I was blessed to tutor Mike as he prepared for his examination to become a Licensed Assemblies of God minister. Mary Ann and I were happy for Mike when he became “The Reverend Mike Peterson” officially. I was one of the first to have Mike preach and conduct a healing service at the church I pastored. In those days, Mike wasn’t much of a public speaker and he kind of struggled through it.

That was twenty years ago. Today, Mike lives in Florida and preaches and conducts healing services all over America. Mary Ann and I hadn’t seen Mike in probably around five years. He was at Leominster for several healing services over the weekend, and we went to the concluding service, Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

Mike sang one contemporary Christian “oldie but goodie” song to a soundtrack, and preached a good sermon on healing. Although he tends to say “you know” a lot, his preaching is 100% better than it was in 1990- the years of experience are evident. I guarantee some “AG” preachers of today would not have agreed with his sermon. Mike preaches the old time Pentecostal message that “healing is in the atonement”- pretty much a cardinal doctrine of the “AG” in the pre-1950 era that’s been greatly watered down in our day.

Having spent about twenty-eight years in full-time ministry, I’ve certainly seen all sorts of healing services: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sadly, there’s a lot of “phony baloney” stuff that goes in healing services and even a lot of that in AG circles.

I love Mike, and I was open to whatever God wanted to do, but I was also objective and thoughtful about what would take place. Mike asked for testimonies of healing from any of the previous services. The pastor’s wife testified, saying she’d had an injury and had not been able to bend her finger beyond a certain point, but that she was healed in one of the services and she demonstrated that it was bending fine. There were several other testimonies given. Following Mike’s sermon he began calling out a lot of specific healings that were taking place, similar to what happens in a Benny Hinn service and what used to happen in Kathryn Khulman’s ministry. He must have rattled off at least fifteen specific healings. Mike then called for people who’d been healed to come forward. As happens in any healing service of this type, some said things like, “I’m claiming this or that,” which to me doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot. However, there were specifically two healings I witnessed which were impressive.

Following the initial coming forward of people who’d said they’d been healed, Mike opened things up for people to come up and be prayed for to be healed. One middle-aged woman with asthma came up to be prayed for. She said she had a tightness in her chest. I was sitting about halfway back in the church auditorium, and I could hear the woman wheezing as she spoke into the portable microphone. Mike laid hands on her and prayed for her. He then told her to take a deep breath.

I guess I didn’t have much faith, because I thought, “Boy, he’s taking an awful risk. If she starts wheezing and coughing, he’s going to look foolish!”

She took several deep breaths. There was absolutely no wheezing. She had a big smile and proclaimed her asthma was gone! It was. She went back to her seat very happy. A bit later, Mike pointed out a guy wearing a blue striped shirt who looked to be around 55. “Brother, I think you’ve been wanting to come up here but you keep hesitating.” The guy admitted that was so. Mike urged him to come down and be prayed for. The guy was sitting directly across the aisle from where I was sitting. He got up and began coming forward. He had a slight limp and appeared to have some sort of physical disability. He told Mike he’d fallen about a week earlier.

“I think I did somethin’ to my tailbone!” he said.

Mike asked if he’d been to the doctor, and he hadn’t. He said the pain was worst when he was sitting down. Mike laid hands on him and prayed for him. He then had the guy sit down and get up a few times. The guy smiled in amazement and said all the pain was gone. He walked back to his seat with no limp. Across the aisle he was smiling and telling his wife he was healed, and he was truly rejoicing.

I know that skeptical readers may say the woman and man were “plants” to make Mike look good. I know Mike and I know the pastor. They WEREN’T.

I know this raises a million questions and the big one is, “Why isn’t everybody healed?” If I knew the answer to that, I would write a book and make a million dollars. I don’t know. My sister and I laid hands on our accountant eight years ago and prayed for him to be miraculously healed of cancer. HE WAS! I see him every year at tax time, and he continues to proclaim that he was miraculously healed. Yet, we prayed for our mother, and despite all our prayers and best wishes, she died of bone cancer ten years ago. I get colds and flu and all sorts of stuff. I know one time I prayed to be healed of the flu and I got over it very fast. But, another time I had it for ten days. No, I don’t have all the answers.

God is God. His thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways. (See Isaiah 55:8-9). But last night’s service reminded me that God still heals today. If you need a healing, ask Him!

You may also want to check out Mike Peterson’s website which is found at:

http://www.ariseministriesfl.com