I just finished attending a two-week long session in February of the River School of Healing made available by Revival Ministries International (RMI) centered at Tampa Bay, Florida. If you are looking for a never-the-same-again transformation experience I highly recommend this.
I don’t have any life-threatening issue affecting me, but I know people who do. I wanted to know what healing meant in a biblical context. That is, I wanted to experience healing as a Christian. And I wanted to be confident I was doing the right thing should I recommend this school to my relatives and friends.
About the School
Although pre-registration is required, the sessions are free. They do accept donations to RMI during the last hour of the last day of the session, but only if the Holy Spirit tells you to do so. Participants themselves are responsible for transportation, food and lodging. A new two-week session starts every two weeks.
Being near the RMI campus there are opportunities to participate in other events such as The Stand every evening except Saturday from 7 pm to about 10:30 pm and Sunday services at The River Church. The instructors, PJ and DNA, of the healing school, led Night 1334 of The Stand.
Finally, this school of healing is NOT a medical school. If you are seeking that kind of training you will need to look elsewhere. The Bible is the only focus in the teaching and even that is from a believing, Holy Spirit led, Christian perspective.
The Two Bookends of the Session
In the classroom many Bible verses appeared on the monitors. The aim of the instructors was to revive us by getting us to receive those verses into our hearts so we could respond with our own words. This blog post is an example of such a response.
There were two verses that acted as bookends. Here is the first one:
Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
That verse should make sense to everyone even to those reading this who aren’t smiling. So, receive it. Don’t take offense. Don’t just think, but receive. Then respond with joy coming out of your mouth. Be that person people want to be around because they know, whatever comes out of your mouth, that you don’t hate them. You might even, and probably do, love them.
The alternative is dry bones. The alternative is death.
Everyone knows this. So, why isn’t everyone merry and healthy? I don’t know of any meaningful justification for such deep rejoicing that does not involve the death and resurrection of Jesus, but no one is going to smile based merely on a theological justification for doing so. Every Christian with a frown on his face, or even a dumb stare, proves that point. They have the doctrine, that is, they have the logical propositions, but they clearly don’t have the heartfelt joy.
Nor do I know of any power whether that comes from some New Age meditation technique or some mind over matter gymnastics that opens the floodgates of rejoicing except what comes from the Holy Spirit. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus which makes you a child of God, a child of the Father, and without the power of the Holy Spirit within you there is only fake rejoicing.
We fake a merry heart through our various addictions and ideologies, but they lead to broken spirits which dry our bones. If you’re smiling right now with true joy that you can feel from your heart, treasure it as a supernatural miracle. Many have no clue what I’m talking about nor what you’re experiencing. It is the pearl without price.
Mark 16:18
…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
This second bookend relates healing specifically to believers in Jesus. Believing Christians have the authority to lay hands on the sick in the name of Jesus with the expectation that the sick will recover.
It is important to keep in mind that this assumes those who are sick want to recover. This healing is not a magic trick nor is it a mechanical procedure. It does not go against the wills of those who are sick.
There are many people who feel so unloved that they want to die. They need to know that they are loved. There are some who don’t want to lose their disability benefits. They need to lose their fears. And there are some who just plain enjoy what they’re addicted to (sugar, porn, anger, dubious “highs”). They need to grow up.
Let’s exclude those classes of people who want to be sick (unless they choose to repent). The rest shall recover.
Testimony
When we think of healing in terms of having the authority to lay hands on someone and of recovery as a sign, testimonies become the way those signs are made known to others. So, if we’re sick and we honestly want to recover, we should be ready to give our testimonies. It is our joyful response to what we have received in our hearts.
______
And that’s it!
That’s my testimony of how my view of the world changed in two weeks at The River School of Healing. I had a sick view going in without even knowing it, but I am seeing more clearly today. Thank you, Jesus! Hallelujah!
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 