My healing journey began in earnest with the diagnosis of a serious incurable disease, Multiple Sclerosis. Accustomed to being self-reliant, I had long managed chronic illnesses and risk factors, but this was different. I couldn’t do anything about it. I was ill and in pain and had been told that it was progressing.
It was a devastating diagnosis.
The diagnosis coincided with the awareness that I deeply wanted a relationship with God. I had begun to engage the spiritual process and knew that I needed to surrender my personal will to a God-aligned will.
“There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen
On Bishop Dana Duryea’s advice, I began to receive regular healings at healing circles, private sessions with Padre Paul Funfsinn, meditations with the Entities of Light, etc. I had no idea what to expect.
Initially, all my healings brought up resistance to knowing and loving God: my rough edges of egoity,
fear, effort, and self-reliance. I felt deeply and painfully separated from God and that this was killing me, perhaps literally. What was being revealed was what needed to be healed. It was a very difficult period. After months of this I finally asked for help. Padre Paul said I needed to have some discipline to reach out to God. He recommended I read the Bible. Almost immediately, I began to feel a sense of presence. I began to notice that after every healing I felt a little happier. My thinking about God began to change.
The sense of presence grew and with it the beginnings of inner peace.
A turning point came at a West of Heaven event about seven months after I began this journey. A powerful healing released whatever had come between me and God. A second healing brought a
beautiful loving energy into my heart and all around me. I knew that I had a relationship with God. Padre Paul called it a baptism of Spirit. Everything began to change.
Healing started to come a little bit at time, small improvements in symptoms, emotions, thinking. At a healing circle, Bishop Dana shared his own healing journey, saying that healing takes place in small
steps. In addition to spiritual, mental, and emotional healings, I also had begun to heal physically. A little less pain, a little less fatigue and malaise. Bigger steps came at the four-day retreats. I was given the gift of forgiveness which made it possible for me to forgive myself. An improvement in neck pain. A release from my state of illness, boredom, and apathy. I woke up happy for the first time in years. Bishop Dana talked about how healing begins with a relationship; I love you God, I need you God, thank you God. My relationship with God deepened. I began to enjoy life again. My creativity returned. I became capable of receptivity.
“We must seek God first and then find health and prosperity through Him.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
Reading Yogananda's reference to Matthew 6:33, I felt that he was telling me there is just one thing for me to do. I took this literally and began to spend more time with scripture and in meditation. It became clear that my one priority is my relationship with God. I felt that I was being drawn in.
Healing continued a little at a time. When I looked back a year, I could see what had changed. I had less pain, more energy, I felt less ill. An 80% reduction in jaw pain. A lessening of numbness in my feet. A reduction in shoulder pain. But the real healing was in my relationship with God. Little by little my life was remade. Through grace, I began to change my habits, reigning in distractions and reordering my life to make room for God. Things began to shift. Prayer became my focus. I developed a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Faith emerged and became a certainty. I felt grateful. I began to feel loved.
I discovered that healing can happen in many ways. Anywhere, any time. When you are at a healing
event or when you are at not. Hands on or not. While praying, but also when reading, watching a movie, taking a shower. When you least expect it. A piece at a time. Slowly, looking back year over year. It can also happen instantaneously, but this is rare.
As I grow, as my relationship with God deepens, the healing process is speeding up. In the last year I
have received some remarkable healings. Feeling returned to my feet, which had been numb for nearly 18 years. My relationship with my parents has healed. I feel only love for them now after 70 years of pain. I no longer have insomnia after nearly 25 years.
It has been four years since this healing journey began. I have healed a great deal and my health
continues to improve. I still don’t know what to expect, but what is constant now is God’s love and
healing on every level. As my commitment to God strengthens, the love I feel for Him - and my
confidence in His love - increases daily. Ultimately, I realize, the only thing I really need to heal is my
separation from God. This body will never be immortal, but God is.
By Karen R.
