"Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you…" Exodus 23:25
Charles Sydney Price moved from Great Britain to North America in 1887. He
became a Methodist minister in Spokane, Washington, where he stayed for 12
years before moving to California to pastor a First Congregational Church.
In 1921, he was made aware of a nearby Aimee Semple revival meeting. Price
had heard of these revivals from several of his church member who had
reported experiencing the Holy Spirit in such revivals; and hoping to gather
evidence to teach against this doctrine,he decided to attend. The opposite
happened. He became convicted of his own emptiness, and on the third night,
he publically responded to an altar call. He was instantly filled with
inexplicable joy. He would receive the “filling of the Spirit” a few nights
later, and he began to speak in tongues.
Price went back to his own church and gave his testimony. A thousand members
of his church began holding seekers meetings, crying out to God for His
presence. Evangelistic outreaches were begun, and Price began to see people
healed in his meetings.
Unfortunately, Price was highly criticized by the leaders of his church, and
this pushed him to leave the Congregational Church and begin his own church.
He then began holding evangelistic meetings in Oregon and British Columbia,
where he preached to at least 250,000 people, many of whom were healed.
Charles then began holding revivals in other places: Italy, Norway, England,
Egypt, even Palestine. He traveled over a million miles with his revivals.
Everywhere he went he saw miraculous healings as thousands came to Christ.
One day, early on in his ministry, Charles had the opportunity to pray for
Reverend W. J. Knott. The Reverend had been suffering from a large goiter
for the past 10 years. He also suffered with palpitations of the heart and
had intense headaches and severe eye problems. As Charles prayed for him,
the entire congregation watched as the goiter shrank until it completely
disappeared. The heart palpitations stopped at the same time, and the
Reverend’s headaches and eye problems were also cured.
In Saskatoon, a woman had undergone surgery “in which the organs in her body
had been removed”. The doctors assured her that because of the lost
“organs”, it would be impossible for her to bear a child. After Price prayed
for her, she went on to become pregnant and to bear a child. The doctors
were baffled. The only explanation was that her “removed” organ had grown
back!
Nothing is too difficult for our Heavenly Father. After all, the One who
created the cosmos out of nothing can heal anything out of nothing!
Rob Chaffart