By Dr. Jacquelyn Simmons
Scripture: When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:13-19).
After God allowed me to finish delivering His sermon, “The Box”, Rev. Nash opened the doors to God’s church to whoever wanted to enter. After the offering, he told those persons in the audience who wanted me to pray for them to approach the altar. A great magnitude of people gathered around the front of the pulpit in order to whisper their prayer request to me. Rev. Nash evidently realizing that we would be in service for a long time, asked those persons who had not expressed their prayer request to me to please return the next night-thereby establishing “The Healing Services Ministry”.
Quite a number of people actually came the next night and the Healing Service lasted from that night in 1978 until God closed many of His church services with His pandemics. God also instructed Rev. Nash to include prayers during His regular church services each Sunday. On His church bulletin, it was listed at noon as “Hour of Power”. I was listed on the church bulletin cover as His assistant. Wow!!! Attendees approached the altar where I was permitted to stand and whispered their prayer requests to me who in turn, prayed for them-whatever they were. Some asked for healing in different parts of their bodies which God had instructed me to touch. Many times, their prayers were answered to my surprise, also.
During that noon-hour prayer time, I also called the systems of the body which I had learned from Mrs. DeLoney, a biology instructor at Grambling College (University) while I was an attendee.
Mrs. DeLoney was a highly respected Biology instructor and God blessed me to be one of her students. When instructed by her for her classes’ final examination to draw and label the parts of the human body, I was frightened out my wits as were many of my classmates.
If this child of the living God ever needed HIM, I needed HIM then. I was sure many of my classmates were as nervous as I. I prayfully tackled the task by drawing a stick figure (I was not given the gift of artistry at birth) so, I knew that part of the test would probably seem as if I were trying to be comical.
So, I prayfully drew a stick figure and inserted lines to the section of the body where I thought certain parts should be located and placed their names there, and prayfully handed in my test paper. I really prayed for a miracle that week until assigned to return to her classroom.
Well, God answered my prayers in that He did not let me fail the test or He did bless me with a “C”. One of the only two ‘s I had ever receive in school. But, She did write a note on the test which said, “My body does not look like this and I hope yours does not look like this either.”
My friends, I had a difficult time controlling my dancing feet when I saw the “C”. I could not make out the systems myself. But God….
Interestingly, I had no idea God was preparing me for His ministry. He would assign me in the future to stand before His congregations and name the systems of their body and He would choose the persons He want to heal as a result. GOD! GOD!! GOD!!!
