Praying for a swollen ankle

April 9, 2025

A few weeks ago a woman who had a swollen ankle for over a week asked me to pray for her. Not feeling very anointed, I swallowed and said "OK" and laid both my hands on her ankle. I asked the Holy Spirit to come and release His healing power.

And then I waited.

After about two minutes I looked up at her face to see whether there were any visible signs of the Holy Spirit touching her. These visible signs or "manifestations" are well-documented in Vineyard literature (for example see page 212 in John Wimber's book Power Healing) and can range from violent shaking or falling over to slight trembling, eyelids fluttering, breathing slowing down, a feeling of warmth, and so on. Often when I pray for someone's healing, one or more of these manifestations occur in the subject indicating that the Holy Spirit is present and the person's healing has begun.

But not this time.

So I looked down at her swollen ankle and continued praying. I prayed silently and earnestly, using a formulaic prayer that I had once learned from John Wimber: "Oh God, oh God, oh God..."

After a few minutes I asked the woman if she felt anything happening. "No," she replied, and when we examined her ankle together it still looked the same. I asked if I could continue to pray, and she said Yes. So once again I laid my hands around her ankle and prayed, silently repeating another formulaic prayer that John Wimber taught people in the early days of the Vineyard: "Help! Help!! Help!!!"

And once again, I waited.

Then after a few more minutes I noticed something happening. But it wasn't happening to the woman—it was happening to me! A feeling of peace had come upon me. My breathing had also slowed down and my posture had changed, making me lean more forward. I thought, Hey, just a minute! This kind of stuff is supposed to happen to the person being prayed for, not the person doing the praying! But I accepted what was happening and welcomed the presence of the Holy Spirit—and then I felt faith rising in me that God was going to heal.

A few more minutes passed, and then we looked at her ankle again. There was still no change, so I just said I'd be happy to pray for her again the next day. She agreed to this, and we ended our ministry session together.

But about two hours later the woman told me the swelling in her ankle had diminished. "That's great!" I said, and thanked God that I hadn't completely blown it ministering to her. And the next day she reported that her ankle was back to normal, and when I asked her about a week later, it was still normal.

So God healed her.

Lessons learned

What lessons can we learn from this story? First, learn how to recognize signs when the Holy Spirit releases healing gifts. And second, follow up with people when you pray for their healing. In this case when I talked with her later, she said she thought the condition might have been caused because she ate too much sugar (too many desserts). I'm not a physician or nutritionist, but I know from personal experience how over-consumption of sugar can have a negative impact on your health, so I simply agreed and suggested she learn to say No to desserts :-)

Hope this helps. Peace, everyone.

—Mitch

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