Testimony of Healing July 16, 2007 Issue

HEALED DURING CHURCH

JONA STUTLER

For many years, I suffered with what had been diagnosed as bronchial asthma. This condition would arise during certain seasons of the year. Exposures to various smells, even taking a walk outdoors, would sometimes result in a feeling of restricted breathing, combined with other distressing symptoms.

As a student of Christian Science, I have had many healing experiences in my life that prove the practical effect of prayer. And so, in this case, I prayed persistently to see myself more clearly as a child of God. Thinking about my spiritual identity, I would often turn to the creation account found in the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible. In this chapter, I loved the idea that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (1:31). I prayed to behold myself and others in this perfect light of God's goodness.

This description of the Kingdom of Heaven from Science and Health also helped a great deal: "The reign of harmony in divine Science ... the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme" (p. 590). From this, and from many of Jesus' statements in the Bible, I saw that because the kingdom of heaven is already here, I could never be outside of that "reign of harmony."