Kathryn Kuhlman's Las Vegas crusade was, I believe, a high point in her ministry. "Sin City" opened its heart and city to her and the Las Vegas Convention Center was packed the day of her crusade there in 1975. I was sitting in the first balcony, first row. I could see the stage perfectly. I did not want to miss a thing. As a young minister, I was eager to see the power of God move in the hearts and lives of people. Sometime during the service a breeze blew from the right side of where I was sitting. Since it was hot in the building and there was no air movement, the breeze caught my attention. I followed the direction of the breeze even though I could not see any visible sign of it. I followed it from my right to my left and I kept looking in the direction that I thought the breeze was going. As I watched towards my left, I saw a commotion down on the convention center floor, near the edge of the balcony. I saw people moving around and suddenly a gurney begin to move. I realized then that I had seen this gurney come in earlier, before the service started. When they came in, the person on that gurney was very still and was obviously being attended to by medical people. By the time the gurney, and the person pushing it reached the platform, the whole place had gone nuts. I don't remember all the details of the story, but I do remember that this person was near death. They had been brought to the service against doctor's wishes and now this person was strong enough to push their gurney all the way to the platform. This event was made all the more real to me because I had seen this person being wheeled in earlier, and now I had witnessed a tremendous miracle. A lot happened that day, it was quite an experience. By the way, you can see Kathy in this picture of the platform. Look for the harp.
On one of our trips to Los Angeles for a service at the Shrine Auditorium, I went to the Kuhlman office with Kathy's father to pick up up music for the choir rehearsal that night. I sat out in the reception area while Paul gathered the music. Just as I sat down, Miss Kuhlman and one of assistants came through the door. Paul introduced me. He and Miss Kuhlman's assistant went into another office to get what they needed and Miss Kuhlman sat down and we had the opportunity to talk. I asked her the one question I had wondered about ever since my interest in the miracle healing power of God had gripped me. "How does God heal?" "How do you put yourself in the position for God to work through you so miraculously?" I sat with baited breath, knowing I was going to find out one of the deepest and most hidden secrets of Christian ministry. Her answer was, "I don't know". In my mind I thought, "how can you not know?" We talked some more about the meetings, she was interested in my ministry and my family, and we enjoyed a few more minutes together and we all left the office. The next day, at the service, I had the backstage experience I described yesterday. Then I knew the deepest and most hidden secret of divine healing ministry...total reliance on God's power, resting on a humble servant. I will never forget that year.
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