One of the pastors of a Vineyard church in the Los Angeles area sent me the following story in an e-mail 6/10/2013:
On July 11th, 2000, my eldest son Peter died at age 18 after battling Leukemia for three years. The night of his death , my wife discovered that he had stopped breathing and he was rushed to the ER. After waiting with some close friends, we were led into the treatment room to see his lifeless body lying on a metal table. Because we believe that resurrection from the dead is possible through the power of God, I felt led to cry out for the Lord to bring him back. Everyone in the room joined us as we prayed. After awhile, I told the Lord that I would not stop praying unless He made it abundantly clear that I was to stop. A few minutes later I had a very clear vision of my son Peter looking out of heaven with a huge smile on his face telling me that he didn’t want to come back. At that point I knew the Lord wanted me to let him go so I stopped contending for his return only to be left with the worst memory of my life; that of my dead son’s body on that hospital table. Even with the assurance that he was in heaven, for the next 12 years, that memory would bring intense pain and grief.
However, after learning about Immanuel healing and beginning to both receive Immanuel healing prayer as well as teaching it to others, I had an extraordinary experience related to that memory. I was leading a group Immanuel healing exercise in a seminar I was teaching. In the midst of the exercise, the Lord brought up the memory of the night Peter died. As He played back the memory, this time He showed me that after Peter had finished saying he didn’t want to come back to earth, he turned away from me, and from his profile, I could see that he had refocused his attention on the Lord. His face was bathed in brilliant light and his whole being exploded with joy. As I watched this scene, something deep inside my own mind and spirit erupted with overwhelming intensity and longing to be there with him and see what he was seeing and encounter God like he was. To my surprise, this totally removed the grief from this memory and now when it comes to mind, I no longer focus on Peter’s dead body, our loss of his presence with us and all the pain that goes along with this. Instead, I see him looking into the brilliance of the Lord’s face and feel the exploding joy once again. I can’t really explain it, but this experience changed my heart and mind so much that I feel free of the pain and grief related to this memory at the deepest level of my being.
~Karl Lehman, M.D., personal collection of Immanuel stories