Book Review: Surprised by Healing

Written by Delores Winder –
Reviewed by Donald James Parker –

The story of Delores Winder is one which should grab people’s attention. She has encountered God in ways that most of us can only vaguely envision. And the ironic thing is that she fought God with all the strength she had despite his manifest presence in her life. I found myself a bit jealous at the lengths that God went to woo her to His service. I’d like to think that with a fraction of her blessings I would firmly plant myself on God’s bandwagon. I know that might be a little presumptuous. For all I know I have had similar types of blessings and have ignored the Lord’s work in my life just as a blatantly as she did. We really won’t know this side of Heaven how much work the Holy Spirit did in nurturing our walk with the Creator. In any case, God worked a mighty miracle in her life but Delores was reticent to accept it and loathed acknowledging it. But God didn’t give up.

This is a book about healing, but the author did not even believe in healing. After she herself was healed and delivered from a death sentence, she was almost shanghaied into service to heal others. She told God not to heal people when she spoke. She ran from God much like Jonah did. She didn’t end up in the belly of a whale but ended up with a whale of a tale to tell and it’s all in this book. Her husband Bill helped her tell it, and they do a commendable job. I don’t know anyone who is not touched in some fashion by disease and injury. Everyone has a family member or good friend who is in desperate need of the healing power of God. The author provides hope for people that God is still a deity of miracles today. She was perhaps one of the biggest skeptics on earth before she felt the touch and was restored from being an invalid and on her death bed to a vibrant woman involved in a grateful ministry to those hurting around her. God not only healed her body, but he healed her heart and created within her the desire to bring God’s restoration to other humans. The healing of her heart may have been the biggest miracle.

The battle rages between those who believe in the cessation of the gifts of the Spirit and those who walk in those gifts. Delores has been in both camps during her lifetime. Any intelligent and rational human must consider this woman’s testimony in regard to this debate. How could such a stubborn and skeptical woman become a poster child for God’s miracles without the authentic touch of God? Ms. Winder is not an ordinary person. She has God’s anointing on her life. Kathryn Kuhlman poured into Delores’s life, and now she passes on the anointing to others as her protégés practice the ripple effect by healing others. Hopefully, some of her protégés will spawn more protégés. And perhaps some of them will have books to write.

Delores had put God into a very tiny box and refused to believe that He could escape it. When she finally let herself realize that He was not only capable but willing to heal people, she slashed the box into Paper Mache. If you’re guilty of squishing God into your own paradigm, you need to read this book and discover a new dimension to your Creator. I double dog dare you. Perhaps your skepticism is beyond repair, but then again maybe you’re desperate for more of God and perhaps desperate for a miracle for yourself or a loved one. You may never be involved with a miraculous healing. I’m not quite sure how God governs this process and why some people are able to dole out or receive healing. But I can guarantee you that God moves in mysterious ways and it seems that he is pouring His spirit out upon this planet with healings and with dreams and visions. Give Him a chance to show you. Your life may never be the same.

About the reviewer: Donald James Parker is a novelist and computer programmer who resides in Madison, South Dakota. Check out his website at www.donaldjamesparker.com.