Healing/Prayer Blanket Testimony
In the fall of 2001,I started making blankets for the God, we had recently moved from Portland, OR to a small town in Kentucky. The Lord connected us with a family whose 5 year old daughter had been diagnosed since she was a baby with a brain tumor. One night this family invited us for dinner and the child's mother shared with me about the miracle of her daughter's life. They felt led by the Lord to buy me a sewing machine after having seen the flags and banners I had sewn by hand and gave me a sewing lesson because I had never sewn on a sewing machine before.
I loved sewing and as soon as I would start the sewing machine up I would naturally start praying. The Lord started showing me that whenever I turned the machine on and started to sew that it was an act of intercession for this little girl's healing. Throughout the two years we lived in KY, when different medical situations came up for this child I would start to sew and pray.
One day the secretary at the church we were at gave me a piece of fleece material and asked me to sew a blanket for her grandson who was a few months old. At the same time there was another child, Anna, at the church who had been battling a liver illness. She was in the emergency care and I had felt a burden to pray for her. so I began to sew a binder onto the piece of fleece given to me by the church secretary. First the color thread wasn't right, then the binder wasn't right and so on. It took a week to finish sewing around this piece of fleece, but while I was ripping out and sewing I prayed for Anna. the Lord started to show me that it was intercession for Anna. also during this time of prayer I heard the Holy Spirit tell me that He wanted me to make blankets for His children that are sick. He told me if I would be obedient to sew and pray over them that He would use the blankets to heal His people. Also that all the blankets I sewed on the machine, given to me by the family of the little girl diagnosed with the life threatening illness, were to be a seed sewn toward this child's healing. He also gave me the scripture in Acts 19:11,12 "And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." I believe He was showing me what He was going to do through these blankets if I would be obedient to make them.
So I bought myself some fleece, began to make blankets, and as the Holy Spirit led, I gave them out to those believing for their healing. When I started making the blankets the little girl who gave me the sewing machine, along with her mom, grandmother, aunt and I were meeting frequently to pray together. I would bring the blankets along for us to pray over during our prayer time. I believe this season when the five of us prayed together, was a birthing time for the healing/blanket ministry the Lord was starting to release.
The Lord started giving me very specific simple instructions for the blankets. He told me to sew red thread around the edge for the covering of His blood. If I wasn't able to use red thread, He showed me that blue was for peace and rest, green was for growth, prosperity, life and that purple was for power, authority and deliverance. He would show me which patterns to buy and what their prophetic meaning was, revelation about the colors, and the scripture that went with the pattern. The prophetic meaning, colors and scripture for the pattern helps direct the prayer over the blanket; fire, feathers/covering psalm 91, fruitfulness, leaves for healing, pink for healing, yellow for His glory etc.
I had been sewing the blankets about a month, when one day while in the town's Christian bookstore I saw these labels with the scripture Act 19:11,12 for sale. I knew I was to purchase these labels and start sewing them in the corner of the blanket, since this was the scripture He had given me and the message of His plans. The Lord began to show me that when I would sew the blankets that this was a holy time of worship and intercession as His priest. I always anoint my hands before I start each sewing/prayer session and begin by praying our Acts 19:11,12... that the Lord would anoint my hands to wrought special miracles of healing like Paul's... Then I always will pray for the specific needs of the person I am making the blanket for. He also instructed me to anoint the 4 corners of the blanket with oil for the 4 corners of the earth & total covering of His anointing. The Holy spirit instructed me to roll the blankets up and tie them with the cord I cut off the fleece.
Many months later I was given a book by Kenneth Hagen and in it was several pages about Acts 19: 11,12. In the book there is a chapter called "Anointed with Power". This chapter talks about how God had anointed Paul with power. When Paul laid hands on those cloths, they became storage batteries, so to speak, of God's power. Then, when those cloths were laid on peoples bodies, that power was transmitted to their bodies, the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. It went on to say that God anoints men and woman with healing power today and anyone may receive of that anointing by faith. I realized when I read this, why the Lord has me roll the blankets and tie them. They look like a battery and are a storage battery of His power. When the blankets are opened and laid upon His people His anointing/power is released. During this time I had such a desire in my heart for the Lord to impart into me this power/gift of healing. I would pray constantly for the healing anointing power to be imparted to me.
After we had moved to Florida, at the new church we were at, a man came to the church named Supressa from South Africa. He was involved with Heidi and Roland Baker's ministry in South Africa. Supressa carried the healing power anointing and that night he called forth those who would like to have this healing power anointing imparted into them. I stepped out in faith, knowing that this had been a desire of my heart for awhile. As soon as he touched my wrists I could feel the transfer/release of the healing anointing in the palms of my hands and I have felt it ever since. I truly believe the gift/power of healing was imparted that night to me and it is released out the palms of my hands, I can feel it. Now when I sew the blankets the Lord showed me to place my left palm on the material as it passes through the machine and my other hand up to Him.
Next the Lord started to show me that I was to make the blankets available along side our worship CDs at our tape table when we are at conferences. He showed me that it would help to get them out because He was going to send them all over the world to heal His people. Also selling them would help supply the funds for buying many more yards of fleece to make the blankets. I am known at the fabric stores as the fleece lady because of the many bolts of fleece I have in my carts. The Lord always opens a door for the blanket testimony and to why someone would want so much fleece. Many testimonies have come forth about how the blankets have brought comfort, rest and peace. There have been testimonies of a burning radiating heat/sparks, some have been healed of sleeping disorders, food allergies, depression, drug addiction, back pain, and witchcraft. People having more serious illnesses have written that they can feel their healing manifest a little each day, they cover every day with their blankets.
As for the little girl, Rachel, whose mom had a leading from God to buy me a sewing machine, she went home to be with the Lord in 2005 at the age of nine. She is greatly missed on this earth by her parents, family and friends, however we know she is in heaven singing and in complete health, with no more pain.
I am truly blessed and so thankful to God to have known Rachel, she lives forever in my heart and truly has been the inspiration for the blanket ministry and my quest to help others through the arts. It is an honor to have been chosen by the Lord to help others for His Kingdom and purposes on the earth.
Blessings!
Lisa Swanson