The Healing Presence: Curing the Soul Through Union with Christ

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Summary: The Author Is Not Who She Seems To Be
Review: "The Healing Presence" is filled with a lot of good insight and information about how to receive emotional and spiritual healing. However, the author doesn't seem to practice what she preaches. Before telling the incident below, I just want to point out that I used to be the biggest fan of Leanne Payne. I really thought she was one of the most amazing Christians on the face of the planet. But it seems that in real life she is a very different person from the one who writes her books.

Before I go further, I would like to mention a few things (relevant to my story) that Payne discusses in "The Healing Presence." One thing she emphasizes *very* strongly is listening prayer. From the various stories she relates as well as quotes of some words she claims to have received directly from God, you would think that if *anyone* could hear words from God clearly, it would be Leanne Payne. Furthermore, in her book, she mentions that when praying for others, we must speak only the words that God gives us. In addition, she states that if God is not saying a word, then we should NEVER insert our own unaided human wisdom in its place in a misguided attempt to help someone. Now, let me relate the incident below.

I have a friend who was having serious problems and was deeply suicidal. He needed help and healing, and he thought that Leanne Payne could help him. He wrote a very emotional letter to her in which he spilled his guts out about the problems he was facing. To any normal person, it would have been very clear from his letter that he was in great need of hope and healing from God. Well, the response he got back from her was unbelievable. Not only did her response fail to help him, it left him twice as suicidal as before!!! After reading her letter, he was inconsolable and without hope. (It's a miracle from God that he didn't kill himself immediately after reading her letter. But the credit for that goes only to God.) Her letter was very cold, callous, and even condemning. In her letter, she didn't once mention "God," "Jesus," or even "prayer"!! Nor did she offer a single word of compassion or encouragement. It's hard for me to believe that the same person who wrote her books wrote this letter to him. (Yes, the letter was personally signed by Leanne Payne herself. The signature wasn't stamped, and the letter wasn't a form letter.) I don't think Payne prayed for even two seconds before responding to his letter. There were no "healing words" from God there. She simply inserted her own unfeeling, unaided human wisdom to someone who was deeply suicidal. Well, this so-called "wisdom" from her was completely off-base and useless, and it left my friend without any hope.

I think most people who aren't even Christians would have sent a more compassionate, caring, and helpful response to my friend than Leanne Payne did. When someone is suicidal, you have to respond to that person with the UTMOST sensitivity and compassion. One misplaced or careless word from you and that person can be a goner. If anyone on the planet should know this, it should be *Leanne Payne*. It is unconscionable to me how she could write such a letter to him--in fact, it was downright diabolical. Payne makes the Pharisees look almost saintly by comparison.

People like Leanne Payne should not be entrusted with any kind of spiritual power, because they have the power to destroy others with their selfish, cruel, and thoughtless actions. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." So, what Leanne Payne did to my friend (and no doubt to countless silent others), she did to Jesus. The Bible also says in Ezekiel 34:10 concerning bad shepherds like Payne, "Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them." May these words of truth from God come to pass.

Apparently, when Leanne Payne is writing her books, she is very careful to follow the leading of the Spirit of God because many people are going to read what she has written; in other words, she's in the spotlight. But when nobody's looking, it appears that she's a different person entirely. (Of course, I'm sure Payne has a convenient and foolproof way of dismissing any valid criticism leveled at her as "psychological projections." Well, sorry, but that excuse won't work here.) I am relating this story so that others will know exactly what Payne is all about, and so that she will no longer have the power to hurt and wound (almost mortally) other people the way she did my friend. And God knows that what I have written here is true.

Rating:
Summary: A very balanced and bold book
Review: I consider Leanne Payne's book Healing presence as an exceptionally good book. Because it has much truth, it divides opinions. That is the nature of truth. Some like,it some don't. While reading it, it especially struck me what she said about wrong fantasies, how they kill the real imagination and prevent us to be "fertilized with the reality" - this really hit me but because I accepted it, it set me free! All happened in an instant! Payne has great insight about what it means to be human, a created being, called to fullness, creativity and into all truth in Christ. Read it with prayer and apply it!

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Summary: Wouldn't surprise me
Review: I wouldn't be so quick, frankboteler, to discount the review by Sam below. I have seen so much hypocrisy in the ministry that nothing much would surprise me any more. Call me cynical, but I expect most ministers to be hypocrites. And even when they aren't, more often than not they're like bulls in a china shop when it comes to ministering to people. Maybe I'm wrong, but Sam's review sounds pretty believable and sincere to me, unlike some of the reviews for Crisis In Masculinity. It doesn't really sound like a personal attack, or something that somebody would just make up. I mean, if he was going to make the whole thing up, why would he have even bothered to say anything positive at all about her books? It sounds to me like somebody who is outraged and wants to tell the world about what happened to his friend. I agree with you, frankboteler, that it wasn't really a review of her book per se, but assuming his story is true (which I do believe it is), could you really blame him? I mean how else could you tell other people about something like that? Amazon.com sounds like as good a place as any.

I had a friend who met Gloria Copeland once, and she thought she was a complete ice cube. Apparently she was pretty different in person than the image she projected on TV, so that's one reason Sam's story doesn't surprise me much. And of course Benny Hinn has written some very good books, like Good Morning Holy Spirit, but all he seems to care about is money.

I was mainly just responding to what you wrote, frankboteler. I have read this book (The Healing Presence), but I think Crisis In Masculinity and The Broken Image are much better. Those two I would give 5 stars to. I would probably give HP 3 1/2 stars, but since you can't do that on Amazon, and since I don't think it was nearly as good as CIM and TBI, I'll go ahead and give it 3.

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Summary: Unspeakable insight!
Review: It was with a certain scepticism and a lifted eyebrow that I have approached this book, thinking it would be yet another Christian whitewashing advertisment for quick answers.

Leanne Payne has unspeakable insight into the spiritual dimension behind our every struggles and wounds. As a pioneer in the prayer counseling movement and what we call "theophostic therapy" she has somehow managed to stay away from simple theory and get really practical in her approach.

Instead of trying to find a demon behind every bush and tree, she clearly states what we are to prepare for when we truly want to persue healing from all kinds of personal wounds and achieve wholeness in Christ. This, as I have found, will allow us really not to fall back into habitual sin and it has made way in my life to experience my Heavenly Father in a way that will leave me satisfied and at peace, ready to do His will.

Leanne Payne has opened my eyes completely when it came to renouncing false God's and realizing the importance of symbolism and imagery. I was devasted to find how easily I let myself be influenced by the symbolic proclamations of the world and agreed with Mrs. Payne on the importance to look for the right symbols and patterns for a whole life as they can be find in the Judeo-Christian inheritage.

I am forever grateful to have read this book in the age of 25, for it has altered the way I perceive God and understand His voice completely.

Rating:
Summary: Don't trust personal attacks
Review: Sam's so-called review of this book (see below) should not be trusted. I don't know whether or not he's telling the truth, and he does not give any solid information to go on. He doesn't say why his friend was suicidal, or what his letter contained, or exactly what Ms. Payne said in response. The Healing Presence is a profoundly insightful examination of such topics as the meaning of Christ's presence, true healing, Christian imagination, and the dangers of gnostic forms of spirituality common in the world today. Like her spiritual mentor C.S. Lewis, Leanne Payne cuts through the Protestant/Catholic divisions typical of most spiritual writers, and goes to the heart of true faith. This book is irreplaceable.