In this world we live in, so many things can go wrong. Life would be so much easier if we knew for sure that God was real, that miracles really do happen. If you have ever wondered about this, if the wrongdoings by so-called “faith healers” and televangelists have left you faithless, The Miracle Ship could be the thing to turn your faith back to where it needs to be.
Before reading this book, I had never heard of John Gillespie. The Miracle Ship is the story of his life and ministry. At a young age, he was stricken with severe avascular necrosis (bone decay) in one of his leg and hip joints. The story of his life until he was healed of this affliction is amazing, but what he has allowed the Lord to do with life afterward is even more so.
He has been called a faith healer, but he is quick to respond that the Lord is the one who does the healing, not him. And most impressive to me, he doesn’t charge for the healing services he holds. He doesn’t have a long list of books he has written about his ministry or a bunch of his recorded messages that he is trying to sell to the public.
For those of you who have never experienced or seen the healing power of the Lord, many of the things that are talked about in this book might strike you as impossible, but for those who have seen what the Lord can do, it only reiterates His love, grace, and power.
Did I enjoy this book? Undoubtedly yes. Many stories of the healings that the Lord has done through John Gillespie are there to read about and learn from. The very first story, the story of a young boy with a spinal cord injury so severe that he was never going to walk again struck a chord with me. It brought back memories of the almost fatal car wreck I had many years ago and the doctor’s diagnosis that I would be brain-damaged and in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. That boy is walking again, and I’ve not sat in a wheelchair since I left the hospital.
So, if you want to read an amazing story of faith that will rock your world, I highly recommend this book.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you would like to purchase a copy of this book to read for yourself, I have provided an Amazon link below.
Amazon Link: The Miracle Ship
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Favorite Sentences:
In other words, the likelihood that your prayer will be answered is equivalent to the extent of faith with which you pray it.
We are asked, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, to pray with absolute belief in our hearts that we have been healed.
It is often said that one of Satan’s greatest deceits is his success in convincing the world that he doesn’t exist.
Words have the power to influence the mind and the psyche, even when they seem to be little more than a casual comment.
New Words Learned
abjuration – the act of solemnly renouncing a belief, cause, or claim
aboulia – an absence of willpower or an inability to act decisively
acrimony – sharpness, harshness, or bitterness of nature, speech, disposition, etc.
blandishments – things that tend to flatter, coax, entice, etc.
canticle – a song, poem, or hymn especially of praise
decade of the rosary – A decade of the rosary is a grouping of prayers that consists of one “Our Father” followed by ten “Hail Mary” prayers. While reciting the ten Hail Mary prayers, one must also meditate on one of the Mysteries of the Rosary. It is the added meditation which makes “decade” different than ordinary prayer.
http://www.erosary.com/faq/view/about-the-rosary/what-is-a-rosary-decade?/120.htm
ineffable – incapable of being expressed or described in words
intransigence – inflexibility
Jainism – a dualistic religion founded in the 6th-century b.c. as a revolt against current Hinduism and emphasizing the perfectibility of human nature and liberation of the soul, especially through asceticism and nonviolence toward all living creatures.
joiner – a carpenter
ken – knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception
lectionary – a book or a list of lections for reading in a divine service.
locution – a style of speech or verbal expression
novena – a devotion consisting of nine separate days of prayers or services.
onus – a difficult or disagreeable obligation, task, burden, etc.
parlous – perilous
presage – to portend, foreshow, or foreshadow
probity – honesty
sacristan – a person in charge of a sacristy and its contents
sodality – a lay society for religious and charitable purposes
syncretism – the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion
tomography – any of a number of techniques used to obtain an X-ray photograph of a selected plane section of the human body or some other solid object
About the Author:
Brian O’Hare, MA, Ph.D., is a retired assistant director of a large regional college of further and higher education. He is married and has three children, ten grandchildren, one great-grandchild. He plays golf three times a week off a ten handicap and does a lot of voluntary work. Any writing he has previously done was academic…very much restricted to a very specific readership. Several articles in educational journals were followed by a number of book-length reports for the Dept. of Education and the University of Ulster. He has also written an interesting biography of a man who daily performs amazing miracles of healing…The Miracle Ship. That is currently available in Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.
Any writing he has previously done was academic…very much restricted to a very specific readership. Several articles in educational journals were followed by a number of book-length reports for the Dept. of Education and the University of Ulster. He has also written an interesting biography of a man who daily performs amazing miracles of healing…The Miracle Ship. That is currently available in Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.
He has also written an interesting biography of a man who daily performs amazing miracles of healing…The Miracle Ship. That is currently available in Amazon’s Kindle bookstore. Hopefully, those who read it will spread the word and write reviews to help John’s message to reach the hearts of many, many people.
Brian has had a liver disease since childhood which resulted in him taking early retirement a number of years ago. In 2002, he had a liver transplant but is strong and healthy now. He continued to do academic writing well into his retirement and followed that with a memoir about his liver transplant, dealing with the physical, emotional and spiritual experiences that came from that period in his life (A Spiritual Odyssey, published by Columba Press, Dublin).
Recently he experienced a desire to write fiction. Fallen Men is a story about three priests…but it is religious in much the same way The Thornbirds was religious. He has also finished a second book. It’s quite different from Fallen Men… a detective mystery inspired by an old 14th-century painting of the Last Judgement. It’s called The Doom Murders and is available on Kindle. He is currently writing a third book, The 11.05 Murders, featuring the same detectives as in The Doom Murders.
Also now available on Kindle is A Spiritual Odyssey [Diary of an Ordinary Catholic], the story of Brian’s liver transplant and the growth in spirit he experienced as he waited for almost a year, not knowing if he was going to live or die.
Thank you for this wonderful review, Lisa, (with acknowledgement of words and phrases that I don’t even remember using). It is particularly gratifying that you respond with an open mind to stories that would definitely test the credulity of many readers. And you make a significant point when you refer to John’s utter lack of need for money or material benefits from his ministry. This state of what I would call ‘holy poverty’ is one of the signs that the Holy Spirit rests on John’s work. True disciples do not ask to be paid for what they do. Nor does John. Thanks again for a really understanding and faith-filled review.
Without going into all the details I was coming through a difficult time mentally tortured and in physical pain nothing seemed right. I met John through a relative of his who l worked with after meeting John and doing my best to follow the instructions he gave and continually practice of this life has turned. I know God works through people and John is one of them