Laying on Hands and Impartation – Be Careful

This is such an honest, insightful, and helpful testimony,  I thought I would flag it up as a new post of its own so others would not miss it. It was posted in the comments section on a related article about spiritual impartation here. Many thanks again to the poster.

“This article/testimony I can relate to intimately. I would like to share a personal story warning about the “laying on of hands.”

I was 21 years old at the time and would volunteer at a local Charismatic church working as the administrator of their website. I worked very close with the senior pastor and his wife, and an associate minister. All three people were in their late 30’s. I had known many of the people in the church for years and considered them all to be great people.

The associate minister was one of the smartest men I knew. He was handsome, had a gorgeous wife, was extremely disciplined, and earned a doctorate degree from a prestigious university. Basically, he was everything I wanted to be and I considered him a friend and mentor. At the time he seemed almost like a Daniel or Joseph of the Bible.

One day, he “laid hands” upon me, and I wanted him to “impart” the blessings that he had on his life to me. He did, and said a heartfelt prayer that went something like “God, I am nothing, but whatever blessings I have transfer them to this young man, if it be your will,” and a few other things. I was emotionally moved and thankful for the prayer, being that I never really had anyone do that for me before.

A week or so after this “laying of hands” and “impartation,” I began to have this intense almost uncontrollable lust and desire for the senior pastor’s wife who I worked with. Mind you, I was 21 and this woman was in her late 30’s and had 4 children. She was not physically attractive and had never been to me until that time. But for some strange reason she was now the most beautiful creature on the planet to me. She was Eve in the Garden of Eden and seemed literally perfect in every way. Every time I saw her I wanted to hold her. I would have elaborate fantasies of how the senior pastor would die in a plane crash during an overseas mission trip, and I would ride in light a knight in shining armor, marry his wife and we would live happily ever after. I would image that we were perfect soul mates and that there was and would never be any other woman that could equal her perfect beauty. At the time I felt I was competently in love with her. I tried very hard to keep the fantasies “holy” and not let them turn sexual.

Naturally I struggled greatly with this lust and went through intense mental anguish because I respected and admired the senior pastor and his family and could not bear the fact I was having these sinful thoughts. I prayed fervently but did not know what to do since the lust for this woman was consuming my thoughts.

I decided to go in private to one of the elders of the congregation, an elderly man who was known for having a prophetic gift. I told him about my lust, hiding who it was for, and asked him for prayer. He prayed and told me he saw my intense lust came from me allowing a man who was caught in sin and lust to lay hands on me. He prayed for me, and we prayed together and the lust instantly stopped.

I was relieved and overjoyed that I was finally free. And very glad to find out this lust did not stem from a psychological flaw or some Freudian desire for older, married, physically unattractive women. From that moment the desire was gone and it never returned. The funny thing is, at the time, I could not figure out who the sinful or lustful person was who laid hands on me. I figured the elder had been able to use his spiritual maturity to help free me, but he had “missed it” regarding his prophetic discernment of the cause. I’ll explain why I thought that.

The associate minister who “laid hands” and “imparted” into me, as I mentioned before, was beloved by everyone and on the surface was the perfect Christian. Everyone admired him, greatly including me. When the elder gave me his analysis, it didn’t even enter my mind to link the lust to the associate minister.

About 6 months after this event, the associate minister moved out of town with his wife to start their own congregation. 3 months after they left, the wife discovered some unsavory things about this man, filed for divorce, and he ended up losing his ministerial credentials. I’ll explain further.

The wife of the associate minister subsequently returned to the church and revealed to the leadership what she had discovered about her husband. Her greatly admired “perfect” husband had been having multiple affairs, was addicted to pornography and prostitutes, and had spent thousands of dollars at strip clubs over the years. He was able to conceal his behavior because he had private bank accounts, owned his own business, and would take frequent “business” trips. To put it mildly, everyone was shocked. When the associate minister was confronted by the leadership, he confessed it was true, lost his credentials, and went into a rehabilitation program.

It was not until all this information came to light that I realized what the elder had discerned was actually true. The associate minister transferred his lust directly to me when he did the “laying of hands.” The very same week he placed his hands on me and “imparted” his “blessings” I mentally suffered until it was removed through prayer. I was embarrassed that I did not make the connection until then.

This is just to share my personal experience with “laying on hands” and “impartation.” Be careful.”