Messages by Francis MacNutt

Messages given at various Camps Farthest Out by Francis MacNutt

Francis MacNutt

About Francis MacNutt

Francis MacNutt was one of the most influential voices in the modern Christian healing movement…

Francis MacNutt was one of the most influential voices in the modern Christian healing movement—a man whose life bridged the worlds of deep Catholic faith and the charismatic renewal.

He was born in 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in a devout Catholic family. From a young age, Francis felt called to serve God, and after college he entered the Dominican order, becoming a priest. For years he worked as a scholar and teacher, earning a doctorate and teaching at seminaries, but his life took a dramatic turn in the 1960s when he encountered the Charismatic Renewal—a movement emphasizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including healing, prophecy, and prayer in tongues.

At first, Francis was cautious. But after attending prayer meetings and witnessing genuine experiences of healing, he became convinced that the ministry of healing, which had been so central in Jesus’ own life, was meant for the Church today as well. His gentle yet powerful teaching style helped open many Catholics—and later, Christians from all denominations—to the reality of God’s healing power.

In 1974, Francis made another surprising move: he left the Dominican order to marry Judith Sewell, a psychologist who shared his passion for healing ministry. Together, they founded Christian Healing Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida. The organization became a hub for prayer, teaching, and spiritual renewal, training thousands of people in healing prayer and emotional wholeness.

Francis was the author of several influential books, including Healing, Deliverance from Evil Spirits, and The Power to Heal, which remain classics for anyone exploring Christian healing today. His writing was scholarly but always deeply compassionate—focused on helping ordinary believers understand that God still heals and restores lives.

Francis MacNutt passed away in 2020 at the age of 94, leaving behind a legacy of faith, courage, and love. He’s remembered not just as a teacher or theologian, but as a humble man who believed that the healing ministry of Jesus was meant for everyone—and spent his life helping the Church rediscover it.

Messages Given By Francis MacNutt

Healed Without a Word Being Said

At the 1975 South Florida CFO, Francis MacNutt describes a sister who prayed for a woman’s deliverance by silently gazing at her without a word. In this question-and-answer session, campers from Orlando and West Palm Beach then testify to backs, legs, and allergies healed. They waited on the Spirit rather than a formula.

The Half Brick That Divides Christians

Francis MacNutt names three authentic but competing ways Christians know Jesus: through the heart, through the sacraments, and among the poor. Mistaking any one of these for the whole truth is what tears churches apart, he warns, and he calls that mistake a “half brick.” The talk comes from the South Florida CFO in 1975.

When Jesus Became The Shoeshine Boy

Francis MacNutt admits his own drive to be first, from Little League games to a 40 point popularity ranking among classmates. Speaking at the 1976 South Florida CFO, he argues that willpower cannot free believers from the competitive spirit splitting prayer groups and churches. Only Christ’s love can.

The Woman Who Saw Snakes On The Altar

Francis MacNutt tells of walking through Sydney overwhelmed by the goodness in people. He then describes a woman so sure she was worthless that she saw snakes covering the altar. His wife Judith closes with her own account of Jesus showing her a life stripped of every confessed sin, a message the movement needs to hear.

Jesus Gives Orders Even To Unclean Spirits

Francis MacNutt preaches on Mark’s account of Jesus silencing an unclean spirit with a word. Christianity, he argues, is not just a set of teachings or rules like the Pharisee’s fasting and tithing. It is a power we cannot generate ourselves, and he says the movement badly needs that message.

The Leg That Grew Four Inches

Francis MacNutt tells of a young woman whose leg had been twisted and shortened since childhood. With a bishop and a Colombian prayer community, he prayed for her for hours over several days, and the leg gradually straightened and grew. Most healing, he tells the camps, takes patient, repeated prayer rather than a single try.

The Pastor Who Called Us Worse Than Nixon

Francis MacNutt recalls a pastor working in a Chicago parish who told him the prayer movement was “worse than Nixon,” because its praise and joy dulled the urgency of justice work in the inner city. He uses the rebuke to teach that Christians typically find Jesus in only one of three ways: the sacraments, a personal experience of the heart, or the poor. The camps are only complete, he says, once all three are heard together.

He Withdrew To The Basement For Six Years

Francis MacNutt opens by praying with couples for healing in their marriages. He describes a husband whose family taught him to hide grief, and a wife who read his silence after their child’s death as not caring. He then turns the talk over to Barbara, who recalls the six years early in her own marriage when he withdrew to the basement and she went silent. Anger in marriages across the movement, she teaches, is almost always a reaction to hurt that needs to be found and healed.

Turned Away From Church In A Surplus Jacket

Francis MacNutt preaches on three ways Christians sense the presence of Jesus: through the sacraments, through a personal experience of the heart, and through the poor. He tells the camps of a young man who was converted to Christ alone in Central Park. The man was later turned away from a cathedral because his surplus military jacket made him look too disreputable for church.

Pain Vanished When He Forgave His Boss

Francis MacNutt distinguishes the New Testament’s “new commandment,” to “love one another as I have loved you,” from the older command to love your neighbor as yourself. It is a distinction he says the movement still struggles to live out. He then tells of a man in constant pain since open heart surgery, whose pain vanished the instant he forgave the boss he hated.