Day: August 19, 2014

Prayer can and is one of the most powerful tools we posses. When we really pray awesome things can happen. I know this first hand.

About 17 yrs ago I was in a huge amount of pain. The kind of pain that stops you in your tracks and makes it impossible to move let alone breath. Because of my medical condition things are a bit rough. I feel like Job in the Bible quite often. When a person has auto immune diseases it is hard to know what will happen from one minute to the next.

My husband Chuck was home for a couple days. Since he is a truck driver, he is gone a lot. He knew I was having a hard time pain wise and feeling good wise. I was at the point where I couldn’t handle the pain in my back anymore. I have to go to the Dr. After x-rays, the Dr informed me that there wasn’t anything he could do for my back. Because it was auto immune and nuero muscular, just medications was all they could do.

Jessica and Beckiah was home at the time and in high school. Every morning Beckiah or Jessica had to come into my room and put pressure on my spine between my shoulder blades. They had to apply the pressure for about 5 minutes or so to get my back to pop into place. Besides nerve pain, I would have to say back pain is the worst.

I prayed and prayed for something to happen and for the pain to go away. I wasn’t seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. But I still prayed each day for the pain to be gone or made at-least tolerable. And this is when the couple of nights that Chuck was home came into play.

The girls were all tucked into their beds and Chuck and I were heading to bed. We watched a little bit of David Letterman and off to sleep we went.

I prayed again before I went to bed along with all my other prayers. We were sound asleep when the pain in my back became so much worse. I was having thoughts of going to the ER to see if they could at-least stop the pain. Chuck was out to the world and nothing would budge him. Plus he just got home after driving 3000 miles. My only option at that point was to pray and plead with God.

My prayer went something like this, ” OK, God, I am having issues here and I could really use your healing touch on my back. I don’t think I could bear another day with this kind of pain. All I ask is just a few hours of sleep and relief.” I wrote my prayer down since I do that a lot of the times At that moment and I looked at the red numbers on my clock it said it was 12:34 in the morning.

I slept on my stomach at that time and I had this feeling of a hand touching the exact spot where my back would lock up. At first I thought it was Chuck touching my back. I could barely turn my head and seen that it wasn’t him. He was facing the other way. I felt this warm hand on my spine and I became so relaxed to the point where I couldn’t move a muscle. My breathing became calmer and I felt nothing but warmth. I had absolutely no pain whatsoever. I couldn’t even move my fingers or toes. My pain was totally taken away from my back at that point.

The next night, Chuck was still home and we went to bed. He feel asleep before I did. I was watching Letterman too. I was just getting ready to turn the TV off. At that point I could feel this cool hand that was placed on my shoulder. It felt like it was damp and cool. I asked Chuck what he wanted and turned around and he was snoozing. I knew that the cool hand and touch had to have been from nobody but God. There was nothing else that would explain the kind of peace and healing that went on that night.

I had a follow-up appointment with my Dr and they scheduled an MRI for my spine. They were shocked to see that the damage that was there before and the pain I was having was gone. There is still a inward curvature of my spine, but my spine and pain never returned like it was then. I do still have pain, but not like it was.

When people say that prayer doesn’t work, I say they are speaking out of ignorance. When we truly pray for healing or whatever it is, God answers. He may not answer the way I would like. But He does. I have no doubt in this whatsoever.

When I fast forward to my life now, I still have a ton of medical things in my life. But I have to say that if it wasn’t for God in my life and my faith, it would be as unbearable as it was the night my spine locked up. I have had a number of healing interventions in my life. I can’t even count on my hands how many times God has pulled me out of what Dr’s would call impossible crisis’s. There are times when God’s presence was with me, even when the Dr’s couldn’t see it. They have no answers for why I am here. But I know that God knows. Who knows, maybe He wants me to be sure to share how He has worked in my life and share it with some stubborn people, lol.

Eventually I may share more about my medical things. As of right now, just a handful of people really understands it all. Even though when they have awareness months, I will go more into things. Basically the Dr’s say there is no cure, but God is the greatest physician ever. So it is all in His hands. And I would never second guess God in this department.

Many of us are very skeptical when it comes to healing services. Why is that if we see that someone is healed – we rationalize it away . We find it hard to believe that the miracle of healing still takes place today.

I can’t help but wonder if we are scared away or afraid of healing by the laying on of hands or going forth to receive prayer because of all the tel-evangelists on the TV. I was talking to my pastor the other day about this and can’t help but feel that these over the top TV preachers (Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker) has taken from what prayer is really about. There are even those who have been caught and pretended that the hearings were real when they have just been set up.

(James 5:14-16 NKJV) Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. {15} And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. {16} Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

I believe that God performs miracles of healing through the local church. Through the elders of the church and through you and me. It is our responsibility, our duty is as a church and believers in Christ to provide a healing ministry to those in need.  I definitely believe that God has given some people the gift of healing and that the miracle of healing does happen through them.

I do want to say that even if we aren’t all healed physically, we can still be healed. My pastor is going through the book of Luke and throughout the book it covers all kinds of prayers. Eventually all of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and has repented of their sins will be healed. It may not be in this world, but they will be.

I do want to add this about my healing. Because of my medical problems and my faith, I have been given a great many opportunities to witness to those who I never would have gotten the chance to. God has opened doors that I wouldn’t be able to open myself had it not been for my health issues. If God chooses to heal me in this world that would be awesome and if not, that is awesome too. Because the greatest reward ever is to be in His Kingdom and in the presence of the Lord. There are no guarantees for anyone. But it sure does make it nice when I think about what it will be like after this earthly life is over with. There is no way to put into words what it will be like. Now if I wasn’t a Christian, I would be scared to death or of death literally.

The hard part for many Christians and non Christians is not in thanking God when He heals you or a loved one. The hard part is thanking God for all things including those times when He chooses not to heal.

I do want to touch on laying on of hands and how we are commanded to do this in the Bible. We should lay hands on the sick and pray the prayer of faith, and the Lord will raise them up and if they have committed any sin, it shall be forgiven.

The church I grew up in had it where if someone needed to be prayed with they had a special time at the end of the service where they would do what is called an alter call. The Pastor, Elders and those who want to pray with someone. Others may gather around and pray also. During this, some of these may reach forward and lay a hand on the person for whom we are praying.

• 1 Timothy 4:14 – Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is healing.  Healing – This is supernatural healing, beyond natural means, given by the Spirit.

Praying for one another and laying on of hands is a wonderful time to gather together and pray for one who is ill or going through other afflictions. If God chooses to heal them, they should gladly accept this; If God chooses to take them home, they, like Paul (Philippians 1:21) can eagerly look forward to seeing Him face to face.

I had/have a time going forward back then because I don’t like being the center of attention and everyone looking at me. I 100% believe that we should be praying in this manner and having others pray with us and for us. Could you imagine what this world would be like if we relied more on prayer instead of worldly things. Not just the world, but our lives. I would think that our lives would be so much more happier and have a sense of peace instead of living in fear.

I’m going to end with a few Bible verses that touches on healings.

• Psalms 147:3 NKJV He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
• Jeremiah 33:6 NKJV ‘Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
• Psalms 103:1-4 NKJV Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! {2} Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: {3} Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, {4} Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
• Matthew 8:13 NKJV Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.