Do You Believe God Heals?...Dare to Believe!

…to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit…But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. 1Corinthians 12:9,11

It was late winter 2002, and I was working as a certified nursing assistant at a hospital in central Wisconsin. I had given my life to Jesus Christ just a year and a half before. I was a new Christian with a longing to know the One True God. As I learned from the Word and stepped out in faith, the Lord continued to show Himself strong on my behalf. He blessed me in so many ways I will never forget. In many ways, being a “baby” Christian was painful and hard, but in other ways, it was wonderful. I was like a little child who believed everything her parent told her. I innocently believed everything the Word of God said. I never questioned any of it. Because of my child-like faith, the Lord showed Himself to me in remarkable ways. I think back now and ponder it. If only we could take hold of the Word of God and believe, there would be nothing we couldn’t accomplish. All things are possible with God if we would only believe.

I didn’t know very much about the Lord, but I knew I had been miraculously transformed a year and a half before. I knew without a doubt it was only by the power of the Holy Spirit that my life had become dramatically different. Even through my struggles and constant pulls back towards the world, the Lord remained faithful to me. Even when I wasn’t faithful, He would not deny Himself. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. 2Timothy 2:13 So I prayed that the Lord would bring me a friend who loved Jesus. He answered my request and brought me my first Christian friend, **Anna.

Anna and I would talk for hours about God and all that He had done in our lives. One day as we sat and talked, she told me, “You should ask the Lord for a gift of healing whenever you are taking care of your patients. You never know, He may decide to impart a gift of healing.” I hadn’t so much as heard of healings, but I was eager to search the Word to find out what the Lord said about it. When I opened my bible, there it was tucked away in 1Corinthians 12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit. I learned the Lord did indeed give gifts of healing as He willed. I decided in my heart that I would ask believing that God would give me the desire of my heart. That was it. The Word was established in my heart and I had already received what I asked for by faith.

For about a month, I had been attending to a patient named **Janice. She had been in the hospital for several months with cancer of the stomach. I had never seen anyone so sick. Janice was about 65 years old and weighed no more than 90 pounds. She sat up all day in her bed and vomited continually. Her skin just hung off of her body and her backbone was like razor. You could see every vertebra in her back. You could count every one of her ribs. She had absolutely vomited up every calorie that her body so desperately needed. The doctors had written her off and had decided to discharge her to go home to die. My heart longed to tell her about Jesus.

I was working the evening shift and when it came time to do night cares and I would try to help her get ready for bed, she would lash out at me in anger. There were many times I would leave her rooms in tears wondering why she didn’t like me. As part of night cares, we gave our patients back rubs. I would ask to give her a back rub and she would be very stern with me. She would tell me to get out of her room and leave her alone. I was hurt by her anger towards me. But the Lord continued to give me encouragement by His spirit that I was to walk in love with her. Evening after evening, I would come in to her room with a smile and leave with a smile, no matter how she acted towards me. As I would walk away from her room, the Holy Spirit would whisper to me, “According to 1Corinthians 13:8, Love never fails.”

One evening, I asked her again if she wanted me to help her get ready for bed and get a back rub. This time her answered surprised me. She answered with her gruff voice, “I wouldn’t like a backrub…but you could rub lotion on my dry hands if you want to.” I was shocked, but I knew the Word of God was true. Love never fails.

I sat down next to her bed and pulled up a chair. I took her hands and massaged the lotion into one hand at a time. It was dark in her room, with just a little night light next to her bed. I was praying for her as I massaged her dry, cracked hands. All at once, she took hold of my hands and squeezed them saying, “You deserve to have your hands massaged.” I had my breakthrough.

The next evening, I came in to take care of her. She was sitting up in her bed holding her emesis basin like any other evening. She vomited nonstop. Between heaves she asked me if I had ever seen anything like this. I answered, “No, ma’am. I have not.” When I asked her if she would like a backrub, she gave me a nod.

I had no idea what was about to happen. As I rubbed lotion on her back, I called out to the Lord for Janice. This is not just any God, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I asked my Lord two things. The first thing was that He would show Himself to her and that in her time of need, she would know that He was there with her. Next, I asked the Lord in a very simple way if He would touch her body and heal it. As I rubbed the lotion on her back, I literally felt the Holy Spirit enter the room. I can’t explain it any other way than being exposed to pure love. The One True God had entered the room and I was breathing into my lungs pure goodness. As I breathed in and out this perfect love, I was instantly taken up in the Spirit. In such a way that is hard to explain, I was in heavenly places and on earth all at one time. In my spirit, I pondered this amazing love. A dear friend of mine whose wife was miraculously healed of a horrendous brain aneurysm explained it like this – “The anointing of God that destroys the yolk came tangibly into the room.” I remember when he told me this that I couldn’t get it out of my head. I just couldn’t grasp what he meant. It would wake me up at night for months…this power that destroys the yolk. What kind of power is that and what would it be like to experience it? My Lord was answering my questions and giving me the opportunity to feel this anointing that destroys the yolk. I could tangibly feel the power of the Holy Spirit enter the room and the air was thick with love and power, the kind of power that would make the earth quake. I remained in this spiritual place for what seemed like hours, but in reality was just several minutes. All at once, I saw Janice lift her hands in front of her body. In an instant, I was brought back into my body and out of that heavenly place. I was shaken. I asked Janice, “Are you okay?” She answered with hesitation and trembling in her voice, “Yes, I am just seeing things.” I knew before the answer even came out of her mouth what she had seen. I asked Janice with great expectation, “What did you see?” With her frail, powerless voice, she answered, “I saw Jesus.” I knew without a doubt the Lord in all of His glory entered the room and He had imparted a gift of healing. I was totally shaken by the experience and walked around in a daze for weeks after this.

Janice would spend several more weeks at the hospital with no outward change in her condition. According to 2Corinthians, I walked by faith, not by sight. I saw her healed in the Spirit. Nothing changed with her prognosis. The physicians continued with their negative report promising her she wouldn’t live to see spring. But they didn’t know what I did. Because I found a treasure in the Word that says Jesus imparts gifts of healing and He was true to His Word. I treasured this experience in my heart and all that had occurred in Room 209.

The day came when Janice was to be discharged home. I helped Janice pack her things. She left the hospital with her suitcase and her negative report. These doctors had MD after their names and several other letters that to this day, I don’t know what they stand for. But these were, after all, doctors right? We trust them when they tell us our prognosis. She took home with her suitcase her negative report that said she didn’t have a chance to live three months. She was dying and all of her tests had proved it. That was the last day that I saw her.

Several months later, I sat at the nurse’s station with the surgeon who gave Janice the grave prognosis several months before. He was adamant that this type of metastatic cancer doesn’t go away, not even with extensive chemotherapy and treatments. He was an expert in his field and I had the utmost respect for him. I can honestly say, if I had any type of cancer needing surgery, he would be the first person I would have called, for me or any of my family members. I don’t know what made me ask, but I said to **Dr. Morrow, “What ever happened to Janice in room 209?” He looked at me with total and utter amazement. He drew his eye brows together, cupped his hands over his face. “She came back to see us, he said, and when we did the CAT scan, we found no evidence of cancer anywhere in this woman’s body.” I heard it over and over in my head. “No evidence of cancer, no evidence of cancer, no evidence of cancer, no evidence of cancer. I don’t understand it,” he said, over and over. I sat in front of Dr. Morrow totally speechless. I had no answer for him. I was taken back and I am sure every ounce of color had left me. I could feel my breath leave me as I sat there with nothing to say. I hated myself because I didn’t jump up and say, “It was God! He did the healing. It wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t something you did right. Jesus Christ healed her!" Because this amazing God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, entered the room that night and healed this woman who was as good as dead. If I had believed her doctor, she’d be dead and buried, but I dared to believe the Word of God and He produced the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, and by it, I obtained a good testimony (Hebrews 11:1 paraphrased).

Today I want to challenge you…challenge you to believe the Word. Step out and believe Him. Don’t look at your circumstances; your finances, your health, your situations…Look to Him. He can move mountains in our lives if we would just dare to believe His Word.

**All names are changed to protect privacy