He Removes Her Halo

Hebrews 10:23  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

I have not ceased to praise the Lord for the last several weeks.  Who can begin to comprehend the depths of this great God we serve?  I don’t understand it…I don’t deserve it…but He continues to show Himself faithful over and over, without fail. 

I began my journey as a Christian with the Lord bringing me my first Christian friend, Anna.  That was in 2002.  We grew up in the Lord together and it was like having a close sister. Our relationship was sort of like Jonathan and David.  We loved each other like real sisters and it was a pleasure to grow up in the Lord with her.  I thought the other day how much we had been through together.  Much of the time has been spent apart with me living in Arizona and her in another state.  She’s just such a dear friend and as I write this story, I wait in great expectation to watch the Lord move you to greater faith in His Word because He who promised is faithful to perform it.

I first posted a blog about my friend, Anna, in June of this year.  It was a story of faith that was sparked inside of me after Anna told me to believe God to heal.  I was a new Christian and never really heard of healings and sure didn’t think they happened anymore if they ever did.  But through her encouragement, I dared to believe the Word and God moved mountains on this woman’s behalf.  If you haven’t read this, I want to encourage you to read one of the most remarkable miracles I have ever experienced  http://thewordofmytestimony.blogspot.com/2010/06/do-you-believe-god-healsdare-to-believe.html. 

About a year after this great miracle, my dear friend took a fall from her horse.  At first they thought it was a sprain and put a walking cast on her foot and waited for it to heal.  Month after month, she continued to have so many problems with her foot.  She was casted and off of work so long that she ended up losing her job.  Finally, she went for a second opinion and there they performed a CT scan of her foot.  The doctor informed Anna that several bones in her foot had been crushed and she had been walking on them for so long that he didn’t have any guarantees he could help her and it was a possibility that he wouldn’t be able to save her foot.  At the very least he would have to perform surgery on her foot.   He had given her instructions to come back after he looked over the records and they would plan surgery.

Anna called me to let me know that not only did she lose her job because she wasn’t able to return to her work, but that she had a broken foot and now at the very least they would perform surgery with the possibility she would never be able to use her foot again. 

When she shared this with me over the phone, I remembered what she told me about God healing people.  It’s funny how we have faith for other people to be healed, but it is so much harder when we are asking God in faith to receive healing for ourselves.  But I knew, if the Lord had healed a sick lady with cancer, why wouldn’t He also heal her?  So I shared with Anna that she didn’t have to believe this doctor’s report.  After all, God had spoken to the children of Israel about taking their land.  Numbers 14:31-32  But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out.  God had given them a promise, but they believed a bad report and God punished them because of it.  We had a choice to believe a bad report or believe that God was greater than that report and He ultimately could heal her foot. 

Isaiah 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord.  According to the Word, we reasoned together and believed that God didn’t want her to lose her foot.  So I said in faith, “forget the surgery.  This is what we are going to do.  I am going to pray for you over the phone and God is going to heal you, ok?”  Anna replied, “Ok.”  This agreement from Anna wasn’t like a weary “Ok.”  I knew when she said it, she believed and that was enough faith for the Lord to move.  So I prayed.  Now, I don’t even remember what I prayed, but I knew we both believed He would heal her and we waited for the supernatural.  There was no special prayer or special order that we had said the prayer.  I wasn’t even there to lay hands on her according to the Word of God.  It was just simply believing the Word.  As I prayed for her, she started to feel a funny feeling in her cast.  Then it started becoming really uncomfortable until finally she started feeling the bones move inside her cast.  It was almost as if she could hear them moving.  She was perplexed by what was happening.  Then suddenly, the bones tightened in her cast and  there was a huge pop in her foot.  Immediately, she knew she had been healed.  She said, “God just healed me.”  Now I don’t know why I was stunned, but I was.  I mean, we believed for healing, but it’s just so incredible when we see and hear God healing us!  I was so astonished by this experience and by the power of Jesus, I couldn’t even sleep that night. 

For the next week, she only spoke of healing.  She arrived to her surgeon who had every plan to do surgery on her foot and was still holding tight to her bad report that was tucked away safely in her medical records.  Before scheduling surgery, they performed another CT scan.  You could have heard a pin drop when the doctor came in to talk with Anna.  Flustered and feeling like he had made a huge medical error of misdiagnosis, he showed her that there was no longer any break in the foot.  After apologizing several times for making a huge medical error, Anna let him know that he had made no errors.  “No, you don’t understand.  I did have a break, but I prayed and believed God and He healed me,” Anna explained.  After Anna explained what Jesus had done for her, the doctor let her know that he didn’t believe in that kind of thing but she could call it whatever she wanted to call it.  All he knew was a couple weeks before she had several crushed bones in her foot, and now she had a perfectly normal foot.  Praise God.  If we just believe, He will move mountains for us and bones! 

Several years have gone by since that amazing healing of Anna’s foot.  I moved to Arizona and life just gets busy.  But I would always think about all of the great experiences we had together and how much the Lord taught us about the power of just believing in faith.  So you can imagine how deeply saddened I was by the email I received from her last month telling me she had gotten into a head-on car collision that almost killed her and left her with a broken neck.  I could literally feel the anguish she felt by her situation as I read through the email.  I felt the hopelessness in her heart when she asked, “Why does God allow these things happen to me?”  

I immediately called her to find out what had happened and to encourage her.  She explained that she had been hit head-on and had been in a halo for the past 6 weeks.  If you have ever seen anyone with a large, 12 pound, metal halo drilled into their skull that you need to wear 24/7, you can just imagine how uncomfortable that would be.  After six weeks, she could hardly stand it but she was going to have to wear it for another 7 weeks.  Over the past seven weeks, she had needed to have someone with her 24 hours a day to help her at all times.  It was an extremely difficult situation for her. 

My heart went out to her.  I knew she was extremely hopeless.  But I said, “Wait a minute.  Remember what the Lord has done?  Remember your foot?  Remember what God has done in your marriage?  Remember?”  We reminisced about what the Lord had done and I said, “Now, we are going to use that same faith and God is going to heal you again.”  

That evening while I was praying and reading the Word, the Lord spoke something so deep in my heart.  It was in the book of Job when Job’s friends wrongly accused him of being unrighteous and God was going to bring judgment on his friends.  But God told Job’s friends if they gave an offering to Job, that he would offer it to the Lord on their behalf and Job would pray for them.  Then his friends did as God commanded.   And there it was, one little scripture tucked away in the book of Job.  I saw it and it literally jumped off the page and into my heart.  Job 42:10  And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.  There it was.  Now Job had lost his wife, his kids, his livelihood, his health, his wealth…he lost everything.  But it was AFTER he prayed for his friends (and took the attention off of his own problems), God restored all that he had lost.   I immediately called Anna back the next day and told her this is what the Lord had spoken to my heart.  I said, “Now here is what we are going to do.  For the next three weeks, until you return for your appointment, we are not going to pray about ourselves and our problems, but we are only going to pray for other people.  I am going to stand with you in agreement and we are about to watch the Lord perform another miracle.”  Anna agreed and in her voice, I knew she had received this from the Lord and I knew without a doubt, He would be faithful to heal her. 

For the next couple of weeks, we continued doing this.  One evening, I called her and she was out on a walk.  I said, “What?  You are walking?”  The first time I talked to her, she could hardly get around and had someone with her night and day to help her.  Now she was on a walk?  She confidently told me, I know in my body that the Lord has healed me.  I know the day it happened.  She shared, “You know, this time it was just between me and Jesus.  I know people were praying for me and people could have laid hands on me, but this time it was just a matter of believing Him.  Was I going to believe Him or was I not going to believe him?” It was so profound.  In fact, I got off the phone with her the first time we talked and was disappointed that I had not even though to pray for her.  But it wasn’t about me praying for her or laying hands on her.  You see, she received her healing as soon as she believed the Word.  It was as simple as that. 

Anna continued to share how she had started to ask the Lord to give her memory of the accident.  Floods of memories were coming back and she realized that the Lord protected her the whole time.  She said she remembers saying to herself, “Oh no.” That was right before the car hit her.  She said as the car hit her, she saw a huge shield come up in front of her like a huge hand.  She knows it was the Lord protecting her.  As the days went on, the Lord continued to bring back floods of memories of how He had intervened in her life.  The Lord brought back a memory when she was 18 years old.  She was walking from a beach up to some stores by herself.  She said some men stopped in a car and asked her for a ride.  She said no, but as soon as she said no, they pulled up alongside her and opened the car door really fast and started getting out.  As soon as they did that, they almost slammed into another car and had to drive off quickly.  She didn’t think anything about it then, but the Lord showed her that He had protected her from being abducted.  Then he brought to mind another time when she was babysitting.  A friend of another friend came over when she was babysitting and tried to attack her.  She must have blacked out and when she woke up, the bathroom was full of blood everywhere.  The guy who attacked her was all bloody like he had gotten beat up.  But there wasn’t a scratch or drop of blood on her.  The Lord showed her again, He had protected her.  Again he showed her when she was driving one cold winter, and she started to slip on the ice.  Another car was coming toward her to hit her and she saw herself go through the other car like a shadow.  It was like mist and she was on the other side.  Not a dent in her car and not a scratch on her.  She was supernaturally brought to safety and other people who witnessed it saw it happen just as she said.  Again, He brought her through without a scratch.  She said, “When I questioned God why He allowed my broken neck, He showed me these things.  And Now I realize, this accident and what I have gone through is for a bigger purpose.”   It was so amazing to see what the Lord had done in her heart since I had talked to her last.  He had sent so many people to encourage her heart and the Lord was doing a wonderful work. 

A week later was the big day.  She was going to the doctor to see her results.  That evening, I prayed for her and I told the Lord I believed He had healed her and I was looking forward to a good report.  There was a little wavering in my heart the next morning when I received a text message from her.  It read, “The CT scan doesn’t look good.  I am going on 100% faith right now.”  Immediately Hebrews came to mind, but I couldn’t remember where the scripture was.  I prayed, “ord, bring to remembrance this scripture.  All at once, it came to me and I typed it in my phone as fast as I could get it to her.  Hebrews 10:23  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  Immediately, she took this Word from the Lord, went into the bathroom, got down on her knees with her 12 pound halo on her head and said, “Lord, I don’t care what it looks like.  I believe you healed me and I am thanking you for it.” 

Anna walked out of the bathroom and into the doctor’s office.  Her doctor held the report in her hand saying everything looks great and we are removing your halo.  Jesus healed my friend again.  He remained faithful to heal her body completely and she had this halo removed four weeks early because she dared to believe the Word.  What an amazing testimony of the love, faithfulness, and the power of Jesus Christ.  His Word is true and it will always produce the fruit when faith is applied. 

Through this most agonizing experience, Anna has seen God’s purpose in it all.  She has been able to witness to her brother and his wife and to many other hurting people who need Jesus.  She also believed the Lord to provide for her family financially through this situation.  She said daily checks continue to come in the mail for her medical bills and her family’s needs.  One day she told the Lord that she needed money to pay a bill.  She said, “I believed Him.  I just waited and it came.”  There was a knock on the door and a woman she had never seen before was at the door.  She introduced herself and explained that she was from the church down the street and every year they take a collection for a family and she handed her a check for $2000.  

I want to encourage you to take your requests to the Lord.  Come to Him with confidence.  This Word is above all, because God has magnified His Word above His Name.  Psalm 138:2  For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.  His Word is true and if applied with faith, it will produce 100% every time.  Let us rejoice in our King who is mighty to save, heal, and restore.  He is worthy to be praised and glorified 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.   

All Eyes Are On You, Lord

IKing 1:20 "And as for you, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel [are] on you, that you should tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.

It’s been almost five years since that horrible day when our van was T-boned by a speeding car.  He was just a young kid speeding through a residential area flying through stop signs.  I still remember it like it were yesterday.  I was five months pregnant with my daughter and I had my 8 year old twins and my 1 year old daughter in the van with me.  I will never forget looking through the shattered back windows to see my son, Charlie, slumped to the side not responding.  This is forever etched in my mind.  This horrific accident and the head injury he received from smashing his head and breaking the window, set in motion years of neurological problems and set backs for Charlie. 

Now we consider ourselves to be reasonable people.  So after years of paying insurance, I guess we expected the insurance company to also be reasonable.  But an amazing phenomenon happens when you come to collect those years of paid premiums.  Your own insurance company becomes your enemy!  We didn’t ask for it, but it definitely happened.   It happened almost at once.  One day we were those good paying customers, and the next day we were considered exaggerators, liars, difficult people, and the list goes on. 

We, in fact, tried everything to negotiate with the insurance company for a fair settlement for Charlie’s injuries.  We took the Word of God to heart when it says in Luke 12:58 "When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer and the officer throw you into prison.  The last thing we wanted to do was drag it out.  We tried and tried, but the insurance company just would not cooperate. 

There is an old song from the 1970s that used to be one of my favorite songs as a child.  It’s called “The Coward of the County” by Kenney Rogers.  I loved this song because the words were so awesome.  Throughout the whole song, the man is keeping his promise to his dad who has gone to prison.  He had made a promise not to be an outlaw like his dad and his dad tells him, it’s okay to turn the other cheek and not fight back.  But at the end of the song, he sings:

I promised you, Dad, not to do the things you done.
I walk away from trouble when I can.
Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek,
and Papa, I sure hope you understand:
Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man.
Ev'ryone considered him the coward of the county.

Sometimes you have to fight for what you believe.  We felt, as Charlie’s advocates and his parents, we had to fight for him.  So we did.  We hired an attorney and the fight started.  It has been over five years and we are still fighting for him.  It has been difficult and discouraging as we have had our character come into question as parents and Charlie’s character and integrity has been called into question as well.  It has been a journey to say the least. 

We have finally come to the end of the journey and we are scheduled for arbitration. Charlie’s attorney, Dave, has always fought for him.  He has always gone the extra mile.  He has been relentless.  So I was a little taken back when I talked to him last.  He had gotten off the phone with our insurance company’s attorney who wants to meet for mediation before arbitration.  Basically, this is their attempt to try to low ball us without going to arbitration where it is likely they will have to pay the policy limits.  Our insurance company’s attorney started dropping what I feel were seeds of doubt in Dave’s head.  The other attorney suggested that maybe Charlie’s head had never really even broken that window out of the van at all.  After all, that’s just what we said happened.  It’s not like anybody saw it.     

Dave had a meeting set up with Charlie’s neurologist on the following Friday.  He let the other attorney know he wouldn’t make any decisions about negotiations until he met with the neurologist.  Dave and I talked for a while and he shared, “This is the end.  We aren’t going anywhere else for an opinion.  Dr. T. is the best in the state and all eyes are on him and his opinion.”  He went on to warn me that a lot of times, even if the physician knows the symptoms are related to the trauma, they won’t be willing to testify.  Testifying takes time, it’s grueling, and quite frankly when these physicians are running large volume practices they just don’t have the time for it. 

When I put the phone receiver down after talking to Dave, I told my husband that I sensed  there was a loss of momentum in Charlie's fight.  I shared with my husband, “We need to be on our knees praying.  We can’t stop now.  We have to finish this fight.”  I knew in my heart that it didn’t depend on Dr. T. or even Dave for that matter.  The Lord knew the truth and He would bring about His plan and outcome with or without their cooperation because ultimately He was our attorney.  1John 2:1 …And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.   

The morning of the meeting between Dave and Charlie’s neurologist, Dr. T., I rose early and came before the Lord.  I let the Lord know that although Dave’s eyes are on Dr. T. for answers, my eyes were on Him.  I wasn’t going to trust in man’s testimony, but the Lord’s.  I read the Word and spent time Him.  There was a portion of my reading for the day that I didn’t have time to read, but I sensed from the Lord that I should read it.  It was in the Ezra Chapter 1.

Ezra 1:1  Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing..” 

This was as far as I got.  My eyes rose up off the pages of scripture and the Lord caused me to understand.  The Lord spoke to my heart promising that He was in perfect control of the meeting between Dave and Dr. T. that morning and He was indeed going to stir up Dr. T.’s heart to say the things he needed to say and not only that, but Dr. T. would be willing to put them in writing. 

I ran up the stairs where my husband was getting ready for work.  I said, “John, the Lord just spoke to us.  He is taking care of this.”

Two days past after the meeting and I still hadn’t heard from Dave.  When I finally got in touch with him, he said, “The meeting went even better than expected.  I wasn’t expecting it to go so well.  Dr. T. has agreed that all of Charlie’s symptoms are directly related to the accident and he was willing to put them in writing.”   Not only was he willing to put the facts in writing, but he allowed Dave to organize them and write them out and Dr.T.r agreed to sign the document!

Just thinking on what the Lord has done has brought me humbly to my knees.  He never fails us.  He never leaves us.  He always fights for us.  It has spoken volumes to me.  God is indeed in control of every situation and every word that is spoken.  I am blessed and thankful to be under the authority of such a loving, powerful Father!