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.
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