By His Stripes

Healing is one of a million favorite topics between Julie and me. We've talked and prayed through various healings for five years. Although she's alluded to it in comments, today I've asked her to share her story in more detail. And later you can read Julie's own blog, crying out for the political healing we need, so to speak:Truth, Justice and the American Way.

As a Bible-believing Christian who was raised Catholic, my understanding of healing has greatly evolved over the years. In Catholicism, suffering is often seen as a badge of honor. Nuns take vows of poverty, and the saints of old committed grotesque acts of self-flagellation. But why shouldn’t we gladly bear with pain and illness? After all, our Savior endured the most horrible agony imaginable for our salvation. The Catholic ideal of embracing suffering sometimes made me reluctant to pray for healing. I often thought a severe stomach ache would help me do penance for my sins if I “offered it up to God,” to borrow a phrase from the nuns.

While in graduate school, I was stuck with an excruciating and chronic back condition, seemingly out of nowhere. I was getting up off a chair, and a shooting pain traveled up and down my spine. In a matter of seconds it was gone, only to return a week later. Eventually, I couldn’t sit, walk, or lie down without knifelike pains in my mid and upper back.

Thus began a journey toward eventual healing that spanned 17 years, four chiropractors, dozens of physical therapy sessions, and countless prayers and tears. Although an orthopedic surgeon and a bone scan failed to diagnose the problem, X-rays taken by a chiropractor revealed that I had completely lost my spinal curve, most likely due to a fall that caused my spine to become misaligned. Because the problem was never corrected, it gradually worsened until I was incapacitated.

While chiropractic care initially did wonders for me, my continued dependence on those weekly visits was an ongoing source of frustration and a financial drain (there were times when I needed anywhere from two to five adjustments a week). Meanwhile, I had rededicated my life to Christ, left Catholicism, and joined a Pentecostal church. I attended numerous healing services, and I can’t count how many times I was anointed with oil.

A turning point came when a friend gave me a booklet on how to pray like Jesus. The premise was that our Lord prayed the solution, not the problem. He took authority over illness and even death. He told the lame to get up and walk, and He commanded the dead to live. His disciples did likewise.

Although this smacked of the “name it and claim it” teachings I had often been warned about, I couldn’t deny what the Scriptures plainly said. So I followed Jesus’ example. Whenever I took authority over the pain in the Name of Jesus, it immediately left. Unfortunately, the effect seemed temporary. If God really wanted to heal me, why did the pain always return days or weeks later?

To this day, it’s difficult to give a definitive answer, though I can now testify to being completely healed. All I know is that I didn’t receive lasting healing until after I stopped seeing my chiropractor for good, a decision I never would have made on my own. I showed up at his office one day to learn that he had abruptly left the country. The chiropractor who shared his office offered to take me on as a patient, but he wasn’t in my provider network. Since I couldn’t afford to pay extra, I would have a find another chiropractor.

During the next several weeks, as I asked around about a good chiropractor, something dawned on me—I had been pain-free for over a month, without any chiropractic treatment or physical therapy. Normally, this would have been impossible. Had I been healed?

I began to sense the Holy Spirit telling me not to resume chiropractic care, so I obeyed. The longer I went without treatment, the better I felt. Occasionally, I’d have a slight twinge of pain, but I rebuked it in the Name of Jesus, declaring that by His stripes I was healed, and the pain left. I also had a major relapse at one point, but I refused to go back to the chiropractor. I was convinced it was God’s will to heal me, and He didn’t need a chiropractor to do so (though I realize that in many cases, God chooses to work through traditional, natural, and alternative medicine in delivering His people from physical affliction). I also began to view those back spasms as an attack from the enemy, not something I should be resigned to. Within a week or two, I was fine.

Today, I am completely free of pain. I can do things I never thought I’d be able to do again, though I’m careful not to push myself beyond the limits of common sense. I cannot say I followed a formula that is “guaranteed” to work for all believers, because each person and situation is unique. There were deeply personal issues related to my healing that I had to deal with as well.

The only thing I can say for sure is that God, in His great goodness and mercy, healed me. Divine healing is not about charismatic formulas or stirring up faith; it’s about the character of God and His heart to redeem every area of our lives. Healing—not pain and suffering—is His will for believers (though paradoxically, some of our deepest inner healings are often experienced in the furnace of affliction).

May we never forget that the most significant healing work God does in us is the healing of our hearts through the forgiveness of sin.

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Have you ever wondered if miracles still occur?

Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver, the other, gold. Michele is my new friend, met through my cousin Jud. She is spunky, sassy and boatloads of fun, on the theory that life is too short to be serious. On days when I feel too intense, I sidle on over to her blog, href="http://msfavsthgz.blogspot.com">M's Favorite Things for lessons in the School of Fun. Beneath all the beefcake-n-fluff posts, though, it's obvious Michele has oodles of heart and soul. I couldn't help wanting to share her with you:

Have you ever wondered if miracles still occur?
I have.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the motto is Bigger is Better. Faster is Preferred.
or What's in it for ME? (That one seems to be ageless.s)
Unless it hits you over the head with a 2 X 4 plank, most people miss the miracles that surround them every day.

I'd like to share a Christmas Miracle that happened just this past year.
A really good friend of my family was dying.
She had a strange, undiagnosable degenerative lung disease that was destroying the woman I'd grown up knowing.
The pain was intolerable.
The hope was dwindling.
The end was nearing.

After three years of battling, praying, medicating and being prodded, poked and being stared at like a great medical mystery while thinking " I'm still a person!", she only had three months of life left.
That was being optimistic.

Best that you should know that she never smoked a day in her life. Neither did her family. She was active in her church and social ministry was important to her. To have this vibrant woman be a shell of her former self was heartrending.

The prayers continued.
Three years is a long time when you are fighting a losing battle. Ask anyone who fights cancer. Or any long term illness.

The prayers we were asking for were for an immediate cure, instant turnaround, fast fix. Such is the way of our society.
In truth, as human beings seeing the ones that we love suffer, it is our way too.

Not Gods way. Miracles, when they happen, are in his time. The lesson? Never give up hope.
My Mom, her friend's family and her friends, never did.

Five days before Christmas, 2005 they got the word at 3 AM. Two lungs became avaliable for immediate transplant.
Three long years of praying, hoping and giving the worry to Our Lord to carry them through this trial - bore fruit.

She was rushed into E.R. and the surgery began.
As you might know, it's the first 24 hours after a procedure that have you biting your nails, zipping through your Rosary Beads and having you lose any interest of sleep.

It wasn't until Christmas Eve that the word was given. She made it through the pivotal points of recovery. Every day was a miracle. Every day was an answer to a prayer. Everyday that she was still with us strengthened our belief that God DOES hear us and answers.

Christmas Eve - the day we prepare to look forward to the birth of our Lord.
Christmas Eve - the day my family friend received a second chance at life.

Christmas Eve - the day we had revealed to us that miracles still happen today.

And her name, like mine, is Michele.

Guest Blogger: Luke Camara

The Gospel of Luke Chapter 8:42b-45 As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. 45"Who touched me?" Jesus asked.

This is a dump question for Jesus to ask, right? I mean he "knows" who touched him. So why does he want to embarrass this women even more? Why does he want to drag her out into the public eye after she has been hidden for so long?

This bleeding woman was not just in a self-imposed exile, but in a culturally one as well. As a women who could not stop bleeding, read major period issues, she was considered unclean by her family and her friends. Jesus knew this. So he calls her out. She knowing that she cannot escape steps forward.

Verse 48 reads. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

Why did Jesus want to talk to her? Because he wanted to heal her heart. This is the only, ONLY time in the whole of recorded history that Jesus calls someone his daughter. He was healing the hurt of not having a father in her life. The deeper wound.

Jesus was not asking a dump question, he was asking the most important question. Who are you? Come to me so that I can heal your heart!

Are you asking that question of others as well?

Luke Camara is a crazy, sometimes swearing pastor, of Safe Harbor Church. He is a Husband and Father who lives in Pelham Alabama. To read more of his thoughts and quirks check out his blog lukecamara.blogspot.com

Mountain Move Over! (That is, if it's OK with You, God)

In your church, how does your pastor, or you, if you are the pastor, preach that verse about moving mountains?

Have you ever applied it to speaking to your body regarding a physical illness? For example, telling your body's blood pressure to regulate at a particular number, or commanding cancer to leave your body?

Does the idea of "commanding" feel uncomfortable to you, like you may be trespassing on God's sovereign will?

What do you think it means?

Yes God Heals But

I remember the first time my son was old enough to read mail by himself, young enough to believe what he read. He came to me in wide-eyed wonder. “Mom, we may have won a million dollars!”

I quickly and efficiently squelched his joy. “It doesn’t really mean that – they send those to everyone. Somebody somewhere might get a million dollars, but most likely it won’t be us.” Careful to protect my child from hopes that could only disappoint, in no time at all I turned him into a cynic greater than myself.

Whenever the topic of healing comes up, I hear one of several different “Yes God heals but . . .” statements. If you’ve said one to me, please don’t feel I’m picking on you. I’ve heard it before, many times. Almost verbatim, across time and space and denominational lines.

I’ve come to realize that the topic of healing consistently makes many people nervous, cautious, concerned. Maybe you feel like it’s a lottery you won’t win, and you truly want to protect both yourself and those you love from disappointed hopes. No one could blame you. You’ve been hurt so many times.

What if, while you wait in line to buy a lottery ticket, someone walks up to you and says, “Do you want to win?” What if the person who asks you this question turns out to be a multi-billionaire, but you don’t know that yet. Would you say, “Yes, but . . .” ?

You wouldn’t be the first.

We have a little saying around our house, “It could happen!”

It’s a line from Angels in the Outfield. Two little boys hang onto faith in the face of raw skepticism and a world troubled by shattered dreams. “It could happen,” says one. And it does.

What if, every time the topic of healing comes up, instead of saying, “Yes, but . . .” instead we all made a conscious decision to say, “It could happen!”

Or better yet, “Let it happen to me as You have said.”

You want to do impossible things in my body, God? I don’t understand, but I’m all for it. I’ll take your word for it, even above my own skeptical logic and yesterday’s broken heart.

After all, God says hope does not disappoint.

Nowadays, in my home, I’m working on restoring some of that sense of wonder and possibility I unwittingly damaged in my son. I want that to be the lens through which he views life.

Stories of Healing

In thinking through what direction to explore next in this blog, I returned to Pastor Bill Meyer’s comment on my very first posting:

The one great thing that can be accomplished and one answer to the question "why" is that stories of what God is doing in our lives in the area of healing can increase faith in us. I work as a hospice chaplain so I am around pain, suffering, death and sorrow. However, I never stop believing that God can and will heal, even in the midst of all the evidence to the contrary. – Pastor Bill Meyer

This says a lot about Pastor Bill, and I greatly appreciate chaplains like him who work in the difficult places – hospice, prison (like Pastor Denny), rehab (like Gregg Swegger) – places most of us would feel very uncomfortable, but where the love of Jesus is so desperately needed.

Stories of what God is doing in our lives in the area of healing. . . .

You know, before I gave birth to my two children, I had a lot of fear about childbirth – stark terror, really - simply because I had heard so many terrible stories about the pain and suffering and horrible things that can happen. It did nothing to edify me or increase my confidence that I could go through the experience.

Thankfully, before I got pregnant, I received a little book called Supernatural Childbirth. (It’s the one labeled “Childbirth” in my sidebar list.) In this book, I learned that some women have experienced wonderful childbirths characterized by peace and joy, as opposed to cursing their husbands and scraping wallpaper off with their fingernails. Suddenly I had hope, a vision of a possible reality, different than the one terror painted in the corners of my mind. Meditating on the principles – and stories of other women – in this book was the single biggest factor in making both my children’s entries into the light sweeter than I could possibly have imagined.

In the same way, if you or someone you love has been beaten up by sickness, discouraged and having no hope, may I suggest that you take time to read stories of others who have experienced God’s healing power?

If God did it for this one, and that one, and him, and her, and her and him and them and those other people over there too . . . Is it just remotely possible he may want to do the same for you?

Here are four books which include stories of healing – I’m sure many more good ones are out there as well.

Christ the Healer by F. F. Bosworth, an Alliance minister who held healing evangelism meetings across North America in the early 1900s. This book used to be required reading for Alliance ordination. Most of it is teaching, but the final chapter gives testimonies, including names and street addresses of those healed. One detail of interest to me is that without the same medical care we have today, cancers grew visibly on people, sometimes black, ugly lumps. When healing came, people could easily see the results.

Healing Voices Christian Publications, Inc. 2000, and subtitled: “A Narrative of the Acts of God in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.” Healing Voices may be unique among healing testimony books because it includes stories of those who did not receive healing, and how they made peace with that outcome. Reflecting a wide span of history and beliefs on healing, you are certain to find that some of the stories in this book will feel comfortable and congruent with your own beliefs, while others may challenge you.

Real People. Real Needs. Real Victories Kenneth Copeland Publications. (If that name makes you queasy, please consider this: You may know that Copeland considers Kenneth E. Hagin Sr. to be one of his mentors. But did you know that Hagin’s teachings on healing were largely influenced by an Alliance minister named F. F. Bosworth? Hagin wore out several copies of Bosworth’s book and never left home without it. So when you think about it, we’re pretty much one big happy family. Well, “family” anyhow. The “happy” part is your choice.)

My favorite thing about this book is the process each person went through internally, battling fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, usually over a period of time. Besides physical healing, some stories are about marital or financial crises, finding freedom from depression, and other common problems. Often the stories include defeats suffered along the way – a mother who suffers miscarriage before receiving a healthy child, a businessman who fails before fulfilling his dream. These stories do not feature instant or easy results but emphasize taking daily time in the Word and pressing through the problems.

Finally and above all else, read the miracles of healing in the Bible. They too, were real people who received real answers to their heartaches. This can bring a lot of encouragement to your heart, and maybe even paint a picture in your mind of a possible reality, different than the one you face today.

And He healed them all.