Grace Brother

About 26 years ago, I ended up with severe whiplash that landed me in hospital in mind-blowing pain. After a series of x-rays, a Dr. Mah (I can still remember his name) told me I had degenerative disk disease and would probably be in a wheel chair by the time I was fifty. (I’m 52.) Needless to say I was freaked out.

After seeing a specialist, I discovered Mah’s diagnosis was inaccurate. I had damaged my neck in a car accident as a 12yr old kid - and the damage on the x-ray was from that accident. The whiplash had highlighted the damage. However, the specialist told me I could expect to suffer from neck pain for the rest of my life according to the specialist.

I became a Christian the following year and was married the year after that. Imbi often had the pleasure of seeing me in double donuts around my neck - or using a neck stretching device hung over a door to help alleviate the pain.

One Sunday morning at the anti-charismatic Pentecostal Church we would later be tossed from (for sharing some Wimber materials with the worship team we led), we had prayer for healing. People gathered in groups and my group prayed for me…and the pain went away. Period.

About eight years later I was seeing a new chiropractor, a Christian. He needed to x-ray my back to see if and where adjustment was necessary. I returned a few days later for the results and to begin treatment. He started with my lower back and told me that was the area that needed adjustment. He went through my entire back and when he got to my neck, he said, “Now your neck, your neck is perfect.” His exact words. And I began to cry.

You see, I thought the Spirit had taken my pain away and that had been good enough for me. I had no idea my neck had been repaired.

The chiro was shocked by my tears - but loved the story when I could finally suck it up and get it out.

Thanks for the discussion here, Steve.

Hope you and yours are having a wonderful Advent.

One in particular is my dad. As a child, osteomylitis had completely destroyed the tibula in his right leg. X-rays showed that the bone was non-existent. His mother prayed for his healing and God caused a new bone to grow in his leg.

The ladies of my church witnessed a miracle recently when they volunteered to feed a Thanksgiving meal to an ESL class at a Hispanic mission. They were told to prepare for 50 people and did so. When the meal was served, over 120 people showed up. Everyone received full servings and there were even leftovers.

Are you surprised to hear this from me, Steve?

Bill, great to hear from you! And your story brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing.

Gordon, yes But seriously, thank you so much for sharing, too.

I’m honestly really touched at the responses this post is getting.

Thanks for writing this. It reminds me, as God often does, about how He healed me when I was just 20 months old. I love to think about how miraculously He healed my body. I was playing in a friend’s garage with another toddler and our moms were visiting. There are was an antique armoire in the garage and inside was a large bowl of pens (they were promotional pens they had for the dad’s work). So, as toddlers do, we were pretending that the armoire was our oven and the bowl of pens was dinner. We would run around the garage a few times and then we would stop and open the doors to the armoire and “check on dinner”.

Well, one time I opened the doors and the armoire proceeded to fall on top of my little 20-month-old body. It fractured my skull. I was in a coma and having periodic grand mal seizures. My prognosis was not good … if I did wake from the coma I would have severe brain damage, blindness, deafness in the ear where the eardrum had ruptured, seizures for the rest of my life, and severe sensitivity to light. My mom is a huge believer in the power of prayer and she was praying fervently, as was everyone else she knew (she’s a prayer chain queen).

I woke up after 4 days in a coma. But I still had seizures and I did have severe sensitivity to light, as well as newly discovered hole in the spine/base of the skull. The doctors weren’t sure about anything with me at that point - the prognosis was still the same. That was in May. By the time October rolled around and I went in for my 6 month follow-up with the doctor I was completely healed. All these things that the doctors were just sure would be problems that I would have for the rest of my life … God healed them all.

I have absolutely NO ill-effects from the accident - none - never have. I have exceptional hearing (I mean the nurses would always be amazed at the things I could hear when I would have hearing tests growing up), my eyesight is excellent, I have had no seizures since having just a couple right after waking from the coma, and I have absolutely no brain damage (although, according to my family, that’s debatable - HA!). The hole in my spine healed with no ill effects and I have no sensitivity to light at all. And these are not things that “healed over time”, although even if they were I still wouldn’t discount it - it would still be God’s healing power. My body has completely been healed and the only explanation is God’s miraculous healing.

Thanks for talking about this subject, Steve … and thanks for the opportunity to share!

Blessings!
~Heather

I have experienced miraculous healing and have also seen (as an example) Mark, a dear friend, charismatic, associate pastor and father of two small girls (one autistic) die of cancer in his thirties after us doing “all the stuff” to appropriate his healing. I still don’t understand why God would choose to heal my neck and not heal Mark.

In that confusing space, many choose to believe God no longer heals. And I do understand why.

It’s unfortunate that many of us try to understand God when His ways are not our ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts. There are many things that I do not understand, but nonetheless I believe. God wouldn’t be God if we could explain every mystery.

~Heather

I’ve been reading your posts, and I’ve been very encouraged by them. I’m glad that you are getting your voice back, and that it is as healthy and strong as ever.

-Alan

Sovereignty is sometimes a harsh thing. Things happen, and we get no explanation. I think that too many times, we like to get an image of God in our heads, and try to conform God to that image. Well, I don’t think God is going to allow that. He lets us know in no uncertain terms, that he can not be cajoled into our service.

We also get fooled by the “if you had faith enough to move mountains” quote. We believe that if our faith is strong enough, God will do what we want him to do. Kind of make him our personal genie. So that when he does not do as we request, we consider it a lack of faith, rather than us not doing what God would have us do. And accept what he gives us.

Or we fall into the, “God I have done all of this for you, you owe me this.” No he doesn’t. Until you give up your son to die, you still owe him.

People fall in to the Ted Turner syndrome as soon as God doesn’t grant a wish. Then they say, “well, if God didn’t do it for me, he just must not do it anymore.”

I haven’t responded much or been able to keep up with your blog as much as I’d like, but I absolutely have loved reading about your own personal testimonies as well as those of others in the comments here. I know that since becoming a Christian, I feel like God has done miracles in my own life just by making me know who I am in Him & not who the world had made me think I was. For that, I’m so forever grateful! & there are countless other things, even the smallest answers to prayer that God never ceases to amaze me with. To know He cares even in the slightest things of our lives!

Sometime I’ll have to completely update you on what God’s been doing in my life lately, but I trust He’s not done yet!

Brandon

i have just stumbled upon your blog by recommendation of a friend of mine. my own blog also focusses on healing and the miraculous side of jesus. probably you will not be able to read it since it´s written in german.
i just wanted to tell you that i am really happy to find any internet ressoruces that focus on healing and the supernatural. i know it is sometimes hard to preach that message but it is worth it.

keep fighting the good fight!

storch

I was in my fifties: confused and full of fear created by my need to hide from an abusive husband who really needed my voice stilled. I was in attendance at a party which also included some of my fellow church members. I was sitting across from a young couple who were passionate in their determination to follow all the rules and live “just right” for God. They were struggling with the fact there were so many problems in the life of their family: health issues, financial struggles and frequent crises of various nature.

The stranger sitting beside me was disturbing. She kept “seeing” evil spirits and bad omens, gradually convincing me she must be deranged. Late into the evening, she declared she was going to heal the young couple with all the issues. She announced everyone must follow her to another room where we could form a circle and pray for the young couple. I had no intention of being a part of that group even though she was most insistent I must accompany them.

Eventually my pastor’s wife stood up to join the group and motioned me forward, so I reluctantly went with them where a circle was formed and I just happened to end up with my hand on the shoulder of the young wife.

The strange woman began a prayer to Jesus that was one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard. Near the close of the prayer, hot coals began to surge through my veins. They began in the hand touching the young wife and slowly worked their way through my entire body. These coals were very, very hot and extremely painful. I did not know what to think.

After the prayer ended, the strange woman asked if anyone had felt anything. I was slow to confirm so she made the request again, saying she normally felt something herself, but had not felt anything at all. After the young couple confirmed they had felt nothing, I went ahead and acknowledged I was still feeling the heat.

In the ensuing days, I was to note that a goose egg lump in one armpit had disappeared, I quit taking sinus medicine and had a new found peacefulness about me. But the most important discovery did not occur until over five years later. The husband from whom I was hiding got wind of the fact I had been diagnosed with kidney disease and quickly set me free for fear he’d have to pay my medical bills.

Some months after the divorce was final, a new round of testing determined the massive cyst in my kidney was shriveling and appeared to be going away.

Do you see all the baffling turns in this? I did not pray for healing–didn’t even want to be involved. I was not prayed for by another. It would seem to me, God was (1) healing my skepticism and (2) setting up the scenario which would allow me the financial backing required to retire, move to the inner city, and begin working with families so beat down by their culture that they have no concept of the words “trust and hope”.