“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they … will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Jesus speaking in Mark 16:17-18 NIV)
The last few days of last week were quite a challenge. My 4-year-old son was in hospital … he came out Saturday night (praise God) and we are continuing to believe for full healing. Finding myself at hospital, when we were due to leave for a much anticipated and needed holiday I decided to look for people that God wanted me to stop for … what better place to offer the healing of Jesus Christ than in the Children’s’ Hospital … Right? I figured, I would do some damage for theKingdomofHeaven, as much as I could in any case!
On Friday evening, he was moved to a ward after being in emergency all day. A Mum came over to me as we settled in, and said “hello”. I felt that I needed to offer to pray for her daughter who had peritonitis (blood poisoning) from a burst appendix, but was not sure about timing ….
My husband stayed over night with M and on my return to the ward in the morning we were told that M would be discharged that evening. I prepared to take my nearly 8 year old home and knew I needed to offer before I left. I did, and the Mother and Father stated that they were Christians too, were very touched and said that prayer would be great, but their daughter needed to go to the toilet – could I wait?
I agreed, and waited …
Then the grandparents arrived, and the Mother said they were not yet Christians and so I said I would wait, and so I waited …
Eventually I got the opportunity, and I knelt by the bed and quietly explained to the little 9-year-old girl, that there was no sickness in Heaven and so it did not belong in her body, that Jesus had won her healing and that her healing and health would be His full for all He paid …
The father stopped me gently and said “sorry” and asked what denomination I belonged to … he then continued on to say that they said they had different doctrinal beliefs … they believed that God allowed sickness, why He did they did not know, but that He allowed it… they also believed that Jesus could heal. The Mother looked at me desperately and said she had to believe that God allowed sickness, otherwise she would go mad, because she said that God as always good …
I smiled and said that while I did not agree with their view, I respected their belief system. I said I did not want to argue doctrinal differences, and I quoted a few scriptures about healing which he agreed with … I then said that I believed that Jesus died for us all, and that He rose again, and that on this we could agree … the parents agreed … I had found our place of unity …
Admittedly, I was a bit taken aback, but regardless I said that I honoured them and that as a Father I understood he did not want me to lay my hands on his child and pray (I had already been holding his daughters hand when I first spoke to her). He said I could pray without laying hands, and I asked if they as her parents gave us permission to pray for her, stating that it held more authority with their permission as parents … they agreed and so I said I would pray for her …
He said he was always very careful as a father, who he allowed to pray for his children, and I said I understood, that we were too, and that I honoured him and his wife as the child’s parents …
As my daughter and I left the mother looked at her daughter and said how much better she looked already … I noted later as I drove home that I had been given a chance to kneel by the bed and hold her hand and just talk about the healing powers of Jesus (the power of the Truth … the power of the Word … the power of the Testimony) and that God’s intention was that we be well …
My daughter and I prayed for her as we left the hospital, and I said sorry to God on behalf of the parents (standing in the gap so to speak) for the fact that He was given credit for allowing her sickness. I blessed the parents and spoke healing into their daughter as we walked to our car.
Perhaps the encounter will be the catalyst for them to seek the Truth on the issue of healing … perhaps they will not too … It was not my job to win an argument, but to offer to pray, to honour the parents and to find a place of agreement in love, whereby unity could be found and I could stand with them and pray for the healing of their daughter, to be given permission to pray …
The Mother did note that I offered to pray for them before I knew they were Christians …
I must admit I did start to query how I went about it … the “if onlys” … if only I had just prayed instead of … but then I stopped myself … who knows what our brief discussion may be a catalyst for in the future …
I do not know why they believe that God allowed the sickness, but yet that Jesus could heal and then how they had their entire church praying for healing, against a sickness that God, in their minds had allowed … but then, I had also held such a belief about my own disability when I was pregnant as I tried to marry my disability into my belief system that God is all good, all powerful … and thank goodness I had people around me that had challenged this belief system, through kind, gentle yet firm scriptural teaching …
These beautiful people had been through so much. I trust they can and will capture that God does not allow sickness but that sickness comes from the enemy, and it is us, the body of Christ, who have been left in charge, who need to go about doing as Jesus did, … destroying the deeds of the devil!
And, in the meantime, I stand in unity with those parents in proclaiming to the world that …
God is Good!
Praise God for your obedience in ministering. May I share a story from my own life 10 1/2 yrs ago? My son was 6 weeks old at the time. I was barely saved. I knew nothing of the Word and my mind had a long way to go in the renewing process. Although I was in church, my Pastor and church staff were unavailable to me at the time. My son became very ill. He spiked a temp and screamed in pain. We were told by his Dr to take him to the hospital immediately. I packed him into his carrier and arrived at the hospital for a set-up of the God kind. You see, our hospital has a seperate ER for peds. They knew we were coming, but for some unusual reason they were not ready and had us do something odd for our hospital. They had us wait for a bit in the general ER waiting room. (Kids have their own ER waiting room to get them apart from germs.) The waiting room was extremely crowded. Standing room only. I stood with my baby in the carrier, his cover over him shielding him from the crowd. I only stood a few minutes when the door opened and a group of older people came walking out. They were leaving the hospital. One of the older men stopped as he walked past me. He looked directly at me (remember the room was FILLED to overflowing with people everywhere) and asked, “What’s wrong with the baby?” I told him that we did not know yet, but he had spiked a temp. He asked if he could pray and then asked if he could lay hands on him. I agreed. He simply placed his hand in the carrier on my son’s head and prayed a short prayer. I thanked him and they were on their way.
As soon as they left I was called to go back to the normal child’s ER section and our room.
The Dr’s gave him an immediate shot of antibiotics and began their testing. Interestingly, they never detected fever in the ER. IT WAS GONE. They praised the fast working of the antibiotic, but we both know it was not that one little shot. My son was diagnosed with a condition at that time and had to be admitted into the hospital for 3 days. However, every Dr that visited his room marveled over how well he did and how he never displayed fever or complications through his treatment of his medical condition.
To this day I will never forget how God was there for me in our time of need. I was a scared Mama with her infant. I am thankful for that man’s obedience to God that day in the hospital. Given my son’s diagnosis, it should have been a lot worse. Instead, he recovered instantly! PRAISE GOD!!!!
This is a wonderful testimony of a stranger stepping out in obedience (or maybe it was an encounter with an angel?). Thank you so much for sharing … it is encouraging to those who step out and offer to pray for the stranger before them, but I would also imagine it is a lovely reminder to you (and to your son) that God loves you (and your son) enough to send you to the general ER room in order for you to have a God encounter with a stranger… the timing of which was clearly miraculous. I sense that story is just one of many God stories that will always be a part of your family’s heritage … a reminder that God does the miraculous in, through and for you and your children … because … God is Good!