Just last night Bonnie and I spent the evening in prayer over a friend in ICU. He is fighting for his life and had almost given up. He is only in his late 50's and was in great health until this attack on his body from the inside out. His name is Doug, if you all could pray for a miracle to overtake this hideous attack of the enemy, many would be blessed. He wrongly thought that the Lord has done this to him and is calling him home. We are standing on the Word that tells us our days should be numbered 70-80 years, and anything less is because the devil is robbing us of what we are due. We can stand and fight as Jesus has already won this fight, all we need do is claim it. Doug needs a new liver, refreshed blood with no infections and a new central nervous system... not too much for God to do. Afterall, He breathed into mirey clay and made us!
So whenever we go into battle for someone suffering with ill health, we are reminded of the miracle we experienced just last spring... it was our daughter, Gretchen. She is now 19 and is a student at Columbia International University preparing to be a missionary, hopefully in Ethiopia where she is feeling called. Last year was her freshman year.
First of all I must say she was a miracle from the beginning... nothing dramatic like a premature baby or disease from the beginning but she was a surprise baby to a couple who were very selfish and not wanting to have children. Since neither my wife or I believed in abortion as an option, (even though we were not saved at the time) we had Gretchen. Little did we know at the time, it was plan Y from God... we already had ignored plans A-X. How many of you know that God has back-up plan after back-up plans and is so in love with us that He never stops pursuing us? So she was saved through weekends with the grandparents and was to be used to bring us to the Lord... but that's another story.
Last fall we got a call from her telling us she had an accident playing basketball with the boys and that she hurt her knee, could she go and have further tests done because she had been collapsing in a heap at times because of it? It was swelled twice the size and she couldn't walk on it. We agreed but with a caveat... when you come home for break we'll take you to the elders to be annointed and prayed for and we believed that would be that. You see, we were only walking with the Lord for less than 2 years at that time and we just believed everything we read in the Bible. In James it told how to pray the prayer of faith and that would be that. We were not aware at that time that our church really didn't believe that exactly. Oh, they'd pray but if nothing happened it was God's will. How many out there believe that? That it's not always God's will to heal? Well we actually are crazy enough to believe the Bible and when it says, go and raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons and heal the sick... do greater things than Jesus... well, we believed it.
She went and had further tests and an MRI showed conclusively that her ACL was totally torn and possible MCL and miniscus damage as well. They wouldn't know until they "got in there." We freaked out on that phone call. We insisted that surgery would not be needed and she really thought that God wanted her to have it. It became a long distance battle of wills. When she came home for Christmas we took her for prayer. I must stop here and tell you that our pastor at that particular church, already let us know that no matter what, that she would have this trick knee for the rest of her life and how sorry he was to hear about it. That instilled a great deal of confidence in what we were doing! Not! Well, when she came home we followed scriptures and took her for prayer. Nothing happened. We took her to a friend who has had a past history of success in healing prayer, again nothing happened. Our daughter still was insistent on surgery.
We took her for a second opinion hoping this doctor would side with us... no such luck. He recommended surgery and told us these things just don't heal on their own and once they are torn they are like a broken rubber band. The only way was to reconstruct it and rehab for months afterward. We left feeling down and our daughter left feeling vindicated. But, we kept praying.
Fast forward to later in the spring, she came home for spring break and because she was tired of us asking about her knee and nagging at her to go for prayer for it, she brought 10 friends from school to spend the break with. That made it easy to avoid us and the issue at hand. Her roommate was the only one on Sunday morning to want to go with us to church! (These are Bible studensts... we thought they were on fire for the Lord, but most of them just wanted a break from God and church!) So Betty was the only one to go. Since earlier in the year, we moved to a church that actually believed in healing and other things in the Bible, we had found a new church home and had been moved there by God and only by His direction. We were being called into a more radical faith. The day Betty went with us was a loud and raucous day. She had a vision during worship and didn't tell us. She was a little frightened by it and thought it might have been demonic. This is what she saw briefly: She was in a dark tunnel going towards an incredible light, when she came out of the tunnel she saw Jesus. He asked her to sit and they said nothing but she was just thrilled to be sitting with Him. Then He told her to look at her hands and they were glowing bright red like fire but weren't hurting at all. She found it very strange and then Jesus said, "It's time to go back now and share what you have with your friends." She didn't want to go and protested but found herself back in the tunnel with her hands still on fire. That was it. It frightened her and she didn't know what it meant and she never told us about it. All she did tell us was that her knees were shaking the whole time she was in our church.
Once they went back to school, we were trying to get Gretchen to tell us when to schedule the surgery as we were told to get her on the schedule 5 weeks in advance so she'd have the most time during the summer break for rehab. She was still hobbling around campus and she just kept telling us to hold off but she wouldn't tell us any more. We were still praying. One night, I noticed her MRIs sitting next to my wife's chair where we pray and I asked what she was doing with them. She said she felt led to pray over them tonight. So we did and then she just thanked Jesus for healing Gretchen's knee. I thought it was a little premature. Little did I know...
The next day we got this amazing phone call from her. She said she had been putting us off because she suddenly felt the Lord telling her that He loved her so much and DID want to heal her knee. That she should look for a woman who would pray over her knee and He would heal it. In the meantime, her roommate, Betty, was hearing from the Lord that she should pray over Gretchen's knee and that He would heal it for her. Gretchen avoided her for a few days unsure of what was happening. Finally, Betty sat her down and told her and Gretchen squeeled with glee "You're the woman! You're the woman! Betty had never done anything like this and she called her mother who she knew had more knowledge about such things. Her mother wasn't surprised as she said "You're grandmother and I both have this gift and we were waiting to see if you had it also." So she gave her some instructions and they went off looking for some annointing oil. All they could find was vegatable oil. When God wants to work... it doesn't matter! So back to their room and they locked their door. She prayed over her and annointed her with the oil. After about 15 minutes, Gretchen described this sensation of intense heat starting in her knee and went up and down her whole side. She was very taken aback by it. Not scared but just surprised. Then they noticed the swelling was gone and she heard a small still voice in her head that said "Test it out." "Run!" So out into the hall they went and she ran. Up and down the hall. Then she heard "Jump." So she jumped up and down. Then "Run hard and cut and just do everything you couldn't before." She did. No pain, no weakness, just a totally brand new knee... just as good as her other one. They were so joyful and started going around showing everyone. "Look what Jesus did!" That morning she had a hard time doing stairs... that night she was back playing basketball... with the boys again!
We were in tears of joy hearing all of this and you can't imagine how high we were feeling listening to the love of God poured out on us. We spent the next few days telling anyone who would listen about it.
It wasn't until later that we realized not everyone was as joyful about the news. There were skeptics and many of them are Christians too! Many on her campus didn't know what to make of it and we learned that not all believers take this as God. Some keep asking her, even today still, "How's the knee? Is is still healed?" To which she now replies.... "Yep, perfect. Just like God is still perfect."
In two weeks I'm going down to watch her play Quarterback for the annual North/South flag football game! No brace, just totally God restored knee. I am so thankful to God everyday and I know miracles still happen. I also am aware this was not a life threatening illness or anything totally devastating... but it served as a lesson that will never be forgotten and we're still carrying that faith to all who need prayer. It's only a matter of time until our faith is so strong that all illness we pray against will bow to the authority of that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and dwells in us. Please rejoice with us today and help us pray for Doug's miracle right now.
Beloved, Thank you for reading all of this and be blessed, in Jesus' mighty name.
Dancing with her sister on two good knees!
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