I believe that Jesus healed the sick during His years of ministry on earth (as the gospels teach us) and that He also still heals today. The gifts of healing are still available to us as believers in Jesus and are in evidence through the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us today.
The disciples and the early church followers exercised the gifts of healing and the Apostle Paul taught about healing gifts from the Holy Spirit. We read stories of healings by the Apostles in the book of Acts.
In my family we have been fortunate to have experienced the healing power of Jesus. I have shared my Grandad’s healing testimony previously – Healing Testimony. I also wanted to share my own story with you of receiving healing from Jesus.
It happened during an Alpha course and to be entirely honest I wasn’t expecting it. For those who are not familiar with Alpha – it is a course for people wanting to find out more about the Christian faith. It wasn’t a healing service and I wasn’t there specifically for healing but the opportunity arose and I responded. It just so happened that one of the leaders on the course also had a healing ministry.
I had been in a car accident a week or two before and had experienced whiplash and a crushing injury to my chest from the safety air bag which had been inflated in the accident. The amazing thing about the car accident was that the Lord had already given me a word of Wisdom from a friend about what to do in such an accident. It was a head on collision but I had remembered my friend explaining to me (she had recently been involved in a bad car accident) that it was better to hit another car head on (the bonnet is longer and designed to take the impact) rather than swerve and then the other car hits your passenger door and badly injures your passenger. This was exactly the situation I found myself in not long after that conversation. God was already ahead of me and preparing me.
I was driving home after collecting my daughters from school when another car drove across the road at speed straight in front of us. We couldn’t avoid hitting it but instead of following my natural instinct to swerve, I remembered my friend’s advice and told my children to brace for impact and hit the other car head on. The impact was very severe but fortunately, the front of the car took the brunt of it. The air bags protected us. Although, we were all injured it could have been a lot worse. Thank the Lord for His protection.
So, I find myself at this meeting and the leader is talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and asking if anyone needs healing. I put my hand up because I was still experiencing a lot of pain in my neck and chest from the impact. The leader laid hands on me and prayed for Jesus to heal me and for all my bones, ligaments and muscles to come into alignment and be healed. As he prayed for me, I felt my body change and knew instantly that I had been healed. The best way I can describe the feeling is that it felt like someone was inflating a balloon inside my chest. I felt my chest actually expand and the pain in my chest, neck and shoulder instantly disappeared. Praise God it was wonderful and the first time I physically felt the healing power of Jesus for myself in this way.
My encounter with Jesus who heals, raised my faith levels in the healing power of Jesus and since then I have prayed for other people and they too have experienced physical healing. Praise God.
There are times though when we are not physically healed. It is those times when we need to trust in God, be strengthened and comforted by Him, trusting in His great love for us to take us through such times of grief and sorrow. These times can be disappointing to us especially when we really believe we are to be healed and we can struggle to understand why not. I have also experienced these times too.
It happened when I was pregnant and everything was fine until I suddenly experienced bleeding and stomach cramps. I knew something was wrong. I went to the hospital and after having an ultrasound scan the Doctor came and told me that there was no heartbeat and I had miscarried. As he spoke, I heard a voice so clearly that it was almost audible saying to me “He’s mistaken”.
I believe this was the Holy Spirit speaking and because the voice was so clear, I felt compelled to act so I asked the Doctor if there was a possibility that he could be wrong. The Doctor said No but agreed to speak to the Consultant. He came back to say he was 99% sure that I had miscarried but the only way they could be 100% sure was by a series of blood tests over a couple of days. If the hormone levels in my blood kept rising then there was still a continuing pregnancy. I asked if I could have this test to make absolutely sure. I could tell the Doctor thought it was a waste of time but in the end he agreed.
So a couple of days later on the Saturday (after having the blood tests) I was sitting at the breakfast table when I received a call from the hospital. It was a doctor saying the consultant had just read my notes and I must come to the hospital immediately. It was an emergency. I was really taken aback but he was asking me lots of questions. How was I? Did I have a stiff neck (no), I mustn’t eat anything (whoops just had my breakfast) and I needed to come to the hospital right now. I explained that I couldn’t just up and leave as my husband was away on work and I didn’t have anyone to look after my daughter. The Doctor was insistent though that I got someone around and came straight away.
I got to the hospital and was taken straight down for emergency surgery. I had no idea what was happening other than they were very worried. When I woke up from the surgery I discovered that I had an ectopic pregnancy and they had removed my fallopian tube. I was devastated as I really believed that I was going to have this baby.
However, later as I spent time with God I came to realise that God had saved my life. If I had not heard His voice and asked the Doctor to run the blood tests then the Consultant would not have seen my notes. I also later found out the Consultant wasn’t due to be in that Saturday – he had just popped into the hospital and happened to see my test results. He knew that it was likely to be an ectopic pregnancy and because of the length of time it could burst at any time so he insisted and scheduled the surgery for me. People could say it was just a coincidence but I believe it was God who prompted the Consultant to go to the hospital that day. Even though it was a time of pain and sorrow for me, I did become pregnant again (even with one fallopian tube) and was blessed with another child. I can truly say that God is good – all the time.
EagleSight 