“As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, ‘Who was it that touched me?’ When all denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!’ But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.’ And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.’” (Luke 8:42-48 ESV)
I identify with this woman to some extent. Beginning in the mid-1980s I had two back surgeries. The second one was necessary for the first surgery was a failed job. In the early 90s my back began to have the same pain as before, only this time it was being caused by the scar tissue from the two previous surgeries, so I had to be in a pain therapy center for like a month and then another six months, I think it was, of outpatient physical therapy.
But now I was going through menopause and the hot flashes were horrible and my emotions were haywire and so one doctor put me on an antidepressant medication. Immediately I had horrible side effects, but the doctor said that was not from the medicine or that they would go away. They didn’t go away but only got much worse and so he added on another drug and still the symptoms continued to increase in severity of pain.
And so then I went through a whole litany of various tests and doctors to try to find out what was going on inside my body, but everything was coming up negative. And so I finally looked up the medication that I was taking and I learned that, indeed, everything I was experiencing was listed in the side effects list, although mostly under “rare,” which is usually where my body falls, in the rare category of physical events.
So I stopped taking the medication he put me on, at least I stopped the one that was causing all the havoc, and most all of the symptoms went away, but I was left with a permanent ongoing headache which was severe enough that it kept me from being able to do a lot of things I would have liked to have done. And then one day as I was praying for healing the Lord impressed upon my heart and mind to stop all (every) medication.
The next two weeks was like hell on earth as my body was experiencing major withdrawal, but I trusted the Lord and I kept my faith, and at the end of the two weeks I was healed. God healed me. No more constant headache after I had had this continuous debilitating headache for 10 years straight! So this was my miracle of miracles from God and I was singing and dancing and praising the Lord that he delivered me from that headache.
So “all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put (me) together again,” i.e. none of the doctors or tests or medicines ever healed me, but God did! It wasn’t instantaneously, like for this woman. It was more like how Jesus healed the man who had been blind from birth who he put mud on his eyes and then told him to go wash in a specific pool of water which wasn’t right next door, from what I recall. For sometimes we have to do what God says for us to do before he heals us, and that was my case.
Now I did not hide from declaring that the Lord had healed me. I am most certain that I was praising his name near and far. But this woman may have been afraid of the crowd or that Jesus might be angry with her or perhaps she just didn’t want attention drawn to herself for some reason. And we are all different people, aren’t we? And we are not all going to respond in all the same exact ways when God creates a miracle in our lives and/or in our bodies. But the thing that woman and I had in common was our faith.
She believed that Jesus could heal her so much that she risked public criticism and disapproval or rebuke in order to touch the fringe of his garment in belief that he could heal her. And I went off all medications and went through two weeks of withdrawal believing my Lord would heal me, and he did. And I risked having people think I was crazy for going off those drugs and putting myself through “hell” for two weeks on the faith that my Lord was going to heal me.
Now I will admit that eventually I did allow myself to take some pain medications again, for a short period of time, before I once again and permanently went off all medications and to just trust the Lord with my pain. And that has worked now for 15 years that I have been pharmaceutical dependent free and have just lived off the faith that the Lord will see me through every pain and every suffering and that he continues to be my healer, even if he allows me to suffer for periods of time, too.
You know that a time is coming, as the Scriptures tell us, when things are going to get really bad. People in other nations throughout the world have suffered severely at many times and in many ways, but in America we have not had to suffer, as a people, like people in many other countries have had to suffer and are still suffering. But our time will come, and when it does we may not have access to doctors and medicine, etc. So this is just to encourage you that it is possible to survive without medicine by faith in Jesus Christ.
Now I am no doctor and so I don’t give out medical advice and so I am not telling anyone that he should do what I did, okay? But when that time comes, and when we no longer have such access to doctors and medicine, just know that our Lord is all sufficient to meet our every need and he is still our great physician. We can trust him with our lives. For he is all powerful and nothing is beyond his ability to do within his divine character and will and purpose. So just know that you can trust him.
I Stand in Awe
By Mark Altrogge
You are beautiful beyond description
Too marvelous for words
Too wonderful for comprehension
Like nothing ever seen or heard
Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom?
Who can fathom the depth of Your love?
You are beautiful beyond description
Majesty, enthroned above
And I stand, I stand in awe of You
I stand, I stand in awe of You
Holy God, to whom all praise is due
I stand in awe of You
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