Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Genesis 17:17
And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do no weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him, knowing she was dead. Luke 8:52-53
During my last semester of nursing school, I precepted in the medical intensive care unit at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida. It was by far my favorite experience of nursing school. One particular case I remember, was a man who was there for myxedema coma. This is an extremely rare occurrence in the states, so I was particularly fascinated with this man’s condition. I’ll never forget the moment he first opened his eyes after days of being unconscious. There was a surge of excitement as I finished administering the IV steroid that I had been faithfully giving him every couple of hours. Finally, the hard work was paying off. The family visited shortly after and were obviously also super excited to see the progress. “It’s a miracle!” they exclaimed over and over. I paused and thought, “Was it? or was it a simple case of cause and effect? He had a problem; we understood the cause; and we fixed it. That’s not really a miracle.” I looked around quickly, ashamed that someone might read my thoughts. I believed miracles were possible, but I didn’t think we should go around calling things miracles when really we were simply uneducated about the disease process and didn’t want to take the time to figure it out. And so my cynicism regarding the gift of healing began.
I think it’s safe to say that some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit have not been stewarded well, and as a result, many have been wounded. I think the gift of healing is a great example of this. We can all think of a few “evangelists” who have created an image based on it, as well as the documentaries made that showed the real truth behind it. Maybe we have seen well-meaning promotional videos that are on the verge of exploiting or commercializing the gift. If I may blunt, often this amazing gift seems nothing more than a talent for a Christian circus act.
One thing that always bothered me was the whole joint pain scenario. “I had elbow pain for 10 years and these people prayed and now I’ve been healed.” To the people healed, I’m sure that meant a great deal (and I’m not saying that it didn’t happen). But to me, joint pain isn’t going to kill you. It’s uncomfortable, but not typically a life-threatening complication. When I read about Jesus healing people, it was usually pretty radical. Blind eyes seeing, deaf hearing, mute speaking.. We’re talking life-altering to life-honoring. And there was no question where the power came from to do these things… It could have only come from God. Beneath all my cynicism and deep-seated wounds, I really longed to see God do an honest-to-goodness miracle. I believed He could… but more than anything I wanted to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was truly a gift from Him.
My team and I have had discussions on healing, and they have given me a lot of grace in my struggle. During our last few days in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, my team and I had the opportunity to have some very strong encounters with the Lord. We had the opportunity to get to know some very strong, Spirit-filled people (shout out to Adam and Vicki Burke and Juliet Howat) who asked a lot about our personal experiences with prayer and took the time to search the Scriptures with us in order to understand how to experience more of the Spirit’s presence in our lives.
One morning, we ladies gathered in the prayer room hoping to spend some time in prayer and encounter the Lord in a more personal way. Even now, I struggle with finding words to tell you exactly how the Lord moved in that place. We prayed for about 4 hours, but it didn’t seem like that at all. We all sat together, wide-eyed, wondering at the fact that we had simply asked the Lord to come and meet with us and He did. We shared our experiences with the boys, who asked if we could have a prayer time with them that night. Why not! We were so eager to see God do what He does in them as He had in us.
That evening, we were once again gathered in the prayer room talking about how our lives had been transformed earlier that day. One of my teammates, Mason, spoke up. Mason was born with hip dysplasia, a condition where it’s very easy for joints to come out of socket. The only way to fix this condition is to have major surgery where the bones are cut, rotated, and bolted into place. One side of his hip has had surgery, but the other has not and frequently still caused him trouble. Tonight, he said he felt the Lord laying it on His heart for us to pray for healing for his hip.
“Hmm… back at it again with the joint pain.” I thought. But I was super curious, because I sensed that the Lord was in this place and that He had already been working in hearts and lives. We gathered around Mason to pray. Our friend, Juliet, who had been kind of leading our prayer meeting asked, “Does anyone have faith to pray?” I turned my head to look around the room, anxious to see someone boldly raise their hand or speak up. Mason looked right at me and said, “Chase, that’s you.” My eyes couldn’t have been any wider. I thought, “Me? Really? You know me. You know the problems I have with this kind of stuff.” I laughed inwardly at the irony of the situation. He saw my expression and said, “Yeah I know, but I really feel like you need to be the one to pray.” Well shucks. I had been on a team with Mason almost two months, and I had watch the Lord give Him discernment in a lot of situations. He wouldn’t have said anything unless he was absolutely certain that this was from the Lord.
I put my hand on his leg and started praying out loud. I didn’t know what to say, but somehow the words came anyway. I don’t remember much of what was said, but I remember after I asked for healing I started thanking God for how that healing was gonna bring glory to Him. I thought of all the people who had refused Mason opportunities because of this condition and what a testimony it was gonna be for him to show up and tell them how God had healed them. I started naming them one by one.. and when I mentioned the last one I felt his leg jump. I prayed a little more then stopped. “What’s a way to tell if anything’s different for you?” we asked him. He told us he had a stretch that he wasn’t able to do before. We watched with amazement as he twisted and bended in new ways. We laughed and cried in celebration as he jumped up and down and ran around.
That wasn’t the only miracle we would witness that weekend. We watched as those fighting severe depression were freed to feel unspeakable joy. Others had memories brought to the surface and healed that had long been forgotten. Each event was so truly supernatural and life-changing, and I was so honoured to witness it. Through all of this, I realised that sometimes for fear of not stewarding the gift well, we don’t use the gift at all. I still think that discernment and wisdom are vital, but I don’t feel afraid or as doubtful as I used to be either. Mostly, I feel like I can relate more to Sarah when she laughed at God telling her she was gonna have a child in her old age. Or the friends and family who laughed at Jesus who told them that the daughter was just sleeping when she was obviously dead. I’m glad that Jesus gives grace to doubting people, and He shows us what He can do anyway.
