I have always wanted to believe in the healing power of God but there has always been that doubt, the resistance to believe that the healing could just come straight from God. When I have prayed for healing for myself or others before, it has always been for God to “work through the doctor’s hands” or to “help the medicine work properly”; it was never for God to just do His thing and heal without need of doctors or medicine. God is the same God of the Bible, the same God today and tomorrow as He was in the past so why can’t He heal me or any other as He did the blind man or the beggar?!
I have had painful lower back troubles for many years that stemmed from a fall down some stairs when I was in high school. At World Race training camp in July, I was in a lot of discomfort and pain for the first two days with sciatica from my lower back sending throbbing heat and aching pain through my right hip and leg. I finally voiced my trouble to one of our squad coaches and later that evening during the worship and prayer service, she came and prayed healing over me; she also spoke a lot of truth to me that only the Spirit could have known that I needed to hear. During this time, not only was I growing in my faith in what a great God we have and all that He can truly do through His Spirit but I was also learning more about the way He speaks to us through His Spirit. I was so longing to put my whole faith in the power of God to heal and although I didn’t receive an instantaneous healing, I received a peace from the Spirit that night that I had never known before. I knew God was good that He had never abandoned me and that He loved me with a passion. In these first few days at training camp, the Lord had confirmed His voice to me in special ways and the next day, there was a time for some quiet time with God and as I was praying, I clearly heard God say “I will heal you.” I left training that week with the full understanding that God would heal me. I didn’t know when or how but I knew that God is the great promise keeper and I had peace in giving that over to Him and leaving it in His hands.
Over the next two months, I was determined to keep faith in the Lord’s words to me. I wasn’t having as much of the usual troubles I used to have but still a little doubt creeps in and I wonder “Has He really healed my back or is this just a good month? What about next month? What about my time on the race?” Early on in my preparation for the World Race, I had the lingering thought of “what if I have trouble with my back on travel days or doing some of the work we might have to do or sleeping on weird surfaces?”
In China, the Lord squashed all my doubts and gave me confirmation of the healing of my back. After playing a great game of soccer the previous day with some students at the college we were ministering at, the next morning I woke up feeling sore and my back was aching and stiff. Usually if I started a day like this in the morning, by the evening I would be having spasms and be unable to stand up straight so naturally I started to feel a little worried but I was trying to remind myself of God’s promise and to have faith in who He is. As the day went on, this battle between doubt and faith continued until the end of the day when I realize that I am still standing straight; I am not having spasms in my lower back or shooting down my legs. I am still sore but naturally because I had just played soccer for the first time in a long time and my body was adjusting, and as I was realizing this peace and assurance from the Lord, He couldn’t just leave it at that. God had to put the icing on the cake and literally send me a message to declare the works of His hands.
Our squad leader, Hailey, was going to attend our usual evening team time on this day and when she arrived, she brought six index cards, one for each of us. Hailey explained that she had a habit of writing names on one side of an index card and then flipping them over and mixing them up and then praying over each card not knowing who it was for and transferring a message of encouragement for that person from the Lord onto the back of the card. When she passed each card out to the intended person, the following is what mine said:
So. . . I don’t think the Lord could have made himself any clearer than that! Done. . . claimed. . . walking it out!
