I didn’t necessarily want to write this blog, but after some encouragement from a teammate and taking it to the Lord, I find myself sitting down and wanting to share with you all.
For it to make sense, I have to take you back a few years.
One day, out of nowhere, I had a wart come up on my finger. More warts quickly began to come up on other fingers and then eventually spread to my legs. I had one on my hand cut off. The others were frozen. The problem arose, when all the ones that were frozen off, came right back. I could not get rid of them. We continued trying to freeze them off. Then we tried using salicylic acid. That didn’t work. My dermatologist tried a stronger salicylic acid. Still didn’t work. I was frustrated and tired of nothing working, so I quit going to the dermatologist. After some time, they were still spreading, so I changed dermatologist and tried again. They suggested start back over with the first step and begin freezing them every couple of months. To my surprise, THIS WORKED. Wow. Finally! I was wart free!
Fast forward to two years ago, when I went to Haiti in December and got the Zika virus. Shortly after the symptoms of the Zika virus were gone, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and the warts started to come back on my fingers. Both are autoimmune. Talk about frustration and disappointment. Ugh. I talked about how I needed to go back and begin having them frozen off again, but never actually did it. For what ever reason, whether I was too busy or too consumed with fundraising for the World Race, and would have rather spent my money on this trip than on something that potentially wasn’t going to work, whatever the reasoning was, I never went back to the dermatologist.
You see I’ve noticed something about myself that the Lord has begun highlighting and revealing to me; whenever something is wrong with my body, such as, getting sick, getting a virus from a mosquito, being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and anything else that has to do with my body not functioning the way the Lord created it to; I immediately begin to pray healing over my body. And continue to daily. For years this has been my first response.
For example, a few years ago, my hair would not grow. The hair stylist had witnessed this and made remarks about it. My hair was fried, breaking and not growing. It would not grow past a certain point. No matter what I did, no matter how frequently I went and got haircuts; it just would not grow. So, I began to pray over my hair daily. (It’s ok to laugh. People usually do when I tell them this story). BUT the Lord healed my hair, I truly believe it was the Lord, and it began to grow. Like, grow a lot! My hair was the healthiest and the longest it had ever been in my entire life, before I cut it for the Race. It’s still just as healthy and growing just as fast, while being on the Race! Thanks Jesus. 🙂
I pray over the big things and I pray over things that people might consider being small or not important, but Psalm 37:4 tells us, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I take this literally. And I can testify to His faithfulness in the big AND the small.
So, when I got diagnosed with RA, I began to pray healing over my body. (Still am.) But without even really realizing it, I had begun to pray healing over my body for both autoimmune diseases. When I left for the Race, I had only one wart left on my finger. It was a really big wart though. I hated it! I wanted it gone. I continued praying over it. During Month 3, I found myself praying boldly for my body to be healed from them and for the wart to literally fall off of my finger.
I noticed one day, that it was a lot smaller than it had been. As days continued to go by, the wart on my finger was literally shrinking right in front of my eyes. I started taking pictures of it, because the Lord was physically performing a miracle in my body! I wish I had a picture of it before the Lord began to shrink it, because it was huge. But, I do have a few pictures and would like to share them with you all, even though it’s kind of nasty. THE LORD HEALED ME.
The picture below was taken on October 8th.
The picture below was taken on October 13th.
The picture below was taken on October 21st.
And I’m still declaring and believing that my body will be healed from Rheumatoid Arthritis. In Jesus’ Name!
Recklessly,
Madison
