I am so excited right now I don’t even know how to handle myself! I want to shout to the world of God’s goodness and love! I am in awe. Tonight I found out that God is healing me of my deadly allergy to peanuts, something I have had my whole life.
The backstory: ever since I was an infant my parents found out that I had several allergies. I wasn’t the cutest baby as I always had rashes all over my body from the allergies whether it was food or from my skin touching allergens while I crawled on the floor, etc. I literally was allergic to everything. Luckily as I got a little older I started growing out of most of those allergies, yet still had my milk and wheat allergy. But an allergy that I was told I would never grow out of was my allergy to nuts. This allergy was extremely severe. It was an anaphylactic reaction where my throat would start closing and I would need an epipen to help me breath again. I have had a few reactions in my life and they are no fun at all. I have carried around an epipen my whole life, including 4 that I brought with me on the World Race in several different places in case of emergency. This is something I thought I would have to deal with the rest of my life.
While we were in Bolivia the second month of the World Race we had an all night prayer/worship night. At least a few people had to be up praying or worshiping at all hours of the night starting at about 8pm and ending at about 8am. At the beginning of the night we also had different sessions that we could go to and one of them was on healing prayer, which I was extremely interested in yet knew hardly anything about. It was lead by my friend/teammate Kaili and my squad leader Austin. I learned so much. One concept I look away from it was that God has already granted us authority once we were given the Holy Spirit so we can claim healing instead of just asking Him for it. Another thing I learned is that before you pray for someone you should ask them a lot of questions about what it is exactly that needs prayer. Then you have to try to see the person with complete love as Jesus does and imagine them being healed and what it would be like. The prayer
should be very simple and short and said with authority in Jesus’ name.
After the lesson we got to put the healing prayer into action. It was one incredible night, let me tell you! Our first prayer was done on one of my squadmates for her back that had been in a ton of pain after a fall in Haiti. Immediately after we prayed the pain was completely gone. I was amazed, I was hoping for healing yet I still didn’t have the faith to think that it was actually gonna happen. And this kept happening. I started getting really excited. I felt the Holy Spirit so present and He was filling me with the faith and so much joy seeing him move so radically. My very favorite part was getting to be a part of seeing God heal my teammate Kaili. Since the start of our month in Bolivia Kaili had been sick with an incurable disease called chickungunya where she would get fevers and she would have severe joint pain. She felt like all of her bones were breaking to the point where she couldn’t even open her water bottle. Well we prayed for her and
after she was doing jumping jacks and pushups, it was a miracle! And it wasn’t just physical healing that God performed that night but also spiritual/mental, overall healing. Gosh God is so awesome!
After these events i was so pumped on Jesus and on life. I learned that sometimes we think too small for the power of healing. We believe that we have to live with certain diseases/conditions yet that’s not what God intended. I never even thought of asking for prayer for healing over my allergies before because I knew it was something I’d just have to deal with my whole life. But that is not the case. God is God so of course He can heal anything. So I asked for the healing. I was so excited, I really did know in my heart in that moment that God could heal me if He wanted to. As people were praying over me, I felt so much life and joy filling up inside me and I just knew that God was doing something. I was so excited to see if I was healed after, I wanted to try it out right away but we didn’t have the resources at the moment (like any peanut butter or nuts) to try it out with.
I’ll admit that I put it off for a little while after that because I was still a little scared. But I really wanted to have the faith and trust that God had healed me. While we were in Lima, I decided to test it out very slowly. I rubbed some peanuts on my arm, and waited…nothing. I waited more…nothing. I rubbed some peanut butter on my arm and waited again for awhile… Nothing!
Side note: when my allergist was retesting my allergies a few years ago she wouldn’t even test nuts on my skin because she knew the reaction would be too severe so she did blood work instead and it showed up highly positive.
Anyways, we then poked my skin with a sterilized needle and then put peanut butter on it like they do to test allergies at the clinic (well close enough). And I was still not having a bad reaction. But I was gonna wait and see the rest of the day how it went.
So I was still putting off actually tasting the peanut butter even though I didn’t have any reactions on my skin. I kept telling myself that I was going to but I never did. I even had a dream about it and knew I needed to just do it and trust God.
I finally told my teammates that I would try it that night if they would pray for me one more time. They gathered together and some of them were really scared for me but I wanted them to have the faith for me and with me. I made a promise to God that if He healed me I would make sure to proclaim it to everyone of how He has healed me and just how good He is. No I don’t need healing as an excuse to share Him with everyone, but it is a great testimony I may use for those who have known me and my peanut allergy my whole life to see such a beautiful example of God’s goodness.
So…back to the story. My heart was pounding in my chest. I was so nervous but also so excited, I had to do it! I knew that God was with me in that moment telling me it was ok, so with my teammates crowding around, I took a tiny smidge of peanut butter from the jar on my finger and quickly put it on my tongue. I guess it tasted kinda how I would have imagined it to taste haha such a weird feeling!
Usually I have an instant reaction where right as it enters my mouth I know and my throat starts swelling. Nothing was happening. We waited, all of them staring intently at me. We waited some more. Still nothing. “Oh my gosh usually it wouldn’t take this long. I don’t feel a thing. Usually its an instant reaction!” My eyes were wide and I was getting excited. I was in shock. “You guys nothing is happening!” It had been a few minutes now. One of my teammates had me try a little bit more from their peanut butter. I put it on my tongue and swallowed, then waited. Nothing!!! I got so excited I was jumping up and down. Yet the doubt started creeping into my mind. How could this be possible?? Right as I started thinking this I did feel a tiny bit of scratchiness in my throat so I drank some milk and water and then I was totally fine.
This reminded me of when Jesus walks on the water and Peter has the faith to ask Jesus to make him walk on the water as well. So Peter starts walking on the water but as soon as the wind picked up he got scared and began sinking. Then Jesus reaches out his hand and catches him saying, “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:22 -33. I was like Peter, getting all excited and stepping out in boldness at the start, and then in the moment I let the fear and doubt creep in.
Yet I know in my heart that God has healed me of this allergy. It is a miracle. And I need to keep walking boldly in the fact that God has healed me and claim it as a fact. Please don’t be scared for me. I know for those of you who have known me and how severe my allergy is may be thinking I’m crazy and worrying over me, but I’m asking you to step out in faith with me and rejoice with me in what the Lord has done and is doing. Trust with me. God is the same God today as He was back then when the early disciples were performing miracles in His name. And God loves pouring out blessings on His children, and revealing His glory to all.
“Bless the Lord Oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord Oh my soul, and do not forget all his benefits – he forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live.” Psalm 103: 1-5.
