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Simply
Healing
JAMES 5:14f (NIV)
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray
over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the
prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will
raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore
confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may
be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Elijah was a man just
like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain
on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the
heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
This week's quickie from Revd Mike Endicott:
Elijah was a man just like us? He just walked in faith, a man like us
walking in the kingdom. They laid the sick out on the pavements so that
Peter's shadow could fall across them as he walked to church. Peter
wasn't Jesus. Peter was a man just like us!
Where does that leave you and me, Christians today?
Just to prove it, here's a testimony sent in to us!
Dear Well
At one
of your residential Ministry Training Schools the Lord fulfilled his
promise to heal me completely from a stroke, which struck me down in
January 1998.
The doctors told me I could look forward to 50 % mobility because of the
total paralysis down my left side. God then spoke to me and said that 50
% plus Him made for 100 % healing. This was a promise I held on to for
the next four years.
One
evening on the Course we had a Celtic Service of blessing. Three of the
Ministry Team came to me, covered me with a representation of the robe
of righteousness, anointed me with oil and prayed for me.
I was told to stay kneeling and they came back a further three times to
pray with me.
I told the Lord I could not stay in this position for more than two
minutes as the pain becomes so intense. He only told me to rest. I
remember hearing the others praying twice more. I had been there for 45
minutes.
When I
awoke on Sunday morning I felt so well and strong. Out of habit I picked
up my walking stick to go to breakfast, but found it irritated me and
got in the way. So I put it down again and walked upright into the
dining room. I felt so good and knew the Lord had done something, but it
was only at lunch that I realised how much.
Due to lack of grip in my left hand, I needed my food cut up, as I could
not hold a fork. I sat down at the table and without thinking picked up
my knife and fork and started cutting up my meal. I then realised my
left shoulder which was out of joint, preventing full movement was the
same as my right shoulder, in its proper place. After further
investigation, I found that the lumps of wasted muscle in my arm and
behind my knee had disappeared and my limbs were normal. I then started
praising God for completing his promise to heal me 100 % from the
stroke.
Since
then I have been enjoying travelling around without a stick, driving an
ordinary gear-change car, and able to be - as one or two people have
commented - normal once again. One of my daughters, with tears in her
eyes, commented that I looked better than I have done for years.
I am
praising God for his love and faithfulness to his word, even personal
words to each of us.
Maureen |
