Healing

I’ve long thought that supernatural healing wasn’t real.  Something only televangelists do with paid actors secretly inserted into crowds.

And then I met a man and got to know him.  He is clearly a man who seeks after God’s heart.  He is also a man clearly being used by God.  And he happens to have built his ministry on a foundation of healings. 

I also know several people who have been healed there.  And I know their stories are real.

Suddenly, there is room for doubt in my view.

Last fall I began waking up in the night with severe stomach pain.  It started occasionally but rapidly grew both in frequency and in strength.  I would be awoken by the pain around 2am and cry, curled up in a ball, until around 5am.  I stopped eating anything spicy or acidic.  It continued to happen almost every night for several months.  More than once I wanted to wake someone to take me to the hospital, but couldn’t get myself out of the bed.

After every Sunday morning church service, when most people are slipping out the doors, the Pastor calls for anyone that is sick to go to the front to be prayed for.  One Sunday, I decided I would stay.  When it came time for the prayer, I was suddenly embarrassed.  I did not go up front, but stayed in my seat nearly in the back row.  The Pastor said to place our hands over the area of the illness.  I held my hands together in front of me, over my stomach, but in a way that no one would realize what I was doing.  I did repeat the prayer.

And then I forgot about it.

A few weeks later, a wave of dread overcame me as I spooned spicy salsa into my soup.  Why had I taken the salsa?   Surely I was going to pay dearly for it that night.  But then I realized that I could not recall a single time in several weeks that I had woken at night in pain.  I ate my soup and had no issues that night.  I was back to eating as I always had, and I have never again experienced that pain.

Did God really heal me?

I cannot think of any other reasonable answer as to why the pain would have stopped so suddenly and permanently.  So I thank God.  And I praise Him for His miracle.  And I share my experience in case anyone else needs to make a little room for doubt.