Healing Miracles are Happening!

We have had a few more healing miracles happen in our family lately, in addition to the one with Rebecca's acanthosis nigricans that Corrie wrote about in our last post.  Here they are!

Ear Infection
The week following Rebecca's neck getting healed, she got pretty sick with a nasty cold.  It was hanging on for a while and then, one day, she started crying out of nowhere.

"What's wrong Rebecca?"

Through tears and a bit of panic, she replied, "My ear hurts really bad!"

Uh oh.  Ear infection.  Please no.  She's never had one before, which has been great.  Can we keep that streak alive still?

It was hurting her really bad and we had to do something for her, poor thing.

Corrie did some research for a few minutes, since, being health hippies, we weren't super excited about antibiotics.  We found that breast milk can actually help ear infections (if you happen to be nursing currently).  It's recommended to apply it every couple hours for 24 to 48 hours.  That should help the infection subside.

Well, we didn't get a chance to go that long.

Corrie put some drops of milk in Rebecca's ear right then.  When she was done, I put my hand on her ear and again, like with the neck thing, commanded the ear infection to leave in Jesus' name, because he loves her and paid the price for her body's redemption. Short. Simple.

Rebecca fell asleep for a short nap, tuckered out from the intense pain.  She woke up fifteen minutes later, and the pain was completely gone.  And it never came back!

Intense wrist pain
A few weeks ago, sometime in May, my mom came home from work with her wrist in intense pain.  It was at the point where it would nearly prevent her from being able to work, since she works in a medical lab handling various instruments and blood samples, etc.

After some debate in my mind, I suggested that we pray for it.

Corrie, Rebecca, and I gathered around and commanded healing in Jesus' name.  And then asked my mom if she felt anything.

Nope. Nothing. Still hurt.

We tried again, and again...nothing.

Hmmm.  Oh well.  We tried.  Maybe we would be able to try again later.

But for now, Corrie had to go to a meeting and I had to take Darcy into her room to go to sleep.  So Rebecca and my mom were hanging out just the two of them for a couple minutes.

When Darcy had fallen asleep, I emerged from her room to hear this report from Rebecca:

"Dad, I prayed for grandma again in her bathroom."

"What did you pray?"

"I said, 'Pain leave grandma's hand.  Be healed in God's name, in Jesus' name."

So precious.

"And guess what, Dad?  When I was done praying, her face was like this." Rebecca demonstrated for me a face with wide eyes and open mouth, full of excitement and shock.  "And she said that her wrist felt better.  Like it was healed!  And now when I'm telling you about it, Dad, it makes me want to cry."

Incredible!  First of all, what a precious girl.  Second of all, I love that Jesus loves Rebecca so much that he uses her willingness to work a miracle.

Later that night, the pain came back for a little while.  But it left again on its own shortly after and, as far as I know, hasn't come back since.

Headache and Nausea
A few days after this wrist fun--on Memorial Day actually--my mom woke up feeling as if she had gotten food poisoning (how she described it).  She had a terrible headache that was coupled with pretty extreme nausea.  The two would intensify when she stood up.  So she was pretty much lying down all morning.

Corrie and I were going to have some friends over, but were wondering if we shouldn't just in case this thing was the flu  We didn't want to be spreading that to the poor unsuspecting family!

But mid-morning came and we went to my mom's room where she was incapacitated, sitting on the floor leaning back against her bed.

Together, we decided to pray for her.  I put my hand on her head and commanded the headache and nausea to leave, regardless of the cause (flu, food poisoning, etc.).

When we were done, I asked my mom if she felt anything, and she said that she felt a fluttering feeling in her stomach.  Then, believing that Jesus had healed her, she stood up off the floor and walked around.  Instead of feeling worse after standing, she was feeling better!

She slowly milled about her room and then slowly did a load of laundry.  All the time her pain and nausea lessening.  By the end of the day, after a long nap, it was gone completely and she was able to keep her plans to go visit her friends to celebrate the holiday!

For full disclosure, a couple days later, she was hit with a very bad headache (no nausea this time) and was laid up in bed for several days until visiting the ER and having a simple procedure done to fix the headache.

I don't know if this second round of headache was related to the first at all or not.  To me it doesn't matter.  We saw victory in that moment.  The nausea and headache left when we stood in the power of Jesus and the authority he has given us.  I don't know why the other headache came a few days later, and why it didn't leave when we prayed for it that time.

But each victory is worth celebrating as we keep pushing in to the kingdom and taking more and more of the promised land back from the enemy's hands.

The Dam is Breaking

Whether these instances seem small and trivial, or cool and significant, I know we're seeing more of Jesus' power.  Corrie and I want so badly for this dam of healing to break and to see our lives and others' lives (through us) flooded with our Father's healing heart and power.  So when we see the dam that's holding that healing flood back start to crack, it doesn't matter how big or small those cracks are...they are still cracks.

And when the dam starts cracking...

His eye is on our children, too

One of the obstacles that Corrie and I have encountered as we've been believing Jesus for more of his kingdom healing power is this:

"Okay Jesus, all of this bold faith for healing, trusting that you died in order to pay the price for the redemption of our whole being---all of this sounds great!  But if it's true, shouldn't we start to see it play out in the physical realm?  i.e. Shouldn't we see some lasting results in my body?"

Now, at this point in our journey into the kingdom, neither of us can foresee backing away from this bold faith for healing.  Even if we reach the end of this stage of the game and stand before Jesus never having seen his healing power, we won't change what we believe.  Nonetheless, those thoughts come around tempting us to question.

BUT! We are starting to see miracles.  And there's no better remedy for doubt than real experiences with the our loving, living, REAL Father.

Yes, Jesus did say that blessed are those who believe without seeing (John 20:29), but he also likes to meet that faith with answers!

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

And it is our faith that pulls the promises of God and the spiritual realities of his kingdom into our physical world.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 6:12 Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

The rest of this post is kind of a guest post.  "Kind of" because Corrie wrote it, and she's not really a guest on our family's blog.  "Guest post" because she actually wrote it for her own blog, which she has just started over at Hope & Homestead.  If you have the opportunity, you should go check it out.  She is a fantastic writer.  She writes with incredible depth and insight, coupled with hilarious humor. She's basically awesome.

Without further adieu, here's Corrie:

A few months ago I began to notice some brown streaky markings on Lulu’s neck. Ew, I thought, don’t you ever clean your daughter’s neck?

Yes, sometimes I speak directly to myself.

But at her next bath, they wouldn’t come off. Weird.

At the next bath, there they were again. Maybe they are sunspots, I thought.

Then I saw something online about Acanthosis Nigricans. They are brown streaky marks that people can get on their neck, underarms, and groin that can often be a signal of type 2 Diabetes, hormonal issues, cancerous tumors on the stomach or liver, OR sometimes they are just genetic streaky marks that girls especially can be self-conscious about because they never go away.

The internet can be so helpful.

My stomach dropped like a rock. How could I have missed this? What is going on in this little body that I can’t see? She seems perfectly healthy.

At worst, she could find herself checking her blood levels a couple times a day – or cancer. Or she could just not ever want to wear her hair in a ponytail and wish that her body was different.

The desire of a momma’s heart to make sure that her children have what they need and feel beautiful and are healthy is often overpowering, and it can tip over into fear awfully fast.

And that’s where I went.

Stomach ache. Looking at mayoclinic.org when I know I shouldn’t be. Worry. Worry. Worry.

My sweet husband can see it in my face now. Sometimes worry washes over me and steals my joy. It makes life feel like doom. And the enemy of our hearts starts in on speaking his incessant lies into my head.

“What makes you think that in this world, where so many people are sick, that your kids could escape it?”

Matt and I believe that Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, and that through His power the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk – on earth as it is in Heaven.

But when the rubber meets the road, when the poop hits the fan and other clichés, will we put our money where our mouth is? Will we put our actions where our mouth is?

Sensing me tip over, Matt came calmly to my side and looked over my shoulder at the marks I was trying to nonchalantly inspect. If these were going to be around for a while, I didn’t want to speed up the self-conscious aspect by making a big deal out of them.

While I brushed her hair (that was my premise for the inspection), Matt just quietly held his hand out toward her and I could barely hear him under his breath declare in the name of Jesus that these marks were to mean nothing, were to go away, and were not to scare me anymore.

That night after she fell asleep I snuck back into her room “I’ll love you forever”-style and sat, as I often do, on the floor next to her little toddler bed that she is growing out of. I lay my hand on her snuggled up, heavily blanketed little form and surrendered her again, as I continually have to do, into Jesus’ hands. I entrusted her body to Him, and I thanked Him again for the honor of being one half of the duo that gets to usher her into life in this big awesome world; for the honor of being the one who gets to momma-love her so strongly, that I begin to understand a little more the love for me that led Jesus to endure the cross.

Matt and I decided together to wait a few more days before calling the pediatrician just to see what happened.

At bath time a day or so later, the marks were gone. I mean really gone. I mean gone before bath time even started. Before I had a chance to wash her down with a cloth.

I wish I had a before and after picture to show you, but that wouldn’t have worked with the whole “not making a big deal out of it” plan, so you are just going to have to take my word for it.

I would do just about anything to ensure my children’s safety and health and happiness. And I still will. This story doesn’t disqualify diligence and wisdom.

But parenting, and the crushing amounts of love that come with it, just expose my weaknesses. Because I can’t, just from willing it, make skin markings go away. But Jesus can. And through the markings that His skin received, we can be healed.