Testimony Time!

God has indeed planted us in a good place.

I’ve been meaning to testify about a few things that have happened lately, but haven’t found the time. This is a lazy Saturday morning. I have a cup of coffee and the kids are watching VeggieTales. So, here it goes…

On Father’s Day evening, Pastor Che taught about how to pray for the sick. After the teaching he had people pray for one another. We had Luc prayed for for allergies. For those that don’t know, Luc as has had terrible allergies to nightshade vegetables. That’s potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. That means Mexican food, Italian food, most soups, most casseroles, French fries, most salad dressings, and a host of other foods were off limits. Even a trace of it, such as the potato starch in some canned broths, would cause him to break out with an itchy rash all over.

Our family and another guy who was sitting in front of us gathered around Luc and prayed for healing. Luc was excited! He said Jesus had healed him.

When we got home that night for a late supper Luc said, “Mom, I want tomato soup!” He ate it up. We waited. And sure enough he broke out with the rash. Gana and I talked privately. What to do? Luc kept saying Jesus had healed him. He was in the kitchen licking a tomato slice and then lifting up his shirt to show us there was no rash. But, there was. Should Gana and I tell him that he was not healed? That Jesus didn’t do it? That he couldn’t eat French fries? Oy!

We decided instead to contend for his healing. We had been admonished a few weeks before by a preacher to never discourage someone’s faith in the cross. If someone was believing for something, don’t steal it way by telling them there wasn’t really power in it.

So, we prayed that Luc’s healing would be manifested and that his faith in the power of the cross would not be shaken.

About a week or two passed and Luc kept insisting to eat all the off limit foods. Then one day we noticed that he had no rash. There was not even a bit of redness. He was not scratching himself, even in his sleep, as he would have done before. He was totally and completely healed!

Seeing the faith of my little son, who was willing to believe the promise of healing in spite of not seeing it immediately manifested, challenged me. I have been struggling with breast infections since Meg was a baby. And they’ve been getting worse. Between Meg and Israel’s births I had two serious infections. Since Ihbeleg’s birth I have had seven! These aren’t just minor inconveniences. I get a high fever, chills, body aches, excruciating pain in the breast, and a headache. It puts me in bed for several days. For a mother of five children I cannot afford to be in bed for days every couple weeks!

I remember I was washing dishes and was praying, “Lord, I need to be free from this.” I was washing a cup and was meditating on how the inside of the cup had to be as clean as the outside. Whatever the root of these reoccurring infections was, it needed to be healed.

I felt the Lord say very specifically, “I am going to heal you. And you will know when it happens.”

“Yes Lord!”

I started going to every Sunday evening service at our church. Sunday evenings are renewal services where there is lots of personal ministry time. I went. The messages were good, the worship was great. But, I was not yet healed. I came home a little disappointed each Sunday night. But, I kept waiting for the manifestation of what the Lord had promised me.

Then on July 22nd, I went to the Sunday evening service. The speakers spoke a really good word about wanting the Lord Himself, even more than you want your destiny. That intimacy with God was more important than even His promises.

I went forward for prayer and God started dealing with me about some personal things that I’ve held onto that He was asking me to let go of, promises and prophecies that I’ve wanted more than I actually want the Lord Himself. I felt like I was having surgery. I was at the altar weeping before the Lord and God was comforting me and ministering to me. Then someone came to pray for me and said, “The Lord is restoring your body for everything it gives out.” Boom! The promise the Lord had given me while washing the cup came back to my mind. I was at the altar for a good hour while the Lord worked on me. I was in His presence and He was beautiful.

I have not had another infection since! In that moment the Lord dealt with the root of that problem and delivered me.

Through my little son, God taught me about believing Him even when the circumstances don’t look very promising. And through the sermon that night of the healing I learned that it is more important to hold on to the Lord and pursue Him even more than His promises to me.

Daja and Captain

Revelation 12:11,

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,

and by the word of their testimony;

and they loved not their lives unto the death.”