Does God Heal???

This was the topic of the Alpha class at church last week. The question really was does God still heal today? We know that when Jesus walked the earth, He healed. There are several eye witness accounts in the Gospels of Jesus healing the sick, causing the blind to see, raising people from the dead (including Himself, of course). Just to refresh the memory of those who have already read the New Testament and to give those that haven't some really cool references, here's a couple of examples of Jesus' healing:

1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us.[a] The night is coming, and then no one can work. 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing! John 9:1-7, NLT

25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” Mark 5:25-20, NLT

11 Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. 12 A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. 14 Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” 15 Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother. Luke 7:11-15, NLT

30 A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. Matthew 15:30, NLT

Ok so there's a lot of evidence that Jesus healed in the past, when he was living as a human. What about now? In the Alpha video we watched, we heard several testimonies from people of different backgrounds who say God has healed them...from addictions, from evil behavior, from illness. The healing they experienced changed their lives. Maybe you know someone who was healed and they swear it was God who healed them. Maybe you know someone who prayed for healing but did not receive healing. No one can understand God's ways for they are so much higher than our ways. But I believe He does still heal today, even with all of the illness, disease, death and destruction going on in the world. I know this not just because I believe in Jesus of the Bible. I know this, because I actually have experienced it myself. I have eluded to some emotional healing that I have experienced, which I have and it's been awesome, but hard to "prove" really in a tangible way. But, I have a story that I didn't realize maybe how powerful it was until after the Alpha class last week when the Pastor asked if any of us had been healed. I want to share it, because for one thing, it is awesome and amazing and for another thing, I believe it can bring hope to others (the 1 or 2 of you who read this blog, anyway).

About 7 1/2 years ago, I was towards the end of my 1st year of nursing school. I had experienced some right hip and low back pain and my doctor ordered a low back x-ray. On the x-ray, they saw something that didn't belong. She ordered an MRI to investigate further. I was told I had some type of tumor in my retro peritoneal cavity (this is an area that's outside the abdominal organs). I was told that I would need to have surgery to determine whether it was malignant or benign and then next steps. Not really part of the low back / right hip pain situation but something a little extra that needed to be dealt with. It's like when you bring your car in for an oil change and they tell you that you need something else done that will cost about a million dollars and take a week to fix. Anyway, I decided to wait until summer for the surgery because I couldn't miss out on nursing school. I was in pre-op and got my IV put in and was waiting for the surgeon to come in. At my initial office visit with her, she thought they would just look laproscopically (a few poke holes in my abdomen) and may not need to cut me open. However, after reviewing the MRI again prior to surgery, she came in to talk to me with a worried look on her face. My husband and a very good friend from school were with me and she told me that after reviewing the MRI, she realized that this was a much larger tumor than she initially thought. She referred to it as a "kickball" size. She consulted with another surgeon who agreed and she had asked this surgeon to accompany her in the operating room because this was going to be a much more complicated surgery now. She told me that they would give me an epidural in the OR to help with pain management afterwards because they were going to have to make a very large vertical incision down the middle of my abdomen. The only thing I was really concerned about was that I had to be healed in time for my 2nd year of nursing school and that if I was going to have that type of incision, I wouldn't be. Then I wouldn't be able to do clinicals and if I couldn't do clinicals then I couldn't finish nursing school (at least not as scheduled). The surgeon said they would poke the holes and insert the camera first to see what they were dealing with, then make the long incision so they could carefully remove the tumor. I just looked at her, tried to be calm and said "you gotta do what you gotta do." Then my friend, who is a Christian, laid her hand on my abdomen, closed her eyes, and prayed very seriously that this tumor would end up being just a small little nothing and that they wouldn't have to cut me open. I just remember looking at her and saying out loud, "girl, it is what it is, they saw it on the MRI." I was grateful that she prayed for me, but I didn't believe for one second that this kickball sized tumor would suddenly shrink and be nothing by the time they looked inside. I did believe in God back then but didn't believe in Jesus yet. I totally thought she was crazy for praying for that. I remember this like it was yesterday. Fast forward to the recovery room. I slowly start to wake up and am fully expecting to be in a lot of pain and have this huge incision and not be able to finish nursing school that year...and the nurse looked at me and realizing I was waking up, he said "you are not going to believe this." He told me that the surgeons went in to look with the camera, they saw a "baseball sized" tumor, one of the instruments poked it, and it burst - it was a cyst that they were able to vacuum out with their instruments and they never had to cut me open. He said that the surgeons looked at each other in amazement and literally high fived each other right there in the operating room. They could not believe what they saw!! I went for my 2 week follow up to see the surgeon and she walked in the room and says "how's my miracle patient?" She even gave me a picture of my baseball sized cyst.

I truly didn't get the enormity of this situation until a few years later when I had become a believer and I was standing in my kitchen and it hit me that my friends prayer...was exactly what happened. God healed me. She really believed what she was praying for. God heard. He healed. I was able to finish nursing school and about 2 months into that 2nd year, my husband lost his job. He was able to keep insurance through the extended and affordable COBRA program thanks to President Obama signing a bill for those who had been laid off that year. His insurance literally carried us through until I graduated, got a job and got health insurance through my work. It was meant to be for me to finish nursing school that year. God had a plan and a purpose. I'm in awe that the God that created the universe and everything in it would actually care so intimately about me that He would reduce this "kickball sized" tumor to a "baseball sized" cyst so that I could finish nursing school and do the job that I truly believe He ordained for me. So to answer the question "Does God Heal???" I say YES. I know that there are many people that He doesn't heal. And I know that it's so hard to understand that. I believe that we are all healed eventually, either on this side or on the other side. I believe that He is WITH us through all of the pain and suffering we endure on this side of eternity. I believe that we can lead others to Christ in the way we endure through the many trials that we are put through on this earth, not that we are enduring on our own, but through the healing power of God who dwells in us and is ALWAYS with us. He who Himself came to earth and suffered as we do so He truly understands what it's like. He doesn't want us to suffer, He doesn't like it when we are in pain or sick. His plan is total restoration and we are a part of that plan. I'm beyond blessed that I get to be a nurse so I can help to heal others and that I get to be part of His restoration plan.

Lord I thank you for the gift of healing. You heal hearts, minds, spirits and bodies. You heal in Your ways, in Your time and we don't always understand why or how or when. It is not our job to understand. It's our job to trust and to believe and to have faith in Your ultimate sovereignty. It is our job to show the world that we respond in a different way to suffering, death and destruction because our hope is in You and not in this life. We have an eternal perspective and we KNOW that we will live with YOU forever in harmony and in perfect peace, despite what this world throws our way. That belief is how we make it through. Thank you Jesus for showing us the way, the truth and the life. Amen.