The War on Arthritis

When you see a healing happen in front of your eyes, it is hard not to talk about it. How awesome is God to include this benefit (Psalm 103:2) for us simple humans? We are here today and gone tomorrow but Jesus still chose to purchase our healing!

I was at work on my lunch break talking to a co-worker about the healings I have seen. She is a Christian and immediately asked me to pray for her friend Gail. After work, I went over to my co-worker's house to meet Gail and pray for her. She looked to be in her late 60s or early 70s and she was sitting in a chair when I walked into the room. Gail was a talker and immediately started telling me all about her pain and her life. I listened and then asked her what she would need to do in order to know that she was healed. She told me that she would love to do steps again because it is really difficult going through life without being able to do steps. I agreed with her and suggested that we start to pray.

Her back was seemingly the source of the pain, so I put my hand on it and prayed. After I prayed the first time I asked her to get up and try to move around. She stood and was obviously in pain. She could not walk without holding on to me. I couldn’t watch this pain anymore so I asked her to sit down so that we could pray again. I placed my hand on her back once more and started to declare God’s word into her back. Halfway through my prayer, her knee popped. We laughed and said that maybe God knows something that we don’t. I had her stand again and this time she could move more! It was slow, but it was instant progress! I told her that she looked better but it still wasn’t a total healing. I put my hand on her back and continued to pray. After the third prayer, she was walking much faster and was literally doing laps around the dining room. I then reminded her what I wanted her to do in order to claim her

healing… steps! Out of the dining room are 2 steps down to the 3-season room patio. She looked at the steps ahead of her and proceeded to go down the steps. After going down the steps, she quickly turned to look at me with excitement! I looked back and said, “Gail, those steps don’t count. Let’s go try the steps to the basement.” I went down the steps before her and turned to watch her come down the steep staircase. Believe me or don’t but she RAN up and down those steps just as fast as I could. I was watching in awe! She got to the top and everyone just started crying and praising God. Thank you, Jesus! What a moment that was to claim absolute healing.

As awesome as this moment was, the next day I got a text from my co-worker that said Gail's pain returned the next day. Noooooo! She couldn’t get up and was back to where she was before we prayed the day before. Why did this happen, God? After wrestling with this for days I have come to the conclusion that we (Christians) are in a war. Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy and I believe Gail’s faith was somewhat on me and not on Jesus. Some Christians believe that you must have the gift of healing or of faith in order to walk in the miraculous, but Ephesians 1:3 says something else.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

Not to mention that Jesus did call all of his disciples in Matthew 10:1 and Luke 9:1 to go out and heal the sick. We as Christians have been given this charge by our Maker. It is time we take God at His word and not back down if we have a setback. I am still believing for Gail’s total healing. Let’s fight this war!