Sunday 21 April 2013

I Was Healed Once I Said I Would Be


For a number of years in a row I was contracting bronchitis twice a year: first at the beginning of winter - then I'd go on a series of antibiotics and get rid of it - then it would come back again at the end of winter. My grandfather on my mother's side said he suffered from the same thing.

I went forward on an altar-call for healing, but nothing much happened. But it didn't bother me - even though when a doctor examined me with his stethoscope he said, "That's terrible!" I felt I could still tolerate the sickness. In some ways the sickness was even a novelty.

But it seemed to be getting worse. One year when I was on a trip to Canberra after being in Woollongong, it was really not pleasant at all.

Then one winter I was on a trip to Katoomba, NSW with a number of pastors, and as usual I was beginning to contract bronchitis. We were all sleeping in the same quarters, and the next day one of the pastors complained that my coughing had kept him awake at night.

That night as I stood in the pastors' meeting at Katoomba, I reached the point where I felt I really had to get healed of this - a point of earnestness; of desperation. I felt I simply had to be healed there and then, and was resolved, determined.

While I was standing there saying this to myself, the meeting leader said, "I sense there is a healing anointing in the meeting right now. If you're sick, put your own hand on whatever part of your body needs healing."

So I put my hand on my chest, and the meeting leader spoke healing. And in one instant I was healed. My temperature suddenly felt normal. All of the phlegm in my chest instantly disappeared into thin air. I never coughed again. I was healed.

I'd been prayed for in years past, but nothing had happened. But this time I was healed instantly. What made the difference? This time I was determined I had to be healed there and then and resolved that I would be.

It made me realise that on previous occasions I wasn't truly asking or I wasn't truly exercising my faith. I was merely seeing what might happen but not really being too concerned if nothing happened.

I'm reminded that brother Kenneth E. Hagin used to ask people who were standing on a prayer line for healing, "Are you going to get healed tonight?" Sometimes someone would answer, "Well I sure hope so." And brother Hagin would say, "Well you won't".

Brother Hagin would tell some of these people to sit in a few more of his sessions where he taught about faith and healing, before coming back in the prayer line. After sitting in some more sessions, one such lady approached brother Hagin saying, "Lay your hands on me now because I know when you do I'll be healed." He did and she was.

The woman in the Bible who had the issue of blood approached Jesus having said within herself that if she would but touch the hem of his garment, she would certainly be made whole. There was a determination and a knowing there.

In the book of Revelation it is testified that Jesus said, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see...be zealous therefore, and repent" (3:18,19).

That didn't meant to come to Jesus and just see what happens. It didn't mean to be complacent about the result. It didn't mean to tolerate it if nothing changed. It meant coming to the place of knowing that something in their life simply had to change there and then, and it meant coming to Jesus determined to receive what they needed and being sure that they would receive it - it meant making sure they would.

That same attitude worked for me not only in regard to repentance but also in regard to healing. I got zealous about getting healed. I left no option other than to receive. As soon as I said that within myself, God graciously brought His healing power and I did, I got healed.

I know now that I wasn't really reaching out in faith on previous occasions even though I responded to an altar-call for healing prayer. I was a bit complacent, but faith is zealous. Faith is more likely to exist where there is desperation, determination and decision - when we say to ourself that we will be healed here and now. The same thing is true of salvation, and of receiving the Holy Spirit and of receiving just about anything else from the Lord. We shall receive healing or anything else that we ask once we say we will receive here and now. We shall have what we say when we believe it with all of our heart.

That's what true faith is. Faith says, "I'm going to receive such-and-such right now. I know I am."

That was many years ago, and I've never had bronchitis again. Only on one occasion many years later did I show any small sign of infection in my respiratory system, but nothing came of it - it didn't develop into bronchitis.

Praise the Lord!

So whatever you desire today - whether it's healing, or salvation, or the Holy Spirit, or anything else that you desire - say to yourself, "I'm going to receive it today. I'm going to get it now. I know I am." Then go ahead and ask. And you'll have it!

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