God Heals But Don’t Miss It
I remember where I was standing the day I called the midwife.
Sheepishly I spoke into the phone, “I’m not ok.”
I’d recently given birth to our first son. My hands were shaking as I stood in the kitchen and told her of the excessive fears I was battling.
”I feel like I’m going crazy,” I said.
It was one of the most beautiful seasons of my life; my dream of motherhood had become a reality. But as a pastor’s wife I felt ashamed of the outrageous thoughts and irrational fears that were consuming my mind. I wanted to only pray and believe my way to victory. I’d experienced such miracles before.
After a simple blood test, I had an answer -- postpartum thyroiditis. My thyroid went crazy after delivery and as a result, I did too. The side effects were much like postpartum depression. One easy pill a day nudged my hormones into place and after a couple months, I began to feel normal again.
Perspective
When I chose to thank God for access to medicine, when I kept my eyes focused on His word and my ears in tune with His voice guiding me, I experienced healing. I recognized how God was answering my prayers, that His words and medicine both contributed to my healing. He answered my prayer in the process. He drew me in closer and I learned to trust Him at a deeper level.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve sat with someone who was wrestling with the idea of taking medication for various reasons, beating themselves up for needing it and feeling their faith must not be strong enough.
You’re not weak because you need guidance; it’s quite the opposite. You’re showing wisdom and strength when you recognize the need and ask for help.
Listen, there’s no shame in receiving counseling or taking a medication as part of your healing journey! Let’s call out the shame for what it is -- a lie from the enemy!
It’s time to wash the shame off these tools of healing and embrace truth.
Will God deliver us from a spirit of anxiety and depression and heal our bodies from sickness?
Absolutely! I’ve prayed over people who instantly felt the heaviness lift off and they were free! I recently prayed with a woman who’d been bleeding for weeks and it instantly stopped after we prayed together. I’ve also walked with some that did not receive immediate change but instead the Lord led them on a healing journey that sometimes included medication or counseling. For others their healing came in heaven.
Here’s the thing, It’s not my job to tell God how to heal, but to trust that He will.
I know that “my God will supply all my needs according to His riches in heaven” (Philippians 4:19).
I believe it’s God’s will to heal and deliver and He’s given us authority to do so. But how He chooses to allow that healing and deliverance to flesh out in our lives may sometimes look different than we expect.
Steps to embrace regarding healing
1. Seek out and receive counsel
In Psalm 119:105 the Psalmist declares: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
The Bible is one of the ways God illuminates the path for us to go and it’s full of encouragement to seek out counsel!
The writer of Proverbs 24:6 advises that “by wise guidance you will wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.”
Always start by asking the Holy Spirit for counsel. It’s from Him we will receive wise guidance and be led to victory. This means laying down our expectations and taking time to wait and listen for the next step.
Again the writer in Proverbs 19:20 advises: “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days.”
It takes courage to seek counsel and say, “I need help” and it takes strength to receive the counsel and follow it.
There’ve been times I sought out professional counsel but didn’t want to heed the instruction. To do so meant peeling back a new level of vulnerability; it meant rolling my sleeves up and persevering through conflict that I’d rather avoid. If we want to heal and grow, we must embrace wise instruction and also do the hard work of applying it. The Bible reminds us of this warning, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)
If we want God to transform and heal our lives we must do what He says. This means carving out time to diligently pray and listen so we can clearly hear His leading and then receive the healing He has for us.
2. Pray boldly and trust His ways
On more than one occasion I knew God was asking me to pray boldly for an immediate healing. Sometimes the next step He leads us to, though, is a process.
The differing outcomes should never stop us from praying by faith for healing.
God still heals! Sometimes it’s in big, fast, jaw-dropping ways, and other times it’s a journey.
The Bible tells us a story about a man named Naaman. After hearing of a prophet who could heal him from leprosy, he boldly asked for healing; he was desperate. But the prophet he sought out did not wave a hand over him and heal him like he anticipated. Instead, he sent him to the river to bathe seven times. Naaman was furious! That’s not what he expected and not how he wanted to be healed. What happened after he chose to trust God’s ways? He embraced the process, dipped in the water seven times, and he was healed!
I believe we can miss out on opportunities for healing if we grasp too tightly to our expectations of how that healing should come and lack the faith to trust His ways.
In Psalm 32:8 God promises, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”
Dear friend, the God who knows you and formed you in your mother’s womb is the same God who heals you. He will show you the way to go; His loving eyes are upon you and He will counsel you.
So let’s seek His counsel and boldly embrace the next step that He leads us to, remembering that it’s not our job to tell God how to heal -- but we can surely trust that He will and we don’t want to miss it!
Hi, I’m Jaime!
Prayer warrior, writer, and speaker in love with Jesus, my Jed, and our 3 Rowdy Redcays. Friend, I long to see you set free. Delivered from the chains that hold you back, compelled to navigate this journey as a fearless warrior. Where does that happen? In the embrace of Jesus!
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