The Walk Beside

Effectual Healing.

Posted on April 11th, 2008 by Cam.
Categories: Let's talk.

I have got 5 days before heading to the hospital to receive my high-dose chemotherapy. It is now more daunting, rather than just wanting to get onto it. It is kind of like a turning point. Medically, we are relying on this chemo and the following stem cell transplant to put me into remission. But the chemo itself will take its toll on my body, and I am not looking forward to this really.

There was a church Minister in town this last week who is a bit of a guru in the area of healing. A few friends let me know about him and encouraged me to go along so last night I did.

I was kind of reluctant, to be honest. I was reluctant mainly because I have already had prayer for healing and I believe completely that God can heal me, and has heard our prayer for healing. My belief has been that if I really believe that God can heal me, why do I need to keep on going to various people to ‘receive healing’. Does it mean that I lost hope in the last batch of prayer, or that I need to top up the level of hope for healing?

I haven’t lost hope in our prayers to be healed. Medically speaking, there is no cure for Multiple Myeloma. All treatment that I receive from now on has the purpose of prolonging a life expectancy. I do believe that God can heal me totally. I find it difficult to believe that a Creator doesn’t have the capacity to completely restore the created. I mean, as my sister put it, ‘If our faith doesn’t mean anything at a time like this, then it doesn’t mean anything at all.’

Many people got healed last night. Legs got longer, lifelong injuries and sicknesses took leave, people who had not walked properly for a long time were running around, just like you may see on tv from a skeptics perspective. And I believe these healings are true. The healings that Jesus was involved with during his time in flesh were amazing also, and I believe them to be true. If I didn’t believe them to be true then quite frankly I wouldn’t waste my time piss-farting around having my hopes built up, or being involved in building others’ hopes up for the sake of something that could be a farce.

One of the people involved in the healing last night stated that there was someone here that had a sickness of the bone marrow. I stuck my hand up so people knew who and what to pray for. The congregation was also asked who had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. I put my hand up again. Some dear friends and some strangers also were part of the group that prayed for me. Rachel, Mike and Elizabeth were also with me. They prayed against the cancer.

After the time of prayer, people were asked to check to see if their symptoms had disappeared. I actually have been feeling quite well recently, and there is nothing that I can really ‘check’ like lumps, bumps, etc. So I wasn’t sure if I was healed or not. Even with blood tests, urine tests and scans, this cancer is very difficult to nail both in diagnosis and monitoring.

Here lies the problem.

There is a train of thought that would say in a situation like this, one should put their faith into action by not going through with the medical intervention (in this case, my next round of chemo and stem cell transplant). This is a big call, as you can imagine. I know that some people have taken this approach and things turn out okay. I also know of people who have taken this approach and things turn out very poorly. If a person is willing to make a decision not to go through with medical intervention in order to let their faith do the talking, I do not know what more could be done to demonstrate their belief. But when some folks live and some folks die as a result of the same decision, it leads me to believe that there is something else needing consideration.

I do not believe, at this point in time, that there is a formula to be followed so that healing takes place. I don’t know why some people are healed and others not. I know of some very faithful and prayerful people who did not receive healing. And I don’t know why they didn’t.

The effects of being in a broken world are severe. I believe sickness, along with injury and sadness, are endured by humanity because we are living in this broken world. Biblically, this brokenness is called sin. If sin weren’t so nasty, I wouldn’t be using the word ‘broken’ when the less dramatic term ‘shop soiled’ would do the job.

I accept and admit that I am still learning about how this all fits together. If medical intervention cures me, will God get the credit, or will my Doctors? I think they all should get a round of applause, personally. What medicine has done to sustain me has been miraculous. The way God has sustained me has been miraculous. The passion shown by those who treat me medically demonstrate aspects of God’s character, although it can be difficult to understand at the time a pelvis biopsy is taking place. Maybe God is more interested in who gets the credit for our living day to day than an extension of life or an increase in comfort that results from a healing.

Anyway, this morning I woke up sore and tired. I didn’t feel better than yesterday. I was kind of hoping that I would wake up this morning, jump out of bed doing cart-wheels and whizzing out para-protein-free urine (not at the same time, mind you). So I don’t really know the state of my health at this time, but whatever the outcome, you may be glad to know it hasn’t changed the character of God one iota.

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