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Have you ever seen the puzzle made up of nine dots, arranged like a ticktacktoe (3 rows of 3)? The challenge is to connect all nine dots with four lines without lifting your pen? The secret to solving it is to get outside of the box. Christianity teaches us that we must sometimes go outside of the box, beyond the traditional, in order to receive our miracle, or achieve the impossible. Peter did that when he saw Jesus walking on the water he asked Jesus to call him to come walking on the water. He did, and Peter climbed out of the boat, achieving the impossible. Problem was, he was doing fine until he looked at the waves. At that point his confidence faltered and he lost his watery footing. Sometimes we have to look beyond our habitual thinking-what we have often heard. Unlike Peter, we must ignore the waves. In the story I'm about to tell you, the waves were waves of pain. And the boat was the standard-issue prayer request, or means of getting healed. UNLIKE PAIN I fell to the kitchen floor. The pain in my chest was so severe I couldn't move, I could barely breathe. These pains had beset me two or three times a year since I was 19. They began as what may be likened to a toothache in my chest. Over a period of two or three days they would intensify to the point that I would be immobilized for hours. Thereafter, for two or three weeks, simple acts like standing or sitting caused shocks, like a sword driven through my torso. Until age fifty I refused to see a doctor. But finally, my wife got me to an emergency room during a more excruciating attack. I walked in slow and stiff with my eyes bugging out and said, in my special calm voice, "I've come to see if one of your doctors might give me something for pain?" "Where is the pain," she asked? "In my chest," I said, not considering how that would sound to an emergency room nurse. I was immediately surrounded and practically body-slammed onto a Gurney. Then they proceeded to wire me like a Frankensteinian experiment (and I thought I hurt walking in). So, there I lay among much hustling, beeping, flashing, and charting, being patted and shushed, trying to gasp reason to anyone who would listen. Then came the slalom race down halls, through doorways, to an X-ray machine. (All this for a few pain pills?) Actually, they did discover something. There was massive scarring within my chest, and I finally got the pills I'd come for. It was a new anti-inflammatory medicine named Zomax. Thereafter, when the pain would start, I'd take one of my pills and the pain would disappear. But I was convinced that I was put on earth to be a problem. So, naturally, I became allergic to Zomax. One morning, shortly after being deprived of my Zomax, I got out of bed, raised my arm to put on a shirt and once again collapsed to the floor in pain. My wife insisted that we go back to the hospital. But remembering my new realization, I refused. "I'm going to take care of this here." I struggled out of bed, and read every Biblical account of healing I could find. I still felt the pain as I read, but my thoughts turned to the love and power of God. I wasn't looking for faith, nor following any traditional prayer. But by the time I finished reading, the pain was gone. I had just discovered the power of simply searching scripture. Wow! However, my healing was not permanent. (No one is permitted to say "A-Ha!") The next time it returned, I recalled that such things aren't from God, but from our enemy, Satan. I recognized the pain, but I vocally denounced it saying, "This is not my pain. It hasn't come from God and I don't want or accept it. God said he does not tempt men, nor is he tempted by men. The Bible says He is our merciful Father. There is nothing merciful about this. I'm a child of God, I don't have pain. This pain is therefore Satan's property. In the name of Jesus, it's going right back to its author. I thank you God that you are kind and wouldn't do this to me. We pray 'Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.' There is no pain in Heaven! I am a member of Christ. This pain is an insult to Jesus." We are joint heirs with Jesus, and that doesn't include pain." And on went my private tirade against pain. After five minutes of that kind of speech, the pain left. After another three similar battles the pain never returned. The worst pains are those deep in ones chest. They are the pains of a broken heart, of a loss that returns daily, hourly, or never leaves. They are the emptiness of disillusionment, of despair and rejection. Like my physical pains, these don't come from God. Jesus was sent to bring us life, hope, joy, strength, and love, to bid us "come," to step out of the boat and walk above our doubts, to heal our hearts, minds and bodies, and lift us above torment and despair. It's for all of us, including you. If you have a miracle to tell, we'd like to hear about it. If you need a miracle of healing, I've written a small book titled, THE ACT OF HEALING. It contains encouraging words of advice, testimonies, including this one and every scriptures on healing. |
