Grace For Drug Test & Cancer

A couple of weeks ago, my sister (TammyC), my mom and I went to pray for a lady (Mary) whom we've known all our lives. She was rasied down the street from where I was raised. I actually went to school with her older sister and brother and most of my memories of her are her toddling around as the younger sister. She was also a good friend of my wife's, who went to school with her. Turns out after school she got herself into quite a bit of trouble with drugs. She recently had been released from jail and was out on probation from a drug-related charge. She lives with her mother, who now takes quite a bit of care due to increasing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. By her words, she doesn't receive any help from her older siblings and she is basically the sole help provider to her mom. The reason for our visit is because, of late, she was told she had liver cancer and a possible brain tumor along with a recent failure of her drug test from her probation officer.

As I entered her house it reeked of cigarette smoke. Her mom answered the door and seemed mostly normal. She recognized my mom and my older sister immediately and asked if I was Greg. She said I'd gotten older and looked different with gray hair. Yeah, it happens... LOL. We sat down in the living room and Mary came from the kitchen, cigarette in hand. She was a mess. The years have been rough on her. She was still sweet as could be, but you could tell she was having a very hard time with life.

She began to tell us what was going on. We heard that she had had seizures lately, even falling off the lawn mower and lying on the ground for over an hour while the mower kept running. A neighbor found her. Since she recently failed her drug test at her probation officer visit, the liver cancer doctor was not sure if he could treat her. Of course, she maintained that she didn't know how she could've failed her drug test when she's not been taking anything illegal. We heard her stumble over this story several times and make a few self-incriminating boo-boos in the coversation that followed. She looked like she was on something. Of course, who could blame her? I felt nothing but compassion rising in me. During one of her stories, I just couldn't stand it anymore; I rose up and hugged her.

After the many stories, many tears shed, I started telling her that there are no easy fixes to all our problems as humans, but that Jesus wants the best for her and is here to help her. She confessed that without Jesus, she'd already be dead. She expressed faith that Jesus wants to help her, but she thought He might be teaching her something, or punishing her for her lifestyle. I assured her that was not so. That the Jesus of the Bible was not like that.

I asked her to come over on the couch beside me and let me and my sister lay hands on her. She did. We commanded liver cancer to die and prayed for her seizures to stop. I asked her if she felt anything. She replied, "Well, I'm getting hot over here on my side" (her liver side!) "but I didn't know what it was." I explained that is the power of God healing her. Also she confessed her headache immediately disappeared. She'd had a headache for days that wouldn't let up.

She revealed she was worried about passing her "piss test" (to use her words) on her visit the next day to her probation officer. If she failed this, she'd probably go to jail. I thought, 'That's terribly sad' and I didn't know what to say. Suddenly I felt Jesus speak in my heart, "Pray for her blood to be cleaned of drugs." I was shocked. Would He do that? Of course He would. I repented silently of my unbelief and my limitation of His mercy and grace toward Mary. I prayed this silently because it just didn't feel right to say it out loud.

After we left, my sister asked me if I noticed Mary was on something. I said I did. She also noticed the self-incriminating stumbling of her language and asked what we should do about her upcoming drug test. I told her what happened to me. She laughed and said she thought exactly the same thing!

Sunday (13-May-2012) I asked my mom about Mary. Turns out, she went to her drug test the next day and passed! Then she had another visit to her liver cancer doctor, and he said, "Well, looks like it is in remission. We can't find it anymore." Praise Him! Mary now wants us to come back and pray for her tumor again.

What is amazing to me about this is Jesus' grace toward Mary in passing her drug test. I want you to think about that for a while. You might say that was cheating. LOL! His mercy never ceases to amaze.

Healing On the Job

Yesterday (Thursday, 29-Mar-2012), I took my regular bi-weekly trip to Cumming, GA to the company that sells our products and does front-line technical support for them. It is normal on such a business trip to visit with the techs that answer the phones and take them out to lunch. During this visitation we mainly discuss technical issues with older products and up-coming issues we foresee for yet-to-be-released products.

Betty

There is a lady there, one of the lead techs, that I often visit and chat with whose name is Betty. She is such a delightful person to be around and she's one of those persons that I would put in my rather small category of real Christians. She grew up protestant but married a catholic husband and is now a faithful catholic. We usually end up talking about our family or Jesus somehow each time. She's been a great help to me and the other techs on many occasions. She's not afraid of hard work and can work most of the other techs (who are all men) under the table any given day.

Yesterday she told me about not participating in some physical activity because of her back problem. She'd had it for years and never really done anything about it. But lately it had gotten unbearable. She went to a doctor who didn't help her much, so she went to a chiropractor. He just immediately began popping her back without much evaluation. This wasn't helping so she went to a different chiropractor and insisted on an X-ray.

The X-ray revealed the padding in her L5 vertebra was flattened, and bone was basically rubbing bone. I don't know the technical name of this malady, but she said it was very painful or would cause her back to catch where she literally couldn't bend a certain way. Instead she'd have to settle back down, wait for it to pop back, and then she could move.

Of course, I was chomping at the bit the whole time. I could sense the excitement that was about to happen to her; Jesus was pushing me to lay hands on her... it had to be Him. So after waiting rather impatiently for her to finish her story, I said, "Well, let's just pray, can we?" She agreed. Yes!

I sat in the guest chair of her office and just asked for her hand. She gave me her hand and I prayed something like, "Thank You Jesus for your love for Betty. Thank You for the healing that you have provided for us all. Thank You for Your grace for me and her." Then I pointed to her back with my other hand and said, "Now, back, I command you to be healed, right now." It was quiet and calm. We waited. Seconds passed. Her head was still bowed, eyes closed.

Suddenly she inhaled dramatically, pulled her hand out of mine, and said, "Shew! I am burning hot all over!" She's usually cold anyway and has a little space heater under her desk and usually wears a light jacket, which she now immediately pulled off and began to fan her face. I started chuckling. "Don't laugh at me!" she said with a big grin. I said, "What's going on?" She said, "I don't know I just suddenly got hot all over and now my back is on fire!" I asked, "In the appropriate spot?" She said, "Yes!" and then started crying.

I love Jesus and the way He touches us.

I started laughing. It wasn't insult, I just can't help getting tickled when Jesus does this stuff. People are so not expecting anything to happen and when it does the facial expressions are priceless.

I asked her if it felt any better. She said, "It feels wonderful! Are you kidding. Wow. I don't think I'll go back to the doctor." I said, "Well, no worries. There is no test. Keep your appointment. If it is 100% healed, it's healed. If it isn't 100%, it isn't, and we'll just do this again."

Now, mind you, this was in her office at her workplace, and I was on a business trip. Gives meaning to "as you go":

Matthew 10
7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. 

Amazing, truly amazing. It never gets old.

Knee, Back & Throat Doctor

Knee Specialist

Hannah & Brandon

There's not a profession that goes by that name, but you can't name a part of the body of which Jesus is not the Specialist. Shortly after playing her last high-school basketball game for the Lady Crusaders, Hannah, my niece, was complaining about her knee again. It had swollen up, as it usually does since being injured, and was painful to walk on. In fact, right after the game she couldn't put any weight on it at all without cringing. The next day, it was still swollen and painful at my mom's where we all had gathered to practice one last time before the show, Saturday (25-Feb-2012). I don't know who it was, but someone yelled at me from the living room and said, "Greg, get in here and pray for Hannah!" So I did.

Hannah showed me its "squooshiness" and demonstrated the pain. After getting a good measure of where we were, me & my oldest sister, TammyC, laid hands on her knee and commanded its healing. Nothing much happened. Again... nothing much. A third time... nothing much. Hmmm... OK, left my hands on there quite a while and commanded again. This time she felt something move. The pain shifted from under her kneecap to the side of her knee. Strange. I then remembered something I'd heard Curry Blake say about localized pain moving around when you pray. He said when this happens he immediately goes for a "spirit of infirmity." Made sense. So, this time I pointed to the knee and said, "You spirit of infirmity, I command you, in Jesus Name, to leave Hannah's body, right now." Hannah immediately let out a little squeal in pain. "What's wrong?" I asked. She said, "As soon as you said that my entire knee started hurting really bad." But in about 5 seconds it stopped and then when she checked it, there was no pain whatsoever! Weird!

It was still swollen, so I laid hands on it and commanded the swelling to dissipate. After about 5 minutes or so, there was no swelling! She showed us how she could jump around on her knee and how it now looked like her other knee.

I have to chalk this up to my first very apparent lesson and encounter with a spirit of infirmity, even though, I'm not sure what to think about it.

Back Specialist

TammyC & Karahann

After that, my oldest sister said, "While we're at it, my back has been hurting me. Let's let Jesus work on it too." Excellent. Jesus loves to heal. It is a normal expression of His presence. I asked, "Where?" She said, "You tell me." This was actually a challenge... LOL. OK, that's easy, when I lay hands on her back, the part that Jesus will work on will normally get very warm, and in some cases, hot. So, I put my hands on her back and thanked Jesus for healing, and commanded it to be healed. Then I moved my hands around until I found the hot spot. "Middle of the back, right there," and I pointed to the particular vertebra that was getting hot. "Yep, that's the very spot." Jesus knows. This stuff is real.

Her back stayed hot a good 20 minutes on its own. It even cooled down once and started up again. She said it was like a heating pad. Afterward, she couldn't make it hurt. And the next day she said her back was sore. I guessed it was because after the adjustment Jesus made on it, the muscles had to readjust.

Throat Specialist

Billie

After the show Saturday night (25-Feb-2012), TammyC had to come back by my house and drop the big "dog-house" bass off. One of her friends, Billie, who is like a member of our family, was with her. After unloading the instrument and some conversation, TammyC said, "Hey, Billie's throat is really sore, can you pray for her before we go?" Sure! She said only one side was very painful when she swallowed. After laying hands on her throat for about 10 minutes, finally she felt relief begin to happen. We got her glasses of water so she could keep testing it. She said, "Now I have to go to the bathroom." LOL! Before she left, the soreness, she said, was gone by about 75%. I told her I believed it would continue to get better and be gone probably the next day.

The next day, while me and my family were at the aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN, (with my grandson, Gunnar), I got a text message from her that simply said, "95%!". Nice! And then about an hour after that another one that said, "100%!" 

Yep, Jesus continues to work even after we kickstart the healing and only see partial results.

Arthritis Can't Stay

My Mom

Last night (Tue, 21-Feb-2012), my family and I went to my mom's (Janice) house for music practice. Every year about this time, me and my siblings and our children get together and polish up on a few select songs that we will perform on local TV and at an annual event held in honor of my late dad (Leon Kiser). The event is called The Leon Kiser Memorial Tribute and it occurs annually in February each year after my dad's death. The show is to honor both living and dead folks who have locally contributed to the local mountain musical heritage (mostly bluegrass musicians).  All the proceeds from ticket sales go to a local college scholarship for some chosen individual in their Mountain Music program.

I was in the kitchen heating up some homemade potato soup for my youngest daughter, Kayla, who had arrived a bit late from work, when my mom approached me and said, "I need for you to pray for my finger." She showed me her left pointer finger, last knuckle, was very painful, and she couldn't bend it as far as her other pointer on her other hand. She held them up and showed me the difference.

So after the soup was hot and I had handed it off to Kayla, we sat at the bar. My youngest sister (Jennifer) and her oldest daughter (Hannah) were watching. I laid my hand on mom's finger and commanded arthritis to leave and pain to go and for the joint to be healed. Mom felt nothing. I felt a very slight tingle; almost unnoticeable. After a few minutes of just leaving my hand on her I asked her to test it. "Wow, look!" she said. She immediately could bend it all the way like her other finger! "Does it hurt any?" I asked. She said, "Well, yes, just a little when I bend it all the way." So, I laid my hand on her finger again. No words. Suddenly, the skin, and tendons began to slightly jitter. "Are you doing that?" I asked. "No!" Jennifer and Hannah were surprised! Hannah said, "Nana look at your hand! It's jittering all by itself." It was really funny!

When I removed my hand this time and she tested it, she could bend it all the way like her other finger and there was no pain. She immediately said, "Praise the Lord. He is so good to us." 

Amen. Jesus is amazing all the time. He is forever faithful and it doesn't matter whether you feel like praying or not, or whether you've had a bad day or not, or whether you've failed that day or not... He is still full of grace and kindness and His mercy is over all His works!

Torn Shoulder Healing

For a while a friend of mine (Scott) had asked if I could lay hands on the husband of one of his coworkers, Tina. The man's name was Doby. We had some trouble synchronizing our schedules, but finally on 30-Jan me and my sister (TammyC) were able to meet Doby at my sister's place of business after work. Doby is a kind fellow that is certainly not afraid of hard work. He is humble almost to a fault. He believes strongly in God and the Lord Jesus but doesn't consider himself well-studied in the scriptures and even expressed he should be a better person than he is. Of course you know what Jesus thinks of that... hahaha. Jesus unequivocally loves Doby and doesn't count his faults against him and I told him that in not so many words. We chatted further about Jesus and His kindness toward us and I was quick to point out that Jesus wanted him healed and He was going to at least start that healing in just a few minutes. Doby was worried that nothing would happen because he had doubts, so I assured him that he really DID have faith (the size of a mustard seed) or he wouldn't be here in the first place. I told him the only faith most folks showed toward Jesus healing them was that they just came to get prayed for, that's all. That's not great faith, but nevertheless it is enough to move a mountain and get healed.

So I asked Doby to tell me what was wrong. He explained that he had a messed-up shoulder, that there were some ligaments torn away in his shoulder that caused terrible pain at times. It was mostly noticeable to him when he lay down to sleep. He had been to the doctor several years ago for something similar in the same shoulder and had had surgery. The recovery time previously had been 4-6 months and it was pretty good for several years afterward. But then it started hurting again. He went back to the same doctor who told him he had tears and disconnects again and that it was going to take surgery to attempt to fix him back again. 

The way the doctor demonstrated to Doby that he had specific tears was a very specific motion that Doby found he couldn't do: Place the back of his right hand in the small of his back and try to push straight backward away from the body. Doby demonstrated to me that he couldn't do it. He even had me place my hand on his hand while he attempted to push... I felt next to nothing while Doby's face grimmaced in pain. Then he put his left hand there and showed me how he could move it easily back and forth really fast. Good! Now we had a measuring point to start.

Me & my sister laid hands on him and immediately felt tingling, movement and localized warmth. At first Doby didn't feel anything, but after a few minutes he said he felt tingling going all the way down his left arm. His pain diminished immediately, he said. I encouraged him to try to move his shoulder around and make it hurt. He found one more spot of pain. I laid hands on it and commanded it to leave and immediately asked him to try again... he couldn't find any pain!

Next, I had him test the small of the back movement. Much to his surprise he could move it perfectly like his other hand! Doby said, "Guys, unless I'm crazy, I don't think I could do that when I came in here, could I?" His mind was reeling and not wanting to accept what just happened to him.

All in all we spent about 45 minutes with Doby, and all he had remaining was some "tightness" but no pain, and he had freedom of movement. He was scheduled for surgery 15-Feb-2012 and we tried to get back together with him for some more prayer but failed to sync up our schedules again. But I got the following e-mail from Scott today (20-Feb-2012). Jesus, when given even half a chance through imperfect vessels, does amazing things!

Hey Greg,

Doby's surgery went very well. Guess what? The doctor told Tina that the shoulder was a lot better than he previously expected it to be and he just had to repair some small tears, for a 6 week recovery instead of the 3-4 month recovery he was expecting! The doctor was very surprised because before he had told Doby that he didn't even know if he could get him back to normal this time. Praise the Lord!  

Thanks for praying with him. :-) I wish y'all would have been able to get together a second time, but the first time definitely did some amazing things! 

Now if I could just convince my co-worker Cami to come to lunch with us sometime... she is having some severe back issues. She was off a couple of weeks ago bed-ridden from this, but I can't convince her. :-( She is a Christian but very self-conscious and somewhat skeptical. 

Scott

Pain-free For 2 Years

UPDATE (18-Feb-2012): I was in Wal-Mart getting a gift for a little 3-year old girl to take to her party that my family couldn't attend (they were all out of town at a dance competition). I ran into Jerry whom I had prayed for about 2 years ago (see here). He stopped me and we talked casually. But then he got serious for a second. He said, "I've never told you this, but remember when you prayed for my hip?" I had a flood of memories of the incident (the link above). As I was standing there in front of him with these memories flooding my mind, grabbed my hand with both of his and said, "I just want to thank you again for praying for my hip that day. I haven't had any trouble at all out of it since." (2 years!) He was sincere and I was touched. What can you say, but, a weak "You're welcome" and "Give glory to Jesus, He's the Healer. He loves you and that is proof." 

Jesus Heals the Mind & Body

There are precious few real people in the world; those that have not given up honesty and sincere love for the praise of others. But such a real person is a dear friend of my family. Her name is Jessica. Being raised in a eccentric eschatology (Pauline Dispensationalism) from childhood, she had been raised to believe against miracles and healing. Fortunately those same parents did teach her God's grace and in a big way. But though she fully believed in the grace of God in Jesus Christ her Savior, she struggled with the thought that God cared for anything else about her life other than her eternal destination. But that was to change in a real encounter with the Healer of Broken Hearts. Me and my whole family love Jess (as we call her) very much and fully think of her as part of our own family. She even refers to my wife as Ma Kiser. We love it when she and her husband come in for a visit.

Of late, she had been experiencing what I guessed to be anxiety attacks where her heart rate would shoot up dangerously high. Her and her husband both are very health-conscious individuals and attend local gyms on a regular basis. While in for a visit over Christimas, she had another attack. She knew we believed in healing and so asked us to pray for her. I'll let her tell you her story in her own words:

"I have not been taking other  medications, nothing.  Off the sleep pills and headache pills.  December  when i had the attacks and my heart rate went crazy it kinda scared me  with my entire lifestyle, and I've decided to try to take better care of  my body.  The anxiety problems I have  are something I'm going to have to learn to deal with and cope.  When I  came in town, I was even feeling it then.  It was extremely stressful, I  can't even explain all the thoughts that went through my head, along  with the way my heart steadily increased.  I was over at the Kiser's  house one evening that it happened, I asked Greg to pray for me, and lay  hands on me.  I didn't believe in healing, I was taught not to, but I  have heard of things that has happened and I wanted him to try it on  me.  I kept saying to myself it won't work because I don't believe.   Well, I sat down and they laid hands on me and started praying, I felt  nothing, nothing for like the first minute... and then all of a sudden  my chest because INSANELY hot like, not just I was getting warm, it felt  like ten huge people were sitting on my chest, I started breaking out  in a sweat... The doubts and anxiety that I was feelings suddenly felt  like that had  been lifted from me.  I felt a comfort, an ease that I hadn't felt  before.  I now honestly do believe in healing.  I see where Jesus in the  ministry told his disciples and follows that THEY could follow him in  doing healing and the healing more greater than his.  Faith, I still am a  'babe' when it comes to the healing issue, but I plan on studying it  into depth and growing in the doctrine more and more.  I have maybe once  or twice ALMOST started to feel the attacks come back since I got back  to Texas, but I have went by myself and started praying and in a few  minutes they have gone away. -Jessica"