I learned today, that the man (Dane) whom we had prayed for several times (see 09-Sep, 02-Sep, 06-Aug & 25-Jun) in ICU that had cancer, died. Somehow I knew this was going to happen because none of us had the boldness to get him out of that bed. In scripture, there is only one passage that shows the reason for failure to get someone healed, and Jesus did not blame it on the lack of faith of the sick person (i.e. Dane), but the unbelief of those ministering healing (i.e. me & my friends). Here is the passage:
Matthew 1714 ¶ At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said,15 “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.16 So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”17 Jesus replied, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.19 Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”20 “You don't have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
Thus, God gave us only this example of failure, and He attributed it to lack of faith on the part of the ministers, not the sick. After hearing this bad news, I heard a message by Curry Blake where he said, “When I pray for someone with cancer, I don't treat it any different than any other disease. As soon as I pray, I take them by the hand and get them out of bed and start walking them around.” This blew my mind, because that is what we had failed to do. We had treated cancer with respect, and were afraid to boldly get Dane out of bed and walk him around. God help me to never fail to do this ever again!
On such a day of receiving the above bad news, I was greatly pleased and encouraged because my co-worker (Phil) that I prayed with Friday (04-Sep-2009) and then again Tuesday (22-Sep-2009) was out Thursday (24-Sep-2009) getting his heart cath done. I got back into work and read my e-mail, and pleasantly found this in my Inbox:
“Hey Host Family!“Good news – thanks to Father and your prayers!! – Moe [Phil] came through the heart cath procedure just fine. Doc said, 'everything looked clean... No blockages. Not stents. No angioplasty.' – Glory to God!“Afterward the cardiologist – who two weeks ago told Moe his test results indicated he was 'high risk' – came with a puzzled look on his face and said, 'I guess he's just one of the 15% who get a false positive on the nuclear stress test.'“One of the first things Moe said when he came back was, 'Tell Greg he can post another one [testimony] on his website!'“Thank YOU ALL for your prayers & many words of encouragement! We love U muchly! (oD“In Jesus' Joy! We are so grateful...!”
Amen! Praise Jesus! I would like to make a note about the doctor's statement on “a false positive.” This is his grasping for an explanation. The reason being, Phil had all the symptoms of being at high risk. He had shortness of breath before we prayed, and had been having numbness in his left arm and even his face. He also had had several chest pains. Of course, now, he's not having any of those symptoms!
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