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.
