Originally written March, 2013
As many of those around me are aware, I have suffered with
what is known to be an autoimmune disorder which is also called an inflammatory
arthritis. This arthritis is in the same
family as the more well known Rheumatoid Arthritis, though mine is called
either Ankylosing Spondylitis or Psoriatic Spondylitis. If you are not aware of any of the autoimmune
disorders, they are malfunctions in the human immune system in which the immune
system sees something which is healthy as something that needs to be healed and
actually attacks the healthy tissue in some detrimental way. In the above mentioned arthritic conditions,
the body is trying to heal healthy bone and connective tissue. This results in the bulging painful joints of
those suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.
In my case, my body has, for the past forty years, been progressively
trying to fuse the bones in my spine together.
It started in my lowest spine and progressively worked toward the upper
back and neck, including my rib cage as a bonus. In the most recent of years, this disease has
become quite limiting in that any physical activity I did would be rewarded
with a lot of pain and one to two days of pain and a feeling of flu-like
symptoms. At its worst, I only vacuumed the carpet one day and was nearly laid
up for two whole days. Let’s just say it
was a lot of fun.
There is no cure for this type of disorder, only
treatments. I went through many
treatments. The results varied from
nothing, to side effects that were as bad as the disease (sometimes nothing
plus the bad side effects), to some tolerable results (sometimes combined with
difficult side effects). One thing most
of these treatments had in common was they were extremely expensive. Even with good health care coverage, the out
of pocket expenses would range in the thousands.
The disease affected my attendance and participation in our
house church ministry. I was quite vocal
about it to the leadership team in choosing meeting nights due to how the
arthritis affected me on certain days.
It was after this that it was put to me if I would like to put my needs
before some members of our church, Woodland Hills, who had a praying/healing ministry. My response was honest, but maybe a little
odd.
Honestly, my wife and I had both prayed for healing before
with no noticeable result. I also
couldn’t see why I should be healed when there were so many others out there
with greater and more desperate needs for healing. I can live with pain, though it sucks and I
complain about it, but there are others who are dying. I would hate to be healed while others with
what I see as greater need go unhealed.
It may seem odd. It may seem
martyr-like, but that was the way I looked at it.
But, people started to pray for me anyway. It was a very mild, but loving and I guess a bit headstrong woman who was most determined
to pray for my healing. It was at a time
about two to three months ago that I realized a change was happening. I had earlier come to realize that my latest
treatment, an actual chemotherapy drug used for the treatment of Leukemia, was
not only ineffective, but that the side effects were intolerable. I had then stopped using that treatment and
went to see my rheumatologist to see what else could be done. I decided to take some time away from medical
treatment to decide on the next path of treatment. During this time, and as the side effects
wore off, I realized that I was doing as well without any treatment as I had
done with treatment. I attributed this
to God and his blessings. I thanked Him
for this progress.
It was at this time, two months ago that I brought the
progress of my arthritis to the Sojourners group as a whole at our monthly
learning community. Everyone was excited
and praised the Lord and continued to pray for me. That evening was a very special spiritual night
for our group. It was after the meeting
that things got real interesting for me.
I found myself standing by myself waiting for Gayle to
finish something when a minister, who was attending as a guest to our meeting came up to me and asked if I was the
fellow who had the arthritis. I answered
yes, and he asked if he could pray for my healing. Again I said yes (like I’m going to say no to
that). Yes, I have trouble asking for
myself, but I will not refuse such an offering.
So this man put his hand on my spine and moving it up and down my spine,
started to pray for my healing.
It
is here that I have to take an aside. I
am a strongly believing Christian. I
believe in the power of our God to do anything He has a mind to. I believe in healing, but honestly, to this point,
I have not undisputedly witnessed it with my own eyes. I have also seen God’s gifts mimicked and/or
abused in so many ways that I admittedly find myself a bit jaded in respect to
them. I am also not, in any way shape or
form, a “name it and claim it” man. If
this were a viable direction of Christian belief and practice, I believe the
Apostle Paul would have been healed of the thorn in his flesh long before any
of today’s practitioners of this fallacy would be healed from their post nasal
drip, or get a new car or a new house.
But,
yes, down deep in my core, I believe, though with reserve. I hate to admit it, because he has gotten
such a bad rap, but I am a bit of a Doubting Thomas. I’m probably too scientific in my view of the
world, but I want to see proof. I
believe in the possibilities, but cannot believe in the product without
confirmable proof. I believe it takes
all kinds, even Doubting Thomas’s. In my
case, I won’t confess unless I know it to be absolutely true. I will not fake it!
It is
with this attitude and baggage that I bowed my head and let Dave Heinrich lay
his hands on me and pray. As he did, I
prayed. I prayed a confession of my
doubts and that God would take away my unbelief. I prayed that I could accept healing if it
were proffered.
Now
keep in mind my DT stuff as I continue.
As he put his hands on certain parts of my spine, those parts that
were most greatly affected by the arthritis, I felt a heat concentrated
directly in that spot. It was weird to
me. We continued to pray. As he finished that, he told me I would feel
tingling and such, but that was only part of the healing taking place (stick
around to hear more about that). After
this he also sensed a spiritual need which was also true and he prayed for.
I
went home bewildered. I had not been
fully and immediately healed. I did not
turn any cart wheels. I went home,
however, with the knowledge that something had happened in my body at that
moment. I could not deny it.
The
next morning, I woke up with some weird stuff going on. To back up, the damage of the disease had
caused my spine to progressively hunch into a curve. I woke up the next morning and my back was
the straightest it had been for years.
In fact, if I stooped or hunched, it would hurt. It was weird.
The following two weeks was also very weird. The man who prayed had said I would feel some
tinglings. Tinglings my foot! I had some of the worst intermittent pain in
my spine that I had ever had, but I knew it was different. I could recognize it as the damage to my
spine reversing and the pain was only symptoms of the recovery. Once again, it was not tinglings, it was
pain, sometimes ice picks in my back and spine for hours, but it was in some
ways very cool because I could realize what was happening.
This
is not what I expected from a healing, but this is what I got. The reversion of the disease is
continuing. It has not been immediate or
quick, and at this point is not fully complete, but I honestly and truly
believe I have been and am being healed of this malady. Sort of like, I have been and am being saved.
So
what does one do with such a work of God in their lives? One thing they do is to live as though they
have been healed. It’s amazing that I
have been able to step up my physical activity with no residual pain or flu
like symptoms as before. It’s weird,
because I am still a bit wary about going all out because of the years of
history. I have to actually push myself. Hey, I actually shoveled snow with a real
shovel a few weeks ago and lived to tell about it. I tried that with a very light snowfall last
year and barely survived the ordeal. I
find a parallel here between living as if I have been healed and our call as
Believers to live as if we are redeemed.
The
other thing one does with such a work in their lives is to tell about it. That is what I am doing here. I am sharing it with those who have prayed
for me and been concerned about me. I
thank you for your prayers and love.
One
last thing, why was I healed? In some
ways I would say I have no clue, but I do.
I believe that God does His miracles in our lives first and foremost out
of love, no strings attached, just, simply out of love. Secondly, I believe we can see in every work
of our Lord Jesus during His ministry, that not only love and compassion is
involved, but every act of His is a teaching opportunity. So, I as well as others who see this must
look to what we can be taught through this.
Beyond this, I believe there may be more for me to learn from this, but
to attribute any ulterior motives to God’s work truly cheapens and denies His
Love and Grace.
Oh,
by the way, though the arthritis is being healed, what I am finding down below
it is a body that is still 60 years old, that played too many years of sports
and hasn’t been treated too well. Yes,
my knees hurt and my shoulders hurt and I get sore muscles because I’m out of
shape, but I don’t have the arthritis to deal with.
Praise
God!
Update, as of September 2013.
I
shared this update verbally with some believers recently, and was reminded that
I had not shared “The Rest of the Story” with everyone. The rest of the story is a continuation of
what I shared earlier.
The
disease started in my lower back at the age of 17 to 18 years old, and slowly,
through the next 40 years progressed up into my upper back, neck and rib cage. The healing went progressively in the
reverse. Luckily it did not take 40
years to reverse. It did take about four
months however. As I stated earlier, the
healing, as it progressed in reverse through my back was not an easy
thing. As it would enter into the next
section to be healed, the pain would be incredible. Once again, however, as I mentioned above,
the pain was different and I could continue to realize that it was a pain of
healing, and not one of damage.
Hmmm,
“pain of healing”. There may be a sermon
title there. I guess you can take the
man out of the pulpit, but not completely take the pulpit out of the man. Ha!
So
during the last few months, the healing, even with its accompanying pain has
progressed back through all of the damaged places until last, but not least, it
entered into the area it started, my lower back. Once again, knowing that this is where it
started, I knew the healing was progressing.
Once again, however, it was not fun.
The pain and stiffness of the lower back went on for weeks. Every morning I would get out of bed and
barely be able to move due to the pain in my lower back. It slowly faded, nonetheless, until without
really realizing it, it was gone too. As
I understand it, there’s nowhere else for the healing to go, except to continue
its work in my heart—the spiritual one, not the physical one.
Like
I said earlier, I considered myself healed or in the process of being healed. I now/still considered myself healed. I consider myself healed by God’s power
through the faithful efforts of those who prayed for me—even Gwyn and others,
who were stubborn enough to pray for me over and above my silly objections. I don’t believe this would have happened without
their faithful caring prayers too.
Also,
like I said earlier, I don’t have the body of a ten year old boy. I have the body of a 60 year old man who
played rough and hard his whole life.
Shoulders and knees don’t work as well as they did and once in a while
the back hurts, not because of the old arthritis, but because I did something
to it I shouldn’t have. I’m not going to
join any volleyball or football leagues soon, but, I can now work and be
somewhat active and not be laid up for days.
Oh,
and one last thing. This being an inflammatory
arthritis, one of the tests to prove one has this type of arthritis as well as test how the treatment is doing, is a blood
test for signs of inflammation in the system which always showed positive for me. Recently, I had such a blood test done for another
reason and the results showed no signs of inflammation in my body. How cool is that?! Maybe I or someone else needed that little
something extra.
Once
again, Praise God!
