I have not had a life free from sickness, pain, and disease. But I have a God who has delivered me from it all. My life is one of miracles and wonders. I have seen God's power with my own eyes. I have seen his power in his protection, his healing, and in his guidance. We have a mighty and powerful God whom I will love to praise forever. 'When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun; We've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun.' Praise God. I have been healed so many times. When I was a small child I had high fevers that caused me to be delirious. My mama said that she took me from doctor to doctor and no one could diagnose me or help me. Praise God, he healed me. I was completely healed. The random fevers just stopped.
When I was a few years older I got up out of bed in so much pain. I felt like I had to urinate but I could only pee small drops of blood. The pain was terrible. I cried and prayed and asked God to heal me. When I awoke the next morning I was completely healed. There was no more pain, no more burning, no more blood. I peed normally. I was completely healed with no sign of the illness that I had the night before.
God is the master physician. He loves us unconditionally and has compassion on us. And when he heals us from something it doesn't come back on us. We are healed for life. When I was a teenager I was plagued with tonsillitis. Eventually my tonsils came out in pieces and thank God, I never had tonsillitis again. I had seizures for a little over a year. The last one that I had I was at my boyfriend's home. There were a lot of people there from church. I felt a seizure coming on and not wanting to make a spectacle of myself I went outside where I would be alone. My boyfriend sensing that something was wrong followed me. About the time he asked me what was wrong I was in seizure. My body stiffened like a board and I was unconscious. He took me in the house and laid me on the couch. The elders of the church anointed me with oil and laid hands on me. When I regained consciousness I could feel there hands on me and hear them praying for me. Praise God, that was the last seizure that I had.
When I was twenty-three I was healed from endometriosis. I saw two gynecologist who wanted to do surgery. One wanted to do a partial hysterectomy and the other wanted to do a full hysterectomy. I wanted to have a little girl, not surgery. I prayed for God to heal me and to bless me with a little girl and he did. I was healed from endometriosis, everything was normal and when I was twenty-five I had a girl. Praise God for healing me and blessing me with a daughter. God is so powerful. He is more powerful than anything that we will ever face in this world. And praise God, this world is temporary because Jesus is coming back for his church and we will rise into the heavens and begin an eternal life with new bodies that will never be sick or diseased.
When I was twenty-four I became very sick. I could not have a bowel movement and I got a high fever which at one time caused me to be delirious. My grandmother said that I had had lock bowel. I was alone with two children. This was after I had been healed from endometriosis. I got them asleep and I tried without success to have a bowel movement. I remembered hurting and being fevered. There was a length of time that I can not account for. I remember getting into the bed and praying. Something extraordinary happened to me. I was in a tunnel and could see a light at the end of the tunnel. I walked towards the light and I could feel a mist coming in from the end of the tunnel. I could feel the mist on my skin. Then a crib mobile appeared and I heard a voice say, "It is not yet your time." And then I woke up. I wasn't hurting anymore and my fever had broken. I went to the restroom and had a bowel movement. God is so amazing. He is always there to rescue us from whatever catastrophe that we face.
Again God showed me his power and protection in the end of the year 2010. I had suffered a long time with excruciating pain. No one could find what was causing the pain. I later learned that they couldn't find the pain because damaged nerves were causing the pain to radiate down to a healthy part of my spine. After performing a task which caused the back of my neck to swell, I was given a MRI which showed three herniated disks, spinal cord impingement, spinal canal stenosis, bone spurs, and pinched and damaged nerves. I was sent to a surgeon who looked at my MRI and examined me. He said that there was no way the MRI was mine, it was impossible. And that if that I had been my MRI I would be having numerous problems. He said that my legs would be falling out from under me. I experienced that one time. He said that I would be urinating on myself. I experienced that one time. He said that I would be having difficulty picking up things like a glass and that I would drop them. I had that happen one time. The only problems that I had were pain and memory loss. Well, he sent me to get a myelogram. The myelogram showed that there was more wrong with me than the MRI did. I had spinal cord impingement in not one but two different areas and one of those was from a bone spur. And there was even more nerve damage than showed up on the MRI. I was given a neck brace to wear because a bump or a fall could cause me to be paralyzed from the neck down. I had a very successful surgery without any complications. Praise God. He protects us when without us even realizing it. Go to God with everything. Pray about everything and leave it in his hands.
In 2011 I was diagnosed again with fibromyalgia but this time by a neuromuscular doctor who specialized in fibromyalgia. The pain was debilitating. I tried a couple of pain medications for fibromyalgia but could not and did not want to deal with the side effects. I got so sick that I had to start at five minute intervals getting up and moving around. Then I would have to rest. Gradually, adding another minute to my activity. Praise God, he has blessed me with the energy and stamina to go all day from sun up to sun down. Bless God, through research and information given to me by my neuromuscular doctor, and trial and error I have beaten fibromyalgia. At my last appointment my doctor said, "You have beaten fibromyalgia. There is a little bit left but you have beaten fibromyalgia. Continue your diet." I cut things out of my diet that contributed to fibromyalgia and I added certain supplements to my diet. Praise God. He led me to someone who could teach me what I needed to know about fibromyalgia and diet and taking certain supplements to beat fibromyalgia and he blessed me with the self control to stay on the gluten free, msg free, and artificial sweetener free diet.
A few months ago a MRI showed a bone spur on C5 in my spine. I was considered for surgery again. Me and many of my brothers and sisters in Christ prayed for me to be healed from the bone spur and to not need surgery. The surgeon had me to get a myelogram. I went back to see him for the results. Praise God, when the surgeon walked into my room he said, "The bone spur is gone. You do not need surgery." I said, "God healed me." He said, "Yes he did."
I do not know why my life has taken the course that it has but I do know that God is my protector, my healer, my redeemer, and my spiritual daddy. I have been kept from so much pain and sickness and death. I was hit in the head with the sharp end of an axe when I was four. I flipped out of a raft while white water rafting and was repeatedly sucked under the water in the falls but I did not swallow or inhale any water. A boat went over my head. And then, as though in slow motion I saw a raft coming and when it came over me I raked at the bottom of it with my hands and someone grabbled my hands and pulled me into the boat. I was not afraid nor hurt. Praise God I was ready to go ride the rapids again right then.
I was in a car accident. The car flipped three times and the battery was thrown I think they said 80 feet from the car. Praise God, I escaped with only a gash under my left eye that is barely visible now. Many more times than these God has come to my rescue. Time and time again God has protected me and healed me and through it all I have grown so much spiritually. I love God with all of my heart, mind and soul. He is my everything. And he will be yours too if you will only believe. John 3:16, 17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
The first covenant that God made was to give us a guide to live by and prove to us that we can do nothing without him. It is impossible to live completely without sin because we are flesh and blood. Every day we are faced with the battle field of life. We often react to situations and in our hindsight realize that we weren't Christ like and that we could have handled it better. Eventually, we get stronger and stronger and react more and more the way Christ would have, but it takes a lot of growth and studying and learning how to apply God's word to ourselves and to our life and so many different circumstances. As long as we are in these flesh and blood bodies we will make mistakes. The new covenant that God made with us through Christ takes away all of our sin and anoints us with the Holy Spirit who teaches, leads and guides us. But first we have to learn Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. We have to trust God and give our heart to him.
Throughout my life I have been faced with many challenges. I learned how to forgive others for my own peace of mind and heart and then I learned how to forgive myself for my shortcomings so that I can receive God's love and blessings which he freely gives to us. We can not do anything to earn God's love. He is God. He is the creator of the heaven and the earth. He is perfect. And when we accept Jesus Christ as our risen Lord and Savior that which is in us is perfect.
If you have not already, I urge you to go to God in prayer and just bleed your heart out to him. Talk to him about everything. Be open and honest and tell him that you are sorry for what you have done wrong. And then accept his forgiveness and forgive yourself. And if the devil tries to remind you of your past tell him to get behind you because God has set you free and greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Speak the word to yourself. II Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Keep God's word on your mind. Think about things that are positive and true according to God's word. Try not to allow yourself to be negative or profess negatives. And look for a body of Christ that you can join so that you can fellowship and worship God with like minded believers. God bless you.
Written By Lisa Collier Clewis 17June2014
