"Their Faith"

In August of 1979, I had preached for a week in a small church near Shallotte, North Carolina. While standing around chatting after the second night, a lady by the name of Lois approached me and asked me to go to her home that night and pray for her mother. Her mother had been diagnosed by the doctor as having ‘hardening of the arteries’ which also was called atherosclerosis. Apparently it was a common disorder, but in her case it was caught at a very late stage.  The majority of her arterial walls were so built up with plaque that her arteries were very stiff and were so badly blocked that her blood flow was reduced to barely keeping her alive.
I agreed to go and pray for her mother.
When I arrived at Lois’ home there were a number of people from the church that I spoken to earlier. After a few greetings, I went into the lady’s room and was shocked at what I saw. 
Lois’ mother was strapped to her bed. She was skin and bones and her body was jerking almost violently at times. Her eyes were sunken deep into her head. She looked to me like a living skeleton. In a low voice I asked Lois discreetly what the doctor’s were doing for her condition. She smiled at me with a lot of peace in her eyes and said the doctor had said that her condition was beyond hope of treatment. There were treatments available but they were very costly and gave little hope of recovery due to her advanced condition.  Lois said they brought her mother home to be comfortable and now you are here.  The last part of her comment gave me pause.
I asked her what she expected of me. She said that she and her siblings had been praying for her mom for some time and believed that God would heal her even though she was in her late seventies and in this condition. She believed that her mom was not only going to be healed, but also be with them for many more years to come.
I asked her again what she was expecting of me and she said only to pray for her mom in agreement with them that she would be healed.  I looked at the lady on the bed and looked back at Lois and without trying to offend her, I asked her what she and the family “really” believed God would do. Her siblings were beginning to gather in the bedroom with us. They all smiled at me as though they knew something I did not know.
At that moment I began to feel the weight of this responsibility settle on my 18 year old shoulders. I had only been a minister for a little over a year with very little training. Most of my work as a minister up until that moment had been public speaking, youth evangelism and teaching small groups. Miracles were not in my list of proficiencies at that time.
Lois could tell I was afraid and hesitant, but she was persistent. She said that she and her sisters and brother were confident that their mother would be healed and that all we needed to do was to pray the prayer of faith in agreement. I did not have the heart to ask what I was thinking, which was “Why me?” I wondered why they had waited and not already done this if they “really” believed she would be healed.
“Why was I going to be the one God used that honestly looked liked to me, a big disappointment?” were my thoughts. I was honestly frightened of the lady on the bed and this whole situation, which I had no training for and certainly no faith. But, I was there and I was the minister and I needed to do my job regardless of how I felt it would turn out.
I looked at the folks gathered in the room and tried to look very confident and spiritual and eventually got the nerve to say, “Well let’s all gather around the bed, hold hands and I will pray for her and God will heal her.”
I took Lois’ hand and her mother’s hand, which was jerking so badly that I could hardly hold it steady. Then, all the others in the room began to take each other by the hand until we had formed a circle around the lady on the bed.  As I looked into Lois’ mother’s eyes, I felt so much compassion for her. My heart broke for her condition and for those in the room who loved her so much that they would ask a young eighteen-year-old kid to come and pray for her. I was honored, afraid and sad all at the same time.
But, something happened. As I opened my mouth to pray, I felt a presence in the room. I felt what I later understood to be Holy Spirit. He was there and I could sense Him doing what we could not do and that was heal Lois’ mom. Up until that moment, I honestly wanted to release the lady into the Lord’s hands to go on to heaven and not stay in that condition, but that was not my decision. It was the decision of those who were her family and who had faith. 
After I finished the prayer for her healing and we all wiped the tears from our eyes and gave each other a hug, I left. I never returned to that home again, however I did get word that she recovered and gained almost 30 pounds of her weight back. Although she still used a walker to get around, that following winter she stitched four quilts and lived many more years afterwards.

“Seeing their faith, Jesus said…” Luke 5:17-26.


Be Life Giving!