Faith for healing - a story of how it works
I don't know about you, but I struggle with faith, especially when it comes to believing God for healing. Here's how I think it often works: You h...
Tiffany: God has been giving me situations to be faithful in.
That doesn't just mean doing what He says to do, it means trusting thatHe is who He says He is.. and that He DOES care about the "small things". It's easier sometimes for me to believe He cares about the big issues, but not the small, unimportant ones. Boy was I wrong. And this is how He showed me that not only is He a BIG God, but He's a little God too.. in the sense that.. nothing is insignificant to Him if it has to do with His kids.
As she was showing me her finger, God told me VERY clearly, "Amanda, pray for her because I want to heal her". Now, I do NOT see myself as someone who is capable of praying healing over someone. I told God to find someone else. He kept gently reminding me that he wanted ME to do it. I kept putting it out of my mind.
A few days later (yes, I really argued for a few days), God told me AGAIN to go pray healing over her because he wanted to heal her. My opportunity slipped away. I decided to make a deal with God. I told him that if he created another opportunity that day that I would do it. Well, another opportunity never presented itself, so I thought I was off the hook. Ha Ha Ha.
God is so patient. He told me again to pray for her and I whined, "I don't know what to pray". God then responded to me, "Amanda, where is your faith"? I thought that was an excellent question. I sighed and then told God that I had no clue what I was doing but that I would do it if he really wanted me to. When I opened my eyes, who do you think I saw?? I saw Tiffany sitting on the beach below me. She was all by herself. I rolled my eyes upward and said, "really?" under my breath. He answered, "REALLY!! Now GO!!" So begrudgingly I jumped off the wall to join her on the sand.
Somehow I knew what God was saying to Amanda. I don't know how... I just knew.
the courage, I walked to where she was sitting and plopped myself down on the sand next to her. I opened my mouth and the word, "Sooooo" came out of my mouth. Then she stuck her hand in my face. She said God talked to her as well and she knew why I was there. I figured at that point that God was really serious and I knew I had to pray.
When Amanda came and sat by me, God told me that He was going to use her to heal my finger. So I believed it. With everything in me. I was ready to be healed, and I saw her battling. So I didn't give her a choice. With my finger in her face, she had no other choice but to have faith. And neither did I.
was praying, God told me that I needed to pray again. I prayed for her again. Then I told her that I thought she was supposed to go rinse her finger in the salt water. She didn't skip a beat. She marched down to the water and put her hands right in. Then she turns around and points at me to come join her by the water. I get up and run down there. I thought God miraculously healed her finger. He didn't, but he told her that she needed to rinse her whole body because he wanted to heal everything- not just her finger. She thinks I'm supposed to get
in the water with her and pray over her again. At this point, I'm done arguing with God, so I walk out with her and pray again. I
don't know exactly what I was expecting, but nothing happened. I went to the bathroom and when I came out my hands were tingling. So she told me to pray for her again. I did. Again nothing happened.
I know Amanda says nothing happened, but SO much was happening. I knew God wanted to heal me. But right after I rinsed off in the ocean, God told me that physical healing was not going to come until the healing of the mind did. Renewal of the body would follow renewal of the mind. What needed to be renewed? Our idea of faith.
I couldn't understand it. I KNEW that God told me he wanted to heal her. I KNEW he told me to pray for her. So why didn't he heal her? I started looking in the Bible for healing stories. I noticed that many times when Jesus healed - it was in response to the faith of the person asking for healing. I knew she had faith but I wondered about mine.
For days - God would prompt Amanda to pray for me and she would walk in obedience. My finger actually got worse.
Everyone began to wonder if I should start taking medicine or something. I was losing feeling in my finger.
She refused to take anything. She knew she was getting her healing. I wondered why God chose ME for this. I read the story in Luke 11 that teaches about persistance in prayer. My persistence and obedience was showing my faithfulness. I flipped to Luke 17 and found the part that says that if we are found faithful in the little things, we can be trusted with the big things. This pinky finger seemed like a small thing, but to God it wasn't. He wanted me to be persistent, obedient, and faithful. I was doing my best - I just didn't understand why things were getting worse.
I saw nervousness in Amanda every time she'd pray for me. I couldn't figure it out. We are close friends, there is no need to be nervous. Soon I realized it was a battle that went beyond friendship... God was showing her that He found her WORTHY to be used, and loved both of us too much to leave us in the condition we were in.
Once I started praying from my heart, God really started moving. Within a day and a half, her finger had gone back to normal. She was healed.
Wow.
God is so rad. He is still showing me that He cares about the things I care about, no matter how small. I am learning not to limit God to the big things, but to have faith... to trust that His love is big enough for the small things. And my finger is healed!
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
