This past weekend, my family came to visit us. On the Friday night they arrived, my sister expressed much physical discomfort, including a stomach ache, hurting back, and many other things. Now, you must realize that my sister ALWAYS tells me that something is hurting her whenever I see her. I must admit, it can be taxing to carry the emotional burden of her being sick all the time. Thus, when she expressed her discomfort on Friday night, I was tempted to become disheartened. But, realizing this, I took my thoughts captive to Christ and gave my heart over to His desires for my sister instead.
I felt "electricity" concentrated in my forearms and palms, which from past experience indicated to me a special presence (or, "readiness") of the Holy Spirit, so I decided to do an experiment. I went over to my sister Sarah, who was sprawled out on the floor on her belly, and said, "Sarah, put out your hand palm-up."
She gave me a goofy look and said, "Rachel, what are you trying to do?"
I insisted, and she put out her hand. I placed my hand about an inch above hers and asked her, "So, do you feel anything?"
Again, she gave me a goofy look and said, "Are you trying to play a trick on me?"
I shook my head "no" and told her, "Just wait. ... Now do you feel anything?"
At this point, our hands had been about an inch apart for about 20 or 30 seconds. She looked at me and told me that it felt like I was trying to steal her energy or something. Then she realized that the feeling was more like the feeling of running electricity concentrated in her palm. "It didn't hurt," she later reported.
With a nervous giggle, she kept reporting updates on the sensations she had in her body. First, the electricity spread into her forearm. Then it spread all the way down her arm and into the other arm. I told her that the phenomenon would probably get stronger if we would connect hands, so we did.
Sarah reported that the feeling of running electricity kept making its way into new areas of her body. She felt it go into her torso and throughout her upper body. I asked if she'd like to connect both hands with mine, and she agreed. From that point onward, I held each of her hands within mine.
The electricity moved into her hips, legs, and feet. She also started feeling areas of concentrated heat. Her cheeks, her belly, and her shins were hot. Then, she felt parts of her body become as though they were extremely heavy. Later, she reported, "It was like I was pinned down! I couldn't move! Don't you think I tried?"
The weight extended over her legs, torso, arms, and head at various times. There were definite times when she felt "release," during which she could lift the body part that had felt too heavy to lift previously. Some body parts were weighed down, released, weighed down, and released again. At one point, Sarah speculated, "There's probably an angel sitting on me!"
For a stage of time, Sarah said that she felt something strange happening around her spine. "It feels like there's someone squeezing it and trying to put it back into place," she said.
Finally, a couple hours later, Sarah felt a complete release of the weight that had been upon her. Shortly thereafter, my son woke up and I left to attend to him. Thus ended the night with all its strange events.
Of course, the next day I was extremely curious to see how Sarah was feeling. She reported that her back was pain-free, her hips hadn't popped since she woke up (since her kick boxing class in college, she had dealt with hips that would "pop" every time she would walk), her shins didn't hurt (her shins had been hurting her ever since a car accident she was in 2 years prior), and her stomach didn't hurt. But, interestingly, her neck still hurt a little bit.
Later that day, we went to Warren Dunes (a park/beach in Michigan near where we live). Sarah had a full day of activity. She is not the "active" type, so climbing up sand dunes and horsing around in the water were very taxing on her body. At the end of the day, when she was coming out of the water, she started feeling dizzy and started staggering somewhat. Dad came alongside her and helped her walk to the restroom, and I also helped her as we went to the car to go home. She said her chest felt tight and that she felt very woozy. I told her that her body was just over-exhausted from the activity and that she would be fine in a couple hours. We went home, and Sarah crawled into bed.
That night, my Dad told me that we should look out for Sarah, since for two days in a row "her legs were so heavy that they couldn't move." I objected to his inference, but I acknowledged that it would be good to keep an eye on her.
Sunday morning, Sarah reported that she felt much better, and everything that had been "healed" on Friday night was still in great condition. Her spirits were high, and she wanted to tell everyone what had happened.
I checked in on her yesterday (5 days after her "healing"), and she said that all the "healed" body parts were still feeling great and that none of the related symptoms had returned. However, it is interesting that she reported to me that the glands on the right side of her face/neck were swollen and hurting. (This is a symptom typical of a syndrome she is currently struggling with.)
Here are my conclusions of all this: I think God heals the sick through the laying on of hands (see Mark 16:17-18; Hebrews 6:1-3), and I believe that this is what happened to Sarah on Friday night. It is undeniable that something spectacular happened, given the good reports that Sarah has continued to give. However, it is also clear that all of her ailments were not eradicated because she still reported some neck pain and she was not freed from the syndrome she's been dealing with. Also, we know that Jesus compared faith to a seed -- and one thing we know about a seed is that it can grow! Thus, I believe it is reasonable to conclude that we, as believers empowered by the Holy Spirit, can grow in our ability to use the gifts that come by the Spirit -- it's not all or nothing. I was able to impart God's healing to Sarah for some of her conditions, but I can keep learning to better operate this gift of the Spirit. I praise God for the opportunity to bring healing to my sister, and I look forward to the day when I'll be able to release God's healing as effectively as Jesus did! (Jesus said that we would do even greater miracles than what He did during His ministry! Wow! Are we open to the possibility of what God wants to do through us?)
I hope this story has been uplifting, inspiring, and enlightening for you. May you seek the Lord in all your ways, and may you live ever more like Christ until the day that He comes for His Bride!
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