What to Do in Apparent Defeat

We found out that the woman with thyroid cancer that we had been praying for went into surgery as scheduled on Wednesday and that, indeed, the growth was (still) cancerous. The report so far is that the surgery went well and that she's recovering fine. That said, however, I must say that I was very disheartened at the news that there was no noticeable effect from our prayers.

I, in fact, got so discouraged that I got teary-eyed as I pleaded with God for understanding as to why the woman wasn't healed before her scheduled surgery, as we had commanded. Josh and I independently felt that the LORD had given us words of knowledge that the cancer had been defeated. (Josh saw a black clump in the middle of a beam of light that disappeared, and I had the image of the walls of Jericho falling at the voices of the Israelites.) It seemed that our prayers were powerful and effective, and the woman mentioned that she felt a pressure in the cancerous area. I must admit, however, that after our prayer session, I pretty much stopped praying, except for a minute or two briefly the morning before the surgery. I haven't had any clear revelations as to why our prayers didn't "work," but I have collected some thoughts and observations that I aim to make changes upon in my future prayers.

First, I am pretty sure that I asserted something that I shouldn't have. I said something like, "Lord, as we think about C_____ between now and Wednesday, let us say a prayer against enemy forces that wish to do her harm." By saying this, I think I unintentionally shifted the burden of healing from Jesus (who already accomplished it) to us. I essentially made a promise that all of us there would say a prayer commanding evil spirits to go in Jesus' name whenever we thought of the woman with cancer. If the enemy were in earshot, he would easily have a legal loophole to get out of obeying the commands we were giving in the prayers. If one of us didn't do what I said we would do, he wouldn't have to obey. So, I learned a lesson about spiritual warfare: don't give yourself hoops to jump through because you'll probably trip up, and if you do, the enemy will have a loophole by which to bypass the authority of Christ.

Second, I said something like, "Father, if we've done something wrong, let us know what it is so that we can fix it." This is definitely an unwise thing to say during a time of spiritual warfare. Our weapon is the Sword of Truth, so if we are obviously wavering in what we believe to be true (or in whether or not we are correctly living out the truth), then we have revealed that our Sword is weak--and all this in the presence of the enemy! I had been asking God the question above during my own time of seeking Him, which is why it came out during the time of prayer later. But that is no excuse. Another lesson I learned about spiritual warfare is this: Stand by what you've said and done during spiritual warfare, and if you are uncertain about something, don't reveal your cards--ask God about it later in private!

The last thing that I started realizing after talking with my husband is that perhaps I gave up fighting too soon. With every other case in which I've prayed for a fellow believer (or for myself), the healing has been a process. Two steps forward, one step back. Given that I stopped fighting for the woman once our prayer session was over, there was probably plenty of time for the cancer to regain strength. Given that I became disheartened once I found out the woman went into surgery, the enemy probably wiped his brow in relief because he knew I would stop fighting if I thought I had lost the battle. If I am going to fight a spiritual battle, I must realize that the fight is not over until the enemy is completely destroyed. If the tide of battle turns in our favor, that does not mean we can sit back and relax. We should fight all the harder. The last lesson I learned about spiritual warfare is that we need to fight hard until we see the results of our prayer come to pass in our presence. If the healing doesn't come within the first hour, pray for two. If it doesn't come in the first two hours, pray for six. Sometimes it isn't practical to lay hands on someone for six hours straight, but that doesn't mean that the battle has to end. The battle needs to continue until the desired outcome is achieved so that the enemy does not regain his ground. This is the most significant lesson that I have learned from this experience, and I will not make the same mistake again.

Prayers of Faith and Words of Knowledge

Today a few of us got together to pray over a young woman with thyroid cancer. I had set up three official prayer meetings for this woman--one for each night before her scheduled surgery. This happened to be the last night, so all day today I prepared my heart for spiritual warfare and sang praises in my heart to the LORD. I had seen and heard so many testimonies of God's miraculous healing power that I was convinced that God could heal the woman of her cancer, and yet, I had prayed for her the two nights previous with no noticeable effects (except a report of a period of numbness in the throat area on the first night). So, I told God that if He wouldn't (or couldn't) heal her instantaneously during our prayer time today, then He needed to let me know why so that I could do something about it. When it came time to pray for the woman, I had my expectations high for what would happen.

As we started praying, we gave praise and thanks to God the Father and to Jesus for their love, power, and compassion for us. Then we cast away enemy spirits that were trying to undermine our efforts. Finally, we commanded the cancer to shrivel up and go away by the authority of Jesus. My arms were hot, which is a phenomenon reported by many "faith healers." My husband was the first one that appeared to have a word of knowledge, as he described a mental image he saw of light beginning to beam through the darkness. At first, I was a little bit confused as to why he had gotten such a revelation and I hadn't, given my prayers earlier in the day. But soon afterward, I had the thought that we should pray against the cancer like the Israelites marched around Jericho, and that if we would command the cancer to go in Jesus's name 7 times, it would be defeated. So, we did that, commanding ever more loudly upon each repetition. I then had the thought that I should concentrate on squeezing the abnormal growth with my mind and spirit, so I encouraged everyone there to do the same. After that, I thought that I should ask the woman to put her hand on the place where the lump was on her neck and press on it. During this process, she reported that she had difficulty feeling where the lump was. My husband asked the woman, after all the prayers had been spoken, if she felt any sort of physical manifestation of healing. She reported feeling a pressure in the affected area of her throat near and around the area where I had been placing my fingers while we prayed. All of this to say, I would be surprised if she were not completely cancer-free by tomorrow's scheduled surgery.

After everyone dispersed their own way, I couldn't help but ponder the nature of the prayer session. I was waiting for a sign from God--a word of knowledge--concerning how to defeat the cancer we were battling against. Instead, I just had spontaneous thoughts. Not bright, flashing neon signs with clear instructions... just thoughts that could have been completely my own. So, did God give me words of knowledge to help me facilitate healing? I guess I will find out whether the instructions were God-given based upon the report I hear from the woman tomorrow when she sees the doctors before her surgery. If the experience I had in praying for the woman today was really from God, then I need to develop spiritual discernment so that I can clearly distinguish God's words from my own thoughts!