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Our last lesson looked at several verses and passages about how God heals people through the medical profession. This includes things like doctors, hospitals, physical therapy, operations, prescriptions, vitamins and the like.
I wrote that lesson about two weeks before getting on a plane to China for a missions trip. When I wrote it, I was not expecting to share any personal testimonies in this teaching series. My only plan was to look at what the Bible said about healing. However, the Lord gave me some experiences on this trip that I believe He wants me to put into this teaching series. That is how this particular lesson came to exist. I am writing it six days after I returned from China, and it shares experiences pertinent to medicine and healing. This particular lesson reads more like a testimony than a Bible study, but I hope you will find it helpful.
Let me give a tad of background about this trip. I flew Hong Kong to do a three day prophetic conference. I thought I was coming to that conference with very high expectations, but God outdid Himself in power and anointing, and He exceeded my expectations by quite a bit. I spoke at various church in Hong Kong for the next three days, and then I went to Macau for a one day conference (leaving on a Thursday evening, and the conference went from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Friday. I left Macau by ferry at 7:00 PM Friday evening and arrived in mainland China about 8:00 PM Friday night. I spoke at a two day Pastor's conference on Saturday and Sunday, then I started my very long trip home. (It took me a little over 27 hours from when I left my hotel in China until I arrived home.)
I was perfectly healthy the whole time I was in Hong Kong. I had only brought one suitcase with me, but people gave me so many presents and such that I had to obtain a second small case. I decided to rearrange my stuff so I could leave most of my belongs in Hong Kong and travel lightly with the smaller case for my trip to Macau and mainland China. Since I had been perfectly healthy with no hint of a cold all of my time in Hong Kong, I packed almost all of my medicine in the case I left behind. I did happen to throw 3 of those 12-hour Sudaphed capsules into the case that I was taking with me. But I left all of my standard cold medicines in the case that stayed in Hong Kong.
A friend came by my hotel room at lunch Thursday, taking my "left-behind" case with him when he left about 2:00 PM. I was scheduled to be picked up for the ride to Macau at 6:00 PM. Wouldn't you know it, I started to develop a sore throat about 5:30 PM. I did not have much time, so I ran to a tiny drugstore near my hotel. They did not offer much of a selection of cold medicine, and everything they had was much weaker than anything I am used to taking in the States. For instance, I usually take the 12-hour pseudophydrine hydrochloride tablets (a.k.a. Sudafed) and Vicks Nyquil. The 12-hour version of Sudafed has 120 mg of pseudophydrine hydrochloride. The only cold medicine in the pharmacy was the 4-hour version and each dosage only contained 10 mg). They did not have anything that resembled Nyquil. I bought a roll of throat lozenges and the best cold medicine I could find. But it was 4 times weaker than what my body was used to, and did not seem to help at all.
I started getting a runny nose and sniffles while on the ferry. By the time I reached my hotel, I was seriously sneezing. I took one of my Sudafed before I went to bed because I did not want to be too hoarse to speak in the morning. When I got up, the cold hit full force and I felt pretty sick. I decided to take a second Sudafed to get through the conference and travel to mainland China. The cold was bad enough that if I had the medicine with me, I would have taken a 12-hour Sudafed every six hours to mask my symptoms. But I only had 1 Sudafed left and I knew I'd need it for the night.
When I arrived in China, they took me out for a late dinner and then brought me to my hotel. The I asked them if they could get me some cold medicine, as I was developing a cold. They found me something that had 50 mg in a 6-hour dose. It was not as strong as I was used to, but it noticeable stronger than the one from Hong Kong. I decided that I should save my last Sudafed for an "emergency" and took the Chinese cold medicine just before I went to bed.
When I woke up in the morning, I realized that I was really in Mainland China--I had been want to go there to minister for over 30 years so I was finally walking out a dream I'd held for so long. I jumped out of bed, threw open my curtains and looked out. I was so excited that I began to pray, "Lord, can You believe that I am really in Mainland China!! I am so excited." I tried to pray out loud and that is how I discovered that I had completely lost my voice. The sound coming out of my mouth did not sound like my own voice at all--it sounded like a frog croaking. My voice was so hoarse that my words were barley understandable.
Right about then is when it hit me how sick I felt. I also started to cough a lot. My cold had gotten very bad very fast because I did not have the right medicine to suppress it. I realized that there the interpreter would not be able to tell what I was saying and I would not be able to speak at this leader's meeting. Sixty pastors and leaders from 16 different churches were coming for my training, some from as far away as Beijing (27 hours by train).
I felt something close to panic as I realized the implications of loosing my voice. I tried to practice speaking to see if I could get it to clear up. I did that for half an hour. It did not clear up; if anything, it got hoarser. I tried rebuking demons, commanding spirits of infirmity to leave, laying hands on my throat and commanding my voice to return, rebuking the cold, etc. Nothing helped. I could not understand why God was not healing me.
Then I felt impressed to pray a simple prayer, and to pray it out load. It started as a barely distinguishable croak, but I knew God would understand it. "Lord," I prayed. "You sent me to China to help train and encourage the pastors here. But my voice is gone and in order to teach them I need to be able to speak. Lord please help me!" By the end of that prayer, my voice had returned completely to normal and I spent the next hour thanking God and worshipping.
God had seen fit to give me my voice back--and I did not lose it again after that or even get hoarse. But God did not see fit to heal the rest of my symptoms. I was double dosing (and occasionally triple dosing) on the weaker medication I had to try and keep the symptoms in control. I did not want to be cough or sneeze on the people who I came to train. The pills were enough to keep the symptoms mostly in check, but oh did I feel sick! I used my last Sudaphed when I slept Saturday night, because I did not want to loose my voice for the second day of the conference.
In fact, I felt so sick Sunday morning that I did not know how I was going to get through the service. They worshipped for an hour. I spent part of that hour worshipping with them and the rest of it trying to mentally review my 90 minute teaching for that morning. My concentration was shot and I was having trouble remembering the material. "Lord!" I prayed silently, "Please help me. I feel spent and I don't know if I have anything left to give them. I have waited so long to minister here. Please don't let me fail them!" I was reminded of the verse from 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul prayed for God to remove the thorn in his flesh. Verses 8 to 9 came to my memory: "8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."
Quite frankly, when it came time for me to speak, I was a bit nervous that I would not be able to do an adequate job. Then the Holy Spirit came on me. I was able to clearly communicate what He had given me to say. He also helped me to use humor and recalled some neat stories (e.g., personal testimonies) to my mind to help me illustrate it powerfully. That was the session where I did my teaching about obeying Him and I always end that teaching by making an invitation for people to enter into an obedience covenant with God. Every single person in the room was eager to do that. I spent a bit of time explaining that God would definitely ask them to do something they don't want to do (or to not do something they really wanted to do) and they would be obligated to obey Him without arguing about it if they made this covenant. But no one changed their mind. They were all eager. After leading them (a repeat-after-me prayer) into the covenant, I asked them to cry out to God like they did in Acts 4:23-30 for boldness to obey Him and for empowerment to obey Him.
The Holy Spirit began to fall on people in the room. About 2/3 of the room was Pentecostal and the other third evangelical. The Holy Spirit began to fall on most of them, even the ones who had never seen it before. A few were looking around questioningly, but most were receiving from God. (The ones who were uncomfortable with this Pentecost type of experience were unable to leave. The had sealed the door with sound proofing, so as not to call attention to what was going on in the room. Believers in China have to be cautious in the worship services, as they are not government sanctioned.
Usually this type of group prayer and ministry time lasts about 15 to 20 minutes. But the Holy Spirit came in and took over the room for a full 40 minutes. It got really wild in there. My interpreter was a dispensationalist. He had prayed the prayer along with the others and during part of the Holy Spirit takeover, the Holy Spirit fell on him. He experienced tingling in his hands, heat on his feat and God really touched his heart. Originally he was not going to be able to do the last session (2-6 PM) because he had another commitment. The person they had obtained for that service barely spoke English and I was kind of worried about how that service would go. But my interpreter decided to cancel his afternoon commitment because he felt God's tangible touch during the morning session. After seeing the Holy Spirit in action, he decided that he needed to reconsider his non-Pentecostal theology. He already moves powerfully in the gift of evangelism, and I suspect God is going to be doing some additional amazing things in his life.
At one point during the ministry time, God told me to say, "God is releasing the gift of prophesy." The room went into an uproar. People started falling heavily to the ground (no catchers) and some lay shaking on the ground under God's power for over 30 minutes. The room got really noisy and God was all over His people. Some were crying, some were dancing in the spirit, a few were shaking, some were falling down, others appeared to be speaking in tongues. (The tongues part is a guess, they may have been interceding in Mandarin.) I silently asked God "What next?" He told me to just wait, and he continued to pour out on the people in the room for a full 20 minutes. I spent most of it just waiting and watching what He was doing in the room in amazement. But He also poured out on me during part of it.
After the Lord finally gave control of the service back to me, I offered to lay hands on anyone who wanted it to pray for impartation. (I had washed my hands with disinfectant liquid just before I started the ministry time to try and prevent passing out any germs as I prayed for people). Before I could get the invitation out of my mouth, I was mobbed with people wanting prayer. They don't "line up" for prayer in China, they just mob around you.
I did not feel sick at all from the time I started preaching Sunday morning until we broke for lunch, because the anointing was on me so strongly. However, the afternoon session was a bit of a struggle because I was feeling sick/weak again. However, I did not cough or sneeze and the session appeared to go well. When it was over, there was a special dinner with a few key leaders. Than went for a couple of hours and then they took me back to my hotel and I went right to sleep even thought it was only 8:00 PM.
They were supposed to take me sightseeing Monday morning and put me on a ferry that arrived the airport about 2:00 PM (I was supposed to check in at 3:00 for my flight home. But I was so sick that I wanted to get to my medicine as early as possible, so I asked if we could cancel the sightseeing and get me back to Hong Kong and my medicine in the morning. We had breakfast at 8:30 AM and left the hotel at 9:00. I was supposed to reach the boarder by 10:00 and then had a 1 hour train ride to Hong Kong. But there were delays and I did not get to my medicine until about Noon. I took both a Sudafed and some Nyquil. Within an hour, I could feel my body responding to the medicine that it was used to. My sneezing and coughing stopped, but I still felt very weak and miserable. I had a 2 hour "rest" (a quiet chat) at a friend's house in Hong Kong where I also rearranged my suitcases for the flight home. Then it was an hour drive to the airport.
My medicine was already starting to wear off, so I decided that I would take a Sudafed every six hours instead of every 12 hours. Overdosing on the Sudafed is not healthy, but flying with head congestion can be excruciating, especially on take offs and landings. Also, planes have a closed air circulation and I did not want to get my fellow passengers sick by coughing or sneezing on the plane.
The flight home was pretty comfortable, but even without the coughing and sneezing, I still felt pretty weak and sick. I had upgraded my seat to business class because I was so sick that I did not think I could make the flight in uncomfortable coach. It was a two-hour flight to Manila, a 2.5 hour layover, then a 12 hour flight home. I slept for about 8 hours of the 12-hour fight home. I do remember thinking how much better I felt when I had the right medicine and decided that I would always carry at least 10 Sudafed with me even if I had no symptoms at all. I don't want to be caught in this type of situation again.
It was bedtime by the time I got home, but I had just slept 8 hours on the plane, so I was up until about 4:00 AM Tuesday morning. Then I slept most of Tuesday, getting up at 4:00 PM, and dozing on the living room sofa when I tried to watch TV. I slept most of Wednesday, was up all night, and slept in until 4:00 PM Thursday. When I woke up, I was coughing up all sorts of green stuff and my kidneys burned/ached. My coughing fits were so long that I would get dizzy and needed to lay down most of the day. My own doctor is not available on Fridays, so I made an appointment to see a doctor at a local clinic early Friday morning.
The doctor I saw was fresh out of medical school. She took 4 lung x-rays, diagnosed me with "severe bronchitis" and then gave me an antibiotic...only she gave me the wrong one. I ended up with a low dose of the same stuff that my dermatologist used to give me for acne years ago. The pharmacist told me that was not the standard medicine for my type of condition and recommended I see another doctor. I made an appointment to see my regular doctor early Saturday morning. The medicine that the clinic doctor gave me on Friday did not help at all. In fact, I seemed to be getting worse again. I was in a lot of pain and I felt miserable. Even the Nyquil was not helping at this point.
My own doctor was astonished at what the other doctor gave me. He said that she had misdiagnosed me (telling me that my lungs were full of fluid when in fact, they were inflamed not filled). He got me on a better antibiotic and also give me some type of inhaler to help with the chest inflation and coughing. He also give me 5 days worth of a prednisone (a steroid that reduces inflammation). I waited at the pharmacy 45 minutes to get my prescriptions filled and I coughed non-stop that entire time.
I took the inhaler and first dose of antibiotic before I left the pharmacy. The relief was almost instant. The coughing went from very heavy to very light in a matter of maybe 5-10 minutes. It is amazing how much the right medicine can help, and I was reminded that medicine is a gift from God.
I was supposed to take the inhaler every six hours. After about 5 hours it began to wear off and I was starting to feel sick again when it was time for my next dose. The only problem was that I had put the inhaler down somewhere without paying attention to where...and I could not find it. I began to pray and ask God to help me find it.. it was in between some dirty dishes on the sink counter. I can't imagine how it had gotten there, but I was grateful that God showed me where it was.
As I reached for it, God spoke to me. He said, "Teresa, I have allowed you to go through all of this so you can see how important medicine can be to someone who is sick. Don't ever deny anyone their medicine."
There are times when God heals a person and their medicine becomes unnecessary. In fact their medicine may even start making them sick, as many modern medicines seem to have hurtful side effects. We usually advise the person to see their doctor (so he can run medical tests) to get taken off of their prescription medication.
There are times when God requires a "faith response" from someone. He speaks to them directly and tells them to discontinue their medication and then He will heal them. But that type of instruction needs to come directly from God to the person--it is not something that should come from the healing minister.
We will talk about weaning off of medicine and a faith response in our next teaching.