Freestanding tree at Lake Tahoe Picture Gail Prince
John said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.” Mark 9
Our Post is Inspired by The Holy Spirit.
As a young man growing up in the nineteen forties and fifties we were told if a person wasn’t Catholic they wouldn’t be saved!
Sadly I believed this far too long in my life.
What a shame!
Why?
Where is the Outrageous Love in this statement?
There isn’t any!
The Baptist woman who told us of the miracle of her being healed of her breast cancer testified to all of us that she was healed, and when she told her doctor about the heat she felt on her breast, she knew she was healed, the doctor did as she asked and ran new tests to confirm she was healed.
Remember in all the Gospels except John’s, Jesus started his ministry through healings.
What Jesus accomplished through His healings was demonstrating to those who had the healing, and those who were told about or witnessed the healing, that Jesus is God, for only God could do what Jesus did!
For too long in my life, I was way too judgemental, I really didn’t believe in healings, which destroyed what?
Joy and Peace!
Why?
If you don’t know God has your back, where’s the Joy?
Healings say very strongly, We have your back!
If I am spending my life judging others, and events, I am not spending that same time celebrating all the good that God has and is bringing into my life, by the people I meet and the surroundings I am placed in.
For example; When I walked out of the Baptist small faith meeting I asked myself, “why, if I am in the true Christian Church, Catholic, didn’t we have any healings?” I had never heard about healings in my younger years, in fact, when I grew up, the “Anointing of the Sick” as it is now called, was called the “Last Rites.”
The Protestants with their tent meetings dropped their crutches and proclaimed, “I’m healed,” I thought was phony.
When Gail’s mother was at the point of death, Msgr. Henchal came to give her the “Anointing of the Sick.” She sat bolt upright in bed and said, “I’m not dying.” I felt sorry for Msgr. Henchal for the comfort he was trying to bring was totally misinterpreted by Gail’s mom and I must confess by myself also.
This is why we feel it is important to relate the healing and other actions by God in my, our, life and others we have come in contact with, and I don’t care what church they attend, we have to stop judging and celebrate a God of Outrageous love.
In our last post, I told you that I had had a healing and if the readings fit we would tell the full story, not for my glory but for God’s Glory, and just maybe some of you who are still skeptics will ask the same question I asked after that Baptist meeting, “Why not me.”
I noticed a red growth on the temple area of my head in December. I tried self-treating it with zero results. I finally saw the Dermatologist on January sixth and a biopsy was taken. I appreciated the Dermatologist for not guessing what I had and just telling me to wait for the results. I said this because years earlier I had a sudden loss of hearing and when I went to see the doctor he told me it was probably a brain tumor. He guessed, and was wrong, it was later diagnosed as old age, and maybe someday we will tell this story, but not today.
The tests came back and I had a Basal Cell Carcinoma which should be removed.
An appointment was set up for a Mohs surgery meeting with a different doctor.
I met that doctor and asked him, “What would happen if the Basal Cell disappeared?” Yep, the Holy Spirit working in my life. He said, “He would operate anyway.” I thought, “Wrong answer.”
I went home and applied an over-the-counter jell I had been told to use by the Dermatologist.
I started thanking God for the difficulty of the Basal cell and said I knew God would take care of me.
What?
Did some of you really think I wouldn’t say this powerful prayer?
The surgery was set up for February sixteenth.
I started to notice the Basal Cell was getting lighter but was still there. Two weeks before the operation, I canceled the operation because I couldn’t see or feel the Basal cell.
As far as I was concerned I was healed.
Everyone who I told about canceling the appointment jumped all over me and said I was wrong, so I made an appointment with my Dermatologist on February tenth, which in itself was a miracle because she is very difficult to see at the spur of the moment, to get her confirmation it was gone, and I was right to cancel the operation.
I asked her, when she walked in, once again the Holy Spirit working in my life, “Do you believe in God and healings?” She said she did not mix religion with medicine. I next said, “I think you’re an honest person and you would give me an honest answer, let’s proceed.”
She checked me over very carefully and said she couldn’t see or feel the Basal cell,
BUT,
She said, “It could always come back.” I agreed and said, “Since I see you every six months, IF it comes back we’ll operate.”
I was healed!
Now I know some of you will think, “Hold on Fred it could come back,” and to you, I would respond, “Yes it could, but TODAY I am healed,” and this is what St. James was talking about in the first reading when he said,
“you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.” James 4
I am trying to live and celebrate all that is in our life today!
And celebrate was what I did after I left the doctor’s office, by saying a prayer I say multiple times every day, not in as long a form as the prayer below, but hey, I was pumped!
“Thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,thankyou, thankyou,thankyou,thankyou,
“T H A N K Y O U, F A T H E R!!!“
I ran the words together so you would know this is a very fast Joy-filled prayer.
And I said this prayer more than once and pumped my fist into the air to add to the celebration.
I’m still celebrating!
I will NOT be one of the nine lepers who didn’t return to Jesus after Jesus healed them to say, “Thank you.”
And I’m also still celebrating the night I went to a Baptist small faith group meeting and learned about God wanting to heal us, and thanking Bob Bruns who asked me to go to that meeting in the first place.
Yes, he’s Baptist.
Remember, “For whoever is not against us is for us.”
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
My grandson Gediyon runs indoor track, in three, and five K races. He was having a tough time with it and was not getting the results he wanted.
Gediyon called me and we talked for a long time. Towards the end of our conversation, Gediyon told me of his frustration in the running program.
Running is like Golf, it’s a head game, and Gediyon soon told me what was bothering him, and I will keep that information between Gediyon and myself.
I am sure you all know what I said next. “Thank God for the difficulty of……………………… and end the prayer by saying, “I know you will take care of me.”
Gediyon, “Keep saying this prayer until you smile, because when you smile you let back in the Holy Spirit.”
A few weeks later, I was talking to David, Gediyon’s dad and he told me the next week after Gediyon and I had talked, which Dave didn’t know about, Gediyon finished third on his college team, and the week after that he smashed his personal best times that he had set earlier in his college running career.
I called Gediyon, we celebrated, and he told me he has set some new very hard goals to obtain.
Gediyon is pumped!
Wow!!
A hole-in-one and a faster runner, yes God wants to be in your’s and my life 24/7!
Let God into your life!
And Celebrate your new relationship!
Consider,
Ash Wednesday is March second. Maybe this year you might try this prayer, and the other prayers we have mentioned and as your Lenten fast, I know it’s not a fast, the right word escapes me, and start, or continue building, your relationship with God.
I have found in our life, if I do something for the forty days of lent and then continue the week afterward I have a new habit.
A stronger relationship with God, I hope you’ll agree, is a great habit to form
One last note: I mentioned the healing last week and said we would be more specific if the readings lent themselves to my being healed.
Well, the readings did!
This is what we mean about God’s timing.
I didn’t read the readings until Monday, and was surprised, and filled with Joy, by what I read.
I Love it!
