Astonishing Breakthroughs!

What Jesus is doing in my life is truly awesome. To illustrate how thrilling my recent physical breakthroughs are, I’ll try to explain how indescribably difficult — virtually impossible — certain essential everyday activities used to be for me.

Rewind to 2014…

Let’s rewind to 2014 — when my struggle began to be intense. There were certain things which we all have to do every day which were almost impossible for me because of the severe pain and limitations of my acute osteo-arthritis. Believe it or not, one of the most difficult things for me was actually getting into bed at the end of the day! My joints are badly worn down and there is no cartilage cushion to prevent them grating painfully (and sometimes noisily!) together — but something significantly changed very recently.

Since I could not get onto a bed for eight long years (2006-2014), I had to sleep in my recliner chair in our living room while my husband had the bedroom to himself. During those eight years, because I was unable to lie down flat to sleep I gradually became deformed. I am permanently shaped like a banana now!

However, God was very good to us and enabled us to get an amazing bargain after a house move: a double electric adjustable profiling bed which adjusts separately for both of us, and fits perfectly into our small bedroom. The cost of these beds is normally astronomical. Originally, the bed we needed was on offer online at half price, but the company reduced it a great deal further for us as they had only one left to our specification in their factory warehouse clearance department. God’s timing is always spot on!

I was so looking forward to sleeping in a bed again after all those years, but one thing caused me excruciating pain — actually getting into bed! Firstly, I had to sit down and throw myself backwards onto the mattress. It was rather like taking a leap of faith in reverse. My right leg made it easily onto the bed, but my left leg did not as the left hip joint is even more badly worn away than the right one. Therefore, since 2014 I have had to use a ‘leg raiser’ on my left leg. It looks like a dog collar and lead all in one piece. I had to put the large loop round my left foot and hold on tightly to the small loop at the other end of this device, raising my left leg as I threw myself backwards onto the bed, pulling very hard on the leg raiser so that, hopefully, my left leg would join my right leg and they would both land safely together on the bed.

It was such a lengthy process for me to get into bed every night. I used to pray really hard for enough faith to be able to make it! I would sit for at least five minutes (leg raiser in position) trying to drum up enough faith to get onto the bed by quoting over and over Philippians 4:13 in the Amplified Bible, “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me. [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me…]”  I used to say that powerful Scripture out loud over and over again until I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I really was “ready for anything and equal to anything through Him” — and that our Lord Jesus definitely was “infusing inner strength into me.”

Eventually, after many long weeks of struggling to get into bed night after night, one glorious evening it all changed for the better. The Lord graciously had compassion on me and I saw Jesus come running to help me! I believe it was a vision — and not my imagination. It was the first time I saw Jesus. In sheer gratitude, I said “Jesus, I trust in You!” Then, with my leg raiser already in position, I threw myself backwards onto the bed in faith, knowing — not hoping — that this time I would get into bed easily. I did!

From that evening onwards, night after night I closed my eyes and in my spirit I saw Jesus come running — really running — to help me, with His arms outstretched towards me and a big smile on His face! It was so easy with Jesus on the job! I no longer had to sit for five minutes, as I used to do, drumming up the faith I so badly needed…

As I have said, this was the first time I actually saw Jesus; and I continued to see Him like that whenever I said “Jesus, I trust in You!” while trying to get onto the bed. I’m only sharing this in order to illustrate what a wonderful measure of healing I received from Jesus in my joints at the end of June this year. Thanks to Morphine, my excruciating pain had been less for some time, nevertheless I continued having to rely heavily on my leg raiser to enable me to get into bed — until one recent Monday evening.

This is how I realised beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord had done something really marvellous for me: I had just put my left foot into the leg raiser as usual, and was sitting on the bed about to throw myself backwards onto the mattress. However, it had escaped my notice that my foot had somehow slipped out of the leg raiser — until it was too late and, to my horror, I was already descending backwards onto the mattress without that indispensable Disability aid round my left foot!!!  It was at precisely that point that I realised Jesus must have strengthened my left hip, because BOTH my legs went sailing HIGH in the air and landed together on the mattress, without the leg raiser. It had fallen off and was lying limply on the floor beside the bed. This was a God moment! It was AWESOME!!!

Another healing touch from Jesus

But it doesn’t stop there! When my care-giver arrived to get me up the following morning, I got out of bed straightaway and puzzled her by asking if she would watch me getting back in! She was astonished at the sudden improvement. A few minutes later she gave me a shower and hair wash. I sit on a shower stool for that, and she likes me to lean right back while she’s rinsing the shampoo out of my long hair. I really dislike that part because my neck hurts so badly. I’ve had five whiplash injuries over the years, one of which necessitated a twelve-week course of physiotherapy which culminated in traction on my neck. To my unspeakable horror, a machine was programmed to ‘pull’ my head rhythmically out of my body for a set period of time, while I was left unattended in a curtained cubicle, clutching a panic button for dear life. It was very scary indeed.

Anyway, when the time came to lean back during my hair wash, instead of gingerly bending my neck backwards slowly,  little by little, I went straight back — until I was almost touching the wall. Later, my care-giver told me that she had been alarmed at first when I suddenly leaned so far backwards because I had never been able to do that before — and I usually made a fuss!

Yet another healing touch from Jesus

For many years I’ve had great difficulty standing up for even two or three minutes at a time. The following day, I decided that the books, folders, sewing things and odds and ends beside my recliner chair in the living room needed to be reorganised as it was all in such a big muddle, and things were difficult for me to access. I found one thing after another that I hadn’t seen for quite a while, and I began happily piling up the items on the seat of my recliner chair while I stood on my feet reorganising that area. By then I couldn’t have sat down even if I’d wanted to as there were things piled up precariously all over my seat!! It was sheer joy to be able to stand, and I was enjoying myself so much that I kept on and on working. To my astonishment, I was able to stand up for OVER THREE QUARTERS OF AN HOUR! When I told my care-giver about it later during her early evening visit, she said that she had also noticed that I’m now walking with my walker more briskly too. I am undoubtedly in the middle of receiving a considerable measure of miracle healing from Jesus!

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Note from So Greatly Loved

What do you want the Lord to do for you? Are you in need of a miracle in your life? The mercy of our Heavenly Father is unfathomable. He delights in blessing every one of His children and He has no favourites. The Word of God says, “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11. If your heart is to please the Lord, you are one of His children who is walking uprightly. You qualify!

Think about it for a moment: could it be true of you that “Ye have not because ye ask not?” James 4:2. But it doesn’t even end there, because verse three warns us about the importance of checking our motives in praying for what we want. The confirmation that it is God’s will for us to pray for something in particular is to ask ourself whether, deep down in our spirit, we have peace. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts…” See Colossians 3:15. The original Greek word Paul used for ‘rule’ literally means ‘to act as an umpire.’ In other words, since a whistle is blown when a foul has been committed, if the umpire does not blow his whistle, we are not in the wrong, and so the Holy Spirit is clearly saying, “Go ahead!”

Pray, and believe with all your heart, for your much-needed miracle… and don’t forget to thank Him for the answer. See Philippians 4:6-7, where Paul mentioned the importance of thanking God for the answer in advance, and also said that the peace of God would keep our hearts.

When we were missionaries in India, it was a great joy to my husband and me to teach in the village churches on real Bible Faith. As I was writing this conclusion, the Lord told me to share in future posts the super-effective and life-transforming teaching on real Bible Faith that impacted those lovely Indian Christians so powerfully.

Watch this space!