The surgery shouldn’t have taken more than eight hours…it had been thirteen. David brought us coffee while we waited. We were grateful to have friends and family that gathered in the large waiting room to support us. We expected the doctor to give us a report soon.
Wearing light blue surgical scrubs and cap, Dr. Saint walked into the waiting room at St. John’s hospital in Tulsa. He pulled the mask from his face and got right to the point.
“I’m sorry. It doesn’t look good. Your son probably won’t live to finish college. It took longer than I thought. My team and I had to remove multiple tumors…some as large as cantaloupes. I’m sure they’re malignant, but we won’t know until the lab results are back.”
Answering our questions, Dr. Saint left us alone to face our fears. It was Friday, August 13, 1997 and the surgery took 13 hours. It seemed Satan was laughing in our faces…trying to get us to focus on the problem instead of our faith in God. My husband, Luis, and I were determined not to allow fear to rule us…instead we would faith our fears.
Mark had been diagnosed with cancer when he was sixteen years old. We went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas for treatment. Now, four years later, tumors had spread to his abdomen and chest.
St. John’s Hospital had a chapel and I excused myself to find it. I needed to be alone. I found the chapel and knelt at the altar to pray. I began by asking God a question, “Are you really going to heal him?” After a few moments, I opened my eyes and immediately I saw a very large inscription hanging on the wall. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see it when I entered the chapel. It was painted bright red and said, “Peace, Peace, far and near. I will indeed heal him!”
Quickly, I found a Bible lying on a table and opened it to Isaiah 57:18 and 19. I wanted to read the complete verses. “I have seen his ways and I will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will indeed heal him.” Peace flooded my heart. God spoke to me through his Word and I knew Mark would be healed.
Days later the doctor gave us the good news. “It’s not what I thought,” said Dr. Saint.
“The results of the lab work were non-malignant.”
We were grateful for the doctor’s report, but we knew God gave us a miracle!
Have you ever had to battle fear? Fear has torment and will stop your faith. Instead of turning to faith in God’s Word, many run to drugs, alcohol, wine, and prescription pills…anything to ease the stress, pain and hurt. Alternatives can turn into a maze of false hope causing people to walk around in a fog of confusion and depression. For many, our parents and grandparents taught us about faith. But sometimes a quick fix seems more appealing than having faith and trust in a loving God.
Acting on faith takes discipline and hard work, but it is worth it. The moment we decided to trust God, and release our faith, the Holy Spirit opened the path for healing and deliverance. I love doctors because they have a gift of healing, but no doctor or person can heal a sick body or a broken heart. God alone is the healer. He can heal through medical science, through following the rules of good health, through Christian living, and through prayer, but our faith was our strength.
What is faith? Hebrews has a lot to say about it in chapter 11. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death. By faith Sarah received strength to conceive when shewas past the age.”
Hebrews also teaches about the race of faith in Hebrews 12:1 -2. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
During our son’s battle with cancer, my husband, Luis, and I learned several principles that helped build our faith and defeat our fears. First, God created each of us to be a conqueror. A conqueror is a warrior and is someone who overcomes. We become a conqueror by making Jesus Lord and by loving Him with all our spirit, soul and body.
The name Lord comes from the Hebrew word El Elyon, which is the most majestic name in all of scripture. It means “The Most High God or The Mighty One.” It is so high, so exalted, so holy, and so marvelous that there is no other name or God to compare with it. This name carries great authority on our behalf. It brings healing. Demon spirits of sickness, depression, poverty, strife, anger, deception, selfishness, sin, and all evil must bow to the Lordship of Jesus.
Revelation 19:10 says Jesus was the greatest conqueror of all time and He gave the believer the authority to use His name for any challenges that we would ever have to face.
Becoming a conqueror requires total surrender to Christ of every attitude and every work that is not pleasing to Him. God saw the damage that Satan and sin would produce, so He created a plan to repair fragmented, broken lives. Making Jesus Lord fits like a replacement part into a broken heart or a sick body. When we use the authority of His name and speak the Word, we become a conqueror and we become whole. Life begins to run smoothly again.
Second, we cleared our minds of fear, doubt, worry, unbelief, and anger. We realized these were tormenting spirits that wanted to stop the hand of God from bringing the miracle our son needed. This was a process of meditating and hearing the scripture.
Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” I meditated on II Corinthians 10: 4-5. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
Third, we spoke our faith instead of our fears. With the help of the Holy Spirit we aligned our thoughts with God’s Word and spoke it from our mouths regardless of the circumstances. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.” The Greek word for two-edged is “distomos” and is rather peculiar. It means two-mouthed. It refers to the Word of God and to the word of your mouth working together and it is found all over the New Testament!
John received a vision of Jesus on the isle of Patmos in Revelation 1. “And He had in His right hand seven stars and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.”Why was the sword in His mouth instead of His hand? The words of Jesus were used as an invisible weapon against darkness and evil.
Ephesians 6:17 calls the Sword of the spirit the Word of God. The Greek for “word” is “rhema” which describes something that is spoken clearly. The idea is that of a quickened word from God’s mouth to you that comes up out of your belly with power. For example, you are praying about something. Suddenly, a Bible verse rises up from inside your heart. At that instant you know God has given you a scripture to stand on and to use as a weapon against your problem as an answer to a situation.
Something happens in the supernatural realm when you begin to speak forth that quickened scripture by faith and agree with God’s Word. It remains a one-edged sword when it comes out of the mouth of God and drops into your heart. The moment it comes out of your mouth a second edge is added to the blade comparing the weapon to a two-edged sword. You and God have come into agreement releasing His mighty power into the situation causing much damage to darkness and evil. Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Mark had gone through much chemo therapy treatment. He had lost a lot of weight and all of his hair. Each week for months we drove to St. John’s for chemo treatment. The nurses hooked him up to machines and an IV as he lay in the bed receiving chemo. He would get very sick and he couldn’t eat because he lost all of his appetite. His skin turned a yellowish color and by all appearances it didn’t look good. I remember rubbing his feet and praying over him asking God for healing. I wouldn’t allow myself to give in to my emotions. Fear tried to grip my heart.
One day I was wavering in my faith when I felt the Holy Spirit surround me. I began to write the following poem called Faith, Hope and Love:
Wounded, hurt, bleeding and dying
Demons of death drove me to crying
Crouched beneath the cloud of despair
I reached out my hand, but no one was there
Where were the people?
Where were the friends?
Where were the ones to help me defend?
Raising my head now I could see
Servants of Glory coming to me
Hope helped me keep my eyes on the Lord
Shining my armor repairing my sword
Love touched my heart, from fear set me free
People are good, but love is the key
Faith gave me strength and lifted my shield
Demons of darkness now had to yield
Jesus appeared and gave me His hand
Flowing to me was power to stand
Servants of Christ, gifts from above
Suddenly I touched Faith, Hope, and Love.
Charles S. Price wrote a book called The Real Faith. He said “That is how faith comes! Not through the channels of human concepts. Not along the paths of human understandings. Not by the abilities of minds to comprehend, or the power of the intellect to affirm. Reach with fingers such as those for the moon and you will struggle and groan to possess it. But let Jesusspeak, and the soul is lifted. One little word from Jesus is worth all the words in a dictionary of human language.
There is hope for the blind Bartimaeus of the Jericho Road of today, when Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way…and more than hope; for when He hears our cry of helplessness, He will not pass us by…When He speaks, hope is kindled until it becomes a fire that burns away all doubt unbelief, and the warmth of a divine and beautiful faith brings healing to the soul.”
I will never forget the day Dr. Saint gave us the good news…non-malignant! I will also never forget the day the Holy Spirit gave me Isaiah 57:19. “I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will indeed heal him.”
If you are facing a crisis in your life I want to encourage you to faith your fears. Don’t receive a victim mentality. Become a mighty conqueror thru Christ by making Jesus Lord of all.
He will also give you faith, hope and love!