GOD CAN AND DOES HEAL...

Does anyone else notice particularly when the anniversary of their Covenant Day and Commissioning fall on the “right” day of the week? For any other Proclaimers of Salvation reading this, Tuesday is the 20th. May, & Friday is the 23rd., which were our Covenant & Commissioning Days respectively, in 1980. I really can’t believe it was so long ago.

A few thoughts on healing, from my own experience.

Some people think that when God heals, he heals physically and entirely, but I have found that it may be the case that He gives us all the healing that we need, even though it doesn’t fit that definition.

I injured my back in an accident at school, but didn’t find out for a few years. When we were young Officers, it had got so bad that sometimes the only way I could get to sleep at night was to put a pillow under it until it went numb, then I used to throw the pillow out just before I fell asleep. Eventually I was needing to take 9 pain killers every day – both could have severe & cumulative side effects, especially if taken over many years.

When we were at our first Officers’ Councils at Swanwick (what fond memories I have of that place), God spoke to me while we were singing the verse which says “While in Thy sight I stand, my heart, I seem to see, has failed to take from Thine own hand the gifts it offers me…” I suddenly understood that I was carrying a lot of bitterness because of my condition, which can never be completely healed – only contained - and the circumstances surrounding it. I didn’t know why God was telling me to go to the Mercy Seat, or what I was seeking, and certainly didn’t have any expectations in mind. Our Provincial Officers were Godly and loving people, a wonderful example of Christlikeness – they’ve both gone to Glory now. Mrs. Colonel P.O. was –unlike some people, sadly – gracious enough to accept that I didn’t require anyone to speak with me.

As I knelt there, I felt warmth from something – which I know to have been the hand of Christ himself – on the most injured part of my back. At that time, the pain ceased. From then on I never took the painkillers any more – I threw them away. That’s not to say that it never hurt again, just that the pain wasn’t so excruciating and disabling. Certainly I was healed from the mental bitterness which I had been carrying. As I’ve got older, obviously nature takes its course as you approach 50, and I certainly have some bad episodes with it now, although they are the exception rather than the rule, as had been the case until my “Swanwick Miracle.” However, that doesn’t in any way negate what happened – Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but he still died again when it was his appointed time.

The experience which I had meant that my condition doesn’t rule my life, or feature as large as it did before that, and when I have doubts, looking back on that experience serves to remind me of the presence, power and reality of God.

Why did it happen to me? I really don’t know – after all, I wasn’t obedient to God’s call, and I wasn’t faithful, but God is faithful even when we aren’t. I have testified of this experience a few times, once when someone who knew asked me to, because they felt that someone in that Meeting needed to hear it. So maybe someone needs to hear about this today. Be assured that God can heal, even if that healing is not what we imagined or expected.

Margaret Day

“A Proclaimer of Salvation.”

UKT