Healing - I’m a survivor because of prayer

Our Voice Sherea has a family history of cancer. She was recently tested for this illness. Her family and friends prayed the sickness would not go down the family-line. Please read the incredible story of how prayer helped Sherea overcome the odds.  

Do not be afraid of tomorrow; for God is already there.

Most people, who know me, know that I absolutely hate everything about going to the doctor. I hate hospitals, medications, giving blood, tests, making appointments, co-pays and everything else that come with it.   However, in the past year or so, I have been to the doctor more than I have in the last 10 years.

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Giving

It’s always easier to give when you have a lot but it’s so much more difficult to be generous when you have little. Our friend shares how she allowed her financial circumstances dictate her giving and caused her to have a “shortfall” in her relationship with God.  

I remembered letting the offering bowl pass by without putting anything into it.  It was the first time in years I had done so.  I had recently lost my job and was living off of unemployment so it didn’t make sense for me to tithe when I barely had enough to cover my living expenses.  I felt justified.  Why give when it will cause you to not have enough to pay your bills.  Isn’t paying your bills godly since it’s showing love to those who owe you money?  I reasoned that if God had wanted me to give He would have given me the resources to do.  Although all these reasons made sense me, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy by what I had done. 

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A Hole Is Where the Heart Is

Our friend, Kytia, parallels everyday circumstances, such as repairing a leak in the ceiling, to lessons that God teaches us, like healing our greatest pains from the inside out.  Kytia’s testimony reminds us that God can use times of great sadness, confusion and struggle to break open our hearts and bring healing.

Recently, my husband and I had our first encounter with serious repairs to our apartment. Ever since the first time it rained while we were living on our own, we’ve been dealing with leaks here and there in our office. There was even an incident when I noticed a leak above my computer desk right before we were about to leave for a meeting. If we had left just a few minutes sooner, my keyboard might have been soaked by the time we returned home and that would have been a whole other problem.

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Prayer for Healing… Fail?

Here is a powerful story of how our writer, Ed, learned an equation that most find difficult to accept: Failure + Faith x Perseverance = Success. Sometimes we are so fixated on doing what is “right” or what we believe is pleasing to God that we overlook the greater purpose: Bringing Him joy. Then, when we wonder why our good deeds aren’t acknowledged, God reminds us that it isn’t about us. The fruits of our goodness will stir change, but we must have faith, patience and perseverance.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-5 NIV)

A lot of times we see and hear about amazing testimonies of God. What we rarely hear about is the journey that got them there. One day I was on the subway praying and asking the Lord for an opportunity to see somebody healed. I’d watched a lot of testimonies from Bethel Church and wanted to see it firsthand. After I finished praying the subway reached my station. The doors opened up and low and behold, a girl in a wheelchair with a cast on her leg was sitting outside.

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I stepped out and stood in complete shock at how quickly God answered my prayer. Completely paralyzed by fear, I didn’t know how to approach the situation. I was dumbfounded and as I processed the situation, the girl and a guy pushing the wheelchair went their way. 

After they were gone, I was really discouraged by my lack of faith and felt like I had just let God down. God set me up perfectly to pray for a girl to be healed, but I didn’t do my part. I left the station and got on the bus to get home. On my way home, I decided that I was not going until I prayed for someone. On the way home, the busy passed by a hospital and I got off. Walking into the lobby, again I saw another man in a wheelchair who also had a cast on his leg. I sheepishly walked right passed him into the hospital as he rolled by. Sitting in the lobby of the hospital, I was so frustrated again and wondered why I was scared. I prayed and prayed and finally gathered enough courage to go and pray for the man. Going back outside I saw him from a distance sitting outside smoking a cigarette. 
After buying a drink at Starbucks, I stood next to him and pretended that I was waiting for someone. 10 minutes or so went by before I finally asked him what happened to his leg. It went something like this.


Me: Hi… What happened to your leg?
Poor bystander in wheel chair: I got into a bike accident.
Me: Does it hurt?
Poor bystander in wheel chair: Yes. 
—- Awkward silence- Another 5 minutes go by. 
Me: Um do you believe in miracles? Because I do. 
Poor bystander in wheel chair: Uh.. sure. 
Me: I believe that God can heal people. 
Poor bystander in wheel chair: Okay, I believe that people heal over time. 
Me: Yeah, but I think God can heal you right now. 
Poor bystander in wheel chair: (Grin)
Me: Can I pray for you????
Poor bystander in wheel chair: No
—- Awkward silence. As the two of us sit there, I tried to rescue the situation but all is lost. Another 5 minutes go by. 
Me: Can I assist you and push you somewhere?
—- The man rolls away in his wheelchair.

Completely humiliated I walked home in defeat, feeling as though I wasn’t holy, “anointed” or gifted enough. I said to myself, “This isn’t for me.” I even said something along the lines of, “I am not Jaeson Ma…”
As I kept kicking myself and complaining, the Lord spoke to me. He gently showed me that it isn’t by my strength that people are healed. It isn’t because of how “clean” or how pure I am that God uses me. It isn’t by ANYTHING I can do. It is purely by His grace and my faith in Him. That day the Lord broke away the lies that put so much pressure on myself to perform the impossible.
A few weeks later, I met a brother in the church who had already actively been seeing people get healed and walking in God’s anointing. I talked to him and asked if he could show me how he prays for the sick. We went out onto the streets and this time I saw how differently he approached people. The way he talked to strangers and the compassion he had was so authentic. It was so casual and natural. This brother even shared testimonies with people on the street and encouraged them that God wanted to heal them. 
Since that time, I’ve prayed for dozens of people on the streets and seen many of them get healed. What I’ve learned is that when we take risks and fail miserably, we have the opportunity into walk into success or doubt and become jaded. God is much more concerned with our character than he is with our comfort. 
How badly do you want to see God heal someone? Will you be discouraged and give up after praying for a few people? I encourage you to proceed as breakthrough is right around the corner. Seek and you shall find, ask and you shall receive.

The Abundant Harvest from Our Helper

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” - Hebrews 13:6.  Our sister shares an encouraging testimony of how after 4 difficult years of waiting, trusting,and learning, God provided her a new job and new life almost overnight.

Do you ever have those weeks where things just seem to pile on top of each other, problem after problem? I can definitely say that I just went through one of the most unforeseeable and unexpected things in my life.

For about 4 years now, I was extremely unhappy at work. It wasn’t just about being unhappy, but my attitude was bitter for a good amount of those 4 years as I felt like I was being attacked from all sorts of directions. Every day seemed like forever and I couldn’t believe how emotionally abusive my work environment was.

I cried out. “God, why are you doing this to me? What are you trying to teach me?” I repeated this over and over for a very, very – VERY – long time.

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Agape or Selfish Love?

As beautiful as love may seem, it isn’t without flaws. Love, at least in its human form, is rooted in selfishness. Human love strives to answer: How does my significant other make me feel? What can my significant other do to make my relationship better? Is this relationship worth me pursuing? Thoughts that center on our selfish needs and desires, questions that ask the benefits we stand to gain, and the denial of God’s importance in our relationships are all rooted in selfishness.

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Why they are Christians

Francis Chan and his older brother, Paul, share about the profound conversion of the father to Christianity and how that, coupled with intercessory prayer, led them become to dedicate their lives to serving the Lord.  Please watch this touching video as they recount their father’s testimony and how it shaped who they are today.

The Beautiful Valley

God is known for explaining His nature in terms of the nature we see around us every day. The Bible talks about “peace in the midst of storms”, the “trying and testing of the desert”, and also “the valley of the shadow of death”. Normally, just the mention of shadows and death are enough to make me want to turn and run the other way – missing out completely on the valley. 

But God, in His wisdom, allows valleys in our life to help refine our walk, refill our souls, and to remind us whose really in charge. The valleys have been some of my greatest journeys. They have allowed me to find and define myself 

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God My Provider

Does God really speak to us?  How do we know how to hear His voice?  Our friend So-Young shares an incredible testimony of praying, waiting for God to speak, and acting out on faith when her prayers were directly and perfectly answered.

I have been traveling back and forth to Singapore from LA for about a year spending about 30% of my time serving clients and building my new business in Singapore. I was very happy to continue traveling back and forth until I started to get a bit tired of living on a plane and being “Up in the Air” (yes, that’s me). I asked God what He wanted me to do. You see, God was the only reason I was in Singapore in the first place.

Back in November, 2009, I was trying to see where to invest our time as a company in Asia. I used to live in Japan and have strong ties to Korea as a 2nd generation Korean-American so I naturally thought these may be likely candidates. God had a different idea. I stopped in Singapore and I felt God tell me to plant my feet and invest in Singapore. I just felt so strongly to “Invest in Singapore” so I have spent most of 2010 doing just that.

So I said “God, if it is YOUR will and timing for me to move to Singapore, please make it VERY VERY clear as you know I have no real desire to leave LA. I love LA. I love my home by the water which I believe you provided for me. I love my friends and the relationships you have provided. Please make it clear and if I have to move, please make everything EASY.”

In my heart, I wanted to continue living in LA so as I prayed for God’s perfect timing, I asked my Father to help me 1) find someone trustworthy to stay in my room, 2) help me pay rent (as I would not be able to afford 2 rents), 3) allow me to leave my stuff there in my room, 4) be ok with me coming back and forth, as needed, and 5) was flexible in terms of no set timeframes/leases or needs (since I wasn’t sure how long I would be in Singapore). I did nothing about this prayer. I told no one. Was just between me and God.

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About 1 week later, I received a facebook message from a friend in San Francisco who I hadn’t spoken to in about 8 months asking me if I was still looking for a roommate to share my place in LA.  I had asked around for a roommate almost a year ago.  Who still looks for roomates a year later?  He ended up introducing me to one of his SF friends looking for a temporary place in LA. We corresponded over email and I finally met her in person on Friday, September 24.

She loved the place, was trustworthy and listed out her needs. Check. Check. Check. She described all of the 5 criteria I needed. As soon as she left, I knew that was the God’s way of telling me the time for me to go was NOW. Within 30 minutes of her leaving my home, I called my team and my parents to let them know that I had decided to move to Singapore at the end of the month. Everyone was shocked because this is not something I had planned or mentioned to anyone. On October 25, I left LA and came to Singapore.  

If God’s provision and timing were not enough in LA, when I got to Singapore, I had temporary housing with some good friends. I was planning to move into another place that I thought was the perfect place for me so I told my friends that I would quickly check out this new place and would only stay with them for a few days. I thought this was God’s way of providing for my needs. With this new place, I would have to pay rent, of course, but I thought it could be ok given I was getting help with my LA place.

Amazingly God had an even better plan (as he usually does) than my own. When I saw the place I thought I was supposed to take, I didn’t like it. It didn’t feel right. I was confused and bummed. I asked God “I thought this was going to be easy and smooth, Lord. I don’t understand. Lord, I know you know my heart’s desires and needs.” He must have smiled at me when I said this since He had something better in mind.

My good friends ended up asking me to stay longer and as long as I needed to as their guest. In fact, my friend cleared out the closets and their office for me to get settled in. And since I’ve been here, we have been blessing each other tremendously - spiritually (she comes to church with me now where she often couldn’t go), physically (we work out together every morning at their home), emotionally (she doesn’t have to be alone when her husband travels for work which is quite often), and mentally (we give each other business/life advice).

This has been such an easy, smooth transition and God has provided EVERYTHING - even more than I had even planned. I narrowly thought of just the financial stuff and housing. God’s plan included my material needs PLUS providing a unique chance to share life, build deeper friendships and become more disciplined (i have never worked out for more than 2 days in a row - i’m on day 9). When we allow God to take control over our lives, the great news is that He does. And He does it in a way that is bigger, better and more perfect than anything I could ever even dream of. Thank you Daddy for ALWAYS being my provider.

Wondering whether God hears you when you pray?  Or want to learn how to pray?  Connect with us here!

INTERACT with this story - How do you hear God’s voice?  We want to know!  Share your thoughts in the comments below.