GREAT FAITHFULNESS
It is so easy to be knocked off of our faith by circumstances, situations, negative reports and earthly evidence. But, God is still true to His word. To me that means that He is loyal to what He promises. He never, ever reneges on His words.
The year of chemotherapy that my husband Steve has experienced has been an adventure. I call it an adventure because it's like forging the Amazon River, breathtakingly beautiful in some places but treacherous in other places. You never know what's around the next bend. Every discouraging thing that happens is just a bump in the road, as Steve says, sometimes an unnerving swift current in the river of life.
After six cycles of one chemo cocktail, the visual tumors shrunk and we proclaimed that he was cancer free. We celebrated. Then a few months later some new tumors appeared and the oncologists in Houston ordered a different kind of chemo cocktail.
After two cycles of the new chemotherapy we expected to hear wonderful news from the doctors, especially after Steve had experienced the power of God in a mighty way. Some wonderful maidens of God called the Tuesday Girls prayed collectively for him, laying hands on him with the anointing power of the Holy Spirit. There was an immediate change in his demeanor. The gray pallor of his skin became pink like a newborn baby. Peace permeated his body through and through. He felt like a new man. The "peace that passes understanding" never left him.
When we went to Houston a few weeks later, we expected to receive the report that the tumors were gone. On the morning of the day he was to receive the report from the doctor we woke early in the hotel room and when I asked him how he felt about hearing the doctor's report of the results of the test he proclaimed, "Let God be true and every man a liar."
That scripture was given to him by one of the Tuesday Girls, at the very onset of hearing that he had cancer 18 months before. I had forgotten that she had sent a card with that scripture written on it to Steve and I had forgotten that I had proclaimed that scripture when Steve was in the hospital after surgeons removed multiple cancers from his body. Now, a year later, Steve professed it again. How could I have forgotten the importance of that scripture?
So when the doctors relayed to us that the tumors were not gone but were still evident on the CT scan, we were surprised but we still believed that God had done a healing work in Steve's body. As the doctors continued relating their scientific assessment of the situation, their words became more serious, telling us that the second chemo cocktail had not worked so Steve would have to have more chemotherapy with a different combination of chemicals. We took in their assessment and left the hospital with shaky confidence, but still knowing that God can do a miracle in the situation.
It's hard to maintain a firm and stable faith when one is surrounded by people who have that same disease in different stages with visual evidence of the devastation that it causes. It is evident that the disease is demonic. Only the devil would do that kind of damage to people and to families.
A person can begin to grieve for the other people and take on negative feelings toward his own situation. That happened to us. Even though we were still convinced that God would heal Steve, we lost sight of the fact that he had been healed.
We left the hospital in Houston with heavy hearts from the disappointing news from the doctors that the tumors were still there.
Our plane landed in Tulsa and we needed to get a sandwich before driving the 50 miles to our home.
While sitting in the restaurant the thought came to me "out of the blue," a remembrance of the first time I had been supernaturally healed of breast cancer and the second time I had also been healed of breast cancer and lung cancer. In both instances, when the doctors operated on me the tumors were still there but after being removed they were declared to be benign, dead in other words. Putting it simply, when God healed me through two separate supernatural ways, the tumors didn't disappear, but they were left dead, benign, no longer malignant.
How did I miss that truth? I began to understand that Steve has been healed by God, just like I had, but the masses were still evident. Just because the masses were still evident to the human eye of the doctors on the CT scan didn't mean that they are still malignant. They are dead
I immediately relayed that revelation to Steve. His eyes lit up like a light bulb. He immediately saw the correlation. Then he said, "That's why God gave me that scripture this morning, 'Let God be true and every man a liar.' God was telling me that no matter what the doctors say that the CT scan shows, just because the masses are still there doesn't mean that I haven't been healed. It's the same thing as in the breast cancer situations with you. The masses were removed after you had been healed and the tumors were dead, benign, nonmalignant after God had intervened in the situation."
We praised God quietly over and over while at the restaurant. Then we finished the meal and quietly praised him all the way to the car. When we closed the doors of the car we had a real praise session that must have rocked the car.
Steve kept saying that we're not moved by what we see or what we hear, we are only moved by what God says about the matter. In other words, let what God says be true and let whatever men assesses about the matter be a lie.
God's promises are always true and real and He is loyal to what He promises.
We continued to thank Him that He explained to us what is happening, that the evidence in the spiritual dimension of Steve being healed is more real than the negative evidence of the CT scan. Even though the masses are still there, they are no longer alive. They are dead.
New life and new energy came to Steve, the result of revelation knowledge, the revelation of letting what God says be true and letting earthly evidence be a lie.
I've been singing, "Great is Thy faithfulness" for six weeks. Now I fully know how truly great is His faithfulness. God did not leave His children comfortless, He sent the Holy Spirit to us to be our Comforter. The Holy Spirit comforted us in this situation the only way we could be comforted, by His truth about the matter. He truly is the Great Comforter and the Spirit of Truth, just like Jesus said.
How truly, "Great is Thy faithfulness, Oh, Lord unto me."
