By Brenda Blanchard
Author-Speaker-Bible Teacher

“I’m sorry, but the MRI does confirm you have multiple sclerosis,” Dr. Thangada said.

His words echoed through my mind as I lay in bed. From my neck down, I had varying levels of sensations ranging from pins and needles to burning to complete numbness. It seemed as though my life, all 36 years of it, were erased in one short statement. Driving and working were out of the question. At best, I could muster a couple of caterpillar-like steps and then drop in exhaustion onto my bed.

“Why, Lord?” Tears streamed down my face. “Why me? Please, Lord, help me.”

I reached for the Bible. As I laid it beside me, it fell open to the first chapter of Job. I read it and then my eyes fixed on verse 21. “...Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

When I finished reading this verse, His still quiet voice spoke to me. You must praise me at all times.

I raised my hands in praise and called upon His many names. Immediate peace filled my mind and calmness flooded my body. I knew the Lord heard my plea, my desperate prayer, and would carry me through this trial against an incurable disease, by man’s standards anyway. His Holy Spirit filled me with words of knowledge, and I recited verse after verse of Scripture, confirming His love and healing powers towards me.

Five months later, my Aunt Eddy called from Oklahoma and said she had been praying for me since she heard the news of my diagnosis and wanted to fly to Texas to take me to see a well-known evangelist with a gift in healing. She said God had told her to come and get me and take me on a particular evening to hear the evangelist’s message.

I knew she didn’t have the money to make the trip, but could sense in her voice the urgency she felt about this particular word from the Lord.

“You know,” I said, “God can heal me in my own home if he chooses. He doesn’t need me to go to a certain man to receive my healing. Just keep praying for me. I know ‘the prayers of a righteous man availeth much.’”

She agreed about God’s power, but was adamant she needed to take me to this meeting so I accepted. On the way to the meeting, we prayed and asked the Lord to reveal Himself to us in a way that we would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we had heard from Him. My aunt wheeled me into the big coliseum filled with expectant people, most believing to see a move of God. Aunt Eddy and I certainly did.

While praising the Lord through songs of worship, the Lord spoke to me.

I’m healing you from the inside out. Keep praising me at all times.

I turned to my aunt and repeated God’s promise to me that He had just whispered in my ear and burned on my heart. She smiled at me, gave me a hug, but seemed to be waiting for a confirmation before she truly embraced it. Within a minute of this disclosure to her, the evangelist talked about healing from within, manifesting in an eventual outward healing. We both laughed aloud, knowing the goodness of God.

She wheeled me out, and once again, I understood the depth of His unwavering love for me. I also knew His sovereign power. My aunt had been obedient to the Holy Spirit’s urgings by bringing me to the meeting, and I had continued in my faith that God held all my needs in the palm of His hand. Both had been necessary to witness His power and His surety in answering prayers.

Healing comes in many forms. The walk to that healing can be for the growth of friends, family, strangers, or for the person experiencing the affliction. He hears all prayers and answers them, too. The answers are not always as we want them or delivered as quickly as we’d like. However, one thing is certain: the Lord wants His children to become more like him by trusting in His power and might as well as His humility and self-control.

His plan for my life is perfect, as only His heart fully understands. His view sees the beginning and the end. Only His eyes could look within my scarred and tattered heart and still choose to sacrifice all so that I am healed from the inside out. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Less than eight months after His Word of praising Him came to me, I had progressed from a wheel chair to a four-pronged cane and then to a cane. Every six months, I visit my neurologist, and he is pleased at my continued progress because three experts in the field had agreed I had secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Basically, my central nervous system should be showing outward signs of deteriorating. At present, I am cane-free and even dancing a bit.

“Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it,” Dr. Thangada reminds me.

“It’s faith in Jesus. I just keep praying and praising Him. He’s doing it.”

Brenda Blanchard, founder of The Door of Hope Ministries and Sisters in Christ Bible Studies, speaks and writes practical messages to encourage a one-on-one relationship with Jesus. See www.brendablanchard.com  Brendablanchard1@aol.com