Acts
9:32-43English Standard Version (ESV)
32 Now as
Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who
lived at Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden
for eight years, who was paralyzed. 34 And Peter said to him,
“Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he
rose. 35 And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and
they turned to the Lord.
36 Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which,
translated, means Dorcas.[a] She was full of good works and acts of
charity. 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when
they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since
Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men
to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So
Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper
room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics[b] and other garments that Dorcas made while
she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt
down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she
opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he
gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he
presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all
Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 And he stayed in Joppa
for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
I often wonder why God heals and
doesn’t heal people today and I believe it is because of the purpose of
healing. In both of these accounts of
miraculous healing we see that many turned to the Lord. In most cases in our society today, that is
not what we see happen.
Around 28 years ago I had a medical
condition that caused me visual distortion.
We had no idea what brought it on but suddenly one day, after many days
with a headache, I woke up without a headache but when I sate up, I became very
dizzy and then my vision went crazy. I
went to the doctor who sent me to a specialist in another city. Before leaving town our pastor, at that time,
got a vision that I was going to be healed from this and did not need to go on
the trip. He even tried to find us
before we left town even driving out a little ways to see if he could see us on
the road but could not find us. (We didn’t have cell phones back then!) I went to the doctor and it was determined
that I had an infection in the myelin that surrounds the nerve of the eye and
it was causing a short circuit to my eye.
After medication, taking it easy, gaining lots of weight and not being
able to drive for a while, it went away.
Not really much of a miraculous healing that my pastor had a vision for
but yet I was healed, sort of.
A few years later, after having my
second baby, I began to have the headaches again, not the vision problems. When I mentioned it to my doctor at a
checkup, he looked at my chart and quickly sent me back to the specialist. This time the doctor said that I either had
MS or a brain aneurism. I was then
scheduled for another test to determine if it was in fact an aneurism. The results showed that it was not. The doctor was hesitant to diagnosis me with
MS because I had no other symptoms but decided to keep a close eye on me.
Much has happened over the years and I
have been to another specialist because mine moved away. Since then I have had additional test that
shows that I do have something that mis-triggers in my eye when tested but on a
daily basis it gives me no concern. My
optometrist does not see anything to cause him concern. I go back year after year the neurologist
who is amazed that I have no outward symptoms.
I am his patient that puzzles him so he continues to have me come back
year after year with an MRI every other year.
To his amazement my MRI has shown improvement not regression. The lesions that appear on my brain are less
and less and that is a miracle! I have told people that God has blessed me
with this healing but it has not brought people to the Lord, they try to
explain it off as a “medical mystery”. I
believe our Pastor was given a vision years ago, what he had understood has come to pass. I do not have symptoms of MS and have been
cleared by my doctor that I can do anything other healthy people can do. I am higher in the test on balance and strength
than the average person my age. Yet,
people still do not recognize this as a miraculous healing, but I do!!!! There is no mystery about it in my
books. It is by the grace of God that He
has healed me. Yet, like Paul, I have reminders
that keep me humble, such as a MRI every other year!
Next, I had some issues a few years ago
that caused me to go into surgery. They
were looking for a hole in my intestine that they had found in a previous
test. When the doctor went in to repair
it, he could not find it. The doctor
tried to pass it off as just a mistake in what I thought was happening yet, he
had seen the hole himself. Again, I
believe God healed me and kept me from having to have a major surgery. Yet, no one came to the Lord because of it,
but rather, it was just considered another medical mystery. I have had no other problems since this
happened and I believe it was another miracle in my life. Yet, I still don’t understand why I was
blessed because no one has really come to the Lord because of it.
I tell these two stories of my health
because I have doubted that healing takes place today. My mother had Parkinson’s disease and we
prayed and prayed for her healing. I
doubted that God would heal me because I saw what Mother went through. I know Mother was healed when she went home
to be with the Lord but I wish so much that I could have seen her on this
earth, healed from that awful disease. Yet,
I believe, it would have been considered a medical mystery rather than people
coming to the Lord.
I wish that many could come to know the
Lord by the healing that has taken place in my life. I am rarely sick but these are two times that
things could have turned out much worse than they were. I believe that God healed but I still do not
know why. Everyone passes it off as a
medical mystery or a misunderstanding, rather than a divine healing. What happened to the many that were added
when miracles occurred? The world
happened, medical mysteries happened, and God has been left out. What the world does not understand is that
even medical knowledge could not take place without God designing it. Even medical treatment is a gift from God
whether they want to admit it or not.
As you seek Him today, remember, that
our purpose on this earth is to bring Him glory. Are we doing that through our actions, our
words, through healing? Are we doing it
at all?
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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