Category: Christian Stuffs

Let me share with you a testimony I believe will significantly encourage you. One of my leaders was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease when he suddenly suffered bouts of intense vertigo that completely incapacitated him for hours. Whenever a vertigo attack occurred, waves of nausea would overtake him, and he would find himself throwing up uncontrollably. He would also occasionally experience tinnitus symptoms, where every sound around him became magnified or distorted, and he could not hear what people were saying to him.

It was terrifying for him because the attacks were sudden and unpredictable, could happen while driving, and left him retching and vomiting until he was exhausted. It felt like he was trapped in the churning waters of a violent storm. His doctors told him that medication could help manage the symptoms, but there was no cure for his condition, and the signs were, in fact, likely to get worse.

Then one day, the Lord led him to the above passage from Isaiah 41. He said, “When God gave me that word, I kept meditating on it and kept it in my spirit. The words ‘shall be as a nonexistent thing’ kept jumping out at me, and I knew I had it. I was healed.”

He did not see the full manifestation of his healing immediately, but he had faith he was already healed because of the word he received. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, “the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). So even before he saw the reality, he knew he was healed.

He continued to partake of the Holy Communion regularly, but he no longer did so out of any sense of fear the symptoms would become increasingly debilitating. Instead, he participated knowing he was already healed, and after some time, he “stopped experiencing the symptoms altogether.” He has been entirely symptom-free for over a year as I write this. All glory to our lovely Savior!

Isaiah 41:11–13 is such a powerful passage to meditate on if you are faced with the enemies of sickness and disease today. Doesn’t it remind you of what the Lord did for the children of Israel when He split open the Red Sea for them even though it appeared like all was lost?

The Lord is no respecter of persons. Put your trust in Him. He can make a way when there seems to be no way. If He did it for the children of Israel and the brother in my church, He could do it for you.

Hebrews 13:5 says that God’s presence is a guaranteed constant in your life. But I want you to know that you cannot evaluate God’s presence and His unmerited favor in your life based on your circumstances. To help you understand what this means, let’s look at the life of Joseph.

Joseph refused the advances made by Potiphar’s wife, and as the common saying goes, “Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned”! She maliciously accused Joseph of attempting to rape her, brandishing as “evidence” the garments Joseph had left in her hands when he fled from her. When Potiphar heard his wife telling her version of the story, his anger was aroused, and he seized Joseph, stripped him from the place of authority he had given him, and threw him into prison.

Just put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. What is happening here? It sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? With the painful memory of his brothers casting him into the pit still fresh in his mind, here he is once again, thrown into a dungeon even though he was innocent.

Any average person would be bitter and angry with God! Most people would ask, “Where is God? Why had God brought him this far, only to abandon and forsake him? How could this happen? Where is the justice against this false accusation?”

But Joseph was no “average Joe”! He knew that the Lord would never leave him nor forsake him. Joseph considered not his circumstances but kept his focus on the presence of the Lord. Regardless of whether he was a common slave, an overseer in Potiphar’s house, or now a prisoner facing the prospect of life imprisonment for a crime he did not even commit, Joseph did not evaluate God’s unmerited favor in his life based on his circumstances.

Instead of getting bitter, he kept his hope in the Lord. Instead of throwing in the towel and giving up on God and life, he kept his confidence, knowing that all his success was wrapped up in the presence of the Lord.

And boy, did the Lord deliver him! I want you to read this for yourself to see what the Lord did for Joseph:

But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything under Joseph’s authority because the LORD was with him, and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

What does this tell you? If you bow to your circumstances and continue to be conscious of the Lord’s presence, you will rise to prominence wherever you are placed, whatever your environment. You will have favor with your bosses, and they will promote you to man-in-charge. And whatever you do will prosper!

As a father, it always pains me to see my children unwell. My firstborn daughter, Jessica, is all grown up now, but I remember how it broke my heart to see her bawling when she was suffering from viral fever as a baby.

I remember cradling her in my arms and praying over her as I paced around her room the whole night. I sponged her feverish body over and over again. As long as she was sick, I could not rest.

I wouldn’t say I liked the fever that was causing my baby to convulse in pain. I would have done anything to alleviate her discomfort. If I could have taken her rage in my own body so she would not have to go through the pain, I would have gladly done so.

What I feel when my children are unwell is only a microcosmic reflection of what our heavenly Father feels for us when we are unwell. He wants us brimming with health and life. He hates sicknesses and diseases because of what they do to us.

But the difference is this: He was able to take our sicknesses, and He put them on Jesus’ own body as He hung on the cross so that we would not have to suffer them. The Bible tells us: “He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Matt. 8:17).

Why did our Lord Jesus do that? Because He loves us so much. He could not rest until He had secured our salvation, our health, and our wholeness. Finally, when He had borne every sin, every disease, and every infirmity upon His own body, He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) and rested.

The Bible shows us this clearly: God is a good God. He is our loving heavenly Father. I cannot understand why some teach that God sometimes uses sickness to teach us a lesson or that we need to “pray hard” for His healing.

Can you imagine any earthly father inflicting suffering on his child? Must you be persuaded to alleviate your child’s pain?

Even some people claim that it is sometimes God’s will for us to be sick. But when their children fall ill, they do everything within their power to ensure their children recover. If it were God’s will for us to be sick, seeking recovery would be deliberately trying to get out of God’s will!

My friend, reject anything that even remotely suggests that God uses sickness and suffering to teach us something. Our Father is full of grace and mercy and wants us to be healthy, provided for, and protected from every evil occurrence, sickness, and disease!

We have a God who wants us to run to Him. And the moment we do, He has promised that He will answer us. Not “might,” or “perhaps,” but a definite “will.”

And He does not stop at merely assuring us that He will answer us. He goes on record for all eternity, saying, “I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.”

Do you know why we can assure that He will answer us when we call on Him? It’s because of the divine exchange that took place at the cross, where our Lord Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).

He was forsaken—left helpless, totally abandoned, and deserted—so that today, we can have the confidence that our heavenly Father will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). What a Savior!

Don’t you feel so loved and so cherished by our Lord?

And He made it so easy for us to receive His promises—our part is to call upon Him and let Him be our God. Whatever you may be going through today, call upon Him right now, and He will deliver and honor you!

Whenever I am troubled, I tell the Lord, “Lord, I am worried about this situation, but I place it in Your nail-pierced hands right now. I surrender into Your hands all my worries, concerns, and cares in this area.”

Then, I receive His peace, and when the enemy tries to fire new arrows of fear into my heart and mind, I remind myself that the situation is already in the Lord’s hands. I remind myself of His promise that He will deliver me!

Are you living with panic attacks, fear, and chronic anxiety? Don’t allow the devil to cripple you with all kinds of negative mental pictures or by replaying all the worst-case scenarios in your head.

Call out to your Savior, Jesus Christ! He wants you to cast “all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). You are not a sheep without a Shepherd, so stop trying to carry all your cares upon your shoulders.

Whether it is a physical symptom, a financial challenge, or a family situation that you are anxious about, call upon Him and allow His peace to supernaturally guard your heart in every area that you are troubled (Phil. 4:6–7).