Encourangement in a dark time!!!
THIS IS WORTH READING, I PROMISE YOU!!!!!!! Many of you may know and many do not, that last year my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. It just so happens that it was during this time, this week, last year. So I have an encouraging story to tell you.
On his best day, my soon to be ex is a grumpy, cantankerous, mean spirited, cursing, swearing, stubborn, hard headed and hard hearted, nasty old stick in the mud who is an extremely negative person and to say the least, he was not a believer (and before you ask, yes we are polar opposites and why I married him is too long of a story to tell)!!!! He grew up a devout catholic but never cracked a bible in his life!
He had been complaining about abdominal pains for...are you ready.....THREE YEARS! He would not listen to me and go to the doctors, no matter how many times I threatened (yes threatened him)! I won't go into graphic details, but lets just say that because of his "problem" his trips to the bathroom made my house smell like an outhouse! AND it was just getting worse each week. I use to say, something crawled up there and died! (and me being the queen of "can't stand nasty") I was none-to-happy about it either. But he ignored it because it was only mildly uncomfortable, but then all that changed. He began having severe pains. I made an appointment for him (yes, I made it cuz he never would have on his own). I believed at the time that he had croons disease. He had many of the symptoms.
Now, this is important. Three months earlier, He was DRIVING ME CRAZY like none other and I was having one of those conversations with God while having a shower. It went like this " See...this is why I can't stand him. I CAN NOT stay in this house one more day. I have to get out of here. I need a break through. I need you to open a door Lord! Please send me more clients for my business, or a financial blessing or lead me to an opportunity for a job. I will do the work, I promise you. I just need a way out before I kill him where he stands"!!! ( you get the picture) and then the Holy Spirit said...."Okay, but what if he had cancer? Would you stay and take care of him"? ....wow.... and over the next two days, the Holy Spirit showed me one image after another of my husband getting weaker and weaker from cancer and slowly dying and me caring for him and by the end of that time, I was weeping and violently praying for his healing. I knew that I would not stay married to him, but I knew I had to stay to take care of him. My attitude problem solved! The Holy Spirit not only tested my heart, but prepared me for what was coming.
It was a few weeks before Christmas and I was sitting on the love sea****ching the 700 club and my husband was working on something in garage. He was in a LOT of pain and his abdomen was just aching. We made his appointment for the next week and we were just waiting. Just then, the Holy Spirit began showing me more images, but this time it was of his death. My face was so...so...transfixed. The expression was indescribable. All I could think was that I was going to need my friends help with funeral. I didn't know what to do. How was I going to get his body back to Canada?? I mean, I was so deep in thought. Then my daughter walked into the room and said, "Mom...what's wrong with you"? I snapped out of it. Just then my husband came in and sat down next to me. I turned the channel. The Holy Spirit said, "turn it back". So I did. Just then, it was the portion of the program where they pray prophetically for people. The first one, Pat said " there is someone who has croons disease and is having abdominal pains and wants to put his hand on his abdomen but is afraid". Just then I put my hand on my husband abdomen and began praying in the spirit. In one second, the pain stopped! We KNOW that was the moment God healed my husband. Little did we know then it was from cancer not croons.
In the weeks to follow, we discovered after his colonoscopy, that he had cancer. From that moment on, the Holy Spirit instructed me and showed me exactly what we as a family needed to do. I told my husband right after he came out of the colonoscopy and the doctor gave us the report, that we do not receive cancer, that we will not be moved by the doctors reports and He is healed. When we got home from the hospital and told our daughter, I said the same thing to them both. We are people of faith. We walk by faith, not by site. Even if they say daddy's arms will fall off tomorrow, we know he is healed. Think nothing but that.
He later had surgery to remove a HUGE tumor in his colon. It was the size of sweet potato. If it was any bigger, it would have needed a birth certificate!! I think it had teeth and hair!!! The doctors had believed that it had spread to his lymph nodes but then they opened him, it hadn't. They believed that he was going to need chemo and radiation after wards. They were wrong on that too. The moment hands were laid on my husband, God healed him!!! God stopped the cancer from spreading right there, right then, that moment. He needed no chemo or radiation. He was healed. Just as God promised.
In the end...
1) Every night before his surgery, I would read healing scriptures over my husband just before he went to sleep. The Holy Spirit let me know that before he goes into surgery, that my husband needed to except Jesus as he lord and Savior and the night before his surgery, my husband did just that. So God saved his mortal life and His eternal life that night.
2) when giving my husband a sponge bath one day after surgery, the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance that the image I saw in my head was of me giving my husband a sponge bath. Confirmation.
3) Before leaving the hospital and just when my husband was allowed to have solid foods (and he was hungry) he was asked was he craving anything, my husband said " roast pork would be nice". That night, they had roast pork on the menu. God loves my husband so much that he even gave him what he wanted for dinner.
So...be encouraged. You may be having a really hard time right now in your life but know that God is there. He cares about you. Ask Holy Spirit for guidance. Lean on Him, not on you and He will heal you, love you, lead you, and even give you your favorite dinner just to let you know that He loves you.
Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year family.