Time and time again in both the Old and New Testament of the Bible, we see God miraculously healing people. But how often do we expect God to heal us. We need to remember that we serve the same God today.
Jesus actually says in John 14:12-14, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!”
I experienced the Lord’s miraculous healing in 2020 and again in 2022 when He healed me of Crohn’s disease. This is my testimony.
The diagnosis
In March 2018 I started having pain on my lower right side during one of my busiest times at work. I thought it was appendicitis, so I went to the doctor with the goal of getting my appendix out and getting back to work as soon as possible. But after several tests, I was ultimately diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. This marked the start of the toughest three years of my life.
Crohn’s disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation throughout your GI tract. In my case, it was in my stomach and small and large intestines. After talking with my doctors, I realized that I actually started experiencing symptoms back when I was 15 years old, 9 years before being diagnosed.
I started taking medication right away, but it didn’t help. The next round of tests showed the inflammation hadn’t improved, so they switched me to a different medication. That is where things really went downhill for me.
Choosing a medication to treat Crohn’s is so discouraging. Even with the “best” medication out there, they tell you there’s still only a 40-60% chance that your body will respond positively to it, versus the long list of potential side effects.
Hidden hopelessness
During my time on the second medication, my symptoms got much worse. I struggled for months. I’ll spare you the gory details, but here are a couple of things God carried me through during that time.
Severe nausea
Nausea was one of the many things that kept me from living a normal life. I often had to leave work and skip activities due to the nausea . I slept on the bathroom floor so frequently I had a method for making it more comfortable. I’d do everything I could to push through a workday in the office, but often left in tears so frustrated to still be feeling that bad.
Pain
I also had severe pain anytime I ate, drank, or moved my torso in any direction other than perfectly straight and upright. My typical food throughout the day was 4 hard-boiled eggs and 2 bananas. That would get me enough food to not feel lightheaded and allow me to avoid as much pain as possible. There were two times when the pain was so bad it caused me to throw up and several times that it was too bad for me to get out of bed.
I hid it as much as I could. It got exhausting telling even the people closest to me that I still didn’t feel well. I didn’t want to tell the doctors either. The tests to see what was happening inside of me were so miserable.
(Side note: If you ever have to get a colonoscopy, I have my tips all typed up and ready to send to you. Please let me make it easier on you!)
I was in a place of what I would call hidden hopelessness. I wasn’t saying it out loud, but I didn’t think there was any chance I would get better. I had just accepted that this was my life now. I slowly stopped praying for healing, and just accepted the doctors saying that it’s possible the medication to help me doesn’t exist yet.
I didn’t realize it, but I had subconsciously lost hope and was just managing my life was at that point.
Getting desperate for healing
In December of 2019, I had a day of being so sick, I knew I had to get help. We were moving my brother to Denver. After carrying just a handful of light boxes up one flight of stairs, I had so much pain and nausea I had to stop helping. Long story short, I couldn’t even bend down to pick something up off the floor. I spent the night sleeping on the hotel bathroom floor in excruciating pain throwing up.
I talked to my doctor and ended up having another round of tests done. They showed the disease was worse. It was crushing news because when I was initially diagnosed, I was told that since it was being treated it would only get better or stay the same. It shouldn’t get worse.
Finally, I surrendered the situation to God. I was desperate. I knew only He could do it. Medication had failed me so many times I was no longer relying on that or the doctors.
Warrior
Then the Lord reminded me of a conversation I had at a Women’s Retreat earlier in the year. The gifts at the table were framed words. The picture at the spot I was sitting said, “warrior.” It was the only seat left at the table. As I was sitting down a woman said, “we prayed those words would be prophetic!”
I thought to myself, “Lord, no! I’m not a warrior. That sounds like someone who has fought through hard stuff. That’s not me and I don’t want it to be.”
I am a warrior
I finally decided to dig in and be the warrior God was inviting me to be. I had no idea what it even meant to be a warrior, so I dove into God’s word and asked Him to show me. Here’s what I learned: God is a warrior (Exodus 15:1-21). If God is a warrior and God lives within me, then by His strength I am a warrior.
- Joshua 1:9 – “Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
- Jeremiah 20:11 – “But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed, an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.”
- Ephesians 6:10-18 – “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God…”
- 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 – “For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments”
I leaned into being a warrior and rested in God’s strength. I clung to Hebrews 10:34-36 and James 1:12. It didn’t change the symptoms, but it did change my perspective. I was enduring joyfully with the strength of the Lord knowing I’d be healthy in eternity, instead of just trying to survive.
Next steps for treatment
With the increased inflammation, we went back to the drawing board. I started some steroids for quick relief and ended up getting a second opinion from an incredible Inflammatory Bowel Disease team at the University of Chicago based on my doctor’s recommendation.
The scan reader in Chicago quickly determined that there was a large section of scar tissue in my small intestine that would need to be surgically removed. The surgery was scheduled for 11/16/2020 and I had another round of scopes scheduled for 11/9/2020 in preparation for surgery.
Prayer for healing
I shared the update with my church family at bible study and one woman said she felt like they were supposed to pray for me, so they circled up and laid hands on me and prayed. When I walked out the door of bible study that day, I had an overwhelming restored hope for the Lord’s healing.
James 5:14-15 says, “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.” So that’s what I did.
I knew a woman at our church who had prayed for healing for others before so I reached out to her and asked if she would pray with me. On Sunday 11/8/20, the day before the scopes, she and her husband laid hands on me and prayed.
We started by asking the Lord to reveal any areas of unbelief for healing to me so I could repent. Then they prayed for healing.
She also has the gift of prophecy and she shared that during worship at church she had a vision of a clean, white wrinkly tube. She thought it was a pig’s snout, but while she was praying for me, the Lord reminded her of it, and she believed it was my healthy intestines.
After we’d finished praying, her husband said, “You’re a warrior” and he didn’t know my story. Some of the scripture they prayed over me was scripture God had showed me also. These were incredible confirmations of what the Lord was doing inside me.
Miraculous healing
I left so encouraged! I was thinking of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-33 and was crying out to God desperate for a touch of the hem of His robe. I knew that was all I needed. On the way home, I was repenting over and over for my unbelief and asking God for healing and in that moment, I felt the Lord speak so clearly, “It’s already done.”
Just thinking about that moment still makes me cry. I transitioned to praising Him for the healing and believing it was already done. Then I had about 24 hours to wait for the most incredible confirmation of my life.
On the way to the doctor’s office for the colonoscopy/endoscopy, “Won’t Stop Now” by Elevation Worship came on. I sat in the waiting room repeating the lyrics, “I know breakthrough is coming. By faith I see a miracle. My God made me a promise and He won’t stop now” over and over in my head.
I knew I heard God clearly and I just needed to have faith. My last three scopes’ results were bad, still bad, and even worse, but through the fogginess of the anesthesia, I heard the doctor confirm what I already knew. There was no active Crohn’s anywhere in my stomach or intestines. Praise the Lord!!
God gave me another second chance at life. My first second chance was 8/19/2017, when I surrendered my life to Jesus. The second was 11/8/2020, when He miraculously healed me of the greatest torture I’d ever experienced.
God did what only He could do, and I experienced His miraculous healing power. It’s so incredible. It’s impossible to put words to.
Restoration
So what changed throughout the 3 year journey that led me to healing? My heart posture. I was now looking to Jehovah Rapha, our Healer, instead of the world’s solutions. I repented of all unbelief, so my heart was pure in seeking Him, and I followed His instruction for the sick in James 5:14-15.
I had surgery to remove the scarred tissue in my intestine and shortly after recovering from surgery, I got pregnant with our sweet Marlowe. I don’t have the words to fully express my gratitude, but thankfully God knows my heart. I now wear a crown ring on my right hand as a reminder of what God carried me through and the hope of James 1:12.
Another miraculous healing
I had no symptoms and completely clean tests until September of 2022. In September, I had some tests showing inflammation and in November I started consistently feeling sick. I began cutting some foods from my diet to try to help me feel better and struggled through going to events not feeling well.
After a couple weeks feeling consistently sick, we had a Sunday message on pride. The Lord revealed some criticism I received that I was responding to in pride, so I repented. When we got home, I did our daily reading which included 2 Chronicles 32:24-25. The Lord used this scripture to show me exactly why the disease was coming back.
This scripture essentially says God miraculously healed the sick king but because the king was prideful, the Lord’s wrath came upon them. God then revealed to me several areas of pride I had that started almost a year prior when our baby was born. I repented and humbly asked for God’s mercy and favor to be poured out on me again.
After praying, I felt immediate healing. I felt completely normal and was able to eat normally again. Since that repentance I haven’t had any issues. I had another round of tests done in February 2023 that showed no inflammation. I’m so thankful for the Lord’s kindness, mercy, and willingness to reveal himself.
2 Corinthians 12:7 says, “…So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.” The Lord gave me a thorn in my flesh so that I would see my sin and come to repentance and oneness with Him again. I’m so thankful God is too good to leave us where we’re at.
Prayer
Lord, thank you that you are our healer. Thank you that you created our bodies and you know exactly what is going on inside them. Please forgive us that at times we get so focused on the treatment available in the world, we forget to come to you, the Great Physician, first.
I lift up to you the sick woman reading this. Would you restore her hope for healing, in Jesus’ name. Give her boldness to follow your instruction in James 5:14-15. Reveal to her any sin that is coming in between you and her so she can repent, in Jesus’ name.
God would you please open our eyes to the miraculous wonders you’re doing here on earth. We know there are so many, and we want to praise you! We love you, Lord. Thank you that you see us and care for us so much. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Seek God for healing
As moms, we’re often so focused on getting things accomplished quickly, we look for the quick fix. God’s Word is so clear. Flag James 5:14-15 in your bible so you can remind yourself anytime you or someone you know is in need of healing (physical, spiritual, or mental). It is God’s will! Believe Him for it!
Wondering about how to know God? Check out the gospel message.
I would love to be praying for you! Please let me know how I can be praying here.