RECEIVE THE WITNESS OF GOD
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“If we
receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; …”—I John 5:9
Our two year old daughter lay so pale and lifeless in the
hospital bed. A team of specialist had
been working on our daughter’s case for two days, and still no one could find
the source of her bleeding; only two small spots were detected by x-ray on her
lungs. We were not given any hope from the doctors that she would live. Our pastor came to pray with us, and I will
never forget his words, “God is calling her home because she will probably grow
up to be a drug addict.” In anguish, our
hearts cried out, No, No, and my husband asked him to leave the room.
My husband held me
close to his chest as I wept, and recalled the years that we had prayed for a
blonde hair, blue eyed daughter. Everything
in me rejected the words that God was taking our child; I simply would not
receive those life destroying words. Not
long after the pastor had left, two very good friends came to visit us. They shared with us what the Bible had to say
about believers laying hands on the sick, and asked us if they could lay hands
on our daughter (Mark 16:18). Eagerly,
we replied YES!
Our hearts were filled with awe, wonder and praise as we
watched the bleeding from our daughter’s nose and mouth cease. In a short time, color began to come back into
her body and she sat up in bed reaching out for me. As we worshipped and praised God in the
hospital room, nurses and doctors came running to see what was happening. We all cried, hugged, and thanked God for
what He had done. When the doctors ran
more tests and repeated the chest x-rays, they were amazed to find that even
the two small spots had disappeared. Our
daughter is grown now with children of her own, and to this day she has remained
perfectly healed. Since our daughters
healing, we have grown in our revelation and understanding of the Word of God
and now know that the same Jesus who healed while upon the earth is still
healing people today. The Bible tells us
that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same Jesus, who healed a girl over two
thousand years ago, healed our daughter.
Because his only daughter was dying, a ruler of the
synagogue came to see Jesus one day. After
the ruler of the synagogue made his way through the multitude of people
surrounding Jesus, he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his
house. A great crowd followed them as
Jesus returned with the ruler to his house.
However, their return journey was interrupted by a woman who had been
sick for 12 years with an issue of blood.
While Jesus was speaking to the woman, someone came from the ruler’s
house and told the ruler that his daughter was dead. Jesus heard what this witness had said, and spoke
to the ruler saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made
well.”
When they arrived at the ruler’s house, they saw the people
weeping, and heard the ridicule of the people because Jesus told them not to
weep and declared that the girl was not dead, but sleeping. The ruler received the witness of Jesus because
the Bible tells us that when Jesus arrived at the ruler’s house that He did not
allow any one to go into the room where the girl was except the father and the
mother, Peter, James and John. Jesus took the girl by the hand and said, “Little
girl, arise.” The girl got up perfectly
healed (Luke 8: 41 – 56).
Prayer—Lord,
help me not to accept the witness of people when they are contrary to your
Word, in Jesus Name. Amen.
