While my husband was stationed in Nebraska we were members of a small Cursillo group. We got together every week in 2 groups, one men's group one women's, to share what we were doing to keep our faith alive and well, and what the Lord had done for us that week. We shared our hopes and dreams and prayed for each other. Once a week we came together as one large group and shared with our larger community (though it was still small.)
One evening one of the men came to our group and told us of a call he had received from a lady who had just arrived at our base. While she was in Japan her son had been diagnosed with leukemia. They had already received orders to come back to the states so treatment had not yet begun. She was told to take him to the base hospital when they arrived here. Naturally she was very upset, but then a lady in Japan told her not to worry, that a Charismatic group would pray over him and he would be healed.
Our group was Charismatic but we were known as a Cursillo group, not a Charismatic one. We were aware that many Christians are a little scared of Charismatic groups so we kept that part pretty much to ourselves.
Somehow she had gotten the telephone number of one of our members and had asked him if we would come and pray over her child.
He brought the request to the group and we all agreed we would, so a date was set up for us to go to her house and pray over her little 6 year old boy. Before we went to her home I had the distinct impression I was to tell his mother she had to pray the prayer of relinquishment. This is not a word I use much in my normal everyday speech.
I will never forget the night we went to her house. It was February and the roads were full of snow and ice. Many times our car slid on the way there and we had to stay in prayer just to get there safely. We kneeled around the child laying hands on him and started to pray. While we were praying, again, I got the same strong impression I had to tell the mother she needed to pray the prayer of relinquishment. When we had finished, his mother took time to thank each of us individually, especially as it was such a bad night to be out on the roads. That is when I told her what the Lord had told me. She eagerly agreed but I reminded her that was not an easy prayer to pray and she had to pray whatever God's will for this child was, she had to allow God to be God, even if it meant He was taking her son home. She still agreed to pray the prayer. And we reminded her to keep her appointments with the doctors as sometimes God uses them to heal people.
We all felt the child had been healed and kept in touch with her. She told us his first appointment had been set up to begin his treatment. As the date grew closer we experienced some anxiety. As I said, we all felt like he had been healed and was concerned that his treatment would make him ill. So many times I reached for the telephone to call her and tell her not to take him for the treatment as I knew her son had been healed. Each time the Lord said "No." I found out many in our group had experienced the same thing.
The next time we met Ralph, the person who had brought the situation to our attention, he told us that just before his appointment the little boy had caught a cold and the treatment had to be postponed. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Another appointment had been set up, we went through the same thing with the next appointment, wanting to tell his Mom he had been healed, but God kept saying "No." The same thing happened again. Just before his next appointment, he caught another cold and a third appointment was set up. This time the doctors were not going to start the treatment. So much time had passed they wanted to run some tests to see how far the cancer had gone. This time he was able to make his appointment and we got the good news. No sign of the leukemia. He had been healed. I guess the mother had been able to pray the prayer that was required of her. We all learned the importance of obeying the Lord even when all our instincts were saying we knew he had been healed and were concerned about the damage chemotherapy would do to him. We marveled at how God had protected him by allowing him to catch a cold right before his appointments. God had been in charge the whole way through the ordeal.
Praise God, He is so good to us, and He always has a reason for everything that happens in our lives, down to the smallest detail. Nothing is by chance or a random act of God, hard as it is to accept sometimes.
Mary E. Cole
Music-God Is My Source by: Patrick Jolly-http://members.aol.com/songcelest/songcelestial.htm
