The Gift of Healing - UNITED FRIENDS CHALLENGE #116

The Gift of Healing

John had been an active man, working at a refinery, continuing his studies at community colleges, taking martial arts of different kinds, working with charity organizations, and building computers for small businesses who couldn't afford the outrageous prices that computer technicians usually charged. He had been involved in setting up the first computer mail network and had written code and beta tested for HTML 1.0. He was active in helping people in other countries adapt the technology and had tried to be a positive influence in a network of computer users since he could see that some of them were only doing it for purposes of greed and sex. One day, he had a strange and unusual accident at work which left him disabled.

John lay in bed as he had done for the last seventeen years. He had been to countless doctors trying to find someone who could improve his situation. It seemed that everything they did just made him worse. The first surgery had given him arachnoiditis, a nerve damage disease marked by inflammation of the meninges and subarachnoid space. Basically, it grows out like a spider web, hence the name arachnoiditis.

He was sick of the intense pain, the non-existent sex drive, the loss of bowel and urine control, the constant vomiting, and being confined to a wheelchair or motorized cart. On rare days, he could walk with two canes and get a breath of fresh air, but the pain of doing so was intense. The doctors had wanted to put him on Morphine, but he didn't want his mind to be altered in that manner and didn't want to become a drug addict. The doctors convinced him to try Methodone which didn't provide the “high” of Morphine, but still reduced the pain. He had to take Marinol just to be able to eat and had to take bars of Xanax three times a day just to be able to cope with the anxiety of losing all of the abilities he had once enjoyed using. They had him on Dopamine-like drugs to try to limit the amount of pain he still had to endure from the agitated nerves. He was tired of living in this condition. He had tried doctors, preachers, faith healers, and numerous other treatments to no avail. All any of them did was take his money. He resigned himself to the fact that it was never going to get better, as all the doctors said.

Today was a day that John couldn't get out of bed even to go to the bathroom. He had soiled himself because of the constant diarrhea and had vomited on himself because of the uncontrollable regurgitation. All he could do was reach for a towel that he kept by his bed and try to clean himself and the bed underneath him the best he could. John was tired of laying there reading, soiling himself, and feeling totally useless as a human being. He had started playing his cornet and guitar with the church who had helped him out when he couldn't get to the store to get groceries. The warm smiles on the faces of the elderly at the nursing homes and felt that he was at least contributing SOMETHING to society. The church was a Southern Baptist church, but it was a small church and about half of them understood what Christ was trying to teach, so he felt comfortable there for a time, but the discomfort and suffering became more than he could bear. He was going to end his life. He had lost his wife and his five closest friends with whom he had grown up. He was ready to join them.

John looked at the countless bottles of pills on his dresser and decided which ones would be the best combination to do the trick. He prayed to ask forgiveness of his sins, prayed to ask forgiveness for all those who had done him wrong, and prayed telling God that he forgave God for allowing those things to happen to him. His final prayer was for God to forgive him for what he was about to do.

Before John took the combination of the drugs, he decided he wanted to play two songs to God that had meant the most to him in his life. He thought about it a moment and wondered if God would like songs that weren't “Bible” songs because of his preacher's insistence that “secular” music had no place in a Christian's life. John decided that it didn't matter. God knew his heart and John wanted to give God the gift of the songs that had been the most precious to him throughout his life.

John reached over and grabbed his guitar and played “I Won't Last a Day Without You,” only adding “Lord Jesus” to the end. He then played “A Song for You” only changing the word “darling” to “Jesus.” When he got to the part for the sax solo, he picked up his cornet and played the solo that he had been practicing for a month. He then finished up the song on guitar as he sang to God.

When John completed the song, he put away the instruments and started to reach for the bottles. Suddenly, he heard a voice in his head.

“Are you willing to do what I ask?”

It was similar to the voice that you heard in the Charlton Heston movies, but it didn't come from the ears. It came from within his mind and resonated throughout his whole body. John wasn't sure what to think about it. Probably just some hallucination brought on by all the stress on his body and nervous system. John thought about it for a minuted then decided it wouldn't hurt to reply if it wasn't real anyway.

Just before John gave his answer, he was struck with another, similar voice which said, “Before you answer, if you choose this path, this is what will happen to you.”

John had a vision of being beheaded. A voice came over him again:

“Are you sure you want to proceed?”

John thought about this for a moment. Was it the same voice, or was it Satan trying to discourage him from proceeding? John didn't really care. At that point in his life, a beheading would have been a welcome end to the execrable existence he had endured for so long. He also wouldn't have to worry about taking his own life and having loved ones thinking that he was going to burn in hell for it. Besides that, John had never feared death and never let the threat of death prevent him from doing what he felt was right.

“Yes,” John boldly proclaimed.

Abruptly, the pain, nausea, and stomach cramps unexpectedly disappeared. He felt no more numbness below his waist.

A voice in his head rang out.

“Get up. I have some things for you to do.”

“What just happened?” John thought to himself. “This was just a hallucination, wasn't it?

John lay there for a few minutes, considering what happened. He assessed each part of his body carefully to see if the pain was going to return. To his amazement, it didn't.

“Well, maybe the pain and symptoms are gone, but I've been without the use of my legs so long, they have to have gone into severe atrophy. I probably can't stand without my canes. I may as well try though,” John thought.

John rolled his legs off the side of the bed, sat up, and decided to brace himself for the fall that was sure to come when he tried to stand unassisted. He gathered his courage and placed the pressure on his feet. He slowly stood up, and to his amazement, he didn't fall.

“Hmmm. I can stand, but can I walk?”

John decided to try to walk to to the bathroom to clean himself off. His legs worked perfectly. As he was cleaning himself with a warm, wet, soapy cloth, he dropped the wash cloth on the floor. Without thinking, he bent down and picked it up.

As John held the wash cloth in his hand, he realized that he had just bent down and picked up cloth and had none of the usual stiffness or lack of ability to move that he had experienced for the past 17 years. He was limber. He reached down and tried to touch his toes. He could. He tried a couple of martial arts kicks, not pushing it just in case. No problem.

This seemed odd to him because he had not been able to stretch in all those many years. John felt compelled to pick up a Bible and look for some answers. He opened his Bible and prepared to turn to some relevant verses. He looked down and started to turn the pages and realize that he was already at one of the verses he wanted to look up. He read the entire chapter. He started to look for a story that might relay some answers to the way this happened. He opened the Bible and it was at a relevant chapter again, the book of Job.

After reading the entire book of Job, he decided to do some research on it. He picked up the Cruden's Concordance and looked up the information on the book. He found that Job wasn't even Jewish. This led him to deep thought and further revelations.

John would be typing on a regular blog and the words to a verse would suddenly come to mind. He'd stop in the middle of the blog and search the verse on the Internet, using a reliable Bible CD that had many translations and the original Greek and Hebrew text with the words translated into English below them. He had studied Biblical Greek, having married a Greek woman in the past, so he knew of the different variations on the words. He'd look up the different variations and consider the meanings of what was written in context. He'd consider the thoughts and expressions used by those who wrote the classics. He'd pay attention to the lesson he'd learned from their writing and the literary expressions they used to convey their emotions. He'd consider the expressions that musicians used in songs. He'd consider the artistic license that was used and the shortfalls of some movies that were changed from books for dramatic effect.

John's body now constantly buzzed with something akin to a kind of electrical energy. He wondered if this energy could be used to help others as he'd been helped. He studied the book of John at a Bible study and started to understand what the book meant. Though what he presented to the group was contrary to some of the ideas the leader of the group was trying to teach, he boldly stated his understanding. Some disagreed with him, but a few seemed to awaken and understood. Though the Bible study was put on by the son of a Pentecostal-type “non-denominational” preacher, some of them had their eyes closed to the fact of John's miraculous healing. Some, though, saw and understood and privately gave John encouragement.

John heeded the lessons in the book of John about the abilities of the Spirit and decided to try to help others through the power. To those who listen and believed him, he healed. He even found that he could heal some on the Internet through prayer and extending the energy to them.

One night, John went to the bar where he would go to write on occasion as he listened to some live music. Everyone was amazed to see him walking into the bar without mechanical assistance and asked him about it. He conveyed the story, and though some mocked, the ones who had gotten to know him, especially the bartender and the waitresses, listened intently.

A few in the bar balked about his Superman t-shirt and religion and pointed out that he was drinking wine. John pointed out what Superman represented and pointed out the life of Christ as opposed to the teachings of religion and soon the mocking stopped. A couple of them scratched their head a little, but made no further disparaging remarks. When John was through, he returned to his usual booth and started to write.

A large man bolted in the front of the club and said that there had been a terrible accident. Everyone but the bartender bolted out to help block the traffic as the bartender called 911. John, after directing traffic and asking the firemen, and police if they needed further assistance, went over to the ambulance that had arrived.

The fire department had to use the Jaws of Life to retrieve the woman from the Toyota Corolla that had been hit by the drunken man who had been going way over the speed limit in his 4 wheel drive truck with two extra wheels in the back. The Corolla had been badly crushed and the woman's outcome didn't look good. John stood back about 20 feet and helped relay messages between the paramedics and the firemen. After some time of working on the woman, the paramedics finally gave up and covered the woman's face.

John approached the paramedics, being led by what he felt inside, and asked the paramedics for permission to touch the lady's ankle and pray for her. The paramedics asked him who he was and John explained that he was a Christian musician. They gave permission to touch the woman's ankle and pray.

John gathered the energy of the Holy Spirit and touched the lady on the ankle as he prayed. All he was thinking about is trying to revive the woman from death and giving the paramedics a chance to get her to the hospital where she could receive more thorough treatment. The woman's eyes opened and she started coughing and breathing again. The paramedics rushed over and started going to work on her, then loaded her into the ambulance and took her off to the hospital. John prayed that she'd get there safely and that the doctors would take care of her. John then went back into the bar, told the bartender what happened, and returned to his booth to write. When he was finished with his glass of wine, he closed the book, told the bartender and waitresses goodbye, and went home.

John would not broadcast his gift of healing, but he would do a blog on it to his friends. He didn't really care what they thought, but thought the events were important enough to tell somebody. John had no desire to have people come to him and ask to be healed. He knew that there would be endless lines of people and John was really more of a loner. Still, he would use his gift when and where possible after talking to people and being sure they understood that it wasn't some act of trickery that so many used to gain donations.

Events in John's life let him to move to another location in the country. Feeling that it was from God's direction, he left everything behind and proceeded on his journey. When he got there, he could see that the person who was instrumental in going there had deceived him, but John also knew that God often took him to places to learn something that he would otherwise not know. He knew that the situation might be unpleasant, but he also had faith that God knew what he was doing.

John had left even his transportation behind, so he had to walk everywhere he went. The person he had come to be with was living in a government funded housing establishment for the disabled and terminally ill.

John did everything just as he had received his healing... freely and without charge or asking for donations. It pleased John to see those who were healed getting better and it made him smile when one of them would come up to him privately and thank him and tell him how his laying on of hands had helped them. Over time, John noticed that the people whose faith was strongest in the ability healed the quickest. Some healings were immediate and some took a while. When the people would come to thank him, John reminded them that it wasn't something that he did, but something that God did through him and that their faith was relevant to the speed of their healing.

John was quick to point out when visiting preachers would come to the apartment complex and preach hateful and hurtful messages to the struggling, hurting people in the complex. John would confront them directly. The offending preachers hated him, but the people in the complex loved him for it. When a politician would come making unreasonable demands on the people of the complex, John would explain why their ideas were bad in an intelligent manner. When they wanted to make the residents of the complex wash all the aluminum and carry it over to a dumpster across the street, John asked the politician if they were going to pay the residents for the aluminum. The politician responded, “Why, no.” John looked around at the residents at the meeting, knowing that it would be a struggle for most of them to carry their bags of aluminum to the dumpster and spoke about the greed of government officials who sought to profit off the needy. John was making some important enemies, but he also made important friends of those who could see beyond their own greed.

Soon, the apartment complex started levying demands against John that weren't levied against the other members of the complex. John knew that it would be coming, so John took the steps to resolve each situation as it came up.

John also walked to the local coffee shop which had two computers for Internet access and discovered that's where the most prominent politicians in the state met on Saturdays. Besides the politicians who would sit at the table, there was a reporter from a local TV station who would join in on the discussions. Upon learning of the political satire that John had written in the book provided by the coffee shop for those who wanted to write comments, poetry, short anecdotes, and sometimes pictures, the politicians invited John to sit with them. John agreed, listened, and discussed his opinions openly. All but John and one other man at the table were extreme Republican conservatives. The one man other than John who had an understanding of the difference between their preached greed and hatred and the idea of truly serving the people had been pretty badly beaten down by being the only “liberal” at the table, so he rarely spoke much at first. John, though, continued to speak openly and questioned the motives of the Republican politicians, the war, the support of Bush, the care of the disabled, and those who had been put out of work or injured by the large interests. The “liberal” politician would sometimes chime in support and present his own ideas now.

John had written so much in the book at the coffee shop that the pages were now full. He decided to buy a new one for the shop, for which he accepted a cup of coffee. He wrote a dedication at the beginning, encouraging others to share their ideas and stories. People started writing their feelings about war and peace and John had started to develop a following of readers and commenters in the book. He met a few musicians who were stated their willingness to work with him to bring music to the elderly and those confined in nursing homes. John had started making contacts to continue his mission.

One day, when John went to the cafe, he noticed that the page of dedication had been torn out of the front of the book in the coffee shop. He knew that it was a just a matter of time before something happened, but this gave him a warning that events were near. John did not slow down, but continued steadfastly on his leading from the Spirit. John knew that doing what was right was rarely popular and just prayed for the strength to endure.

John went through the trials and tribulations and found himself jailed and separated completely from his income. It didn't worry John one bit. He continued on, having faith that God would provide what he needed. John had to change cities, but continued his work. He talked to preachers about God and encouraged them to think about the truth of Christ an the Apostles. This made both friends and enemies of the ministers, depending upon their point of view. John continued to quietly heal others and also healed animals, seeing them as creatures of God just like the rest of us. John continued to work on his music and expanded his music to different styles and different instruments. He continued to find ways to make the money he needed for the necessary equipment and shelter he needed. John wasn't looking for riches and fame. John was seeking to spread the truth and to help those who would listen.

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