Healed for Good by Launa Strickland

I used to believe that being sick was a sign of weakness–almost a moral failure. I was proud of myself because I rarely ever got sick. Then I got really sick!

Four years ago I developed allergies that caused chronic sinus infections. I tried everything to cure it but nothing worked. I ended up relying on daily doses of cold & sinus medication with extra ibuprofen. I also needed antibiotics two to three times a year to treat the really bad infections.

Then things escalated… In June of this year I woke up with a bad toothache. I was in Virginia and a local dentist prescribed a ten-day, high-dose antibiotic and lots of ibuprofen. I saw my regular dentist when I got home and I continued to take the antibiotic as prescribed.

On the ninth day of the antibiotic treatment the back of my neck starting itching, and within twelve hours I felt like I had biting insects crawling all over my body. I drove myself to the Mammoth ER and was told I had hives that were probably caused by the antibiotic I was taking. I was given medicines and sent home with prescriptions for more. After 24 hours I was in agony! In addition to the hives, I was horribly swollen from head to toe. A call to the ER resulted in stronger drugs. Two days later, I was still not better. I was now also covered with huge bruises and sores from scratching so hard. Another doctor visit and my meds were switched again. I was also given steroids by injection. I started feeling better within 24 hours. By the end of the week the swelling was gone and the itching was much less frequent. Then the pain began….

It began in the morning with a dull ache in my shoulders, elbows and wrists. By 3:00 p.m. the pain was worse and I was losing my ability to move my arms. By 8:00 p.m. I was totally incapacitated by pain. For the next several days I had to make sure I was ready for bed by 5 p.m. On the sixth day I had to go back to work. I got through two days of work and then, praise God, the weekend came!

Sunday morning arrived and I made myself go to church. At the end of the service, someone read James 5:14; “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Pastor Eric invited all who were sick to come up. I resisted because everyone would know that I was ill. Then I heard the Holy Spirit say, “you have been praying to believe Me for healing-go now and let Me prove what I can do.” So I swallowed my pride and went forward. Pastor Eric anointed my forehead with oil and a small group of people prayed over me. I closed my eyes. The gentle voice spoke again, telling me to raise my arms. “NO!” I argued, “I can’t. It hurts too much!” Then I saw a vapor or mist rising from my shoulders, elbows and wrists and I ‘saw’ the pain rise with it. I slowly raised my right arm above my head AND IT DIDN’T HURT! I raised my left arm and it was also pain free! I shouted to the Lord and wept with joy! I was healed!

When I got home from church the pain began to return. So I started praying… I thanked God for my healing and told Him how it had strengthened my faith as well as encouraging others. I asked Him to remove the pain then I surrendered to His will for me. And…. He took away the pain. Again!

To this day I am free of hives, joint pain and sinus infections.

I still wonder why God healed me in such a huge way. I’m not a great and powerful woman of Christ—I stumble in my walk every day. Maybe it’s just so I can tell you that God does heal His children. Even one as weak as me.

Launa Strickland is a member of Church on the Mountain, and will be sharing more about her healing experience at the COTM Women’s event on November 1^st. at 6:00 p.m. Bring a potluck dish to share. www.ChurchOnTheMountain.org

Lock Up by Leyla Williams

My friends left for the week and asked a neighbor to feed their cat. The wife gave instructions to “go on in, we leave our door unlocked”. Unknowingly, the husband gave contradicting instructions for his employee to “please lock up every night after returning the tools”. Faithfully the employee locked up at five each evening. Faithfully the lady that was to feed the cat came at six. Perplexed but determined, she found a ladder, climbed to the upper deck, and found an opening into the house. Upon leaving, she left the door unlocked and was confused when it was locked again at six the next evening. Not until the last day was the mystery solved when the owners returned and couldn’t get into their home. The husband had given away his key and now had to climb the same borrowed ladder and scramble through the same open window.

Do we ever give mixed signals to our inner man? Do we relinquish access to our souls by giving the keys away? We are the owners of our inner life. We hold keys and determine what has access to us. Do we decide we are NOT going to get angry like that again? See that type of media again? Spend more than we have again? Eat more than we need again? Yuck. You’ve had those moments. It is over. Those things that leave the stench of shame after their stay, are marched out and you lock the door. That is IT! Not again. So why do we often leave upper story windows unlocked?

We can’t solve the ancient dilemma right this minute, but we can rally ourselves to practices that might protect us a little better. The gospel of Luke pleads “Stay alert, always praying that you will have the strength to escape all the things that will happen” (Lk 21:36). In Ephesians 6, Paul exhorts us to put on the full armor “as you pray at all times...vigilantly and persistently” (Eph 6:18). James states “Therefore, submit to God. Moreover, take a stand against the Adversary, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and he will come close to you” (James 4:7,8). Connect to Jesus! He is the ultimate locksmith. You pray, authorize Him to change your locks so the enemy of your soul is shut out, and He issues a fresh set of keys. But if we keep the window unlocked or give our keys away, we give permission to things that will ruin our inner house and destroy again.

Why are the gospels and letters declaring a need to pray, to come close to God? Because when we draw near to God, we draw near to light. All of a sudden we see. We go into prayer thinking we are a victim and I can’t believe so and so did that, and wanting God to sympathize, and then the light of Jesus reveals that the real problem is that we are stubborn. So now we are repenting….coming clean….and are relieved, with tender hearts toward so and so.

There will always be intruders. There will always be issues that are trying to break into your inner life with Jesus. Prayer is like a hyper alarm system. In prayer you learn to sense trespassers (like anger, lust, bitterness, dullness), and the flood lights come on with warnings bellowing out of the speaker system to paralyze the intruder. Prayer is one application of the “taking thoughts captive” practice. I can not pray and be fake with Jesus. If I am not honest, my heart does not come alive to Him. Being honest allows His light to shine on my darkness and I am freed. That is why prayer is so essential for your soul’s security system to function properly. The light that prayer brings exposes that wolf dressed up in sheep’s clothing and can give you the peace to stay in and lock up when he comes a knocking.

Leyla Williams is a member of Church on the Mountain, a vibrant community of believers in Crowley Lake. We meet at 9:30 Sunday mornings. Call for more information: 935-4272 or www.ChurchOnTheMountain.org

At the Hands of the Shepherd by Tara McDonald

Sheep have some of the most unintelligent minds in the entire animal kingdom. Their stupidity is sometimes frightening. A flock won’t move unless they’re following at least one sheep that seems to know where he’s going…. and this is not often the case. In eastern Turkey in 2006, 400 sheep died because one of them tried to cross a fifteen-meter deep ravine and the rest kept following. Sheep have terrible eyesight, and it isn’t surprising in the least to see them crash into obstacles, back up, and then crash into them again. Since they are almost entirely covered in wool, the only highly sensitive area of the sheep is on its face. You can imagine what distress this causes. While they will follow their shepherd, the sheep resist his guidance and stray off on their own. Without the shepherd, steep and dangerous terrain can easily get the best of the dim-witted sheep. Even if they ignore him, the shepherd will come looking for his lost sheep to save them. While the sheep simply trot about brainlessly, the shepherd puts all of his effort into keeping them together and safe. If the sheep don’t follow and begin to stray, the shepherd uses force and punishment, if only to keep his flock from greater pain in the end. He himself will lead them to green pastures, clean waters, and safe places to rest; he doesn’t trust his job to an inadequate amateur.

God uses images like these in the Bible as perfect depictions of His relationship with us. Instead of a Shepherd, we have God. In the place of a flock of ridiculous sheep, we have us. John 3:1-2 reads, “See what love The Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” God is our Shepherd and our Father. We are His children and His flock. What father doesn’t want the best for his children? What shepherd doesn’t want his sheep to be safe? Our Shepherd wants to snatch us out of harm’s way the moment we step into it, but sometimes He waits until we’ve experienced the consequences of rejecting His guidance. It’s not that God wants to see us hurt, but he wants us to repent and come back to Him. We don’t know to do so unless we know what it is like without Him. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV).

Human beings can sometimes be guilty of blindly following each other. People get so excited when someone stands up for what they think, that before we’ve even looked at what that person is saying we have made sacrifices and choices for something we don’t even understand. Even if that person is leading us into a fifteen-meter deep ravine, we follow them blindly and passionately if we don’t stop to think our actions through. Since going to God to find out the truth is so tedious and hard, we just act on our emotions and what we think our ‘heart is telling us’. Let me tell you something – Listen to your heart AND DIE. We were born with imperfect emotions; often times, your emotions are going to deceive you. Don’t act on them just because of how you feel in the moment. Zechariah 7:11 illustrates this wonderfully: “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.” They shut their ears and listened to their own counsel. I’m guessing that they ended up at the bottom of a ravine.

We may profess to be following Christ, but is that what our actions show? Do you join when the flock goes another way, or do you keep following the Shepherd? You may try to believe that you’re on the path God wants you to be taking, but are you really trying to achieve the end result on your own? You can’t handle God’s job, so don’t try. You can’t lead yourself to peace, nor can anyone else. Many people try to find peace in places that provide only momentary rest and ultimately end in discontent and turmoil. God asks that we come to Him for rest, for He promises to give it to us completely and freely. “I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down” (Ezekiel 34:15). The only way that you will end up on the right path is if you are following the right leader. Listen. He’s calling you. He’s holding out his staff to show you the way. He’s standing between you and pain. Do you choose to listen and obey, or are you going to try to fight life’s battles yourself? Even though he cares for us with his own hand, we still stray from His chosen path, forget his blessings, and try to live our lives how we want. As a human born with a sinful nature, I will always sin; this does not mean, however, that I will always stray. Even when I walk beside Jesus, I will still stumble; that only means that it’s easier for Him to catch me. Jesus, the wise and forgiving Shepherd, loves me, an unwise and imperfect sheep. Even when I struggle and resist, He will never stop trying to lead me home.

Tara McDonald is a sophomore in high school and a member of Church on the Mountain, a vibrant community of believers in Crowley Lake, CA. We meet Sunday mornings at 9:30. To find out more you can log onto our website at www.ChurchOnTheMountain.org or call 760-935-4272