Can You Believe It?

A virtual friend on FaceBook, S.M., sent me this email message today:

Hello good sir. 

I wanted to say thank you for the testimony you gave me several months ago, in regards to your wife. We tried an alkaline diet, baking soda, and of course some good old Jesus love. The results; Good bye stage IV liver cancer. My friend is now in great health and is giving his testimony to the church. 

Thank you

To be used as a vessel to further a message of faith is exhilarating.  To know what you are forwarding to be the truth is exciting.  To watch that truth work in an amazing way for someone else is fulfilling and brings great joy to the heart.  To take credit for simply doing my part is forgetting where goodness originates and who is in control of all things.

From time to time I have online debates with people who hold closer to science than to God ( or dismiss God altogether because their science tells them to do so ) and I come to share about how people are healed from what is termed the "placebo effect."  I see the placebo as the scientific definition of faith.  The person who takes a placebo 'believes' they are taking real medicine and when a positive result comes about, it turns out their belief / faith is what led to the positive result.  Science goes further to investigate what is happening in the brain and such, but this phenomenon doesn't have to be made so complicated. 

So... what is faith?

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

- Hebrews 11:1

Here's one example of faith in action with amazing results:

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.  She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.  When she heard about Yeshua, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”  Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Yeshua realized that power had gone out from him.  He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

But Yeshua kept looking around to see who had done it.  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.  He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” 

- Mark 5:25-34

It happened for my wife in a similar way.  My wife came down with severe leukemia some years ago.  It was near terminal.  Doctors in the states desired her to start a heavy medical treatment consisting of synthetic drugs and radiation.  Seeing that these attempts aren't always positive and in most cases kills the patient, my wife opted for opinions outside the typical for-profit method of western medicine.

She went to see a doctor south of the border in Guadalajara who recommended she begin a diet of fruits and vegetables, no red meat and include a table or tea spoon ( she doesn’t remember which size of spoon ) of baking soda with a glass of water every morning.  During all of this she was praying, let us be clear about this.

She went back to her hometown outside of Guadalajara and took a break from the hectic lifestyle many folks in the city have ( work, school, running around, chasing the wind, etc. ).  She was able to relax, focus on praying and eating right.  She was ‘off’ of work and school for two months and came back stateside continuing the new diet.  Seeing her doctor after six months and having a blood analysis the doctor told her the results showed a decrease… and after nearly two years there was no further trace of leukemia! 

Her faith and faithful application of what God has created ( natural foods and substances ) cured her.  And now we see another faithful cure in what my friend emailed me today!

Let it be known people are being cured of their cancers according to their faith and their faithful application of what God has already created for us!

Believing is not such an easy thing for everyone... but let me be one to tell you it is very possible to gain the faith necessary.

How does one acquire faith?

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. 

- Romans 10:17