Last night, Dario told us that his cousin, Lorena, whom I met last year and prayed for, as she was desperately ill with cancer, had improved after that, but a few weeks back, suddenly hit cancer’s awful ‘slippery slope’ and was now critically ill. I asked him if we could go and pray for her: thought at first it was going to be in a hospital, but it was in Lorena’s parents’ home. My little heart sank, as I remember that it was a first floor apartment, with a very dodgy staircase, outside, and open – no fence or handrail – on one side, and unusual stairs – depth, width, and height…. my knees wanted to object but I wouldn’t let them, and when we got into the house, Lorena was in awful pain, and gravely ill….
She was unable to speak, move any limbs, her breathing was very shallow, and she was pretty nearly yellow. She also had an infection in her flesh that eats the flesh and creates an ungodly smell. Elisa and Lydie are both nurses, and they’d seen/smelt it before…. all of her family were there, and Dario and his family: what’s more, Lorena’s sister got her three children – well, pretty much grown up children! – on Facetime, as they’re in Dallas, where Lorena used to live.
What happened next was really quite astonishing. I prayed a now often-prayed prayer, breaking her free from the spirit of death, which with most cancer sufferers always arrives in force, and broke the ‘power’ of diagnosis, and more specifically, prognosis off of her. Then prayer for peace, and – you might think I’m crazy here – joy: well, the joy of the Lord IS our strength, unless we only believe that awesome promise as ‘words’ and not reality, and I’ve seen a number of people healed as they laughed…. Lorena began to smile, then began to talk (she couldn’t before), her skin changed colour to a more typical Colombian colour, and then, to HER utter astonishment, she lifted up her arms, and legs, which she had been unable to do for some time.
That led to another mass of prayers for others in the family, including Lorena’s mum, who had….guess what?….an osteoarthritic knee, incredible pain in the left knee, which was a prosthesis (convinced me even more never to go down that route myself even if my pain increases). Understandably, too, she had spent a large amount of time crying, for weeks, until her daughter started to speak, louder and louder, and move more…. Elisa and Lydie prayed for her sadness, grief, and I got to have a go at her knees (!)… ALL the pain went in the right knee, instantly, and it took three attempts to pray the pain out of the left leg with the replacement knee… she couldn’t believe it!
Prayer for many others in the family followed, and the Presence of God filled the house…. it was wonderful, a real move of God, in dad, cousins, other relatives as they were healed and set free from all sorts of things.
I’d thought we might be there 20 minutes…. an hour and 40 minutes later, we HAD to leave as we were being picked up for church! Dario asked us to go to his home tomorrow for breakfast, though that has ‘morphed’ into lunch, which is actually quite helpful to us, as we’ve got a fair bit to do tomorrow as it’s the last full day for the French folk, and I’ve got a few extra hours on Tuesday, which Dario has asked me to spend with him….
And all on Easter Sunday! Jesus truly is ALIVE!!
