Lying Symptoms

For the past few weeks, I have experienced flu-like symptoms like blocked nose, itchy and sore throat, cough, phlegm etc. Some days I would wake up feeling better but other days I would wake up feeling lousy because the symptoms came back. I did all I could - I prayed for healing anointing, I bound the spirit of infirmity, I prayed in tongues, I declared healing scriptures for my body...yet the symptoms kept recurring. I was really frustrated because it was usually not like this. In the past, after I prayed for the healing anointing, the symptoms would usually go away in a day or two. The symptoms would not linger on or recur like what I experienced recently.

I cried out to the Lord for relief...especially during days when I really felt sick. The Lord told me to just rest in Him. I have come to the end of myself and I surrendered my body to Jesus. I knew that Jesus is able and willing to heal me. And as I rested and cease from toilsome worry or strife, I found the symptoms lessening...and I would feel much better. I came to the point I told God I am living day by day by Your strength. I would praise God for healing me everyday, even days when I would wake up groggy. As I thanked the Lord and focused on His healing powers in the bible, I realised that my response to this challenge was changing. I was no longer focusing on the symptoms. I found that I could still continue with my daily life and that these symptoms were no longer affecting me.

Even though the symptoms were very real in my body, deep down within me I knew Jesus had healed me and these are lying symptoms. For the first time, I was scheduled to serve in the Prayer and Healing Room in church on 8 July, Sunday. Two days before that, I felt the lying symptoms came back with much ferocity. On Saturday I even felt feverish which was rare as I had seldom had fever. I was so tempted to call the church office I cannot serve on Sunday because I was feeling so sick. Yet something deep down told me to press on, to persist and see what would happen the next day. And so I pressed on despite the discomfort of the symptoms. I declared that nothing is going to stop me from serving on Sunday.

Well, true enough when I woke up on Sunday, the symptoms seemed to clear up significantly. I was well enough to serve in church. Pastor Prince's sermon that day really spoke to me. He started his message with this statement: 'Many of us are more healed than we think. What is in our bodies are actually lying symptoms. We don't realise that we are in a war. Our bodies are responding much better than we think.' Spot-on! That was what I experienced all this while! The enemy tried to keep me from serving by deceiving me into thinking that I am sick when I am already healed. By Jesus' stripes, I am healed.

Then towards the end of Pastor's sermon, he said this: how can we qualify to be the 'prayerer' or the one who prays for the sick? He replied that before we can qualify, we need to know that we are the righteousness of God by faith, not by performance. The devil will always taunt you with this thought: 'How can you pray for the sick when you have symptoms in your body? Don't be a hypocrite! Wait till you are healed, then come and pray for others!' That was exactly how I felt then as I was not completely free from the symptoms yet...how then can I pray for others in the Prayer and Healing Room?

Pastor shared that in Genesis 20:17-18, when Abraham prayed for the women in Abimelech's household to conceive, Abraham has not seen the manifestation of the promised child yet. How then can Abraham pray for others to conceive when he and Sarah are barren? Yet after he prayed for them, God opened the wombs of the ladies, they conceived and bore children. This showed that it was by faith, not by performance that God answered Abraham's prayers. Hence, to be a prayerer, you must not have it altogether. That is the only qualification.

In fact, what happened to Abraham immediately in Genesis 21:1 was that 'The Lord visited Sarah as He had said and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken.' Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age. Pastor then said something very powerful - when you pray for others when you do not have it altogether, you set into motion your own miracle! After all, the anointing has to flow through you first to get to the other person when you pray for them.

And guess what? After the service, I went to the Prayer and Healing Room to serve. After my duty ended, I found out that those lying symptoms also miraculously disappeared. Jesus set me free from the cycle of recurring symptoms! Praise the Lord!