Making my way home after a long, hot walk, my mind was focused on sitting down with a long, cold drink - and definitely not on stopping to chat to anyone!
I did call out a casual greeting to a local chap - I’ll call him “Jim” - who was out on his driveway, but nearby car engine noise meant I couldn’t hear properly what he was saying back to me. Now I had to go over - knowing a chat would certainly follow!
After a brief catch up, Jim told me that he’d been having a tough week due to bad sciatic nerve pain in his back and hip, also shooting down into his leg. Aha! I had stumbled into nothing less than a Divine appointment!! The pain made movement difficult for Jim and it was getting him down – especially as he’d recently had to abandon a round of golf only half-way through!. He also needs to move physically for his work.
When I offered to pray for the pain to go, he jokingly replied “Well, someone needs to pray for me!” I took that as a “Yes”!
Asking him to scale the pain between 0 – 10 when he moves in a way that brings pain on, he twisted around and said “Ow! – it’s an 8! ”
That’s a lot of pain!
I asked Jim just to relax and not to feel the need to pray or do anything. Just absorb the prayer, like a sponge.
Laying my hand very lightly over a suitable area of his back, I commanded all the area of his body to be made whole and all misalignment and pain to go and never return. I then spoke specifically to the sciatic nerve and told it to become released and all the muscles to come out of spasm and be relaxed and free.
Before having him check himself out, I asked if he had felt any sensation during the prayer. “To be honest, no” he replied. Assuring him that this was perfectly fine and would not make any difference to his healing, it was now time to check things out.
To his credit, Jim fully twisted around in the way that had made acute pain appear just before. Only this time – no pain! Not even a shred! From level 8 pain to zero!! The only thing he felt now was some stiffness. I explained this can sometimes happen – pain leaves but some stiffness remains. So, I prayed very briefly again, specifically booting out the stiffness this time.
Suddenly Jim,, slightly baffled, announced “Oh, you’ve really done something here” (his tone told me it was a good something!)
The next thing I knew, without any suggestion from me, Jim was bending right over and touching his toes!!! “Well, I could not have done that before you came over!” he exclaimed. He touched his toes again, surprised, delighted, baffled!! Zero pain and full movement – all restored in a matter of moments!
I explained to Jim how Jesus is the One who does the healing – I get the happy privilege of being on the delivery end of His good gifts! Healing is a way of God showing that He cares about us and wants us – wants Jim – to have fullness of life. He hates any pain afflicting His children, so much so that Jesus even took all our pain into Himself as He died on the cross, to defeat it utterly. Now He wants every person to “taste and see that God is good”. and able to heal every aspect of our lives. His goodness is better tasting than the finest champagne – or possibly whisky, in Jim’s case!
STOP PRESS*** I’ve just seen Jim two days after our “little chat” He was moving freely, said everything is good and he is so grateful that his back/hip are still “all fixed”! Woo Hoo!! Praise You Jesus!!! And I’m really looking forward to a follow-up conversation with Jim to talk about how he has processed this event and how it has made him view Jesus. Please pray for Jim!