SURPRISED BY GRACE

Blog 125
July 15, 2019

MIRACLES NEVER CEASE!

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SURPRISED BY GRACE

Kimberly McConnell’s mother called to tell me that Kimberly was facing a frightening ordeal. Kimberly had struggled with drug addiction for decades in addition to being bipolar, a psychological problem. She had just taken an MRI test with a renowned surgeon who found tumors all over her pancreas. The possibility of cancerous growth was high. The surgeon wanted to remove her entire pancreas which would have left her a severe diabetic for the rest of her life. Kimberly was terrified. None of the options were good.

Kimberly’s mother wanted to know if I would talk and work with her daughter. Certainly.

When we began to talk, I realized Kimberly was paralyzed with fear. She felt a vise clamped around her chest squeezing the life out of her. Dread contaminated her rationality. So, we began to work on her anxiety by separating her emotions and her thinking. I discovered her principal concern was a fear of dying. We began exploring I John 5:11. “This is the record that God has given us eternal life…” The goal was to make this promise more than an idea or a belief, but a reality in Kimberly’s life.

She understood.

Kimberly quickly began to allow her thinking to take charge of her feelings. She began to see she could face the next medical tests and biopsies because she had eternal life regardless of what the results said. New stability had come into her life.

The next hurdle was realistically facing her tumors or possible cancerous cells. Long ago, I learned a spiritual exercise of “breathing in” the Holy Spirit. Just like taking a breath, we ask the Holy Spirit to enter us like breathing in air, to move through our body, through our blood vessels, flowing to the exact point of our need. Kimberly began praying in this manner, calling on the Spirit of God to surge through her body and to touch the tumors.

When Tuesday came, Kimberly went to the hospital without fear or dread. She could accept whatever happened … regardless. Her life was now squarely in the hands of God. Kimberly had found a peace that transcended every need. As Philippians 4:4 directs, her thinking was fixed on whatever was good, pure, right, lovely. The peace of God was with her.

The staff put her to sleep to avoid the pain of multiple biopsies. Kimberly went to sleep without fear. The doctor who had first observed the tumors was doing the tests. When she awoke, Kimberly was surprised because there was no pain in her abdomen. In fact, she couldn’t feel where the needles should have punctured her.

“Doctor!” she said. “What happened?”

The doctor had a grin and shook his head. “I saw those tumors for myself when you first came in weeks ago. But I didn’t do the biopsies today because we couldn’t find any tumors. The tumors on your pancreas are gone, simply gone.”

No one was ever more excited than Kimberly. She would not have to face all the possible complications and struggles she had anticipated. Miraculously the tumors had vanished.

What had occurred? As Philippians 4:9 promised that the God of peace would be with her. A miracle indeed!

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