The summer of 2018, my entire world twisted by me befalling a sudden illness. As the years would follow, I’d have to quit several jobs because of this illness, I’d see many doctors, and many friendships would become strained and even broken. 

I was pushed from doctor to doctor, medications changed around, symptoms worsening and varying.  

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My typical symptoms would be heart palpitations, fainting, fatigue, drops in blood pressure, fibromyalgia, and even gut problems where I’d have to avoid most foods. 

It got to the point where I felt broken. Was I seriously going to deal with this the rest of my life?  

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I was given medications that stabilized my heart and blood pressure to where I could begin working again—but if I wasn’t careful, if I overworked my body, I’d end up bedridden for months, and would have to quit my job. And the meds did not help with the pain in my body. Did you know that nothing can cure fibromyalgia? Fibromyalgia is pain all throughout a person’s body, and there are only treatments to relieve the symptoms, but never cure them. It’s a lifelong illness. Where’s the hope in that diagnosis? 

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I was diagnosed with POTS when I was 20 years old. It’s an umbrella term for ‘these are your symptoms, and we don’t know what causes them’. POTS is considered incurable, and you’re expected to completely shift your lifestyle to adhere to your body.  

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Was this seriously the life I’d been given? 

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Growing up Christian, I was told God has purpose for my life. But I remember the day, my symptoms were so bad that I looked over at my mom and saying, ‘maybe my purpose from God was to die.’ Let’s just say, my mother did not take kindly to that, and reasonably so. 

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But where was the hope? Where is the hope in accepting a fate of sickness? When you’re bedridden on most days, have to cancel with friends for sickness, having to fit all your life aspirations through the pinhole of what sickness is limiting you to?  

I prayed to God, I begged him, ‘Please heal me. Please! I want to be healed. Would you heal me of this?’  

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People prayed for me in the church, but after about the fifth time you walk up to that alter and ask for prayer, people get tired of believing God is going to heal you. Clearly, God just didn’t want to heal me, right? 

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I stopped going to church. It was too hard. I loved God, but I didn’t understand him. And I couldn’t deal with the people anymore, who kept treating me as if something was wrong with my faith. 

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I got better at hiding the symptoms. Smile and get through the day; then you can go home and crash. Everything hurt, but it was invisible illness, so I could hide it. I could deal with it. 

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The last two weeks of January of 2024, the enemy started stirring up trouble. I think he could sense that a blessing was about to take place. There were tangible attacks against my household—demons trying to scare my family, trying to break us down, some of the wildest things happening. Everyone goes through spiritual warfare, but when you’re able to recognize it and actively use the Word of God against it, that’s when the devil flees. Throughout this, I was drawing closer to God unlike anything before. He was changing my heart and renewing my mind. And on January 29th of 2024, I had just read Psalms 30:2 which reads: 

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‘O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.’ 

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I felt God say ‘get up and go get your sister’. 

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I went and got my sister and asked if she’d agree with me in prayer for healing. The two of us sat on my bed that night, it was a quick prayer, no longer than a minute. We didn’t say the fancy words, we didn’t have a dozen saints of the church lay hands on us, we didn’t have some miraculous light of power burst from us. But for the first time in six years, I prayed the prayer differently.  

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I did not beg the Lord to heal me. I said, ‘I’m tired of this and I’m stepping out in faith and CLAIMING my healing.’  

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I woke up the next morning, and I looked at my medicine. I considered taking it, but thought, ‘that’s not stepping out in faith’. I got dressed for my horseback riding lesson. The doctors would’ve said it was a stupid, dangerous thing, when even on my days with medication, I struggled to get through a lesson without fainting. But I said, ‘I’m stepping out in faith. I am healed.’ I kept repeating that to myself as I got the horse ready for my lesson, and I was so overcome with joy. Felt a heart palpitation? I thought to myself, ‘I’m stepping out in faith. I AM healed.’ And the heart palpitation went away instantly. Nothing was taking my healing. 

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I got through that entire horseback riding lesson with my strength unwavering. It should’ve been impossible. I had so much joy overflowing from me, that I was almost unable to concentrate on what my instructor was even saying. She asked at the end of my lesson, ‘How’s your energy level been lately, Grace?’ 

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I grinned and said, ‘wanna know something? I didn’t take my medicine today.’ 

Today is February 19th 2024, and I haven’t taken my medicine since that January 29th, the day I was healed. 

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The fibromyalgia is gone. The POTS is gone. The heart condition is gone. I’m walking everyday victoriously in health. I come home from work and spend time with my family, rather than immediately falling into a bed with exhaustion. I eat bread and cheese, and everything the doctors told me I had an intolerance to, because those intolerances are gone. And I am HEALED, from the top of my head all the way down to my toes. 

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I don’t ‘deal’ with anything. No compliance to sickness, because my Lord WANTS me to live victoriously, because I’m his daughter. 

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If your 2 year old daughter had a stone in her shoe that was bothering her, wouldn’t you help her by removing it? The stone isn’t going to kill her, but you love your child so much that you want her to walk and run comfortably. 

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Isaiah 53:5 says: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” 

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By His Stripes WE ARE HEALED. 

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God’s gift of healing was already given to us. Just as you accepted your salvation through Jesus, you can accept healing. The enemy has made us think sickness is something we have to put up with, that it’s the purpose for our life. But how is God going to use you when you’re bedridden? As Christians, we have the spirit of the living God inside of us, which has authority over sickness. Our God is bigger than sickness, bigger than depression, bigger than fear, bigger than torn apart families. 

We’ve allowed the enemy to lie to us for too long. Fight for the blessings God has for you, and know that he LOVES you!