It was a marvelous Sunday, two weeks ago. The March 6th day and church service was good and we did fun things. But when the night came and as it got darker, our youngest daughter began to feel sick. Little did any of us expect what the night would hold for us all; itt was a test of faith to get through it. But, through it our family had more faith in the healing power of Jesus Christ. And, who could have known that a piece of toast would be the difference of faith to be sick or the faith to be healed? Jesus knows.
Sickness Begins
The feeling of getting sick is a normal symptom our kids often get when they are under a spiritual attack. So I prayed for Cate and she went upstairs. As soon as she went there, though, it hit her. She began having nausea and projectile vomited onto the floor as mom and her sister scrambled to help her. This went on for about an hour while we followed her, prayed for her, and cleaned up after her. Then, when she sat still for a moment and I sat next to her on the upstairs couch. While the dizziness and nausea still had her in its grips, I prayed for her and commanded any curse to be broken and for nausea and sickness to leave by the power and authority of Jesus Christ. I also asked her to forgive anyone who she may had unforgiveness for and walked her through forgiving people from the past week that had upset her in any way. There were a few. She felt better for forgiving them and began to feel better physically too. The dizziness and nausea were gone and she was ready for sleep.
It was around 9:00 pm in the evening, so Cate opted to go to bed for rest. The prayers and forgiveness seemed to completely stop the dizziness, weakness, and the vomiting ceased for the remainder of the evening. She was feeling better and morning the next day, she went to school like nothing ever happened. But unfortunately for us, the sickness had other plans for our other daughter Zoe and our two year old son, and the symptoms immediately transferred to our son Matthew after Cate went to bed.
Sleepless Night
Matthew began projectile vomiting and heaving at 10 pm. We would pray and it would subside, but would return again. Up until 10 pm, he had an amazing evening and was playing and having a fun night right up to the point where he looked at us and began throwing up like someone or something was squeezing his stomach from the inside. He was confused, and it was heart-wrenching to see our baby go through it for the first time in his life. Prayers were temporarily stopping the episodes from recurring, but each time we prayed, the vomiting would cease for an hour or so throughout the night. He would return to sleep each time, and so did we. He had no other symptoms except for the visible fear in his eyes that the symptoms would return. All symptoms seem to stop at around 4 am – just enough time to allow effective sleep before an early Monday start.
The Morning Comes
The next morning after waking, Our daughter Zoe became nauseous and began vomiting and having replicate symptoms. So we had her stay home from school, while Matthew appeared to be returning to normal. Once mom and Cate left for school, the symptoms kept returning for her while I walked her through the same forgiveness message in hopes whatever was attacking her would stop. Every few moments, the symptoms would return, she would dry-heave, then return to laying and feeling miserable with her eyes closed. I would look over and find her falling asleep while my son Matthew sat next to me, sipping water from a cup as he rejected any food from fear.
A few times, after Matthew saw his big sister get sick, he began heaving too. He would vomit the water he had just drank. I knew the plan of the enemy. It was to dehydrate them, steal their energy, and continue putting fear on them from the sounds of the vomiting. So I formed a plan.
I had made a piece of cinnamon raisin toast. I was expecting to give it to Matthew since he had not had a vomiting episode for a few hours (prior to seeing his sister get sick). He rejected the toast because he still had fear. It was then the Lord helped me remember the Bible and some relevant pointers. Prayers plus “doing the word” is faith. And after the night we had and the morning so far, we were getting low on it, despite the miracle of Cate’s immediate healing from her sickness the night before.
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
John 6:35
Even though she didn’t look up to it, I asked Zoe: “what is the one thing you would like to do today if you weren’t sick?” and she said she wanted to make sure she didn’t get behind on her homework. Then I spoke to her about the acts of faith Jesus asked people to do in the Bible to operate in Faith, like the man who was told to get up, pick up his mat and walk in John 5:8. And another one where Jesus told the lepers to go and show themselves to the priest and they were healed as they went in Luke 17:14. With that, I said to Zoe, “if you want to not be sick, sometimes an act of faith that goes against whatever your body tells you is the “right thing to do” will heal you.” Common sense tells us that if we are vomiting for the past hour that eating anything will just make it worse or just be futile, but this is where faith is.
I offered Zoe the piece of toast and said, “if you eat this and believe you are healed, you will be. It’s in the word of God.” I also said, we must prove to whatever is causing these symptoms who you have faith in. Jesus. Fear was thick in our house, fear of being sick, fear of throwing up, fear of having it happen to us, etc. To overcome the fear of getting or being sick, we had to act in an opposite way. So she did. Zoe picked up the toast, began to eat it, and soon began gaining strength. Once she had color back in her face, I said, now go, get dressed for the day and grab the homework you wanted to work on. So she did.
And He Healed Them All
Once she felt better, she did exactly what she wanted to do, her homework. She also ate the rest of the toast and began eating other food as normal. The nausea and the feelings or symptoms of being really sick completely left. The same symptoms and fear left Matthew and he began to eat too. By noon-time, everyone was back to normal and so was our life. Later in the day, we all had joy and laughed about what had happened. Mom and Cate later returned from school and work and we all celebrated the amazing recovery the kids experienced in such a supernatural way. God is faithful to heal. Faith is key.
Sickness or Spiritual Warfare?
It was not long ago that if anyone told me the above story, I would call them loony-toons. I would have a million ways to try explain away, scientifically or other wise, what was the likely reason for the quick recovery of my family from this illness. But after living the life I’ve lived for the past 3+ years of seeing miracles, seeing healings, and being amazed at God’s goodness being poured out to so many, I no longer doubt. I know God heals and delivers. It’s not just in His word, the Bible, but in His words of today that many do hear. I know that in the past years that I’ve been healed, I’ve been delivered, I too am a walking testimony of God’s miraculous saving love.
Faith over Fear
We must know the enemy uses fear against us. It can be a doorway for the enemy to steal, kill and destroy from our lives. Fear can be the door that allows the enemy access into our lives that causes such a devastating event. The enemy often uses this against children, since they are the most vulnerable to enemy’s tactics. The enemy also knows how we love our kids and hate to see them hurt, in pain, sick or not doing well and uses it as an opportunity to try get us to blame God for not protecting them or us when bad things happen. Well, I’m here to say, it’s not God’s fault! We must keep our faith in Him and not shift the enemy’s attacks to blame God. We must trust in Him, in His word, and in His promise to us all that we are healed. By the stripes Jesus bore, we were healed!
Now, I don’t know what gave the enemy so much power to attack us this day, or attack the many families in our church. I do know that this happened right after an amazing weekend with Jerry Garcia visited our church and where many were healed and the presence of God was felt. I know that the enemy does do retaliation attacks against people when great moments of miracles and healings happen. I also know that witchcraft (yes, it’s real and yes, it can effect Christians) is likely a key in this.
God has been showing me what witchcraft is and how people who are against God (rebellion) can wreck havoc in the lives of others who don’t have enough faith in God to protect themselves. God said in Hosea 4:6 that His children are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Well, it’s true. There are many today who are affected greatly by the power of witchcraft that real witches and warlocks are using in our world. As an aside, these people are not out in the open, they are in the shadows, in the dark, and they keep their secrets hidden to have the most amount of power and effect against their intended targets or victims. Their power lies in secrecy, this is why it is called occult (hidden). Our God is bigger than all their secrets. He also knows what they do in the dark and it will all be brought to light. Some who have spiritual discernment have a taste for what God is already revealing. God will reveal to them secrets.
My wife and I were blessed through this event and did not get sick through this. We rejected the fear and the symptoms that kept creeping up. Don’t get me wrong, it seems scary! Before God revealed Himself to me, I would have believed that I would be sick too, and I would have been. It just doesn’t happen like before because I have more faith than I ever did. We all hate the idea of not having control of our body and definitely hate the idea of throwing up. But this day, my wife and I were resolved to believe in God and that these symptoms were merely demons causing fear. We rejected it. It worked, but only because of Jesus.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12
Be Ready
By the measure of people who have been attacked by sickness in our city, region and nation, I can tell you without reservation, people and not just Christians are under heavy attack right now. Whether we believe it or not. But if we do believe that the enemy is real and learn how to pray against and trust in God for protection against it, God will deliver us. Christians must arm themselves against the powers of the enemy through education of what the Bible says about it. It’s real and it’s time for us all to be ready when the enemy attacks. It could be a matter of life or death. I pray you take this seriously enough to believe what God has spoken about spiritual warfare.
God doesn’t say we won’t face trial and tribulations, in fact, He says that we will. So we must stand firm and be strong. We must gain the knowledge we need to stand in the evil day. We must put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-18) and be ready against all the plans and schemes the enemy tries to steal, kill, and destroy from the His children. It’s not just scripture, it’s the true word of God and we all need to work out our faith muscles to destroy every work of the devil.
God Bless,
Darrell
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. …
James 1:2-8