Fiona H

When Beverley told me that Paul might have cancer, I had already sensed that something about Paul was not as it should be. I felt that God was leading me to fast, get down on my knees to pray for him. When I did he gave me the verses from Psalm 66 quoted in Beverley’s story - I understood that Paul and Beverley would go through ‘fire and water’ but be brought to ‘a place of abundance.’

I was grateful that the Lord had prepared me for this situation through something that had happened the year before. My friend Marcia’s baby, Jason, developed bacterial meningitis. This is its most serious form and the medical verdict was depressing. They said it was uncertain whether or not he would survive, and if he did, he would probably be unable to do more than lie in bed with lots of tubes and breathing aids.

I remember getting down on my knees with Marcia in the hospital and praying. We didn’t care how ridiculous we looked; we knew that we had to intercede for Jason’s life. God gave us, and several other people, encouraging messages that were very different from what the hospital was telling us.

I’ve learnt that when God speaks, we have to hold onto what he has said in prayer no matter what is being said by others. I find the story of the Israelite spies helps me, in the book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14. When the nation of Israel was wandering in the desert, God sent twelve Israelite men as spies into the ‘promised land’ he had planned to give them. Two came back to say that the land was good and they were confident that with God’s help they could conquer it. The other ten were terrified by the impressive-looking inhabitants and spread a bad report among the Israelites about what they had seen, discouraging the people from obeying God’s command to take the land, and causing a massive rebellion. The result of their lack of faith was that the nation was condemned to wander in the desert for a further forty years.

This Old Testament lesson has taught me to be wary of ‘bad reports’ if they contradict a clear message from God. Despite all the bad reports from the hospital about baby Jason, we chose to stand on what we had heard God saying – that he would recover. The reports were very negative indeed. Marcia was told that Jason’s meningitis count was so high that it would have killed an adult.

We prayed a lot for Jason at the Thursday Women’s group and I was able to relate many answers to our prayers to the group, week by week. His recovery exceeded all the doctors’ expectations. They call him the ‘miracle baby’. He is still going from strength to strength, and we continue to hold on to God’s promises for his complete healing.

I was well prepared, then, for praying for Paul. The reports on his health that I shared with the women’s group every week were dire, such as the E. coli and the septicaemia which should have killed him. I was able to say to the women each time, though, that God was going to heal Paul and we could stand on that knowledge in prayer.

Paul and Beverley are very precious to me. It was wonderful to see Paul completely healed, and to crack open a bottle of champagne to celebrate his life. The amazing thing is that the illness which Satan meant for evil has been turned round by God for good. Paul and Beverley were able to share their faith with other leukaemia sufferers in hospital – not only that, but they moved closer to God, and I can see how much they have grown spiritually.