A Plea for Help

Last year, I received the following email from a friend:

August 2016: Elma, as I did mention previously that I have been having spasms, then my x-ray and finally my MRI, which didn't look good, and I was told that I now have INTERSTITIAL LUNG DISEASE....Elma, I didn't want to burden you or anyone so I just kept in my corner and last week I was horribly sick, intense coughing and short of breath..I couldn't do anything without getting so tired even walking up the stairs, but I will not let it get me down and I will build my immune system up and do some more walking... It has given me a fright but I leave everything to The Lord as He is in control.

At the time, I replied:

... I think you need spiritual help (I have recently learnt and seen evidence that spiritual problems can manifest themselves in physical health problems). I know you don't believe me in this area, but I cannot stay quiet about it when I know it may help you. Anyway, I offer you my prayers, and will plead to God all I can for you, but I would like to have the chance to visit.

I knew that it would take a personal visit to make my case, but life got so busy for me that a whole year would pass before another email arrived to serve as a stark reminder of my friend's cry for help:

September 2017: ... as you know and I forgotten if I have share my illness with you, which is a Lung disease called Interstitial Lung Disease, and they say that it is brought about by being exposed to asbestos, and I know that I have not been exposed to any...

I do go for my regular Respiratory tests every 6 months as I get really tight on my left side of my chest and whistling sounds...

Having read her message, I decided this time that I was going to see her. Due to my heavy schedule, I was only able to book a flight scheduled for 7 weeks later.

A Mission of Love

Two days after I made the flight booking, I became unwell. I thought nothing of it since I usually recover within a week, and I had 7 weeks ahead of me before my trip -- I had ample time to get well.

Unfortunately, 7 weeks passed with no sign of my condition improving; if anything, I was getting worse. I had visited the doctor 3 times already, and none of the medication given to me worked! It came to the last night before my flight, my heart was torn in two: should I stay, or should I go amidst all my pain? Was the enemy attacking me, trying to prevent me from visiting my friend?

And so came the morning of my flight... I decided to go!

In hindsight now, had I been fit and healthy, the motive of my visit would have been to try and "fix" my friend's problems, but since I was unwell, my motive was now stemming out of "love". Do I love her enough to go and help? And so, it became a "mission of love".

LOVE is the thing that beckons the hand of God to work in amazing ways, it compels His mercy and grace for whatever situation is at hand. Had God not purified my motive for visiting my friend, it would be certain that my trip would have been a waste of time. But since He did, my friend and I were to witness one of the most amazing displays of God's power at work.

An Initial Reaction

The first two days of my stay were spent listening to my friend's issues, and sharing my own revelations from God that could be applicable to her. It was interesting to note that her mother died of a stomach cancer caused by asbestos. It would appear that as my friend had never herself been exposed to asbestos, there was a possibility of a generational curse of disease caused by asbestos coming down the line from her mother.

So, we went through the process of confession, repentance, and forgiveness of her own sins, as well as her generational sins and inequities. As I prayed over her, she exclaimed how she suddenly felt cold, goose bumps rising on her skin. This experience occurred repeatedly during the 5 times that I prayed for her in that first 2 days of my visit.

A Head Connection

On the third night, we dug deeper into one of her other issues. It was a difficult session as she was connecting only with her head, and not with her heart. It seemed that she had closed her heart in order to protect it. I did what I could to break down those protective walls, but I knew that healing could only happen if she could connect with her heart. After some time, we broke for supper, and I prayed silently to the Lord for help.

A Heart Connection

During supper, as we were chit-chatting about this and that, I felt the sudden prompting of the Holy Spirit to ask her if she was angry. I said that anger must be expressed, otherwise it could come out sideways -- to which she promptly replied, "Elma, if there is one thing that I am, it is that I am not angry!"

Just then I felt impressed to show her a person with whom she was recently angry, and how she has held that anger for 2 months. The expression on her face changed, she became pensive. After some minutes, I heard her say, "Yes, I am angry" followed then by a continuing flood of tears.

I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to let her sob, to let it all out, to express all the anger she needed to express. Then I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Now, we are getting somewhere -- she is connecting with her heart!".

Supper was now forgotten and no longer important -- it was her hurting heart that had become important.

Then the Lord showed me how it all began. She was the only girl in the family, and by her culture and tradition (also by what her mother taught) she was to wait upon the men of her family: her father and her brothers. She was, of course, obedient to her tasks, and did everything perfectly: she cared, and met their every need for many years. This role that had been imposed upon her life robbed her of her childhood. She would often wish she could play, instead of working in the kitchen. She also often wondered why her brothers (even her twin brother) were never given the responsibilities she was given. She often felt lonely, tired, and frustrated... but most of all she felt angry!

Jesus Came to Visit

As I saw the wound of her heart, I felt to pray for Jesus to come and heal her. As I did so, she had a vison of Jesus standing by her kitchen door, looking at her, as if to keep her company as she was working away. She was not alone; He was there with her all this time.

I encouraged her to talk to Him and to give Him her anger, frustration, and loneliness. As she did so, I heard her chuckle and giggle, so grateful of His presence there in the kitchen. He was turning all the negativity into joy! He was healing her!

Deliverance

Just then I felt the Holy Spirit speaking again, telling me to pray for her lungs. I stood up and prayed over her and commanded the spirit of Lung Disease to leave her (among many others that came into my mind at that time, including the spirit of Anger and Frustration). As I did this, she coughed several strong crackly coughs in succession. And after some minutes of prayer, when everything became calm she said to me, "My chest feels clear!". I was shocked, happy, amazed, and immediately asked her to walk up and down the stairs. She did so, and exclaimed that her chest was still clear, with no more tightness and no more wheezing.

A New Breath of Life

The next morning, we checked her chest; it was still clear! It was as if nothing bad had ever happened to it. It was as good as new. God has healed her diseased lung, and given her a new breath of life. Hallelujah!

We sat over breakfast praising and thanking God. As we did so, we both smelled the beautiful, perfumed scent of the Holy Spirit. My friend has often heard me talk about the scent of the Holy Spirit, but never actually experienced it herself until that very moment. Oh, it was a very special moment that we both cherished with joy and wonder!

The time came for me to go and catch my flight back home. As we prayed together, my friend commented how funny it was that she did not feel cold like she did before (when I prayed during those first two days), and that there were no goose bumps. She felt just normal.

Curious, I asked her, "When you felt cold before, was it your whole body?"

She replied, "No, just my left side that was cold"

So, I asked further, "Which side of your lung was diseased?"

She said, "My left one!"

The penny dropped! When my friend felt cold during the first two days of prayers, it was the spirit of Lung Disease manifesting in reaction to those prayers. And now that it has been cast out, she no longer felt its cold presence. She felt normal, just as she should be. Hallelujah, praise God! What an interesting insight the Holy Spirit has shown both of us.

Shortly after my return home, my friend emailed me:

13th November 2017: ... My chest is still healed... Halleluia!

I have spoken with my friend on most days since, and to this very day (late November), she is still healed!

When God heals, He never does half a job, He brings complete healing to every part of our triune being: body, soul, and spirit. For my friend, He had certainly healed her soul and spirit by turning anger to joy; turning loneliness to experiencing His everlasting presence, knowing she no longer needed to strive, strive, strive, but simply to relax in His presence (no longer a Martha, but a Mary). And as for her body, He took a wheezing, tight chest, a lung full of white fungus to a lung full of the breath of a new life... "new life" in every sense of the word.

All glory, honour and praise be to our triune God!

Psalm 150:6

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Job 33:4

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Acts 17:24-25

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

© Elma Larsen. All rights reserved.