DOES LOVE STILL HEAL?

We were created for 'the more'. As early as I can remember, I have known this. I trust you have known it too. Yet, it was a stumbling in the dark kind of journey, until Love came to live on the inside of me. That was thirty-five years ago. I’ve never regretted that decision. Since that time I have made it my pursuit to live in 'the more'.

It’s funny how Love doesn’t seem to be as concerned with time as I am. I spent the first twenty-five years of my honeymoon with Him thinking that my experience was reality. I would read about the miracles of Jesus and of the early church, and felt that was for a time that had passed. I looked all around me and all I saw were the experiences of others that looked very much like my own. I had seen some of my prayers answered…but truth be told, they were simple prayers. I never was taught a three point sermon to not believe in the miraculous. Nor, do I remember every having a conversation of such. It went unspoken. Like a silence that haunted my soul. I would sit on the pew week after week looking at those next to me…wondering if they knew something I didn’t. My spirit longed for 'the more'. I would read the Word daily and wonder what it must have been like to be alive in those exciting times when Jesus and His disciples literally changed the world around them.

About ten years ago I found myself in the middle of the worst crisis I could have ever imagined. Suffice it to say that I found my heart literally torn into, over the brokenness of someone I would have given my life for. In a matter of moments our lives had fractured. The fear of the unknown is always the loudest. Fear tracked me constantly, but His grace was more. I would fight for time alone with Him and pour out all of my pain. I would seek His face and remind both Him and myself how big He was. The grief was almost beyond my ability to stand. I remember Him asking me “Do you trust Me?” Through my sobbing I answered Him, “You know I do Lord…but what do I do with the pain?” On two other occasions when I poured my heart out to Him, He asked me that very same question, to which I again answered, “You know I trust You Lord…but what do I do with the pain?” Three times He had asked me that same question. Three times I had given Him the same answer. Little did I know that Love was setting the stage to answer my prayer for 'the more' that I had been longing for.

I wouldn’t want the pain of that season to ever visit another living soul. It was the lowest of lows and it was on that canvas that Love chose to show me a glimpse, behind the veil into 'the more'. I sat on a pew of an unfamiliar church wiping tears and mascara away as we sang the last hymn before dismissing. A woman’s voice from somewhere in the back of the sanctuary, began to project over the crowd. I had never experienced this before and I listened carefully. She was speaking as if she were speaking on behalf of the Lord. I hung on her every word because I was desperate to hear His voice. You see, I had prayed…no...I had begged, that before sunset on that day He would give me confirmation about what we were to do with our situation. It was not one of my simple prayers but one of bold proportions. One like I had only rarely prayed. I had to hear from Him or feared I could not survive.

As she began speaking there was a power released that I had never felt before, like a knowing that Love was speaking directly to me, even through a perfect stranger. She said “I was there when you were young and you fell off of your bike and scratched your knee. I was there when the words of others hurt you...and now you find yourself in a much harder season, a season where once again, I am with you…and as if He stood on His tip-toes, she shouted as if from the heavens “Trust Me, Trust Me, Trust Me – with the pain!” He used a total stranger to speak a word of knowledge to my broken heart. A word no one could have known other than the Lover of my soul. Love had used a total stranger to prophetically speak into my life. A new measure of peace came over our situation and I realized for myself that day, that 'the more' was and is available.

Since that time Love has spoken encouragement to me through dozens and dozens of His children. Many times, as confirmation of what He has been speaking quietly to my heart. I have also had the privilege to speak into the lives of others, only things the Lover of their soul would have known. The first time He used me to encourage someone in this manner is still etched in my mind. I was working with a client in a medical office who had recently been having problems with high blood pressure. She had come to the office that day with it being almost at stroke level. My job was to evaluate the situation and let the doctor know if we should call an ambulance. I heard Love ask me, to ask Him, why her blood pressure was so high. So I did. I heard Him say to my heart "her brother". I didn't even know if she had a brother! I really knew nothing personally about her. But, feeling prompted by Love, I chose to step out on the word He had spoken. So I asked her if she had any idea why she was struggling with high blood pressure recently. She thought about it and then responded that she thought maybe it was because of the stress she was dealing with over two of her dogs who had recently been warring with one another, and she was not sure how to resolve the issue without having to give one of them away. Well that didn't help me any, so I just dared to trust what I felt Love had put on my heart, and with fear and boldness all wrapped up together, I asked her if she thought it might be about her brother.

Immediately she looked into my eyes and asked "which one?" I had never been so happy to hear, that someone had a brother! She began to share that she had several, and in the past year had lost two of them as well as a brother in-law. Tears began to roll as she shared how it had been a really hard year but losing her baby brother had been the hardest, and she was going to have to sell the home she had bought for him, close to her own home. Selling the home was overwhelming to her as it was the only thing she had left of him. Through her sobbing she asked me how I knew she had a brother. I told her that the Lord had impressed me to ask her and that He was letting her know that He sees the pain and sorrow that she had been walking through and His heart was grieved for hers. He wanted to tell her she was not alone and she was going to be alright. That today was about making sure she knew how deep His love was for her, and how He longed to comfort her.

I will never forget the look on her face as she realized that somehow, in some strange way, Love had entered that room and had made His intimate love for her more than apparent. Her blood pressure began to return to normal within the next hour, and for the next year that I had the opportunity to see her, it had never returned. His presence and love had healed her both physically and emotionally.
I share this story to encourage you to believe that as wonderful and unimaginable as the gift of salvation is...it does not stop there. When we look at the life of Jesus we see Him not only rescuing the lost from the depths of a very real hell, we also see Him healing the sick and delivering those who were oppressed by the enemy. The Christian life becomes an exciting adventure when we realize we all get to partner with Him and what He is wanting to accomplish in someone's life. For the longest time in my journey, all I had ever been exposed to was the message of salvation, yet my heart knew there was 'more'.

Luke 9:10 tells us "For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost. The original meaning of the word 'save' is 'sozo'. Sozo in the Greek means to "save, heal and deliver", which is exactly what Jesus was busy doing while He walked upon the earth. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He continues even today to use His disciples to bring Heaven to Earth and make His name renown! His Gospel really is the good news!