What Are You Talking About?

by Andi Trout Reese

Published here on Facebook - re-posted with permission

After a conversation today with a friend on the subject of healing, I felt it was time to share one of the biggest lessons God ever taught me in the area of healing. In my experience with praying for the sick, this seems to be the biggest obstacle people face in receiving and keeping their healing. The words of their mouth.

Proverbs 18:21 - Death and life are in the power of the tongue; And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Back in 1992 I was diagnosed with Mitral Valve Prolapse. That is a condition where the mitral valve in the heart is basically deformed. It does not function properly and causes a backwash of blood in the heart which is very painful, and it can also cause fainting due to improper circulation of the blood. I had seen doctors and cardiologists and had tests run. They told me that this is something, because of being a deformity of the valve, that people have all their lives, but it is usually in adulthood when the symptoms begin to show up.

As soon as I got the diagnosis I stepped forward in church to have the Pastor and his wife lay hands on me and pray for my healing according to James 5:14-15:

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
Knowing that God is faithful to His Word, I believed from the moment hands were laid on me that I was healed. God is not a liar! If His Word says we are healed, and it does in so many places, then we are. God has given me the kind of faith that grabs ahold of the promises of God like a pit bull latches onto a steak and locks down. No one and nothing can pry it loose no matter how hard they try! And let me tell you, the enemy, the devil, tried his best!

For the following year I continued to praise God for my healing. Almost daily I faced the pain and symptoms of Mitral Valve Prolapse on my body. Every time I did I began to thank God for healing me. I would declare His Word (my sword) over my body and thank Him for His faithfulness. I did not allow the pain or symptoms to dictate to me whether or not I was healed. I would only allow His Word to do that, and His Word said I was healed. I never spoke to anyone of the pain. During this year God used me to pray for so many sick people. I saw Him heal so many illnesses and diseases and cancers, and all the while the enemy kept hurling pain and symptoms on my body. But I wasn't budging!

After a year I was at the doctors office for something unrelated, and they ordered an echocardiogram to "check things out". Well, I was so excited because I knew it would be evidence of what He had already done! And sure enough, when the results came back it was confirmed! A CREATIVE MIRACLE! My mitral valve was perfectly formed and functioning normally. On the way home that day I was singing His praises and rejoicing in the fact that I now had evidence of what I had believed and stood on all along.

Then He began to speak to me and He showed me that my healing was complete the day my Pastor and his wife laid hands on me. That the pain that was coming on my body was lying symptoms placed there by the enemy of my soul, trying desperately to get me to speak the words of defeat, to confess that I was not healed. See if I would have done that, I would have signed for the "package" he was trying to deliver; sickness. And I would have lost the precious healing God gave me.

After learning that, I have seen over and over again that this is where many people actually lose the healing that Jesus paid such a high price for. I have laid hands on those in pain and prayed for their healing. I have felt the fire of God in my hand going into their bodies (not that anything at all needs to be felt, but He does that at times to help our faith), and I have had people tell me that my hands felt like fire. Then as soon as the prayer is over they begin speaking about "their" cancer, "their" diabetes, "their' pain. . . Healing lost by the words of their mouth. THAT is the fruit of our lips! That is the fruit we eat according to our scripture in Proverbs. If we speak sickness and pain, we will eat the fruit of our lips!

If we are going to receive God's promise of healing and keep it, it is VITAL that we get into agreement with His Word NO MATTER WHAT. Remember He is not a liar:

Numbers 23:19 - God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Stop agreeing with the enemy of your soul, the one who wants to kill and defeat you, and begin to line up your words and actions with the LOVER of your soul, Jesus! And begin to see and experience the abundant life that He has promised!

John 10:10 -
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).