Lou Gehrig's Disease Healed

I began to cry when I watched this video. Wouldn't you know it - she 's a paramedic and a dispatcher. God is amazing. Be encouraged!

Thoughts for November

This blog has a couple of purposes; one is to demonstrate to the world (and the medical community in particular) that God is able and willing to heal people of every kind of disease, today. There is skepticism that must be overcome and there is power in the testimony of healing that overcomes skepticism. That's the reason for the videos and written testimonies of those who've been healed.

Another purpose is to show you how and when we can heal people. It isn't just for church services or evangelistic crusades. So I'm posting a lot of videos that show normal people like us, out in everyday places healing people. I hope they're inspiring. We can and should be healing people every day in every setting - particularly in hospitals and in pre-hospital EMS. This is a major change in my thinking. But the more I pray for patients and co-workers, the more I'm amazed at how easy it is and how often God heals people. As hospital beds become less available -it's even more important for us to get our patients healed and send them home healthy.

As fear about bacterial and viral disease prevalence grows, we need to focus on this: The Holy Spirit is the greatest anti-septic in the universe. Yes, I know people will always remind us it's possible for us to catch a bug from a patient. But I continually remind myself of a few things to counter this argument. Jesus commanded his disciples to cleanse lepers. Knowing their fear about getting the disease themselves, he told them nothing would by any means harm them. (Luke 10:19 ) They operated in healing - and God promised to heal them or prevent disease transmission by killing every germ that came their way. He's still doing it today for those who heal the sick. We have to trust God in this. While in South Africa, John G. Lake went through piles of dead bodies killed by the plague. He was looking for bodies to raise from the dead. People said he was crazy and that he would die from the plague. But he was firmly convinced that the Holy Spirit would never allow any bacteria or virus to harm him, and he was right - he never got the diseases he healed. My own fears have been crushed by focusing on these things. I have no fear anymore about catching diseases from my patients. Since I started praying regularly for the sick, I haven't been sick once, not even a cold. I do have occasional muscle aches and my neck pain (from reading too many books) flares up from time to time. Some of the aches and pains are healed with prayer when I decide to take action against it. And my long history of chronic low-back pain seems to have vanished.

I had a surprise this weekend. I found out there are a lot more Christians working in my company than I realized. I had a conversation with my partner about prayer in front of some co-workers. Suddenly believers materialized out of nowhere. I found myself (unknowingly) in a room full of professing Christians at work. I wouldn't have suspected any of them as being believers. It made me wonder. How many believers do I actually work with? Why don't we ever get together? How many are praying for their patients? Would any of them be open to learning more about it? And why the heck are we so afraid to let our light shine in the workplace?

If you're one of the people I work with and you're interested in learning more about healing your patients, please let me know.

On a different note - My partner got healed again...for the third time. He told me he had pain and numbness in his right arm after a call. It ran down the outside of his arm to the wrist, along the ulnar nerve pathway. It may have been due to swelling of a sprain near the spine that caused pressure on the nerve. He was very uncomfortable. While he was driving, I put my hand on his back and commanded healing into his back and arm. I told the pain and numbness to leave. I prayed one time. About fifteen minutes later he said the pain and numbness was almost completely gone. He's was healed of a headache about a month ago, a pulled muscle last week and pain and numbness this weekend. I'm beginning to use him as my walking, talking book of testimonies.

Our company is making a big deal about reducing on the job injuries. They're giving away a mystery prize to the operation with the lowest number of injuries this quarter. How cool would it be if every time one of us got injured, instead of the usual routine of seeing a doctor, paying our co-pay, taking time off work, laying on cold packs and taking pills - we prayed for our co-workers and healed them instead? I dunno, I think it would be good for the company, good for us, and God would be honored. Call me crazy.

Monday was a great day. My partner was healed again, and I think I prayed with just about everyone we transported. We transported a sweet woman with multiple problems - severe COPD, diabetes, depression and the terrible effects from long-term steroid dependence. She had a new pericardial effusion, which was causing persistent hypotension. That bought her a vasopresin drip and a cardiology consult. I told the patient and family about some of the healing miracles I'd seen and they were all glad to let me pray for her. When I closed my eyes to pray I saw a vision of cigarettes. (This was before I read her chart or had any information about her medical history)

I took the vision as a sign from God that this was the cause of her problems. She confirmed she'd been a smoker her entire adult life until a few years ago. That caused her COPD and other conditions as well as her dependence on steroids. My prayer strategy was simply to reverse the effects of smoking and all it's damage to her. Did it work? All I can say is this - her primary problem was low blood pressure from the damaged heart.On vasopresin her systolic pressure was around 120 - 130. By the time we arrived at the other hospital it was 160/90. When I told her she was shocked. She couldn't remember ever having a blood pressure that high. This wasn't the first time I've seen this. Several months ago I transported someone on pressors to a large hospital. The report I got was profound, persistent low blood pressure no higher than 100 and no neurological activity. By the time we arrived his pressure was in the 140's and he was waking up, trying to pull out his IV's.

Some days are full of victory, some are discouraging. Others are a mixed bag. I can't predict what kind of day I'm going to have. Every day as I drive in to work I wonder, will I be able to pray for anyone? Will anyone be healed? I know this - victory is unavoidable when you pray, but it may take time. Defeat is assured when you don't pray - it's usually immediate.

November is going to be a pivotal month. Huge changes are in the works. I can feel the shift happening. Some of it is very hard to endure. Many of us feel like giving up. Please don't abandon your hope. God is about to bring something incredible to your life. Hang in there and wait for the promise. He is faithful in everything.

Till next time-

Living a Life of Miracles

A wave of healing is sweeping the nation. It's not for high-profile ministers anymore. Anyone can do it, even you. Check out this excellent video and believe that God wants to use you to heal others.

Bill Johnson & Randy Clark on God's Presence

These men see miracles of healing nearly every day. What do they have to say about the presenece of God?

Bill Johnson - a Lifestyle of Miracles

Bill Johnson is interviewed on the 700 club about his perspective on making the miraculous a normal lifestyle.

Faith, Spirituality and Healthcare (Video)

This video is a brief discussion on the role of faith and spirituality in healthcare. It was produced by Global Awakening Films. Their video podcast archive can be viewed here.

Multiple Sclerosis Healed After 30 Years

This woman was healed of Multiple Sclerosis on Halloween night at Bethel church's healing rooms in Redding, California.

A Holy Ghost Story

On Halloween night, I thought I’d scare you with a ghost story. My patient Jim, (not his real name) was admitted with breathing problems and treated for pneumonia. He also suffered from gradually worsening pain and weakness in his legs after back surgery. During his hospital stay he developed respiratory failure and was intubated. The usual culprits like pulmonary embolus, sepsis and cerebral bleed were ruled out. Despite aggressive treatment, his respiratory failure worsened. He failed spontaneous breathing trials, and was given a tracheostomy. His diagnosis was ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). I was transporting him to a facility for rehab and long – term care. I was grateful they waited a few days for the transfer. My last vent patient still had fresh blood on his tracheostomy.

Jim appeared stable. He had all the usual lines and tubes attached but no IV meds running. This should be an easy transport. The only potential problem was fear. He was extremely anxious about the transfer. The nurse said she’d give him some Ativan. He also had a lot of chronic pain which earned him a Fentanyl patch. His med list showed a few other narcotics he took as needed, and just as many stool softeners to help move things along. The nurse said she’d give him some Dilaudid before the trip...Sweet!

I prefer it when anxious patients are well-sedated. Snowed into oblivion is even better. When I worked as a flight medic we had to institute protocols for mandatory chemical or physical restraints because of a few “incidents” we had in the air. I’ve had a few patients unexpectedly leave the ambulance…on the freeway. That's another story.

As I got my equipment ready, I overheard the RT taking care of Jim remind him of all the things Jesus already did for him to pave the way. She told him to trust God that everything would work out for the best. I love running into fellow-believers in the ICU. I joined in. Together we encouraged him. I told him the story of Scott Buzzell, my friend with ALS, who’s going to be healed. After tweaking the settings and getting Jim accustomed to my vent, we moved him over.

The first ten minutes were spent adjusting the settings on the vent, and trying to keep Jim calm. He was nervous; fidgeting and motioning to me frequently that he wasn’t getting enough of a breath. I’m a terrible lip-reader. I couldn’t understand what he was telling me. But his color and vitals were good, his CO2 was OK. He was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I began to pray for the Holy Ghost to come into the ambulance and bring Jim peace. I prayed with him for the next 10 minutes and encouraged him to trust in God. The more I prayed the more calm he became. I kept telling him to let go of his fears and let God be in control.

I noticed he became very, very relaxed. Too relaxed…now he was unresponsive. I looked at the monitor His sats and heart rate were in the toilet. Crap!! I told my partner, “Pull over, NOW. And get back here.”

I checked his eyes…nobody home. He still had a pulse. As my pilot looked for a safe place to land, I disconnected the vent and grabbed the BVM sitting next to me. Our crash landing kicked up a few large rocks. Nobody got hurt. My partner asked what was going on. I gave him the lowdown. Squeezing the bag, I continued trying to wake Jim up. He finally opened his eyes and looked around, obviously confused. He had no idea where he was. His confusion lasted about a minute. Once I explained what happened and where he was, he was fine.

My EMT shut off the vent and helped me take the Velcro tie off the tracheostomy cannula, spin the adapter 180 degrees and reattach the BVM. I wedged myself between the gurney and the bench seat. My knees were already sore from crouching next to him so I could pray, but I didn’t care. My partner asked if I wanted another unit to help. I said no. We moved things around so I could see them better and told him I’d be fine bagging the rest of the way.

The rest of the trip was a breeze. No worries about the vent settings. I just kept squeezing the bag every time he took a breath. His vitals remained rock solid. I love automatic monitoring. My laptop looked at me with a silly grin. We don’t do paper reports anymore; it’s all electronic. I hadn’t even started yet. It’s nice to get your charting done early, sometimes it doesn’t happen. I didn’t care about anything right now except getting Jim through this crazy ordeal without another incident. Here’s your Kodak moment; two grown men holding hands, praying in the back of an ambulance flying down the freeway at mach 2.

Something happened to Jim while he was away for those few minutes. When he came back, he wasn’t afraid, not even slightly anxious. No fidgeting, no fussing, not a wrinkle on his brow. He was perfectly at peace and wide awake. He seemed like a different man. Later that day I wondered what happened. Why did he suddenly check out? My first thought was that he had too much happy juice in the ICU and it caught up to him. It’s certainly possible. But if he was overmedicated, why did he suddenly become alert within a few minutes? And why was he suddenly at peace? Was it because I was bagging him?

I think something else happened. I’ve never experienced this, but stories about it are common. As I prayed for the Holy Spirit to come into the ambulance, I encouraged Jim to lean on God and trust him with everything; to let go of every fear and rest in God’s love. It was at this point when he became unresponsive. I think maybe he had an encounter with God. I hear a lot of stories about people who leave their bodies and travel in their spirit to hang out with God for encouragement, instruction or other divine business. They often come back with a new perspective on their problems. I hope to meet Jim in the future and get to ask him about the trip. God has ways of putting those people in your path. If I do I'll let you know what happened.

I hope you have a safe Halloween. If you get a chance, pray for someone. Maybe they’ll have a Holy Ghost story to tell, too.

Praying for Young Women

Praying for people isn't always a smooth road. My daughter and I run into problems from time to time. She's glad I developed a lifestyle of praying for people. She really likes it when I pray for her and some pain is healed. But she's a little creeped out when I want to pray for her friends. Many of her friends in high school aren't into God or religion and have never been approached by someone who wanted to pray for them. She pretty much asked me not to pray for anyone at her swim meets this season. I love my daughter. I see God doing a lot of things in her life. I give her a lot of grace; being a teenager isn't easy.

This week I had an opportunity to show her how prayer works and challenge her fears about it. My daughter has a friend on the swim team who needs healing. Her problem is a stress fracture in her foot. She's been hobbling around on crutches for a month or so. Swimming is OK, but walking is difficult. My daughter and I talked about it and she wasn't comfortable having me ask her friend about prayer. I respected her wishes...for a while. Her friend doesn't have much of an awareness of God, so the question of divine healing causes concern. What if you ask and she says no? What if you pray and she doesn't get healed? Won't it give her more reason not to believe? Teenagers are concerned about how others perceive them. We covered all the concerns she had. I tried to be sensitive to them and for several weeks I put it out of my mind. This was in spite of the fact that I believed I had a word of knowledge about her healing. When my daughter first mentioned the injury about a month ago, I could swear I heard God say, "I'll heal her."

This week God opened the door. As I went to pick up my daughter from swim practice, the girl with the injured foot and a few friends were waiting in the parking lot. I got out of my car and approached them with a big smile. I asked how practice went and talked about the upcoming district meet to build a bridge of relationship with them. I asked my 'patient' about her foot. She filled me in on the latest scoop from her doctor. I asked if she liked hobbling around on crutches. She said no. I suggested maybe she didn't have to. She asked what the alternative was. I told her about a few miracles I'd seen and suggested hers might be the next one. I told her I'd like to pray and ask God to heal her. She said, "go ahead". I didn't really ask for healing. God told me a while back not to beg, but to command healing, so I commanded the foot to be healed. The whole process took about 10 seconds. I told her I wanted to hear about it at the next meet. My daughter and I left; she was all smiles on the way home.

A few days ago was the last dual swim meet of the year. It had been re-scheduled twice. It finally arrived on a day I was off duty, so I went. Halfway through the meet I was surprised to see someone I knew. She's a member of the opposing team. I first saw her last year at one of the home meets. Here's what happened that day. I saw two girls pass in front of me as they walked to the locker room. They were holding hands, one was being led by the other. I immediately noticed something was wrong with the second girl's eyes. It was obvious she couldn't see very well. Immediately as I began to wonder about her eyes and if God might do something, I saw the words "I will heal" flash before my eyes. Later, I asked the team-mate about her friend's eye problem. She told me she's nearly blind and though she's been treated numerous times, there's no procedure to fix it. Her limited vision means she'll never be able to drive or do a lot of things most of us take for granted.

That night I had a vision. Around midnight, I woke up. God showed me an image of the girl with the eye problem. It was something like watching a short video. In the vision I saw bandages being placed on her eyes and the the words "three days." I asked God if this indicated her healing and He said, "yes". I wrote a note explaining what God had told me about her condition and the fact that He wanted to heal her. I hoped to give it to her at the district meet last year, but she wasn't there. I gave to her coach, who gave it to the girl. I haven't seen her since that day.

(Fast forward about a year) Now she's standing in front of me. I introduced myself and asked if she remembered the note from last year. She did. I recalled the day I saw her and what God told me about healing her. She was a little excited, but confessed, "I'm not religious". I smiled and said it didn't matter, God still wanted to heal her. I asked if I could pray with her. She said, "right now?" I said, "yeah, now."  I took her hand and spoke what God put on my heart. I asked Him to bless her in every possible way and restore her vision. It was short and quiet. I didn't want to make a scene.

On the drive home my daughter said, "I saw you praying with the girl who has the eye problems." It never occurred to me she may have been watching. I was busted. But she didn't give me a hard time about it. Everyone in my home has heard me talk about this girl and her healing for a year. She knows I have a tremendous burden to see her vision restored. She may have sensed it was by divine appointment that the last meet of the year was postponed twice so I could be there and finally pray with this girl. My daughter was glad I prayed for her. I think her fears are being resolved. That's good, because I think she may be following in my footsteps one day.

The last story is about one of those everyday things that became an encounter with God. I'm fortunate to go to a church where the pastors are real people. They have cell phones. They answer them when people call. I can even send a text message and they reply to me. I like that. I even harass them on Facebook and they give it right back to me. I haven't attended this church very long, but for some strange reason I feel like these guys actually care about what's going on in my life. It's the first church I've ever attended where I have direct access to leadership. They don't have secretaries or a layer of people insulating them from the flock. I'm still a bit shocked by this.

We get together about once a month or so for coffee to get caught up on things. Today I was with Dennis Teague, Bill Coultas and Matt Evans. Dennis is the primary pastor, but does a lot of missionary work overseas. Bill functions in various leadership roles in the church . Matt is a friend who has fun going out in public and watching God do miracles. He writes the blog about awesome and bizarre God stories listed on this page under "My Blog List". These guys love to pray for people.

As I ordered coffee and a sandwich I noticed the young woman taking my order was wearing a sling on her arm. Inquiring minds want to know...."So why are you wearing the sling?" My usual line of questions revealed a rare condition; she has no connective tissue in her shoulder. The ligaments, tendons and cartilage are missing. Bone on bone. That must hurt. She said she was scheduled for another surgery in a few weeks. (Not if I have anything to do with it) I watched as she made my coffee and rang up the bill with her one good arm. And my heart began to hurt for this sweet person. We had to do something.

I got back to the table with the guys; a group of men who collectively have probably witnessed over a thousand miracles of healing. Dennis and his son prayed for a guy years ago who was raised from the dead. I told them about the gal who took my order. I asked them to join me in praying for her. It was like asking a golden retriever to go after a floundering duck. After eating lunch and engaging in some heavy duty vision-casting we asked our waitress to have the injured woman come to our table. When she arrived I introduced our panel of experts and shared with the guys a few things I'd learned from her while she took my order. I asked if she was looking forward to the surgery. She said she'd do anything to avoid it. I asked if we could pray for her to be healed. Her eyes lit up with excitement. "Yes, I'd love it!"

We had her step a close as she could to the table, all of touched her hand or part of her arm. We prayed in our own way. She was deeply touched that a group of strangers would bother to see her need and intercede for her. With tears in her eyes she thanked us and promised to tell us the results when we came back.

It isn't hard to pray for people. OK, it's a little slow getting started. And at times you won't feel like doing it. There will always be doubts and excuses. I'd encourage you to push past all this stuff and look for people who have a need for healing. Take 2 minutes and build a quick bridge of trust. Take 20 seconds and pray for them. Leave the healing and the relationship issues in God's hands. You'll probably never regret praying for anyone. You'll always regret it when you don't.

Training For a New Level of Healing

It's a little over a month before God pours out the Holy Spirit on Olympia. The voice in the night warned me to stay here and wait for it. I expected to hear news of revival in other areas by now and thought that was why I was told to stay put. Perhaps the revival will begin here. If you're not aware of the message I'm referring to you can review it here.

I've had so many dreams in which I'm praying for people to be healed. God keeps hammering away at this issue. The coming revival must be a move in which we're going to see a lot of healing miracles.  Right now I'm in training. I hope you are too. I had another dream on October 23rd. This happens to be one month before the date that God said my friend Scott would be healed of Lou Gehrig's disease. I know He said it would happen  November 23rd, but I don't know the year. Please pray for him to be healed this year.

In the dream I was with another medic who looked like a friend named Kevin from AMR. We seemed to be working together as partners in King County. There was a new set of protocols he was teaching me about. We had a patient with a dislocated shoulder. He showed me a (mysterious - non-existent) device we put on the patient that immediately reduced the dislocation. We didn’t give the patient anything for pain, or even start an IV. It happened very quickly. The medic seemed very confident and comfortable in this new approach to treatment. I can only interpret this as God’s way of illustrating a new thing He wants me to do. The county we worked in was King County -  symbolizing this is a Kingdom of God thing. Healing severe orthopedic injuries in the rig is way outside my comfort zone right now. How do you explain to a base station Doc that you just reduced a dislocated shoulder with prayer and want to leave the patient at home? Never done it, so if God wants me to do it without soiling my uniform pants,  I need some training. I'm glad He's able to run me through a few practice scenarios in my dreams. Funny thing about God's practice scenarios is, I never fail!

The dream scenario was about learning a totally new set of protocols. A set means plurality. As in, there are many new things God wants me (may I say us?) to do. The shoulder reduction is just one of them. Who knows what other amazing miracles God wants to show us in the future. I've had several visions about resurrections....come ON! You know you want to see at least one!! Well then start praying for it. Ask God to make you one of the people who will show his wonderful works in the coming revival. And seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness - everything else you need comes as a result of that.

Colon Cancer Healed

This story was aired by channel 7 news in Spartanburg, South Carolina in April 2009. The patient, Bill Pitts was completely healed of stage IV colon cancer. His doctor had no medical explanation for it, humbling suggesting it was probably God.

Angel Visits Girl in Hospital

This is a news story from last December aired on WFMY news (Channel 2) in North Carolina.