King's News 33
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Street healing

After years of back pain, Ross Mitchell found an amazing blessing on the streets of Plymouth. This is his story...

For several years I have suffered problems with my back, and some periods have been particularly painful. After a couple of comparatively pain-free years, problems flared up last autumn. I suffered very bad sciatica and an MRI scan showed I needed surgery in my lower back to free a nerve that was causing acute pain in my lower left leg.

The operation was scheduled for January this year, but I was so bent over and my back so inflamed that the surgeon postponed the operation until February to give the inflammation a chance to decline. All this time friends from church and family were praying for me, and I had many periods when I knew a measure of healing and God's blessing.

On 1st February, some friends told us of their involvement with a group of Christians who meet on the streets in the centre of Plymouth on Saturday mornings and pray for anyone with any need. I first visited this group the next Saturday on 7th February. At that time, apart from being doubled over with the leg pain I was also suffering from mouth ulcers and an unpleasant lump on my spine just above where the surgeon said he was going to operate.

After receiving prayer on the street, I went to the chemist to get some mouthwash for the ulcers. On returning to the car I discovered all soreness had disappeared. When I got home I noticed the lump on my spine had diminished. Within 48 hours it had totally gone. I went back for more prayer the following Saturday and although I did not receive anything as dramatic as the previous week, I was able to stand without pain and was more upright.

I went in for surgery in February but a more urgent case came up and I was rescheduled for 4 March. I went back for more prayer on Saturday 28 February and by this time I could walk with little pain and had been able to reduce my morphine dose by half. I also received more of God's blessing and wondered what was going to happen when I turned up for surgery.

On the day of the surgery the assessment doctor  was quite amazed at my rate of progress. He pointed out that the numbness I still have in my feet would be unlikely to be cured by surgery and the leg pain had now moved into a place where it was doubtful if surgery would make much improvement. He suggested I saw the surgeon. 30 minutes later the surgeon asked me the same questions and I explained that I had received prayer on the streets of Plymouth. After examining me he said that if I had had the surgery 6 weeks earlier he would not have expected me to have recovered to the extent I was able to demonstrate. He said he was not going to operate and he then discharged me completely. Since that time just over 2 months ago I still have some discomfort but I am no longer taking morphine or any other painkillers and I have been able to return to work. I am confident that what God has started He will complete.

Ross

Ross lives with his wife Caroline in Milton Combe and works in Mary Tavy where he manages the Hydro Electric Power Station. He attends St Andrew's church in Buckland Monachorum.

The Mind of God
...will we ever really get our heads round it? Chris Wright has his doubts...

In several places in the Bible it says that God's ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts higher than our thoughts; that "His ways are past finding out", "His wisdom is unsearchable" and so on. Sounds very deep and significant, but what does it mean in day-to-day life? Well, I think it means that if you seek God, if you try to hear His voice and follow His ways, you have thoughts like - "I think this is what God is saying, but it makes no sense"; or "Why would God do THAT?" Do you ever struggle with thoughts like that?

I actually find it comforting; I think I'd worry if I were cleverer than God!! If his ways were not past understanding, we'd never be puzzled by them. I don't need a God whose ways I can predict, I need "a rock that is higher than I".

There have been times when God has asked me to say and do things that I wasn't sure about at all! But then if I understood, where would there be any faith? God wants us to trust Him and obey Him; you don't need to trust if you know. There is also the point that God is so often doing more at any given time than we know. We think He's sorting out our difficulty that we've been asking about for so long, but actually He's working on our character at the same time (ref Hebrews 12 v9, 10 and Romans 8vv28-31).

For some of us, the issue of allowing someone else (even a benign God) to have control of the steering wheel of our lives is very threatening. Some of us don't like surprises. What if God does something I don't like?

Well, that's where trust comes in. Someone said that 'faith' could be spelled r-i-s-k. If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat! Trouble is that we often confuse wisdom with playing safe. There are times when wisdom means taking a risk, stepping out, deliberately going into a potentially stressful situation and there you find that God can be trusted.

Chris
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