Lay Hands Upon The Sick…

The young woman came to my store every day. Each day she would come by after school and stop in. She was smart, articulate and interesting. She would talk about her hopes and her dreams. She would talk about what she was going to be and where she was going to go. About the world she wanted to see.

One day she did not stop. I thought to myself, “that is interesting. I wonder where Shana is.” Her father came by the next day. “Shana died from a reaction to medication. (She was a diabetic.)I just want you to know that she loved coming here. You always treated her well. Please come to her funeral.”

I spoke at Shana’s funeral. I hurt. I was angry. I was over run with emotions. I was a mess. Her father announced a new line of food that day to celebrate his daughter and her life on earth. He asked folks to try it. So many young people walked away. I thought “what is going on?”

I awoke from that dream shattered. I woke at 4:08 and the light on my clock was pulsing. I was crying in my sleep.

That dream meant a lot to me. I will let you do your own research about the 4:8, diabetes and her name. I am still working through it. (I would be interested in your thoughts.) At the root of it, it comes down to death. To sickness.

Earlier this week, I found myself upset because people talk about sickness but do not respond. They will talk about illness (”my illness…” drives me up a wall!) and medications but where is the faith? Most believers believe that God heals, but more time is spent on talking about it than responding to it. Where is the faith? The understanding of healing? Of laying hands upon the sick that they recover? We have “peoplized” (Or peoples lies…) to the point where we forget the core teachings of scripture. And watch people get sick and die! We have justified death and sickness with words of placation.

In the dream my young friend never told me about her illness. When she died I was shattered. People we are facing a crisis. Not a crisis of sickness, but a crisis of the absence of biblical principals related to healing and health.

“Lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover.” Not “talk about it and hope they get better.” (I suspect more time is spent talking about it than praying about it. When my son lay in the hospital in 2001, I made sure the talkers did not get to him!)

Earlier this week I thought it is time for people of the “finished work” to become aggressive with their faith in His work at the cross and (I consider myself part of this as well as the “grace movement” so to speak.) say “enough is enough” and begin to move in our faith of what He has done. This dream sealed it for me.

As I watched people not take part in the offering of the father (In the dream his food product.)I realized it is about acceptance and belief in Him and what He has offered up in Jesus. Too often we want to have relationship and fellowship, but that alone will not solve the healing needs of others.

Do not walk away from this feeling guilty, but do walk away saying “the deaf shall hear, the lame shall walk and the blind shall see!”

The Goonies said it best. “It is our time!”