Bee Healed

For the past 7 months, I have been in constant and withering pain from my right elbow, from a tendon that was injured while carrying firewood up the stairs in our home. We have prayed repeatedly for it, even seen a doctor who gave me a referral to an orthopedic surgeon, because of its severity. On Sunday evening, it was so painful, even Advil didn't seem to help much, so Jennifer prayed again over my elbow and arm. There was no immediate change.

On Monday, I wore my elbow brace while I worked cutting wood, and then weed-whacking the tall weeds along our stream. I was nearly done when I felt a burning pain on the inside of my elbow. I looked down and there was a double-sized BEE stinging me THROUGH the elbow brace, right above the location of my injury. I brushed him away and was astonished at the level of the pain of the sting. Later that day, the sting had a small hole in it, and was closing and scabbing over.

On Wednesday morning, my bee-sting still hurt, but not as bad. What was surprising was, that my elbow and the tendon was almost entirely pain free. No pain when I carry stuff, no pain when I bend it, and none when I straighten it. My only question was..."God, did you need to send a bee to heal me?" I heard in my spirit, "I can use mud to open a blind man's eyes, why not a bee to heal you?"

Understanding Sovereignty

Today I had prayer with a new friend, Thomas Owens. When we concluded, we talked a bit about "judgment" and how disasters are an 'example' of judgment. I have come to the place in my understanding of God that I believe that God isn't "sending judgments" against the earth for sin in the form of every earthquake, flood, famine or hurricane. My rationale for this is that God's wrath against sin was spent upon His Son, that God punished sin in His Son, and us in Him. If anything, God is not sending judgment upon an unbelieving world (yet), but rather is in a sense "judging the household of faith." (1 Peter 4:17).

Consider this scenario. There are those who claim that God "sends" sickness and disasters upon people, and they rationalize that God's absolute sovereignty requires that He has the ultimate say in whether those events happen or not. I would argue, however, that while God holds the veto power over the devil who is the author of sickness, death, disease, disaster and comes to steal, kill and destroy, God has also subordinated HIS authority to His Church, through His Son, who came to "destroy the works of the devil." In a very real way, the Church's mission is to carry on Jesus' mission of bringing the Kingdom of God to bear "on earth as it is in heaven." So when disaster, disease, death, sickness, and the other works of the devil are manifested on the earth, it is evidence of the church's failure to believe and fulfill Christ's commandment to carry the "Gospel of the Kingdom" to the uttermost parts of the earth. What does the Kingdom look like? It is anywhere the Presence and Power of God reigns. It is supposed to reign in you and me.