“The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give it.” – E.M. Bounds

I believe wholeheartedly in the power of prayer because I’ve experienced it.

After years of hoping, longing and praying for healing of a beloved family member, who was suffering with physical and mental illness, I was devestated when my baby was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.

It felt like a continuation of the same old pain. Was it my destiny to suffer helplessly alongside yet another loved one? When would this pattern of heartache end in my life? Years of seemingly unanswered prayers had taken their tolle, I was devestated.

For His reasons that I don’t fully understand, God decided it was time to step in and took me on an adventure of faith, which changed my life forever.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

When I told a friend from church about my son’s diagnosis, she steered me toward a local priest, who was known for having the gift of healing. I took my son to visit that priest at his retirement home, where he laid hands on us and prayed in tongues. I’d never heard anyone do this before and thought it sounded like the elvish language from Lord of the Rings. It was a sweet and positive experience for us.

He sent me home with a stack of books about Catholic healing prayer and particularly steered me toward a book about intergenerational healing, which illustrates how Jesus is the Divine Physician, who can heal family patterns when we address them in prayer. I had never heard this concept before but was struck by the powerful energy I felt, while reading the prayers because I’d never experienced anything like it – it felt like electricity coursing through my veins.

As often as I could, I absorbed myself into the healing prayers he gave me. Every night, when I rocked my baby to sleep, I layed hands on him and prayed like the healing priest and began to have increasingly powerful and undeniable experiences of the Holy Spirit, while I prayed. It was like bright energizing light, and before long I could sense a dark cloud lifting off of my son. As strange as it may sound depending on what your experiences in prayer have been, it felt as natural as breathing even though I’d never experienced it before.

Through prayer, I gradually shifted from having hope that God would heal my baby to having complete faith that God was healing him through prayer. Though I followed all of his nephrologist’s orders about medications during that time, I spent all my extra time absorbing scripture about Jesus’s miracles, praying and reading other people’s testimonies about miraculous healings. Something in me simple knew God was working a miracle, and it was my job to fan the flames of belief in my heart.

Looking back, I see clearly how God filled me with the grace of faith during that time until one day in prayer I was given the strongest and most complete certainty not that my baby would be healed but that he had been one hundred percent healed by God.

I was so sure he had been healed that I called his doctor to ask if there would be negative effects from staying on his medication even though he’d been miraculously healed. The nurse probably thought I was crazy and told me to keep him on his meds, which I did to be responsible. But within weeks scans proved that what was supposed to be a chronic, lifelong condition had been miraculously healed in my son. His doctors were as thrilled as I was and open to hearing my side of the story since they didn’t have a medical explanation for his healing.

I went from someone, who had hoped and prayed for miracles for a very long time to someone, who was filled with a deep knowing that God heals today, just like He did when Jesus walked the earth.

Basically since that time, I have reordered my entire life around following Christ to the best of my abilities.

I’ve shared this story at church retreats, and it was published in a book called I Believe in Healing by Cecil Murphy. I hope and pray that sharing this story can help others believe in God’s miraculous healing power and experience more of it in their own lives.

I find I continually have more to learn about a life of faith and prayer, and I am happy to continue to absorb myself into learning and experiencing as much as I can about healing prayer, the spiritual journey, mysticism and contemplative prayer. I’m currently taking master’s level classes on the Theology of Spirituality at The Avila Institute because I want to continue drawing closer to the Lord and gaining wisdom to help others on their own faith journeys. 

It turns out the priest who prayed over my son was known for more than a gift of healing. He was a nationally reknowned champion of social justice, whose dying wish was for his groundbreaking work in our community to carry on. Social justice is a passion of mine as well, so  I’m also in the Marvin Mottet Leadership training academy throughout this year and hoping to carry on in his tradition of healing prayer, faith and seeking equality and justice for all with my words and actions, however God calls me to.

I’m not sure how that all will pan out, but that same “still small voice” that told me my son was healed is telling me it’s time to share my faith through writing. So I pray for the grace to do more of that in the coming year. Please pray for God to work through my words to increase faith and miracles in the world.

Do you have a miracle story to share? Witness is a powerful thing. Please share in the comments to help build the faith of this community.

Do you need a miracle? Please feel free to list prayer requests, and I’ll be happy to lift you up in prayer or provide any guidance I can. 

God, please unleash an outpouring of Your Spirit of Truth, Love, Peace and Healing on anyone, who reads these words, and bless them in the way they most need right now. Thank You Jesus and praise You forever!