"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above, And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved."
(Acts 2:17-21)
The night of August 18th, 2008 was truly the most incredible experience and birthday of my life. It far exceeded any expectation I might have had for this night to be. It was hard to leave the church, and our small taste of heaven on earth, this night and to return to real life. Several of us hung around in the church parking lot afterwards talking about what had just happened.
One of the most beautiful things about this night was that so many various gifts were being displayed. I truly believe that something very miraculous took place in order for this to occur. I think that often times people are afraid to share their unique and invaluable gifts for fear of how it will be received. Some of the most incredible gifts are quenched early on by rejection. Yet, on this glorious night, there seemed to be complete freedom. Even after we moved out into the parking lot, miraculous things were continuing to take place to prepare me for what was ahead.
I remember looking down, as we were leaving the church, and noticing that Kaylee's ankle had not changed in appearance. While I might have felt a slight disappointment in that brief moment, shortly after this, Erica received an anonymous text message that read: Look up into the sky. It's a blood moon. Kaylee will be cleansed all throughout the night.
Some of my memories of this night are completely clear, while other memories are a bit more hazy. I heard about something this night that has forever changed the way I view my prayer life, yet the specifics of how I came to know about it are not clear. I was told that someone saw, through a vision, that two angels were trying to get to Kaylee but that they were being blocked by what appeared to be a "wall of demons." As the night went on, and as we continued in united prayer, this "wall" began to break down and the angels were eventually able to make their way over to Kaylee. I was also told (and I cannot recall if this was the same vision or not) that two angels were pouring blood into Kaylee.
Another vision, one that Kaylee later told me about, was by one of the female college students who prayed for her on this night. As she was praying, she glanced up and told Kaylee, "There are two angels standing behind you." These separate visions, recounted by at least two separate individuals, seemed to coincide with one another. While I normally would have been skeptical about things such as this, on this night, which felt as though the heavens had been opened up to us, I received every word.
I believe that the "wall of demons" in this first vision gives us a perfect picture of the warfare taking place while we are praying. My own interpretation of this vision has helped me to understand that there are strongholds that often keep our "answers" from being able to reach us (just as with Daniel). These "strongholds" can be a number of factors, from unrepentant sin in our lives, to a lack of faith, to spiritual things far beyond our understanding. I believe that visions are given to certain people to give us insight and understanding. This is yet another reason why we need to operate in the power and strength of a fully functioning "Body of Christ."
When I think about this vision, it reminds me of the story in the Bible about the boy who was possessed by a demonic spirit. The disciples had been unable to drive this particular demon out and had questioned Jesus as to why. Jesus, who referred to them as a "faithless generation", responded: "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." (Mark 9) For whatever reason, Kaylee's healing had required us to fast. Apparently, it also required an "army of Believers" to come together in united prayer as well in order for it to be completed. It would appear that there were numerous strongholds, and quite a spiritual battle, surrounding her life.
I think it is so important that we always keep in mind that our understanding is very limited. God has provided us with our instructions in His word, and it is up to us to apply these instructions whether we understand the reasoning or not. Because of this vision, and because of all the things that God revealed to me throughout this time, I no longer assume that unanswered prayer is a "no" from God. I now ask Him to show me specifically how to pray over a given situation. I ask Him to show me if I need to do more or to reveal any hidden sin that might be hindering the effectiveness of my prayers. I also continue to pray with persistence until I receive an answer. Sometimes that answer is a clear "no". Only in this instance do I stop asking.
After we left the church, the children and I went to Sonic to get dinner. It felt very strange to have gone from such a "high" to eating at Sonic. We talked about everything and recounted our own individual experiences before returning home to wait. I don't think any of us were doubting that Kaylee's healing had occurred, even though we could not yet "see" it. We understood that it was just a matter of waiting to see it fully manifest.
I don't remember many of the details about this night after we returned home. Strangely, my only memory is of Barret jumping rope in the living room. It wasn't until after we went to bed that night that things began to happen. Although Kaylee hates for me to talk about this, I feel that these details are too significant to leave out. Shortly after she fell asleep, a strange odor began to fill the air around her. It almost seemed as if the disease itself was being pushed out of her body (or cleansed). It was Brooke who would later tell me about this because she had been sleeping in the room with her. This odor was so strong, in fact, that Brooke couldn't stay in the room. She decided to get up and go sleep on the couch. (I could still smell it slightly the next morning.)
It wasn't long after this that Brooke suddenly began having what she later described as sharp pains shooting all throughout her body. Naturally, because we had not been expecting anything to happen with her, this was very frightening to her. She started to come wake me up and let me know what was happening, but before this, she pulled her phone out and started looking through her text messages. She noticed there was a text message from earlier in the day that she had not yet looked at. To her surprise, the message read: God wants you to know that everything you are going through has already been taken care of.
(I still find it very funny that God was using text messages to speak to us on this night.)
This particular text message had been sent out from one of her co-workers as a "mass text" earlier in the day, but she just happened to see it in that very moment when she needed it. This message began to calm her fears, as the strange pain continued on throughout the night. Although it was hard to fall back to sleep, she managed to make it through the night before telling me what had happened.
Both of these occurrences, along with the text message Erica had received earlier, led me to believe that both Brooke and Kaylee were being cleansed throughout the night. This was significant because, as I had learned years earlier from Dr. Robbins (and also through The Maker's Diet book), when a "cleansing" is taking place, the symptoms will often get worse right before they get better.
Kaylee did not feel well on the morning of August 19th. Although I had hoped this would not be the case, many of her symptoms got worse yet again. This time, however, I did not allow it to rattle me. I told her to pull out her prayer and to continue to say it aloud until every symptom was gone. Interestingly, the symptoms that were noticeable, such as the swollen ankle, got significantly worse right before they disappeared completely. Shortly after the swelling in her ankle was gone, I noticed that her right knee began to swell significantly. The very next day after I noticed this, it returned to normal as well. This continued to go on for the next several weeks, and I assumed that this was also taking place with the symptoms that we could not see (inside of her body). Once these visible symptoms were gone, they have never returned.
As I have said before, there are many things about this healing that I do not completely understand. Another thing that happened, following this night, was that Barret came to me complaining that he had pain shooting up and down his legs. He described this pain as feeling like someone was taking a rope or string, tying it around his leg, and pulling it as tight as it would go. I remember wondering, at the time, if he too was experiencing some type of cleansing or healing, although he had not yet been diagnosed with anything. It was such a miraculous time that anything seemed possible. Yet, here we are today battling Type One Diabetes with him. I don't really know what to make of this, and then again, this pain could merely have resulted from all the jump roping he had been done the night before. Some things still remain a mystery.
Two days after Kaylee's healing service, I returned to the Wednesday morning prayer service. Although she was still struggling with her symptoms, there were no doubts in my mind about her healing. It was important to me that I go back to the place it had happened to thank God for what He had done.
As I was walking up to the church that morning, I noticed the local pastor standing in front of a window reading his Bible. This was the first time I remember thinking about him since my birthday. As I approached the building, he looked up and we made eye contact for just a moment. It was only then, as he quickly looked back down, that I suspected he was not happy with me. I had assumed that he had a change in heart since we had been allowed to have the prayer service and also because I was told that one of his relatives (who was an elder) had anointed and prayed for Kaylee and had also locked the church behind us that night. I wondered what exactly had transpired after I left the church that day.
I was not upset with this pastor at all. I completely understood the spiritual battle that had been surrounding Kaylee's healing. I assumed that Satan had come after this pastor hard, just as he had come after me the night before our sermon on healing. Regardless of how this prayer service had come about, I was just so relieved that God had been able to intervene. I believe, with all of my heart, that it was our prayers and fasting (in those seven months leading up to this day) that had paved the way and God was not going to allow anything to stand in the way of this healing. I desperately hoped, if this pastor was indeed upset with me, God would be able to reconcile this as well. This was what I prayed.
After I prayed about the situation with the pastor, I praised God for all that He had done. It was overwhelming to be back in that building, picturing it all again, and remembering how God had miraculously pulled the entire night together.
As I was sitting there praying, one of the men who had played such an instrumental role in Kaylee's healing sat down next to me and began to pray for me. It was the man that I had first met, standing with Kevin, the day of our sermon on healing (August 17th). I found out later that his name was Bob. He had also been the main one who had prayed the powerful prayers for my husband. As Bob began to pray for me, my anxieties over the pastor being upset with me began to fade away. Through his prayer, he declared before God that this church would be a spiritual covering and protection for my family from that day forward. Once again, I was amazed by God. There was no way that he could have known that this had been something I had privately prayed for and longed for.
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