Ask Her What Happened With Dave Bob Obert was asked to pray for a young woman who was brought to church by her parents. She had a tumour the size of a tennis ball on her shoulder. He prayed for her about five times, using five different prayers but nothing happened. That was pretty much all he knew how to do. He said goodbye to her and was walking away when he had a God-thought. The thought ran through his head Ask her what happened with Dave. Bob kept on walking and went out the door. However the thought came back again : Ask her about Dave. Bob walked back and said to her Sometimes when I pray for people I get a helpful thought from God who is trying to give me some extra information to help us deal with a problem. So I had this thought Ask her about Dave. When Bob said this to her, her face went white with shock and tears started to run down her cheeks. (She would later explain that Dave had been her uncle and that he had molested her when she had been a little girl.) She replied Nobody knows what Dave did to me. Bob said Well I kind of know, and Jesus knows because He told me. And she replied I cant forgive him. Bob said Youve got to, because hes still hurting you. Until you release him youll never be free. Your condition may be rooted in your bitterness towards him. She looked at Bob in one of those valley of decision moments. He said Heres what you do. Just pray By an act of my will, I forgive you Dave for what you did to me. The young woman fell to the ground and through gritted teeth prayed that prayer of forgiveness. She wept and wept and shuddered and coughed. Her crying on the floor lasted about 10 minutes. Bob knelt down beside her and put his hand on the tumour to pray for it and it suddenly went flat as if there had only been air inside it. It was gone. The girl and her parents were completely ecstatic. Lessons we can learn from this story : 1. There will be some people we pray for who have an emotional root cause to their physical sickness and, if we dont pray for that before we pray for their physical sickness, they will probably not get healed. Of course not all illnesses have root causes. Bob Obert says that, if he doesnt get any indication that theres a root cause, he just moves ahead instinctively on the basis that its an organic illness with no root cause. 2. In “Inner Healing : A Handbook for Helping Yourself and Others” Mike Flynn suggested that sometimes physical illnesses are indicators of the need for inner healing, especially when they do not respond to normally effective treatments. A damaged subconscious may not allow the body to get well until the emotional damage is healed. He wrote that when one realises the subconscious controls all the involuntary functions of the body – including heartbeat, respiration, hormone secretion, digestion and neural activity – it becomes obvious why it is very important to seek Jesus’ healing power for damaged emotions. 3. In our culture people sometimes think they are retaliating by being bitter against someone who has hurt them and not forgiving them. But in actual fact, by embracing negative emotions, they are damaging themselves more in the process. 4. The person needing healing has to be willing to have the root cause addressed. Forgiveness is a choice, an act of will and not a feeling. Bob Oberts story can be heard as part of his sermon entitled Doing the Stuff - Part 8 which is available at kingdomcomesv.files.wordpress/2008/10/01-july-15-20122.mp3
Posted on: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:07:26 +0000
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