Healing

21 September 2014

Dear Phyllis,

The other day my niece, Pam Gill, sent me the address for a You Tube blog about shoulder problems. I spent four hours looking at several You Tubes about the “Frozen Shoulder Syndrome”. It was very interesting and helpful. For the first time I had a good look at what I am up against. There were many testimonies from people who suffered this affliction exactly like what I have. There was one blog of a physician who claimed to have a “one minute fix” He had the testimonies of several who went to him. They had the before and after demonstrations. That was extremely interesting except he told nothing about the procedure. I have no idea what that is. I thought, if I was in the states, and had the money, it would be worth the trip to see if he could cure me in one minute. But that is not going to happen. The main thing I got out of watching these You Tubes is that a frozen shoulder is a pretty difficult problem and – with the exception of this one physician – most places offer no simple solution. At best it is a lengthy painful process, and sometimes with no permanent cure. As much as I respect the doctor here that helped me two months ago, I don't believe he is a man who has a cure. He gave me a stack of pills. Admittedly I took them faithfully for a few days, and then backed off. I didn't get any more, and don't plan to.

Unfortunately my problem has changed in the type of pain I was experiencing before and what it is now. Previously I could raise my arm so far and then I would get a sharp shot of pain. If I held my arm there for a while the pain would go away. Or as soon as I put my arm down the pain quit. Now I can lift my arm so far and a dull sense of pain begins. Unlike before, as I wait in that position the pain level only intensifies, and when I put my arm down the pain will continue for another 30 seconds or more. That is no fun. Before, by using fingers crawling up a wall I was able to get my arm up full extension, but now that is impossible. After watching those You Tubes I decided my only hope was a miracle healing. Somehow I felt somewhere along the line the Lord would heal me.

Wednesday night Pammy and I were having a very good time in the kitchen. We were talking about prayer. She suggested, “Would you like to have me pray for you?” “Of course. Please.” I was sitting on the stool by our island. She walked over and took my hand and began to pray. That was okay, but after a minute or two she began to slightly pull on my arm. I thought, “Oh oh, I hope she doesn't do that”. She did. Then I thought, “I hope she doesn't have it in her mind to raise my arm”. She did. Komatta (big problem). She was praying, and I didn't want to stop her, but I was not a happy camper to have her raise my arm. She got it about 1/3 the way up, and that was as far as I could handle. Fortunately she quit at that point and let my arm down again to a relaxed position. Praise the Lord. Then she started pulling on it again and the same process. All this time I sat there with my mouth shut, not telling her what was going on inside of me. I flat didn't like her therapy, but said nothing. But amazingly, when she got to the 1/3 point again the pain wasn't too bad. This time she got about half way up before she quit. I thought, “That is really quite amazing. I haven't been able to get my arm that high in a month”; and the pain wasn't too severe . I don't know how long she prayed. It must have been ten minutes or longer. All that time she was pulling on my arm and raising it higher. I had strong mixed feelings. I didn't care for what she was doing, but on the other hand it seemed like a miracle was happening. At length I sat there with my arm sticking straight up with no pain. That was the first time in a month or more that that had happened. It seemed that truly a miracle had happened. I stood up and swung my arm. It was completely healed. I had full movement in all directions and could do anything with my right arm that I could do with my left. That is the greatest on-the-spot miracle healing I have ever seen. Pammy said, “Raise both arms and say hallelujah” I had no trouble dong that. All I could say was hallelujah.

Then Pammy said, “Kneel down and let me pray for you”. “Gomen nasai, but I can't do that.” For over a month it was impossible to kneel. It takes two hands to kneel and with only one arm it was next to impossible to do it. Then I thought, “Let me try a chair”. We went in the other room and I got down in front of a chair. That was the first time I had two arms to do it with.

For the next two hours, every 30 minutes I couldn't believe I was healed and had to raise my arms to prove it.

In the You Tube “One Minute Fix” video, the doctor had his patients set their alarm clock and get up every two hours during the night to keep their arm limber. I wondered if I would have a similar problem. The next morning Pammy woke me at 5:00 AM and asked, “How is your arm?” I hadn't tried it yet. I got up and gave it a shot. Not 100%. It was good, but not as good as it was the night before. Today is Sunday. My arm is about 80 or 90%. I can't say that it is as good as it was Wednesday night but it sure is vastly better than it has been for four months. The shoulder problem seems to be behind, but there are a lot of other afflictions.

Every joint in my body is like a rusty gate hinge. Everything needs a massive dose of WD 40 (lubricant oil). My elbow in my right arm, my wrist, and most of the finger joints are tender. It hurts to twist my wrist and I can't close my hands. At night it is painful to take hold of a blanket to pull it up. Sometimes my knees hurt. As the day wears on, generally, these joints limber up. And the pain level is different from day to day in each joint. Hang it! There is nothing terminal about this. This is the kind of problem I can just ignore and go on. Rusty hinge or no rusty hinge; they won't break off.

Pammy continues to be the miracle girl. The amazing work the Lord began two months ago seems to be going on. If I work it right, I can bring out her the ugly side, but when I stay in bounds she is amazingly pleasant. Several things have amazed me. One of the biggest shockers came the other night when she said, “Have you noticed that there is no jewelry?” I hadn't. I was stunned when she told me that the Lord had spoken to her about jewelry. She had a ring that was as big as a coffee cup that was gone. The most astounding thing was the ear rings were gone. I don't like body piercing and never allowed Rosemary to get pierced ears. There are NO women Thailand without pierced ears and I never made it an issue with Pammy. Shikatta ga nai (there is nothing I can do about it). I thought I will just have to let that one go. But the ear rings are gone today. Pearls and neck-lesses are gone. Whoa!

But perhaps the most impressive change is that for the first time we are able to talk about things and she has a very teachable spirit. That one just blows me away. The other day she asked me to teach her about false prophets. We spent four hours discussing this very important topic.

I said there were three or four views of false prophets. The simplest one is THE FALSE PROPHET. This is not false prophetS. This is a specific man. He is THE false prophet. We see him briefly in Rev. 13, 16, and 19. He is the third member of the devils trinity. We see the devils trinity clearly spelled out in Rev. 16:13 where the dragon (satan), the beast (Anti-Christ), and the false prophet are mentioned. The false prophet is to the Anti-Christ, what the Holy Spirit is to Jesus – the One who testifies of Him. Enough for that. He is one man – period.

But the main theme of false prophets are the people that Jesus warned us about in Mt. 7:15 – Beware of false prophets. That is very good advice, and something that would be to our advantage to heed. These men are clearly not Christian. They are wolves in sheep clothing. You can't get clearer than that. They are not dear brothers in Christ. These men are agents of satan sent on an agenda. They are dangerous and should be pointed out and named. The Presbyterians have the most prestigious university in northern Thailand here in Chiang Mai, Payap University. It is sort of the Harvard of northern Thailand. It is held up in high honor. There is behind-closed-doors talk about it, but few will stand up to condemn it. Payap is recommended by many good Christian leaders and denominations. There are a large number of foreign students who come here to get an education from one of the top schools in the Orient. But it is a fortress for satan. There are a few genuine men of God (?) who teach there but it is also well known for out spoken liberal, evil, men hailed as great Christian professors. It is not uncommon for earnest young Christians, who go there for an education, to come out scoffers of the Gospel and mockers of the Word of God. That is what they are taught in that school. I could not be more out spoken in my opposition to Payap, and I detest the sick men of God (?) who endorse it. Those professors are the real false prophets. America has a legion of them. Liberal pastors are false prophets. They claim to be Christian but deny the Word of God and our resurrected Lord Jesus. I was raised in that religion. There are the Jim Jones and cult leaders by the dozens. There are the charlatans on TV. At this point the line gets blurred out. I have seen lists of “false prophets” by some radical birds that attack some very fine men of God. Even men of God like John McArthur some times make the list by nitpickers. I have also seen Rick Warrens name listed as a very dangerous false prophet as he is charged with being a leader of the Evolving Church movement. The Evolving Church is clearly demonic. To me that is almost unbelievable, but much of what I have read of Rick Warren substantiates that charge. A clear false prophets is a satanic agent.

But there are some that go well beyond that line. If someone steals money from a church they are not a false prophet. They are a robber. If someone is in adultery they re not a false prophets. They are an adulterer. If someone is a trouble maker in a church they are not a false prophets. They are a trouble maker. There is a problem in using a very broad brush to denounce people in churches where there are disputes. We should be specific in defining what the offense is and what names we call each other. I have seen a number of missionaries denounce each other as false prophets. Not so.

There are cracked pots that have screwy ideas, but that does not make them false prophets. There are many who have weird interpretations of some controversial passages of scripture. But they are not false prophets. The problem is we all make mistakes and we should be a little easy on those who may be off.

In 1953 Fred Jarvis was one of the top ten missionaries in Japan. He was preaching in the Karuizawa missionary conference to 300 missionaries. The Korean War was going on and there was quite a bit of communist activity in Japan. In his message Fred said, “The communist are going to take over this country in one year. Quit your language study. Get an interpreter, and go preach Christ while we still have time.” A friend of mine was sitting there and thought, “That is strange. I thought the Lord told me to get two years of language study and Jarvis says it will all be over in one year”. Some earnest missionaries believed Jarvis' message and quit language study. Five years later they still didn't have the language. And the communist never did take over Japan. Was Fred Jarvis a false prophet? What he said was a false prophesy, but Fred Jarvis was not an agent of the devil. This is a very common problem. Some of God's best men make serious mistakes. We must be careful to discern what is actually of the Lord and what is not, but at the same time we should be gracious with misguided brethren who make dumb mistakes. The Lord knows I have made my share of them.

Jesus is here and good things are happening. Praise the Lord!

                                                                                                 bill