It Sounded Like God But It Wasn't
By Phil Scovell
I had, over the years, experience lower back pain before but this
was different. Normally, the pain would dissipate each day until, two
weeks later, it would be totally gone. this time, when I bent over to
pick up something too heavy, nearly my entire back spider webbed, like
a smashed windshield, and the pain was everywhere. The next morning,
all the pain had settled in my lower back so I figured it would heal
as quickly as before. It didn't.
Three weeks later, after injury my back three more times by
simply bending over slightly, I had to go to our family doctor. His
diagnosis was sciatica because the pain that originated in my lower
back now radiated through my hip, and down my leg, and sometimes
reaching even to my ankle. Two weeks later, I was in the doctor's
office again due to the pain. It wasn't going away and it wasn't
diminishing. I was in agony. More pain pills and muscle relaxers
were prescribe but I was also sent to a physical therapist. By this
stage, I had little hope that even a physical therapist could help and
had resigned myself to the idea that I would probably end up on an
operating table. by this point, I would have done anything I was
asked to do if only the pain would go away.
The physical therapy seemed to help but the overall pain wasn't
going away. Finally, I asked my wife to make a third doctor's
appointment because I had to find out why I wasn't getting better.
Later, I had her cancel the appointment because the pain was gone.
Standing in the kitchen one Wednesday afternoon, I heard a voice
in my thoughts. It said, "You won't be healed until your wife is."
We had been going through some horrendous financial difficulties and
some physical problems, such as a broken foot my son experienced, and
other related situations relating to my ministry, our church, and just
a lot of things in general. My wife had been experiencing a great
deal of discouragement and I wasn't doing much better. My back pain
only compounded the problems. So, the voice I heard in my thoughts
sounded legitimate but something about it made me question the
validity of the statement.
A few minutes later, I was sitting at my office desk and as I
contemplated what I thought was the voice of the Holy Spirit, I
suddenly realized I had been deceived into believing a lie. Jesus
would never conditionalize my healing based upon another's. I knew
instantly the voice I had heard, as much as it truly sounded like the
Holy Spirit, in fact, was the father of all lies; the Enemy himself.
I sat at my desk, bowed my head, and began to pray. I exercised my
authority I share with the True Lord Jesus Christ over the lying
spirit that had attempted to fool me into believing a lie. When I was
finished praying, I went back to work.
Perhaps a half an hour later, or more, I stopped working at my
computer because I became aware of what I was feeling. Actually, I
took stock of what I wasn't feeling and what I wasn't feeling was the
deep throbbing pain of my hip with which I had become so familiar over
the past few weeks. The pain was gone. I stood up and walked around
my office to test my leg. The stiffness in my lower leg was still
there but that didn't hurt nor did my hip. I went and walked up the
stairs and around the house. Still no pain. I figured it was a
fluke, my hyper Christian imagination playing tricks on me, and any
second now, the pain would come roaring back. It didn't.
When I awakened the next morning, I thought the pain would surely
return because it always did within thirty seconds of being out of
bed. It didn't. Hesitantly, I went to my physical therapy
appointment that day. I worked out on the stationary bicycle for
awhile, learned a few new stretching exercises, and the physical
therapist worked on my lower back for a few minutes. I left thinking
the pain would probably start up any minute. It never did. Each day
went by and the pain refused to return. The stiffness in my leg also
began to reseed and there was no pain of any kind in my lower back.
there are the extremes when it comes to God's healing power. I
was raised that God didn't do miracles any more. why? they weren't
needed. Now that I look back on it, I frankly have no idea why I was
taught they were no longer needed. Especially when you consider the
fact that I lost all my sight at eleven years of age. That certainly
seems like a good time for a miracle to have occurred as far as I was
concerned.
Closely related to this theological fallacy, was the idea that
God could do miracles today but only when He wanted to do so. In my
doctrinal realm of theological thought, we had a problem: He never
seemed to ever want to do any miracles and when it appeared that He
did, it was very difficult to distinguish the miracle from medical
intervention, if you get my drift.
Then, of course, we had the hard core Bible Believers who
insisted that no miracles were ever done by God today because that
died out with the last apostle, whoever that was. This was a very
convenient belief because this way, you could simply say that Jesus
never did anything other than saved a lost sinner. From then on, you
were on your own. Oh, sure, you could pray until the cows came home
but it wasn't His will for you to experience a miraculous event.
So what was it I heard standing in pain in the middle of our
kitchen? Quite simply, it was a lying spirit attempting to gain a
foothold in my thinking. The Bible is pretty clear about taking every
thought captive. What I did a few moments later was one way of doing
exactly that.
The question then becomes, who gave me the back pain in the first
place? I can prove from Scripture, and from the mouth of Jesus
Himself, that some sickness and disease and infirmities are from
Satan. In my case, I was over weight and out of shape and I simply
tried picking something up that was way too heavy and I paid for it.
That wasn't the Lord's fault. Who healed me is the real question.
You may believe what you like. I, on the other hand, know exactly
what happened and I thank God for what He taught me as I acknowledge
Him in my life.
End Of Document
Safe Place Fellowship
Phil Scovell
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Phone: 303-507-5175
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