Healing was a journey with God, not an instant moment.
Does God Still Heal?
Whether God heals isn’t something someone usually spends a lot of time thinking about until they or someone they love becomes severely ill. When you’re dealing with an illness that completely debilitates your life, suddenly everything else goes to the backburner. You don’t have the luxury of prioritizing anything else when poor health is the burden keeping you from everything. Suddenly the question of whether God heals is no longer just an interesting thing to ponder but becomes a true testing of your faith.
“Can God really heal chronic illness today?”
All I can tell you is that I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and through my own journey with God in prayer, forgiveness, and repentance He completely healed my Chronic Fatigue.
God Doesn’t Only Heal Instantaneously
My own journey of healing wasn’t the instant kind where someone zapped me and I was healed. Many believe God only works in instantaneous moments and often they miss the miraculous healing that He does in our mind and our spirit over time.
People also miss the fact that we are more than our physical bodies. In modern day we treat our bodies like they’re just machines which can be repaired, altered, and patched. God created us more than just a physical body, but with a spirit and soul which is part of our whole. When you treat the body as being disconnected from the soul and spirit you’re missing the big picture of health. This is why modern medical science has so many diseases which they’ve declared “incurable.” Manipulating the body while ignoring the soul and the spirit can only go so far.
How I Developed CFS
My Chronic Fatigue really manifested between 2015-2020, but I realize now that some of the roots of it were things that had developed over my entire life. In 2015-2017 I was working at a highly-stressful job where I had to be on call and I had a lot of pressure on myself to be the financial provider for my family. When you have a poverty mindset as I did at the time, you can easily overwork yourself out of a fear of destitution. Not only was I facing external pressures at my job, but also had an internal critical spirit inside of me where I was always being hard on myself and pushing myself, motivated by fear.
Over the years my whole body and mind had become stressed and restless. I had trouble thinking straight, and it felt like an anvil had been tied to my chest and a heavy weight was always burdening me. By 2020 my body was barely functioning in an exhausted state and I started getting chest pains. None of the doctors I went to helped. In fact I became so angry at doctors and the medical system that it probably made my symptoms worse. Finally, I quit my job not out of wisdom or self-care, I quit because I had no choice. I was at the breaking point. This was one of the hardest things for me to ever do (and for my wife who was supporting me), but I remember God telling me to leave my job and telling me to trust Him.
Unemployed
The next few years being unemployed weren’t easier, but I knew I had made the choice God was leading me to make to quit that toxic job. At this point my body was so exhausted every day that I couldn’t work. Savings started to go toward bills and I started selling on Ebay in the moments of the day when I had enough energy to make ends meet.
Even though I was relieved from the pressures of my previous job, I still had a lot of anger inside. I was so angry at every little thing, and every small task felt 10x as demanding on me. My temper kept getting worse and I felt so alone and depressed. Little did I know all of what led me to these circumstances was rooted in spiritual problems I had stirring in my soul that I wasn’t aware of, and God was about show me how He was going to heal me.
Ministry from a North Carolina Stranger
I had joined an online Christian discussion group where I met a guy from North Carolina named Karl. I don’t even remember what we were talking about in particular, but I remember sharing with him how angry I was at God and angry that He had abandoned me to struggle through my Chronic Fatigue, helplessness, and feeling like a useless man. Karl responded very honestly that my beliefs about God weren’t true and even offered to call me on the phone and minister to me. I’m still amazed that despite going to church every Sunday at a local church, this was the first person in the church who offered to reach out to me and pray with me.
When we talked on the phone, Karl asked a lot of questions about things I had been dealing with in my heart, and he walked me through bringing all of that to Jesus in prayer. I think we talked and prayed together for nearly 2 hours! I remember afterward I felt a sense of peace, and also knew that I had a lot of pain in my soul that I needed to keep going to God in prayer, bringing all of it to Jesus. It really encouraged me the way that Karl reached out to me and intentionally prayed with me, wanting to see me set free from the spiritual strongholds over my life.
The Healing Backyard Lounge Chair
After my conversation with Karl in the Summer of 2022 I spent several days and weeks in our backyard on a lounge chair under the tree. Every day I would sit in that chair praying and asking the Holy Spirit to show me all the bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, and pain in my heart that He wanted to heal me from. The Holy Spirit would bring things up from my past and things buried deep in my heart that I needed to forgive and let go of.
Each time I forgave others in my past and brought things to God in prayer, I was slowly being healed of the heaviness that had brought about my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I started noticing a change in me, my relationships, and I was starting to get my physical health back as well. My energy was returning and I would say I became about 70% healed by the end of the Summer and I was able to start a new job that God had brought to me (that story is a whole other testimony).
Journey to Georgia
In the two years following that, I learned that I had other hidden strongholds in my life that the Enemy had been using to keep me from living in the calling that God had for me.
In Summer of 2024, my wife and I went to a ministry in Georgia called “Be In Health” where we learned all about different spiritual strongholds the enemy uses against us and how to overcome them. I started recognizing where the enemy was attacking me and began to walk out my own journey of resisting the enemy and affirming my identity in Christ. I started seeing even more breakthrough and healing in this chapter as well.
During that same trip I was able to meet Karl in person in North Carolina, and he even baptized me in the river. I had been a Christian for 15 years but had never been baptized and felt like this was another step of faith and breakthrough I needed to make, and that God was turning the page of my life into a new chapter. The entire trip was unforgettable for both my wife and me, and it was a marker for what God was doing in our life for the future plans the Lord had for us.
Unforgiveness Blocks Healing
One major takeaway that I learned was that forgiveness is one of the most important things we must do to receive healing in our hearts. Unforgiveness is the number one block to healing, and Jesus wants us to forgive every last thing from the past until there is nothing left to forgive! He wants us to walk in the present with a heart of forgiveness in daily life. Forgiveness is so important to God, not just that we receive His forgiveness Jesus accomplished, but that we also forgive one another.
This final chapter was the remaining 30% of my CFS that needed to be healed, but I also got set free from burdens and strongholds that I had been dealing with since I was a child. The enemy really tries to get his hooks in early in our lives. I hadn’t realized how much the enemy had been using life experiences to try to prevent me from walking in my true calling in Jesus, despite being a Christian for 15 years up to that point. It’s hard to believe how much this journey has changed me since then. God not only healed my CFS, but also my marriage, family, relationships, and everything around me.
Thankful for Christ’s Servants
I will be forever in debt to Karl and Be In Health Ministries for the freedom they helped me to walk into by turning me back to Jesus, learning how to receive His love and His life for me again. The way they helped me has awakened in me a desire to be that person for others in my own church community. When I could find no one who understood what I was going through God brought people to me who could uniquely help me overcome the enemy and return to God to get healed. I’ll always be thankful for God faithfully leading me through the darkness and bringing others from miles away alongside me to help.
Spiritual Health is a Lifestyle
There are many more details I could share, but this is sufficient in giving my own testimony that God still heals today, it just may not be the way you’re expecting it. It may be through a journey rather than an instant moment.
God wants to teach us something deeper about the roots of illness and disease. It’s OK to lament honestly to God in these seasons just as Job did. In fact, being honest before God is crucial. We also need to start recognizing how the enemy will accuse God of causing the illnesses that we attribute to God. The opposite is true, God wants to heal just as He healed Job after Satan afflicted him. He created us and gave us life, and He has a purpose for our lives. We shouldn’t expect healing if we’re going to go right back to our sinful lifestyle and habits, we need healing spiritually, mentally, and physically all as a whole of who God created us to be.
God does still heal today, but it may not be the way in which you’re expecting it, and there may be something deeper that He wants to teach you in the journey. Trust in Him every step of the way.