In 1996, while we lived in California, I injured my back working as an RN. I was taking care of a homecare cancer patient. It cost me my back and, ultimately, my career as a nurse. A year or so later, I was in two MVAs and hurt my back again and then again and then again.
Later on, when we moved back to New York, I later became involved with the Rochester Healing Rooms. One of the things that puzzled me was how God could use me in healing with others and here I was still, with the same back injury and pain. I even had condemnation come against me, saying there, “Must be sin in my life, something had to be wrong with me.” The enemy was right after my heels with that!
Another strange phenomenon was when I would get up to preach, the chronic pain would disappear and return after I was done. Often times I can stand only about 10 minutes without pain. But God pressed tenacity into me and I would not let that be an excuse to stop serving Him and my family. His grace was indeed sufficient.
Yet I have had several undeniable, physical healings but still 25 years later, here I am with chronic back pain. Oddly enough, I am told the injuries are stable and, with aging, etc., it is actually in pretty good shape.
Just recently at an event I did, a man I prayed for was a pastor. He got healed of back pain as well, I was told (his back was “out”). So I really prayed and asked the Lord, “What is up with that? What about me???”
Was this a “thorn in my flesh” to keep me humble? But in my heart, I know this will be removed someday. The Lord impressed on me that I was healed. How so, Lord? He impressed on me that being healed started with being an overcomer and that I had overcome and pressed through, regardless of the pain.
Game-changers for God have to go through “boot camp.” They have to learn overcoming in the midst of extreme circumstances.
I have often preached that what we are healed from, we have the authority in God to be used in healing others with the same malady. So being used in this way to be a conduit of this man’s healing of his back was exemplified in what He was telling me. I was healed not according to man’s standards but in the Spirit Man and the flesh would soon follow. I do believe that with all of my heart. There is a Scripture that says, “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle” (Ps. 144:1, ESV).
In these challenging times, I believe God is preparing us in many ways to “stand” and to “war” in amazing ways. I am healed; I am an overcomer; with His grace I can do all things; and all things are possible. It is not me; it is Him in me.
So what might you be struggling with today? Has healing the way we expect tarried? I challenge you to embrace the training, and that overcoming and healing is not always what we think or expect. Overcoming is not always getting what we want but it is rising to the occasion in the midst of pain and suffering. It is then we are given the name OVERCOMER! In revelation at the end of each of the letters to the churches, God ends with, “to him that overcomes” … some wonderful thing will happen to us.
Say I am healed in Jesus’ name! Don’t wait for perfection in your body! Walk in the authority He has given us in this state, in your overcoming journey and press on, move forward and set others free now! {eoa}
Josephine Marie Ayers is the president and founder of Flames of Fire Ministries Inc. Visit flamesoffire.us to learn more. She also hosts Game Changers for God on the Charisma Podcast Network.
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Stephen Strang 
Charisma Media Staff 
CBN News