“It’s cancer.”
No one wants to hear those words, especially at a young age. But when Steve Hannett heard them, he had no idea God would use His cancer to not only reveal Himself to Hannett but to bring hope and healing to thousands of others through the years. And it all began with a simple two-word prayer.
Hannett, now founding pastor of Abundant Grace Christian Church and Jesus Reigns International Inc., told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network that at age 19, “while I was shaving, I discovered a lump in my neck. And that was initially alarming. But what began to unfold after that just got worse and worse. And I eventually was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s [Lymphoma] and found out that I had a tumor in my neck.”
Hannett, who had a Catholic background and only a nominal faith, said he didn’t even think about the idea that God could heal. “We began to go to many different doctors, go through many different types of tests.” And just before he began a course of radiation treatment with horrific side effects, Hannett had his first supernatural encounter with the one true God.
“I went to a beautiful beach late in the afternoon, almost early evening; the sun was setting,” he said. “And I saw the sky. And I described it to people like one of those ‘God skies,’ where you’re conscious that there’s a God out there somewhere. … I said, ‘Well, God, I know You’re out there.’ Then two words came to me; two words that came in the form of prayer. And I just looked up at that sky, and I said, ‘Teach me.’
“And the Bible says that David, when he cried, that God heard his cry, that God heard the depths of his pain,” Hannett explained. “And it was only a matter of weeks from that prayer that I met a Christian, a very powerful, strong, believing Christian from South Korea, who introduced me to the gospel and prayed for me that day. And the miraculous power of God penetrated my body and removed the very root of what was causing cancer. It was then I went back to the doctors; they checked my whole body. And not only was there no more sign of any cancer, but every side effect of damage done by radiation was also supernaturally gone.”
That miracle not only restored his health, Hannett said, but launched him into a lifetime ministry of helping others encounter God in supernatural ways. “I just had this sensing that everyone’s got to have the opportunity that I had, because I knew that God doesn’t love me more than anyone else. And if He did it for me, He’ll do it for everyone. And so not only did I get healed, but I think it was two or three days later, I began praying for the sick. I began telling everybody about Jesus, of course, because you don’t need to walk but 10 feet to find someone suffering.”
Hannett reveals much more about God’s supernatural power in his book, Unleashing Heaven’s Breath, and in his podcast, Be Healed. To hear more of his incredible story, listen to the entire episode of Greenelines here, and be sure to subscribe to both Greenelines and Be Healed on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}