Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he already had been there in that condition a long time, H asked him, ‘Do you want to be made well? John 5:5-6
When you have been a situation for a long time, sometimes even the correct answer fails you just like that man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. I have read that passage again and again but it wasn’t until recently that I sort of agreed with his answer. Stagnation causes you to sort of wait endlessly with no answer in sight.
When Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well, he said, “I have no man to put me in the well when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in someone’s else gets in before me” believe me for a long time I judged him for looking to man for help. Am sure you too may have done the same. Until I took time to meditate on the same scripture then I realized it’s easy to believe when the matter is still fresh. As time drags on without an answer, faith starts to fade and all you have is hope, wishing things could get better. It’s happened to me several times am not sure about you. it’s an area I have had to struggle with for a while.
I remember some years back while I was doing a Saturday fellowship in Kampala, I was an usher while one of my pastors preached. I saw a gentleman and a lady help a lady out of the car. She had a cloth tied around her waist and she looked so sick and could barely walk. I ushered them inside the service. All through the session she kept going to the washroom for long period. When the preacher finished, I went up to minister healing to the sick.
When it came to the lady’s turn, I asked what the issue was and I was told by those who helped her that she had pain in the stomach. I didn’t think much about it, I knelt down and I lay my hands on her stomach and prayed. Then I heard the LORD speak to me, He said, “Rebuke the witchcraft on her” I stopped praying, stood up and took a step back from her. Then I pointed to her belly and rebuked the witchcraft upon her as I was commanded.
She was healed instantly. I could see the relief on her eyes. This is the very first time she had felt relieved in years, well I didn’t know it then. I prayed over her olive oil and told her how to anoint herself according to James 5:14. After that we didn’t talk much because there were many others that God had healed and I needed to have a word with them. So this lady and her brother left with their friend to go home in Kireka a suburb out of Kampala.
The moment they entered their gate, the pain returned this time with a vengeance. They looked for the olive oil and failed to see it yet it was right Infront of them. They called and couldn’t find me because I had other people waiting for me at home. After trying to find me on the call for a while they decided to invite themselves to my house, the lady was in unbearable pain and she was screaming uncontrollably. Unbeknown to them this was not sickness, it was witchcraft of the highest order. Someone directed them to my home, by the time they were getting to the house it was close to 9pm. The moment they entered my compound, the pain left the lady immediately. Meanwhile I wasn’t aware of what was happening since I was still engaged.
When it came to her turn, I was surprised she was even there, so I asked her what was going on, its then that they told me what happened to her. I asked the lady for the genesis of this pain. She told me a story that sounded like a horror movie and I will try and summarize it for you. verbatim.
“It was five years that I started to experience this pain. It came from nowhere so I started to take pain killers each time the pain came. I switched medicine because the pain seemed to get stronger each time but still that didn’t help. So I was advised to get on morphine for a while it seemed to work then it also failed. My father was then advised to start buying illegal drugs so he put me on cocaine for 3 years. I moved with my own set of syringes with trousers torn up above the knee and each time the pain came I injected myself. This was my life, the drugs cost my father $5000 per month. Then the pain increased even more, the cocaine wasn’t working anymore, by now I was a total addict.
Then someone advised my father that I needed to get pregnant and that the pain would stop. I was a virgin and I hadn’t known any man. My father went and spoke to one of our neighbors, I don’t know what they discussed but eventually I started to sleep with him with the full knowledge of my father. That’s when I got pregnant. Indeed, when I conceived the pain went away.
After nine month I gave birth. A day after the pain returned with full force, that’s when my periods also disappeared completely for years. I got back on cocaine, morphine and a whole lot of drugs. My father was again advised this time to take me to Muslim sheiks. I went from sheik to sheik in Kampala, each tried with one or two things but it didn’t work. We started to move to churches after the sheiks failed. It was the same thing. We went everywhere you can imagine. Then a friend told us about you that’s how we came. When you spoke into my life something left me and I felt relived but when we got back home the pain came back that’s why we rushed here. Something happened to me the moment our car pulled into your compound; the pain left me immediately. I believe God is here because I have never felt this fine in such a long time.”
After she narrated the story, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and I asked her about this woman who was in her late sixties. She said it was her step mother who took over when her mother died but she lived in the village and they never liked each other. A few years back they had visited but when she heard that she had been sick a while, her step mother said, over her dead body will she ever get healed. I told her the Holy Spirit says, “Today you are healed in the name of Jesus and the pain is not coming back”
She left and the pain never came back. That night I was going to the prayer mountain with a few of my ministers. The next morning while we were there, I see a lady and a man walking towards us. I recognized the man as the brother of the lady who was sick a day before but I couldn’t recognize the lady. When they came closer it was her. Something had happened, my eyes were wide open because I was seeing a totally different person before my eyes. The woman I met yesterday was dark skinned, this one was light skinned and she looked like she had never been sick a day in her life. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, I said “What happened to you, it looks like you came out of the grave” what she said didn’t shock me.
She said, “Remember when I told you about my step mother, the one who said over her dead body would I be healed “I quickly said, “Yes, go on” then she adds, “This morning at 6am I felt something leave me, when I walked out of my room I heard my father on the phone. He was informed that his wife in the village had died that night, strange thing is, she wasn’t sick at all.” Then she added, I am here because Jesus healed me. I have never felt this way in my life.
There are so many people out there who are suffering from witchcraft induced sickness like this lady was. They have tried to treat the thing but it hasn’t gone, they keep getting worse whole others have died. This is happening today and someone you know my be in this same situation.
I am not sure how long it has been for you or why you have been sick this long, what I do know is this, God wants to heal you, no matter the sickness, bring it to Jesus at Rapha. Let Him make you well.
Here is Your Prayer Path
Dear Father, make me well. In Jesus Name. Amen
Ps Mark Odeke
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
Rapha Conference 2024 on 29th & 30th November @ Parliament of Uganda. Invite
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