Psalm 136:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.His love endures forever. 2 Give thanks to the God of gods.His love endures forever.3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords:His love endures forever.

James 5:15 - And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Isaiah 29:14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Mark 8: 17And when Jesus knew it, he said to them, Why reason you, because you have no bread? perceive you not yet, neither understand? have you your heart yet hardened? 18Having eyes, see you not? and having ears, hear you not? and do you not remember?

Isaiah 6:9 "Go!" he responded. "Tell this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'

Acts 16: 31They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”32And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.

Matthew 11:28Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke on you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

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I've met some people who actively reject the idea of God in the face of science and logic. Evidence, they say is still trumps faith. But what is faith if not an obviously evident belief in God?

Sometimes we don't see the workings of an invisible God because we remain short-sighted and short-changed by what we visibly see. We desire something tangible in life. Some material assurance to hold on to. An explanation for everything.

Love knows no bounds when given in good faith and with good intent. Prayer is often overlooked as simply a request for God's intervention in what we want, instead of a sign of humility and acceptance of what He has already provided.

Below are some translated stories/blogs/testimonies i found that speaks of evidence of a God that hears and answers. I hope you have something to share as well.

"Skeptics"

Tonight, I was called up by my mom telling me to rush to the hospital. Apparently, my grandmother's blood pressure had dropped (80/40) and couldn't recover for about 4 hours. She also had blood in what little urine that was coming out of her catheter. My mom told me that my grandmother had been asking to see me and I should come immediately.

When I arrived in the hospital, several of my cousins were inside the room while my mom and her siblings were in the waiting area with worried looks. An aunt was discussing with the cardiologist, the surgical resident, and nurses about her condition and the lack of urine output.

I went to my grandmother'��s bedside and she immediately took my hand in hers. Though she seemed partly relieved to see me, more than that, I saw that she was afraid. She looked pale and her hands were cold. When I asked her how she was, she was distracted and didn't answer, her eyes were frantically scanning her surroundings. I asked her if she wanted me to pray with her. The first couple of times, she didn'��t understand me. When I asked her the third time, she said an emphatic yes and immediately closed her eyes.

I told her to ask God to help her body become strong, and to help her not be afraid. She nodded and started praying in Chinese. I joined her in prayer, myself in Filipino. After a few minutes, I asked her if she felt better and if she wasn'�t afraid anymore, she smiled and said yes.

Her BP had risen to 90-110/60 and she wasn't pale any longer. She began to ask about her great grandson and was more conversant. At this time, an uncle came in and I told him what had happened. He said that that'��s good and that "Amah" had faith in God.

I went out and told our other relatives what had happened. Someone said that it was simply because of my presence that made her feel better. Someone said that having someone to talk with made her feel better. Someone said that having me available to explain the medications being injected to her allayed her fears. I'��m pretty sure that the explanation of improved blood pressure will be attributed to the medications being given to her.

I've seen patients deteriorate. I'�ve seen the looks they have when they realize that they could die at any time. I know the effects of medications to the body's physiology. I also know the limitations of the body despite medications.

My grandmother is 84 years old, she has 30+ years of uncontrolled diabetes along with ALL the complications, she has had double mastectomy, repeated leg amputations because of diabetic foot. She had been admitted twice in the past year for uro-sepsis. Her most recent amputation a couple of days ago was done with her heart having half the normal ejection fraction, not to mention chronic bronchitis from years of smoking. The mere planning of her surgery was a production number because of the risks involved.

She had just had 4 hours of hypotension with poor urine output, everyone was already preparing for the worst. I don'��t believe that it would be fair or right for me to take credit for her sudden recovery. I also don'��t believe that neither medication nor the mere presence of an individual will ever take away the fear in a person'�s heart in the face of death, in the face of the unknown.

Everyone stayed for a while longer. I was happy that my grandmother began telling people that she had prayed, I was happier to see how it helped her. I knew she was never a devoted or otherwise believer in God. I wasn'��t even sure if she considered herself as Buddhist, Catholic, Christian or atheist.

I went home to get some things to bring back to the hospital. I called her up and reminded her that she should give thanks and praise God for answering her prayers and told her that she need never feel alone and to trust in God. She agreed with her voice very happy and enthusiastic. I was joyful for having been given the opportunity to serve my God in this small act of prayer and succeed in helping my grandmother. I hurried back to the hospital afterwards as I was expected to return so that everyone else can have the chance to go back home.

Right now, she is still recovering from what had happened. A lot of medications are still being dripped or injected. She sometimes felt afraid to sleep and is worried about things but doesn't discuss them much. Her two watchers (myself included) are alert to her every move. Tonight, a battle was won, but a war continues on.

My grandmother lived a difficult life, with much anger and hate. She was always at odds with her family, her husband, even her children. She was stubborn and always wanted things her way, regardless how it affected others. For whatever reason she was given a chance to continue with life, I will never truly know. All I know is that on that night, she didn'��t die afraid. On that night, she was given a chance to have peace in what little time she was granted to find it. For that I give my thanks.

----author wishes to remain anonymous

Well...that is the definition of "faith." A belief or confidence in a person, place, idea, view, or object.
Although, the definition also includes the motivation of "spiritual apprehension" rather than proof.


Sometimes we don't see what's right in front of us in the hopes of seeing something invisible.
Sometimes people play the lottery rather than get a job.


This is supposed to be proof against skeptics?
A woman goes to the hospital (not church), gets medication, gets better...but it's prayer that helped her?
God in his omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresent self said "hell with the war in the middle east, WMD's, human experimentation, human trafficking and slavery, the pedophilia, the starving, the murdered, the raped, all the other people in the hospital suffering...let's get this womans blood pressure up! It's miracle time baby!"

Thanks.
I'll remain a skeptic.

faith in god...faith to your self(*^___^*)”

You can pretend to be Bruce Almighty all you want. That is your choice.

Skeptic or not, by choice for some, religion and culture for others, one thing is for sure: the power of prayers can heal, move mountains if only we let it. If only you would realize, just how powerful prayer can be, you would never feel hopeless.

Thanks Tilly.

Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.

Matthew 8:5And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
6Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony!"
7"I will come and heal him," He told him.
8The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
10Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.
13And Jesus said to the centurion, "Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed that very moment.

John 4:47When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.
48Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
49The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.
50Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
51And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.



Recopied from posting by lu_rosemary in http://mingle2.com/topic/438345?page=7

The Power of Prayer to heal cancer

Jesus
"Prayer is not an old woman�s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action" - Gandhi

This article looks at the Power of Prayer and its ability to heal cancer.

However sceptical or nonreligious we may have been in the past, for many people the challenge of cancer is a spur to investigating or re-engaging with the spiritual aspect of our natures. Often the experience of cancer can have a transformational impact - causing us to become more truly ourselves, more connected to our own values and life purpose and more in touch with a sense of the spiritual.

Frequently people who are sick will call upon prayer to help with the challenges they face. But does prayer work, or is it just a panacea for the desperate? Does praying actually have a physiological effect or could it be just the effect of the placebo at work?

Dr William Kelley, an American working in the field of nutritional and metabolic therapy, urged his patients to trust in God, to read the bible and to pray. He believed a positive attitude could play an enormous part in helping to kick out disease. And at Duke University Medical Centre in Carolina, doctors have noticed that patients with a God live longer than those who neither believe nor pray regularly. Doctors are now conducting research into this discovery.

Open quotes

a positive attitude could play an enormous part in helping to kick out disease.

There are two types of prayer - that which the individual does for themselves, and that which is received - either knowingly or not - from others. Numerous studies show that in the former case, those who pray contemplatively or meditate - in both Western and Eastern traditions - can positively influence their health.

There are many possible explanations for this, depending on your beliefs. First, those with strong religious beliefs of various traditions believe that by asking for healing through prayer, a loving and omniscient deity will respond.

For many this is an unquestionable belief - important and hugely valuable to those who hold it, but impenetrable to those who don�t.

Secondly, there are points of view that do not require faith to explain the effectiveness of prayer. The act of prayer requires the supplicant to become quiet, release tension and let go of stress. This in itself has a positive physiological effect. Dr James Le Fanu, medical correspondent in the Daily Telegraph describes an extraordinary piece of research by Professor Luciano Bernardi of the University of Padua. �There is a marked similarity in the physiological effects of chanted yoga mantras and the repetitive Latin of the Rosary Prayer, Ave Maria... Surprisingly, they have a common thread, with the Rosary�s strong repetitive element having been introduced to Europe by the Crusaders who took it from the Arabs, who had in turn borrowed it from the Tibetan monks and yoga masters of India.

The act of prayer requires the supplicant to become quiet, release tension and let go off stress.

Professor Bernardi found that the reciting of the Rosary and yoga mantras slows the respiratory rate to six breaths a minute, which coincides with the rhythmic oscillation of nervous impulses controlling the heart rate. This synchronicity of respiratory and heart rates boosts oxygen in the blood, while improving circulation to the brain."

There have also been developments in the last ten years or so that are bringing ogether the findings of science with what the mystical traditions have been teaching for centuries, which is based on sound physiological principles.

These are so compelling that in the US alone there are 80 medical schools which now run courses for exploring the role of religious practice and prayer in health.

The relatively new science of Psychoneuroimmunology looks at the relationship between our thoughts and emotions and our bodies. Scientists have demonstrated that when we have a thought or feeling our brain produces neuropeptides, substances that allow brain cells to communicate with each other. Other cells in the body - most significantly the immune system - have receptors for these neuropeptides, and respond accordingly.

As Deepak Chopra, a medical doctor and international speaker on the mind/body connection, says, "Your immune system is continually eavesdropping on your internal dialogue."

Tranquility produces the natural equivalent of valium in our systems; nervousness produces adrenalin; excitement produces interleukins.

In his audio programme, Magical Mind, Magical Body, he describes how different emotional states produce different chemical changes in the body. For example, tranquillity produces the natural equivalent of valium in our systems; nervousness produces adrenalin; and excitement produces interleukins, which, when manufactured chemically are hugely expensive anti-cancer drugs. He suggests a ride on Magic Mountain at Disneyland (so long as you like that kind of thing!) as an enjoyable and cheap way of producing these powerful chemicals - naturally!!

Thirdly, prayer activates hope. Research by Greer on coping styles shows that those who react to a cancer diagnosis with hopelessness and helplessness have a much lower chance of survival than similar patients with a fighting spirit.

Being Prayed For

The second aspect is that of receiving prayer. There have now been numerous studies on this subject, perhaps one of the most well known being conducted by cardiologist Randolph Byrd and published in 1988. Byrd�s work took place with coronary care unit patients and was scientifically rigorous using a randomised, double-blind protocol. Over ten months, 393 patients in the unit were - with consent admitted to a prayer group (192 patients) or a control group (201 patients). They were prayed for by Christians outside the hospital.

They were prayed for by Christians outside the hospital

Neither the doctors nor the patients knew who was receiving prayer. Although when the study began the patients were all of a similar state of health, over time the patients receiving prayer showed much better recovery rates than the others. The prayed-for patients were five times less likely than control patients to require antibiotics and three times less likely to develop pulmonary oedema. While twelve of the control patients needed intubation to help with breathing, none of the prayed-for patients did.

Another impressive study was conducted more recently in 1998 by Dr Elisabeth Targ at the California Pacific Medical Centre in San Francisco. Her study (again a double-blind experiment) was conducted with patients with advanced AIDS. Those patients receiving prayer had six times fewer hospitalisations, which were also of a significantly shorter duration than those people who received no prayer. Even Dr Targ herself was surprised, "I was sort of shocked," she said in an interview with ABC News, "In a way it�s like witnessing a miracle. There is no way to understand this from my experience and from my basic understanding of science."

Yet another study is by Dr Mitchell Krucoff at Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina. He studied the effects of prayer on patients undergoing cardiac procedures such as catheterisation and angioplasty. His findings show that patients receiving prayer have up to 100% fewer side effect from these procedures than people not prayed for.

Open quotes when bacteria are prayed for they grow faster; when seeds are prayed for, they germinate quicker closer quotes
A leading researcher and writer in this field is Dr Larry Dossey, who has written extensively about the power of prayer. On his website, he cites examples from the plant and animal world. When bacteria are prayed for they grow faster; when seeds are prayed for, they germinate quicker; when wounded mice are prayed for they heal faster. He says "I like these studies because they can be done with great precision, and they eliminate all effects of suggestion and positive thinking, since we can be sure that the effects are not due to the placebo effect.

So if it isn�t the placebo effect, what the heck is going on?

An explanation that is gaining more and more scientific veracity is the idea that rather than being separate individuals, each one of us is connected energetically - as suggested throughout the aeons by mystics of many traditions.

Deepak Chopra is an eloquent speaker on this subject. He describes us individually as waves that are part of an ocean of consciousness, and gives the example of our breath to explain this.

Oxygen is the foundation of all our tissues, and as we breathe in and out we are literally building our bodies. He claims that in our bodies there are around a million atoms that were once in the bodies of Christ, of Gandhi, of Leonardo da Vinci.

We are exchanging our bodies with the body of the universe all the time. In fact, 98% of the atoms in our bodies are exchanged within a year. We are connected. And our thoughts are powerful.

Open questions this way, prayers can energetically influence - for example - a cancer patient in a UK oncology wardClose quotes
In this way, the prayers of a nun in a convent in Ireland, or a monk in a temple in the Himalayas, or a rabbi at the Western Wall in Jerusalem can energetically influence - for example -a cancer patient in a UK oncology ward.

Chopra says "What physicists are saying to us right now is that there is a realm of reality which goes beyond the physical .... when in fact we can influence each other from a distance." It is a view that is also held by Larry Dossey, who proposes on his website that "consciousness is not confined to one�s individual body. An individual�s mind may affect not just his or her body, but that of another person at a distance, even when that distant individual is unaware of the effort."

So if you are a religious believer, all of this simply gives some scientific background to what you already believe to be true. If you are a sceptic, this latest research shows there are undoubtedly healing forces in nature that science is only beginning to understand. Whichever camp you come into, prayer is effective and is an important element in the healing journey.

Mark 10:13And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
15Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.
16And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

Matthew18:1At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
2And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
6But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.


The soul is healed by being with children.
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears.
---Criss Jami

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.
From an Irish headstone
---� Richard Puz, The Carolinian



Recopied from posting by joethebricky ---http://mingle2.com/topic/438345?page=7
I've posted this I think twice on here already, but maybe 2 years ago, here it is again, well worth a read.


Sally jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room. She said 'How is my little boy? Is he going to be all right? When can I see him?'

The surgeon said, 'I'm sorry, we did all we could, but your boy didn't make it.'

Sally said, 'Why do little children get cancer? Doesn't God care any more? Where were you God, when my son needed you?'

The surgeon asked, 'Would you like some time alone with your son? One of the nurses will be out in a few minutes, before he's transported to the university.'


Sally asked the nurse to stay with her while she said goodbye to son. She ran her fingers lovingly through his thick red curly hair.

'Would you like a lock of his hair' the nurse asked.

Sally nodded yes. The nurse cut a lock of the boy's hair, put it in a plastic bag and handed it to Sally.

The mother said, 'It was Jimmy's idea to donate his body to the university for study. He said it might help somebody else.

'I said no at first, but Jimmy said, 'Mom, I won't be using it after I die. Maybe it will help some other little boy spend one more day with his Mom.' She went on, 'My Jimmy had a heart of gold, Always thinking of someone else. Always wanting to help others if he could.'

Sally walked out of Children's mercy Hospital for the last time, after spending most of the last six months there. She put the bag with Jimmy's belongings on the seat beside her in the car. The drive home was difficult.
It was even harder to enter the empty house. She carried Jimmy's belongings, and the plastic bag with the lock of his hair to her son's room. She started placing the model cars and other personal things back in his room exactly where he had always kept them. She laid down across his bed and hugging his pillow, cried herself to sleep.

It was around midnight when Sally awoke. Laying beside her on the bed was a folded letter. The letter said.

'Dear Mom,

I know you're going to miss me, but don't think that I will ever forget you, or stop loving you, just 'cause I'm not around to say I LOVE YOU. I will always love you, Mom, even more with each day.

Someday we will see each other again. Until then, if you want to adopt a little boy so you won't be so lonely, that's okay with me.

He can have my room and old stuff to play with. But if you decide to get a girl instead, she probably wouldn't like the same things us boys do.

You'll have to buy her dolls and stuff girls like, you know.
Don't be sad thinking about me. This really is a neat place. Grandma and Grandpa met me as soon as I got here and showed me around some, but it will take a long time to see everything. The angels are so cool. I love to watch them fly, and you know what, Jesus doesn't look like any of his pictures. Yet, when I saw Him I knew it was Him.

Jesus himself took me to see GOD! And guess what Mom, I got to sit on God's knee and talk to Him, like I was somebody important.

That's when I told Him that I wanted to write you a letter, to tell you goodbye and everything. But I already knew that wasn't allowed.

Well you know what Mom, God handed me some paper and His own personal pen to write you this letter. I think Gabriel is the name of the angel who is going to drop this letter off to you. God said for me to give you the answer to one of the questions you asked Him

'Where was He when I needed him, 'God said He was in the same place with me as when His son Jesus was on the cross. He was right there, as He always is with all His children.

Oh, by the way, Mom, no one else can see what I've written except you. To everyone else this is just a blank piece of paper. Isn't that cool.

I have to give God His pen back now. He needs it to write some more names in the Book of Life. Tonight I get to sit at the table with Jesus for supper. I'm sure the food will be great.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I don't hurt anymore. The cancer is all gone. I'm glad because I couldn't stand that pain anymore and God couldn't stand to see me hurt so much either. That's when He sent The Angel of Mercy to come get me. The Angel said I was a Special Delivery. How about that.

Signed with Love from God, Jesus and Me.

That's not proven to be true.
It's pure belief.

I mean

"The Byrd study had an inconsistent pattern of only six positive outcomes amongst 26 specific problem conditions. A systematic review suggested this indicates possible Type I errors."

And all the studies have either been shown to be faulty, inconclusive, fraudulent, misinterpreted, and/or the results are impossible to recreate; important for any scientific study.

Read about the latest STEP study? Part of that found that prayer may/can actually cause more harm than good if people know they are being prayed for, it can stress them out thinking things must be really bad if they need to be prayed for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_on_intercessory_prayer
Which isn't the best source.
But it does have links such as:
http://studysites.sagepub.com/vaughnstudy/articles/intervention/Hodge.pdf
which is decent.


If I had to rely on prayer as a means to solve anything, things would be hopeless.


Bruce Almighty was given the power of god.
Morgan Freeman played God, who was constrained by rules.
Like "free will."
And it seemed that he (Freeman/God) was mostly confused and didn't really know how to deal with humanity because of it, just watch it and be amused.
At best he was a whiner that needed someone to just understand what he was going through.
Which is a scary thought in itself.
As it limits "God" into just some random insecure guy with a lot of power and a voyeuristic tendency.

So, I don't really see what you're saying.
Can you lend me absolute power and take away any seeming intelligence on my part (otherwise I might think up something like using unlimited and absolute power to make myself unlimited and absolute and able to handle unlimited and absolute power wisely, like using wishes to wish for more wishes and the ability to use the wishes in the best way possible, as opposed to using the power for parting the red soup)?

Interesting...you actually deigned to reply...

I just read the the article cited...i think the most important part mentioned in it is this:

As the above definition of evidence-based practice implies, the APA’s Presidential Task Force (2006) emphasizes the importance of client preferences in the selection of interventions. In other words, clients’ beliefs and values must also be considered along with practitioners’ assessment of the best available evidence. This stance is fully consistent with the NASW Code of Ethics’s (1999) affirmation of client autonomy.

Conclusions to both significant and non-significant results were included in the study. Regardless, it is always maintained that personal faith and belief that are important. fMRI images show different patterns of activity in people who pray compared to those who do not.

There are those lucky enough to recognize the good that prayer can do. There are those luckier to actually experience and acknowledge the power of it.

We are all given free will to choose and decide whether to believe or not. There are a multitude of reasons why people choose to believe, as there are also a multitude of reasons for other people to be naysayers on the subject. Sometimes, those who have been helped by prayer, it is everything to them.

Prayer per se, will not necessarily solve everything. No one can claim this. It is not a cure all, it is not a solve all. There is no golden ticket. Actions and works congruent with prayer is also important.
But the right prayer of a sincere and humble heart, can make many burdens light. And peace, is one of the greatest treasure anyone can have in this life. That is the healing power of prayer.

------

I meant, if you were Bruce, you can do what you want as "God"....what kind of world would you make? How would you treat your creation? How would you intervene in everything they do? How would you manage everything ---from scientific laws, spiritual realms, human failings, life and death....etc etc...and be judge, jury and executioner at the very end, to achieve your end.

But if you don't believe in any of it, there is really little point in answering...

3 John 1:2
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

Psalm 41:3
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.

Proverbs 17:22
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.

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http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/08/prayer-heal-sick.html

Can prayer heal the sick?
MICHAEL KIRSCH, MD | PHYSICIAN | AUGUST 8, 2013

Faith and reason entered my medical universe recently.

A patient underwent surgery to resect a colon cancer. The tumor had metastasized to the lymph nodes, an unfavorable prognostic event. The surgeon entered the room and advised the patient that her survival is likely limited to 1-2 years. The patient and her husband were devastated. The distraught husband spent the next 24 hours sobbing in a painful and despondent state. He related the tragic news to his 3 children, ages 3, 5 and 8.

Was this the appropriate time for the physician to relay such ominous news to a patient and family?

Was it prudent for the overcome husband to share this traumatic news with his 3 young children?

Reader responses to the above two inquiries may be influenced by knowing that the long term survival of colon cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes is 50%, which varies substantially from the physician's doomsday scenario.

The patient, while still recovering from surgery in the hospital, experienced a healing experience that she will remember until the end of her days. Her 3-year-old daughter approached her and told her that she is not going to die because God told the young child that her mother will live. The patient related that she felt an unusual sensation that began at the top of her head and rippled slowly down her body until it reached the soles of her feet.

The woman received no chemotherapy or any other treatments to the tumor.

So, whom do you believe, a trained medical professional or a 3-year-old child?

Since this surgery occurred in 1985, and the woman is thriving and well today, it is clear which of these two were correct.

The patient is convinced that she was divinely healed and this experience has understandably deepened her Christian faith.

I am not a Christian but I have enough humility to know how limited physicians like me are about the art and science of healing. Faith and reason can coexist. Is there truly a will to live? Can prayer heal the sick? Men of hard science also pray to God. Is this a dichotomy or a fusion?

Every physician has seen patients recover whom we were certain would succumb. Does science have all the answers? Does faith?

I do not offer this woman's anecdote as proof of divine healing, although her young child'��s bedside pronouncement seems providential. There are many medical cases that carve a course that I would not have predicted and do not understand. What forces may be at play there? I can'��t say for sure, but I know many believe that prayer may be more powerful than our most potent prescriptions. When you're staring down a miracle, is that the time to diss the Divine One?

Will traditional medicine enter the new age universe? Will the gates of reason welcome faith?

Michael Kirsch is a gastroenterologist who blogs at MD Whistleblower.

Thank you for the complete thread.

Interesting read so far, eloquent point of view.

http://www.is-there-a-god.info/clues/healing-miracles.shtml

this link provides a summary of ten healing stories

each story is recopied from individual testimony in the succeeding posts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Healing miracles and God
Are miraculous healings proof of God?

It is not uncommon to hear of someone being healed miraculously, after prayer. But are these stories really true? And what do they tell us about God?

Healings? What healings?

There are actually hundreds of millions of stories. But are any of them anything more than an urban myth?

To be useful in throwing light on the possible existence of God, we need stories to be plausible as evidence, with as many as possible of the following attributes:

1. The account of the story comes from a reputable source which provides names, time and place, and there is no reason to believe the story is a fraud, or that anyone had anything to gain by inventing it.

2. There must be good independent medical opinion (backed up by documentation) that the disease was present before the prayer and not present afterwards.

3. The disease had little possibility of natural recovery.

4. The recovery must have been complete, or at least very significant, and not what might be expected from any treatment being received.

5. There must have been prayer for healing not long before the healing occurred.

I. An Australian doctor

An Australian doctor Sean George suffered a heart attack and was treated by two doctors and nurses. They tried the defibrillator, and when his ECG 'flatlined' they kept on with CPR. After about an hour and a half treating him with no response, they gave up. But then his wife (also a doctor) arrived and prayed for a miracle - and immediately he began to breathe again, his heart began to beat again, and eventually he fully recovered with (unexpectedly) no brain damage. As a doctor, he kept all the medical documentation, which he has made available.

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http://www.is-there-a-god.info/life/seangeorge.shtml

Dying doctor recovers after prayer
A doctor cannot be revived after a heart attack - until his wife prays for him.

This page in brief ....
A doctor suffers a heart attack and is treated by two doctors and several nurses. His heart effectively stops for an hour and a half. After thousands of chest compressions and 13 shocks from a defibrillator, his heart ECG is 'flatlining', and eventaully they stop the treatment.

At that point his wife arrives and is advised to say her goodbyes. But she holds his hand, prays a simple prayer, and immediately life signs return. He subsequently fully recovers, even though all medical prognosis indicates his brain will have suffered irreparable damage. The doctor retained copies of the medical documentation.

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The doctor
Dr Sean George is Consultant Physician and Head of Department of General Medicine at Kalgoorlie Hospital, in Western Australia. He also holds a Clinical Associate Professorship with the University of Western Australia.

At the time of the events recounted here, he was 39.

24 October 2008
On 24 October 2008, Sean was returning with his intern from a visit to a specialist clinic in Esperance, 400 km south of Kagoorlie. He had reached the small town of Kambalda (population about 2,700), about 60 km from Kalgoorlie, when he felt chest pain.

He decided he should visit the town clinic run by the local GP (General Practitioner). He had an ECG, saw the results, and realized he was having a heart attack. Eight minutes after the ECG, he went into cardiac arrest.

Initial heart attack
For the first 48 minutes, his heart was in the condition known as ventricular fibrillation, where the cardiac muscle quivers but doesn't pump effectively. (Thus the ECG shows some activity, but it is readily diagnosed as VF.)



Therefore the local GP and the intern used a defribillator to try to restore the normal rhythm.



Total loss of heart function
After 13 shocks over 46 minutes, his heart fully stopped - a condition known as asystole, where the ECG is 'flatlining' and defibrillation is no longer useful.



The doctors and nurses undertook manual heart compressions, several thousand in all over the one and a half hours. But after another 37 minutes in which he made no response, they concluded that further CPR was useless. Sean explains:

"When the blood supply is interrupted to the brain for 3 minutes the cells begin to die, after 20 minutes the organ is completely dead – this is why CPR is rarely performed for more than 20 minutes. Had I been performing CPR on another person in the same circumstances I would have stopped life support as well."

Sean had been without effective heart operation for almost an hour and a half, and there was virtually no medical hope. Wikipedia says of asystole: Out-of-hospital survival rates (even with emergency intervention) are less than 2 percent.

A simple prayer
About this time, Sean's wife Sherry arrived from Kalgoorlie, only to be told by the doctors that Sean was dead, and she should go into the resuscitation room and say goodbye.She went into the room and took his cold hand, and prayed:

"Lord, Sean is only 39 years old, I am 38 years old, we have a 10 year old boy, I need a miracle."

Sean immediately began to breathe again and a weak heartbeat returned, although he remained unconscious. The GP thought this was worst thing that could have happened because he knew Sean would be brain dead, and so at some stage in the future his wife would have to switch off the ventilator.



Perth Hospital
Sean was transferred to Kalgoorlie Hospital and later by air ambulance to Perth. There, an angiogram showed a blockage in the right coronary artery. The doctors put in a stent, but he wasn't expected to live for more than a day, and certainly not without severe brain damage. His kidney and liver had failed and his heart still required a pump







Recovery
But Sean didn't die. He continued to hang on to life, though unconscious and supported by drugs and medical equipment, as the photo at the top of this post shows.

Two days later a friend (a doctor) came to visit and said to him Sean if you can hear me squeeze my hand. And he squeezed her hand. So she said Sean, open your eyes and he did.

The next day he had started to move his hands and two more days and he was awake and able to breathe on his own. He woke up and said what am I doing here? He was found to have no brain damage at all which is medically an impossibility. He required dialysis for his kidneys.

Less than two weeks after the heart attack, Sean was released from hospital and three months later he returned to full operational duties at Kalgoorlie Hospital.

In the end, the only medical problems he suffered from were severe chest pains from the thousands of compressions and burn marks on his chest from the defibrillator.

Was it a miracle?
No-one can ever prove that a miracle has occurred, but we can say quite certainly that Sean's recovery was extremely unusual. And that this extremely unlikely recovery began immediately after his wife asked God to act.

Sean is in no doubt:

"There aren't many well documented cases of patients being clinically dead for so long, returning to life with their memory perfectly intact and without any neurological problems at all. Medically this is impossible; it could only be done by God. .... I believe I am only alive because God has done an amazing miracle."

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"I believe I am only alive because God has done an amazing miracle." -- Dr Sean George

A drug addicted gang member
More than a thousand drug addicts in Hong Kong were healed of their addictions after prayer. In some cases, such as Winson, a Triad gang fighter, the healing was immediate and apparently miraculous.

http://www.is-there-a-god.info/life/winston.shtml

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"I still keep to Jesus this night"
A drug addict and gang member finds unexpected help

Winson's gang leader gave him the task of protecting a foreigner, but never dreamed he would find a new boss!

I don't know anything about Winson's early life. I only know that by about 1970, he lived in Hong Kong's walled city, was an opium addict, and had risen to a leadership position in one of the walled city's notorious Triad gangs. Winson controlled the fights between his gang and other gangs competing for turf.

The Kowloon walled city, Hong Kong
The walled city was an accident of history. Located near the Hong Kong-China border, its land was originally owned by China but taken over by the British. However China disputed ownership, so the Hong Kong police offered little more than token law enforcement - especially since corruption was rife in the force. So the walled city became a few acres of densely-packed, jerry-built high rise up to ten or more stories high, riddled with narrow passageways and with limited lighting. Water and electricity networks relied on illegal connections.

It became the home for thousands of squatters, illegal immigrants and those too poor to live elsewhere. The limited law enforcement allowed triad gangs to set up protection rackets, prostitution, drug dens and other illegal activities.

In the middle 1960s, a young British girl, Jackie Pullinger, came to the walled city to serve the people and show them the love of Jesus. She provided a place for the homeless to sleep, helped them in one-sided court cases, and she set up a youth club to try to offer the boys an alternative to drugs and crime. One night, some of the boys broke in and trashed the place. And that was when Winson's story begins.

Stand in front of you, take the force of the blow
Winson's gang leader, Goko, was impressed by Jackie's attempts to help the walled city residents, and the next night he sent Winson down to keep an eye on things and deter any further vandalism. Jackie said she didn't need or want gang protection, but he turned up every night anyway. Jackie started to speak to him about Jesus, but Winson was honest enough to say that if he told her he believed, he would be lying. His addiction made it impossible to believe.

Jackie said that Jesus could give him the power to come off the drugs, stay off them, and begin a new life. Winson took the opportunity, and went into a spare room and began praying. He'd never prayed before, or joined in any of Jackie's other christian activities, but despite this, he began singing and praying in tongues (i.e. another language he didn't know, something christians believe is a sign of God's Spirit at work).

It lasted half an hour, and at the end of that time, Winson came off opium and never went back (as far as I know). Certainly later reports show him living a new life with a new family, and as he says on the video referenced below, "I still keep to Jesus this night".

A band of brothers
Winson was one of the first of hundreds of Triad members who came off drugs after prayer - some instantly like he did, some after lengthy prayer. Years later, Goko even gave up his life of crime and chose to follow Jesus. People can argue about the evidence for Jesus, but I would think Winson and his "brothers" would think they had very good reason to believe.

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This story can be found in Jackie Pullinger's book, Chasing the Dragon and on this video, The Law of Love. The video is available online at Veoh and I embedded two segments (from YouTube, but no longer available, and very low quality, unfortunately) in Drug addicts, triad gangs, and one of my heroes on my old blog. Other photos are on a recent blog post, also titled Drug addicts, triad gangs, and one of my heroes.

Acceptance


May 8, 2012 at 1:15pm our world changed forever. We got the call from the genetic counselor that we had been dreading. The baby I have been carrying for 15 weeks, is not healthy. He/she has Down Syndrome. What?! How can this be? I’ve done everything right. I don’t drink, smoke, take medicine, eat foods I’m not supposed to. Why me? Why us? Cause I’m old? But I’m not old! I’m only 36. What will this do to our family? I’ve gotten mad, sad, anxious, confused. Will I be able to love this baby? What does their future hold? Bullying, dependence, frustration? What does Cody’s future hold? Constant defending? Other peoples intolerance? Jealousy? What does our future hold??? I can’t even go there right now. Everyone assures us that they’ll love the baby regardless and that they’ll always be there to support us. Will they? Will we? Can we? I have felt thoughts that I never thought I could feel about my unborn baby. Those thoughts make me angry, sad, and feel very un-mommy like. I’ve prayed for forgiveness of those feelings. Can I handle this? Can Chuck? Will our marriage survive? Is it worth risking? Right now, I don’t know the answer to those questions. I pray for clarity, for love, and for acceptance. I pray for peace. I pray that everything will just be alright.


I wrote that journal entry a few days after we found out that our baby has Down syndrome. It makes me sad to read it now. I felt so out of control. So desperately trying to understand what was happening. I’d go to sleep and wake up not remembering if it was a dream or real. I would pray it was a dream then remember it was not. We cried a lot. We stopped praying. We felt betrayed by God. We worried and worried and worried. We grieved for the child we thought we were having and didn’t know if we could ever come to terms with the child we were given.

After three long, insufferably challenging weeks my eyes were finally opened when my OB doctor (of all people!) quoted the bible during an appointment. Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;…”. All of a sudden, it all made sense to me. We were chosen by God to be this child’s parents. He knows we are capable of loving this child unconditionally. He picked us for him and him for us. I walked out of that appointment knowing everything would be ok. There was a feeling of calmness and acceptance that was such a new, welcomed feeling for me. Chuck still wasn’t there. He was still depressed. I feared he may never get to a point of acceptance like me. What if he never did?

A few days later we named our son. Eli Michael. There is a lot of meaning to his name that I won’t go into right now. But now our baby, our son, had a name. He was real. No longer just a scary diagnosis to us. He became ours.

We spent the following weekend on the Washington coast. If there’s a wonderful place to reflect and gain insight, it’s the beach. We were surrounded by peace. We were filled with love. As we took pictures of the three of us on the beach I had an overwhelming feeling that our family was going to be what it was meant to be. The four of us. Me, Chuck, Cody, and Eli. A family that was chosen. I took a picture of Cody playing on the beach. When I looked at the image on my camera I could not explain what I saw. Instead of one shadow standing with Cody, there were two. I just knew it was Eli. I just knew we’d be ok. That weekend was the best weekend of our lives (so far). We both accepted the child we were given. Not only accepted, but embraced.

mellbugg-wordpress.com~

A massive heart attack
An expert medical team tried for 40 minutes to revive Jeff Markin after he suffered a massive heart attack. After he was officially pronounced dead, the heart surgeon laid hands on him and prayed for healing. The 'paddles' were applied one more time and he revived. Both the surgeon and Jeff verified his amazing revival.

http://www.is-there-a-god.info/life/ccrandall.shtml

Heart-starting action
A miracle in the emergency ward?

A man suffers a heart attack and is pronounced dead by the emergency team at the hospital - until the heart surgeon tries something different.

Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV is a respected cardiologist in the US (as this summary shows) with over twenty years experience. He has performed heart operations in many hospitals and holds professorships in several universities.

In 2007, Dr Crandall told of a man named Jeff Markin who he had attended in hospital after Jeff had suffered a massive heart attack. An emergency team of doctors and nurses had tried for 40 minutes to re-start his heart without success, when they called in Dr Crandall as a cardiac specialist, to confirm Jeff was dead.

"As I entered the ER [emergency room] it was like a war zone. Here was this lifeless body on a stretcher." Dr Crandall said later. "His face, his arms, his legs were pitch black with death."

Dr Crandall confirmed what the team already knew, Jeff was dead. However then a "voice" in his head told him to pray for the man. Dr Crandall was sure it was God, so he prayed for Jeff, then stopped the surprised medical team who were preparing the body for the morgue, and directed them to give him one more shock with the paddles. His heartbeat returned almost immediately and Jeff subsequently fully recovered.

This apparent miracle was first recorded by the International Press Association (featured article id=425, but no longer available online) and on the World Christian Doctors Network (which gave no details), and the website of an organisation named ASSIST. It was shown on Fox News WSVN7 Florida, based on interviews with Jeff and Dr Crandall - the missing video is now available on YouTube. Wanting to further verify these stories, I found the same story reported by the American College of Radiology but it is no longer available, on Fox News and Palm Beach Daily News archive (it was originally a feature story, but is now only in the archive).

The various accounts are not totally clear and consistent (the Fox News print reporter in particular seems to have got some of the facts a little garbled), but agree about all the main details.

This is not the first time Dr Crandall has observed a miraculous healing after prayer. Given Dr Crandall's experience and credentials, there seems to be no reason to doubt the story. I therefore conclude that it was probably a miracle - one cannot be certain, as mistaken diagnoses can occur, and people can revive unexpectedly, but those options seem improbable in this case.

Dr Crandall: "You are speaking to a scientist, a cardiologist, someone who loves medicine. I've never, ever seen this. There are always people that do not believe these events, and I will just tell them that it did happen. It was a real story, a real life that was restored."

Jeff Markin wasn't exactly a believer before that day but this experience has made him believe there is a higher purpose for his life. "I want to get the right message across that miracles do happen..... I'm so happy I have a second chance."

You can also watch Jeff's side of the story. --->http://www.cbn.com/tv/1432634068001

http://www.is-there-a-god.info/life/tenhealings.shtml

The doctor and the investigation
Dr H Richard Casdorph is an experienced doctor and medical researcher. His CV shows he has published more than a hundred research papers in a career that has spanned almost 6 decades.

Book on Miracles
In the mid 70s he undertook a research project with a difference. He interviewed ten people who claimed to have been miraculously healed of serious conditions. He examined all the case histories - X-rays, medical reports, etc - and also submitted them to medical specialists for review.

In all ten cases, the evidence showed that an unusual healing had taken place after the patient received prayer for healing. The cases were written up in a book, The Miracles, which includes some of the X-rays.

These were the cases ..... or jump straight to what we can learn.

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Elfrieda Stauffer
Elfrieda was 'critically ill' with chronic rheumatoid arthritis, and unable to walk or dress herself, when she was taken to a healing meeting by her husband. She had avoided going because "she did not believe in that kind of thing", but after much prayer by her husband and urging by some friends, she agreed to go. During the meeting she felt that parts of her body that had been in extreme pain were becoming pain-free, and she was able to move them. Dr Casdorph points out that gradual spontaneous remissions can occur with this disease, but "she emerged from this severe disability to complete normalcy within a matter of seconds or minutes. This is not spontaneous remission."

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Lisa Larios
Lisa was diagnosed with cancer of the hip when she was 12, and was unable to walk unaided. Her family decided chemotherapy was too traumatic and called it off after one dose. The family were Catholic, though not very religious, and a family friend invited the family to a christian healing meeting conducted by 'healing evangelist' Kathryn Kuhlman. The friend fasted and prayed for a week beforehand.

During the service, Lisa felt a warm feeling in her stomach, and Kathryn Kuhlman said someone in her section of the auditorium was being healed from cancer and should stand up. Lisa, against her mother's wishes, stood up and was able to walk without pain for the first time since the problem had appeared. Lisa was X-rayed several times after that, and it became clear that something strange had indeed occurred. Further X-rays (reproduced in the book) were taken and reviewed by several doctors, and these showed that Lisa's hip had been fully restored and the cancer was gone.

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Marie Rosenberger
In 1970, at age 44, Marie started suffering from severe headaches. She underwent brain surgery, and a tumour was removed, but the surgeons could not remove it all, and the biopsy showed is was malignant. The tumour began to grow back, and Marie was not expected to live. The family decided to spend an evening praying for her healing and her husband stayed up all night. He had a vision of the tumour being healed, but Marie seemed little improved when she woke. However she stopped taking her medication, and continued to improve, as visits to her neurosurgeon confirmed, with some amazement, until she was healed. The book discusses the medical documentation and reproduces arteriograms.

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Marion Burgio
When multiple sclerosis first affected Marion in 1958, she was pregnant and not yet 30. She felt numbness in her hands, kept falling over, and generally started losing coordination. But it was not diagnosed for four years, by which time she was deteriorating steadily. Ten years later, she had bad headaches, a deformed forearm, was incontinent, had a marked loss of hearing and vision and was unable to eat or even hold her head up. A friend visited regularly to pray for her and invited her to a Kathryn Kuhlman healing meeting.

Marion at first refused to go, but eventually was taken in a wheelchair. She can't remember exactly what happened, but during the service she found herself standing up, with her back and limbs straight for the first time in years. She began to walk immediately, and later her surprised doctor found she had been healed of all symptoms, including the deformities. She and her husband became strong believers in Jesus.

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Marvin Bird
Arteriosclerotic heart disease was (and I assume still is) the most common cause of death in the western world. Marvin Bird had his first heart attack at age 46, and over the next 16 years was hospitalised 17 times because of his heart condition. One artery was completely blocked and the others were half blocked (as shown in angiograms reproduced in the book), but he declined a coronary artery bypass because, at age 60, he didn't think he would survive surgery. He attended a healing meeting even though he wasn't then a believer, and an assistant, believing he had been healed, invited him to stand up. He couldn't previously do this on his own, but now was able to. Doctors later confirmed he was fully healed, and Marvin started to attend church and believe in Jesus.

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Ray Jackson
In 1972, Ray Jackson had a kidney removed in the Duke University Medical Center because of cancer. He recovered well, but two years later doctors had to remove a finger because they found cancer had spread there. Shortly after they found cancer in his spine, pelvis, breastbone and leg, and this time surgery was out of the question. (Two bone scans are reproduced in the book.) He was booked in for radiation treatment, but advised he could expect to live no more than a year.

Many friends were praying for his healing, and before he began the radiation treatment, he woke in the night to hear a voice tell him he would be healed. The next day he attended a 'Kathryn Kuhlman miracle service', during which the pain disappeared instantly. Tests the next day still showed the lesions, but subsequent tests showed that healthy new bone had filled in where the lesions had been. This case is notable because of the wealth of medical detail available from Duke to confirm the healing.

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Pearl Bryant
Pearl was a doctor of speech therapy who had suffered from a range of medical problems - arthritis, kidney, gall bladder and liver problems - for most of her life. By the time she was in her sixties she had to wear long-leg braces whenever she was out of bed because of weak knees and many falls. Other physical problems (fainting, headaches, nausea and digestrive problems) also worsened at this time. A devout christian, she began praying for healing in her late seventies, then finally managed to get to a healing meeting. During the meeting she felt an unusual 'grinding' sensation in her body, beginning with her left hip and gradually moving around her whole body and ending in her neck. She couldn't take the leg braces off in public to test her healing, but next morning she was able to walk unaided and regained full movement. She was fully healed.

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Anne Soults
Over just a few weeks, Anne began to have serious problems reading, speaking and remembering. A series of brain scans (some of which are reproduced in the book) and visits to different specialists revealed she had a lesion that was increasing in size, consistent with a tumour. However following prayer from a prayer group and at a healing service, further scans showed no evidence of an abnormality. Dr Casdorph comments: "This lady's brain abnormality was well documented by the standard diagnostic techniques and she was seen by many specialists."

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Paul Trousdale
Paul, a successful businessman, was admitted to hospital with severe gastrointestinal bleeding after fainting several times. He required many blood transfusions over several days. He had only recently begun to attend church, and his minister visited one morning and prayed for him. The minister said that he had been healed, but doctors would not release him from hospital until his condition was re-tested. All tests showed the bleeding had ceased and there were no abnormalities. Paul's condition before and after were "well documented by medical records".

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Delores Winder
Delores had severe spinal problems and pain for years, necessitating four spinal fusions and two cordotomies (a procedure that disables part of the spinal cord to reduce pain but results in no feeling in the legs). For fourteen years she wore a body cast and neck brace to relieve the pain and enable her to walk. At the end of this time, the doctors told her there was little they could do for her, she had so many conditions, but that she could prolong her life by staying still in bed, advice she was unwilling to take.

Although she was a christian, she didn't believe in divine healing, but she was persuaded to attend a Kathryn Kuhlman meeting. She experienced a burning sensation in her legs (the first thing she had felt in her legs for a time) and was completely healed. She was also strongly renewed in her faith. Dr Casdorph says he has medical records for Delores "an inch thick" showing seven serious spinal procedures and the increasingly desperate medical diagnoses, culminating in the doctor's acceptance that she had "gotten an excellent result physically".

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What we can learn
Ten people, all prayed for by christians who believe in divine healing, all healed. That is surely enough to make any open minded person think.

At the very least, we can say that something quite unusual happened in each case. Coincidence? The odds seem against it. Poor diagnosis? Ditto. Lies? The documentation suggests not. Real miracles? It seems likely!

I suggest we can draw the following conclusions.

There is good documented medical evidence of unusual medical recoveries after prayer for healing. This evidence has been reviewed by medical specialists,
The probability of natural remissions seems remote, and the most believable explanation is surely that these were indeed cases of divine healing.
In many cases, people prayed for some time before the healing occurred. We should be encouraged to pray when loved ones need healing. They may not receive the healing, but it is possible that they may.
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The Healing Power of the Christian Mind: How Biblical Truth Can Keep You Healthy
By William Backus

Who Is God?: Source of Joy and Peace, Solution to Terrorism, Crime ...
By Henry Loyd Copeland

((((Pansy))))

I can't quote you chapter or verse.
I can tell you I've seen miracles resulting from prayer and profound faith.
things which have occurred when science and the world of medicine couldn't explain.

among them are that 3 people in my life are living when we were told nothing more could be done by doctors.
when my cousin was birthing her youngest son, she was fading and her son was losing oxygen.

my mom and I were at her bedside praying. the doctors were basically letting us be there because they expected her to die and didn't want her to die alone.
after a time of continuous prayer when no medicine had helped, her system stabilized and the fetal readouts stabilized.
her son is now 23.


one of the students I had when I was teaching suffered an accident that should have been fatal. while she was having a fun day water skiing, a jet skier lost control and crashed into her. it shattered her head right at the temple.
she was airlifted to one of the prestigious hospitals in the area.
the doctors did what they could but didn't expect her to live, much less have any kind of functional life.
if she did manage to survive, she was expected to be a vegetable.
the doctors essentially told her mom to gather up anyone who might want to say goodbye.

she wasn't responsive. we would say if you can hear me squeeze my hand. blink your eye. etc. (in 2 languages) nothing. no response.
in class she was always hungry. I would say, does anyone have questions? she would raise her hand and say do you have food? it had become the class joke and her classmates would have a snack to share.

when she was unresponsive we even said if you want food squeeze my hand.
the doctors brought us together to say goodbye. they didn't expect her to live beyond the next 24 hours.
it was her mom, little brother, uncle, little boy cousin, my friend who was our school janitor, her daughter who was one of the classmates.
we all gathered in a circle and held hands and prayed and thanked God for the time we had shared with this special young lady.
we asked his blessing and the courage to face what might come.
while we were praying, she started to blink and her vital signs changed on the monitors.
her uncle took her hand and said if you can hear me, squeeze my hand. nothing.
her little brother took her hand and said if you want hot cheetos squeeze my hand. there was a faint, barely perceptible twitch.
the doctor said it's involuntary reaction.
she would have to understand what is being said and she would have to be making a physical effort to squeeze. it takes thought coordination. her brain is so damaged she is no longer capable of coherent thought.
I took her hand and said if you like chocolate squeeze my hand. she didn't because she doesn't like chocolate.
I said if you want food, squeeze my hand. she did. a little bit more perceptible.
the doctors sent us all to the waiting room to do a series of tests.
they came back astounded at significantly improved results.
they did not expect a full recovery. mentally or physically. at the very least they expected blindness, deafness and deformation.
that was 7 years ago. she went on to compel high school runner up to valedictorian. she is now in her second year at the university.

do I believe in the healing power of prayer? absolutely.

(((ana)))

thank you for sharing