I am grateful to be able to give this following testimony of how patient, loving and merciful our almighty God is. Countless times I’ve been encouraged by your testimonies. It has been of priceless value to me and, I’m sure, many others! I truly hope mine will also be of help to someone.
On July the 25th 2012 a testimony called “The God Who is rich in Mercy” was posted in which I testified of how Jesus Christ healed me of my battle with stress. I also mentioned that I had a health problem.
I started having colon trouble round about the time the Lord started calling me to follow Him when I was 17 years old. I conformed a little, but was still taking part in the empty things of the world. I guess Satan must have noticed the slight change and tried to discourage me. The colon trouble started off very slow with minor symptoms, so I didn’t think much of it at the time. All I could visibly notice was that my skin allergies, which I had most of my life, got a bit worse.
With time I developed more symptoms, but for some reason I did not realize that it was caused by the irregular bowel functioning I was experiencing. Since all the symptoms progressed at such a slow rate, I just learned to live with it. It was hard for me though, I’ve always maintained a healthy lifestyle, and it was clear that none of my efforts made a difference.
About a year ago, when my relationship grew stronger with the Lord, Satan got angry and all of a sudden threw those symptoms at me twice as hard. I was alarmed and tried everything in my power to treat the symptoms with all kinds of over-the-counter medication – all to no avail, in fact, the symptoms got worse every time I tried. This was the time I needed to go to a doctor, but nothing I experienced made sense! I think I got a bit scared after a few attempts of self-diagnosing and decided not to go at all.
I was thrown into desperation. Healing from Jesus Christ became my only option. Although I believed the price had been paid and the promise was made unto me, it had always seemed out of my reach because of stress. Getting deliverance from that was a battle on its own (This is where the other testimony comes in). Our God is so rich in mercy! He completely delivered me from the stress that kept me from having faith in what He had promised.
God has a thousand ways of answering every prayer and He has a thousand ways of healing too. In my case, the more I tried, the more I failed. I think it was His way of telling me: “Stop trying and give it over to Me”. It wasn’t easy. It’s in everyone to try and help themselves, especially me, I’ve always trusted too much in myself. But through this all He gave me no choice other than to trust on Him. For that I will be ever grateful. He had gained my trust and at last I was able to have faith in Him.
Brother Branham said this in one of his sermons: “A gift of faith is not something you take and do something with. A gift of faith is you just get yourself out of the way. The gift is getting yourself out of the way”
I took God by His Word and accepted my healing. By this time my stomach couldn’t function normally without medication or routine. I stopped using everything that kept my stomach sort of “normal”, I started to eat everything I wanted to and used everything that I used to be allergic to. It was a lengthy and constant battle, but He was faithful and relieved me of many of the symptoms. Some lingered, but without battles and testing, there would be no victories! Of course Satan was always trying to discourage me, but I kept telling Him that God’s Word said that I am healed, His word is the only truth and anything contrary to His Word is a lie. I kept holding on to the Lord’s promise that He wouldn’t let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. But when we are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that we can stand up under it. He will always make a way for us, no matter how hopeless a situation may seem. The Lord often turns our biggest problems into our biggest victories if we’ll just turn to Him, for He is more eager to help and deliver us from our problems than we are to ask Him.
His mercy was persistent even when I struggled. He would always answer my questions and lift my faith through the Voice of His prophet with perfect timing. One of those incidents happened quite recently, one I will forever hold dear to my heart: My family and I went on vacation to a house next to a river. What was meant to be a getaway and quality time with the Lord turned out to be the opposite. The house seemed to have an oppressing effect on us all and we came back in a spiritual low. I was struggling to recover from the spiritual “dip” I was in, and with that my stomach trouble surfaced again. I asked the Lord for guidance in choosing a sermon to listen and kept asking Him to please have His prophet say something in this sermon that would lift me out of the hole I felt I was in. The sermon was called: “At Thy Word Lord.” It was only a little more than an hour long, but near the end of it I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I’d doze off every five minutes. I’m convinced it was Satan trying to keep me from receiving a blessing, as I am not prone to falling asleep during a sermon. Well, he failed. The Lord made sure of that! During the prayer line I momentarily snapped out of the sleeping spell when I heard the words: “colon trouble” and tried to listen but I dozed off again. But then He woke me up with words I couldn’t miss. The following is what He wanted me to hear:
How do you do, lady? Do you believe me to be God's servant with all your heart? If Jesus Christ was standing here with this suit on, as far as He knew, He'd tell you He had already did it. But for your healing, He had already done it. But He'd tell you what--what your trouble was. And by that, might make you have faith, while He's setting at the right hand of the Father, but He sent me to do that. Do you believe that? Then I can, by doing so. You're--you're suffering with some kind of a--like a headache, it's migraine headaches. Isn't that right? You're extremely nervous. And you have some kind of a trouble in your bowels, colon trouble. Isn't that right? You've just had something that's happened in your home. No, it's a... You've had a cross-eyed child healed. Is that right? That was in this meeting. That's right. I see it on this same platform. Isn't that right? You have a wonderful faith, lady.
Just a minute. Here it comes again. You're not from the city though. You're from a--a country where there's lots of hills. It's--it's a--mountains, Colorado. Isn't that right? Yes, sir. Riggley, or something like that, I see the name as you come into the city, wrote on the side. Is that right? And your... I hear somebody calling you Kathleen (Is that right?) White? Is that right? Go home. Jesus Christ makes you... Amen.
I see where It's at now. There was something wrong with that lady about the intestines or something another.
54-0221 At Thy Word
My name is Kathleen!!! At first I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I rewound and started scanning the page for what I was sure I had heard, and there it was! With tears of joy I rewound about ten times, just praising the Lord for His loving care and mercy, doing the exceedingly, abundantly. Of course I was instantly lifted out of the hole I was in!
The very next day the prayer cloth I requested came in the mail. My digestion is getting better every day, and with that, all the symptoms that lingered are leaving. By the grace of God, someone as undeserving as I, am healthy and making a full recovery.
Tribulations throw us into desperation and He uses that to draw us closer to Him. I in the middle thereof it’s so hard to see that it is Him being merciful to us, but in the end it’s worth more to us than gold! He has helped, encouraged and changed me in more ways than I can mention. Had I not gone through this I wouldn’t have had the faith and trust in Him as I have today. It has never been more real to me that all things work together for good to those who love Him.
God Bless you
Your sister in Christ, Kathleen.