We were all really exicited as my brother and his wife and three children were all travelling down from Sheffield to attend the party. However the day before they were due to arrive we received a phonecall to say that my brother's six year old daughter and his wife were both ill with a sickness bug and they didn't expect they would be able to make it.
We were all incredibly disappointed as we haven't seen them for over 18 months as they had been to live in Australia for over a year and this was the first time we were due to get together since they moved back to the UK.
Anyway as it happens they were all feeling fine and they travelled down on the Saturday and arrived just after 5pm. The kids all played together and we had dinner as a family at my parents house.
Then in the middle of the night at about 3.30pm Nathaniel awoke screaming. I ran into his bedroom and he was a little delirious with a high temperature. He told me he felt sick and I could hear and feel his stomach rumbling and churning the way it does when you have a tummy bug.
I gave him some calpol and some water to drink, fetched a bowl in case he was sick and laid him back down in bed and stroked his forehead.
I was really worried he would be too sick to even make it to his own party the next day and was really upset for him because he has been so excited about having his pirate party and his pirate cake and he had been counting down the sleeps and talking about his friends and cousins who were all going to be there.
Anyway, feeling a little desperate I decided to pray for healing - but not really expecting it would do any good. First of all I prayed out loud in a very simple prayer so that Nathaniel would understand what I was asking God for.
I then continued to pray quietly as Nat closed his eyes. I was asking God to heal Nathaniel and take away and bugs and germs inside his tummy. I then thought about the bible story where Jesus healed a man from demons and they came out of the man whom they had possessed and entered a herd of swine which then all ran off a cliff.
I then started to worry about where I could ask God to put the germs - i didn't really want them myself and there wasn't anyone else present!! I was struglling with myself because I was praying for God to get the germs out of Nat but where was there for the germs to go and perhaps it was different when it was the demons because Jesus could just order them to come out. What if that approach doesn't work for germs??
Yes unfortunately this is how my mind sometimes works when I pray - I tend to overthink it.
So I stopped and chastised myself for my unbelief.
For goodness sake if God can simply speak the world into existence and if Jesus can raise the dead to life and God can heal people from illnesses such as cancer then he can certainly heal a sick child from a tummy bug and I don't actually even have to understand how he does it or how it works!!
I then recalled a book I have read recently called 'Chasing the Dragon' by Jackie Pullinger and about how she would pray in tongues over drug addicts and they would be healed from their addiction without suffering Cold Turkey. Those same drug addicts would then share the gospel with other heroin addicts and would pray in tongues for them too to be healed. These were new 'baby' Christians sometimes only a few hours old in their relationship with Christ.
I decided if praying in tongues worked for them, it could work for me too - after all it is the same holy spirit we are accessing.
As Nat lay there burning up I prayed for God's holy spirit to fill me and quietly prayed in tongues. Although I was praying out loud in a spiritual language that was not English, in my head I was praying that Nat's temperature would drop and that his tummy would settle and that he would be well enough to attend and enjoy his party the next day. After a few minutes I suddenly realised Nat's forehead no longer felt hot and he seemed calm and settled in his bed so I left him to sleep.
The following morning he awoke bright and cheerful and excited about his party. A little pale but with no hint of a temperature and no sickness.
Nat had a great party and enjoyed spending time with his cousins and friends. Thank you God!!
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| Pirate Nat and his brother Captain Seb |
I still can't quite believe it. Makes me wonder what I could really achieve in prayer if I could only suspend my unbelief and pray more often in faith that God will listen and act!
