Jesus heals retired manager’s eczema
J is a retiree with two adult children from a previous marriage that ended in divorce. Now remarried, she had struggled in her relationship with her children. Here is her story of how a case of eczema led to her renewing her life in Jesus Christ and reconciling with her children. Praise God!
(See Chinese versions: 简体中文 > 耶稣治愈一位退休经理的湿疹 | 繁體中文 > 耶穌治癒一位退休經理的濕疹 )
I had been suffering from very severe eczema for seven months.
One day, I bumped into a friend at a wedding. I shared how I had nearly not attended because of all the rashes over my body, the uncontrollable itching and sleepless nights. My dermatologists had prescribed anti-histamines, steroid creams and even controlled doses of steroids, but nothing was really helping.
Sensing that this was due to deep anxiety, my friend asked if I was familiar with renewal prayers. She offered to help me to delve into my past to see if there were any experience or event that had allowed the enemy to establish a stronghold and attack my health.
My initial response was one of scepticism – I didn’t believe that my skin condition was somehow linked to my spiritual health.
But I was desperate to try anything, so I agreed. In the weeks following, I filled in a form which revealed specific occasions in the 1970s where I had delved into Hindu and Taoist pagan practices during my first marriage before I became a Christian in the early 1990s.
She also sent me some prayers to pray over for healing. The one that captivated my attention was Ephesians 3:16-19. Later, I would commit it to memory and recited it daily:
“For this reason, I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches he may strengthen (me) with power through His Spirit in (my) inner being, so that Christ may dwell in (my heart) through Faith . And I pray that (I), being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord’s holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that (I) may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Gradually, my eczema receded and my skin cleared up.
This gave me greater faith and confidence to go through the renewal prayer. On the day itself, my friend encouraged me to confess my past spiritual transgressions to our Lord and ask for deliverance. I sent many things to the foot of the Cross, so the enemy would no longer use them as strongholds to gain control of my thoughts, words, actions and life.
One of them was intellectual pride. This all started when I was a child. My mother died early from a heart condition that was brought about by the stress of my father’s affair. Her death and my father’s marriage to his mistress was very traumatic for me and I vowed to live life through my mind and not my heart, so I would not feel anything and get hurt.
I blamed my stepmother for my mother’s death and determined to make something of myself so I could prosecute my father in court one day. As a result, I performed exceptionally well in my studies and even appeared in the local newspaper for my exam results. I learnt that I could use my mind to gain success. All this, however, did not prepare me for life.
Emotionally, I was like an infant and I found the responsibilities and pressures of having my own family overwhelming.
My first husband was a public figure who privately had other lovers. As his wife, I had to attend numerous functions and put on an appearance that we were doing well. To cope, I suppressed my emotions and escaped by daydreaming, leaving my children to the care of nannies and working for long hours. It was finally at my husband’s third affair that I decided to end the marriage.
After my divorce, a friend suggested I attend a bible study. A few years later, I accepted Jesus as my personal saviour when I was in my forties.
Intellectually I understood my salvation, but building a relationship with God took much longer.
Finally, after being a Christian for 22 years, I was able to release everything to Him through the renewal prayer and experience an intimacy with God like never before. I remember feeling light in spirit for the first time in my life as I left after the renewal prayer.
That night, I wrote down three areas that I surrendered to the Holy Spirit for transformation.
- My mind – To be renewed by His Spirit (Romans 12:2)
- My tongue – To speak truth in love and be affirming (Ephesians 4:15)
- My heart – To have a heart of flesh and not of stone (Ezekiel 36:26)
I also resolved to give up control and my obsession with performance; to listen more and talk less; to slow down and be still; be mindful of my thoughts and actions; and to be joyful, childlike and pure.
The next morning, I suddenly woke up at 6am, feeling surprisingly refreshed, joyful and filled with gratitude. My senses seemed to be super-alert. I invited the Holy Spirit to fill my heart with His joy and lightness and to eradicate any tendency for control, performance or pride. I prayed to hear His soft whisper and He answered! All of a sudden, it felt like a light bulb went on in my head.
These words appeared before me as clear as day, “You need to write a letter to your children.”
At the same time, the words of a song came to mind; “Take me back to the place where it started, where I was made to see that the heart is the place for revival. You give everything to me.”
Slowly, the Spirit revealed the following truths to me. My life is not my story – it is God’s and I am a mere player. I am exactly in the place He wants me to be and He has a purpose for me. It’s not always about me. I was filled with excitement knowing that all these revelations were from the Holy Spirit.
It wasn’t until a couple of months later that I found time to write my letter to my children, both of whom were in their forties. In that letter, I confessed to them for not being a functional mother in those precious years of their growing up, for not engaging fully in their lives and even relegating that precious role to others. I could not turn back the clock, but I wanted them to know that I would always pray for them and that I was proud of whom they had become and only wanted their happiness.
I also described my experience with the Holy Spirit and how it was God who had softened my heart to be able to see the reality.
The process of writing that letter was raw and often painful, but I could feel the Spirit transforming my heart from one of stone to one of flesh. When I finished writing it, I felt like a new person who was finally liberated from the brokenness of a dysfunctional past, the pain of an unhappy marriage and the guilt of unfulfilled motherhood. Finally, I was set free from the past in order to enjoy an abundant life in the way God intended it to be.
Today, I experience a new chapter in my relationship with my adult children, and I keep praying that they too may also come to Faith and know God.
It has been over a year now since my unusual eczema attack. I believe it was God’s way of getting my attention and introducing me to the renewal prayers that I badly needed to cleanse myself spiritually to enjoy the life that God intended for me. What an amazing God we serve!
To receive notifications of new posts from Teaching Humble Hearts, please subscribe here .