The Story of a Survivor

At the beginning of this trial, I felt that God spoke to me a promise.


I had just come home from an 18 day stay in the hospital after two surgeries and my first chemotherapy treatment. 


I was broken, scared and grieving for my new husband and family who were also scared about what was to come. 


I felt like a ship on a very stormy and uncertain sea being tossed about. I knew that my Anchor was Jesus Christ and I also knew that if He would speak peace into my storm, everything would be alright. 


I remember being so weak I could hardly walk across the floor without help, I was also on oxygen and breathing was very difficult. But I knew that I MUST touch God that day.


Have you ever felt that you needed a Word from the Lord? I don't mean just a nice thought or even a Scripture but that you need God to audibly speak to you a promise just to hold you through the Storm. 


That's how I felt that day. I needed to hear the voice of God telling me that I would make it. I knew that if God said I would make it, no matter what I had to face or go through, I WOULD make it! 


I struggled my way into our bedroom, grabbed my Bible and sat down in our rocking chair and began to talk to God. I didn't have alot of strength so it was a very quiet and subdued prayer meeting but God heard me. 


My husband was doing some work in our room and asked what was wrong when I came in (I was crying and visibly upset.) 


I told him that I just needed to talk to God and needed God to talk to me. Prayer wasn't an unusual thing in our home so he just went about what he was doing while I began to pray. 


I have never had a prayer meeting quite like the one I had that day. I just began to tell God how I felt and explained all of my worries and fears. 


I told God that I wanted to live to have children and see them raised, I wanted to live to see the next day and I didn't want to leave my new husband and family.


I explained to God (as if He didn't already know all of this!) that I was no good to Him dead. I reminded Him that I couldn't witness to anyone or be a testimony for Him if I died in this trial. 


I told God alot of things that day, but mainly I just prayed for strength for what was to come. And then came the most important question of all, I simply said, "God, if you tell me I can make it then I know I will come through whatever lies ahead. But if I'm not going to make it out of this storm, please send comfort and peace to my family." 


I told God that I needed to hear from Him that day. I had come to a place that I HAD to hear the voice of the Lord. 


I prayed and then became caught up in the Holy Ghost. It was as if nothing else in the world existed. For a time, I wasn't even in my room. I forgot the pain, sickness and weakness and I was in a world where no care, worries or anxiety existed. It was just me and Jesus and I wanted to stay there forever. I felt the sweet rain of heaven flood my soul and heal my wounded spirit. 


I walked with God, caught up in the Holy Ghost and then I fell silent, waiting for Him to speak. 


I had my Bible in my lap and felt led to just open it and read. With my eyes still shut I opened my Bible and read the first Scripture that my eyes fell on. It was Isaiah 54:17 and it says, "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper..." 


I felt a confirmation in my Spirit that this was indeed the Lord speaking to me, but I still felt that there was  more. I wasn't going to give up until God himself spoke into my situation! 


I began to pray in the Holy Ghost some more and felt that I should lay my hands on my husband and pray for him. In many ways I believe this trial was harder on him than it was on me. I knew I could take whatever I had to take, but with him, he just had to sit back and watch me suffer without being able to do anything about it. 


I have NEVER laid hands on anyone while in prayer and certainly have never done so to my husband, but I knew God had a purpose for this, so I followed what I felt was the voice of God prompting me to do something I had never done. 


I laid my hands on Seth and began to pray. I fought with everything in me against the depression, the fear and the voice of the enemy that was telling me I would never survive this storm. 


As I began to pray, I felt a chill in the room as if Satan had also joined the prayer meeting to discourage and bring fear and doubt. I felt as if I was running into a brick wall and that my answer would never come. I began to speak to that spirit of fear and I told the devil just what I thought of him. I reminded him that he could not touch me unless God allowed him to and I fought back with every Scripture I knew. 


The devil hates and fears a child of God who knows who they are and what he is!




I was very weak and sick at the time so physically, I did not have alot of strength to do battle with the enemy, but in my spirit, I had never felt stronger. 


The longer I prayed I felt that wall weakening and began to feel a "break through" in the Holy Ghost. 


As I pushed through in the Spirit, still with my hands on Seth, I felt the Voice of the Lord speak to me this promise, "You will go through this trial and nothing will be lost." 


My mind immediately flashed back to the story of the three Hebrew boys who were thrown into the fiery furnace but when they came out, their hair wasn't singed and their clothes didn't even smell of smoke. They were untouched and safe from the trial that roared around them. No, they were not delieverd, they had to walk through the fire, but in the end, there wasn't a trace of harm. They came through and nothing was lost! 


I began to thank the Lord and then I told Seth what I felt God had spoken to me. 


Although things looked very bleak at the time, I knew that I had received my promise and we WOULD make it through! 


I shared this story with you, not to exalt myself or make me seem "super spiritual" or anything more than a human being full of flaws and short comings, but I shared this story so that you can see where I came from. 


And now, one year later I have found  God's promises to be true! 


I now stand on the other side of the storm and NOTHING has been lost! 


We are stronger and more blessed than before we went through this trial. 


I was told July 12, 2012 that I am CANCER FREE! 


I did have to undergo a minor, surgical biopsy and had some scar tissue removed for testing, but all the tests came back negative and my cancer has been declared to be in remission. 


Not only that but we have been seeking coverage for our medical bills for over a year. 


We had amassed a substantial amount of money for all the doctor visits, treatments and hospital stays and there was NO way we would ever be able to pay it back. 


Although we had applied for State aid, we were told by our case workers, lawyers and even a State Senator that there was no way we would receive coverage because the State had so many right offs already applied for that ours would get pushed to the back of the pile and in the end, would probably get lost in the shuffle. 


I had just about given up hope of ever getting the bills paid outside of filing bankruptcy (which was not something we wanted to do) and I had buried the prayer and rolled the grave stone over it, so to speak.


Then one Tuesday night Bro Nathan Holmes preached a message, "The Cry That Puts God to Work." 


Thankfully my husband had a little more faith than I did about the situation and said he had prayed and already felt that God had taken care of it. After hearing Bro Nathan's message, I uncovered my buried trial and began to cry and pray over it again. 


About two weeks later, just last Thursday (the same day I was declared cancer free) I received a phone call from the State case worker telling me that my claim had been accepted and ALL of my medical bills from May 2011, present and future were completely TAKEN CARE OF! 


Yes, God STILL answers prayer! What a wonderful day of tears, laughter and rejoicing! 


I believe I felt like the children of Israel must've felt when they were led out of Egypt. We were cancer free and debt free all in one day! I felt like a new person! 


Yes, we walked through the Storm, we spent many sleepless nights due to pain and sickness, we were not delivered immediately like some, we had to walk through the fire but in the end, we came through the trial and nothing was lost! 


God always keeps in promises. You might have to walk through the fiery furnace, but if God has given you a promise of deliverance, it WILL come to pass! 


Now I can say I fought against cancer and I won. I stand on the other side of pain and heartache and I am a survivor! 


I did not lose my home, my marriage, my health, my lung or my financial reputation because God promised that although I would have to walk through the fire, I would come out on the other side and NOTHING would be lost.