13.9 Testimony – Overcoming the curse of sickness and death in the family
A spirit of infirmity and death had gripped John G. Lake’s family. Eight family members died from illnesses. For 32 years, some members of his family were invalids. His boyhood was filled with memories of sickness, doctors, nurses, hospitals, hearses, funerals, graveyards and tombstones; a sorrowful household; a broken-hearted mother and a grief-stricken father. Lake himself was afflicted with rheumatism of the leg in his younger years.
He traveled to John Alexander Dowie’s Healing Home in Chicago where he received his healing. Then the rest of Lake’s terminally-afflicted family members were healed at Dowie’s home as well.
Two short years into Lake’s marriage with Jennie in 1893, sickness and disease crept into their home. Jennie was diagnosed with tuberculosis and heart disease. Her irregular heartbeat would cause her to lapse into unconsciousness. She became an invalid and in 1898, doctors told Lake that there was nothing more that could be done for her. Where was God’s power now?
On April 28, 1898, when Jennie’s final hours seemed to be ticking away, a minister encouraged Lake to resolve himself to God’s will and to accept Jennie’s death. His words weighed heavy and Lake stiffened in resistance. Still the reality of death seemed imminent.
In utter hopelessness, Lake threw his Bible against the fireplace mantle and it fell onto the floor and the Bible opened at Acts chapter 10. As he walked over to pick it up, his eyes drifted to verse 38: “…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil; for God was with him.”
Those powerful words ripped through his thoughts: “OPPRESSED OF THE DEVIL!” That meant that God wasn’t the author of Jennie’s sickness, or any sickness! It was the devil that was destroying her life.
There was no doubt in his mind that Jesus died for the healing of his wife, just as He died for her sins. And he determined that absolutely nothing could rob Jennie of that gift. Lake decided to let God, not Satan, have the last say. He marched into the bedroom and declared to the seen and unseen that his wife would be healed at exactly 9:30am.
When 9:30 arrived, Lake knelt at her side and called on the living God. When he did, the power of God came upon Jennie and permeated her body from head to foot. Her paralysis left, her heartbeat became normal, her cough ceased, her breathing regulated, and her temperature returned to normal. Then she cried out, “Praise God, I’m healed!”
Soon, the story of Jennie’s healing became national news and propelled them into a highly sought after ministry.
(Reference: God’s Generals –Why They Succeeded and why Some Failed by Roberts Liardon, Albury Publishing)
He traveled to John Alexander Dowie’s Healing Home in Chicago where he received his healing. Then the rest of Lake’s terminally-afflicted family members were healed at Dowie’s home as well.
Two short years into Lake’s marriage with Jennie in 1893, sickness and disease crept into their home. Jennie was diagnosed with tuberculosis and heart disease. Her irregular heartbeat would cause her to lapse into unconsciousness. She became an invalid and in 1898, doctors told Lake that there was nothing more that could be done for her. Where was God’s power now?
On April 28, 1898, when Jennie’s final hours seemed to be ticking away, a minister encouraged Lake to resolve himself to God’s will and to accept Jennie’s death. His words weighed heavy and Lake stiffened in resistance. Still the reality of death seemed imminent.
In utter hopelessness, Lake threw his Bible against the fireplace mantle and it fell onto the floor and the Bible opened at Acts chapter 10. As he walked over to pick it up, his eyes drifted to verse 38: “…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil; for God was with him.”
Those powerful words ripped through his thoughts: “OPPRESSED OF THE DEVIL!” That meant that God wasn’t the author of Jennie’s sickness, or any sickness! It was the devil that was destroying her life.
There was no doubt in his mind that Jesus died for the healing of his wife, just as He died for her sins. And he determined that absolutely nothing could rob Jennie of that gift. Lake decided to let God, not Satan, have the last say. He marched into the bedroom and declared to the seen and unseen that his wife would be healed at exactly 9:30am.
When 9:30 arrived, Lake knelt at her side and called on the living God. When he did, the power of God came upon Jennie and permeated her body from head to foot. Her paralysis left, her heartbeat became normal, her cough ceased, her breathing regulated, and her temperature returned to normal. Then she cried out, “Praise God, I’m healed!”
Soon, the story of Jennie’s healing became national news and propelled them into a highly sought after ministry.
(Reference: God’s Generals –Why They Succeeded and why Some Failed by Roberts Liardon, Albury Publishing)
posted by Joshua Lye @ 12:49 AM
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