Get Ready… More Delight.
Dianne has a picture of the hemorrhaging woman, which she picked up last year while travelling in Israel. Now living in the ancient Israeli city of Magdala, the famous, original painting depicts the scene of a woman with such immense faith that she is healed just by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment (Mark 5:25–34).
The picture defines everything about Dianne’s journey. For Dianne, the need for healing has emerged repeatedly over the last 40 years of her life. First, she had Lyme disease and lived with excruciating pain. Then she experienced six different head injuries from separate falls and incidents. She lived with debilitating fear, perfectionism and work-a-holism. She had a gluten intolerance. Another time she picked up a deadly blue box jellyfish in Australia. “I remember being stressed to the point of death and I just didn’t think I could take another minute of it,” recalls Dianne. “But God has been there through all of it and in my absolute desperation during times that I would have rather not lived.”
The Lyme disease was Dianne’s most difficult wait – spanning the entire 40 years. There ensued a daily struggle against pain. “That’s the kind of pain that feels like you’re walking on broken glass or someone has filled your shoes with acid,” says Dianne. Sometimes she would go down the stairs on her butt because every step felt like stepping on knives. “It hurt so much just to wash my hands.”
But 10 years ago, Dianne decided she could not live this way anymore. She experienced a turning point when she became so hungry to learn more about healing that she took out every book on prayer, she visited websites and watched testimony after testimony of people getting healed. Dianne began to pray and believe in God for healing.
“As God is healing me from the inside, I’m seeing it on the outside,” says Dianne. He healed the brokenness in her heart from living in an abusive home growing up. “He has taken away all that stuff.”
A couple of years ago Dianne went through another period of sickness. At one point her husband decided to go for a five-week hiking trip and Dianne decided that she would use that time to have a date with Jesus. “I spent the time having a retreat at my house, just with Jesus,” recalls Dianne. She prayed, worshipped and sat quietly with Him. As the days continued she found herself being overcome by the Holy Spirit. One evening she had a friend come over to visit. “I had a hard time walking because I was so soaked in the Spirit that it was hard to stand up,” says Dianne. “She came in and we tried to have coffee and a normal visit, but the Holy Spirit was so heavy in the room.”
One day during a two-week course for prayer renewing, while Dianne was being prayed for, she felt something build up inside of her, starting from her gut. “I literally felt it leave my body,” recalls Dianne. She looks back and knows that at that moment she was delivered by the spirit of fear that had been gripping her. “I suddenly started to laugh.” Dianne laughed for three days straight. Everywhere she went she found herself laughing. From that day forward she was no longer gluten intolerant.
Today, at age 59, Dianne is healthier than she was at age 30. “Don’t tell me He doesn’t heal or restore,” she says.
Lord help our unbelief!
As Dianne sees her healing increase more and more, her faith continues to build. “Let it happen here at CrossRoads!” says Dianne, “Let it happen through us; let us be the voice of belief!” Dianne believes that the church is being called to step out in faith and do what Jesus said we would do. “He said to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and tell everyone that the kingdom is near. How can we truly get to know who Jesus is when we’re not being all that He asked us to be?”
Dianne believes that healing prayer could be a profound part of our outreach. “When our neighbour gets hurt, do we go over there and pray for them?” Dianne admits that she doesn’t always rise to the challenge, but as a church, we should all be striving towards that direction.
Dianne observes that the first step is to believe that God will heal – for many people it can be the biggest stumbling block. “I think it’s about stepping out and not being afraid to make mistakes,” says Dianne. “We also feel like we need to have the answer ready if the healing does not happen. We feel pressure to pray the right words when it’s God doing the work. We must be so surrendered to what God wants to do that we just let Him work through us.”
Dianne notes that it is normal to go through moments of doubt when it comes to healing. She notes the story of the father begging Jesus for the healing of his child (Mark 9:23-25): “Lord, I believe’” he said through tears. “Help my unbelief!”
“I give myself moments of doubt and try to confine them to 5-10 minutes. Because those moments of doubt do not help you,” adds Dianne. “The main thing is to push through and believe that God will heal,” says Dianne. “Every morning I get up and I believe it’s going to be a better day.”
Dianne draws a lot of her strength from the promises of 2 Corinthians 1:10: “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us again. On Him, we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us.”
Dianne believes there is going to be a wave of healing testimonies coming to CrossRoads church as the people enter a season of spiritual readiness. “Get ready. It’s coming. We must pray as a church that we will believe,” adds Dianne. “Keep your eyes on Jesus because it’s coming.”
