One of God’s blessings that everyone desires is good health. That’s why every prudent person makes efforts to live a healthy life. Despite these efforts, something still goes wrong with the body for one reason or the other. We are afflicted by disease caused by ourselves, sometimes out of ignorance or violation of natural laws. Sometimes, God allows disease on people in His own wisdom.
I have relatively enjoyed good health, but towards the end of 1998 I experienced a nagging waist pain, which caused me to consult my doctor at LUTH, in Idi-Araba, Lagos. The prescribed medications gave me only a temporary relief. In November, I suddenly developed the type of pains I had never experienced before. I could not sit or stand and the nerves around my waist and right thigh were very painful.
My wife had to call our doctor friend and neighbour working at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, and I was taken to Igbobi Hospital. The X-rays revealed lumbar radiculopathy. This is low back and leg pain caused by the spinal nerves in the hip region of the spine. The pain was debilitating.
The medical director took interest in my case, as a friend, and prescribed the necessary medicines for me but made a remark that stuck in my mind. He said I would be a regular guest of the hospital, and, as my case progressed, there might be need for surgery. He told me it was the same type of problem that took Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to Germany for surgery.
As I lay on my orthopaedic mattress in the house, I continued to mediate on my doctor’s statements. I imagined myself incapacitated and not being able to go to work or other places. For about a month, I was grounded.
One day, however, a pastor friend visited me and advised me that even though, as a pharmacist, I knew the effective medicines to take and had doctors as colleagues and friends, I should be praying for God’s healing. He referred me to King Asa of Judah (2 Chronicles 16:12) who had depended on his physicians, instead of God Almighty. Consequently, God turned His back on him and he eventually died of that disease in his feet.
After the admonition, the man prayed for me. His message hit me like a thunderbolt. I started to pray more seriously and trust God for my healing. I searched my Bible for divine healing. If God healed people at that time, He could also heal me today. It is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow. He does not change.
I was still taking my medications, while praying for divine healing. Then God sent another pastor relation to me. That day, I brought out my X-rays to convince him of the seriousness of my case and elicit his sympathy and prayer. Contrary to my expectation, he refused to look at my X-rays and told me that he had rejected the results of the X-rays and even the doctor’s opinion. He caused me to say after him, “I reject the X-rays and the doctor’s opinion.” Of course, I repeated his declaration while still glancing at the X-rays. He thereafter prayed for me and left. After his departure, I had an instant relief.
One remarkable thing I did soon after he left was to cut the X-rays into pieces with my pair of scissors. Thereafter, I started entertaining thoughts of getting healed and my healing process truly accelerated. The healing became so complete that I never had the need to visit the hospital again till today.
Since then, I have never experienced even a minor pain in my waist. Sometimes, I just think that if I had not completely destroyed the X-rays, I would have returned it to the hospital to check whether it was actually my own waist X-rays or I had been mistakenly given another person’s. I believe that God mercifully replaced some of my hip and spinal bones and nerves with brand new ones.
Exodus 15:26(NKJV) says, “I am the Lord that heals you. When I believed what the pastor told me and rejected the doctor’s report and the X-rays, my faith in divine healing was activated and everything went well. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Apart from a few times I have visited patients in that hospital; each time I pass through Ikorodu Road, I keep my eyes away from the hospital premises. I don’t want to go there as a patient again.
