For almost four years, I suffered from chronic neck pain. It was initiated when I hit my head on the ceiling of a small airplane, during a moment of violent turbulence, back in 2012. For the first couple years, the pain would come and go, typically with a max pain level of five or so (on a one to ten scale) but then got worse in 2015 and much worse in 2016. It got so bad that I couldn’t turn my head more than 30 degrees right or left without severe pain. In June of 2016, after undergoing months of chiropractic treatment with worsening conditions, surgery seemed like the only option.
So I began to cry out to God in prayer. God’s response to me was Him bringing to my remembrance things He had already said in His word regarding healing. I was reminded: that a benefit that comes with being a child of God is that He heals all my diseases (Psalm 103:3); that Jesus bore my sickness and carried my pains and healed me by His stripes (Isaiah 53:4-5, 1 Peter 2:24); that Jesus is willing to heal me (Matthew 8:3); that He healed all who were sick, fulfilling Isaiah 53:4-5 (Matthew 8:16-17); that now anyone in Christ can ask for healing and the prayer of faith will heal the sick (James 5:14-15); and that God’s desire for me is to be in health (3 John 2).
As I started to meditate on these truths, faith began to rise in my heart. Bible meditation is not what many would suppose, but is defined as “pondering by talking to yourself”. It’s like what David did in Psalm 103:2-3, where he said, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.” Here David is talking to himself (his soul), rehearsing the benefits of being a child of God. Likewise, my meditation sounded similar, for example, “Steven, God has forgiven all your sins, and He’s healed all your diseases. See it that way Steven! Call on some mature brothers and sisters to pray the prayer of faith over you and you will be healed! Know that your loving God and Father wants you to be healthy!”
Some weeks into this season of meditation, Jessica and I watched a movie about Christians ministering all over the world and experiencing first hand these types of miracles. It was a great example of Mark 16:20, which says, “the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” The scriptures I had been meditating on were played out in real life, as God used His children to minister to many who were lost and hurting.
When the movie ended, I just sat there for a few moments, staring at the carpet, recalling specific scenes that were truly extraordinary, wondering if they were real or not. I thought about the “whys” people would go to great lengths to counterfeit such a thing, but they were boldly proclaiming the good news of Jesus as our Savior throughout the film, so that seemed to contradict any false motives. Also, so much of the film was evidence of the things I had recently been meditating on from God’s word, so if anything I should have leaned towards believing what I saw as real.
After the credits were rolling, I looked up because some additional content started playing. A certain minister, who was in the movie earlier, was talking about how he runs an interactive broadcast program and how people are healed through it all the time. But the moment he said that, I got really annoyed. My semi-skepticism quickly turned into full skepticism and anger. I thought, “Who does this guy think he is? You can’t just say stuff like that, misleading people!” Then thoughts started to flood my mind like, “This whole movie is probably made up,” and, “Look at this demonically influenced person leading people astray.”
As I was about to make my final judgement of him and the movie, turning it off, he said something like, “In fact, I’m going to pray for some of you right now, and you’re going to be healed.” He just said it like it was a matter of fact. It was the ridiculousness of the way it sounded to me, to hear him say something like that, which kept me around a little longer, like it was some kind of spectacle. But in a brief moment, as he started praying for this sickness and that, I thought, “What I just did to this man is what the Pharisees did to Jesus.” He was able to cast out demons, so they quickly accused Him of collaborating with demons. I didn’t know this guy from Adam. For all I knew, He loved God sincerely and was totally serious and truthful about what he was saying and doing. I also thought, “If I believe all the scripture I’ve been meditating on, this kind of thing should be happening in the lives of Christians anyways!”
As these thoughts went back and forth in my mind, I backed off on the initial judgement I was forming. But there was one more hurdle to get over, and that was logic. I remember thinking something like, “Even if this guy could pray for me, this isn’t a live broadcast, and at the time of the filming, I wasn’t someone he was praying for, nor did I have a neck problem at the time.” But my spirit in me, which had been fighting this uphill battle, fueled by faith that had been planted by meditating on God’s word for several weeks, was determined to put my mind into subjection. And it did.
I remember completely letting go, and saying something like this to God, “God, this doesn’t make any sense to me, and I have to admit my heart is very hard and closed off towards what is happening at this very moment (a man on a movie praying for people to get healed), but I know you want me healed, and I know that you heal all my diseases, including my neck! So help me open my heart to receive and to have that childlike faith Jesus talked about. ”
As soon as I let go, there was a complete shift in my perspective. I continued sitting there for a few moments while he prayed things like, “And someone watching has had a tumor in their abdomen for a long time. It’s removed in Jesus’ name. Someone else has a bad left knee. It’s being fully restored in the name of Jesus.” Shortly after, he said something like, “Necks are being healed. Just move your head and you’ll see, the pain is gone in Jesus name.”
At that moment, as I was still looking forward, I knew that what he had just said was for me. And as illogical as it sounds, it was. So I first turned my head slowly all the way to the right, and there was almost no pain. As I slowly rotated my head to try the left side, and as I passed center I starting crying tears of joy uncontrollably, which I had never experienced before. When I got to the right side, there was a very slight amount of pain remaining. But as I rotated back and forth one or two more times the pain was 100% gone. I was absolutely in awe. I even pinched my arm to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. That night I spent a while, though it was fairly late, up in Zeriah’s bedroom, thanking and praising God for the healing miracle that had just taken place. Everything He had been telling me from His word had fully manifested in my life in a few mere moments.
Let me tell you first hand that He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23)!
At the time of this post, it has been about two years since that miracle took place. I have had zero neck pain since. Thank You God!
-Steven Sedory
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