House of Hope Online

September 1, 2024

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This has been quite an emotional week for me.  I visited my cardiologist office, hoping to hear some encouraging words about the results of my recent echocardiogram.  I had been told over the phone that there were “no new changes” from the results of six months ago.  While that doesn’t necessarily sound promising, there were some good facts in the previous report regarding heart function, etc. so I was hoping to hear more of that during my visit.

Well, I heard nothing promising at all.  In fact, my cardiologist said my heart valve leakage has increased from the category “moderate to severe” to “severe.” He sees a lot of blood leaking back into the heart instead of going on its merry way to the rest of my body.  He also said that is what he hears when he listens to my heart.  He scheduled me for a new test in September to confirm his assessment, and plan next steps, which in his mind undoubtedly means valve replacement surgery.

The doctor showed me the video on his laptop which shows the blood going the wrong way.  He said when the valve closes you should not see any blood at all.  But in my video, you can see a lot of blood.

So, there is no easy way to say this.  I had been praying for an indication of healing taking place, and instead, I got a bad report.  I was kind of stunned and certainly taken off guard.  I kept it together while I was in the doctor’s office.  When I got to my car and called my wife Nancy to give her the bad news, I began to weep in my disappointment.

Nancy and I began praying over the phone, and just then, God gave me a word.  I blurted out: “I’m not going back to Egypt.”

In the Bible, Egypt is symbolic of unbelief and sin.  It is also symbolic of relying on and bowing down to earthly kings instead of King Jesus.  God called His people out of Egypt to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to make them a great nation.  But there were trials and wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land.  When the trials came, the people reasoned that they would be better off if they had never left Egypt.

Numbers 14:

 1 ¶ Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.

 2 And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!

 3 “And why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”

 4 So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

When we encounter adversity, Satan immediately attacks our faith and wants us to go back to “Egypt.”  He wants us to go back to a place where we stop believing for the miracle healing.  Go back a low level of faith, where we acknowledge God in front of other Christians but deny His power.  Satan was laughing at me for thinking I might see evidence of a healing.  He wants me in “Egypt” not believing God for anything.

It is interesting to me that the passage from Numbers 14 came right after Moses had sent 12 men, one from each tribe of the sons of Israel, to spy on the land of Canaan, the Promised Land.  Moses wanted to see what kind of land it was.  Was it fruitful?  Was it a good place to live?  But more importantly, what kind of people were they?  Could Israel overtake them?

Of the 12 men, only Joshua and Caleb came back with a good report.  All the others gave a bad report, that there were giants in the land, and Israel would not stand a chance to overcome the giants and receive God’s promise of a miracle. 

Numbers13:

 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.”

 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”

Unfortunately, God’s people chose to believe the bad report, which led to the grumbling and the desire to appoint a new leader and go back to Egypt.

And so, as I think back to the video my doctor showed me of my heart valve malfunction, I realize I was like the people of Israel choosing to believe they could not overcome the giants in the land even though God promised them the land.  I began to believe my condition could not be overcome despite God’s promise in Ezekiel 47:12 that the leaves on the tree of life were for healing and those leaves would never wither.

Ezekiel 47:

 12 “And by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all [kinds of] trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”

A Word When I Needed It

What I love about my Lord and Savior is that in my moment of weakness, when I was discouraged and sad, and scared, He spoke a word into me: “I’m not going back to Egypt.”  I am not going back to a place where I rely on an earthly king.  I am not going back to a place of unbelief and sin.  I am staying right here with Jesus!

When He spoke that word into me, it just lifted my spirit. I was telling God, even though I saw the giant of my heart disease, I was not going back to Egypt.  I was speaking faith in my Lord and Savior.  When you see a giant opposing you, it’s a good idea to speak faith, just as David did versus Goliath.

As I spoke that word back to Jesus, I was telling Him I was going to believe in Him whether He healed me or not.  In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were faced with death in a fiery furnace unless they rejected their God and instead bowed down to King Nebuchadnezzar. 

Daniel 3:

 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

 17 “If it be [so,] our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

 18 “But [even] if [He does] not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Notice they professed their faith that God would deliver them, but even if He didn’t, they were not going to lose faith and bow down to the earthly king.  After the king saw that God delivered them from fiery death, he said this:

Daniel 3:

 28 ¶ Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.

 29 “Therefore, I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.”

 30 Then the king caused Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego to prosper in the province of Babylon.

Closing

I stared at my fiery den this week.  I saw the giants I must overcome in my medical test results, and I told Jesus I am not going back to Egypt.  I am continuing to pray for the healing leaves that never wither.  I am praying for my next test result on September 17 to show my healing. 

We saw in last week’s scripture that there is a bigger reason for the miracle.  Jesus performed the miracle healing of the paralytic in Luke 5 so that the people “may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…”    He healed many in Matthew 8 “… in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, “HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES, AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.”

I am praying He will heal me so that others will know that the River of God has the tree of life on either side with healing leaves which will not wither.  I am praying my doctor will agree with King Nebuchadnezzar who said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him…”

I am putting my trust in Jesus, and whether He heals me or not, I am not going back to Egypt.

Let us pray.

Father God, thank You for encouraging me with a word from Jesus during my dark hour after the doctor’s bad report.  Glory to Your name. We choose to believe Caleb’s report that we shall surely overcome any giants in the land which You have promised us.  Heal my heart valve that people would know You have all authority in the earth, that the words of prophecy are true, and that the healing leaves will not wither.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.