My mom was hardly ever sick
my whole life. She was the picture of health, as far as I was concerned, but after her second marriage dissolved into divorce, because the man she eventually married committed adultery, she started to exhibit some alarming symptoms. When she had left my house for jury duty one morning, she may have been a little annoyed at having to go to jury duty, but she was physically fine. Later that morning I got a call from a deputy at the court house saying my mom had passed out and was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. "What?!" When I arrived at the hospital, she was in the emergency room and she was hooked up to a heart monitor. She was glad to see me, and said that it looked like she wasn't going to be going home soon, as they kept adding medical equipment to her. Finally, someone told us that her heart was not working right - her heart rate was erratic. I don't know much medical jargon, but that sounded serious. Where's Dr. Bracket, or Dr. Early when you need them? No explanations were given as to why this was happening, but we were told that more tests would have to be done. The next day, after a nearly sleepless night spent rebuking and binding, name and claiming, a.k.a. heavy spiritual warfare, I raced to the hospital. With Bible in hand, I entered her room only to find an empty bed. I think my heart stopped. I inquired at the desk and was told she was in ICU. "What?!" I demanded to know why I wasn't called. They claimed they did call me and left a message - yeah right. My own heart began to race and pound erratically, was I having a heart attack?
my whole life. She was the picture of health, as far as I was concerned, but after her second marriage dissolved into divorce, because the man she eventually married committed adultery, she started to exhibit some alarming symptoms. When she had left my house for jury duty one morning, she may have been a little annoyed at having to go to jury duty, but she was physically fine. Later that morning I got a call from a deputy at the court house saying my mom had passed out and was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. "What?!" When I arrived at the hospital, she was in the emergency room and she was hooked up to a heart monitor. She was glad to see me, and said that it looked like she wasn't going to be going home soon, as they kept adding medical equipment to her. Finally, someone told us that her heart was not working right - her heart rate was erratic. I don't know much medical jargon, but that sounded serious. Where's Dr. Bracket, or Dr. Early when you need them? No explanations were given as to why this was happening, but we were told that more tests would have to be done. The next day, after a nearly sleepless night spent rebuking and binding, name and claiming, a.k.a. heavy spiritual warfare, I raced to the hospital. With Bible in hand, I entered her room only to find an empty bed. I think my heart stopped. I inquired at the desk and was told she was in ICU. "What?!" I demanded to know why I wasn't called. They claimed they did call me and left a message - yeah right. My own heart began to race and pound erratically, was I having a heart attack?
There she was, in ICU hooked up to a heart monitor and it told me her pulse rate was revving out of control. Trying not to freak out, even though that is one of the things I do best, I calmly asked what had happened. She said during the night her heart rate went sky high, which sent the medical staff into high gear and they placed her in ICU. She was on some medications to get her heart rate under control. After days and days of reading the word, and making positive confessions, we were were told matter-of-factually that she needed a heart transplant. "What?!" A heart transplant? No! This is when a second opinion is definitely required. Why was this name it and claim it stuff apparently not working? That is what a sane person would ask. But, we minions are taught to have faith like Abraham, and we are taught to not question Word of Faith teachings either. But if anyone did dare to question them, then they would be ridiculed, and even threatened with, "touch not my anointed" or "other people who spoke against us got cancer and died."
By this time, my mom was spitting bullets, which of course wasn't good for her heart rate. It takes a lot to get her dander up, and she had had enough of their care, or rather lack of it, and so had I. No explanation was given to the reason her heart was acting this way after years of perfect health, and no reason was given for her sudden need of a new heart, other than the doctor needed a nice fat pay check. When we took her to a specialist for a second opinion, the heart transplant was out, thank God, but she needed an angioplasty. Well that was leaps and bounds better than a heart transplant! Even so, my mom, who would not let a "practicing" doctor touch her heart with a 10 foot pole, and refused the routine procedure. Why? Because that is what the Word of Faith cult teaches you. Sure, "go to the hospital", they say, "have a couple of test and procedures done, but remember, all doctors are buffoons and incapable of healing any one."
By the way, most doctors know they can't heal anyone; they know that their knowledge is limited, and they can only diagnose and apply what they have learned works in order to aid the body in restoring itself to health. But what the Prosperity Bunch so conveniently forget to say is that in every profession, including theirs, there are buffoons mixed in with the adepts. They also forget to mention that had they not taken the medical advice of their 'clueless" doctor, and had not accepted the procedures that they recommended, then they wouldn't be here today - all positive confessions aside. They want, you dear reader, not them, to be healed on faith alone. According to them, their hospital stays are brief and almost non-existent. The reality is that not many Word of Faith minions even know that Kenneth "Dad" Hagin really died in the hospital of cardiac crisis, and not at home like the Prosperity Bunch claim he did! Yeah! They are lying through their pearly whites! "Dad" Hagin arrogantly once said that if he had had a head ache, or if he physically felt bad; he'd never tell you. Why? Because that is a negative confession.
So, if that was indeed true, then why would he be forth coming with any information regarding several hospitalizations for heart failure? He had in fact 4 major heart failures in 1939, 1942, 1949, and 1973, where he spent time in a hospital under a doctor's care. Many will deny this of course, and claim that it was all his positive confessions that caused Jesus to heal him. Was it? I don't think so. Why was he often plagued with heart failure if Jesus healed him? Did he confess it into his life? No one seems to ask those kinds of probing questions. Now, these wolves don't outright instruct you to stop taking your medications, or tell you to stop going to the doctor, because then they could be sued, and that would mean they would have to part with their hard earned mammon they swindled from the poor sheep. But that is exactly what is heavily implied and even enforced by them and other heartless Word of Faith minions in this manner: if you fully submit to medical treatment, then they see your faith as being weak, and you are therefore a sub-par Christian. Can I get an "Amen" from the outcasts?
You know, with all the claims from non-Christians that there are "contractions" in the Bible, it amazes me how so-called Christians (prosperity preachers to be more specific) provide more than enough biblical contradictions in their own teachings, yet most Christians are oblivious to them. One claim being that Jesus was not victorious on the cross, which is, according to them, a symbol of failure. Excuse me? Yet, without blinking an eye, in the same breath, they claim that because of the cross, by his stripes you were healed. Do you see what I mean? How can the cross of Christ be a symbol of failure, while at the same time, be the means of defeat for sickness and sin? Isn't the defeat of sickness a success? I have heard and read this teaching many times, and this is not a case of irony, paradox, or satire, no! They truly believe and teach that God is a failure. Also, if Kenneth Hagin was indeed personally anointed by Jesus himself to be a faith healer, then why did his sister die of cancer? These are things that should make people say, "Hmmm..." I do not say that mockingly, I simply say that because the facts, and logical reason demands that these questions should be asked and then answered.
In my own life, since I wanted my mom to be healed by Jesus, I concluded she was right when she claimed that Jesus had healed her. Her "proof" was that every time she went to the pharmacy to fill her prescription of coumadin, they botched it, or they didn't have it in stock, for what ever reason. So obviously, Jesus didn't want her to take that stuff anymore. This is a classic case of where correlation isn't causation. Even so, I would have been more comfortable to have had medical confirmation that she didn't need the medicine. Even the giants of the Word of Faith claim that they are okay with that. For a long time I watched her like a hawk, but then she moved out of my home and away from my smothering ways to my sister Lauri's. Yeah, I was a little hurt, but Lauri needed her assistance more than I did, and my mom would have a lot more privacy than she did at my house - you see, Lauri wouldn't fuss like I did. At any rate, my mom never got the procedure done, and to my knowledge, she didn't have another episode. Through this trial, I finally started to search God for answers, because things just didn't seem right, but then I pulled back when the immediate threat subsided. But that was only a hint of what was to come - this was a mere teaser storm. The total devastation of the perfect storm was on the horizon, just out of view.