the power of prayer (in real life!)

about two years ago i overdosed on caffeine during finals week (thanks college!) i was being stupid and drank death wish coffee all day while preparing for an all nighter. ever since this day i have become somewhat of a hypochondriac.

actually to be more real i’ve become a HUGE hypochondriac. and not just like, “oh i’m scared of getting a disease and dying,” i mean the fear that my heart was going to stop unexpectedly would cripple me in fear and i would stay up all night crying because i convinced myself it was my last night on earth. (i’ve gotten better since then, don’t worry)

one of my biggest fears other than my heart stopping was getting my wisdom teeth out. don’t ask me how these two go together, but they do in my mind. and the thought of someone digging my tooth out of my mouth with a knife and sending me on my way was NOT something i was willing to deal with. so naturally, i stopped going to the dentist when i became a legal adult! SO SMART. i know.

it’s been almost 2 years since then and to be honest everything has been fine. i’ve never had a cavity or anything really go wrong so i figured i would only go if i had something come up.

then, something came up. THE WISDOM TOOTH. my back left wisdom tooth started to push its way through about 4 months ago! i just wrote it off. it was just it’s time to come in! but then the pain started. this wasn’t just any pain, this was INTENSE pain. (creds if you get the spongebob reference.)

the pain was so bad, the left side of my face swelled up, i cried for days. i only drank smoothies. i knew i was going to have to get this tooth pulled and i got dizzy at the thought. one day i was taking a shower and i couldn’t stop thinking about if i would have to get the tooth pulled. i got tunnel vision and everything went black. i woke up on the shower floor.

later that day tanner had to call my mom as i bawled my eyes out in the lobby at my school. i was SO. SCARED. my one friend told me that the dentists had to break her jaw to get her teeth out??? i thought to myself- i think i would rather just die than have them break my jaw to rip my teeth out of my skull! i know for some of you this seems irrational, but this is how i seriously feel.

that night i got home from school and tanner came over to see me. i was laying in bed trying to distract myself from the pain and the thoughts of oral surgeons. he came into my room and laid his hand on my cheek. he prayed for the pain to be gone and that i wouldn’t require any medical attention. he prayed that my wisdom tooth would come in smoothly and safely and that my fears would subside.

i am not lying when i say this. the next morning i woke up, and the pain was GONE. literally. i could eat again. i could talk. over the next few days my tooth pushed through and was completely straight. the ulcers that were forming around it were gone. the swelling went down. my tooth came through strong and ready to help me eat some juicy burgers and i never gave the pain a second thought.

here’s another story: another time about a month later i got freaked out because it felt like there was a lump in my throat. i can’t describe it, but it felt like there was a tumor growing in there! i got so freaked out (again) and even my friends mom who is a nurse felt it and said that something was in there (ahh!)

that night i considered going to the emergency room (again, i’m dramatic) but i was so scared! I called my best friend devyn. she and tanner came over and together prayed over my throat. that i would wake up the next morning and the lump would be gone. we had so much faith because of the wisdom tooth healing that had happened before, that we were believing confidently that this would work. and sure enough, the next day i cancelled my doctors appointment, the lump was completely gone!

these stories might not sound like that big of a deal for some people, but for me they are a huge deal! 1. because those things scared me SO MUCH, and 2. because i saw my own body healed, first hand, in the name of jesus.

let’s not be fooled; the enemy is always working. he can work through girls at lunch whispering about you or he can work through cancer. there is ALWAYS a battle in the spiritual realm between darkness and light, and sometimes, we choose not to actively fight that battle.

our faith activates God in motion. when we pray with faith that something will happen, God isn’t going to say no. He is a good God and He answers our prayers. every time (not always in the way that you might want, but always in the way you need)

the devil can place spirits of disease on people, and unless we are actively fighting the good fight against him, those diseases can take hold. how much healing would we see if we were as bold with prayer as my friends were in those two incidences? and if we really believed healing would come?

to be honest I never saw God as someone who wanted to do things physically for me. I always saw Him as someone who would just provide comfort in the hard times, but man have i been proven wrong. God wants to reveal Himself to you, all you have to do is ask. when i saw that for real in my own body, that was a huge game changer for me.

sometimes we joke that tanner has a direct line to God because of those two incidences. but for real for real, we ALL have the power that rose jesus from the deal within us. don’t miss that. we have commanding power over the devil. we can command that he will run at the name of jesus christ. and it will work.

don’t believe me? try it. God will show up every single time. don’t want to try it? talk to anyone who has seen a healing happen. this stuff is for real, God loves His children and He wants to bless us. we’ve gotta have the faith that He will show up.

i hope my stories encourage you! i’m expectantly praying through some things right now & i’m believing God will show up for me, what are you guys praying for? I’d love to talk about it with you. let’s be bold and pray like things are already done! p.s. my friends brooke & zoe preached at our college ministry a few weeks ago, & if you wanna hear more about expectant prayer working in peoples lives, please check out this podcast! >> here << & choose that'll preach - Week 4! guys it is seriously life changing - love you!!!!