God’s Healing Power

“I’d been off work for about a week with bouts of sickness and pain in my side and back, and had received a couple of home visits from our local Health Centre doctors. By Friday afternoon, the pain and sickness had become much worse, and our GP decided to put me into hospital.”

Fortunately, though it was after 5pm by the time I was admitted, the appropriate consultant was available. An ultrasound scan revealed a large abscess on my liver; I was actually able to see the image, though by this time I was barely conscious. I was immediately put on intravenous (IV) antibiotics.

The next day I was visited by a friend who was a Christian youth worker. He prayed for me, laying hands on me and anointing me with oil. On Monday morning, the consultant again examined me. I clearly remember seeing the new scan and hearing him say, “That abscess has reduced by 75% over the weekend. I think we can call that remarkable.” I was out of hospital within a week and back to work just over two weeks later.

I am certain that the Lord acted miraculously in two ways. Firstly, such major shrinking of the abscess was not medically explicable. Secondly, as is often true, He was in control of events. Our GP only decided at the last minute to get me into hospital. The consultant had to be located and asked to stay and work after hours. Either or both of those events could very easily have turned out differently. If they had, I was later told, I would almost certainly have died.

Coming that close to death makes me very grateful to the Lord and still causes me to look at my life now quite differently.

Richard Coton