I bound it on Earth, and God bound it in Heaven!

Matthew 16:19 – Whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven.   

Isaiah 54:17 - No weapon formed against you shall prosper.

Nahum 1:9 - Affliction shall not rise up a second time.

Mark 11:22-23 - Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be thou removed and cast into the sea’, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. 

New Testament - Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Romans 4:17b – God … raises the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were.

Hebrews 11:11 – Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she believed Him (God) to be faithful, as promised.

When I was diagnosed with a recurrence of lung cancer in the spring of 2010, I began reciting these scriptures and claiming their promises. I was sure God would answer my prayers and take all the cancer away immediately! Here was a weapon forming against me, an affliction rising a second time, something loosed on Earth that had to be bound, something as evil as the devil! I had to believe that what I said would come true so I cast the cancer, like the mountain, into the sea! I told myself not to worry if the doctor’s tests still showed cancer cells in my body, because God called things that are not as they seem. I had to believe I was cancer-free, that this cancer could not harm me! When the cancer did not miraculously leave right away, I said, “Okay, God, I get it. You are going to work through the doctors. That’s fine; more people can relate to that type of faith healing today anyway.”

Now when I was first diagnosed with lung cancer in February of 2009, I was given a book called “100 Questions and Answers about Lung Cancer” by Karen Parles, MLS, and Joan Schiller, MD.  I chose not to read it at that time. I did not want to know the course of the disease or the prognosis because I felt in my mind such knowledge would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Last week I found the book while cleaning out my closet and decided to look up pleural effusions. You may recall that I had a very large effusion around my left lung in the spring of 2011. I could barely walk ten feet without becoming short of breath and my lung capacity as measured on my incentive spirometer was 750 cc. I had to undergo a thoracentesis, a draining procedure.  I had 800 cc of fluid taken off my lung the first time it was drained! That is almost a quart! No wonder I could not breathe! The fluid kept returning and I had more drainage procedures until the pulmonologist finally suggested inserting a drainage tube that Al and I could drain at home. Then the fluid dried up and has not returned. Now my lung capacity is over 1250 cc and I have hiked for up to an hour at a time in the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica! Yea, God! 

But my testimony doesn’t end there. At that time of the initial draining, the radiologist informed me that my effusion had become “loculated.” This means that the fluid had gelled in some places and was no longer free-flowing. It was pressing in on my lung and reducing my breathing capacity. He informed me that there was no way to get the gelled material out. He chose the largest pocket to drain. The amazing thing is that God had answered my prayers! He had fulfilled all of the promises in these seven Bible verses, and I didn’t realize it at the time! A pleural effusion is fluid that has accumulated between the outer chest wall and the outer lining of the lung. It is not inside the lung, but causes symptoms if it is large because it can squeeze the lung and cause shortness of breath. That is what happened to me. According to the book, this condition is dangerous because the pleural cavity is a free-flowing space around the entire lung. As the patient changes position, gravity carries the fluid to the lowest point. Thus the fluid can flow around all parts of the lung. If the fluid has cancer cells in it, as mine did, these cells can seed anywhere the fluid goes and thus spread the cancer to all parts of the lung!

At first I was disappointed about the loculations, because I felt they were a negative diagnostic sign. I’m praying for healing, and getting worse? But now, looking back on it, with this newfound knowledge, I realize that God was in control! He did answer my prayers! He used those loculations to seal off the cancer cells in the pleural space! This is documented in my PET Scans! The last one in June 2012 only showed the two original recurrences in the middle of my left lung, smaller  and fainter. No new tumors had seeded around the outside of my lungs! The pleural effusion has gotten progressively smaller and there is no hypermetabolic activity in that space!

God was there for me, healing me, in His own way! The weapon, cancer, had formed against me but it did not prosper! It tried to attack me a second time, but God would not allow it! He bound the cancer on Earth and in Heaven! I resisted the evil, and with God’s help, it fled from me! I had faith and believed these promises when I claimed them and cast the illness into the sea, and God delivered! Finally, I told myself not to put stock into what the diagnostic tests showed but have faith in God! Accept His truth that He wants His children to be well! I acted well, felt well, and was well, because I knew He calls things that are not as they seem to mortal man.  I, like Sarah, believed Him in His faithfulness! Amen!

I saw my oncologist today. The tumor markers and enzyme blood levels have risen. The tumor markers went from 6.5 to 13, and the enzymes have gone from 155 to 185. He reordered the tests today and said if the levels are still rising, it’s time to do a PET Scan. A PET Scan will indicate new tumors and/or growth of existing tumors. I am not concerned. I still believe in God’s promises more than ever now! Doctors will tell you that there is no cure for a recurrence of lung cancer. Well, there’s no reason why I can’t be the first, no reason why I can’t make medical history! I have one more scripture to share: Psalm 118: 17 – I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord!

AMEN!!

Pictures show flowers blooming in my garden in December and January, despite the cold weather! I love the way the red bougainvillea sprawls against the blue sky, and I love the way the purple one stands, tall and majestic, beside the house!