MARIA'S CHRISTMAS LETTER TO HER PARENTS!
12/91
--Good Lessons on Healing for All!
Maria #169 DO 2809
Dear Mother, Dad and all my dear loved ones,
1. Happy Christmas 1991! Another year has passed by so very quickly! And it seems like just yesterday that I last talked to you on tape, and that the children made you their yearly letter report and sang their songs for you. I love you all, and I'm praying for you! I always marvel, Mother and Dad, at your taking on that big job in managing a home for the elderly which requires so much physical strength; not only physical but also emotional and spiritual strength to try to care for your little flock there who are in such need of help of every kind. Especially when you're not very well yourselves, it must be a tremendous sacrifice to take on the care of so many others. But I know that if the Lord has called you to such a job and commissioned you to do it, then He will give the grace for it and renew your strength day by day even when you think you can't go on one step further. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of Him and not of us." "Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee ... They go from strength to strength."
2. I'm sure that there's such a fulfillment in helping others through their last difficult days of this life, and making it easier and more comfortable for them.--And most of all, giving them the comfort and love of the Lord, and the faith to face their little bit of time left bravely, to help them know that after that small moment then will come a glorious eternal future. I think for us who are so carnal and earth-bound, one of the most wonderful things to us about Heaven is the knowledge that we will be freed from the bondage of these bodies that are so weighed down with afflictions and pain and suffering. Sometimes when we're tired and we're sick, and we're discouraged because this body of this life is so heavy and hinders us from doing the things we want to do, and even the things we feel we need to do, we can, nevertheless, rejoice that soon it will all be over. If we can just be patient and be faithful and be persevering through these trials and tests, the Lord will say to us, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
3. We have a very precious mommy in the Family who has seven children, and her next to the last child, Gabriel, was born with Down's syndrome. Out of the experiences in that little child's life came beautiful lessons for not only her but all of us. The Lord shone so purely through that little child, and he was a great witness to many. His body was very frail and easily beset by every illness that came along, and finally he was so weakened that at the age of about 2-1/2 the Lord took him.
4. While Gabriel was living, his mommy and daddy were able to start a successful ministry with other parents of Down's syndrome children, and were able to lead many of them to the Lord, and give them more faith for their children and more encouragement to see that God had not given them damaged goods; it just looked like that on the surface.--But inside those little bodies that can't function like other children are often such beautiful spirits that are hidden treasures in disguise. These precious children can bring great joy and happiness to others and can soften their hard hearts and give them understanding and compassion and love and happiness, in a way which might not otherwise be possible. Of course, the Lord doesn't give us all the blessing of Down's syndrome children in our lives, but He gives us all, at some time or another, afflictions, physical or otherwise, that drive us to Him, and keep us close to Him. I guess that's why Saint Paul said, "This light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," and that, "All things do work together for good to them that love the Lord." The Lord knows we need these things to sweeten and humble us and to keep us desperate and make us more understanding of others.
5. Once when the children were young and they were sick, we were trying to get them to look on the bright side and look at all the blessings that could come out of their sickness--which is pretty hard to do, of course, when you're flat on your back and you're feeling the pain and the suffering sickness brings. But that's when it's really the most important to try to keep looking up and hanging on to Jesus' promises. The following are some of the reasons we came up with as to why the Lord sometimes allows us to have sickness, which we discussed with the children. Many of the same could apply not only to sickness, but to other problems and difficulties we experience:
(1) For one thing, sickness certainly teaches us to pray and to get ahold of the Lord, and to ask the Lord why or what He is trying to teach us through these things, because the Lord doesn't allow us to be sick for no reason.
(2) To make others get desperate in prayer and fighting with us.
(3) To help us get closer to Jesus, and to show us that we need to put Jesus in first place in our lives.
(4) To teach us to slow down and take time with Jesus.--Because sometimes that's the only way He can stop us and get us to take time with Him.
(5) To stop us if there is something wrong in our life, or something we're doing that He doesn't like. Sometimes He uses it to prevent us from doing something we're about to do.
(6) Sometimes it's just a spanking for having done something naughty. Maybe as a chastening for breaking some of God's health laws; like possibly not getting enough sleep or not eating right and so on, or going outside in the cold with a wet head, or lying in the sun too long and getting a bad sunburn, etc.
(7) Sometimes it's to get us to yield and say "yes" to something.
(8) Sometimes it's to make our heart and spirit cleaner.
(9) Sometimes it's to teach us to fight for spiritual victories and not take things so passively--to learn to fight the Devil aggressively.
(10) Sometimes it's to humble us or to keep us humble.
(11) To keep us from being self-righteous.
(12) To test our faith and see if we'll still believe and trust the Lord in spite of our affliction. Like Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
(13) Sometimes it's to test our faith to see if we really have the faith for Him to do the miracle of healing (or to deliver us from whatever the problem might be).
(14) To teach us patience.
(15) To show us that we're not strong in ourselves, but that our strength comes only from the Lord.
(16) To make us more dependent on others, to accept their help and to call for their prayers.
(17) To unite everyone else as they pray for us.
(18) To show those who are close to us how much they need us, and to make them more appreciative of us.
(19) For a testimony, so that when the Lord does heal us (or solve the problem), He'll get the glory.
(20) To get us to give the Lord the credit for our health, and not just to take it for granted.
(21) To make us more thankful for the good health we have most of the time.
(22) To cause others to give us extra attention that we might need.--And to show us how much they really love us.
(23) To make us sweeter through our suffering and to make us more merciful to others.
(24) To teach us to comfort others as we have been comforted and loved.
(25) Sometimes it's even to teach others something through our suffering.
(26) To help us to appreciate health more, and to feel more for others who are sick.
(27) To give us a burden to pray for others who are sick.
6. So we taught the children that it can be one or even many of these good reasons why the Lord allows us to get sick (or to have other afflictions). The Lord doesn't do anything to be cruel or mean to us, but He's actually being good to us in some way through allowing the affliction. It's a blessing in disguise. Often we don't see the reasons and we have a hard time accepting things by faith, but it makes it easier if we know that the Lord has lots of good reasons why He may allow us to have this trial. So it's good to look on it positively instead of negatively.
7. I know these lessons have really helped me when I've been sick. I've had an eye affliction for quite a while now. It seems to be some kind of infection of the eyelid, but when I sought medical advice earlier on, the doctors were not much help. Three of them didn't know what was causing the problem, and the other two thought they did but said that ultimately it was incurable. So it was then that I decided to put my eyes into the hands of the Great Physician, Who always has a perfect diagnosis and a perfect cure, and to let Him take care of it as He knows best. And I know that when the Lord is through teaching me the lessons He wants me to learn through this, He will heal me. Through all of this I've been learning so many terrific lessons that it seems the Lord couldn't have taught me any other way! For one thing, it's made me see that no matter how much I believe in healing or how much faith I have in it, if the Lord is not done teaching me the lessons that He wants to teach me, I'm not going to get healed until I've learned the lessons for which He has allowed this to happen in the first place. And no matter how fast a learner you may be, some lessons just take a while.
8. It's just like going through your grades in school. You may be very intelligent and a fast learner, but it still usually takes you a certain amount of time and you just have to progress through your grades one at a time without skipping any. You may think you can learn your lessons quickly, but the Lord may know that you need a lot of practice and a lot of drill work and a lot of habit forming to make them stick, which all takes time. And perhaps most of all, the Lord may be trying to teach you patience, which usually also takes a lot of time. Apparently, however, many people's illnesses need not linger for long, as the lessons the Lord wants to teach them through their afflictions are not so long-term. He teaches people different lessons at different times by different means, and He tailors every person's experience to fit their individual needs.
9. With some of us, the Lord deals with us in both ways, with long-term afflictions where it's a real battle to get our healing, and also with many short-term illnesses or ailments. In telling you about my serious long-term affliction, I don't want to neglect to also mention all the less serious short-term afflictions I've had that the Lord has been so faithful to heal me from--very wonderful healings to me, because I knew that the Lord had miraculously touched me and intervened and prevented some minor ailment I had from becoming much more major and serious. Then there are the many many times where He has prevented my contracting illnesses that I have come in contact with, and that's just as much a miracle.
10. Any healing from the Lord, whether minor or major in our eyes, is just as miraculous and just as wonderful. We look on the outward appearance and get much more excited over the healing of cancer or blindness, for example, than over the healing of some less spectacular illness. But "minor" healings that we have experienced--such as instantaneous healings of headaches or fevers--or the immediate cessation, upon prayer, of a persistent pain, major or minor, are the same in the Lord's eyes. One is no harder than the other for Him, and they are all very very wonderful and we need to praise and glorify the Lord for them with all of our hearts.
11. I had allowed my eyes to get weakened through reading so much while the Lord was trying to get me to relinquish some of that and let others share the load. But I was so convinced I had to do it all myself and nobody could do it but me, and that I had to get involved in every single detail of all these missionary supervisory reports. Well, one thing I found out is that I am not so indispensable after all and other people could help me, especially if I trained them to do so.
12. So this was the Lord's way of forcing me to train others, and to not try to take the whole load myself, which eventually would have so worn me down that I couldn't have done anything. I was violating the rule of teaching others to teach others, and of always training others to do your job, as well as also violating the principle that leaders should only do what they can do, delegate the rest to others, and not take on more of the burden than they should. The Lord's load is easy and His burden is light, but often we overburden ourselves and make for ourselves greater burdens than He would have us to carry. When we do, then it's not His burden.
13. Also, in spending so much time reading reports, I was getting a lot of input from others, but not enough from the Lord. I was listening more to others than I was to the Lord. The Lord wanted me to spend more time talking to Him and hearing from Him, and learning to step back and distance myself a bit and give myself more time to hear from Him, and pass that on to others. The Lord said that I was leaning on the arm of the flesh; in other words, my eyes. He said in prophecy that He would close my natural eyes so that I could see with the eyes of the Spirit.
14. Another way that this affliction has been good for me is that it's made me depend more on others, and not try to be so self-sufficient. It's helped me to sympathize more with others in their afflictions, and to realize what a heaviness and a burden these things can be for those who experience them. It's made me more tolerant and more patient and more sympathetic with others, all of whom at some time or another go through battles with physical problems. It's had lots of other good results as well, like some of the ones that I listed above, and possibly many others that I don't even realize. So I'm thankful for this affliction.
15. But if I'm ever tempted to get discouraged, all I have to do is review God's many wonderful promises of love and care and protection. It's so wonderful to have His Word that all things work together for good for His children!--And it's so encouraging to have a lifetime of experience that has proven it. "He's never failed in one of all of His good promises."
16. Well, healing is a big subject, and I've been praying more about it and thinking about it, and hearing many testimonies from all over about it. I think the conclusion I've definitely come to, and that probably many other Christians have come to before me, is that healing is somewhat of a mystery and a very big subject.--That the Lord deals individually with each one of us, and that there are no pat answers. Just as He deals with each one of us differently through a variety of situations and circumstances that are unique to us alone to bring us to Salvation, so in our healing He seems to work in a similar manner by tailoring the circumstances of our illness and healing just to us, and what would be the best for us, personally. Every case is so different. Every testimony is so different. There doesn't seem to be any set formula except a general one that faith in God's promises equals performance of God's promises! But how and when and where and under what circumstances and all the other details differ with each individual.
17. I heard of one man once who received a direct revelation from the Lord that on a certain day he would be healed of a very serious terminal illness. He was so convinced, it had been so vivid and clear to him that he had no doubt whatsoever about it, and he hastened to spread abroad the happy word to all of his relatives and friends. Well, the day arrived and guess what?--He died! Praise God! What better healing could anyone ever have than to go to be with Jesus!--Total healing from every earthly ache, pain and sickness!--To be free from the sickness and illness and the heaviness and the bondage of this life forever! So one way the Lord heals some people--and especially those who have already lived long and fruitful lives for Him--is to take them Home where they'll never be sick again, the best healing of all! Hallelujah!
18. But in most cases I think the healing that the Lord wills for the majority of people who are still fairly young and active and have further years ahead to use for Him, is to heal us now in this life. I think He desires most of us to stay here on this Earth for a while and use these bodies He's given us in His service, and therefore it's His will to heal us on this Earth sooner or later so we can do our job for Him. Some have a slower, more long-term healing process, but others may be instantaneously healed! There are also many who are sick whom the Lord would like to heal if they would only have the faith to trust Him.
19. But it's a complicated subject, and since we don't know who the Lord is going to heal and who He is not, I think the best attitude to have is one that says, "Lord, I trust You with my life, and my body. I know You're going to do whatever is best for me, no matter what it is! Whether it's to heal me, or not to heal me, or heal me right now, or heal me later! I'm going to trust You completely. I'm going to say, like Job, `Even if You slay me, I'm still going to trust You!' I'm expecting You to heal me, but if You don't, I'll still love You and I'll still trust You.--Because I still know that healing is coming even if in the next world!"
20. So after I have claimed all the promises of the Lord that I can claim; and after having united prayer and the laying on of hands; and after I've gotten things straightened out with the Lord, and I'm sure I'm being obedient to His will and to His Word and doing what He wants me to do; after I've fought and rebuked the Devil and the forces of the Enemy and his attacks to keep me sick; and after I've claimed Jesus' power to destroy the works of the Enemy and have claimed God's victory; and after I've done all I can do and I've placed my life completely in the Lord's hands and made sure I'm not trusting in the arm of the flesh to heal me, then I can have the calmness and the peace to know that in the Lord's perfect time He will do the healing no matter how long it takes and no matter how far advanced my condition may be. The Lord can resurrect and make anew and make me every whit whole! But in the meantime, if I'm doing a better job for the Lord sick than well, and I'm seeing more now with my spiritual eyes than I ever was able to see with my physical eyes, I'm happy and contented and so thankful to the Lord for His intervention in my life.
21. Something that has really helped me to learn to exercise my spiritual muscles over the last years has been the awareness that everything that happens in our lives has a reason! In other words, the Lord has a reason for it, and we should always look for that reason. When you see all of your life in that light and everything that happens to you as being the Lord's voice speaking to you and trying to show you something, it opens up a whole new way of looking at things!--A whole new spiritual dimension, a whole new way to see the Lord and to hear His voice.--And it brings the Lord so close. It's so precious when you know that every little thing that happens to you is directed by Him, and He's interested in getting through to you, and He's speaking to you. If you'll just stop and look and listen and ask Him what He is trying to show you, you'll become so much more aware of His presence and you can see all of the concrete ways in which He guides you.
22. Well, excuse me for talking so much about what I have been learning and feeling and thinking, and not so much about you. God bless you all and continue to make you a great blessing to those whom your lives touch. May this coming year be a fruitful one, and in spite of the growing darkness of this world, may you shine brighter and brighter as we grow closer to His heart and are fed by His Word, which gives light to our path and enlightens the darkness.
Much love and prayers, your daughter,
Maria
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family