God is Our Healer
By Jean Silverwood
I have doubted myself many times over the last few years, my voice becoming lost in my prayer life. Listening to others pray over people for long periods of time and hearing their words flow so beautifully made my own prayers seem inadequate. I didn’t pray like them, and it started making me insecure and preventing me from praying at times. In trying to pray longer and struggling over the words, I felt myself leaving His presence.
I was trained in Divine Healing from JGLM (John G. Lake) ministries. John G. Lake had over 100,000 recorded healings in just 5 years in the early 1900’s in his ministry’s healing rooms in Spokane Washington. His prayers were short and precise. Following John’s example, I would pray healing for people but sometimes got the feeling they were thinking “That’s it? Just how is that little prayer going to heal me?”
This past April, I was blessed to be on a mission trip to Romania with Lifestreams. It was then that I received a call from my doctor in San Diego, who told me I had cancer! But God almost immediately showered me with His grace during this time, and instead of worry and fear, He instilled in me the courage to use my voice again and in so doing, to regain my confidence in my prayer life. The Lord made it plain to me: the enemy was trying to make me feel sick and insecure as a way to silence the strength of my voice in prayer. Instead, God cured my cancer and emboldened my spoken prayers! AMEN!
It was eighteen years ago after our fourth child was born and I elected to have a breast lift with implants. The outer shell was textured. Six years ago a new type of cancer caused by the textured implants emerged and it was not until the end of February of this year that very few people in the medical community or public had even heard of it. I am the first to have been diagnosed with this cancer in San Diego and one of 563 women around the world. I don’t believe I would have been diagnosed correctly if my cancer symptoms hadn’t coincided with the national media coverage of the FDA alerts to doctors regarding textured implant cancers.
Immediately upon my return from Romania, I was scheduled for the surgery to remove my implants. The Lord spoke to me saying, “ I made this easy for you and now I want you to use your voice to alert and help other women.” “Really Lord?, Come ON! You can’t mean I have to tell everyone I have implants, do YOU?” Well, God spoke, so reluctantly I contacted Channel 8 and laid out my story. Their anchor wanted photos, so I included the Romania trip testimony in the hope we could make the public aware of the miracle. The news didn’t cover the miracle and instead focused more on the health issues and the dangers these implants cause and asking why they are still on the market.
Since the word got out, I have been contacted by many women who I have told of the healing and they have asked for prayer and help with recommendations on getting diagnosed.
For the last six years, I have been praying for cancer patients at UCSD Moores cancer center. I am praying now with increased confidence as know his presence never left. When the patients ask if I am a cancer survivor, it becomes an opening for my recent testimony and I can see in their eyes more of a God connection, and the hope that their prayers are answered.
I was supposed to hike the Camino de Santiago after Romania, but obviously God had another plan for me. He also didn’t want me to not complete one of my dreams. I received a Viking brochure in the mail. John wanted to take a river cruise on Viking for our birthdays and anniversary. I couldn’t believe that this particular cruise stopped in Porto Portugal and I could get on the Camino there to Santiago de Compostela, so I am going to do the walk in September. This pilgrimage walk will mean so much more now than it would have in April.
A month after this interview the FDA recalled the implants.