APPENDIX
ATTACKED

Topics: Faith; Healing; Illness; Miracles; Overcoming; Trust

References: Luke 4:38–39; 10:19; 13:10–13; Ephesians 1:18–23

When Heather, thirteen, complained of discomfort on her right side, I wasn’t too concerned. But when, several days later, she was writhing and crying in pain, I knew something was terribly wrong. The doctor confirmed what I had suspected: appendicitis. “That appendix is going to have to come out,” he said. “I’m sending you straight to the hospital.”

We drove to the hospital, where I turned off the car and prepared to pray over Heather. Other cars were parking all around me. Even though I felt a little self-conscious, I prayed firmly and confidently. I remembered how Jesus had rebuked a fever and it had left. Some months earlier, my husband had tried that approach when one of our daughters had a fever, and it had worked. That increased my faith to pray now with Heather. I laid my hands on Heather and commanded the enemy to loose her in Jesus’ name. I appropriated the authority I knew I had over the enemy. I prayed that God would comfort and heal Heather.

Then I practically had to carry her into the hospital. A nurse took one look at her and ordered a gurney. A blood test revealed a high white cell count. The nurse notified the waiting surgeon that Heather had arrived and sent her for an ultrasound.

As we waited, something began to happen. Until this point Heather had been unable to concentrate on anything except her pain. Now she entered into a lighthearted conversation with the woman next to her. Then she asked if she could get up and phone her best friend. I was incredulous.

“Look, Mom, I can jump,” she said delightedly. “It doesn’t hurt so much anymore.”

The ultrasound technician tried for about ten minutes to see Heather’s appendix but couldn’t. He left the room and came back with the radiologist, who also failed. “There must be too much gas to see the appendix,” the radiologist said. “But you should be screaming in pain the way I’m pressing on your stomach.”

The radiologist told our doctors that he was unable to locate the appendix on the ultrasound and that Heather no longer seemed to be in pain. On that basis, he felt it would be unwise to do surgery. They agreed that Heather should be released but be brought back immediately at any recurrence of pain.

So, only a couple of hours after she arrived for surgery, Heather left the hospital with her appendix. She felt so good that she talked me into stopping on the way home to shop for a new pair of jeans. When we got home, the phone rang. It was our pastor, wanting to know how Heather was doing. “I’m fine,” she said. “My mom prayed for me. And I was healed!”

—Arlyn Lawrence, Pray! (January–February 2006)