Background Al & Fran Hiking Dec.1992 after God healed the Sciatica (picture taken by our daughter Stephanie)
Healing Sciatica by Frances M. McCrory-Meservy 1992
When I went to church or anywhere else, I had to sit most of the time. Sometimes I could stand for a song and sometimes I could not. According to the pain level.
Ten years later in Nov. 1992 in the Sunday Morning services at Midway Baptist Church in Wichita KS, our pastor told the congregation that God wanted to remove the need for smoking from people He had brought under conviction.
Brother Ray specified that it was for people that God brought under conviction and not people who other people including himself had brought under conviction. Twenty-five people went forward. I smoked but God had never brought me under conviction.
Brother Ray asked everyone to stand.
I lowered my head and said, "Lord if you want me to quit smoking and I am too heard-headed to listen, make me hurt so bad that I can not stand. Then I will know.
As I stood up, Brother Ray said, "Lord Jesus remove everything that hinders from your people." My back popped from the base of my head to my tailbone and all the pain went away. Five people were delivered from cigarettes that day – I was not.
After we got home I realized that my left foot felt funny. It took me a few minutes to realize that it felt funny because I could feel it for the first time in 10 years. The muscles were no longer rolling in my calf and the deep muscle cramps were no more. Praise the Lord! I was healed!
I had not been able to sleep on my left side, back or stomach in 10 years – I could only sleep on my right side. Now I could sleep on any side.
We went back to church that night and after the services, I told Brother Ray what happened. He wanted to know if I was delivered from cigarettes. The answer to that was, "no." He leaned against the wall and said, "I don’t understand." I told him I didn’t either but I was keeping the healing. He had me give my testimony to the rest of the church at the next service.
At my next Doctor’s appointment I told my doctor what happened. His reaction was exactly the same as my pastor’s.
Brother Ray now tells everyone, "You are not going to hell for smoking – you are just going to smell like you’ve been there."
I finally managed to quit smoking September 4, 2002. God never brought me under conviction for smoking. It was hard to quit and I have never been delivered.
August 2008 Post Script: I quit dreaming I smoked a cigarette after Christmas 2007. I have never wanted a cigarette because someone was smoking one in front of me - the smell just made me glad I quit (I do not let anyone smoke in our house because I didn't the last 2 years I smoked and my husband has COPD - plus I don't like dusting twice a week or more).
Psa 25:18 Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins.
Jer 15:18-21 Why is my pain perpetual And my wound incurable, Which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, As waters that fail? Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, Then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, You shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, But you must not return to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you," says the LORD. "I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible."
Mat 11:4-6 Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: "The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. "And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."