The Lord blessed me and I was well enough to speak in Stake Conference!

The Lord blessed me so much tonight.  I have been sick all week, including today.  But I knew if I exercised my faith that the Lord would bless me enough to give my talk tonight at the adult session of Stake Conference and he did.  Since my mom and sister’s live out of state, they have asked that I post part of my talk on the blog so they can read it.  So please bear with me.

Introduction – I introduced Craig and I and shared our health issues that we were facing right now.

How are we coping with this?   Through faith and hope and charity.

• 2 Nephi 31:20

 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

Question: When it comes to Priesthood blessings, who has the greater responsibility for the healing to take place; the one giving the blessing or the one receiving the blessing?

Lana said:  the one receiving

Lucy said:  the one giving.  She went on to explain that maybe if the person receiving the blessing is lacking faith, the faith of the one giving the blessing can act as a teaching experience and help increase the recipients’ faith.

Story 1:  (Hard to breathe during the night)

Lucy’s comment reminded me of a recent experience.  About 2 months ago I was having a really hard time breathing in the middle of the night.  I became very frightened because two days earlier I had 2 liters of fluid drained from around my right lung.   Every time I would breath in it would hurt and wake me up.  I was very worried something was wrong and would have gone to the emergency room, but the next morning I would be seeing my doctor. 

Craig gave me a blessing and in the blessing he told me that what I was experiencing was normal and that I would be able to fall asleep and rest until morning and when I went to the doctor I would find all well.  I was in shock!  I didn’t believe a word he said.  I thought I was dying and here he blessed me to go back to sleep. 

When we got back in bed I said, “Honey, if I die tonight I want you to know that I am happy that I married you.”  Then Craig said, “If you die tonight, I’m going to be really mad.  Now straighten up and have some faith!”  Then he reached over and squeezed my hand and said, “I mean that in a nice way.”

Well it happened just like he said in the blessing.  I fell asleep, slept the rest of the night and when I went to the doctor he listened to my lungs and everything was okay.

So in this situation, the recipient (me) was lacking faith and because of the faith of the one giving (my husband) I was healed and taught at the same time.

Quote:  (By Richard G. Scott)

“Your faith, purity, and obedience and that of the priesthood holder have great effect on the pronouncement and realization of the blessing.”

Story 2: (Vertigo)

“When I was RS President in Las Vegas, we had a lot of elderly women that didn’t get to church.  So we decided to have a “Home RS” and see if we could some of the sisters to attend.  Our presidency decided that I would go in the morning and teach at the Home RS and then teach the same lesson to our ward that afternoon.  The Sunday arrived for this pilot program and when I woke up that morning I was so sick.  Whenever I would raise my head, the whole room would spin.  This was my first experience with vertigo and I was so dizzy I could hardly stand it.  After several failed attempts at getting up, I asked my husband for a blessing.

He placed his hands on my head and blessed me that I would be healed and would be able to go and teach the two lessons I needed to that day.  After he said Amen, I laid there feeling so weak and sick.  How in the world was I going to be able to teach, when I couldn’t even lift my head off the pillow without wanting to throw up? 

My thoughts were interrupted when my husband reached over and took my right hand and said, “okay, now honey get up.”  Inside I thought, “Wait….wait….a minute, are you kidding me?  I just got this blessing…it’s not supposed to work that fast is it?”  Then almost instantly I had a vision come to my mind.  It was from the church movie “Legacy”.  It was when Eliza was on the plains and had become so sick.  She was in bed with a fever and was so despondent.  Then Joseph Smith came in and knelt beside her and gave her a blessing.  After he finished, he reached and took her hand and commanded her to arise.  She was so weak, yet she sat up and she was healed!

With that vision in my mind, I took my husband’s hand and sat up.  The room was spinning so fast…where was my faith to be healed?  My husband seemed to have faith that I would be healed, but what about me?  Then at that precise moment a message was seared in my heart that said, “Faith is an ACTION word.  Get up and do your part and the Lord will make up the difference.”

With all the strength I could muster I stood up and put my arms around my husband’s neck as the room continued to spin.  I put my feet on his shoes and he slowly walked me into the bathroom.  I don’t know how long I was in there, but I realized I had to equalize my head with the room.  So I slid to the floor and sat up with my head against the wall.  The longer I sat there, the slower the spinning got.  Finally there was no more spinning.  Yeah!  I crawled to my closet and slowly stood up and started getting dressed. 

All during this time it was as if my bed was screaming for me to come back.  I would have LOVED to go back to bed and end this misery.  But what about the healing I had been promised?  What about the sisters that I was going to teach?  I didn’t realize that I was being taught a principle of faith that would change my life forever.  In this situation, I needed to exercise an “action form of faith” WHILE I was being healed, not waiting until AFTER I felt completely well.  The more I “PRESSED FORWARD” the more I was healed.

That Sunday I was able to teach both RS lessons and testify boldly to the sisters of the miracle of healing that had just occurred in my life.  Since that time, I have realized over and over the profound lesson I learned that day.  Every time I  have ever had to teach, or speak or do something for the Lord, he has HEALED me as I have pressed forward with my faith, knowing he would heal me.”

Quote:  (By Richard G. Scott)

 “Healing can occur in the act, yet more often it occurs over a period of time determined by the faith and obedience of the individual and the will of the Lord.

I feel that the pace is generally set by the individual, not by the Lord. He expects you to use other resources available, including competent professional help when indicated; then He provides the balance needed according to His will.” -Richard G. Scott, “To Be Healed,” Ensign, May 1994, 7

WOW!!!! – What kind of PACE have we been setting in our healings? I fear that many of us have received Priesthood blessings to be healed, and have waited until we were the “perfect picture of health” before attempting to arise and go forth to serve.  

MESSAGE FOR LINDON STAKE:  This is the message that the Lord has asked me to share with the Lindon Stake tonight!  After Pres. Corbridge asked me to speak, I went to the temple to receive inspiration.  I felt okay going into the  temple, but as the session continued I got weaker and weaker.  As I stood to go to the veil, I knew the Lord would bless me to make it through, but I knew I had to push myself to make it happen.  It was then that the spirit whispered to me that this was the message to share in my talk.

Bible Dictionary:  Faith is a principal of Action and of power.  And by it one can command the elements and/or heal the sick or influence any number of circumstances when occasion warrants.

I believe that pressing forward is the “Action” part of faith.  It means pushing yourself to do that which you know is right, but might not feel well enough to do.

God lives and loves us.  The Atonement is real.  I know that Christ suffered for not only my sins, but the pains and sorrow I am experiencing at this time.  I know I can be healed time and time again as I press forward, exercising my faith.