Hugh's News & Commentary

SEEING WITH THE EYES OF FAITH
By Thelma McDowell

Sometimes when we pray for ourselves or for someone else, we view the object of our prayers as “Poor Sally, her doctor tells her there’s no hope for her, but I’m asking, God , for you to heal her.” Or, “Poor John, he’s out of work now and his family is going to suffer, so maybe he can just find some kind of work so they can survive.”

Unfortunately, with our mind’s eye, we are envisioning them in less fortunate circumstances than God wants to give them.

Instead of praying and pitying Sally and “hoping” God will turn something around for her, what if we prayed in faith, not envisioning her suffering or dying, but seeing her with eyes of faith well, healed and whole and functioning at maximum capacity. What if instead of concentrating on “hoping” John will get a job and seeing him at some menial task, barely getting by, we could get a picture, as we pray, of him blessed and prosperous, with plenty for his family and plenty with which to bless others.

Many of our prayers seem to be “hope” based, not faith based. In a book entitled Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale, he talks about praying and putting our faith in God while picturing in our minds a desired goal or objective. While I cannot fathom, as some believe, that “imaging” by itself can solve any problem, I do believe that prayer, faith, and placing our trust in God can bring all the desired answers. I also believe that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV)
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Following are some excerpts from the previously mentioned book by Norman Vincent Peale which may help you to see by eyes of faith the results or evidence of what you are asking God to do:

“In my pocket as I write these words is a card I always carry with me. It came to me many years ago, and I have it retyped occasionally because it gets ragged and worn. On it are five lines, as follows:

The light of God surrounds me
The love of God enfolds me
The power of God protects me
The presence of God watches over me
Wherever I am, God is!

“Why do I carry this card? Because the image that it evokes of a loving, caring God is the perfect antidote to fear, to worry, to anxiety, to just about every problem under the sun. Whenever I’m troubled, I take that card out and let it remind me that there is an all-powerful Being in the universe who loves me and who is only a prayer away.

“This is the greatest concept that the human mind can hold. The more intensely you image it, the happier you are going to be, because you will never feel abandoned or alone. That’s what religion is all about, that’s what churches are all about, that’s what Christ came to teach us—that the love of God is available to us uncertain, groping, unsure human beings, all the time no matter where we may be.”

Here is a story from Peale’s book about Henry DeCamp, who had inoperable cancer:

“[Harry] was told he had cancer of the bladder. Inoperable cancer. When he asked how much time he had to live, the doctors couldn’t tell him. They gave him some painkillers and sent him home to die.

“Harry had never been a very religious man. As he put it, ‘I had only a nodding acquaintance with God.’ He thought about praying but he didn’t know how. ‘I knew God was there,’ he said later, ‘but He was some mystical Being, far away. It didn’t seem right to start begging after ignoring Him for so many years.’

“Then two things happened in rapid succession. Someone sent Harry a get-well card and wrote on it, ‘With God all things are possible ‘ (Matt. 19:26). Somehow that phrase stuck in Harry’s mind. It kept coming back to him. Then he picked up an inspirational magazine and read two stories in it. One was about a seriously injured soldier who recovered from near fatal wounds by creating a mental picture of himself as a healthy, whole individual. The other story was by a cancer victim who claimed that total believing and total faith were the keys to answered pray, that Christ meant exactly what He said when He told His followers, ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them’ (Mark 11:24, KJV)

“…After much though, [Harry] decided to believe with total conviction that God could do anything, and that constant prayer backed by real faith could put him in touch with the enormous healing power of the Almighty. In addition to that, he decided to visualize the healing process taking place in the most dramatic form that his imagination could supply.

“He began to image armies of healing white blood cells in his body cascading down from his shoulders, sweeping through his veins, attacking the malignant cells and destroying them…’The images,’ he said later, ‘were just as clear as if they were coming in on our TV screen. I could seen an army of white blood cells cascading down from my shoulders into my stomach, swirling around in my bladder, battling their way into my liver, my heart. Regiment after regiment they came, endlessly, the white corpuscles moving relentlessly on the cancer cells, moving in and devouring them! On and on the victorious white army swept, down into my legs and feet and toes, then to the top of my body, mopping up stray cancer cells as they went, until at last the battle was over…’

“Harry DeCamp also kept on with his chemotherapy, although he was convinced he didn’t need it. Six months later, when he went back for a checkup, the malignant mass was gone.”

How do we account for Harry’s miraculous recovery? I believe it was because Harry put his trust in God; he believed God could heal him; and by looking at his situation through the “eyes of faith,” Harry was able to get a picture of God healing him through the wondrous way God had made him--by supernaturally fueling his immune system to attack the invading cancer cells. So I say “If God can do it, let’s expect that He will do it.” Let’s see the finished miracle through eyes of faith. All things are possible—only believe . –Thelma McDowell

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things  are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23).

[Editor's Note: Thelma McDowell is an extraordinary Christian lady, a gifted administrator, editor, and writer. She has served as a pastor's wife as well as the wife of a conference superintendent. She has worked for bishops and top executive officers of the IPHC. 

We met Thelma and James McDowell in the summer of 1970 when the Air Force moved us to Houston, TX, for a year of Clinical Pastoral Education at Herman Hospital, a teaching hospital for the University of Texas Medical College. I was able to get an additional scholarship to Perkins School of Theology to do my resident work for the S.T. M. (Master of Sacred Theology) degree in Pastoral Counseling at Southern Methodist University.

We attended the Pentecostal Holiness Church that the McDowells were planting in Houston. At that same time, Thelma reminds me, that John Osteen, the father of Joel Osteen was planting his church at the same time. I became their Sunday School superintendent during the months we lived in Houston. Those were wonderful months, some 15 months that we had good fellowship and had them in our home and we often visited them in their home. Their oldest son, Jimmy, was a little boy then. We are grateful for the friendship we have maintained all of these years. I worked with Thelma for almost 12 years when she was the administrative assistant to Dr. Ronald W. Carpenter, Sr. during the time Dr. Carpenter was the executive director of Evangelism USA. Thelma helped me with many projects to make Chaplains Ministries, IPHC what it is today. When I read this article on healing, I knew in an instant that it should be published in Hugh's News.]