A Healing.

I’m a huge believer in giving the Lord Jesus credit…   where credit is deserved.  So, I’d like to share with you a recent testimony.

I’m hoping this with strengthen your walk.

I’m hoping this will help you to trust.

Many of you know my story….    

I had kidney surgery at 13. Diagnosed with a birth defect due to renal stenosis. My blood pressure went to unbelievable heights. God spared my body. I underwent surgery.  For ten years my blood pressure remained normal.

It was a time of thankfulness and blessing.

At age 23, I was at one of the most exciting times in my life….  I’d met the love of my life. I was engaged. There was just one problem…  The blood pressure was back and it wouldn’t leave.

Jeremy and I married and the next few years were spent trying to find out WHY.  

Why the high blood pressure?

Why the constant aching?

Why?

Why?

Nothing would control it.

Medicine wouldn’t.

Decreasing stress didn’t.

Nothing.

I had a precious baby boy, Jonah.

So incredibly early…  2lbs 9oz.

They called it Eclampsia and they said it was due to the high numbers of my pressure.

I begged the Lord for healing.

I was willing to go to whatever doctor.

Change my life.

To have another baby would be considered “high risk”.

...and so life went on.

I met a doctor….  Which found a beta blocker that partially kept it down.  It was a step in the right direction. Finally, I was starting to feel slightly normal.

I knew in my heart…  Someday a healing would come.

He would…   Those stripes…  

His stripes…  They were for me.

Three years went by.

I visited a new doctor who disovered I had high renin levels in my blood…   So kidney damage?  Kidney blockage?  Maybe answers?

I was sent to a great Nephrologist…    My heart was lifted when his opinion was that I had blockage and a possible tumor in my kidney.  Said he had seen it all before…    Surgery could change my life.  I would just need a dye test through my kidneys before undergoing the operation.

So, I did.

...and then I waited.  I prayed.  My loved ones prayed.

I got the phonecall with results on a busy afternoon…  It was the nephrologist…   His tone was a bit amazed… “Mrs. Costner, I don’t know how to tell you this…  But your kidneys are perfect. Completely perfect. I can’t understand it!”

The shock was overwhelming.

My kidneys were perfect?

My family was thrilled and tried to help me understand that I must have been touched by an Almighty God.

I didn’t really grasp it at that point.

What about what the doctors could do?

What now?

It had been a miracle that they might could have fixed me, Right?

So, I waited.

I didn’t understand.

I tried to.

But I couldn’t see past the symptoms.

But…    It wasn’t for me to.

Then, I came down with a terrible cold.  Blowing my nose and wiping my watering eyes. I felt terrible.

I ran to our local Walmart to grab some medicine to help me breathe and be able to handle the pain in my head.

As my shopping cart slid along the aisle …  and after hearing the lady on the loudspeaker make a brief announcement…

Something very strange happened.

The room began getting dim.

The store music got far away.

I was standing in that store…  But I wasn’t.

And then suddenly… I knew with everything in me…  

I was leaving.

I was going.

I began to see life flash before my eyes.

I’d always heard that expression…  and then it happened.

I saw those I love greatly.

I saw my husband.

My precious baby boy.

Faces from my past.

Faces from my present.

Then amazingly I somehow regained sensation in my hands…    I grabbed the bar of the shopping cart and held on.  Right there…  Right in the middle of everything.  I heard myself praying.

“Lord, I’m not finished here yet.  My husband needs me. Jonah needs me. I know life and death are yours and I’m asking to live.”

The sensation began coming back…  Very slowly I could feel my feet…  Then my legs.

I somehow made it to my car and drove home.

When I walked inside I managed to make it to my bed and fell in probably one of the deepest sleeps I have ever been in.

The next morning was Memorial Day.  

Upon waking up, the first thing I noticed was my cold was completely and totally gone. Head was clear. Headache vanished.

I spent the day with family.  

Second thing I noticed, there was a sense of gentle calm with me.   It seemed to follow me.  It was unexplainable.

Last week, I went to the doctor for a checkup.

The nurse came in to check my blood pressure…  and I was ready for “the look” I always get.  Concern and worry.

I’d get the normal “Genesis, Its just so high. 185/115 is just too high. Are you still taking your medicine?”

And I’d say, “Yes, I am.”  

But this time…  

This time.

Was different.

She checked it.   Then she checked it again.

She said, “110/67…  Its too low.  I’ll have the doctor check it again.”

But..   She didn’t need to check it again…    Because I knew.

I knew that the Lord God Almighty had come by my way.

I felt tears well up in my eyes… Didn’t hear her next few words…  

The doctor did come in…  and he did check it.  Twice.

And I heard words I thought I might never hear…  “Genesis, Let’s start the process of getting you off that blood pressure medicine.  Because something… something has happened!”

They didn’t understand…   

But it was done.

Our steps are appointed by the Lord…   each step…   some uphill…   some through the darkest valley…   

I now know that He will never forsake me in my weaknesses.

Thank you precious Lord.

Since that day, I’ve began the process weaning off my medicine. God is with me. My pressure is normal.

To GOD be the GLORY!

Taken tonight while writing this.. :)