“Pastor, please pray for healing for my grandmother,” Mark requested at a Sunday evening service. “Tomorrow she is scheduled to have some toes removed because they are turning black.” Mark’s grandmother had poor circulation to her feet brought on by diabetes.
“Mark,” I responded. “Ask God to give you a rhema and then we’ll talk.” (Logos is used in the Greek New Testament to refer to the written word, the Bible, or to the Living Word, Christ. Rhema, on the other hand, means “spoken word.” Romans 10:17 states, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the spoken word (rhema) of God.” I knew that if God gave Mark a rhema about healing, I could pray in faith that He would heal his grandmother.
After church I asked Mark if God had given him a rhema. He told me, “Yes,” and shared with me a portion from James 5:16, “Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another so that you may be healed.” Then Mark said, “I like the last part about healing but I don’t like the first part about confessing. I told him that if he expected God to do the last part, he would have to do the first part.
Mark then confessed some sins. When he finished, I then asked God to heal his grandmother’s toes. She did not have surgery the next day because she ate the breakfast that was mistakenly brought to her. The following day the surgeon and his assistant came into her room to talk about rescheduling the surgery. When they examined her toes, they were turning pink! Eighteen months later, God took Mark’s grandmother Home to be with Him. But she still had all ten toes.