I'm sharing my testimony in thankfulness of what my Lord and Saviour has done for me, and in the hopes that it will help somebody that is in a similar situation.
Ever since I was little, I remember my bones always hurting. Everybody always said it was just growing pains. I believed it, but as I got older, the pain grew more intense. My mom took me to doctors and they took blood tests, but everything always came out ok. At 17 the pain went up so much that the pain pills I usually took were having absolutely no effect; there was pain in my arms and legs. I went to the doctor again and my mom asked the doctor if it was possible for me to have arthritis. The doctor looked at her like she was crazy, and they tested me for it.
A week later the results came in and I had tested positive. I don’t remember the name of the cells they checked, but normally a person is supposed to have 14 of those kinds of cells; my cell count was 128.
There is treatment for Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, but no cure. And since I always had a lot of trouble taking pills, getting treatment was not really an option, especially since those drugs can cause horrible side effects and some have even given people cancer after a long time of taking them.
About three years after the diagnosis, I was introduced to the Message of the Hour. Brother Branham really taught me about healing, how to accept it, and keep it. I was so excited! I would listen to his sermons and prayed so hard that he would talk to me through one of them. People might think that’s crazy, but I knew it could happen. Two more years passed but it didn’t matter, I still believed and waited for the day Brother Branham would call me out from one of those tapes preached almost 50 years ago.
So last year in May, at the age of 22, the arthritis that was in both my arms and legs moved to my back. The pain was agonizing, like being tortured. I tried not to breathe because even that hurt. I didn’t want to have any contact with people because it hurt so much to be touched in the slightest. I literally could not lift anything heavier than 10lbs without ending up in agonizing pain a few minutes later.
On May 25 of 2010, I was on my third day of that horrible pain that would not go away. I was sitting on the couch when everything started getting smoky (I thought something was burning in the kitchen, but it was actually my vision getting cloudy from all the pain). The thought of having to get up to check that out was too much. I couldn’t take the pain anymore, and I just fell to my side on the couch. I was about to pass out. My thought then was an angry one. I thought, “If I was only in line with God I wouldn’t have to hurt so much all the time!” Glory! Before I even finished the thought the pain was gone! And May 25, 2011 is my first anniversary of being arthritis free. I’m looking forward to many more years!
I am SO HAPPY now that I can do all the things I dreamed of doing, like carrying my nieces and playing with them. I can pick up a shovel anytime I want, and go clean out my dog’s cage. I can carry a purse or backpack, be hugged and not hate it because it hurts. I’m getting used to people touching me on my shoulder if they want to get my attention, small things like that used to really hurt. I blocked so much out all those years, but now I’m not afraid to look back and see it was so much worse than what I thought when I was still going through it. I never looked back before, I just lived one day, and even one moment, at a time.
I have to say it wasn't all easy. The second I accepted my healing, the devil came and tried to take it away! I had my arm wrapped up and had some aspercream on it, but as soon as I had the healing, even the affect of the aspercream left! I still had the bandage on and thought, “well I’ll just keep it on just in case.” I stopped dead in my tracks! There is no “just in case!” I’m either healed or I’m not! I tore that bandage off; no way am I’m going back to that.
For two years, Brother Branham taught me about healing. The second I believed the Message, I could have been healed, but I see now that God wanted me to wait so that I could first learn about it, how to accept it, and how not to lose it. Every time I pick up anything heavy, or anytime I play with my nieces, I give glory to Him, for what He did that day on Calvary. He truly paid it all.
Glory be to God!
Sis Cinthia