Called by Name and Healed Immediately
San Jose, CA
“I work with developmentally delayed adults,” says Joanne. “I go out to care homes. I work on the computer. I write reports. I see people face to face. I am a people person, and I like helping.”
As a social worker, Joanne has always worked tirelessly to make sure her clients have what they need to live their best life—even when she wasn’t feeling her best.
“I pretty well barrel through anything, and when it comes to work, I have a really good work ethic. So, I hardly let anything slow me down at work,” says Joanne.
There was one exception. It was spring of 2013, and she had started using a laptop to do more work from home. Before long, her right arm began giving her problems.
“It was extremely painful. I couldn’t lift my arm up toward my waist. I couldn’t lift my arm—my right arm over my head or behind my back,” says Joanne.
In the coming days, Joanne tried her best to barrel through the pain at work, and at home.
“Getting dressed was difficult,” says Joanne. “The activities of daily living, cooking, putting things away in cabinets that were above my head, heavy things, or not even heavy things, even a glass was difficult to hold on to.”
Finally, she sought medical advice a few months later when the pain became unbearable.
“I went to the doctor and she said that I had a frozen shoulder and I have some discs in my neck that are degenerating. She sent me to physical therapy,” says Joanne.
18 months later...
“I was feeling desperate because I was going to physical therapy and it wasn’t getting better,” says Joanne. “I was in a lot of pain. And I really wanted the pain to go away.”
Although Joanne had been praying all along, she needed God now more than ever.
“I know God heals and I know He loves us, and I know He wants to heal us,” says Joanne. “And so, I just, I kept praying and crying with the pain and just doing what I needed to do.”
As a long-time Partner of CBN and viewer of The 700 Club, Joanne never misses the chance to hear the praise reports and healing words of knowledge for others.
“I’m always encouraged by the stories and by the prayers,” says Joanne. “And I just think about how, how wonderful they must feel being healed and getting that healing. It encourages me to look at God in a bigger way.”
On September 18, 2015, Joanne received more than encouragement. It had been two years since the pain had started.
“I’m praying for someone, you’ve got a neck injury that is leading to severe problems in your right arm,” says Gordon. "Nerve damage that is affecting your ability to use your right arm. God is able to heal you. And your name is Joanne. I am calling you by name so that you know this is directly for you.”
“You’re healed,” says Gordon. “What you couldn’t do before, do it now. Begin to move that arm. The muscles are going to be sore. They are not used to being moved,” says Gordon. “Move them now. And realize God has healed you and restored you in Jesus’s name.”
“I started crying and smiling all at the same time,” says Joanne. “I stood up, I stood up and I put my arms up in the air and I started praising the Lord. And at some point, I think I noticed like, ‘Oh, my arms are over my head, I don’t have any pain,’” says Joanne. “I was healed in that moment. In that instant, God healed me.”
Joanne has been pain-free ever since, doing what she does best...helping people and telling them about God’s goodness.
“It makes me speechless that God did that,” says Joanne. “For God to actually call me by name, that was something so personal, it’s like He singled me out to heal me.”
