Weakened by Infection, Strengthened through Prayer

In 2016, Carole developed bronchitis with a persistent, severe cough.

“I coughed and I coughed – it just hurt to cough.  At one point, I coughed so hard that I knew something happened in my back and it hurt to move,” Carole told us.  “It hurt to turn, it – I couldn’t bend over, I couldn’t do the things that I was doing before.”

While the cough eventually subsided, the back pain got worse.  

“As long as I didn’t move around, that was the only time I was ever out of pain,” she said.  “It grated on me and it grated on me.  This went on week after week, and it turned into month after month! Then I had to give up the love of my life, which was playing the piano.  When you can't do something you love like that, it's like a piece is torn out of you.  And that's the way I felt, like something was missing. So I would just sit in my chair and I was very depressed, it was like everything that I loved to do was taken away from me,” Carole exclaimed.  

Then, Carole lost two of her siblings within two days of each other.

“It was just a grief, horrific grief.  I didn't know what to do.  I was just crying out to God and I was so hurt,” she remembered.

The only thing Carole and her husband Bill could do was pray.  

“It was just wrenching, inside and out I was hurting.  My body was hurting, and inside my heart was broken, I was in emotional pain and physical pain.  I prayed and I said, ‘Lord, how much more can I take? I don't think I can keep going like this.’”

The back pain continued for 6 months. Then one day, Carole was watching her favorite show, The 700 Club.  Gordon and Terry were giving words of knowledge.  

“He started calling out healings.  And then he starts saying something about pain in somebody's back, and it got my attention.  And he went on and he described me,” Carole said.

“You’ve had this – like spike of pain right in the middle of your shoulder blades,” said Gordon, through the TV.  “God’s just released that from you, all that tension is just dropping off of you.”

“I knew when he described the pain in the back, I said, ‘that's for me!’  And I got so excited!  And then Gordon said what he always says, he says, ‘do something you couldn’t do before.’ So I very gingerly got out of my lounge chair and I walked halfway to the television and I bent over and I bent over and there was no pain,” Carole beamed.

The first thing Carole did was what she had missed most.

“I went in there and I sat at the piano and I began to play, ‘It Is Well with My Soul.’  And I just began to worship God.  I thanked him for my healing.  And you know what?  Not only did he heal my pain, and take that away from me, but he healed my broken heart that day,” Carole said with tears in her eyes.  “He took that horrible grief and I've never been the same.  The word of knowledge gave me a much deeper sense of God's love.  It changed everything.  He didn't care if I wasn't worthy.  It didn't matter to God because he loved me that much.  I want people to know God can do it for them,” Carole said with a smile.  “If he can do it for me, he can do it for you!”