The Chaplain and The Medic

Early one morning, I saw a middle-aged hospital chaplain walking through a deserted hospital corridor. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw him. His arm was in a sling. I walked toward him and stretched out my hand. “I see I might be too late.” His right arm was in a sling and he carried a small pile of books in his left hand. We shook hands awkwardly.

“I was going to ask if I could pray with you, but if you already had surgery, maybe you don’t need to be healed. I’ve been praying with my patients and I’ve seen a lot of them healed.”

“Really?” He replied. “Well, God must have given you a gift.”

I smiled. “It’s not really a gift. Although there is a gift of healing mentioned in the Bible, healing miracles are available to every disciple of Jesus. He gave His disciples authority and power to heal. I’ve just learned how to operate in it, but anyone can do it. So can I ask what happened to your shoulder?”

“I had surgery and it didn’t go well. There wasn’t much they could do to repair it. I already have back pain from a bulging disc and knee pain from the spill I took on my mountain bike. The last thing I really needed was more bad news. This shoulder problem could end my career.”

We discussed healing and I shared a few testimonies with him. In the end, we both wanted the same thing. I wanted someone to pray with and he wanted to be healed. With a look of hope, he asked, “If you don’t mind, would you pray for my knee?”

“I’d love to.”

A fire department crew walked through the hallway with a patient on a gurney. A young woman with them looked at me, started laughing, and said, “I know what you’re doing!”

I looked at the chaplain. “That’s my partner. Holy Spirit, bring your presence.” I felt the atmosphere change and I placed my hand on his knee. “Spirit of pain I command you to leave. Cartilage, ligaments, bone, nerves, tendons, blood vessels and muscles, I command you to be healed. All things made brand new, because God doesn’t recycle. He makes everything new.” I asked if he felt anything different.

He squatted down and flexed his knees. “Not really.”

“Sometimes healing can take 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes an hour or two, and sometimes even a day or two. Let me pray again.” I placed my hand on his knee again. “Pain and inflammation, leave now, in Jesus’ name.” I asked if he felt anything yet.

With a smile, he said, “I’m feeling something happening in there now. Would you mind praying for my back?”

I placed my hand on his lower back. I repeated the same process I used for his knee. After the third time, he said, “Now I’m feeling heat in my back.”

“That’s the power of God healing you.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask you to pray for my shoulder. The doc said it’s bone-on-bone. I’m eventually going to need another surgery to replace the joint.”

“Why don’t we have God replace it right now?” I placed my hand on the injured shoulder. “I command the spirit of pain to leave and the bones, muscle, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, nerves, blood vessels and all the structures of the shoulder to be healed, right now in Jesus’ name. How does it feel?”

“It’s getting warm.”

I repeated the process two more times and asked what was happening.

“I feel a lot of heat now.”

“I’d imagine that shoulder will feel pretty good in a couple of hours.”

“You know, if you took this far enough, you might put the hospital out of business.”

I had to get back to work. I thanked him for his time and went looking for my partner. “Put the hospital out of business,” I said to myself. “That’s a good one.”

This is an excerpt from my book My Craziest Adventures With God – Volume 2.