Got Any Pain Pills?
I was having one of those days where I just wanted to leave work and go home. My patient was being demanding and his needy condition was really getting on my nerves.
I know I should have been more sympathetic to his condition. He’s a quadriplegic who has lived in a nursing home for years after a car accident left him paralyzed. His nurse found blood returning from his feeding tube this morning, so we transported him to the hospital for a GI bleed.
The nursing home is across the street from the hospital, making the transport time about two minutes. It’s amazing how irritated I can get on such a short transport. On the way out the door, he asked for a glass of water. His nurse was nice enough to send his cup of ice water along, but I’d set in on the back of the gurney and somehow it managed to tip over. The water was now all over the floor. I told him he’d have to wait a few minutes. Next, he wanted me to suction his tracheostomy. It didn’t seem like he needed it, but I complied with his request and suctioned him a couple of times as we left the nursing home. Before I had the suction equipment put away he asked for a pain pill. That’s about where I lost it.
His demands had gotten the better of me and in a stern voice I told him I didn’t have a pain pill I could give him and we were going to be at the hospital in about 30 seconds and I’d really appreciate it if he would just chill out for a few more minutes until we got there. Normally it takes a lot for someone to get on my nerves, but today, for some reason I was unusually irritable.
My partner must have heard me and knew that I was pretty irritated. When we were through with the call, he drove across the street to the restaurant that he knows I like to eat at. He said I looked like I needed lunch. He was right. I was hungry, so I thanked him and when the ambulance came to a stop, I hopped out.
As I walked to the entrance of the restaurant, a stranger walked up and asked if I had a pain pill. Wondering if it was some kind of cruel joke, I just looked at him for a minute.
In what world do you walk up to a paramedic in a parking lot and ask for a pain pill?
Then a thought came to my mind. Maybe this was a divine setup. Maybe it was an opportunity to get this guy healed. So I asked why he wanted a pain pill. In broken English, he told me about how he’d fractured his leg in two places in a work-related accident and how the surgery to repair it didn’t go too well. He pulled up his pant leg and showed me the scars near his calf and ankle. He now lives in constant pain. I told him we should go inside.
Once inside, I got in line to order. He stayed near the door, looking around like he was waiting for someone. After I ordered, I went back and asked him if he wanted to be healed. He said “sure.” I told him I was going to pray over his leg. I got down and laid my hand on his leg, just above the ankle, and commanded the ligaments, bones, muscles, tendons, and nerves to be healed in the name of Jesus.
He felt warmth going through his lower leg so I continued praying then I asked him to test it out. He walked around the lobby for a while said it felt better but there was still some pain. I placed my hand on his lower leg and repeated the process. Once again he tested it out and again he said it was better, but there was still a little pain remaining. I prayed a third time and afterward, he said the pain was just about completely gone.
People in the restaurant were looking at us, including a woman who seemed more interested than most of the patrons. I looked at her and said, “What are you smiling at?” She said, “If you’re through praying for my husband, will you pray for me next?”
As I approached, I put my arm around her shoulder and asked what she needed prayer for.
“I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow to have a hysterectomy. They found cancer and I’m really scared.”
I placed my hands on her shoulders and asked the Holy Spirit to bring His presence. I felt His glory arrive and noticed that she was starting to sway back and forth. I asked if she felt anything. She said she felt a wave of peace washing over her. I commanded cancer to leave and declared her complete healing of all sickness and disease. When I was done praying she gave me a warm hug and thanked me. Her husband shook my hand, unable to say anything. He just smiled from ear to ear. I picked up my food and headed for the door. Somehow, all that irritation I felt a few minutes earlier was gone.
People ask for pain pills because they’re in pain. Jesus sent us into the world to take away the pain and suffering of mankind. Not with pills — but with power. He also sent us as messengers of peace. Maybe I need to learn how to live from the peace of His presence a little more often. God knows I could use a little more peace and less irritability. The peace He brings is amazing.
This is an excerpt from my book My Craziest Adventures With God Volume 2.
LOVE this story! My dental receptionist has constant pain from a badly fractured wrist that didn’t heal properly after surgery. I almost offered prayer when she told me, but at that moment both her desk phone and my mobile went off and interrupted! I’ve asked God for an opportunity to pray with her since then, but every time I go in, she is busy with patients or on the phone, and I haven’t managed to grab the moment. I’m gonna have to just ask her next time, even if she has a queue of people, because the compassion rises up in me every time I think of her in pain. I want to be so much better at both seeing the opportunities and acting straight away!
Do it. The compassion you feel rising up in you is God giving you His heart to heal them. Let me know what happens?
Thanks. I will let you know! I go there regularly with my teenage son for his orthodontic appointments, (now, there’s my challenge – remaining peaceful, whilst ignoring my 15 year old’s embarrassment at Mum doing her praying stuff!)
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ I LOVE your transparency! Thank you for sharing such an awesome testimony!!! I’m praying that, someday soon, I’ll be able to pray for people and see Daddy heal them!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Praying I will get today hands on & pray for people & see Daddy heal them some day soon. LOVE your transparency!!! Thanks for sharing such an awesome testimony!
Praying Medic, the love of God oozes (sp) out of your writings because they come from life experiences thru Holy Spirit. THE word God gave me for the 2014 is PEACE! Thank you for this testimony which confirms JESUS…THE WORD. He IS PEACE. I declare this word for 2014. cp/
Yay God!
I so relate, PM. I get so quickly irritated at my husband, my boss, my low esteem co worker that needs constant lifting up, the drivers around me as I go to work and come home. The HS has been checking me when I do this so that I can extend mercy instead of irritation and adding my 2cents worth of irritation to the atmosphere. One of my 2014 prayers is that I would chill out and just enjoy the ride! May it be so!
Thank you so much for sharing… Thanks for your transparentcy… With eyes full of tears I stand with you in prayer and in agreement for you and for myself as well. A double portion of peace, power, presence, and anointing for you in 2014!
We are after all human and therefore weak. His strength in our weakness is so amazing. I am reading your book and am trying to get brave enough to start praying for people. Working up courage and praying for Holy Spirit help. Loving your book.
Hope’s messenger, it’s really who you are. Yes some days stress, weariness and just life in general will make us less than we should be. But when we are able to get lined up with HIM, we bring that hope through words of kindness and through our birthright of power and authority to remove the hopelessness that so many people walk in because of pain and unhealed wounds.
So, start anew this day. Pour out the measure of grace that has been given to you onto others, like you do all the time. You really do have the “PILL” people are looking for. Be HIS pharmacist today and dispense love where ever you go, even if you don’t feel like it. 🙂
Very nice, PM. Glad to know you are ‘one of us’ (still human) 😀 Wonderful story!
Beautiful thank you for sharing.
Amazing how you share in a way we can all feel! Thanks! Looking forward to more.
This is a beautiful, humbling story. Thank you for taking the time and enduring the scrutiny to pray for healing for these people.
Praying Medic- You have a gift….and I’m not just talking about healing. I’m talking about ministering to the hungry….like me…those hungry to walk more in this area…to see the sick healed, the lame walk…
God has given you the gift to encourage those people arise & stand up and walk boldly into supernatural exploits!
Everyone who’s ever shared about healing before has always been afraid to share their weaknesses & failures. God has given you the gist of ‘vulnerability’; our weaknesses giving place to his strength. Awesome testimony!!
Amazing, being a Nurse for over 27 years my compassion seemed to have grown colder over the many years. I have worked in ER, Convalescent Homes and a Rehab Hospital; for Veterans. Never in those years did I lay hands on nor prayed for anyone. Now looking back I wish I could do it all over again knowing what I know now… what mracles could I have performed through Jesus and in his name..Loved this..
Rose – it was only after 27 years in EMS that I started praying for people. It’s never too late to start, my friend.
I wish you were here when my doctor found I had a Fibroid Tumor. All is good though. I May have lost my uterus but God is replacing it with a new one.
I’ll pray into that.
I LOVE YOUR TRANSPARANCY and am so blessed to have found this blog. Rock on. Just subscribed 🙂
Thanks for dropping by, Laura!
Great testimony on just being available to be used by God!
I have been stepping out in faith to try to heal people—but, with not very good results. It gets discouraging–when everything in me wants to see people healed! Not sure what’s my stumbling block.
Please let me know how to get an autographed copy of your book. I did send you an e-mail a couple of weeks ago–but, no response.
Thanks, Kathy
You are inspiring. it was your words about your compassion in the parking lot that made me wonder about the real reason for your irritability. It is my experience that although I am very empathetic to others emotions, I can choose to step back and allow others their emotional pain. I believe that it is probable you were actually picking up the quadriplegic man’s emotional state and his irritation at being in a body that made others have to be servants. This in turn led him to be more aware of his body causing him to notice every little thing in his body, the thirst, the uncomfortable throat sensations and the general or specific pain. When his water cup spilled, the person you were really irritated at was yourself for being careless but it felt like it was the quadriplegic. This is my interpretation of the event. Also if you practice being aware of how you feel before entering a room, like being balanced and peaceful, and find close up entering a room you quickly find yourself out of whack, then you have likely absorbed the emotional energy of the person or person’s there, and you simply have to ask God to restore you to your own resonance. Blessings
Hi PM
Thanks for this post.
I had a similar experience when I prayed for my mom. She’s had knee pain for over ten years. I recently learned that Jesus had already given me authority and power to cure diseases so I laid hands on her knee and commanded pain to go and healing of the ligaments, tendons, etc.
She started out with a pain level of 7 out of 10 and gradually get to 1-2 after about one and a half hour. If I recall correctly there wasn’t noticeable improvement until after at least 10-15 minutes.
My question is why did it take so long?
Not that I mind spending that time with my mom but I think if I’m out on the street praying over a stranger, the person probably would lose patience and run along before any positive effects can be noticed.
I’m wondering if you have had similar experience to share. And if I keep praying over people should I expect the people I prayed for to get better sooner ?
Thanks
Lewis