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All-Is
There Anything Else?
By Jerri
Phillips
My mom, Gayle, is
scheduled to have surgery may 22. The
operation is a very delicate procedure. A
barrage of tests has shown a cyst on my
mom’s brain stem, and from follow-up
exams, it appears to be growing.
Presently, this is what we know to be
medical fact:
-The cyst is
feeding off Mom’s spinal fluid,
which means that there is no way for
man to treat it other than remove it
surgically. Any other method of
treatment would leave a hole from
which spinal fluid would seep.
-There is a myriad
of potential complications.
-The cyst is not
cancerous. However, if it continues
to grow, it will put greater pressure
on Mom’s brain and will
eventually kill her.
-Mom’s hearing
loss will be completely reversed when
the cyst is no longer pressing on the
part of the brain controlling the
nerves to her ear.
There are also some
medical “hopes”. In the last
several months, my mom has experienced a
variety of medical issues. For instance,
she has arthritic symptoms in her legs,
knees, and lower back. Also, she was
diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in
one of her wrists. She often suffers pain
in her wrist and numbness in her hand.
Besides that, she frequently experiences
laryngitis and loses her voice. All of
those illnesses sound pretty isolated in
their causes. In fact, if those issues
were viewed separately, they merely
appear to be realistic signs of a gradual
body breakdown of a woman in her early
fifties. However, in light of the cyst,
those symptoms not only appear to be
interrelated, but they shine a perfect
spotlight on the area of the brain being
affected by this extra lump of cells
residing in Mom’s head.
According to multiple medical resources,
the very symptoms I listed to you can be
indicators of this form of cyst, and each
one should be completely resolved after
the cyst is removed and pressure on those
brain centers is alleviated.
So there you go. You have the medical
facts and the medical hopes. Based on all
the pertinent information, you can see
that things can be really, really good or
really, really bad, or somewhere in
between the two.
Now, if I am correct, most of you read,
the “brain stem”, “spinal
fluid”, and “myriad of
complications”, and your heart sort
of sank. In fact, if you were honest with
me, you are leaning toward the odds are
against my mom’s side. In fact, some
of you probably thought and maybe audibly
said this is a fatal situation. If you
did, don’t worry. I’m not mad.
Several of our closest friends have
expressed the same thought through the
offering of their sympathies and
condolences. I smile, thank them, and
tell them what I am about to tell you.
El-Shaddai is still on His throne, and
that is an insurmountable truth. The
medical hopes, the medical facts,
personal opinion—they all fall away
as nothing in light of the truth that
El-Shaddai is still in complete control.
I realize that some of you may be
thinking this isn’t any great
insight. In fact, you may be thinking
that I’ve done nothing more than
state the incredibly obvious. If that is
the case, if it really is so obvious,
then why do so many of us stress and
strain under the troubles that assail us?
Why, if this truth is so totally obvious,
do we miss just how powerful this truth
is?
Personally, I think the problem lies in
the word “all.” For those
wondering what I am referring to,
El-Shaddai is the Hebraic name for God
Almighty. The name can also be
translated, “all-sufficient
God.” That should be pretty simple
to understand, and yet, too often the
power is lost because we don’t truly
understand the meaning of
“all.”
In our society, we talk about “all
the shows on television being bad”
when we really mean the great majority
are. We talk about “all our
friends” doing something when we
mean most of them are and it’s a
good excuse for us to do whatever it is
not wuite all of them are doing,
especially if it is wrong. In our
society, we use “all” to really
mean, “a lot” or “a
significant amount”. That is not
what the word really means, though.
According to http://www.dictionary.com,
“all” is defined as:
1. Being or
representing the entire or total
number, amount, or quantity: All the
windows are open. Deal all the cards.
See Synonyms at whole.
2. Constituting,
being, or representing the total
extent or the whole: all Christendom.
3. Being the utmost
possible of: argued the case in all
seriousness.
4. Every: got into
all manner of trouble.
5. Any whatsoever:
beyond all doubt.
Do you see these
definitions? Look at key words here:
“Entire”, “total”,
“whole”, “every”, and
“any whatsoever”. I don’t
know about you, but it appears to me that
“all” has no exception. So,
when we talk about God Almighty or
El-Shaddai, we are talking about a God
who has entire might, every form of
power, any needed power whatsoever, total
control, whole ability, and missing
nothing.
What does that translate to mean in our
lives?
When my mom was diagnosed with an inner
ear infection and was told she needed
tubes, nobody flinched. Oh, that’s a
breeze. Of course God will take care of
that. Then came the diagnosis that the
Eustachian tube wasn’t blocked, but
instead there was a brain mass. Optimism
dropped like huge boulders in a vacuum.
“I’m so sorry to hear
that.” “Do they have a long
term prognosis?” One person frankly
said, “Well, at least she got to see
her grandbabies born.” And
she’ll see them grow up, too, thank
you very much.
I honestly tried not to become frustrated
or annoyed because I know that these are
truly well-meaning, kind-hearted people
who simply do not comprehend the word
“all”.
Why should we have any greater concern
over a mass than an ear infection? If God
is Almighty, isn’t He able to heal
one as easily as the other? Are we so
dull as to think that God quakes at the
word cancer? My friends, we are talking
about a God who raised people from the
dead, and we think He is going to get
antsy over a brain mass?
Some of you may be wondering how, if I am
so convinced of God’s ability to
heal, how can I explain that Mom has not
experienced miraculous healing. Simply
put, she doesn’t expect it. My mom
has complete faith that Tuesday will find
God’s hand in intimate contact with
her neurosurgeon’s hand, and she is
convinced when this surgery is over, she
will be healed and ready to go home in a
matter of days, and she has no intention
of looking back. My mom is absolutely
convinced that God is able and ready to
direct her doctor in this surgery, and so
it shall be…according to her faith.
I realize this is a touchy issue, and
people don’t like to talk about it.
When we don’t see healing, we start
asking why, and a lot of damage has been
done by overzealous people accusing
hurting people of not having faith for
healing. I will tell you frankly, I do
not agree with that. I see nowhere in the
Bible to suggest that Christ took such an
approach. In fact, the only instance I
could find that might be construed that
way was the man who brought his
demon-possessed son to Christ. He had
taken the boy to the disciples, but they
had not been able to help. Christ looked
at the disciples and asked why they had
so little faith, and He was frustrated
with them. As for the dad, I believe
Jesus looked at this broken, emotionally
tortured man with great compassion. The
man, weary and knowing he had no one
else, said, “If you can…”
Jesus replied, “If?” The man
begged, “Help me overcome my
unbelief,” and Jesus did. The boy
was healed (Mark 9:16-29), and the Father
was glorified. Notice, though, that Jesus
did not attack or rebuke the father. He
rebuked those who should have had the
faith to do the healing.
I know some people think that the
miraculous healings are long-gone. They
have no place in this day and age. I
disagree. What was the purpose of the
healings? To help out some people? To
impress people and convince them Christ
was real? To bring glory to the Father?
Christ’s purpose on this earth was
salvation for the lost. His goal was to
bring people to the Father, not to
religion. In many cases, religious
practices are what help keep these people
in bondage. Christ wanted people to know
He was from God so that they would desire
the Father. He was presenting a whole new
mindset, a different philosophy in many
ways. Isn’t that our purpose today?
Aren’t we supposed to be drawing
people to the Father? My friends, people
flocked to Jesus. Doesn’t it make
sense that if we truly want them to flock
to our churches in search of Jesus that
we act and behave like He did?
And if common sense doesn’t convince
you, and it shouldn’t because it can
so easily deceive, look to the
scriptures. John 14:11-13 says,
“Believe me when I say that I am in
the Father and the Father is in me; or at
least believe on the evidence of the
miracles themselves. I tell you the
truth, anyone who has faith in me will do
what I have been doing. He will do even
greater things than these, because I am
going to the Father. And I will do
whatever you ask in my name, so that the
Son may bring glory to the Father.”
If you back up in the passage,
you’ll see that Jesus was talking to
His disciples, and people may argue that
the powers and abilities Christ is
referring to is only for His disciples,
not us. In response, let me say that if a
person is not a disciple (one who
embraces and assists in spreading the
teachings of another; an active adherent,
as of a movement or philosophy) of
Christ, then that person is not a
Christian, or literally, little Christ.
If, however, you are a disciple, then the
verses above apply to you, and you can
pray expecting Almighty God to answer all
of your requests no matter how
intimidating they seem in human realms.
My brothers and sisters, when our human
hearts tremble at the words
“stroke” ,
“paralysis”, and the like, it
is not because El-Shaddai is not on His
throne. It is because we look at diseases
too great for man to cure, when what we
should be looking at is the Almighty God
who possesses all the power there is to
work on our behalf.
Lately, I’ve had the signature on my
E-mails that says, “Quit telling God
how big your storm is and start telling
the storm how big your God is.” My
dear friends, we have to stop limiting
God by making Him no more powerful or
interested in what assails us than mere
humanity is. We have to stop walking
according to human eyes and human
knowledge. If we are going to see the
lost come to Christ, if we want to start
seeing some miracles happen and see
devastating diseases miraculously healed,
we have to start focusing on El-Shaddai,
Almighty God, and we have to believe the
truth, not fact. After all, facts are
nothing more than human interpretation of
a situation. Truth is when God overrides
humans and does His thing anyway, and
faith is what opens the door for Him to
do just that.
May your faith be increased daily, and
may the truth indeed set you free, and
may you never be prisoner to fact.
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