Visual impairment healed

One afternoon in 2006, I suddenly began having trouble with my vision. Whatever I looked at directly just seemed to vanish. Several days before this, I had thoroughly studied an account in the Bible involving King Jehoshaphat (see II Chron. 20:1–30). And his story was like a road map to healing for me.

As I began to pray for spiritual answers to address the alarming symptoms I was experiencing, I recalled how Jehoshaphat faced the news that an opposing multitude was heading toward his doorstep. He first “set himself to seek the Lord”—not after conventional means had failed, but first and foremost. The king declared further, “We have no might against this great company … neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee [God]” (verse 12). I saw in his response the humility that I, too, needed to express, first in realizing that the resolution to the difficulty didn’t lie within my personal capability, but God’s alone. And, second, in acknowledging God’s supremacy—and “setting my eyes on Him.”

As I mentally followed the Bible story, I was so grateful for other spiritual qualities it illustrated. I smiled when I pictured the priest Jahaziel as if he were saying, “Listen up, everyone, and you, too, O king!” And then he gave the action plan: “Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s …. Stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you” (verses 15, 17). The account then tells how Jehoshaphat and his people listened and obeyed.

Continuing to pray, I realized the importance of mental calmness, and saw that, like Jehoshaphat, I could acknowledge that all was under God’s government. I resolved not to move from this position of spiritual strength, my starting position, from which I could successfully run the race toward complete healing.

I knew that prayerful obedience also included not focusing my thoughts on the visual impairment. Instead, I could stand still with unwavering faith in God’s healing power, and not give in to fear and doubt. In this stillness, I could behold the salvation of the Lord—my perfection and well-being maintained by Him.

Jehoshaphat didn’t waste valuable time trying to figure out his enemies’ actions. He must have realized that his business was to maintain his trust in God, not to go into an analysis of what might be causing the problem. And I could do the same.

In the process of my thinking through these ideas, my fear disappeared. I felt very calm and at peace. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. When I woke up a short time later, my eyesight was normal.

Over the next few weeks, however, there were several times when the symptoms returned. Again, I turned to the Bible. In the tenth chapter of Luke, I found Jesus’ words to his 70 disciples, when they had returned rejoicing over the success of their healing work. He said, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (verse 20). Wow! I thought as I pondered this passage. My name, or identity, is written in reality—permanent and inseparable from God.

I saw that I could never have been outside of His care, and this Christ-message lifted my vision higher—beyond the mistaken notion that any of my senses had ever been subject to a material condition.

With this realization, my eyesight soon normalized, and I’ve been free of this difficulty ever since.

Daryl Francis | Glen Iris, Victoria, Australia