God has healed me

God has been healing people miraculously at church lately - it has been going on most of the summer. People have been healed from aches and pains, sprains, dislocations, all the way up to heart disease, kidney failure, and cancers (verified by x-rays, blood tests, and other diagnostics. It has been amazing!) My oldest daughter fractured the top of her foot when one of her kids dropped a heavy toy on it, and God healed that fracture miraculously. That was about a month ago.

So many of you know I developed an allergy to gluten about five years ago. I figured out that it happened after a double course of strong antibiotics one winter - I couldn't get rid of a nasty case of bronchitis. Now I don't take antibiotics anymore, and this bronchitis incident was the last time I ever took them. (I was even sick with pneumonia last winter, but I never took antibiotics - I strengthened my immune system so that my body could do what God designed it to do, and I got over the pneumonia without any complications on my own.)

After those antibiotics, I developed a systemic yeast infection. The yeast multiplied so overwhelmingly that I even developed thrush. What happens during a bad yeast overgrowth like that, is that the yeast grows through the lining of your intestine and sends "fingers" into your blood stream, in such a way that the lining becomes damaged. The lining is normally like a nylon stocking, but after a yeast overgrowth it can be like a burlap sack. This condition is called "leaky gut." Large protein molecules, then, which are normally broken down in your intestine, can leak through the large holes in the lining, and get into your blood stream undigested. Your antibodies detect a foreign substance in the blood, and a full blown immune response is triggered. Gluten is a large protein molecule. I never had a single problem with gluten until after this bad yeast infection. It just took me several years to figure out the connection.

So the lining of your intestine replaces itself every 14 days, but as long as there is yeast, new damage can be done. I was on probiotics for quite a long while, I did several detoxes and colon cleanses, I started following the dietary laws in Scripture, I did a parasite cleanse, I was off "white" or quick-digesting carbs, I was off sugar -- I made many changes in my diet to overcome the yeast and give the lining of my intestine a chance to heal. None of which ever made any difference to the gluten allergy.

In fact, in July my husband and I were having coffee with our kids and grandkids after church one night at a Starbucks. (The grandkids were of course having milk, and I was having herb tea - I was also off caffeine). Everyone had gotten a "treat" from Starbucks, and my husband went next door to the grocery store to get me a Nana's No Gluten cookie. (He is so sweet!) Only he didn't realize that not all of Nana's Nos are gluten- free, and I took a bite without checking, for some reason. Within 2 seconds of swallowing one bite, I had to run to the ladies room to throw up - it is the body's way of protecting itself from ingesting the allergen. It hasn't happened often, because I have learned to be so careful, but that is my typical response to ingesting any gluten, even unwittingly.

So we were in church this past Saturday night, when someone had a word from the Lord that He wanted to heal an intestinal problem. So I raised my hand, thinking a little prayer could never be a bad thing. I was thinking maybe He would heal the stubborn yeast overgrowth and give my system a chance to get back into balance. I was so shocked at what He actually did do!

To be continued ...