Breaking the Fever

11.19.19

Recently, I got a kidney infection from not treating a UTI right away. It was enough to knock me out for a few days. I kept cycling through fever, chills, and sweat over and over again. During one of these cycles of fever, I felt the chills coming on, and quickly jumped under a ridiculous amount of blankets. I even pulled the covers over my head so that the warmth of my breath would act like a heating element. The chills were so intense that my body was convulsing.

I cried out to God, “Lord, this is miserable, please heal me!” His response floored me. He answered my cry saying, “Take all the blankets off.” I thought, “Are you kidding me?! Don’t you know I’m freezing cold! If I do that I’ll be even colder. The cold air on my skin is literally painful!” I struggled inwardly doubting whether or not it was God’s voice telling me to do it. But then I heard it again, “Take off all the blankets, it will break the fever faster.”

The truth is though I felt like I was freezing, I wasn’t. I was deceived. My temperature was over one hundred degrees. My body was burning up, and needed to cool down. What I was feeling was not an accurate gauge of the truth in that moment. Yet still, I sat there arguing with God. I didn’t want to give up the little comfort from the blanket for the greater comfort of breaking the fever.

There’s good pain and there is bad pain. Good pain is pain that leads to healing, growth and multiplication. Like working out, birthing a child, or undergoing a surgery that will fix a major health issue. Bad pain is anything that leads to destruction or a fate worse than death- an eternity in hell. God in His infinite wisdom, always knows the difference and will push you to embrace the good pain for the sake of growth every time. Many people are like I was in my sickness, they cry out for help in their moments of weakness, but when God’s response sounds like a painful process, they shy away from obeying, making excuses based on the lies and deception of the enemy.

A few moments went by and I started to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. God had spoken, and deep down I knew it was right. I removed all the blankets and repented for arguing with Him. Looking back, it seems like such a silly thing, but when you’re experiencing any form of pain, whether good or bad, it’s easy to allow your feelings to cloud your judgement and discernment. The cold air hitting my skin was excruciating. I asked the Lord, “How long?” He said, “Will you give me ten minutes?” I thought, “I can make it ten minutes.” I legitimately set a timer, asked the Lord to give me the grace to do what was best for my healing. I prayed in tongues and recounted all the things I was thankful for the entire time.

I thought at the end of ten minutes the fever would be broken. Did God say it would break after the ten minutes when He originally spoke to me? No. That was my interpretation. I got to the end of the ten minutes, and felt the slight sting of disappointment because it wasn’t over with. I think sometimes God will let us believe our own interpretations of His prophetic word in order to have time to work on our hearts without us giving up completely. It’s important for me to note, that any disappointment we have ever faced with God, was not actually disappointment in Him, but rather disappointment in our false belief that He was going to do it our way. However, the chilling was better now than it had even been under the covers. The convulsing had stopped completely. I heard the Lord say, “Will you give me five more minutes?” I thought, “I’ve made it this far, I can do that.” I continued praying through the five minutes. I started shifting my focus to God and talking to Him about what was on His heart. As my perspective changed I forgot about what I was feeling almost completely.

After the five minutes, the Lord said, “Will you give me one more minute?”, “of course, Lord.” At that point, I didn’t care anymore. In the process, the Lord was giving me insight and understanding. He explained to me His reasoning for taking me down this path. Hearing His heart gave me the motivation I needed to continue regardless of if I saw an immediate healing or a gradual one. I remember thinking, “Lord, the comfort of hearing you clearly is worth more than any discomfort I feel.” This all happened in a matter of sixteen minutes. The bottom-line is this, sometimes just getting out from under the covers is warfare. And whether it’s your physical bed where you don’t feel you have the strength to move, or it’s some sort of “comfort blanket” that’s unhealthy and keeping you from seeking true wholeness, we must realize that the only way to win against the lies of the enemy is through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to obey.

One of the times in scripture we see the number sixteen, is in Acts 12:3. It says, “When Herod realized how much this pleased the Jewish leaders, he had Peter arrested and thrown into prison during the Feast of Passover. Sixteen soldiers were assigned to guard him until Herod could bring him to public trial, immediately after the Passover celebrations were over.” Peter was in complete bondage with no possible escape in sight! Sixteen to one is not a ratio that any normal person could handle in their own strength, BUT when the one is not you, but God in you, nothing is impossible! These sixteen soldiers are symbolic of all the obstacles standing in the way of your freedom. The passage right after that in verse three says, “The church went into a season of intense intercession, asking God to free him.” Intercession opens doors! The church created an opportunity with their prayers, but Peter’s obedience is what took hold of the opportunity. Intercession paired with obedience brings incredible breakthrough in our lives! In other words, an angel came to Peter’s aid through the portal of prayers from the church, but he was delivered from bondage because He obeyed the message of the angel sent by God! He “Got dressed. Put on his sandals, grabbed his cloak and followed the angel (Acts 12:8 TPT)” trusting that God would get him out alive!

The story goes on, and Peter comes to the house where the church is still praying for him. He knocks on the door, and a young servant girl recognized his voice. She was so excited she didn’t open the door, but instead ran to tell the others. They mocked her saying it couldn’t be so, but she persisted that it was so. Verse sixteen says, “Meanwhile, Peter was still outside, knocking on the door. When they finally opened it, they were shocked to find Peter standing there.” Some of us have been praying for things, and God is answering our prayers, but his method is so different than what we expected that we don’t believe it’s Him knocking on our hearts. Just like I doubted the voice of the Lord when He answered my prayer by saying, “Take the blankets off” instead of answering me with an instantaneous healing.

Sometimes the answer to our prayer is a process beyond our comprehension, this is why the Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways (methods) acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV)” When I was sick, I wanted so badly for a miraculous and instantaneous healing to take place, but God in His infinite wisdom chose to heal me by way of growth instead. In those sixteen minutes, as I obeyed and prayed, I saw the fever begin to break. There were so many precious things the Lord spoke to my heart in that time of pressing past pain, that I now count it all as gain. I’m so thankful that His ways are higher than mine and that He turned what I thought was bad pain (fever and infection) into a growing pain.

In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul says, “but I train like a champion athlete. I subdue my body and get it under my control, so that after preaching the good news to others I myself won’t be disqualified.” We must surrender control of our mind, will and emotions to God. Only He can purify and refine our souls to keep up from being disqualified from the fullness of His reward. I encourage you to hand over control today. For you, the fever of the enemy may be lying to you and telling you to run to the "comfort blanket" of overeating, or maybe it’s telling you to binge on the affirmation or acceptance of others. It could even be as simple as being addicted to social media or continual complaining. Whatever it is, God has a specific way of taking it from destructive pain to growing pain and from growing pain to gain. All you have to do is intercede and obey His voice!