Diagnosis: Cancer

In time of great crisis, she found that she could trust God to take care of her.

By Bonnie Davis

What could be wrong with me? That thought came to me again and again as I drove the school bus one spring day. The weather was beautiful and my route at that time was scenic and enjoyable. It would have been a perfect day except for the way I felt: exceptionally tired.

I was a young mother then, apparently in good health, with a teenage son. That day I had three separate trips scheduled for both morning and afternoon. The bus I drove was 35 feet long, and I am a small woman, so it was a challenging job for me. This particular day I was so exhausted that I wondered if I could hold out to the end of my last run.

A short time later, physical symptoms that alarmed me began to appear. I started having pains in my chest and my left arm. I discovered there was a lump on my breast and another in my armpit, both very sore and tender. Then I began to suffer from terrible pressure pains in my head. I realized something was seriously wrong with me.

School bus drivers had to meet certain regulations for physical fitness, so I went to the doctor for a checkup. The doctor wanted me to go to the hospital for a biopsy. From the time I was a child, I had known of God’s power to heal the sick, so I began to pray and ask the Lord to show me what to do.

Turned away from God

Some years before this, I could not have prayed with any confidence because I had turned away from God and my Christian training. Leaving the Lord out of my plans, I had married while still in my teens. I thought I could marry someone who was not a Christian and then bring him into the church. It did not work out that way. I found out that a home without God can be a very miserable place. Even when my baby boy was born, happiness was not there.

I desperately felt my need of the Lord and began to pray from the depths of my heart, asking God to forgive me. He answered, saved my soul, and gave me the joy I had known as a child. It was then that the Lord became my Guide and Counselor. And now, in time of great crisis, I knew I could trust Him to take care of me.

After the biopsy was done, the doctor told me that I was full of a very serious type of cancer. He wanted to operate immediately and remove the cancer in the spot where it had originated, but I knew that one operation would not rid me of cancer. I did not want to have the operation. I could not afford it financially or spiritually! I did not know if God would heal me, but I knew He could, and I felt I should look to Him in faith for my healing.

I said to the doctor, “I am sorry, but I do not feel led to have this operation. If it is God’s will, I will live; if not, then it will be my time to go.” He warned me not to wait more than two or three weeks because my case was serious, and I would not live without the operation.

The cancer spread

After the tissue had been cut into for the biopsy test, the cancer spread like wildfire throughout my body. The pain grew more intense, and I became weaker and weaker. It seemed my life was ebbing away.

The enemy of my soul kept telling me, “If you do not have that operation, you will die.” But the Lord would speak to my heart, saying, “Have faith! Keep holding on! Keep believing.” That is just what I did. As I continued to fight against the doubts and fears that came to me, the Lord strengthened me in my soul.

One day, I felt as though I were choking to death and could hardly swallow. I was almost overcome with pain, but I cried out, “Lord, I am dying. If it is Your will, heal me, so I can take care of my loved ones.” Then came that discouraging thought: You cannot live; you are full of cancer. I kept right on pleading for my life, making deeper and deeper consecrations to the Lord. Once again I prayed, “O Lord, please heal me for Thy honor and glory.” Back came the answer, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” I knew those words came from Heaven, and I grabbed hold of that promise and held to it.

I promised the Lord that if He would help me, I would go to church and ask the ministers to pray for me, as the Bible instructs. That night, though in much pain and very weak, I went to church. After the service, the ministers anointed my head with oil and prayed for me. And the Lord instantly healed me! Not only that, He blessed me in a most marvelous way.

A vision of the lost

He gave me a glorious vision. It seemed that Jesus took me into His arms and carried me. There were fields before me—vast fields of people stretching for miles and miles in every direction. I did not understand the vision then, but I do now. The people I saw were lost and dying souls who needed to be told about Jesus. I was to tell them not only of God’s power to heal, but also of what it means to be a born-again Christian—to have a spiritual experience that takes a person out of sin and makes him a “new creature” in Christ Jesus. When the vision of the fields of people passed from my view, I saw an hourglass. It appeared to be running out, and the Lord kept saying to me, “The time is very, very short.”

During this time of communing with God, I was so engulfed in the Spirit that I did not realize where I was. When I opened my eyes, I said, “Oh, I am in church!” Around me were Christian friends who had seen me in my state of weakness and knew how I had suffered. Now, though, things were different. I felt new strength in my body. I had no pain, and the lumps were gone. I hadn’t had any appetite for days and was very thin, but now I wanted something to eat.

The next day, the cancer began passing, a little at a time, from my body. It continued doing so for several weeks, and during that time I felt stronger and stronger.

I continued driving the school bus after my healing, and when the time came for another checkup, four of the best specialists in the city carefully analyzed my case and found no trace of cancer. Today, many years later, I am still free of that disease.

The Lord gave me a new start in life when He healed me. I want to fulfill the commission given me.

Bonnie Davis is a member
of the Apostolic Faith Church
in Portland, Oregon.