Some weeks ago, I posted a letter from Mack Riggs regarding prostate cancer. It is with great JOY that I post this message from Mack.Ann and I have some very good news to share with you. My cancer is completely healed. This is a testimony to what Jesus has done. He is indeed Jehovah Rapha. And you are living proof that “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
You will recall from the “Spiritual Journey” update a month ago, that my prostate cancer had been upgraded to advanced stage, along with the high risk that undetectable cancer cells were already spreading outside the prostate area being treated by proton radiation. This meant that I would likely spend the rest of my life experiencing the cancer returning again and again (typically in the lymph nodes and the bones). This meant fighting a losing battle through a number of last-resort treatment options, all of which have bad, long-term side effects that would drastically reduce my quality of life.
At that time God had “given” me two scripture passages (“given” as in they became alive, as if spoken just for me and my situation, by the Power of God.) One was a statement of God’s sovereignty. (Romans 9: 11-12) The other was the story of Jesus healing the leper. (Matt. 8:1-4) As you remember, like the leper I had asked Jesus to heal me - if He wanted to.
Since the time of that email, my Spiritual Journey has become a Journey of Faith. Initially I did not have faith that Jesus wanted to heal my cancer, although I knew He could if He wanted to. I also knew from past experiences that I was not able, in my own strength, to manufacture such a faith. Nor was I completely comfortable with the approach of just passively hoping for the best.
As I looked more carefully at the story that I had been given of the leper, I began to see several things that applied to me. First, the leper recognized Jesus as Lord, with the power to heal as He wills. That is my belief too. Then the leper asked Jesus to heal him – if He wanted to. We (you and I) have made that specific request relative to my prostate cancer.
Then I saw something in the story I had missed before. Prior to Jesus healing the leper He reached out and touched him. As Ann and I thought about that – Jesus “touching” me – we began to see the several ways He had already done that. First, He touched our hearts through the prayers and the spiritual community of our family and friends, including the new friends and staff at the Proton Center.
Then He touched our minds with the Living Word that He had given to us. He humbled my attitude as He touched the prayer team, making it larger than what I first though I needed, and lately larger than I know I deserve. The Spirit of Jesus also touched my heart with His everlasting love, making my love for Him more intimate and real than ever before.
Jesus touched Ann’s and my confidence in Him as He systemically provided the “Peace of God that surpasses understanding” as we prayed for wisdom about the three experimental treatments recommended for my advanced stage cancer. We read books on the treatments, researched the potential benefits and difficult side effects, talked to the doctors, and “in all things made our requests known to God.”
We began to develop a “Philosophy of Treatment” (as we came to call it) that focused on Jesus and rejected the panic approach to extending one’s life at any cost, which is so prevalent among doctors and patients today. The best practices of modern medicine would have me trade 5 to 10 years of excellent quality of life (before the cancer would likely return) for perhaps 10 to 15 years of suffering from the debilitating physical, emotional, and spiritual effects of immediate “survival extending” treatments. Not a good trade-off, we concluded, for citizens of heaven.
Instead we again saw God as paramount in the treatment process. One by one, Jesus gave us the confidence to say “no” to each additional experimental treatment option. We knew that God had brought us to the Proton Center in the first place and we decided to stay with that therapy and continue to seek Him for complete healing.
My faith became strong as the attitude of my heart began to wait for Jesus Himself to come near; first as He spoke His Word to me in living Power, then through His many “touches”, and, in His timing, to do the healing He had spoken to me about. My confidence and hope grew as I focused on Jesus instead of my illness, the limitations of the medical profession, and the weakness of my faith.
The Holy Spirit taught me, in the fullness of faith, to believe in Jesus as my Jehovah Rapha.
Then one day last week as I meditated on all this, Jesus reached deep inside me to touch my spirit with the knowledge that He wants to heal my cancer. I would like to share the majesty of this guidance and fellowship with my Master with you, but I am not capable.
Saturday morning, Jesus confirmed His “Be clean” as I began writing this update for you - with tears of joy streaming down my face and with overwhelming thanksgiving for God’s indescribable love, and grace, and mercy toward me.
But that is not the end of the story. After Jesus healed the leper He instructed him to present his healed body to the priests as a witness to what Jesus had done. As part of my prayer team you are the ‘new order” of priests – the Royal Priesthood that God assembled for my care and healing – and I present my clean and healed body to you as a witness to you of what Jesus Christ has done.
Thank you for standing with us at the seat of mercy before the Throne of God. You have been faithful, and now our prayer is that you will be as blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ as we are.
“Now to Him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden from long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him – to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.” (Romans 16:25-27)
I love you dearly,
Mack
