Guest Author - Jim Lowrance
In this article I will be sharing an aspect of my life having to do with my Christian Faith. I mention this at the beginning of the article in case you are a reader who prefers not to read articles containing religious or Christian subject matter. This Thyroid Health site is actually a resource for thyroid disease information and so I don’t include mention of my religious faith often in articles I publish here. I also want to say that I have never been one to impose my faith beliefs on others and respect the rights of others to practice the faith of their choice. I have politely excused myself from online sources I was involved with in the past when an issue involving different faith beliefs was brought up by them (not brought up by me). I believe we should all respect each other in this area of our lives and if one believes they should be able to display and share their beliefs, they should also want to see others be able to do the same.
If you enjoy ongoing Christian and Bible subject articles, please visit Jenna Robinson's “Bible Basics” website here at BellaOnline. Find the link to the site in the “Related Links” area below this article.
Other Thyroid patient Advocates out there include mentions of faith and religious practice in their books and articles as it relates to helping them in healing and coping with thyroid disease and so I felt it would not be unusual for me to do the same in one of my articles. I do in fact believe in divine intervention and divine healing but also believe in the sovereignty of God who has a timing and wisdom in these things. Some people experience divine healing and some do not and we may never understand all of the reasons why but I do offer some speculation/opinion on this in the following paragraphs.
Much of my faith beliefs, practices and relationship with God and also my manner of worship include 20 years of Youth Ministry in the Evangelical Christian Church. I refer in this article to supernatural communication from God I have experienced over those years and may come across unusual to some readers (hopefully interesting and inspiring as well) but isn’t actually that uncommon. I have known a number of other Christians during my life that have had very similar experiences to those I relate below.
About mid-year in 2002, I was driving in my car and as will happen to me infrequently (not often), I heard words being spoken to me inwardly, that were authoritative and very clear. I’ll describe what these words revealed to me in following paragraphs below. First let me say as a Christian man, I fully believe in the leading of God in the lives of those who have accepted the salvation and Lordship of Jesus Christ for their lives and also for those he is leading toward salvation (I believe that’s everyone). I believe for most of us and most of the time, God leads us through our conscience by the Holy Spirit if we are open to it. There are times however that God may also lead us through supernatural words that come to us as a powerful inward witness. Some Christians have also been led by God with audible words and in Bible scriptures a number of examples of this can be found in both the Old and New Testaments. God doesn’t change and he continues to speak to people and to lead them today, just as he has always done.
I have related my experiences on article-content websites in the area of hearing words inwardly that were very much as powerful as those that could have been spoken to me in a voice I could hear with my physical ears. In this article I will relate such an experience and one that pointed to a very significant event in my life. As I have also stated in these other articles, these type supernatural “words of knowledge” or “words of wisdom” have not been a frequent event in my life. Like most Christians, I have for the most part experienced God’s leading in my life through conscience or what you might call an inward prompting. They are in a sense gut feelings that tell you what directions to go and decisions to make when you’re willing to listen to them. The Bible refers to it as “the still small voice” and isn’t quite the same thing as receiving specifically stated words that come through the Holy Spirit in a somewhat more powerful and supernatural way.
As those know who read my articles on this Thyroid Health site, I am a thyroid disease patient due to hypothyroidism caused by an autoimmune condition called “Hashimoto’s thyroiditis”. I had no reason previous to the onset of the disease, to believe I would ever experience a thyroid disorder of any kind. I did however receive a supernatural word in mid 2002 that gave me foreknowledge of the disease I was about to experience. I realize many people believe these type things simply don’t happen but this was only one of a number of times I experienced a supernatural word of this type and I have great respect for these experiences and have only related them as they actually happened to me. No embellishment or exaggeration is added. I cannot explain to you why some people seem to see more miraculous type manifestations than others but I certainly don’t believe it is because God favors some people over others. Everyone is equally important to God and he loves us all the same. I feel honored to have experienced these type things myself but I also know that if not another single supernatural type event happens in my lifetime, I’ll believe God just the same and he will continue to love me the same and continue to lead me in those gentle ways if I allow him to.
When this word came to me, I was not in prayer as I was at other times when similar supernatural words came at other times in my life. I was simply driving my car and heard very plainly words spoken to me saying “your hormones are becoming imbalanced”. As I’ve related in regard to other times I’ve experienced this type thing, it completely stops you in your tracks so-to-speak. It grabs your attention in a big way because it is as if it is being spoken to you audibly and puts a feeling of total amazement in you because it is unmistakably real.
My only reaction at the time was thinking to myself that I barely knew what hormones were. I had scantly heard doctors on television talk about sex hormones and I had heard a little about adrenal hormones mentioned but my knowledge was very limited. I had also heard a bit over the years about thyroid conditions but gave very little attention to it. Months later during that year of 2002, I crashed into severe thyroid symptoms that phased back and forth between hypothyroidism (underactive) and hyperthyroidism (overactive). I still had no idea it was my thyroid doing this to me and when I went to the first doctor, she diagnosed me with emotional symptoms only (emotional disorder). I had not forgotten that word that came to me saying my hormones were becoming imbalanced and my only question to her was “could this be my thyroid?” Despite this question she would not order me blood testing, so I ordered my own through another doctor office. The results came back with two abnormal results on my thyroid panel and a follow up blood test revealed autoimmune thyroid disease as the cause.
Why did this happen? I may never know all of the reasons but I do know that I came very close to accepting the emotional diagnosis and would not have demanded the blood tests. I’m also a believer in God’s healing power but I also believe God has timing and wisdom involved in everything he does, even in the things he allows that are not directly caused by him. We live in a fallen world if you believe the account in the book of Genesis about man’s choice to bring sin and the consequences of it into the world that God gave him dominion over. This is why some of the negative things we see are allowed to run their course. Other scriptures say that God will bring complete healing, deliverance and restoration to the earth he created for mankind but in his timing and in his wisdom. In the mean time, those who go through negative experiences as I have with thyroid disease (there are much worse things) , may have as part of God’s plan a purpose in helping others who suffer the same things. People often relate better in some ways to a fellow patient with the same disease than they can even to their doctors or family members. They can also receive education and inspiration to help them better cope.
In the early 1990s, I was miraculously healed of a severe stomach disorder that required prescription medications to control. I not only haven’t received a healing in the case of my thyroid disease but I have also developed co-morbid conditions along with it that I must deal with and be treated for. I don’t pretend to understand God’s will completely on many things but I am certain that he at times takes things that are not yet fixed and uses them to bless and help others. It’s not that they are God’s will to happen but he sometimes takes things meant to cause suffering and turns them into a blessing for many others. If you believe in the gospel story about Jesus suffering for others and experiencing evil at hands of those who murdered him (he willingly laid down his life) we know that he may also use our experiences of suffering as limited human beings to bless others to the degree he wills.
This has been the reason behind part of my passion in helping to educate and support others with thyroid disease. I’m just a limited human being but to whatever extent I can help others, I feel it is an honor and hopefully much of my effort is also pleasing to God. I’ll always make mistakes along the way but with God’s help and leading will continue to do the best I can.
