“Chris, you have cancer.” Not quite the words I was expecting to hear when I landed in Sydney, Australia, for our annual Hillsong conference on June 27 this year.
It was 9 a.m. in Australia, and my doctor in the U.S. had called to give me the results of the thyroid biopsy I had done before boarding my flight to Australia.
The C word.
That word normally sends fear, dread and terror surging into the hearts of people.
It sounds so final. Terminal.
It seems like everyone, everywhere has known someone, somewhere who has, or has had, cancer. …
I knew a weapon had been forged against me. I don’t believe that sickness comes from God, because God is good and does good; but I know that we are in a spiritual battle and that bad things can happen to good people because we live in a fallen world. The devil came for my jugular, my voice. He wanted to silence me and sent a full-on assault to bombard and overwhelm me. I had received one negative diagnosis after another. It was relentless.
His plan was to fill me with fear so that he could deactivate my faith. Fear cripples, immobilizes and paralyzes us. It causes us to pull back from God instead of pressing in to Him and His Word, to speak doubt and unbelief instead of faith. To forget His promises, instead of remembering His faithfulness. To see the facts, obstacles and giants instead of the truth of His Word. To react rather than respond. Fear simply shuts us down, and when we are shut down we cannot fight the good fight of faith.
I had a faith battle ahead of me, and the real enemy was not cancer but fear.
I was blindsided by a surprise attack, but God was not. I felt many emotions and very vulnerable, but I could also feel God’s Presence with me in a palpable way. This was going to be yet another chance for me to practice what I so often preached to others.
Click here to read the rest of Caine’s testimony.
Christine Caine and her husband, Nick, founded The A21 Campaign, an anti-human-trafficking organization that fights slavery around the globe. She is also the author of five books.
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