Healing Line

Healing Line

What is a Sick Person to Do?

by Lee Phillips
Summer 2015

I frequently tell people, "I am alive because you prayed for me." The book of James includes a lot of helpful hints for everyday life. Are you hurt? In trouble? Are you happy? A sinner? Sick? What is the responsibility of a sick person? James 5 tells the sick person to simply ask for prayer and anointing with oil. That's it.

This is my story.

In August of 2012 my little rowboat bumped up against a very rocky shore. I had a persistent pain in my back and wondered, "Maybe I have a gallstone?" Out of the blue came the dreaded phone call and I was diagnosed with Stage 4 inoperable pancreatic cancer. This is a terrible diagnosis — only 1% of people with pancreatic cancer will live for 5 years. My life expectancy was 6–9 months. And to make matters worse, the cancer had escaped my pancreas and spread to my liver. My liver was filled with cancer spots. I was in my mid–fifties with a healthy lifestyle, rarely sick, no family history, a great marriage, three children, rewarding career and my youngest was leaving in a few weeks to start college. How could such a beautiful August day hold such bad news? I had a death sentence over my head. And yet I had everything to live for.

My husband, my friends and my church decided that we were going to work this illness hard.

Medically and spiritually we would bring every weapon to bear against this. I began 12 rounds of chemotherapy and a clinical trial at the University of Chicago. I was scared to death and getting sicker every day.

About this time God gave me Exodus 14:14 as His word for my cancer.

  Moses spoke to the people. "Don't be afraid. Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today. The Egyptians (the giants) you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still."  


I was terrified and could hardly speak the "C" word. It was also hard to speak to God. I began chemo and I started to feel like prayer was work, a job that I was too tired to do.

A wise friend said that this was a time when we should be asking others to carry us in prayer. So every time I was in a group of Christian friends, I humbly asked them to lay hands on me and pray for my healing. Each Sunday night before I went to chemo on Monday, we had 6–10 people come to our house to pray. We journeyed to my husband Ken's home church for prayer. On Thanksgiving, after the dishes were cleared, everyone in the room gathered around me to pray. In my own church, I was down front after every Sunday service seeking prayer. I learned to be open to many types of prayer: with words and silence, friends singing over me, friends reading Scripture over me, long and short, soft and loud, with or without touch and the anointing of oil, speaking with tongues, wise words and simple requests. I am convinced that God hears all prayers and that the Holy Spirit transforms our groaning and intercedes for us as only He can.

By Christmas I had only made it through 5 of the 12 prescribed rounds of chemo. People were praying, but I was desperately sick. I could barely stand, eat or think in a complete sentence. I looked like a concentration camp victim. I did not feel like praying. At just this moment another friend said, "Lee, you have so many people praying for you. But you need to seek out people with gifts of healing and have them pray over you. Healing is a gift God gives the church and you need the gift of healing. It's not just the quantity of people praying, it's the quality and giftedness of the people who pray. Quantity and quality."

God began to orchestrate gifted healers to enter my life. That February, Nigel Mumford (an Episcopal priest and colleague of the MacNutts) came to a nearby church. My friends carried me to see him. I was the only person who had a private appointment with him that day. My friend Carol, who has recognizable gifts of healing, came every Friday afternoon to anoint me with oil, put her warm hands on me and pray. In May of 2013, soon after my last chemo treatment, we traveled to Jacksonville for a 3–day Journey to Healing Prayer retreat.

People frequently ask me about my experience at CHM. Usually they're expecting a flashy TV type of healing experience. The first thing I tell them is that there is no razzle–dazzle about this place. Aging buildings and an unassuming assembly. Yet people there listen, love and pray. Intensely. At CHM, a remarkable group of trained volunteers have gathered to minister and grow in their giftedness. It was such a luxury to have sisters in Christ and brothers in the Lord spend that much time praying just for me — giving up themselves to focus in the spiritual realms on my problem. My disease. My pain. My whole life. Most of my healing should have come when I finished chemo — that's what doctors expect. Doctors also expect that pancreatic cancer will come back within a few months of finishing chemo. My story is that my blood counts slowly began shifting back to normal after each visit to CHM. I've made four visits to CHM and my tumor has shrunk after each visit. Healing has not been instantaneous. By now you've guessed that 2½ years later I am doing really well. Normal blood counts, CT scans show no visible cancer in my liver, the scar tissue remains in my pancreas, but no evidence of an active tumor.

So what is the spiritual responsibility of a sick person? It is to ask for prayer everywhere — at home and church, from family and friends. To seek out prayer from gifted experts. To be open to all types of prayer. To keep going. To keep asking. Remember that healing is often progressive and always mysterious.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I have had a miracle. I am alive because people are praying for me. Soli Deo Gloria!


Lee Phillips Lee Phillips (pictured here with husband Ken) lives in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, is the mother of three children and is formerly a social worker in private practice. She holds degrees from three universities. Summer 2015 Issue