Healing from COPD, asthma

[Chrysostom]

You do well to entreat the Heavenly Father for your son’s healing, and in the name of Jesus Christ, through whom every good gift comes. But I would have you consider this: the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That same Word, who was in the beginning with God and by whom all things were made, is the true Physician. While you ask for the body to be relieved from inflammation and the breath to return, do not neglect the soul’s deeper maladies. For often the fever of sin inflames us more grievously than any heat, and the corruption of evil desires chokes the spirit more tightly than asthma constricts the chest.

Pray without ceasing, and do not be discouraged if healing comes not at once. As a tree that receives many strokes may not fall until a final blow brings it down, yet all the strokes were working together, so God often delays that our faith may be strengthened and we may learn to desire eternal healing more than temporal relief. Remember how Christ at the wedding turned water into wine: He can turn the water of your tears into the wine of gladness, but He does it in His own time and after He has cast out what defiles the feast. Let the discerning sword of the Word examine what may be in your house or in your son’s heart that offends the Holy One, not because sickness is always a direct punishment, but because we all must stand naked before the One with whom we have to do.

Do not murmur, “Why is my son afflicted?” but rather ask, “What medicine is the Lord applying to our souls through this?” The body’s healing, if it comes, is a small gift compared to the cleansing of the heart. Let your son, even as he struggles for every breath, lift up his inward man. The soul renewed by the Spirit breathes a purer air than any earthly breeze. If it pleases God to restore his lungs, let him praise the Giver and serve Him with a whole life. But if the affliction remains, remember that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. Stand fast in prayer, and let the sharp sword of the Word perform its healing surgery on both body and soul.

 

[Silas]

The prayer you have offered for your son is full of trust and love, and it reaches the throne of grace with the name of Jesus on it. That matters deeply. You are not trying to twist God’s arm or earn His favor; you are simply bringing your child to the One who went about healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him. That same compassion has not faded.

Healing is real. Jesus still bears our infirmities and carries our sicknesses, as Matthew made so clear when he quoted the prophet Isaiah. So you can pray with confidence, knowing that the broken body of Christ covers not only the forgiveness of sins but the restoration of our physical frame. At the same time, healing rarely follows a single pattern. Sometimes it is immediate and startling. More often, even in the Lord’s own ministry, it unfolded gradually. A man at Bethsaida received his sight in stages, and Jesus Himself used means as simple as touch or a spoken word, showing that the power is not locked into a formula.

I believe that every healing process is divine, whether it explodes into a moment or inches forward day by day. The immune system you are asking God to strengthen is itself a marvel He designed, a built-in process of repair and defense that He set in motion. When inflammation eases, when infection clears, when breathing becomes easier even in oppressive heat, those quiet improvements are not any less His doing than a dramatic miracle. It is not a lack of faith to find yourself walking through a gradual path. The apostle Paul prayed three times for a thorn in his flesh to be removed, and the answer was not removal but sustaining grace. So we resist the idea that sickness proves spiritual weakness. That notion has bruised many tender hearts, and I want you to be free from it.

I do not have a special healing gift to transfer, and no one else does in the way some claim. But when we anoint with oil or lay on hands as the Scriptures encourage, we give a tangible point for faith to rest. The oil itself holds no magic; it simply helps us release our trust into the hands of Jesus. And though I cannot predict exactly how He will answer for your son, I know He is attentive. The same One who calmed the sea and commanded fevers to leave is not far off. He can touch the airways, soothe the reactive tissues, and bring relief. He may do it all at once, or He may strengthen your son’s body to fight off one illness after another until a new stability settles in. Either way, it is His work.

While you wait, do not underestimate the healing that happens in the heart and mind. A mother’s anxious spirit, a son’s frustration at labored breathing, those wounds can be addressed even when the lungs still struggle. Peace can replace dread, and that, too, is a divine restoration. Jesus never put on a circus or manipulated a crowd; He often told the healed to go quietly and simply give testimony to what God had done. So I encourage you to keep bringing this request without fanfare, resting in the character of God rather than chasing a spectacle.

Keep praying what you have prayed. Ask for the immune system to be fortified, for inflammation to subside, for any lurking infection to be washed clean, and for easy breath in every season. And when you see small improvements, welcome them as direct answers. If the road is longer than you hoped, do not let anyone accuse your faith. God’s will is not always to release us from the difficulty, but He never leaves us to face it alone. He gave His Son to make us whole in every sense, and that wholeness will be completed. Until then, the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is at work within your son, guarding and repairing, one gracious step after another.