How I Was HEALED in the DESERT of Israel

I was healed in the desert of Israel. I know that you might immediately have questions and skepticism over a statement like that. And let me tell you, I’m still trying to understand it all myself.

While I’ve prayed for miracles throughout my life, I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced one so profound that I couldn’t explain it away some other way…until this.

…So here’s what happened.

I began my journey through the Holy Land at the end of June 2022. This was my first trip to the Holy Land, and I was told that it would be a trip like no other. Not only were we going to see the sites of the Bible, we were going to hike them….10-15 miles every day!

I’m not really sure what I imagined when I heard that the trip was going to be like this…but whatever it was, it paled in comparison to what we actually did…and my body certainly wasn’t ready for it.

I could tell something was wrong on the very first day. As we left Saul’s fortress and descended a hill into the Valley of Elah, I began to feel pain in my knees. I’d practiced climbing stairs before the trip, but I never thought about descending them. With every step, I could feel the stress on my joints, ligaments, and tendons. My muscles strained for control. What began as an ache grew into searing pain with each step.

Thankfully this was at the end of the day, so I didn’t have to endure it long. But that evening, I knew something was truly wrong. We stayed at a hotel near the Dead Sea, and when I set out to put my feet in the sea, I couldn’t even descend the hill.  The pain was so intense!

I went to bed that night hoping that a good night’s rest would heal and strengthen my knees. But the next day, things were much worse.

As soon as I stepped off the bus, I could tell things were not right. That day, we were scheduled to descend into a wadi near the Dead Sea. With each step, the pain in my knees became more and more excruciating. 

I had brought some knee wraps to help stabilize my knees and alleviate the pain. I had had some debilitating knee pain a few years before and brought them as a precaution on the trip. But, honestly, they did little good.

As we scaled rock walls and descended steep cliffs, I worried that I was one weak step away from buckling and falling to the bottom.

Throughout the day, I cried out to the Lord. I prayed for a miracle, for God to heal my knees. But nothing happened. Aside from some mild relief that came when I took Tylenol, I ended the day worse than I started.

I knew that if nothing changed, I wouldn’t make it through the rest of the trip. These weren’t even the hardest hikes and already my body was falling apart. And to make matters worse, the next day, we were going into the desert. 

I don’t know about you, but when I think about the desert, I think about death and devastation. I think of sharp rocks and dry mountains and drought. The desert in my mind was a place of suffering. It was a place to be avoided at all costs.

But what I didn’t realize is that very soon, God was about to change my mind entirely.

You see, if I had read scripture a little more closely, I’d have realized that the desert isn’t just a place of suffering.  The desert is a place of transformation. The desert is where God takes the Israelite people for their honeymoon. It’s where God shows them that they are no longer slaves and teaches them to be free people, in relationship with a God who loves them. The desert is where Jesus CHOOSES to go before he begins his ministry. The wilderness is where God provides for God’s people for 40 years, performs miracles that rescue and save them. And I had no idea that God was about to do the very same thing for me in the desert.

When we set out for the Negev desert, I immediately took precautions. I wrapped both of my knees as soon as we got on the bus. But as we entered the deserts, something felt very wrong. These same wraps that I had worn the day before suddenly irritated my legs. It felt like something was scratching and digging into my legs. When I would feel the inside of the wrap, it was nothing but soft material.   But the irritation on my legs was constant.

As we got off the bus and walked toward the copper mines of Timnah, I worried that, if this didn’t stop, my legs would begin to bleed. The irritation was so intense!

But just as I was thinking this, something else came into my mind. You could say God spoke to me, or that God put words upon my spirit. Either way, I was consumed by the command…take it off!

I didn’t really know what to do with this at first. I worried that these were just my thoughts. I continued to walk in the knee wraps. But the more I walked, the more I was consumed by the words “trust”…”obey.”

My fear and my faith battled against one another until finally, I gave in. As soon as we paused our hike, I took the braces off…and immediately….the pain was gone.

And I don’t just mean I felt a little better. It wasn’t like the Tylenol the day before.

I mean fully…and completely…GONE!

It still overwhelms me to say it. I was standing in the desert, completely healed. It wasn’t just relief.  It wasn’t just momentary.  It was complete healing. 

I was HEALED in the WILDERNESS!

In fact, right after that moment, we ascended a mountain for a lesson and came back down…and nowhere on that journey did I feel an ounce of pain. But here’s the thing, this wasn’t the moment I realized just how powerful this miracle was.

You see, two days later, we went to Qumran.  This is the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. And while we were there, we climbed one of the mountains nearby.

It took us at least 90 minutes to climb this…in 110 degree heat…always in the SUN!

And here’s what made it worse…My dad was with me on this hike.

My dad is 69 years old and one of the most determined men I know. He set out on this hike just like everyone else. He was in good shape, so he fought the heat. He scrambled and climbed. But eventually, the elements just became overwhelming. And when we got to the top, his body just gave out. His blood sugar dropped. He started to get dehydrated. And his muscles just didn’t want to work anymore.

…and we still had to descend the mountain.

They asked us one day if we’d ever prayed as hard as we just hiked…I did that day. Every step of the way down that mountain, I was praying for my dad’s survival. Praying that he didn’t slip and fall. Praying that he didn’t pass out. Praying that he could just hold on and keep pushing.

Every step, I guided his feet…supported his weight…took him inch by inch down that mountain.

And here’s what I didn’t realize until much later…

If my knees hadn’t been healed two days before…I don’t know what would have happened. But I know I’d have never been able to help my dad down that mountain.

My friends…God is in the the desert!  God is in the wilderness! And I am here to tell you that just as God performed miracles in the wilderness centuries ago, God is still doing it now.

I know there is the temptation to explain something like this away…I’ve been tempted to do it myself!

Or there’s the temptation to walk away from something like this and say, “that’s a neat story."

But the truth is, this isn’t good information. This isn’t a neat story. This is real! It’s not something to overthink or explain away.  We are people of God. And ours is a God who speaks through actions! We may never be able to explain it…and we need to be ok with that.

It’s like the blind man said to the pharisees…or like Mary Magdalene says in The Chosen…“I was one way, and now I’m completely different.  And the thing that happened in between was him.”

That’s exactly how I feel right now.

But here’s what I want you to know…Just because you may never go to the Negev…Just because you never go to the wilderness in Israel…doesn’t mean God can’t heal you in the wilderness.

In fact, I know that some of you reading this are in a wilderness right now…

You’re life feels like it’s falling apart…You’re overwhelmed and scared and filled with doubt…You hardly know how you’re going to get from one day to the next…Barely have strength to put one foot in front of the other…

But let me remind you…God is in the wilderness.

It’s in the WILDERNESS where some of the greatest miracles happen…in the WILDERNESS where God’s people are transformed. And I want you to know that God is with you in this wilderness.

After this experience, the wilderness isn’t history for me…It’s not someone else’s story. I can pray confidently for miracles of healing because miracles of healing are now my MEMORY. They’re not someone else’s story, they’re my story. 

And I want to encourage you that the miracles in the Bible aren’t someone else’s story. As people of God, they’re OUR story. That’s OUR story. And even if you can’t believe it…I’m going to believe it for you.

So, in the comments below, I want to invite you to share what wilderness you’re experiencing…and how we can be praying for you.

If you’re not in the wilderness, I want to invite you to take some time and pray for those who are. Read the comments and pray for others. Pray with confidence and faith where they can’t. And if you have a story of where God has healed and saved you in the wilderness, share it, so that your story can become our story.