The Decapolis

1/18/23

I have said before that my faith has been built deeply into my soul during years of prayer, through scripture promises and the Lord’s words so that when the dark days of affliction and uncertainty came, my faith had dug ditches to retain the waters of God to keep me sustained through the valley. 

The dreams that God used during this time also nourished my faith to keep me proceeding forward.  One of these dreams was received the night after receiving a terminal diagnosis, when I asked God if He was going to kill me before I finished my calling.  I bring this up because it speaks to me that though I faced a giant, the Lord had other intentions and plans.  When science tells you: there is nothing else that can be done, God can still tell you “Your miracle will happen!”

‘So, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God’, Romans 10:17 for our particular situations.  Through asking and listening to the Prince of Peace regarding our circumstances, we can understand His will for us thus, building our faith to persevere.

Here is the dream:  I parked my car at a building that was half church on the right side and the left side of the building was a hotel.  I got out of the car wearing the exact nightgown that I had on while dreaming this dream.  I walked to my car trunk and retrieved a pair of shoes and street clothes, then proceeded to the building. 

I was to attend the church service as a guest; this was not my church.  The church service was about to start as I walked into the building; I headed left to the hotel to change my clothes.  A woman helped point me down a hallway where I would find my room to change.  I received a scripture: I will not die but live and declare the works of The Lord.  Psalm 118:17.

As I pondered the dream, I got another scripture address: Mark 5:20 “And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.”  Decapolis means a group of ten cities; it was one of the areas from which Jesus drew His many disciples, attracted by His healing all kinds of sickness.  I was wearing my nightgown in the dream, with “night” meaning a time of darkness, trial or affliction; but I was on my way (the hallway) to change into regular clothing. 

During my time of searching out the Covenant of Peace, God led me to a preacher from South Africa, Randolph Barnwell.  He has a series on healing which I will quote in future posts.  In addition, and most interestingly, he relates healing to peace.  Healing Principles (randolphbarnwell.com).

From “Healing Part 3”: “May God use your sickness and the healing therefore as a catalyst to ignite the faith of many others to believe God for their own healing. Your personal sickness can be the spur for the healing of many corporately…Mark 5:20 And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. Note, the man was to go home to his people and tell the people of the compassion and mercy of Jesus.

The healing was to demonstrate a greater reality, God is compassionate and merciful. This man was literally ‘sent’ by Jesus to broadcast this truth. He did this in the Roman region called Decapolis, consisting of ten cities covering a wide area. from living in an environment of death among tombs, this man migrated to being used by God to minister to an enlarged sphere of ten cities, testifying of God’s mercy and compassion.

Your present state of sickness and threatening ‘death’ restricts and limits your functionality and potential use by God. In His mercy, God can use you and elevate you out from a confined context, away from the smell of death, and use you mightily as a witness of His compassion and mercy to a broader context…this might be prophetic for those who are reading this. Through this man’s testimony (and yours), many people will come to believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Lord and Savior.

When God heals you, may the healing highlight more aspects of the nature of God, than you, the one healed. May your healing be used as a tool in God’s hand to exhibit and put on display His mercy and compassion. We often lose sight of the higher purposes of God attached to His acts of healing. At times, God permits illness, just to demonstrate His mighty works and compassionate nature in and through you, as a witness and testimony to others, so they may come into a new realm of faith. The healing of your sickness could activate someone else to greater faith in God.” 

Again, I say: when science tells you there is nothing else that can be done, God can still tell you “Your miracle will happen!”  I believe this to mean I will be healed and put back into God’s service among His saints.  Conceivably I will proclaim what God has done for me.  And those of you who are waiting for the Lord’s deliverance, join me in saying “Yes, Lord and Amen!”

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelation 3:13.