Episode Transcript
It is all too often said that there are no miracles performed these days. Well, I'd like to challenge this idea with my story of avoiding a life-altering bowel surgery. Welcome to Miracles in the 21st Century. I'm Leah Hodge. In our last episode, I shared with you how I was delivered from demonic oppression and possession while I was in Costa Rica through the power of prayer and the ministry of songs and hymns, I was delivered from a demonic possession where my voice had been taken over by the devil, where my body had been taken over by the devil, and I was contorted and twisted and I had bitten the stomach of my mother. These are all things I was told after. I had no idea or recollection of those things happening. But after, through the power of Jesus Christ, I was delivered from this. I woke up the next morning knowing what had happened insofar as there was a spiritual thing that happened, but not knowing all the details. And this led me to find God. This led me to search and seek for God because I thought if the devil is real and I've been delivered, then I know God must be real. And I started my search for God because I didn't yet know who my Savior was. He had delivered me, but I still hadn't had a personal relationship with him yet. I came back from Costa Rica to Australia and I was still very, very ill. I still had inflammatory bowel disease. I was a lot worse than before I went to Costa Rica to try and heal myself. I had ulcerative colitis, which includes inflammation in your bowel and bleeding. And so I was very, very ill. And I was hospitalized that year, 2014. I came back and within a month of coming back from Costa Rica, I was in hospital. I stayed a week in hospital where they couldn't find out what was wrong with me at this stage. They thought it might be an infectious disease that I had from Costa Rica. And I got discharged and then I went back into hospital. And that happened throughout a whole year. I was hospitalized 4 times. I had 5 blood transfusions and 7 iron infusions in just 1 year. I couldn't return to work. I just lay in bed most of the time. I was so ill and weak, and it was in this time that I started to read my Bible and started to have Bible studies and to learn more about God, and my faith in him started to grow. Well, it was at the end of 2014 when I was in for the 4th time in hospital down at the Sydney Adventist Hospital. And this was my longest stay in hospital. I had such high levels of inflammation in my bowel, in my body, and none of the drugs that I was put on were doing anything to bring it down. I was on the highest levels of hydrocortisone and there was nothing they could do. So the doctors, the gastroenterologist said, we're going to have to look at surgery. Because if we don't get this under control, it's fatal. Like, I was bleeding out and it was going to end badly. So this was the only option that I had left. So I had an appointment with the surgeon. I had an appointment with a stoma therapist, which is a nurse that comes and shares with you how it's like to live with a colectomy bag, with a colostomy bag. And I was going to have my bowel removed. Wow. My mom, though, suggested to me, Leah, why don't you get anointed? And my mom had actually suggested this a year ago before I went to Costa Rica to do the water fast, but I wasn't a Christian then. I wasn't a believer, and I laughed at her. I said, I don't even know what that is. I'm not doing that. But a year later and all these things that had happened and I started reading my Bible, I was like, let me give God a go. And so we arranged that a pastor came down to my hospital room I had some close family members there and we did this anointing service. In James, chapter 5, it says when someone is sick you can call the elders of the church and come and be anointed to be healed. And it is a very symbolic service, there is no magic in the oil, it is just you confessing your sins and surrendering everything to God and trusting fully in him. And so I did that and like I said, I had been in hospital for 3 weeks, All the medications weren't working. They would take my bloods every second day to see how my levels were. And we had the anointing on the Friday night and the next day was the Sabbath and I didn't feel very like anything had changed. But 2 days after the anointing, the doctor came into the room and said, I don't know what's going on, but your inflammation indicators have dropped significantly, and we can discharge you from the hospital. Now, I was so, so happy to hear this, but nothing else had changed, and they could not explain it. They couldn't explain— nothing had changed. All my medications were the same. I was being fed through a PICC line at this point, and I'd been in hospital for 3 weeks, and now I get told I can go home. I don't have to have surgery. I don't have to have my bowel removed. And this was so— and I knew this was God. This was God intervening in my life. And I left the hospital that day, the discharge, and this was the start of my journey of health with my autoimmune disease. Now there was this doctor that I came aware of by a friend. His name is Professor Borody, and he had a Clinic in Sydney that deals with bowel diseases, and my mum rang up to get an appointment with him because after I got discharged from hospital, I was still suffering with like a lot of the symptoms still, and I was on all these medications, so all these anti-inflammatory medications. And so she tried to get in contact with this doctor, but he had a one-year waiting list. But he actually agreed to see me within two weeks after I got discharged from hospital. So I went down and saw him, and he put me on a pro. program, which was more a natural way of treating ulcerative colitis with what's called FMT, which is a fecal transplant. And so I was really happy to be going down this route because I didn't want to stay on these medications for the rest of my life because that's what I was told. And so I went and started doing this, and I was under this professor, and I was really happy about it, but I was still bleeding. I was still, you know, I did have moments of health, but I was still very up and down. I was getting a colonoscopy done every 3 months and blood tests done every 3 months to check how everything was going. And I started doing his treatments of fecal transplant, but I was still having a lot of the symptoms. And as the year went by and as the second year went by, my faith in God just continued to grow as I kept reading the Bible. And I just got really convicted that God did not want me to be on all these medications. And they weren't working, they weren't doing anything, they weren't— I was still having symptoms. And so 2 years later, after my anointing in the hospital where I was able to not have surgery, I was convicted, I want to have another anointing service. I want to surrender everything again to God. So I went down to Professor Brodie's clinic to have my colonoscopy done and my blood tests done. And I told him what I was going to do. I said, I am going to go off all my medications, because I was really convicted God didn't want me on these. They were not good for my health. And I told him that and he was, he knew what anointing was because he was a Christian and he laughed at me basically and he actually told me point blank in the face, you are an idiot. Do not do this. You will bleed and die. You will die. You will bleed out. Please do not do this, because he'd just done a colonoscopy and he could see the condition of my bowel, and it wasn't good. This was a real test of faith for me because I believe God was convicting me to, to not go on these medications anymore. I did walk out of that office and just burst into tears. I didn't cry in front of him, but I just felt so deflated and like this was a test of my faith. But I still went forward with the anointing service, and I still was committed to going off all these drugs. We had the anointing service at my place, and I just trusted everything to God. I just prayed and said, Lord, you know what's good for my body. You made me. You're my Creator. I know you have a better way for me. And so I came off all the drugs, and I was still bleeding. I was still having all the symptoms. Came off all of them and just trusted in God, and he impressed me to go to this book that I had on my bookshelf. It was a natural encyclopedia, natural remedies encyclopedia, and I found ulcerative colitis in there. I'd never looked at this book before, and I started following the steps in the regime that it had in this book, plus trusting in God, still seeing all the symptoms, still seeing all the, um, yeah, everything that was still happening. And I just prayed and trusted and claimed the promises. Well, 3 months later, I have another colonoscopy booked. And remember, I'd walked out of his office crying and felt defeated and deflated because he told me not to do it. But in that 3 months where I was following these natural remedies, I saw all the symptoms go away. And this was the first time I've stopped bleeding in over 2 years without drugs, and without anything but trusting in God and his natural healing remedies. So I go down to the doctor and I have my colonoscopy and he comes and tells me the results and he says, what have you been doing? What are you doing? I said, I told you, I went off all my medications and I got anointed. He's like, who did the anointing service? I want that pastor to come into my hospital and anoint all my patients. Because he said, your bowel looks great, like whatever you're doing, keep doing it. And I was like, this is such a victory after what happened 3 months earlier. And so I was just praising God that his healing in my life was there, and it was all because I turned to him in full faith and trust. It was hard. It was hard to put all my faith and trust in him because I didn't know the future. I didn't know if what I was doing was a silly idea, but I I followed the Holy Spirit's leading in my life, and I'm so grateful to him because since then, I have not been on my medication since 2016. And I'm still considered to have ulcerative colitis, but I've been in remission. And God has shown me through his natural wonders how to keep myself healthy and well. And it's all because of God's miraculous work in my life. God is real. God cares about you. He cares about your health, and I pray that you will seek him and turn to him if you're going through health challenges or anything, that he has an answer for you. And if you trust in him and look for him, you will find him. Thank you for watching. Thank you.
