My name is Willie Mears. I am a passionate believer in what God can and will do in the life of the believer. As a youth and young adult pastor I have prayed for hundreds, if not thousands of sick people to be healed of various things. More often than not it was cancer. I have seen actual doctor reports of people that had a tumor one day, and LITERALLY the next day it was gone.
I have always believed that God is our Healer. I have always trusted and taken Him at His word.
My world and the faith, that I thought was so strong, came to a massive test whenever Dr. Young looked me in the eyes and said the word “cancer”. What do you do? Where do you go? Is God really that BIG?
As I walked to my car that January day, alone, afraid and shaken to the soul, I climbed in to my old faithful Ford Explorer and I hit the button on the radio to, I thought, turn it off. I just wanted to sit in silence, and be alone and afraid. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I knew I was scared. I didn’t realize that I had actually turned on the CD function…
“My Hero is coming to my rescue, coming to save the day…” as these words left my speakers and entered my ears, they connected to my very soul, and in that moment I realized that I was never alone.
I began to pray, and then slowly text a few friends to pray.
It was just a week prior to this visit that I saw all of the blood that sent me to the hospital in the first place. A symptom that to this day is a medical mystery…a miracle. None of the doctors could explain why I was bleeding the way I was, when the mass they found was in my stomach.
Fast forward a week, back to ‘the appointment day’, January 27th, a day that I will never forget, the day that I was diagnosed with stage 1 gastric cancer. As Catherine Mullins sang “We give it all up, give it all up now, we lay it all down, lay it all down now to Jesus. My Hero is coming to my rescue, coming to save the day.” God began to change my mindset from alone and afraid to united and more motivated than ever before to see lost people saved.
I made a promise that day that no matter what, live or die, sick or well, God would get glory and the enemy wouldn’t receive any credit for this sickness.
I was reminded of the story in Daniel 3 where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were given the ultimatum: Worship an Idol, or Death By Furnace.
Their response filled me with courage and a sense of purpose:
· I know God can.
· I believe God will.
· But even if He doesn’t, I trust that He is good and I will still not compromise.
Daniel 3:17-18
“If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king, BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT RESCUE US, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you have set up.
So, it was with this sense of purpose that I set out to fight cancer and, even if I died, to take as many people to heaven with me as I possibly could.
My treatment was simple, a pill that I despised, Fluorouracil, and healthy eating. If no improvement, we would discuss surgical options and then….chemo…
I began to adopt a mantra, more of an anthem, that I held on to and, to this day, still use.
#GodIsBigger
There were several things that were up for debate, at least in my mind. Was I being punished? Was this an attack of the enemy? Was this a test?
The one thing that was not up for debate, however, was that God was God, and I was just a man. My answer to every question became: “I really don’t know, but I know that God has a plan, and it is a good one.”
The truth is I didn’t understand. I quit asking when I realized this simple yet profound truth,
-“if I figure out Gods plan, that would make me God. That would be a terrible thing.”
I began to take comfort in the fact that as long as I had no clue what was going on, He was still bigger than me, as long as He was still bigger than me I was in great hands. He still had everything under control, and so with that, I found great comfort in not knowing the answer to “why?” “how?” “when?” or “where?”
My battle with cancer was a short one, 3 months really. However, in those months, there were tremendous amounts of sickness, doubt, fear and miraculous conversions. On April 27th 3 months, to the very day, all doubt was removed. There were some scary moments, some “unusual” scans but God proved himself faithful once again and 3 months of those nasty pills did the trick. Dr. Young looked me in the face and said that not only was the cancer gone, but my blood count was better than when I started! Come on Jesus!!
Yep, God DID use it to bring fame to His name. I wish I had the time and space to tell you about all of the amazing things that God did in that time. Just suffice it to say that because of this fight with cancer, literally THOUSANDS of people were able to hear the Gospel. God proved Himself to be faithful and bigger than anything I have or ever will face.
I love you guys, thanks for reading my story. Remember, God is bigger.
For more information feel free to find me on Facebook. You can also look for me on YouTube.
Peace,
Willie Mears
I have always believed that God is our Healer. I have always trusted and taken Him at His word.
My world and the faith, that I thought was so strong, came to a massive test whenever Dr. Young looked me in the eyes and said the word “cancer”. What do you do? Where do you go? Is God really that BIG?
As I walked to my car that January day, alone, afraid and shaken to the soul, I climbed in to my old faithful Ford Explorer and I hit the button on the radio to, I thought, turn it off. I just wanted to sit in silence, and be alone and afraid. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I knew I was scared. I didn’t realize that I had actually turned on the CD function…
“My Hero is coming to my rescue, coming to save the day…” as these words left my speakers and entered my ears, they connected to my very soul, and in that moment I realized that I was never alone.
I began to pray, and then slowly text a few friends to pray.
It was just a week prior to this visit that I saw all of the blood that sent me to the hospital in the first place. A symptom that to this day is a medical mystery…a miracle. None of the doctors could explain why I was bleeding the way I was, when the mass they found was in my stomach.
Fast forward a week, back to ‘the appointment day’, January 27th, a day that I will never forget, the day that I was diagnosed with stage 1 gastric cancer. As Catherine Mullins sang “We give it all up, give it all up now, we lay it all down, lay it all down now to Jesus. My Hero is coming to my rescue, coming to save the day.” God began to change my mindset from alone and afraid to united and more motivated than ever before to see lost people saved.
I made a promise that day that no matter what, live or die, sick or well, God would get glory and the enemy wouldn’t receive any credit for this sickness.
I was reminded of the story in Daniel 3 where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were given the ultimatum: Worship an Idol, or Death By Furnace.
Their response filled me with courage and a sense of purpose:
· I know God can.
· I believe God will.
· But even if He doesn’t, I trust that He is good and I will still not compromise.
Daniel 3:17-18
“If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king, BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT RESCUE US, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you have set up.
So, it was with this sense of purpose that I set out to fight cancer and, even if I died, to take as many people to heaven with me as I possibly could.
My treatment was simple, a pill that I despised, Fluorouracil, and healthy eating. If no improvement, we would discuss surgical options and then….chemo…
I began to adopt a mantra, more of an anthem, that I held on to and, to this day, still use.
#GodIsBigger
There were several things that were up for debate, at least in my mind. Was I being punished? Was this an attack of the enemy? Was this a test?
The one thing that was not up for debate, however, was that God was God, and I was just a man. My answer to every question became: “I really don’t know, but I know that God has a plan, and it is a good one.”
The truth is I didn’t understand. I quit asking when I realized this simple yet profound truth,
-“if I figure out Gods plan, that would make me God. That would be a terrible thing.”
I began to take comfort in the fact that as long as I had no clue what was going on, He was still bigger than me, as long as He was still bigger than me I was in great hands. He still had everything under control, and so with that, I found great comfort in not knowing the answer to “why?” “how?” “when?” or “where?”
My battle with cancer was a short one, 3 months really. However, in those months, there were tremendous amounts of sickness, doubt, fear and miraculous conversions. On April 27th 3 months, to the very day, all doubt was removed. There were some scary moments, some “unusual” scans but God proved himself faithful once again and 3 months of those nasty pills did the trick. Dr. Young looked me in the face and said that not only was the cancer gone, but my blood count was better than when I started! Come on Jesus!!
Yep, God DID use it to bring fame to His name. I wish I had the time and space to tell you about all of the amazing things that God did in that time. Just suffice it to say that because of this fight with cancer, literally THOUSANDS of people were able to hear the Gospel. God proved Himself to be faithful and bigger than anything I have or ever will face.
I love you guys, thanks for reading my story. Remember, God is bigger.
For more information feel free to find me on Facebook. You can also look for me on YouTube.
Peace,
Willie Mears
