She believed and God healed her of breast cancer

“Help my unbelief” — Jesus delivers boy of evil spirit — by Tres Riches Heures 15th Century.

Vasiliy Voytovich is President of Evangel Theological Seminary (ETS) in Kiev, Ukraine. At the 11th Annual World Christians Doctors conference held May 9-10, 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria Vasiliy shared his testimony of how God healed his wife, Lyubov, of breast cancer.

In 1955, Vasiliy and his wife were living in the town of Stebnic, in the western Ukraine, when his wife then 32 noticed a lump in her left breast after experiencing pain. She went to the doctor who diagnosed Lyubov with breast cancer and immediately started her on chemotherapy.

The family was devastated. Shortly after the start of treatment, God prompted Vasiliy to pray for his wife’s complete healing. He gathered his three children together to pray. His wife was so distraught that she was unable to join them in prayer.

Vasiliy said:

“However, our prayers were so powerful that, after asking for her healing, we started to thank God for His answer. Then my wife said that in the background she heard a voice that said, ‘BELIEVE.” She then asked what she had to ‘believe,’ as she wasn’t even praying.”

Lyubov then asked God, “Do I have to believe that I am healed?”

God answered “Yes.”

After this powerful time of prayer, Vasiliy asked his wife to check to see if the lump had disappeared. However, his wife was unwilling to at that time. His wife returned to her doctor a few days later and had her female physician check for the lump.

When the lump could not be found, the doctor sent Lyubov for x-rays.Vasiliy said he saw the surprised look on the doctor’s face when she looked at the second set of x-rays — the lump was indeed gone.

When they moved to the US three years later, doctors conducted further tests and biopsies confirming Lyubov was completely healed of cancer.

Vasiliy and his wife ministered for several years in the US before recently returning to the Ukraine to serve as president of ETS affiliated with the Assemblies of God. The Pentecostal seminary provides leadership training for churches throughout Eastern Europe.

But as we read this testimony, God told his wife she needed to believe.

The biggest hindrance to miracles: lack of faith or unbelief?

The faith movement in my opinion has done more damage to faith than it helped. They promoted the idea that people needed more faith for healings, miracles and prosperity. They said it was our lack of faith that hindered the release of miracles and prosperity.

How you received “more faith” was always a matter of going to a conference, giving money, reading your Bible — it was an endless quest for “more faith.”

But is that really the issue when it comes to healing or miracles?

In Mark 9, we read the account of a man who brought his son, possessed by an evil spirit, to Jesus. As soon as the boy saw Christ, he went into convulsions. The man said, “if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” (v 22).

Jesus answered, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes (v 23)” The man was questioning if Jesus was capable of delivering the boy. Now it’s true the man had some legitimate concerns. The disciples had previously tried to deliver the boy but failed (v 18).

But Jesus threw it back on the man stating the real issue was not if Jesus could, but rather if the man believed Jesus could.

Then we read the man’s response: “I do believe; help my unbelief” (v 24).

It was a strange answer because on one hand the man believed (or at least wanted to}, but on the other, he recognized that unbelief had eroded his faith.

The man did not ask for more faith, but rather help with his unbelief.

While many have pictured faith as a thermostat — the more you turn it up, the hotter it gets. In fact, faith is a light switch, it is either on or off. You either believe or you don’t believe.

We don’t need more faith for miracles, we need to deal with the unbelief.

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