Nearly four months into receiving chemo, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz believes she will be healed after her seventh treatment next week.
The 70-year-old evangelist revealed in an update on her blog this week that she felt God had healed her after her fifth treatment and was pondering whether to stop.
“While praying with my two daughters following my fifth chemo treatment, God seemed to indicate He had healed me. Cleansed me. Removed cancer from me. I pondered in my heart what I believe He had said,” she wrote.
She sought God in prayer to confirm whether to continue with chemo. That day, her daughter, Rachel-Ruth, shared the biblical story from 2 Kings 5. In it, an army commander named Naaman was healed of leprosy after washing himself seven times in the Jordan as instructed by God’s prophet.
That story was an answer to Lotz’s prayer.
“I could hear the clear whisper of the Spirit, answering my prayer, confirming that I was to continue chemo…my next and last full treatment would be my seventh time! So as much as I resist the ‘muck and mud,’ in obedience to God’s leading to complete the seventh infusion on Feb. 14, I am committed to seeing these treatments through to the end,” she said.
Lotz was diagnosed with breast cancer last August and began receiving chemotherapy in October. She has been open about the difficult process, including the “daunting” side effects.
Though she had prayed that the cancer would be gone after her surgery last year, the cancer was still there and had also spread to the lymph nodes.
During a December interview on “The Drew Marshall Show,” she was asked if she ever shook her fist at God. Lotz never did.
She expressed her belief that the devil is alive and after God’s people and did find it “bizarre” that her diagnosis came on the anniversary of her husband’s death (and within the same time frame).
Though she doesn’t understand everything that happens, she stressed that her faith in God remains strong and vibrant and she has found peace in knowing that “the blood of Jesus trumps death, disease [and] the devil.”
“Whether you work for the Lord or whether you don’t, people get cancer, people have their husband’s die, people have their daddies die; that’s part of life,” she said.
“Life isn’t about being easy, about being comfortable, about … taking no risk. Life is about triumphing over the obstacles,” she added, pointing to the Apostle Paul and Jesus as examples of those who suffered in life and overcame.
“I don’t want Him (God) to give me what I want, I want Him to give me what He wants to give me and I feel like He’s giving me a journey that’s a challenge but it’s a blessing at the same time because I’m closer to Him and I have something to share with other people going through the same journey.”
She considers her breast cancer battle “a new aspect” of her faith journey and one in which she is experiencing God in “a new dimension.”
“At the same time, it gives me the opportunity to turn around call back to people behind me who are suffering and don’t have that relationship with the Lord or they don’t have a strong faith or they’re confused and angry. God has given me multiple opportunities to encourage other people who are on the same journey.”
Lots emphasized that she spends time with the Lord every day and is thus able to get through this difficult stage in her life.
Her doctor told her, “Anne, you have an indomitable spirit.” And Lotz’s reply was: “Yup, and his name is Jesus.”
In her interview, Lotz also addressed the comment she made earlier about her breast cancer being a possible warning sign that Israel could be in danger of being attacked.
Though she admitted that she doesn’t know if there is a connection between her and Israel, she said she has always felt her life was somehow entwined with the nation of Israel, given that Israel was reborn the same month and year as her birth.
“God told me years ago that my messages, I would live them out,” she explained.
“Why would I get cancer? Nobody in my family has cancer,” she recalled thinking. “To my mind, was this the message I was to live out?”
“I wondered at 70, … I was suddenly attacked with cancer … Is she (Israel) going to be suddenly attacked in a way that will be life-threatening for her as a nation?”
When the thoughts first came to mind, she decided to “put that on the shelf for a week,” knowing that it sounded bizarre.
But feeling that “God would hold me accountable” and not wanting to be disobedient, Lotz said she decided to write about her cancer and Israel in a blog.
“My urge to Israel is it’s time for Israel, as Joel says, to return now to the Lord and repent of your sin and who knows … He (God) can protect Israel if she’ll turn to the God of her fathers.”
She also urged Christians to pray for Israel. “We’re commanded in Scripture to pray for the peace of Jerusalem so I issued that challenge.”