It fascinates me the kind of people who have sugar in their tea. I sometimes get it wrong, but most of the time, I can predict this fairly accurately. One of my friends, who shall remain nameless… Oh! Go on then, Mark… Has an extraordinary 3 large spoonfuls in every cup. Sheesh.

If you know me well, you’ll know that for the last 8 months or so, I have not just been unable to have sugar in tea (or in fact drink any tea at all) but I have had to avoid sugar in as many foods as I can.
Anything that contained even a small percentage of unrefined or refined sugar gave me migraines that made me dizzy and sick. Over the last few days Father has been speaking to me about this and causing me to think carefully about my eating/drinking.

On Monday my mentor and closest spiritual friend came up to Manchester for a conference and so I joined him. Because he is well-known there and helps to put on these events, we were ushered to the front row. (Normally at such things, I am in a place where I can’t see what is happening – being a person of smallness.)

We heard an american man speak (Pastor John Bevere) who was extraordinarily revelatory in his choice, style and delivery of material. At some point (hard to pin which) I was healed of my intolerance of sugar. No-one laid hands on me, no prophetic word was spoken, no-one prayed for me. God just spoke very gently to me in a whisper during the talk. NOT the worship. I could see no-one else on stage except the speaker. Nothing was happening to hype the situation up. It was just about Father and me.

On the way home, I asked God WHY He had healed me, (believing He had without actually TESTING it out.) He said, ‘Because I love you!’ Then He went on to explain that I had learnt how to look after my body better, and that I had now understood what it was to discipline myself not to have ‘TREATS’ with things that were not TREATS for my body. True. Celery is the new chocolate. (You heard it here first:)

When I got home, I ate a piece of white bread and waited. Nothing. Half an hour later, I was tired (it was late and I normally go to bed about 8pm) but nothing. I texted my mentor, more as a declaration of faith, than a real certainty in my spirit. He texted one word back ‘FANTASTIC!’ I woke up to feed Bess at 3am… no head ache.

The following day, I knew I could eat a piece of cake (which I had made earlier) but I did not want to risk it. There was a sense of ‘Have I really been healed?’ in my heart. I told my boys at breakfast time that God had healed me and they burst into spontaneous applause… but all day I just ate my normal foods (carrot sticks, celery, wholemeal pitta, pasta etc) But then in the afternoon I went for it. Drum roll….. I had one chocolate. Now, this is true faith guys. The last time I had a migraine was because I had a teaspoonful of chutney on a piece of cheese…So one chocolate… well thats alot of sugar and caffeine for me…. but, I had no head ache.

At that moment, I had a text from another friend who works at the church where the conference was happening. He just texted ‘Mate, were you healed last night?’ I had no idea how he had found out. I had only told my two best friends and Jon. But I texted back, in faith ‘Yes mate, I think I was!’ (Note the use of the word ‘THINK’…)

Later on, I decided to go back to the conference for the evening. Again I was ushered to the front row. The atmosphere was fun, engaging and bloomin’ loud. The speaker (same guy) got up to share his message. His first sentence was this: “You know guys, last night someone came to this event and was healed of a sugar intolerance. She went home and ate something with sugar in and was not ill. This did not happen because she was prayed over, or because I said anything specific. God just chose to meet with her in grace during the talk and healed her. He brought freedom to her, because he loves her. Do you know? He wants to bring freedom to you too.”

So there it was. Live on GodTV and live to 1500 people that I was healed. NOW I had to believe it. My friend dug me in the ribs with his characteristic ‘See?!!’ face, and I grinned back at him. God knew I needed to be told the truth again. I am loved by a generous and marvellous God who cares about the tiniest aspects of my life. I guess that sometimes even teeny weeny faith does indeed make you well.

I came home and iced my son’s birthday cake. Then I licked the spoon.