My friend has been in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit for a week.

Her health crisis came without warning. She was awakened at 2 AM with symptoms that prompted her family to call 911. The ER transferred her to Surgical Intensive Care unresponsive with a brain bleed.

This week has heightened the tension between standing firm that God heals and frightening medical data. Those who were interceding for her could have been placed on a continuum. Some were taking authority, claiming healing with bold confidence, others scanning the ICU monitors and reminding God that the ball was in His court.

Hope was fed when she was able to wiggle her feet on command and then hold up two fingers. It looked like she would survive this event but what neurological damage had been done?

Prior to this hospitalization I have only known this friend as one whose prayers stir my spirit and whose strength in God is contagious. When I have been privileged to meet personally with her I have seen myself as a student meeting with a teacher. This is especially true when the conversation is focused on the authority we have as children of God.

This week her physical weakness has jolted me into a place of needing to step up. My heart raced when my phone rang and her name appeared on the ID. I could barely hear her as she whispered, “Roselyn, I need you to pray. TAKE AUTHORITY”

It felt like my math professor asking me to help solve a problem that he knew we had not covered in class.

Yet, there was no mistaking that my friend was calling me and that she knew Whom the authority comes from.

I prayed. I took authority over this illness in the Name of Jesus. I practiced praying with the confidence I have heard her in her as she prayed. I remembered her telling me “sometimes you have to be violent with the enemy”.

It’s two weeks now since this medical event occurred. Many prayers and much reason to praise have been recorded. We are watching to see how God will bring glory to Himself, as her healing has been amazing.

I will visit her today and find this friend restored to the person of strength and vitality I had come to know. She texted last night that she was planning a “jail break” LOL (Meaning she has been in the hospital long enough).

As I continue to process this I want to embrace a heart of gratitude that never forgets that His strength is made perfect in weakness.

In her weakness she knew that authority needed to be taken in the name of Jesus. In my weakness, I recognized that the power to take authority is available to me.