July 2017 Newsletter
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The surgeon said I would never be able to smile again.
By Dr. Sandra Kennedy
“Where is your lip?” That’s the question the emergency room nurse asked me.
What happened to my lip, you ask? Well, it was a day that started out like any other. I had no idea when I got up that morning that the day was going to be quite traumatic. It’s good to be prepared in your spirit and soul for those times. What makes us be prepared? Knowing the Word of God. I’m constantly filling myself with His Word. For me, it’s just second-nature to begin to speak God’s Word when trouble arises.
So there I was, in my home with my little Sheltie named Precious. I had been sitting on my sofa and reading, and she was sitting by me on the floor. I was getting up from the sofa and as I bent forward, she jumped up, our heads hit, and as she came back down her mouth caught my lip. Blood was gushing everywhere. I grabbed a towel and because of the profuse bleeding I called some friends and said, “I think I need to go to the hospital.”
The first thing I heard when I got to the emergency room was the nurse asking me, “Where is your lip?” I hadn’t realized my top lip, from my nose to the corner of my mouth, was missing; it had been torn off.
They called in a plastic surgeon and he promptly informed me, “This cannot be fixed.” He said, “If it had been your bottom lip, it would restore itself. The top lip cannot. We can do some things, but there is no way we can restore your lip back to the way it was.” He said I needed surgery immediately. Because the tear was ragged, he had to actually cut more of the lip out so it would be a straight cut and heal properly.
The surgeon told me I would never be able to smile again. He said it would take three to six surgeries for it to be anywhere close to appearing normal. Before the operation, I grabbed his hands and prayed that God would be in charge of the surgery and that He would work through the surgeon’s hands.
At some point, I woke up on the operating table hearing him tell the nurse, “I don’t know why—I normally sew the bottom lip and the top lip together and three weeks later come back and slit it open, but for some reason, I feel I’m not to do that.” I knew that was the Lord’s intervention. When I came out of surgery he told my friends the same thing he had told me: “It will take three to six surgeries for her lip to have any chance of looking halfway normal. She will never smile again.” But I looked at him and immediately said, “Yes, I will! I WILL have a smile again! My God will do that for me! And, I will never have to have another surgery!”
I truly believe that if I had not spoken that, I might have been permanently disfigured. I absolutely refused to receive those words he was speaking. We know, according to the Bible, that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Our words have power to create our circumstances based on what’s being spoken. I could not let those words he had spoken be left to stand. I had to counteract them with a positive confession based on God’s Word. I knew my God was bigger than this thing, and He would bring me through.
When I came back to my church office a couple of days later, I looked awful. My face was horrible to look at. The doctor had put black sutures in and around my mouth. It looked like my nose was sitting more on the side of my face than in the middle. When I went back for a follow-up visit, he pulled out a book of pictures of people who had lip surgeries, cleft lips and other deformed features. He was trying to show me what I was going to deal with. I told him, “I WILL NOT look at that book! My God will heal me and you will be amazed!” I wasn’t about to let those images be in my mind and get down into my heart.
I went home and pulled out every picture I could find of myself with a beautiful smile and I taped them all over my house—on every mirror, all over my walls, on my kitchen cabinets, everywhere. I would look at those pictures and I would say, “I WILL have a pretty smile again! Lip, you listen to me. Re-shape yourself, in the name of the Lord! I command you in the Name of Jesus to move and straighten yourself out!”
I’m not saying it was easy. I can remember walking into the church service for the first time after the accident. The men’s choir was singing and they burst out crying. I really looked horrible. Every time I looked in the mirror I saw that horrible sight. And of course, the enemy was always whispering and bringing thoughts like, “You’ll never be the same. You’ll always look horrible.” I had to fight those thoughts. I had to reject them and speak the opposite of what the enemy was trying to get me to believe.
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Just ten days after my accident, I was scheduled to teach at our conference on the power of God’s Word to bring healing. My staff assumed I would cancel because I looked so horrible. And besides that, I could barely talk! I still had the black sutures in and around my mouth, my nose was sitting crooked, and I could only talk out of the side of my mouth. But I was determined to do that meeting! I can remember it like it was yesterday. My message was based on Mark 11:23 that says:
Whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith.
I taught them, “You’re a whosoever, going after your whatsoever!” I was helping them to know they were going after their healing by believing and not doubting, and I was determined that I was going after my healing too! I’m sure it was hard to understand me since I was speaking through one little corner of my mouth. But I taught the Word.
And then I looked at the audience and said, “OK, it’s every man for himself!” And I turned my back to the audience and began to praise the Lord and then I threw my hands in the air and I started talking to that lip. I told it to move, to re-shape itself and grow back, in the Name of Jesus. And you know what? It began to move! It was just a tiny little movement, but I was so encouraged. My lip had moved! And I began to scream and shout. And then the people began to scream and shout with me. And they began to receive miracles too! I looked the same, but I knew something had changed.
I continued to speak God’s Word day in and day out, and I continued to speak to my lip in the Name of Jesus. And I kept on looking at those pictures of me with a beautiful smile and speaking that I would look like that again. And, guess what? Before long, my lip started looking different, started looking better. I had gone back to the doctor a couple of times and he was astounded and said, “Keep on doing whatever it is you’re doing.” It was a process, but I knew the power of God’s Word was working mightily in me. It took eight or nine months, but eventually my lip looked normal again! And I have a beautiful smile just like I used to! Praise God! And I never had to have another surgery!
They said it couldn’t be done. They said it was impossible. But ALL things are possible to him who believes! God is SO faithful! Believe Him! Believe His Word! Believe for your healing! If He did it for me, He’ll do it for you! Healing belongs to you
Dr. Sandra Kennedy is founder and Senior Pastor of Whole Life Ministries in Augusta, Georgia. She has been teaching the principles of healing for over thirty years and is passionate about helping people learn to walk in health and wholeness. Sandra has been healed numerous times and has helped countless numbers of people receive their healing.
The Greatest Show on Earth!
I have three Jewish outreaches coming up—one in the United States, one in Ukraine and one in another country. Two have the potential to be my biggest Jewish outreaches ever. Two will be completed by the time you receive this. I will report on the results in my next letter.
The outreach in Odessa, Ukraine could have as many as 2,500 unsaved Jewish people in attendance! Remember, half the population of Odessa has Jewish blood! We are partnering with six churches and have 100 evangelists passing out 300,000 invitations to attend, with 20 follow-up outreach meetings planned after the event.
Currently, the economy in Ukraine is in shambles and the nation is at war, but we have a secret weapon. We have thousands of Ukrainians praying in tongues for this event, most of them an hour or more per day! My teaching material on the benefits of speaking in tongues and how to manifest this gift was recently translated into the Ukrainian language. You see why I am so excited about this outreach! I believe it is all being orchestrated for me supernaturally for two reasons: 1) because I have prayed for years in tongues and 2) this is God’s moment for mercy on Israel and the Jewish people worldwide! I am taking two Jewish evangelists with me on the Odessa trip to mentor them in this type of outreach.
I expect to be ministering in my 90’s and I am only 76 years young. But most Christians do not witness to anyone, let alone a Jewish person. And those who do usually limit their witness to love and humanitarian help. This is true for Gentile as well as Jewish believers. I pray that through our media outreaches and my actions I can change this unbiblical mindset! We all need a vision like William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, who supernaturally saw millions of hopeless souls struggling, shrieking, and cursing as they fell into the ocean representing hell!
Most Christians act as if their Jewish friend whom they love so much will accept Jesus as Messiah and Lord at the right time. But the right time is always in the future. And they have never shared the Gospel! Millions are ready to be saved, but if you do not share, millions will be hurled into the ocean of hell! Love and humanitarian aid without sharing the Good News is NOT real love but the worst kind of anti-Semitism!
This is why we do so much direct evangelism. We own a television network that reaches every TV set in Israel included as part of the basic package. We have just added the best Jewish salvation testimonies to play frequently between our other unique programs. We have mailed or distributed over 3 million copies of my God-birthed Jewish testimony book, They Thought For Themselves, primarily to Jewish people worldwide. Now I
have the most effective Jewish evangelistic booklet I have ever produced—my 29- page personal testimony booklet, There Must Be Something More! I will send a free copy this month to everyone who requests it on the reply card.
The most effective way to evangelize the Jew as well as all people is to demonstrate the Kingdom through miracles and then introduce your friend to the King of Kings. That’s why I asked Dr. Sandra Kennedy to write a new book called, The Simplicity of Healing. Her teaching will equip you to walk in miracles for yourself, your family and the unsaved. God has not changed. His “Plan A” for evangelism has always been healing miracles. This “how to” book will help you be normal—normal as defined by the Bible. It is the latest book from our own publishing company, It’s Supernatural! Press.
I need your prayers and financial partnership more than ever! This is the set time to favor Zion. God has given me His tools and a supernatural strategy. I do not know a more fertile ground in which to invest your resources.
All of heaven is rooting for this great Jewish harvest. God calls it “The Greatest Show on Earth!” Thank you for partnering with me in the end-time events taking place before our very eyes.