“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; 

old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

In the previous article (3) of this series, I mentioned that my mentor, Neville Jayaweera, and I shared the same conviction that Jesus abolished death from the earth.  

During our 40 years of teacher-pupil relationship, we saw some striking instances of regeneration of the body and of death being defied.

I would like to share a few of them with you here. There was a progression over time, based on our growing awareness – through meditating upon on Scriptures – of what belongs to us all in Christ, here-and-now,

Neville encountered the Spirit of Jesus Christ when he was 40. Up until then, he had managed a high-powered and very intensive career, with scarcely a day off during the week, let alone holidays. This had taken a toll on his health, and parts of his body, especially his neck, were stricken with painful arthritis.

When I met him (when he was 50), he had resigned from his career and followed God’s call for him to work in a Christian charity, which I later joined. We used our office lunch breaks to share our mutual desire to know God ever more deeply, and we immersed ourselves in prayer and meditation upon the Word of God.

We were both particularly struck by the fact that the New Testament is full of scriptures that describe what Jesus Christ has done for us, and what we have already inherited in our new life in Christ. Scriptures such as:

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2);

“For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3);

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11), and

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

In addition to pondering those verses, and others, in order to go deeper into God, we also used them in intercession. Over some years, we increasingly saw their healing effects on others.

I don’t think we were particularly focused on our own physical health, but I do remember Neville saying that his arthritis had completely disappeared. I also recall him telling me that, after a routine medical check-up (in his 50s or 60s – I can’t recall exactly!), his GP had announced that Neville possessed the heart and the constitution of a man in his 20s, and that he was “a net asset to the National Health Service”! 

We both chuckled heartily over the humour, but also realised that something supernatural was happening!

I was also healed of various ailments in a most extraordinary way. That just happened slowly and imperceptibly as I drank in God’s Word. 

One particular healing came about 30 years after I had first met Neville. I had become used to having very debilitating lung infections. As a child, I had suffered acute illness and scarring on my lung, apparently, and had been told that that would always be a “weak area”.  

Wow, how powerful is the human mind! And how powerful are our words! It took me years to realise in my heart - and not just in my mind - that, as new creations in Christ, God has given us the gift of power in our thoughts and words … for good or for bad. We are given the freedom and authority to choose.

The thing is, by default and ignorance, I was actually choosing the bad regarding my lungs. Each winter, I just accepted the arrival of acute bronchitis or pneumonia and the need to be laid low for the best part of a month.

It was Neville who “woke me up” and helped me to apply the truths that we had learnt from Scripture. It took me a good while, though! In 2017, I had my last set of antibiotics, and praise God I have not had any hint of lung infection since then.   

By saying this, I don’t want to imply that it is “as simple as that” to deal with all illnesses. I minister in Healing Rooms in my local area, and am very sensitive to people’s suffering.

But, whatever the situation, God is always present, His living Word is alive and active, and there is always hope – never condemnation.

Anyway, let’s get back to Neville, for his life is a wonderful testimony in itself. He almost died and came back from the brink of death on several occasions. They were all most unusual circumstances, each one having a supernatural element. (I will save those for a book I’m writing, rather than sharing them just at the moment. I’ll let you know about the book in due course!)

For Neville, it was as though – through each of these near-death experiences – he was gaining more than a glimpse into the truth that, in Christ, physical death has been defeated. He declared that truth right up until the time he did eventually die. And the fact is that he had seen something that could not be denied.

Even in his final year on earth (2020), when he was 89, Neville exploded with humanly impossible periods of vigour, combined with a depth of faith and prophetic vision that point the way to new realities as yet unseen – but to be seen on earth. 

How we praise You, Lord!!!

By Ann Shakespeare   29 November 2021