The doctors came and went each prescribing some kind of remedy that tasted so bad that I longed to vomit just to get the taste out of my mouth. It was an illness that came on me suddenly as if it was waiting in a dark corner just for the right time to raise its evil head and force me to surrender to its will. I didn't want to die, but I could feel myself slipping slowly down into a darkness that beckoned me to follow it now!



I had tried every doctor, believing that someone had the knowledge to treat my sickness, but nothing ever changed. Finally in my desperation and after pleads from my closest friends, I called in a man who foreknew the future. A man that I feared, because when he spoke words from God, his words always came true.

Isaiah 38: 1-3, "About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and said to him, 'The Lord tells you that you are to put everything in order because you will not recover. Get ready to die.'

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed. 'Remember, Lord, that I have served you faithfully and loyally, and that I have always tried to do what you wanted me to.' And he began to cry bitterly."

My tears flowed as if a river full of water were bursting from the early spring flood. I wanted to be strong and die like a fierce warrior in battle, not like a suffering feverish man weakened by a spreading infection. I was a king and now I was reduced to a shivering corpus who could hardly take a deep breathe without vehemently coughing.

Why was this happening to me? I always did what was right. Why would God allow such a terrible disease to consume my body? When we commit our ways to following God, isn't He suppose to protect us?

Hezekiah is like so many people today, he didn't understand why he had to go through a life threatening illness. What could he gain from the pain and suffering he went through? Why him and not an evil person who deserved to suffer and die?

Have you ever asked God, why you were sick? Have you prayed only after all measures had been taken from the medical establishment? Is God your last resort?

In order to understand the story behind Hezekiah's illness we must understand how his illness came about. First we must establish that he was a good king who tried to follow God completely during his lifetime, except he had one flaw just like all other people in the world. He was proud!

Many illnesses today are the result of pride. In order for you to understand why you need God, you must be put in a position that demands more than you can humanly do on your own. While Satan subdues us with illnesses, God defeats illnesses when we place our faith in Him.

2 Chronicles 32: 24-26a "About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. He prayed, and the Lord gave him a sign that he would recover. But Hezekiah was too proud to show gratitude for what the Lord had done for him, and Judah and Jerusalem suffered for it. Finally, however, Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem humbled themselves."

The biggest problem with pride is the attitude that you can do it yourself. When you are in complete control then you don't have to submit to anyone. When you can't humanly control an illness without divine intervention then you must ask for help. This is when pride is subdued and faith begins to blossom.

I talk about the game of life and how we are in a multifaceted world challenge that demands that we learn. Every evil thing that happens to man is Satan trying to bring us to our knees so we will fail our game of life. God takes the evil that Satan wages against us and rescues us when we learn to humble ourselves and ask Him for help!

Hezekiah was a very wealthy king. His riches were so great that he could have anything he desired. But with riches comes the fatal problem, if we have no needs, then why do we need God? Humbling Hezekiah through a sickness that could not be cured by doctors taught him the value of God.

When you live in a world that demands that you work to live, it is easy to get caught up in what the world believes is living a good life. This is the reason why it is important to understand how our world works. This is the reason why we need to understand how the unseen spirit world interacts in the human world to bring us to revelations as we go through the different stages of life that are meant to teach us.

The story of Hezekiah reveals the unseen spiritual world where war is waged as a result of God's will. It helps us to understand the sheer terror of the game of life and the full cost of obtaining the knowledge that teaches each human being the difference between right and wrong. It also shows us the battle ground waged between the forces of good and evil that are meant to teach humans through the challenges they face in life.

King Hezekiah was being besieged by the King of Assyrian. The emperor boasted that he defeated many countries and that Jerusalem would be defeated next. This is God's reply to the pride of the Assyrian emperor.

2 Kings 19: 25-28, "Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble. The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.

But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me. I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth, and take you back by the same road you came."

The pride of the emperor of Assyrian was defeat when his army died suddenly outside of Jerusalem. He fled back to his country only to have two of his sons kill him when he was worshiping a pagan god. God had a plan for his life and when it was over his life was over too.

Isaiah 37: 36, "An angel of the Lord went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead!"

If you take the time to comprehend what this story illustrates then you will realize the complexity of the game of life. How every person plays a role in life. We have a chosen destiny and whether we know we are playing or not, we will take part in the game.

We have been given freewill in the game of life, but we are not in control of our destiny. God is always in control and He uses the Spirit world to put us in the paths that He wants us to travel. He has lessons for us to learn and we will learn it even if he has to take us through an illness in order for us to learn a valuable lesson in life.

God uses war, sicknesses, natural disasters, famine and plagues to teach us why we need Him to rescue us from evil. Satan uses evil to hurt and rob people of faith. God builds up our faith by taking us through the earth scattering challenges and teaching us why we need to depend on Him in order to survive.

So many people believe that they don't have to believe in anything but themselves. The story of Hezekiah proves that when you go through hard things that can't be humanly solved; you must believe in more than yourself in order to live. God has a plan for our lives and He will fulfill whether we think we are participating or not.

2 Chronicles 32: 31, "and even when the Babylonian ambassadors came to inquire about the unusual event that had happened in the land, God let Hezekiah go his own way only in order to test his character."

Every part of our lives has a plan to teach us. Everything we do and every situation in life we face we will be tested so that we obtain the goals God appointed for our life. We learn from what we have endured. We learn from what others have suffered. We learn because we are in a teaching world that takes sickness and teaches us wisdom we would have never understood without going through the pain.