Monthly Archives: February 2026

February 26, 2026 · 5:40 pm

Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Sufferers Through Us? (Part 4)

The following is an excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who:

In the midst of the auto sales drought, I felt the Lord wanted me to fast. How long? I had no idea. Why? I did not ask and had no clue. So, I began fasting by drinking only water and morning coffee, but eating no food.

Did things improve for me? Heavens no! My auto sales drought continued.

On the fourteenth evening of the fast, a former client’s wife phoned me. I had mentioned to her husband that the Lord could heal his wife of her long-term ailment.

“Larry, do you really believe the Lord can heal me?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“When can you pray for me?”

My pastor, her husband and I showed up at the woman’s house two days later. The sick woman’s daughter-in-law was also there to support the woman. We chatted a bit until I felt the presence of God descending upon us. I walked over and began praying for the woman.

I discerned a demon caused her ailment rather than being a physical issue. As my prayers increased in tempo, I felt an inner urge to command it to leave.

“Go!” I proclaimed.

Then, I spun around and looked at the daughter-in-law.

“You’re going to have a baby. Fix up a room for your new baby,” I prophesied.

The daughter-in-law broke down and cried. She eventually collected herself enough to tell us how she and her husband had just undergone extensive tests at a Sioux City hospital, discovering they could never have children.

That night, on the sixteenth day of the fast, I ate again.

The woman phoned two nights later.

“Larry, do you know what ailment I suffered from?” she asked.

“No.”

“I had Tourette Syndrome,” she said and explained how her tics and rants kept her housebound and away from public gatherings for years. “I’m totally healed. Thanks.”

A year later, I received a card from the daughter-in-law announcing the birth of their baby girl.

So, what is Tourette Syndrome?

Tourette Syndrome is a disorder that involves repetitive movements or unwanted sounds (tics) that can’t be easily controlled. For instance, you might repeatedly blink your eyes, shrug your shoulders or blurt out unusual sounds or offensive words.

Tics typically show up between ages 2 and 15, with the average being around 6 years of age. Males are about three to four times more likely than females to develop Tourette syndrome.

Although there’s no cure for Tourette syndrome, treatments are available. (Mayo Clinic)

So, how can this help with healing dementia sufferers?

(Continued in Part 5)

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Filed under Christianity, Deliverance, Fasting, Healing, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Tagged as Bible, Christianity, Faith, Fasting, God, Healing, jesus, Prayer, Prophecy, Spiritual warfare

February 24, 2026 · 7:23 am

Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Sufferers Through Us? (Part 3)

This article came about because of close friends, both around my age. The wife fell and was going through rehab. Next, her husband died of a heart attack. Then, I learned the wife suffered from dementia/Alzheimer’s syndrome.

I messaged a son-in-law to learn how the wife was doing. He messaged back that she was struggling and the stress only exacerbated her dementia. One of the family members stayed with her during the night and part of the day.

I replied that we would continue to pray for her, also leaving a praying hands emoji with my comment.

Would Jesus have just tossed out a general statement like that and left a prayer emoji?

No, absolutely not! Jesus WOULD have healed her. So, what am I doing wrong?

Somehow, I had just accepted dementia as being one of those tough-luck, too-bad-for-you disorders. A disease that I really never gave a second thought about, even though the families of the seven million sufferers in America live with the sad debilitating symptoms on a daily basis…and with no hope of a medical cure.

Neil Cole, in his book, Pray, summed up my attitude on dementia: “We often underestimate Jesus as well. We pray for things that are far less than what He could actually do.”

So, what is dementia?

Dementia involves a decline in the mental abilities you need for daily living. It develops when there’s damage to the parts of your brain involved with learning, memory, decision-making and language.

It’s not a specific disease. It’s a clinical description of a set of symptoms caused by underlying brain diseases. The most common cause is Alzheimer’s disease.

If you have it, you might forget the name of a close friend or loved one. Or you might get lost in the neighborhood where you’ve lived for many years. It isn’t part of normal aging and may shorten a person’s lifespan.

How did Jesus handle sickness?

The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics and He healed them. (Matthew 4:24)

Somewhere amongst the above diseases is dementia. So, what does Jesus want us to do?

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. (John 14:12)

So, how can we possibly heal dementia sufferers?

(Continued in Part 4)

Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Suffers Through Us? (Part 2)

Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother Lazarus would not have died.”(John 11:24 ESV)

“Everyone in the story, including Jesus’ enemies, believed that He could have healed Lazarus if He had arrived sooner. His power to heal was unquestioned, even by His opponents. But they were limiting Jesus’ power. None had the imagination to think about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

“We often underestimate Jesus as well. We pray for things that are far less than what He could actually do. Even those of us with faith and enough experience to know better, still expect lesser things of Jesus than He is capable of doing.)

Begging. A passage of Scripture that has shaped my life every day for decades occurs twice in the New Testament. In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus tells us that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

His solution is not a program for leadership development or a teaching curriculum to produce more ministers. No, his solution is far more effective and simple. We are to pray for more workers – but not just pray. The word used is translated in some of our Bibles as “beseech.” What exactly does that mean? It means “to beg as if your life depends on it.”

We’ve all watched the scene in a drama where the hero is suddenly at the antagonist’s mercy. With a gun barrel inches from the good guy’s forehead, we see a sly grin on the bad guy’s face as he says, “Beg me for your life.”

When Jesus instructs us to beg as if our life depends on it, this is not what is happening. We must realize that He is the Lord of the harvest – it is His field. It is His desire to have a plentiful harvest even more than ours, so He is not wanting us to bend our will to His own. Instead, He is inviting us to want it as badly as He does.

When we beseech Him for this, we are being summoned to His level of concern, not the other way around. We don’t bend God to our own desire; true spirituality is quite the opposite. You can be sure that God will hear and answer this prayer, because it is His idea. It is actually His command for us, and it is His desire much more than ours.

When my children were young and in vulnerable situations, I would beg the Lord to watch over them. When my babies had a high fever and I felt helpless, I would beg for their healing.

(Both of the above excerpts are from PRAY: Finding Ways for Ordinary People to Connect with God by Neil Cole, 2020, Starling Initiatives Publications Series, eBook on Amazon, pages 40, 58, 59)

I believe that our prayers for Dementia/Alzheimer’s sufferers have underestimated the power of Jesus. We have prayed things for the sufferers that are far less than what Jesus could do for them.

And begging?

I believe that we are in a season that we can beseech the Lord for healing for dementia/Alzheimer’s sufferers.

But to do so, we have to make up our minds to be a part of the Church that hates losing!

(Continued in Part 3)

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Filed under Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, Prayer, Intercession, Encouragement

Tagged as Christianity, Prophecy, Church, Spiritual warfare, Prayer

February 17, 2026 · 9:33 am

Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Sufferers Through Us? (Part 1)

Dad parked the car in the parking lot of the First United Methodist Church. I opened Mom’s door and she stepped out. Dad walked around the front of the car and held Mom’s arm as they walked up the steps to the front door. I followed along behind them.

“Larry, is that you?”

I turned to see Gene and Lois Vogt walking toward me. I stopped to talk with them for a few minutes before heading inside. The couple walked ahead of me, up the steps into the church.

There was a long line of people stretching from the entry foyer down the middle aisle to Brad’s casket, sitting at the altar, in front of the pulpit. The line took a sharp left at the casket, heading toward a receiving line with Brad’s wife, Bobbie, and family members. Pictures of Brad sat atop his closed casket.

As I stood there, waiting for the line to move forward, the Lord whispered to my heart: “Brad’s not in the casket. He’s up here in heaven with Me.”

I could have jumped and danced the rest of the way to the casket. This was the answer to the question, which I asked the Lord over and over again on the way home from Iowa: did my friend Brad give his life to Jesus before he died? Now, we will see each other again sometime in the future, I thought. Praise the Lord.

My joy lasted just a few minutes until I reached the casket. I turned left toward the receiving line where I eventually would offer condolences to Bobbi and her family. Standing next to the altar, an agonizing grief swept over me like a tsunami wave. It overwhelmed me. I wept and struggled to hold back howls of mourning within my chest.

I finally arrived to where Brad’s wife, Bobbie, stood, but I could not talk. I wept and babbled. She ended up hugging and consoling me.

“I understand, Larry, I understand,” she said through sobs.

She introduced me to her sons and their families. I moved forward, shaking hands, but still emotionally out of control. I finished and headed toward my parents who sat in a middle pew on the left side of the sanctuary. The grief lifted and I felt better.

“Larry, you need to talk with Brad’s parents,” said Mom, pointing toward Hap and Marie Schoonhoven.

I turned around and the heavy grief fell upon me once again. I moved toward them, barely able to walk because of the agony I felt. They ended up consoling me.

I finally sat down next to my parents. The cloud of grief seemed to have passed. A little later, my sister Linda sat down next to me. The service began.

Sitting there, I asked a question in my mind: “Lord, what was that heavy grief all about?”

The Lord whispered to my heart almost instantly: “I allowed you to feel a fraction of the grief I feel when a person does not make it into his divine calling. Brad should have been a prophet.”

The heavy grief dumped itself on me again, but this time, it was much worse than before. I vomited tears. I held my hands over my mouth to hold back the wails attempting to erupt out of my throat. I leaned forward. I leaned back. I was out of control. My sister and Mom looked at me. People leaned forward in their pews to catch a glimpse of the out-of-control mourner.

After a while, the grief lifted. I held my head in my hands, trying to catch my breath. Sweat rolled down the side of my ribs from the all-out mourning. Peace eventually quieted me. Praise God, I thought, this is finally over.

I felt Him whisper to my heart: “My church is a bunch of nice losers. They lay their hands on the sick and pray for them, but when they die, they aren’t mad at all. They don’t check themselves out to see what happened or what they may have gone wrong with their prayers and actions. They accept defeats and don’t think any more about them.

“Now, Major League baseball teams are all filled with good players. Each player has to be one of the best in the world to make it to the Major Leagues. Losing teams have good players on their rosters, too. But after a while, losing teams’ players don’t mind losing because after all, they still receive their Major League paychecks and bonuses.

“But winning Major League baseball teams are different. They hate losing and will do anything and whatever it takes to win. They hate losing.

“I want My church to hate losing!”

This time the grief, which hit me, measured a ten on the Richter Scale. It was so bad my sister leaned over toward me.

“Don’t you think you should go outside and get a hold of yourself,” she whispered.

If I had attempted to move, I would have fallen on the floor. Everything would have erupted out of me, making a bad situation much worse than it was. The grief lifted after a few minutes, but I sat on pins and needles for the rest of the funeral service.

The Lord is the Master Director who chooses the times when He interacts with us. It has little to do with whether it is convenient and everything to do with His purposes and plans for our lives.

I will never forget the day of my friend’s funeral.

(Taken from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who, an Amazon eBook.)