Divine Healing in US Private Practice

In my previous post, we covered Dr. Andrew Stenhouse's Experiences in Afghanistan. Now in this segment, we'll cover his experiences of the Lord healing his patients during his private practice in the USA.

Audio

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Returning to the United States carried a deep sense of homecoming for Andrew. As a U.S. citizen born in Detroit, Michigan, he was drawn back to Texas to reconnect with two exceptional Texan surgical colleagues whom he had worked alongside in Afghanistan.

His first appointment brought him to Tyler, east of Dallas, where he joined the Southwest Medical School's regional branch focusing on long-term tuberculosis and chest diseases. Yet, after spending a year there while seeking where the Lord would have him plant his life’s work, Andrew felt a clear leading toward private practice.

Weighing his options, he declined a prestigious appointment as the Commissioner of Health for Texas. Another potential opportunity in Lubbock was quickly dismissed when he arrived to survey the city and watched a massive dust storm roll in—interpreting the sudden wall of wind as a clear "no" from the Lord. Finally, he visited Amarillo. The city immediately felt like home. There, he met a senior internal medicine physician looking for someone to take over his practice. Three months later, the beloved doctor retired, passing away peacefully with Andrew holding his hand when the older physician's wife could not be there.

Andrew assumed the practice, stepping into a thirty-year season of private care that he cherished deeply. Beyond practicing conventional internal medicine, his office became a place where medical science and divine healing intersected. Recognizing that physical ailments often carried spiritual roots, Andrew frequently encouraged his believing patients to incorporate daily family communion.

The results were astonishing. When a pastor scheduled for surgery to remove a tumor followed Andrew's guidance to take communion with his wife, a pre-surgical exam revealed the mass had completely vanished, shocking the operating surgeon. In another instance, a patient scheduled for surgery suffered from chronic back and knee pain. Before the operation, he was healed through taking communion and Andrew’s prayer. However, the physical trauma of the subsequent surgery for a separate issue caused the pain to flare back up. When Andrew prayed for him a second time in the hospital, the relief was instantaneous—prompting the joyful patient to race down the hospital hallways pushing an IV pole, playfully telling everyone that if they wanted to get rid of pain, they needed Dr. Stenhouse to pray for them.

On that same remarkable day, Andrew encountered a severe case involving another pastor who presented with a massive, melon-sized tumor protruding from his neck—growing half an inch every week despite aggressive medical treatments. Surrounded by the patient's wife and six board members, Andrew sought the Lord for guidance and received four explicit instructions: Do not touch the tumor; continue seeing the other doctors; tell him how much God loves him (addressing the spiritual burden of guilt and the enemy's lies he had been carrying); and pray for him. 

Andrew gathered the believers in the room, carefully obeying the Lord's instruction not to touch the tumor while reassuring the pastor to continue seeing his other doctors. He spoke of God's profound love—causing the pastor to break down in his arms—and offered a simple prayer of faith. Six to eight weeks later, the patient's private doctor called Andrew with incredible news: the massive melon-sized growth had shrunk down to the size of a small marble. Similar healings followed for patients dealing with conditions ranging from hernias to chronic illnesses.

Whether treating routine internal medicine or witnessing miraculous recoveries, Andrew consistently deflected all personal credit. For thirty years in Amarillo, his practice stood as a testament to what happens when a physician relies not solely on human intellect, but on a willing heart attuned to the guidance of the Father.

Author's note: The next chapter is Dr. Stenhouse's US Medical Practice in the VA Hospital and Hospice. See the Home page of this blog for more podcasts on the life of Dr. Stenhouse. You may access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master. Now I'd like to ask a very important question.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org. 

Divine Healing in US Private Practice (Transcript)

In my previous post, we covered Dr. Andrew Stenhouse's Experiences in Afghanistan. Now in this segment, we'll cover his experiences of the Lord healing his patients during his private practice in the USA.

Audio

Download the podcast

Len: Welcome to A Willing Heart. This is Len Lacroix, and I'm here again tonight with my guest, Dr. Andrew Stenhouse. And we're going to be talking about his time in the United States, where he had many experiences, one of which is his private practice that he had for thirty years in the United States. So, Andrew, I want to welcome you back to the program.

Dr. Stenhouse: Thank you so much, Len! It's great to be back with you and with our guests that may be listening in.

Len: Yes. So I want to begin by talking about your private practice in the U.S. for thirty years. So first of all, why did you immigrate to the U.S.?

Dr. Stenhouse: Well I think the reason I came back to the U.S. was I have my United States passport…

Len: Right.

Dr. Stenhouse: …and I was born here. And secondly, the two surgical doctors that I was working with in Afghanistan are both Texans and were from the Dallas area. So it was natural for me to continue my relationship with both of them. They were both excellent physicians and surgeons, and we worked very well together. So that was how I came to Texas--was to be close to both of those gentleman.

Len: Yeah. So that's how the Lord led you to Texas, out of all the places you could have picked.

Dr. Stenhouse: Yes!

Len:  So initially you went to--was it Tyler, Texas that you started off at but didn't stay there?

Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, one of the things I did when I came back was take an appointment with the Southwest Medical School in Dallas.* And they had a section of their university at Tyler, Texas; and this was in relationship to, predominately, long-term tuberculosis care.

So I was given this opportunity to join them, which I did and worked with both of the surgeons and with the hospital in Tyler, Texas.

[NOTE: UT Southwestern Medical Center (University of Texas) is one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers.]

Len: And is Tyler in the Dallas area?

Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, it's east of Dallas.

Len: Ok.

Dr. Stenhouse: And—but it was more of a tuberculosis hospital and a chest-disease hospital.

Len: Ok. And how long did you work in that assignment?

Dr. Stenhouse: Well, with this assignment, I worked approximately one year, while I looked around to see if I could find the one I felt the Lord would be having me do for the rest of my life--and it would be a private practice, I felt in my spirit. And so that was why I made my base there.

Len: Ok. Now you ended up moving from there over to Amarillo, and that ended up being where you settled in. Tell me about how you began your private practice there in Amarillo.

Dr. Stenhouse: Well I was looking for the perfect situation for me and was offered multiple options. One of them was to be the commissioner for health for Texas, but I didn't feel to take that position, even though it was a prestigious position.

And then the next one was to take a position in Lubbock, Texas. And I was thinking about that; and as I looked out the window, I saw a huge dust storm coming towards us. And I said to the lady--I said, “Y'all can get these here?”

She said, “Oh, yes, these dust storms are common in Lubbock.”

And so I took that as a “no” from the Lord, bringing up that dust storm.

So then I came up to Amarillo. And I liked the feel of Amarillo; I felt almost at home here. And I was introduced to an internal medicine doctor, who was very senior, and who was actually looking for an internist to take over his practice. So we met together, and we started working together. And he retired three months after we had been working together.

He was wonderful! He was a wonderful believer. And even when his wife couldn't hold his hand when he was dying, I wouldn't leave his side and took his hand. And he passed into heaven peacefully.

Len:  And so then you ended up at that practice by yourself, right?

Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, that's correct.

Len: You assumed all of his patients and the whole practice, and you continued on there.

Dr. Stenhouse: That's right, yes. It was it was absolutely wonderful! And I loved the patients, I loved the practice, and I loved the gentleman that I took it from.

Len: Yeah! So from there, what are some of the experiences that you had in private practice?

Dr. Stenhouse: Well I’ll just give one or two. And what I found out, Len, was that I would pray for people, and the Lord would heal them. The Lord would show me what was wrong with them, and then I would heal them.

But then a lot of the healings that were in believers, He would just say to me, “Get them to take communion as a family, or husband and wife take it together.” And when they did that, the healing occurred.

For example, I had a gentleman that came in with a tumor. He was a pastor, and he was sent to me in order to clear him for surgery. And I did that, and I told him that this is what the Lord just showed me for him; and I thought that he should do that because I feel the Lord might heal him without the surgery. And sure enough, he did that--he and his wife—and, when he went to see the surgeon, the surgeon was shocked because there was no mass now.

Len: Wow! Praise God. That's amazing. Well do you have one other that you can share today for this segment?

Dr. Stenhouse: Well one of the other ones was a gentleman I was asked to see, who had back pain and high blood pressure. Well I was just taking care of his blood pressure, and then he came back into the hospital without any pain in his back and in his knee because the Lord had healed him. And they were taking communion in the same way.

And so he had his surgery, and the next morning when I saw him, when I was going to check his blood pressure, he said, “Doc, the pain’s come back!” So the pain that had gone had come back with the surgery.

And he said, “Doc, would you pray for me again?”

I said, “Sure!” So I prayed for him. And when I was in the hospital on that floor later in the day, seeing another patient, he was running around the hospital with his IV pole to support him and saying, “If you want to get rid of your pain, get Dr. Stenhouse to pray for you.”

Len: Amazing!

Dr. Stenhouse: So the surgeons weren’t excited about that.

Len: Yeah! Ha-ha! You could put the surgeons out of business that way.

Dr. Stenhouse: Ha-ha! No, I wouldn't do that. It was the Lord that did it.

Len: So there was also a story about a person who got healed of a large tumor, that you saw in a hospital--I think it was a pastor. Did you want to tell us about that?

Dr. Stenhouse: Yes. This is another wonderful healing that occurred. And it was actually the healing the same day I--or the healing that saw the patient for the same day that the gentleman was running around with the pole.

So anyway, I went in to see him. And he had a huge tumor extending outside the left side of his neck, way past his shoulder, and it was growing by about a-half-an-inch every week, in spite of all the treatment they could give him.

Len: Wow!

Dr. Stenhouse: And it was the size of a big melon but it was going further out. And so I saw him and examined him. He was a pastor, too, and he had his wife there, and about six members of his board were also there.

So anyway, I went back to the-- after checking him, I went back to the desk, and I sat there. And I put my head in my hands, and I said, “Lord, help! What am I to do?”

And He said--the Lord spoke to me and said, “If you do these four things, I'll heal him.”

So I said, “Yes, Lord.”

So He told me the first one was not to touch the tumor; number two was to continue seeing the doctors; and number three was, “Tell him how much I love him.” And when he heard that, he fell into my arms.

And the Lord showed me, then, that he had believed the devil's lies about something he may have done or may not have done.

And then the fourth thing was, “If you pray for him, I’ll heal him.” So I told him that.

Len: Praise God!

Dr. Stenhouse: So, I got everybody settled in the room—made sure everybody were believers—and they were. And then I prayed a simple prayer to the Lord. And six weeks later, I get a call from his private doctor, telling me that it was now the size of a small marble.

Len: Wow! Praise the Lord! It went from the size of a large melon, down to the size of a small marble in—six weeks you said?

Dr. Stenhouse: Six to eight weeks, yes.

Len: Wow! Praise the Lord!

Dr. Stenhouse: So, those were two that occurred on the same day.

Len: Yeah.

Dr. Stenhouse: And the other one, of course, was different. But I've had a lot of patients tell me how much they improved—not necessarily with major problems, but with other problems—when they took communion on a daily basis.

Len: So, there was one other healing that we have time for, if you want to share about it today. And that was the person with the hernia that got healed?

Dr. Stenhouse: Yes, there was a gentleman that came in that had a hernia. And the Lord indicated that he wanted him to do the communion on a daily basis. So I told him that, and I told him I’d pray for him. And I did that, too, and he was healed.

Len: Wow! Praise the Lord! Those are some amazing stories, Andrew. And I really appreciate you sharing all that today about your private practice in Texas that you had for thirty years there in Amarillo. And, now that we're coming to the close of our segment today, I want to thank you very much for being with us on this program, and [I] look forward to our next conversation together when we meet next.

Dr. Stenhouse: Isn’t the Lord, wonderful?

Len: He absolutely is. He’s awesome.

Dr. Stenhouse: Thank you, Len. Goodnight.

Len: Goodnight, Andrew.

Author's note: The next chapter is Dr. Stenhouse's US Medical Practice in the VA Hospital and Hospice. See the Home page of this blog for more podcasts on the life of Dr. Stenhouse. You may access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master. Now I'd like to ask a very important question.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.