THE BITTER PART OF HEALING 

by Rosemarie Attardo

The pain was intense and I was not sure how long I would be conscious or who would find me.  “Lord,” I moaned, “please send help.”

I had just been sitting with the boys in a Bhajan sing at our mission bungalow in a village in eastern India.  I knew that if I did not get away craftily, I would be trailed  to the bungalow by 35 boys singing in Marathi.  Not now!  I had managed to avoid their eyes as I crept out the door, but not Taruna’s.  During the sing, Taruna noticed my absence was too long and  came looking for me.

I heard her calling but I could not respond. I was in too much pain. She kept calling to me as she wandered through the bungalow.

As she approached me, all I could do was look up at her like a sick puppy dog.  She looked at me on the floor and then left.   However, in just moments, she  was back –- and with a pomegranate in hand!

While peeling it with the old knife, she told me that parts of it are poisonous.    As she handed me the  white part from  behind the  skin,   she   continued   “but   the right amount is also very healing. Put this in your mouth, chew, don’t swallow…and, you’ll hate me for this.”  Hesitant, but compliant, I obeyed my younger sister in Christ.

“YUK! Why are you giving me this bitter thing to chew on?  Taruna, I’m going to get you for this!”   I was screaming on the inside while she hovered over me with the stern look of a mother.  And that stern look kept me chewing.

Denying this ‘dying woman’s’ final request for water,  she sat and watched me struggle against the bitterness that was in my mouth.  Even though the second hand of the clock barely pushed one minute, I felt like I was chewing for an eternity.   Then she gave me a napkin and told me to spit the piece in it.  Ah!

I wished for a better taste in my mouth and not this bitter one. Within about five minutes,  my  annoyance at her for this so-called torture turned to deep gratitude as the pain subsided.

I felt the best that I had felt in days!  Wow!

I knew that God touched me,  but why did He have to hand me this bitter thing to chew on to do it?  While laying there, it dawned on me that I was receiving a revelation.  God was giving me the answer to a question I had asked some ten years before.

I had been studying the Bible and came across the scripture  in Exodus which mentions the priestly garments.  At the time, I wondered why God chose the pomegranate as the fruit to be fashioned as a woven work on the hem of the garment.

In Exodus 28:3-35, it mentions that pomegranates and bells are on the bottom of the priest’s garments.   Whenever the priest ministered in the Holy of  Holies, the sound of the pomegranate touching the bells on the bottom of the garment  was a reminder to the people in the outer court that someone was drawing nigh to God.

Now by God’s grace, I was healed as I chewed on this portion of the pomegranate.

Some time had passed and I was home on furlough praying with the intercessors stateside.  It was at that time that God completed the weaving of the cord that he started years before.  It wove itself into the fabric of my life as a young believer, then met me in India, and now once again while I was a at home on furlough.

One day in prayer, the intercessors and I began to sense that there needed to be a deeper cleansing and more contriteness of spirit before attempting to minister to the Lord. We needed to minister to the Lord and not just come with our intercessions.  He showed us that we had drawn near and pitched our tent close to His thinking we were ‘in’.  We could feel His presence because we were so  close, but we were not in the Holy of Holies.  We were ministering between the Holy Place and the outer court!   What a revelation!  Lord, what has happened to the group?

It had moved so far away from the Holy of Holies in worship and prayers,  doing the right things, but in the wrong place, and in garments tattered by years of ‘Christianity”!    We realized that yesterday’s confession wasn’t good for today!

He was going to once again cut the pomegranate for us.

Today was the day -- we had to get real,  so to speak, and not be afraid.  We had to get gutsy enough to confess not only the sins of past generations and the sins of our nation, but our own personal sins!   We had come too far in intercession and relationship to let the parasite of sin cast us to the floor like a sick puppy.

It’s easy  to confess  the  sins of  our forefathers, but to confess our personal sins in front of other intercessors so that we could pray for one another to be healed was dangerous and scary.  There is too much vulnerability and transparency!   As we began to ask God to show us our sins privately and corporately, we knew that asking Him to search us would be like deliberately asking to chew on the bitter part of the pomegranate.  None of us liked that part!

In that three-hour time frame, God let us taste the bitter part.   He showed us the hidden things that we usually don’t want to admit to.   And as we chewed on the heavenly pomegranate, we wept in His presence. We experienced the sweetness of the fruit as the bitterness of the rind brought healing.   As we prayed for one another in His sweet presence, we were being healed and exchanging garments.

As the priest put on his  garments, he had to handle the pomegranate to put it on.   And once on his garment, it had to produce a  certain sound - the sound of   intercession.

The pomegranate being the clacker for the bell helped make the sound of intercession.  What is the sound of intercession? It is the sound, not just of one   crying out to God or travail, it’s the sound of the pomegranates as they touch the bells on the hem of the garment.  As long as there was the noise it meant that someone had made themselves ready for this priestly ministry.

I  am  reminded  of  the  story in Matthew  9:18-22  in which  the woman with the issue of blood followed after  the  Lord.   She yearned within herself saying, “if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”   And she was made whole as she touched the border His  garment. (Luke 8:44)

She wasn’t just going after the physical border, but in the spirit she saw the pomegranate.  She heard the sound of His priesthood.  She heard the sound of the Holy of Holies in the crowd and knew He was the one who made the noise.

The scriptures says that even today in heaven, Jesus lives to make intercession for us.  He is the great intercessor and priest  whose  example we are to follow.

Like the woman following after Jesus, will someone in the outer court be drawn to the sound on  the hem of our intercessor’s garment?  As a holy priesthood, are we willing to be rid of the parasite of personal hidden sin?  Are we willing to taste the bitter part of the pomegranate so we can later wear it?

Suggested Resource: Third Heaven Intercession CD Set

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rosemarie Attardo is missionary having ministered in 46 countries throughout Eurasia, Europe, South America, and Asia. She has pioneered ministry training schools and has lived among un-reached people groups ministering the Gospel.  Rosemarie is the Founder and President of Vessels of Honor Ministries, Inc., which mentors women in strategic levels of intercession, ministry, and missions.

Visit the Vessels of Honor Ministries Website

Email Rosemarie