She is  a medical doctor from Zimbabwe who was called by God in 2010 to start a medical ministry called Eagles Wings.

It is a ministry that seeks to help people heal from illnesses by applying scriptural truths alongside insights from medical science.

The irony was that, even as Dr Michelle Strydom got the healing ministry on the road, she became very sick herself.

Dr Strydom speaking at the Healing and Sanctification conference in the Church of Our Saviour last week.

“Abba Father called me to steward this medical ministry for Him and the irony is there have been seasons when my life went in the opposite direction to His prophetic call in my life,” said Dr Strydom as she addressed an audience of over 500 people at a recent Healing and Sanctification conference held on November 13 to 16 at the Church of Our Saviour along Margaret Drive.

For instance, she shared how certain poisonous mindsets and spiritual strongholds like bitterness and unforgiveness can affect hormones and cells in the body that cripple the immune system in the long-term and lead to cancer.

She also traced the roots of certain diseases like asthma to the fear of abandonment.

The hold of unforgiveness

During this time, she was also facing similar challenges in her personal life.

“I went through a traumatic experience where my heart was severely broken and I got life threatening asthma after that, even though I had never experienced an allergy before,” said Dr Strydom.

“So I had to apply the principles of my own teaching to overcome the fear of abandonment of those closest to me that have rejected me in a very painful way,” she added.

But the pain was so deep that it took her over a year to forgive those people.

A prophetic word on your destiny can “plunge you into a season of distress in which God begins to develop you”,  Dr Strydom told the audience of 500 at the recent conference.

“I was teaching people things about how bitterness and unforgiveness causes cancer and I knew very well how dangerous it is to hold on to bitterness and I really wanted to forgive them but, at that time, it was just so hard that I didn’t know how,” she shared.

Soon after, she had another experience of being deeply wounded and harshly mistreated, and she developed severe lung disease.

“It was so painful that I could hardly breathe,” said Dr Strydom.

Then at the age of 31, she learnt that she had severe angina, the precursor to a heart attack.

“At that point I decided, that’s it, I am giving up Eagles Wings. I said to the Father, I don’t think I can handle this, I am going back to surgery, it is much easier,” said  Dr Strydom.

She told God that hers was supposed to be a healing ministry based on Isaiah 61 – to heal the broken hearted and set the spiritual and physical captives free – but the reality was that the ministry was killing her.

“You called me to reach the broken hearted and the irony is that I am literally going to die of a broken heart,” she told her Abba Father.

Purpose in pain

In the pit of brokenness, God spoke to her and she began to understand His purpose in the pain.

She learnt that the same prophetic word that God gives a person regarding his purpose and destiny for his life will test him.

This is seen in the story of Joseph in Genesis. He had a prophetic dream about how God would make him great but before he could rule and impact nations, he was put through trials and a season of distress.

David received an interesting insight into Joseph’s life in Psalm 105:19: “Until what he has said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”

“There will be a time in your life when Abba Father will give a prophetic word about His purpose and destiny for your life,” Dr Strydom told the audience. 

“That declaration may plunge you into a season of distress in which God begins to develop you, often using the trauma of your circumstances to sanctify you and remove things in your life that will prevent you from operating in the fullness of your destiny,” she added.

For her, she realised she was fortunate enough to have good parents who gave her a wonderful, stable and loving childhood. And so, she had never really experienced the pain of a broken heart, ironically, until she started Eagles Wings.

“I learnt that I cannot reach out to the broken hearted until I experience deep brokenness myself,” said Dr Strydom.

“The season of distress and development is designed to bring you into greater followship with God and to a place of humility, servanthood and stewardship,” she added.

Sometimes, one has to go through the test again, at a deeper level.

For example, Joseph got through all the trials and disappointment when he was thrown into the pit and sold as a slave and he eventually did well in Potiphar’s house. Yet later, he was falsely accused in the house and thrown into jail for a crime that he did not commit.

“In prison, he is going through the same set of circumstances again but at a deeper level. Sometimes it feels as if our lives are going around in circles,” remarked Dr Strydom.

“But each time you go around that circle you are supposed to go deeper with God so that He can propel you to greater levels of victory, spiritual growth and blessing,” she added.

For her, she said she experienced a second round of betrayal from people around her that led to her developing angina after her first episode with betrayal and the subsequent lung disease.

The central thesis that guides her teaching on healing is how disease begins in the spiritual realm and then develops through the spirit-soul-body connection.  

She posits that having toxic thoughts and mindsets over a long period of time will lead to physical symptoms of a disease manifesting itself in the body.  

At the conference, she urged believers to submit to the process of distress and development.

“The process is about you and God becoming best friends,” she said.

“Going down to the depths in your cooperation will determine the heights He can take you in the fulfilment of His destiny for your life.”