Lilian B Yeomans was born June 23 1861 in Montreal, Canada, her father was a doctor who later moved his family to the United States and joined the Union Army. When he passed away, Lilian along with her mother decided to follow in his footsteps and become medical doctors. Both women graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Harbor and started a practice in Winnipeg among the poor, the unemployed, and less fortunate of society. Because of the long hours and hardship associated with the practice Lilian started to use morphine which she knew of, having treated addicts herself. She rationalized that she could control it and it made her work easier. But one day she realized that the drug had become her god and she was now a slave to it. Try as she could she could not get loose of its grip, she tried many, many times to quit but they all failed. She tried medical help but this lasted less than twenty four hours and she would be seeking the drugs once again.
Lilian was consuming larger amounts of drugs everyday till her health started to fail and she became bedridden. At this point the doctors had all but given up and were allowing her to stay drugged up or she would fall into shock and die. She knew about God but had never heard that God could heal physical needs. As a last resort she checked into John Alexander Dowies healing home in Chicago where prayer was given for the sick. The first thing Alexander Dowie did was to take all of Lilians drugs away; she had come to the healing home with a batch to ease her withdrawal.
For many days she was sick till it looked like she would not make it, vomiting, trembling and going without sleep or food. All this time her sister Amy was by her side taking care of her and reading from the bible while others prayed for her deliverance. Then as Alexander Dowie had said, things started to improve, first the vomiting, than the diarrhea and finally the trembling stopped and she was able to eat and sleep. She also started to read the bible and found where God did indeed heal both body, soul, and spirit. One day after a time of prayer and much reading she realized that she did not need the drugs, that she was healed and her health was improving; she would be free of drugs for the rest of her life.
In later years she would give many sermons on the dangers of morphine, opium, and heroin having been through this life herself and having come so close to death. She also wrote several books on the healing power of Jesus which are still available today. She never blamed the drugs for being an addict, only herself. When asked she said, "It was my entire fault". Her sister Amy stayed by her side all the while she was at the healing home in Chicago going through withdrawal, reading and praying for her, feeding and dressing her.
This had such a profound effect on her that she never practiced medicine again, she now believed that Jesus could and would heal all sickness and deceases. After a short time as a missionary in Canada among native tribes she started to hold healing services across Canada and the United States, teaching the word of God and showing the people how to receive their healing. She met with such a huge success that other leading men and women of faith came to her for consultation. After her mother's death in 1913 she started a Christ based healing house along with her sister where the sick were bought in, were prayed for and taken care of. They would read the bible to them and explain healing scriptures and how to confess these scriptures out loud.
She became a woman off faith and prayer who along with her sister led thousands to believe that the Lord was their only healer. One of her favorite scriptures was Acts 10:38, How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. She seems to be an unknown hero that many people have never heard of, and very little is known about all she did for the kingdom of God. This has more to do with her character and personality which kept her out of the limelight than with the quality of her work. She passed away December 3, 1942 at the age of 81 at her residence in Manhattan Beach, California.
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