Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi, who is dealing with extremely advanced stomach cancer, stated he still anticipates God will send a miracle to heal him.
Qureshi, formerly a Muslim author and speaker with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), posted a YouTube vlog on Wednesday telling his online followers he still believes God will use his medical condition to glorify His name.
Because Qureshi is predicted to have a 1 percent chance of survival after recent medical scans revealed radiation hasn't worked, he said he received calls and messages from people inquiring if he had stopped feeling optimistic.
"No, I haven't given up hope. I really, truly, honestly do believe that I will be healed, against all medical odds, all medical statistics," Qureshi said. "I believe that God's intent is to glorify Himself through my miraculous healing."
The vlog update was posted after RZIM shared a heartfelt online tribute to Qureshi in which Zacharias explained that Qureshi attended the recent RZIM itinerant team meeting in Atlanta to say his "preliminary goodbye" to RZIM team members, in case his health condition worsens before the next team meeting.
"Their next itinerant team meeting isn't until the following year. So, I just wanted to make sure while I was there that I got to say goodbye to the people I love because I love the speaking team," Qureshi said. "There are people there on the team that are like brothers and sisters to me and Dr. Zacharias is like a spiritual father to me. So, I wanted to make sure we had a good, proper chance, in case the worse should happen, to say goodbye."
Qureshi said the meeting occurred days after he found out his cancer had metastasized and treatment hadn't worked, according to the Christian Post.
"When the results came back and they saw that my cancer had spread into my chest, I was really distraught and it was right after that that I met with the team," Qureshi said. "So the context of that meeting was that - the most recent scan. They were very gracious. By the way, I haven't worked with RZIM since I was diagnosed. I haven't been able to do any work at all. I have spoken at a few places here and there. Otherwise, I hadn't really had a job since August."
"Seeing them was a very emotional time. I had just received the news from the radiation results that hadn't worked," he said.
"I told them, 'I am hoping in the Lord. God can and still could do a miracle. I am actually hoping for Him to do a miracle and believe He will. But, in case He does not, this may be the last time I will see you.'"
"When you look through Scripture, when God heals people, it brings Him glory. Now, that's not to say that suffering well can't bring God glory. Absolutely, it can," Qureshi said. "When I look at Scripture, I look at God bringing glory to Himself through healing people. I pray that is what He will do in my case. He has not changed. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."
Qureshi said he went to the doctor last Wednesday, and was told that the doctor is looking into providing second-line treatments, one of which is a immunotherapy.
"God can work miracles through these things. Maybe it will be that I am the first person that when immunotherapy is given to them, the person is totally healed," he said. "Who knows? It could happen. I still believe God does miracles through medicine."
