Unshakable Faith: Pastor George Sawyer on Building Strong Believers in a Shifting World
About this episode
Pastor George Sawyer of Calvary Assembly of God in Tanner, Alabama, joins Philip Cameron to share a remarkable testimony of divine healing and the biblical promise of restoration. After discovering a lump on his neck, George was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma — a blood cancer carried through the lymphatic system — and sent to UAB Hospital in Birmingham for urgent evaluation. What followed stunned his medical team: a full-body PET scan revealed no other cancer, and a bone marrow biopsy came back completely clear. "If you can't find cancer," George told his oncologist, "I think I have stage none." George unpacks the biblical distinction between mere return and true restoration, drawing on the story of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4, whose son died and was raised — and who later recovered every harvest, every income, and every possession lost during seven years of exile. "Biblical restoration in the hands of God," he explains, "is significantly increased and made better than the original condition." He also speaks directly to pastors discouraged by post-COVID church decline, urging them not to resign or retire but to prepare for restoration. This episode is a faith-building word for anyone facing a health crisis, a season of loss, or a church in recovery. Visit calvaryassembly.org to connect with Pastor George Sawyer's ministry.
Part of our Restore collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“God takes your messes as the ingredients for his miracles. The stuff and the failures you've had that the devil is beating you up with is the very thing that God is going to use as the ingredients — like when you bake a cake, he's gonna take failure and hurt and tears and disappointments, and he's gonna mix it all together and turn your disappointments into a miracle.”
“They said, well, pastor, we can't find cancer, so we're gonna say you have stage one. I said, well, if you can't find cancer, I think I have stage none.”
“Biblical restoration in the hands of God, the creator, the God of the universe, the mighty God — when he restores, it is significantly increased and made better than the original condition. Better than before. He catches us up. He makes the enemy pay for the attack that came against us. And we are significantly better at the end than we were before trauma ever came. That's the restoration of our God.”
What's Discussed
Pastor George Sawyer of Calvary Assembly of God in Tanner, Alabama, recounts his diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma — a fast-spreading blood cancer found in a lymph node — and his subsequent miraculous healing confirmed by a clear full-body PET scan and bone marrow biopsy at UAB Hospital in Birmingham. He teaches that biblical restoration, unlike human restoration, returns things in a condition significantly better than the original, drawing on the Shunammite woman's story in 2 Kings 4. He also delivers a prophetic word to pastors struggling with post-COVID congregation losses, declaring 2025 a year of restoration.
- Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Diagnosis Revealed
- Clear PET Scan and Bone Marrow Results
- Chemo Journey and God's Prophetic Word
- Biblical vs. Human Restoration Defined
- Shunammite Woman: Promise, Loss, and Return
- Timing of God and Prophetic Declaration
- Post-COVID Church Restoration Word for Pastors
- Healing Testimony and Closing Prayer
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
Auto-generated · click any timestamp to jump the video
Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith Today. My name is Philip Cameron. And boy, do we have a show for you today. I have a dear friend, a great man of God on my program today, George Sawyer, pastors Calvary Assemblies of God in Tanner, Alabama.
Philip:We were just talking — in fact, we're late being on the program today because we were talking about the promises of God. If you are going through a struggle in your life today, let me tell you, God has an answer for your problems. God is gonna bring back to you press down, shaken together and running over. God's gonna give you back what the devil has stolen from you. And I am so thrilled to have my dear friend back with us today. He's going through a tremendous battle, and God has delivered him and set him free from the sickness. And you're gonna be hearing about that today.
Philip:If you love your pastor, listen to me. If you love your pastor, I want you to call him right now. Text him and say, watch Daily Faith. It's really simple — dailyfaith.tv. That's all it is. Dailyfaith.tv. And if you'll call him and say, watch this today, it's about restoration. You don't understand the man in your life, the pastors in your life, the man of God and woman of God that God's put in your life. They're human. They go through the same doubts and fears, the same struggles, exactly the same as you're going through. But the difference is on a Sunday morning between the back door and the pulpit, they've gotta get over their hangups and all the doubts and fears and be there faithful every Sunday.
Philip:I know personally, and I know how it is when I communicate with my friends and my pastor friends, a thought is worth a million dollars. A man of God, a word of encouragement can lift, can do more in his spirit than anything else. And I really believe that today's program is gonna be an answer for your prayers. If you'll help us by sharing the program today, just like the program, you share it with your friends. And we are growing. God is blessing Daily Faith. We are amazed. We started this in the time of COVID just to help other pastors kind of navigate through those crazy days.
Philip:And it's grown. We are on several networks now. God is blessing us, and we want you to be a part of our world as we are part of yours. We walk by faith every day. We live by faith every day. And what Daily Faith is, is an affirmation in your life as to what God can do in you. God is not done with you yet. It isn't over until God says it's over. It isn't over. And he makes miracles out of messes and the ingredients of your failure.
Philip:Now listen, this is the Lord speaking through me to you right now, and this is only a warmup for the real show that's gonna start in a few seconds. Listen to me. God takes your messes as the ingredients for his miracles. The stuff and the failures you've had that the devil is beating you up with is the very thing that God is going to use as the ingredients — like when you bake a cake, he's gonna take failure and hurt and tears and disappointments, and he's gonna mix it all together and turn your disappointments into a miracle.
Philip:We are just delighted to have you with us. My son Andrew is in Moldova right now. We are on the cusp of doing something incredible, a brand new ministry, a brand new outreach, along with what we're already doing there. And I am just so excited to see what God is doing. Listen to me. If you're gonna watch a program today on TV or on your device, this is the one, because there's a rhema coming from heaven into your heart. I believe this is your time for a miracle. I am delighted you're here. Welcome to Daily Faith.
Philip:Hey, my friends, welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am delighted to have you with us today. We are seeing God do some crazy things. Let me tell you something. The famine that the prodigal son experienced that drove him to a pig pen — remember the story — the Bible says he would've eaten the husks that the pigs were eating. Husks, corn husks, means that there was vegetation. The famine wasn't in the land, the famine was in the boy.
Philip:If there had been a famine, the pigs would've been eaten. This wasn't Israel. This was a pagan country, a country that didn't have the same restrictions on meat that the Jews did. And so the famine wasn't in the country. The famine was in the boy, that it ended up losing all that he'd received. And at that moment, a divine return happened. And he says, I'm going back home to my dad. I can live if I'm a servant. I'm living better there than I am here.
Philip:And he came home not realizing that waiting for him wasn't a rebuke from the father, wasn't, get away from here, you failure. You've taken half my money. You're no use, go away. No, that's not how the father works. The Bible says, when he was yet a long way off, the Father saw him and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And he says, my son that was dead is alive. And he brought him home, put a ring on his finger, the ring of sonship, put a robe, a brand new robe, new shoes, and he killed the fatted calf.
Philip:Let me tell you something, you are not going to get hurt and slapped around by the Heavenly Father when you come home. He's gonna welcome you with love, and he's gonna restore to you the things that the locusts have eaten. And we are just so excited. I've got a great friend, a great man of God in the program today, George Sawyer, pastors Calvary Assemblies of God in Tanner, Alabama. And boy, he's going through a struggle this last while, but God has restored, and he's a revelation word for you today that you are not finished.
Philip:You may be at the starting line, nevermind the finish line, because God is going to bring back to you, press down, shaken together and running over, everything the devil's stolen. And I'm excited for you to meet him in a few moments. As you know, we have a mission work in Moldova. 35 years ago, I adopted a wee boy from an orphanage in Romania. I had no idea, I had no interest in missions. We were building a Bible school in Scotland. I was on TV in America. I'd written a book that had sold 300,000 copies. I was busy.
Philip:And my dad called me and told me about this horrible stuff he was watching on BBC, the television network in Great Britain, about orphanages and orphans. And I said, oh. And he began, he was crying. He said, we're gonna do something. And I said, dad, this is not — I'm not interested in this kind of stuff. And he called me every day. And one day he said, if you won't go with me — he'd just recovered from cancer surgery, we didn't know if he was gonna live or die — and he says, I'm going by myself. If you won't go, and if I die on the way, it's your fault.
Philip:And I was hauled by him to Romania, saw this boy in this orphanage, walked in and the Lord says, that's your son. And it took me a year to adopt him. And the year that it took me to adopt him, the orphanage had no toilets. So the old sat on coffee cans, they'd cut their bottoms. It was horrible. So I put in new toilets, fixed the roof, put in new beds, changed the whole place. And in that year, became addicted to changing someone's life that had nothing to offer us. And so for the last 35 years, that's what we've done.
Philip:We have a tremendous place called Vatra Village. It's the most amazing place. A village of homes right on the largest lake in the country, was built originally for rich people. And they poisoned the lake with chlorine to kill algae in it, and no one wanted to live on a lake filled with chlorine. And that's been fixed now. But we bought this place and we take young kids in, primarily young girls. In Moldova, a girl that's caught by the trafficker is worth $300,000 a year per girl. And we take them to our village in Vatra.
Philip:We put them back in school and tell them that God loves them. If you're born, God has a plan. And these kids, these amazing kids, come in as orphans and become sons and daughters, and then they become missionaries. And they literally go out. Every one of our homes — we also have a home in Ukraine — and every one of our homes adopts a village every year, ministers to every widow, every broken family, every young person, has youth camps all through the year, leads every person to the Lord Jesus, takes them to church and grounds them in. It's amazing what these orphan kids are doing.
Philip:And every year they have summer camps, the most amazing camps, and they go to villages that have never heard the gospel. And for a week they take the place over. They just sent me this — our camp season has just begun. In fact, my two granddaughters are in Moldova for a whole summer of camp. And we just got this the other day. And our kids make these videos. We don't have a production team there. Our own kids make these videos, do the whole thing, and they send them to me so I can show them to you. Watch these kids, orphans reaching out to other kids.
Philip:Oh, I love it. I love it. I love that the kids that were thrown in the garbage heap — talk about restoration — that no one wanted, told in the orphanage every day by the workers, your mother doesn't want you, your father doesn't want you, you're garbage, you'll never be anything. And to watch them turn into doctors and lawyers and police officers and social workers. Many of our kids now go to the embassies in Chisinau and interpret and translate for the embassies. That's how qualified they are.
Philip:And from the garbage heap, God has a way of restoring. We need your help. We are about to open these two new homes. When we open a home, it costs us 300 people giving a dollar a day. That's what it takes to open a new home. And we have two brand new houses that are being built as we speak. We've got amazing new property that God has given to us. And each one of these houses will hold 25 kids between the age of four and 16. And before we can open them — one is completely finished. In fact, you're gonna see the inside of it.
Philip:This house here is finished and the people we bought it from had the worst color taste in paint I've ever seen in my life. And this week they're gonna start painting these houses. Look at that. Have you ever seen anything as ugly in your life as that pink? Oh my goodness. But we're taking out those fancy beds and putting in bunk beds and transforming these two houses into a home and a haven for 50 kids between the age of four and 16.
Philip:And we can't do it until we get 300 folk to say, I'll make this happen. And you can do that today. A dollar a day can change someone's life. Your gift can give a young person hope. What's happened is they've emptied the orphanages into a social program that's fostering these kids. And drunks are taking these kids in and getting 30-odd bucks a month from the government for booze, and they've got a slave in their house to work for them, abuse the kid, and drink the money that the government's giving them.
Philip:It's a horrible situation. And we just think that we can do better than that. And if we can get these kids into our homes, instead of being battered and abused and all kinds of mess between now and the time they're 16, we can get them earlier, fill them with Jesus, let them know the Lord Jesus. So at 16 they can come to Vatra Village, and in Vatra Village they can get an education and change a nation for Christ. Will you pray with me and be a part of it?
Philip:Your gift today, you can help us. A one-time gift will help us. And we're paying in installments of $150,000 in July. There's $150,000 needed. And so we are just believing God for an absolute miracle. So please, the address is on the screen. And by reaching out to us, you can be a part of this miracle today. Let the Lord speak to you in the name of Jesus.
Philip:I'm so delighted to have a dear friend with me, a great man of God who pastors an incredible church in Alabama. And he has gone through a real battle and struggle, but out of your struggles, listen to me, I've learned this over my own experience. When you go through a storm, there's a message that God is imprinting upon your life that you'll never forget. And I am excited to have Pastor George Sawyer with me today. George, God bless you, my brother. I'm thrilled to have you with me on Daily Faith today. Tell us what you have just been going through.
George Sawyer:Well, thank you. It's great to be here. Let me say thank you, Philip, and God bless you for the ministry to these orphans, the young people in Moldova. It is absolutely the hand of God. It is, and I just celebrate it. Thank you. Bless you. Thank you for what your family and the ministry — an honor always to be with you. Well, Philip, God has given me just supernatural health throughout my life. I've never been in the hospital. I don't take any medicine, not because I think there's anything wrong with that, I just haven't needed to. But then this last year, a lump came up on my neck.
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Diagnosis Revealed
George Sawyer:I kept an eye on this thing, and local doctors took a look, couldn't decide what was going on with me. They sent me down to UAB hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. They removed this lump. And the doctor came in very concerned. He said, sorry to tell you, pastor, this is non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It was in a lymph node. I'm concerned. So they immediately sent me to an oncologist.
George Sawyer:It was quite an overwhelming day. My wife and daughters were with me, one of my granddaughters. I'll never forget the look on their faces that day, Philip, just the fear, the shock.
Philip:Having that in a lymph node is a terrible place to have it. That will carry it through the whole body.
George Sawyer:Through the whole body. So very sobering news. So immediately sent me to an oncologist, a wonderful female believer, doctor, oncologist. And she continued — I said for a little bit there I felt like I was kind of in the book of Job, like, who's gonna quit bringing bad news into the house, you know? And so not only do they say you have cancer, it's a blood cancer. It's one of the fastest spreading cancers we have. They were very concerned. They immediately sent me to do a full body PET scan expecting to find other places in my body.
George Sawyer:Well, to their surprise, there was not a single trace of cancer anywhere in my body. The doctor says, I don't understand this, it doesn't make sense. So they drill into my hip bone and extract bone marrow. Lymphoma being a blood cancer, the bone marrow biopsy would be the acid test.
Clear PET Scan and Bone Marrow Results
Philip:It would migrate to that. That would be the definitive test.
George Sawyer:Yes. And so it comes back completely clear. And they said, well, we don't know what to say. I said, well, you're gonna have to say God healed me. And they said, well, pastor, we can't find cancer, so we're gonna say you have stage one. I said, well, if you can't find cancer, I think I have stage none.
George Sawyer:And so, you know, she smiled, but not quite sure what to do. So she said, just to be careful, you know, this is really unprecedented. And God had healed me, Philip. God had healed me right in the beginning. There was plenty of medical evidence of cancer. Surely it was there. It was. And yet now they can't find a single cell. She says, I'm gonna ask you to take these four chemo treatments because we just want to — this will tie it up. She said, you won't have to worry the rest of your life. You'll be out from under.
George Sawyer:And I thought, well, the Lord's healed me, I don't know if I need to do this. But I thought about my family, my church. I said, you know, I don't wanna have any regrets. I want to do this.
Philip:Do it all.
George Sawyer:Do it all. So they gave me four treatments. She said these chemo treatments will be some of the most powerful that we give. And so it was quite a journey. Chemotherapy basically attacks any fast-spreading cells. That's what cancer is, a fast-spreading cell. So it attacks those, but every other healthy fast-spreading cell is damaged as well.
Philip:Terrible.
George Sawyer:And so it was the most difficult physical and emotional thing I've ever been through in my life. But the good news is, during this time, God gave me a word. He said, 2025 is a year of restoration. Hallelujah. And God brought me through that. Hallelujah. My health is restored. My church says, pastor, we don't know what's happened to you, but you've always been anointed and you've always preached a word, but there's something fresh on you right now.
Chemo Journey and God's Prophetic Word
George Sawyer:Well, it's called restoration. Restoration, called the mercy and the goodness of God. Hallelujah. And so I'm a walking testimony of restoration. I had a little lady stop me — she's been in our church for years — this past Sunday. And she said, pastor, I wanna tell you something. She said, you know, you've been preaching restoration, releasing that prophetic word. She said, I wanna tell you something. She said, you look like you're 20 years younger than before this happened.
George Sawyer:I didn't know that, but I took it. And she said, and your preaching has a new anointing that is just releasing something. She said, you are the picture of restoration. And so I can just thank God. God has been so good.
Philip:I know this word is from the Lord. Because when you shared that with me, the reason why we're late starting the program today is because we got lost in the good things of God. Because that word that you've brought — there are people watching us today that are looking at their circumstance as they face it right now, it's a complete loss and disaster. And they're thinking to themselves — and the devil, now listen to me watching me today, I want you to understand this. The devil is the accuser of the brethren. When you have a negative thought, he shouts, amen. That's what the devil does. The devil shouts amen when you have a negative thought.
Philip:When you decide, oh, we can't make it, we're going broke, I'm gonna die, the devil's there to say, oh, that's true. Amen. Yes, yes, yes. He's your accuser. And the Lord has sent you today to this program because I believe that life and light and hope is coming out of this program right now, that God can heal George from this horrendous disease. That when it's in your lymph system, it's everywhere.
Biblical vs. Human Restoration Defined
George Sawyer:Right. That carries it. That's an interstate highway of the whole body.
Philip:And you are telling us today that God is here to restore whatever the devil has taken away from us.
George Sawyer:Absolutely. I love it. And when it restores — the biblical definition of restoration, you know, we think of it in the context of maybe restoring an antique automobile or restoring a piece of furniture. And the goal, the end game, is we were able to return it to its original condition. That's human restoration.
George Sawyer:Biblical restoration in the hands of God, the creator, the God of the universe, the mighty God — when he restores, it is significantly increased and made better than the original condition. Better than before. He catches us up. He makes the enemy pay, hallelujah, for the attack that came against us. And we are significantly better at the end than we were before trauma ever came. That's the restoration of our God. Hallelujah.
Philip:Hallelujah. I've got an old Morris. It's my pet project. I bought this old car, it's called a Morris 1000. And I love it and I'm fixing it up. And the interior is just a bit shabby. And I've contacted a company in England that makes new interiors. And it's on its way. And we're gonna gut everything out, everything that's worn and tattered and torn and just gone through life. It's 60 years old, the car. We are gonna change it. We're not gonna try and make it better. We're going to renew the whole thing.
Philip:And what you're saying is that God is about — in your life watching us today, God sent us into your life today with a revelation and a rhema word, that the end is not going to be a disaster of just kind of diminishing away to nothing. God is gonna bring back everything the devil's taken from you and restore you better than before.
George Sawyer:Yeah, absolutely. If I could give you one biblical illustration of this — and Philip, I believe this is for pastors that are watching. We've almost become so focused on what COVID took away from the church nationwide. They say we lost a third of the church and they never came back. I talked to a pastor this last week, a wonderful, healthy, vibrant church. He said, we lost 50% of our congregation during COVID and they never returned. Well, I'm here to tell you that we serve a God who is greater than COVID, greater than trauma. And God is gonna restore. Don't you give up. Don't you give in.
Shunammite Woman: Promise, Loss, and Return
George Sawyer:It's not time for you to retire. It's not time for you to resign. It is time for you to prepare for restoration. I want to give this quick example. There was the Shunammite lady we read about. She's such an incredible testimony. She was a woman who loved the presence of God. The prophet would come through her city and she goes to her husband, she says, you know, this man of God comes through. And she said, let's make a little room for him in our home, so that when he comes, he can stay.
George Sawyer:And what I wanna just speak to you there — we don't have time to unfold it and unpack it all — but she was not content for the prophet just to come by, just to visit. She said, I'm going to host the presence and the anointing of God. So you see the heart of this lady. And the biblical account begins with her testimony, who she was, how she loved God. So the prophet says, what can I do for you? She says, I have everything. He says, what about a child? She said, man of God, don't raise my hopes. But he spoke and God answered. And a child was born.
George Sawyer:Seven years later, however, you know the story, the boy died. It seems like the promise died. Her hope died. What she feared happened. And so she goes to the man of God. She goes back to the place of the anointing, the presence, the abiding of God. She had learned that, Philip. It wasn't a theory to her, it wasn't Sunday, it wasn't a secondhand faith. This was her walk with God. And in that crisis —
George Sawyer:She took the boy, she took the boy to the prophet's bed. She laid him there. Put that boy there on the prophet's bed. Nothing else would do. No one else was there. God gave that boy. God was gonna be the restoration of that boy. He goes to the prophet. Her husband says, what are you doing? He wasn't a godly man. He says, it's not a feast day. Why? What are you doing? You know, like some of your friends have said, why do you keep going to church? Why do you keep doing that? Well, I keep believing, because God's faithful and God will do what he said he would do.
George Sawyer:So she takes the donkey. She's racing to the man of God. All along the way, people are asking her, what are you doing? Why are you going? Her faith says, it is well. It is well. Before she saw the answer, she said, it is well. So we know what happens. The man of God comes back. The little boy is raised from the dead. And we think, oh, what a grand end of the story. But it's not over, because we're talking about restoration here.
George Sawyer:And so a famine comes and the man of God says, you need to take the boy and go to another land. It's gonna be difficult here. She's gone seven years. She returns. Squatters have taken over her home, her property. Her husband's gone. She's lost everything. But she says, I'm gonna go to the king and make an appeal.
Timing of God and Prophetic Declaration
George Sawyer:While she's walking there — I'm talking about timing, timing, timing. And I wanna tell you, listening today, I wanna prophesy to you. You have the timing of God in your life. You can't see what God is already doing. It's not what he's going to do. He's doing it at this very moment. It's too soon to give up. It's too soon to stop.
George Sawyer:So she's walking to the king. Just as she prepares to walk into the presence of the king, the king has the servant of the man of God there. And he says, tell me some stories about the great prophet. Tell me about what you've seen God do. And he says, well, there was a lady who prayed that God would give her a son. And he did. And the boy died. And God raised him from the dead. And just as he says that, she walks into the presence of the king.
George Sawyer:And the servant looks and says, king, that's her. This is the lady. And that's the boy. The king looks at her, looks at his officials. And this is what happens, because restoration is there because the king said so. You need to say this right now out loud in your home, because the king said so. The Spirit of almighty God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, has spoken restoration over you.
George Sawyer:And so he says, you go to that woman's property and you return to her — see, there's a difference in return and restoration — you return to her everything she lost, Philip. And they did. But then he says, and here's restoration. And not only that, I want you to restore to her every income she lost while she was gone from that property. Every harvest, every meal she missed, everything the enemy stole, every profit that would've been hers. Now restore to her. Hallelujah.
Post-COVID Church Restoration Word for Pastors
George Sawyer:That's the plan of God. God is restoring health. He's restoring vision. He's restoring your finances. He's restoring your faith, your hope and your dream. Our God is the God of restoration. And he is reaching to you right now. Hallelujah.
Philip:Oh, I can feel the Holy Ghost. God had you watch this program today. God has you watching this great man of God that's gone through this battle. This isn't just a theory, he's just lived through it. And he's pastoring this church and it's growing, and he's getting back folk from COVID. Don't make COVID the excuse for your church being down. If the Holy Ghost is there, if Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. And I just speak into your life right now in the name of Jesus, a restoration in your spirit, a restoration in your mind, that you're gonna see past the obstacles around you.
Philip:And instead of watching them and saying, those are difficulties, may you see them as they are — they are the possibilities of a breakthrough and a miracle in the name of Jesus. And I pray this over you today, that restoration will be your portion in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. George, if ever I've heard a word and a rhema from the Lord, it's coming right now to these folks. Oh my goodness. We got 30 seconds left. Just bless us.
Healing Testimony and Closing Prayer
George Sawyer:I bless you in Jesus' name. This last week, a lady came to me walking into the church. She went to the doctor's office for a routine exam. They were shocked. They found something on her neck. They said, you have an aneurysm about to burst. They rushed her to the larger hospital in the next city. Between that doctor and the next one, God dissolved the aneurysm. She got to the next place. It was gone. God is dissolving the attack of the enemy against your life. And you are walking into a season of restoration in the mighty name of Jesus.
Philip:I've just told them to take the bumper off the end of the program. So we got a few more seconds. I really feel this is important, that we are gonna make decisions right now. Listen to me. The decision you make right this minute will determine the rest of your life. If you're gonna say, well, it's all over, I'm done, I'm gonna lie down here and die, that's exactly what you will get. That's what you will get. But if something inside you says, God, you can restore what the locusts have eaten, you can give me back the years that I've wasted — you are not a mistake.
Philip:We tell these kids in Moldova, you are not a mistake. God has a plan and purpose for you. And I speak faith into your spirit right now in the name of Jesus, that the fear of failure — you see, the biggest fear you face is something that will never happen. You fear failure all the time. And the devil uses that and multiplies and magnifies that possibility. And you pull back. And George, I really believe God has sent you today.
Philip:I know what you've done in my spirit. You have quickened me. And I just know that God is going to use you in a greater way than you've ever been used before. The best is yet to come. I believe for our ministry, the situation that we're facing in Moldova — our kids are in Ukraine under missile attack continually. And the devil said, I'm gonna destroy this work. No, he is not, because God is on our side.
Philip:And I wanna thank you, George, pastors Calvary Assemblies of God in Tanner, Alabama. The zip code is 35671. The website is calvaryassembly.org. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. The best is yet to come. In the name of Jesus, we'll see you again. Bye-bye.
Common questions
What kind of cancer did Pastor George Sawyer have, and what happened after his diagnosis?
Pastor Sawyer was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a lymph node — a blood cancer his doctors described as one of the fastest-spreading they treat. After a full-body PET scan found no other traces of cancer and a bone marrow biopsy came back completely clear, his oncologist couldn't explain it. Sawyer told her the only explanation was that God had healed him, and he went on to complete four rounds of chemotherapy anyway so his family and church would have no lingering doubts.
Why did Pastor Sawyer go ahead with chemo if he believed God had already healed him?
Sawyer says he wrestled with the decision but ultimately chose to complete the four treatments out of consideration for his family and his congregation. He didn't want to have any regrets, and he felt that finishing the medical protocol was the responsible thing to do for the people who loved him — even though he was convinced the healing had already taken place.
What does Pastor Sawyer say is the difference between human restoration and biblical restoration?
Sawyer draws a sharp distinction between the two. Human restoration — like restoring an antique car — aims to return something to its original condition. Biblical restoration, he says, goes further: God doesn't just bring you back to where you were before the trauma; he makes things significantly better than the original, and he makes the enemy 'pay' for the attack that came against you.
What is the story of the Shunammite woman, and why does Pastor Sawyer use it to talk about restoration?
Sawyer retells the Old Testament account of the Shunammite woman whose promised son died, was raised from the dead by the prophet Elisha, and who later returned from seven years of exile to find squatters had taken everything she owned. When she appealed to the king, the timing was so precise that Elisha's servant was at that very moment telling the king her story. The king ordered not only that her property be returned, but that every harvest and every income she had lost during her absence be fully restored — which Sawyer uses as a picture of God's intention to repay everything the enemy has stolen, down to the last detail.
What word did Pastor Sawyer say God gave him for 2025, and what evidence did he see of it in his church?
During his chemotherapy, Sawyer says God gave him a specific word that '2025 is a year of restoration.' He saw early confirmation of it in his own congregation: church members told him that not only had his health returned, but his preaching carried a fresh anointing it didn't have before, and one longtime member told him he looked twenty years younger than before the illness began.
Topics
george sawyerhealing testimonynon-hodgkin's lymphomashunammite womanchurch restorationdivine healingprophetic word