Nicki’s Story

Healed of Gluten Intolerance

My story begins in my late twenties. I was newly married and on an annual holiday with my husband, Andre. We were staying in a B&B in Cape Town. Up until that point in my life, I had never suffered from any allergies. One day I was healthy; the next day I woke up with itchy red welts all over my hands and legs. Initially, I thought I had been bitten by some insect, as I was not in my own home. However, as each new day dawned, the itchy welts spread and became worse.

I returned from our holiday and immediately sought medical advice. This was in the 90s, and back then the medical world did not seem to do the blood tests that are done today, which can determine the cause of an allergic reaction more accurately. And so began months of being on a schedule of taking antihistamines and going from one doctor to the next to try and get some answers and help, but I was just getting worse and worse each day. Eventually, a dermatologist suggested that I do an exclusion diet and figure out for myself what was causing the reaction. I followed this advice and went on a very strict diet until I had weaned myself off antihistamines. I then slowly began to introduce different foods into my diet until I brought wheat back and discovered this was the culprit.

So I ate a wheat-free diet for a few years, until I started to experience strange muscle aches and began to get really bad stomach cramps. I was free of the itchy red welts but still suffering and generally unwell. A visit to a gastroenterologist resulted in advice to cut out all gluten.

Cutting out gluten seemed to do the trick, and so for the next 20+ years I did not touch gluten. Every time I ate gluten by mistake, the stomach cramps and muscle aches would return. Those who know me will know that I was very strict and that I never cheated, as the results were just too painful afterwards.

Over those twenty years of being gluten-free, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease. This is an autoimmune disease in which my immune system was attacking my thyroid. Allergies are also an autoimmune dysfunction, and so about 18 months ago I began to grow increasingly tired of living with these autoimmune problems. I began to pray and ask God for healing.

My friend Jaya gave me some health and healing scriptures, and I began to take communion on a regular basis. I prayed and declared these scriptures over my body:

‘I will pay attention to God’s word and keep God’s word in my heart. His word is life to me and health and healing to my whole body.’
Proverbs 4:20–22

‘I bless the Lord and will not forget all His benefits. He has forgiven all my sins and has healed me of all my diseases.’
Psalm 103:2–6

‘My body is God’s redeemed property. It belongs to God. My body is not for sin or for sickness or for any other work of the devil.’
1 Corinthians 6:20

‘The Lord is my Healer and my Physician. He is the source of my healing and health.’
Exodus 15:26

‘Surely on the cross the Lord Jesus took my sickness and carried my pains, and by His stripes I have been healed. Jesus took my sicknesses and carried my pains so that I do not need to carry them in my body. I resist sickness and disease from my body and declare that every single cell in my body is healed and well.’
Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24

‘I serve the living God, and He has blessed my bread and water, and He has taken all sickness away from my midst. The number of my days I will fulfill.’
Exodus 23:25; Deuteronomy 7:15

The first shift that I noticed was when Julian Adams came to City Lights in May 2025. During one of the services, he began to prophesy healing for food allergies and Hashimoto’s disease. I was standing at the time and immediately felt God’s presence fall on me, and I fell back onto my chair as if someone had pushed me back. I thanked God for what He was doing and kept trusting Him to heal me, but I carried on eating gluten-free.

Then, in July 2025, I took my daughter and my nephew (who were both 19 years old) to the Bethel Worship School in Redding. I am not very musical, so while they were at the conference, I spent time with the Lord and then decided to go to what Bethel Church calls “The Healing Rooms” on the Saturday after the conference. The Healing Rooms are where Bethel Church gives God room to heal. It starts with registration, followed by teaching on healing and what Scripture says about healing, and then an opportunity to be prayed for.

During the registration stage, while I was diligently filling in the details on the form, one of the Bethel volunteers had a word of knowledge about God wanting to heal backs. The man opposite me raised his hand for prayer, and I noticed that one of his legs was probably about 5cm shorter than the other as a result of a bad car accident. I watched in amazement as his leg grew right in front of me as he was being prayed for. In fact, the shorter leg grew longer than the other, and then they had to pray that the other leg would grow so his legs would be of equal length! Just after that, this same man said that he believed God wanted to reset people’s guts—those who suffer from gluten intolerance. Given what I had just seen, I could see that this man was hearing from God, and I raised my hand to receive that healing. He prayed a general prayer for everyone who had raised their hand, and then it was time to move into the next room to hear how healing is God’s idea and not our own.

The long story short is that while I was being prayed for in the main hall, I was immediately slain in the Spirit. Every time I got up and was touched by the prayer team, I fell down again under the power of the Holy Spirit. I finally got up and trusted that God had done a reset in my body and healed me of my gluten intolerance.

I returned to our Airbnb and told my daughter and nephew what had happened, and they were just overjoyed. They then said that I needed to test this healing by having a burger (at their favourite burger place!). About 20 minutes later, I nervously ate my first gluten-full burger in over 20 years—and I was fine. No stomach cramps and no muscle aches. I have been testing it slowly but surely for the last six months, and I believe I have been healed. I thank God, for this is such a miracle. It has been so freeing to be able to go to people’s houses and eat whatever is prepared for me without fear of what I eat.

God truly is our miraculous Healer. Jesus bought our healing through shedding His blood on the cross, and He still heals today!