Despite being diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time in the last four years, Christian social media influencer Dylan Mandell says he’s holding on to God’s promise of long life.
“Life and death are in the power of the tongue. What you say matters. I want the only thing coming out of your mouth [to be] the promises and life of Jesus. That is how you win in spiritual warfare. That is how you overcome the attacks on your life,” Mandell, 23, declared in a message shared on YouTube earlier this month.
“When the attacks of Satan come against you, recite Scripture just as Jesus did when He said, ‘It is written.’ Say it to Satan: ‘It is written.’ Cancer wants to come against my body and threaten my existence and this promise of long life.”
Mandell, who is a California-based athlete and speaker, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma when he was 18, according to a GoFundMe campaign. The cancer, which was first discovered in his jaw, required him to undergo facial reconstruction surgery along with intense chemotherapy and radiation.
Despite invoking his faith and undergoing a raft of medical interventions to stave off the cancer, Mandell said it came back for the fourth time in August 2025, but he is refusing to give up.
“I’m 23 years old, and my assignment is to share what I know. Preach the Gospel in boldness. Not retreat into darkness and privacy but rather prop up a camera in the midst of my suffering, in the midst of my trials, and testify to the Lord’s goodness,” Mandell said.
“And to be honest, that’s one of the most difficult assignments I could ever be given. … I was diagnosed last year on August 28th, and man, it’s tough. It’s tough and it’s a fight, and It’s been 12 months without breakthrough, and cancer is taking ground against me day in and day out, week in and week out,” he revealed.
Mandell says despite fighting one of the hardest battles he has ever fought in his young life, he is choosing to praise God not because he’s “trying to be strong” but because he’s “trying to be faithful.”
“I’m trying to be obedient because I don’t see the full picture. I don’t. And I don’t know the full story. I don’t. And I have a limited perspective as a human being on this side of Heaven. But in the midst of a pain, in the midst of diagnosis, in the midst of hardship and suffering, I will lift my hands to the Lord and give thanks, knowing that He is the God who is above all things,” he declared. “Knowing that He is the God who is the chess player and we are just chess pieces on his chessboard.”
Mandell urged Christians not to allow their circumstances to dictate how they exercise their faith. He also encouraged Christians who have drifted from the faith to return, citing Joel 2:12.
“In the midst of all of your destruction, in the midst of all of your pain, in the midst of all of your disease, me in the midst of cancer, yet even now, given the circumstances of my life, yet even now, given that I was diagnosed 12 months ago, … given all of the circumstances, given all of the things of the world that are telling you that you’re too far gone, that your situation is too great, that the pain you’re facing is too much, yet even now declares the Lord, return to me with all of your heart,” he urged.
“The way you’re going to be able to not crumble and shake and fall in the midst of terrible circumstances or pain in your life is by having more conviction, more belief, more certainty in the word of God than you have in the attack of the enemy against you,” he added.
“Cancer is attacking my life. I actually have more belief [in] the Word of God than even the pain that I feel in my body. I am more certain of the truth and the validity of the Word of God and His promises and what He says for me than even the cancer attack in my body that I feel.”
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