The day had started out with God speaking to me from Matthew 8 about the centurion and his faith for Jesus to save his servant. Jesus MARVELED at the centurion’s faith. The Bible only mentions Jesus marveling twice- once at unbelief and this time at faith! I was meditating on this and asking the Lord why this centurion’s faith made him marvel. Some points that came to mind about this passage were as follows:
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the centurion came in faith to Jesus right from the start, he didn’t come as a skeptic or with a questioning heart, he just simply believed that Jesus could and would heal his servant (Jesus didn’t need to prove anything to him before he would believe)
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he believed Jesus could heal without even being there, that He only needed to say the word for the healing to come
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he came on behalf of someone else
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he knew the Lord would heal his servant, he just presented his request to Jesus
What really hit me was that Jesus responded “
Go, let it be done to for you as you have believed.” If the man had only believed for partial healing or for healing in the future, than it seems that he would have received that; but he believed that Jesus would heal immediately and fully, so that is what Jesus did for him.
At dinner that night we were at the pastor’s house, and a woman named Marianna came carrying her baby Elsa who had not eaten well for 8 days (she had an appetite but would throw everything right back up) and had not gone to the bathroom for 3 days. She came to the pastor’s house because she didn’t know what else to do for her baby. We immediately started looking over the baby girl and gathered around her to start praying. We asked the mother if she believed that Jesus would heal her baby and she simply said “yes.” I (being a nurse) started racking my brain with what the cause might be and what we could do, praying for wisdom and for the Lord to show His love and compassion for this family and heal this precious little girl. God spoke to me, “Believe, I will heal her.” We noticed that the baby had what appeared to be herbs all over her body. The baby threw up while we were moving her around. We unwrapped her to take a better look at what might be going on. We then could see that she had black strings tied around her wrists and ankles, and was covered in this foul-smelling herbs; she also had a tight cloth wrapped around her abdomen. We questioned the mom about this and found out that she had been to the witch doctor, as we suspected. We removed everything, bathed the baby well, and once again prayed over Elsa and against any curses the witch doctor might have placed on this baby girl and her family. We told the mom never ever to go back to the witch doctor because she had no power to heal, only Jesus can heal! I then felt like the Lord was telling me to have the mom feed the baby because He had healed her, and while it didn’t make sense medically to have the mom feed her right after she had thrown up, we needed to act in faith that He really had healed her. The mom proceeded to feed Elsa and she kept everything down!! Elsa looked so much healthier already and the mother’s countenance changed. We gave the mom some baby care advice and then asked them to return the next day. They came back the next morning looking healthy and full of smiles. We praised God and gave Him all the glory! It was so amazing to see God heal baby Elsa right before our eyes and show us all His power, compassion, and love, and how He marvels at faith.
