I’ve learned that the most incredible moments you experience when following Jesus happens when you least expect it. We have our scheduled ministry set in place, but then there’s the times when the Holy Spirit prompts you to go the other way that’s not in your daily planner. So let me show you what I’m talking about…
Encounter 1
This month we have another squad next door to us (W Squad). After lunch we have a couple of hours to go home and rest or prepare for ministry at 4:30. One day I was exhausted and wanted to take a tiger snooze oh so bad. Well, our W squad friends knocked on our door and asked if any of us wanted to play cricket. You know me, if there’s any type of sport or competitive activity I gotta do it. So, Seth and I mustered up the energy and joined them. We were playing in a dirt field behind some buildings and guys started coming out of nowhere wanting to play. One of the guys was limping pretty severely, but he still wanted to play. His leg hindered him from moving quickly. After playing for an hour or so it was time for us to go. Seth stopped me and he told me he wanted to pray for this guy’s leg so I was like yeah man let’s do this. About ten of us surrounded this guy and prayed for Jesus’ supernatural power to touch him and bring healing to his leg. After we prayed once, he said his pain level dropped down to a 5 out of 10. So, we persisted on praying again laying hands on him and praying a second time. This time we asked how he felt after praying and he said the pain left his leg completely! He still had a problem bending his knee because of the rod in his femur, so we wanted to pray for full mobility in his leg. We prayed the Kingdom of Heaven to come down on this man and for the Lord to give his leg full mobility, so he would not have to limp. Right before my eyes I saw a drastic improvement in how he walked. He walked off that cricket field much differently than how he walked on it. At the end of it all he told us that he had been living for Jesus for a few years now. I love seeing the body of Christ amongst this dark nation.
Encounter 2
Ali, Seth, and I were walking home from ministry one night and a man started yelling at us saying: “I love Americans. God bless you Americans. You are beautiful people!” So, I felt the need to walk up to him and see who this cat was, yelling these weirdly nice things to us. He invited us in to his house and family pulled out some chairs for us to sit in and couple of cokes. Turns out he is a pastor and had been deeply impacted by Americans in a positive way. As we talked with him and encouraged him, he brought up that his wife was ill. She was not able to walk over and meet with us in the living room because she was so short of breath due to bronchitis. On our way out, she was able to get up slowly and tell us goodbye. Seth, Ali, and I just gave each other that look like: “yep, we have to pray for this woman.” (By now it’s hard to walk by anyone that’s ill and not pray). So, we asked if it was all right if we laid hands on her and pray. We prayed over her twice and after the second time all her shortness of breath was gone! Her face was now beaming and she could talk without struggle. Her husband was balling in tears and could not hold it together after seeing the power of Jesus at work. I mean come on!! Here I am, this small town bama boy who grew up not thinking Jesus still did miracles nor had I ever really prayed for bodies to be physically healed, but it is happening right in front of my eyes.
Encounter 3
At the Jireh Children Home, there’s a small section of the building where a family lives. They live just on the other side of the wall where we worship and bring the presence of God. They are not Christians and we have hardly seen them all month. But one night, God wanted us to take a turn from our normal schedule and Morong (Our ministry host) asked us if we would walk next door and pray for this family. We had no clue who or what we were about to see, but we walked in faith. The father of the family had lost his speech and been mute for one year. The fact that this family was open to us coming in and praying for them was by God’s grace because they had been visiting hindu temples for a long time. We introduced ourselves and told them that we serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We made sure they knew that we have no power as humans, but the same power of God that raised Jesus from the grave lives inside of us. So, we laid hands on this man and start praying. We went prayed about three times and then asked him to try to speak and make out a word (All he could do before hand was moan or holler, never had he spoken a word since being mute). He came out of the gate trying to say “mother”. We were surrounding him with encouraging and kept on praying. In that time, God graciously and miraculously enabled him to enunciate the word: “mother”. His wife and two daughters were in tears while witnessing him speak after being without speech for so long. I wanted to cry. This was an emotional night for my team and we are still processing this stuff the Lord doing in us and through us.
These three encounters happened in the span of two weeks here in Bangalore, India and each one is outside of the planned ministry for our month here.
So, why is that?
I firmly believe it comes down to you saying “Yes” when you feel the Holy Spirit nudging you to go another way than you originally planned and it very well may happen when it’s not convenient for you. We have got to quit worrying about ourselves so much and what we think we need during those times.
Pray that God will give you eyes to see where the broken and the hurting are in your everyday life. It’s the greatest adventure there is.
And remember to not be discouraged when you pray for God to move and you don’t see immediate results. We don’t know why He chooses to heal someone and not the other… just like anything else God is too big for us to comprehend, but we know He works in His own perfect timing. We know that in all things He works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). He doesn’t call us to be successful, but to be obedient.
