(Sorry if I worried any of you with part 1! If there wasn’t
an AWESOME ending I wouldn’t have left you hanging like that. Enjoy part 2!)
Passionately and with expectation, my squadmates continued
praying for me. I desperately spoke to my God, telling Him how I knew He could
heal me-that He was the only one who could take away the pain. After only a few
minutes of prayer my squadmates ceased praying, my tears ceased flowing, and I
said hesitantly, “I think I’m better.” A few moments passed and I sat up straighter,
able to breath deeply, the pain gone, the fire gone, the faintness gone, and
said more emphatically, “I AM better.”
As if we hadn’t made enough of a spectacle, I excitedly
exclaimed “YES! I can still get my free facial!” (Yes, amidst my questioning of
whether I needed to go to the hospital, I was concerned about getting my free
facial that was just minutes away from the time this was all going on). We then
proceeded to sing a worship song as we got up to find our friend.
“The enemy has been
defeated, death couldn’t hold you down. We’re gonna lift our voice in victory,
we’re gonna make your praises loud. Shout unto God with a voice of triumph,
shout out to God with a voice of praise, shout out to God with a voice of
triumph, we lift Your name up, we lift Your name up!”
“What does all of this mean?” I asked myself. “What does this
experience mean?” I asked God.
Though my mind believed in spiritual attacks, I have had no
way to conceptualize it up until now. My psychological, scientific mind would
go into doubtful, analytic mode as people called out their own and one another’s
ailments as spiritual. I have no doubt in my mind that what happened on
Saturday was spiritual. More than one of the girls that were with me praying
shared how they immediately thought this was something spiritual-that something
had attached itself to me as I entered the grocery store. Bridget told me that
as soon as I told her the pain I was experiencing, she imagined something on my
back holding onto me. Yes, I recognize this may sound crazy to some of you, but
I believe this is what occurred. God has grown my faith in the warfare that is
going on in the spiritual realm of our lives.
The past couple months in particular, I have been asking God
for greater faith in prayer. As we have prayed for people, specifically for
healing for people, I have found myself saying to God, “I know in my head You
heal, that You are a good God, that You are powerful. God, grow my faith in
Your healing power. Help me not just know it in my head, but in my heart, in
the very essence of my being.” I’ve never been prayed for and felt such an
immediate, undeniable change as I did on Saturday. God has answered my prayer.
God has given me greater faith.
As I enter into Thailand, a country where there is so much
darkness, where so much healing needs to occur in the sex trafficking industry,
my faith is grown. God has poured out His healing and His love to me. I now
walk confidently into this month knowing that a war is going on, but that the
enemy has already been defeated. We walk in victory with Jesus Christ. Time to
impart some love and healing on this amazing country!
