The Guatemala base received a mandate from the Lord. We’re no longer called to pray for the sick. Instead, we’re called to heal the sick.
The mandate echoed in my mind as we lead Dalia by the hand into her small living room. We pulled up chairs and gathered around her to pray. After a series of questions, we discovered that five years ago, she was diagnosed with glaucoma. Due to the severity of her disease, her vision slowly began to diminish, leaving her blind. She described her blindness as if she is staring directly into the sun, blinded by the bright light.
I knelt before her, hands trembling as I reached out and gingerly covered her eyes with my fingertips. With my eyes closed, I calmed my spirit and I waited for the Lord to speak. Then I heard Him ask me, “Kacie, do you love her the way that I love her?”
I sat there and had a brief moment with the Lord. I was consumed with fear and doubt, but I knew that He wanted to be the loudest voice in that room. He spoke to the broken parts of my heart, “Kacie, my perfect love casts out all fear. Don’t be afraid. I won’t let you down.”
My heart began to open as the Lord allowed me to feel every emotion that was stirring around in that small, dimly-lit space. I felt the hurt from Dalia for being blind for years. I felt the love of her niece that sat next to her holding her hand. Then I felt the overwhelming love of the Lord who desires to see His daughter walk in freedom and healing.
Hands still touching her eyes, I begin to speak out the depths of the Lord’s love for her. Even though she can’t see, He sees it all. She is not forgotten, she is not abandoned, and she is so lovely in His sight.
I declare healing in the name of Jesus, restoration to her heart and to her sight. As soon as I speak the word “Amen”, the light suddenly vanishes from her eyes and shapes begin to form around her.
Our Pastor in Cuba, Pedro, is standing near her. We ask her to tell us what his shirt looks like. She hesitantly answers, “There are a lot of stripes and lines.” In that moment, heaven fell down and laughter erupted as we stared in disbelief at Pedro’s white plaid shirt, full of lines and stripes.
Giddy and full of joy, Gabe sits in front of her and holds up three fingers. “Dalia, how many fingers am I holding up?” Again a little hesitant, she answers, “three.” And we all roar with laughter.
Choked up from all the heavy emotions circulating in the room, I just hold her hand and cry.
Healing not only came to Dalia that day, but I believe that I was the recipient of spiritual and emotional healing.
He healed the parts of my heart that believed He wasn’t big enough to do the impossible. All the doubts that people had lied just to “save face” vanished, and I rejoiced in the healings from the day before. My heart began to beg for more of His presence, more of His glory, and I wanted to see more healing!
The girl who cried that the Lord wasn’t good and that He didn’t love His people had tears of joy rolling down her face from His overwhelming faithfulness. The girl who avoided every prayer circle and deflected all opportunities to pray for healing was excited to go to the next house and ask who needed to be healed.
Later on that week, Gabe approached me and told me that he was no longer going to pray for my Bell’s Palsy anymore; instead he was going to pray for my heart. The Lord gave him a new revelation that often times emotional and spiritual healing precedes physical healing.
What’s more important, having a healed heart or a healed face? Do I desire for the eternal things to be healed, or do I put all of my effort into perfecting my physical self that fades away when I leave this Earth? What good does it do if I have a perfect smile but a broken heart?
The Lord wanted me to trust again, to restore my hope, and to open up my heart to take chances again and love deeply.
He fulfilled His promise; He brought me to Cuba to heal and to be healed. I began to hope in miracles again, to have a holy expectation that He will show up and the impossible happens.
I caught a glimpse of His heart that day. When His overwhelming love enters a room, all fear leaves and healing arises. Something shifts in our spirits when we no longer allow doubt or fear to creep into our hearts, when we stand tall and confront sickness and disease in the face and command it to leave in the name of Jesus.
(My teammate, Michelle Lucio, praying healing for a Cuban woman during one of our house visits)
(The Lord told me to ask this Cuban woman, Lucrecia, to pray healing for my Bell’s Palsy)
What happens when the manifested glory of God brushes up against a hungry nation?
Change happens. Revivals. Healing.
Hope is restored.
