he did it again… and again!

Nearly a year ago I was astounded when the Lord healed me at World Race training camp. [Wait… he did WHAAAT?] I went with a brace on my ankle and a worried heart about whether I’d be able to hang in with everyone else while I had tendonitis and left running and jumping and dancing – totally healed. For the first time in my life, I knew God not just as the God who miraculously healed people in the Bible, but as the one who healed ME. Instantly. Miraculously.

It’s kind of a buzz word on the world race. We believe that Jesus gave us the same authority he gave his disciples in Matthew 10:8 when he said, “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons…” We take that commission seriously, and our squad got to the field fired up to see the Lord open the eyes of the blind and give new legs to the lame. So we prayed. And prayed. And prayed.

And some teams saw people healed. And some didn’t. My team was one of those that didn’t. Month after month we prayed for people – for Katy to walk again, for Taralah to see without her contacts, for Jamie’s bacterial infection to be gone, for Rebecca’s cataracts to disappear. I’ve prayed for everything from a cold to a missing limb. We never saw Katy stand without someone holding her up. Taralah still needs contacts to see clearly. Jamie is still in and out of the hospital after months of prayer and medicine. I never saw Rebecca again after praying over her eyes, but at least in that moment, I saw no change.

Eventually, a cloud began to settle over us. It wasn’t that we didn’t believe that God could or would heal miraculously, we just couldn’t figure out… why wasn’t he? I believed – I experienced God’s healing touch first hand. Some of our squadmates had even witnessed a paralyzed stroke victim dance with his walker over his head and a blind man see. But why wasn’t it happening when we prayed? It was frustrating… we came to bring Kingdom and we wanted to see Heaven poured out on people!

So we began to wrestle with the Lord, individually and as a group. We had conversations about God’s will, we went to the Word, we prayed.  

And in Vietnam, God challenged me. I listened to a sermon about asking and believing God for the impossible. And God asked me, are you really walking in the belief that I am greater than the world? I know you believe I can heal, but are you believing and walking like I will heal? Like I want to pour out impossible miracles on you?

No. I wasn’t walking in that.

So I made a list. Of impossible miracles I was going to ask the Lord for. Things that seemed absolutely insane.

At the top of the list were some specific healings.

1. That my allergy to wheat would be healed. 
    
2. That the tumor in my mom’s brain would disappear.

Crazy, right? Impossible, actually.But impossible was what I needed. So I started praying. And I asked other people to stand in prayer with me. I prayed big prayers, especially for my mom. I asked. I declared. I believed. Two months went by. I kept praying. And then I got to Kenya.

As soon as I arrived in Kenya, I felt something shift. I’m still not exactly sure what it was, but there was a stirring in my heart that hadn’t been there before. A whisper… “it’s time.”

And so as I continued to pray for my mom, I also began furiously praying for my wheat allergy. I began declaring healing over my body every day. My team and our pastors laid their hands on me and prayed, declared, believed for my healing.

It didn’t happen in an instant. In fact it was a process that took all month, with good days and bad days. Little by little I started adding wheat back to my diet, sometimes reacting and sometimes feeling great. But I kept praying, kept declaring and kept believing. And finally, one day, I didn’t just believe it because the Lord was asking me to believe the impossible, I believed it because it was true.  I was eating wheat and having absolutely no reaction to it! He did it again… the Lord healed me!  

One evening shortly after,  I settled into a comfy chair at our favorite coffee shop in Nakuru and with a huge, giddy smile ordered a piece of carrot cake – a treat I hadn’t been able to enjoy for more than a year. As I dug into my cake and opened my e-mail, I saw something that made freeze mid-bite: an e-mail from my mom.

My chest got tight, my stomach twisted up, and I had to set my fork down. Could this be it?

I held my breath and silently prayed, please Lord, please Lord, please Lord…

I opened the e-mail, which seemed ridiculously long, and frantically skimmed the paragraphs looking for the words I desperately wanted to see.

Tears sprang to my eyes and I cried out, “oh my God…” as I saw the words…

My teammates dropped what they were doing and rushed over, thinking something was wrong, surrounding me, asking what it was. Tears ran down my cheeks as I laughed and fought for my breath, telling them the good news, “my Mom! She’s healed! Her brain tumor is gone!” We rejoiced and praised the Lord together as I skyped my family as quickly as I could to hear the details and celebrate the good news. I also showed my parents the cake I was enjoying and let them know of my own healing.

A month ago I couldn’t eat a bite of something with wheat in it without my throat constricting.

A month ago my mom had a tumor in her brain. She underwent no treatment for it.

Why did the Lord heal us?

Why not the people I’d been praying for all over the world?

Why now?

Why not the months before?

I have no idea.

But here’s what I do know:

God wants us to believe him for the impossible. He wants to be our plan A. He wants us to ask Him for things that seem insane. Because when we ask him for crazy, impossible things that have no hope without Him, it gives Him room to show up.

And when He shows up, something happens in us. A movement. An expansion. Room to believe Him for even crazier things.

You better believe that since those two healings I’m BELIEVING the Lord to heal the people around me. Ask my teammates. The mildest complaint of pain or sickness is answered with, “let’s all pray for her!” I’m laying my hands on anyone I can get ahold of these days.

What about the people that aren’t healed instantly? (Because not everyone is.) I don’t know.

But I’m not called to stop praying or believing just because I don’t see healing manifest in front of me every time.

I’m called to heal the sick.

And to believe God for impossible things.

So I keep praying, keep declaring, keep believing.

 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, riase the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” – Matthew 10:7-8