Heal the Sick, Raise the Dead, Cast out Demons…

I am in the process of writing about our travel experience to Malawi, but haven’t yet finished it. It kind of drives me crazy to relay things to you out of order, but there are many things that have happened since arriving in Malawi that are blog-worthy…so I’ll share them :).

 

Everything that I thought I once knew about God is being stripped away and restored to a much greater depth. At training camp they told us to take to heart the Bible verse that says to “heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons”. I’ll have to admit that my faith was doubtful in God’s ability to use me for these things. Aren’t those the things that God did back in the day? Do they still really happen today? These were questions that I struggled with; I doubted the power of God that lives within believers.

 

There’s a song by Addison Road that’s called “What Do I Know of Holy” that describes exactly what I’ve learned about God during the past few months, and even in the past few weeks.

 

I made you promises a thousand times, I tried to hear from Heaven but I talked the whole time
I think I made you too small. I never feared you at all.
If you touched my face, would I know you? If you looked into my eyes, could I behold you?
 
What do I know of you who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood, but the shore along your ocean?
Are you fire, are you fury, are you sacred, are you beautiful?
What do I know, what do I know of holy?
 
I guess I thought I had you figured out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about…how you were mighty to save
Those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who you might be, the slightest hint of you brought me down to my knees
 
What do I know of holy
What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame
And a God who gave life its name
What do I know of holy
Of the one who angels praise, all of creation knows your name
On earth and heaven above, what do I know of this love?

 

 

Well, it turns out that God decided to use me in the process of destroying my own unbelief. Malawi is only the beginning of my desire to dive deeply into the truth of who God truly is. Our first day in Nkhota-Khota a woman was delivered from demons during church. She began to writhe on the floor, weeping and  yelling things out each time that we spoke Jesus’s name. I was speechless. Is this the God that I’ve read about so often, yet lacked faith in the belief that His power still stands today? I thanked God for opening my eyes and thought I was done learning that lesson…false.

 

I’ve prayed for people to be healed multiple times. You all know the prayer. “Lord please comfort this person, heal them, let Your will be done”…so on and so on. Well, I didn’t think that prayers would be used to heal me while I was in Africa. I was dizzy and nauseous for a few mornings, but it never seemed very severe so I rested and tried to ignore the discomfort. When I went to bed on Sunday night, I decided that I would go to the doctor the following day if I didn’t feel better.

 

I woke up sweating profusely and knew that I was about to be sick. I ran outside and threw up multiple times, all the while thinking about who I would wake up and what I should do. Robby and Phil were sleeping in the living room so I tried to gently wake them up….10 minutes later they were still snoozing, so I had to be a little bit more aggressive. Phil sleepily stumbled through the hall to wake up Christal to try to comfort me. They stayed up with me and attempted to take care of me, (there really wasn’t much to do except laugh at how ridiculous the night was), and prayed for me to be healed and comforted.

 

I slept outside on the porch, along with my sweet brothers Robby and Phil. I was sick on and off most of the night, but eventually fell asleep for a few hours. The next morning I woke up and was relieved of dizziness and nausea. I still knew I should go to the doctor, but was so shocked at how quickly my symptoms had withdrawn. 

 

I went to the doctor, where they gave me a blood test and told me I had Malaria. I’m now good to go with medication, rest, and a much better perspective :). The anti-malarial medicine that I’ve been taking made the symptoms less severe, which was a huge blessing. I could have definitely been much sicker for a longer amount of time. So, moral of the story….the Lord healed me from Malaria, and I’ve been blessed to be able to pray healing over multiple people the past few days. Praise the Lord for He is the ultimate healer! 

 

I’m grateful to be living amongst people that sacrifice their own sleep to pray healing over me and try to ease my discomfort, while they have to sleep in the dirt and experience discomfort themselves. I’m truly blessed and so thankful!  

 

 

 p.s. I will return to the doctor if the symptoms reoccur or continue….no worries!