For Alice Sudlow of 2014 J Squad, the Race has been about learning to walk in the authority given to her as a child of God.
It was Month 6 and we were in Zambia. Our team was reading Acts 10, where Cornelius, a Roman soldier, summons the apostle Peter to come share the Gospel to his family. When Peter arrives, Cornelius falls down at his feet in reverence. “But Peter made him get up. ‘Stand up,’ he said, ‘I am only a man myself.'”
As we discussed this passage, I thought back to a 12-hour prayer night my squad held in Bolivia when person after person was healed from sickness, allergies, back pain, wrist pain, and other physical problems. People found freedom in forgiveness of others and themselves and spiritual gifts were revealed.
That night, my squad leader, Austin, said something I couldn’t forget: “The same Holy Spirit who was at work here tonight lives in you…
The work doesn’t end now. You have this power and authority. So walk in it.”
Honestly, in my heart, I doubted: God does incredible things, but He doesn’t do them around me except at really special times when others are also praying. So I could pray for healing anytime, but He wouldn’t do much outside of a situation like tonight.
But Peter knew the same Holy Spirit who lived him also lived in every Christian, no matter social status, gifting, wealth, or title.
A few days later we visited a local clinic. As we walked through the door of the clinic, Isabel began flailing wildly, throwing her arms and legs into the air. She flung herself off the bed and onto the floor, and began to drag herself on her belly towards the door, stretching out her hands towards us.
We leapt back, agape. Not knowing if it was physical or spiritual, I wondered whether the woman simply had a seizure.
When we knelt beside her, she began to cry. “Help me,” she pleaded. “Help me, please.”
We nodded, laid our hands on her and began to pray.
Seconds later, the flailing began again. She grabbed the collar of the yellow shirt she wore and tore a long gash down the center. We prayed louder, shifting our focus from physical healing to spiritual freedom. There was no longer any room for doubt that she needed more than physical healing.
As we fell silent, Isabel sat up, looking dazed and confused. She looked down at her shirt with a puzzled expression, staring at the tear and then pulling it more tightly around herself. Then she looked up at us again, her eyes full of desperation, pain, and hope.
Isabel had been receiving medical care for months for pain that wouldn’t go away. In her poor health, she can’t get a job, or a husband. All her siblings were married and she felt as though her life was wasting away. Furthermore, she still carried the burden of a painful, abusive relationship with her father growing up.
As she looked at us with a new glint of hope in her eyes, I thought, She believes we can help her. She believes our prayers can heal her.
I thought again of Peter and Cornelius and wondered, did I believe that of myself? Cornelius knew nothing of Peter beyond the fact that the Lord had sent him, yet he so absolutely believed in Peter’s God-given power and authority that he welcomed the Apostle with honor and reverence.
Did I believe, truly believe, in the power of Christ in me?
We asked her whether she knew Jesus. She did, she told us. She loved him, loved him with a love so deep and real that tears poured down her cheeks again as she spoke. She sang in her church and spent time in his Word, and the greatest desire of her heart was to know him more.
“You have the same Spirit inside of you that we all have,” We told her, “You have the same power and authority of Christ that is in each of us. You can pray over yourself, too, and God hears and responds to your prayers just as much as ours.”
And then, in the most beautiful display of Christ’s love I’ve seen in a long time, one of my teammates took the shirt off her back, stripped away Isabel’s torn yellow tee, and slipped her own shirt over the other woman’s head. With tears in her eyes, she held Isabel’s hand and told her of how much Jesus loves her.
I don’t know the end of Isabel’s story. I do trust, however, that a shift occurred in Isabel’s life that day, whether it was groundbreaking or just one tiny shuffle more towards fullness of joy in Christ.
And a shift occurred in my life that day, too.
*Photo of Alice praying during street evangelism in Africa
When it comes to faith, I’ve always seen myself as a student, a disciple, a novice, an amateur. I’m learning from the leaders, pastors, and disciple makers around me, people mature in their faith who live in the love and power of Christ. I’m Cornelius, looking up in awe at those farther along in their journeys with Jesus.
But that day, in Isabel’s eyes, I was Peter. When we walked in the door, something inside her responded to Christ’s light in us with such violence that she flew off her bed onto the floor. She believed so deeply in Jesus’ power in us that she sobbed and pleaded to us as we came near, “Help me. Help me, please!”
I am only a woman, but I am a daughter of the King of Kings, filled with the same Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, is sent with God’s authority as a warrior for His Kingdom, and is charged in Matthew 10:8 to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.”
The Holy Spirit’s power in me is not dependent on the presence or prayers of others. He’s not holding out on me, responding to others’ prayers but refusing to hear me when I’m the one asking Him to heal bodies and hearts.
He has given me authority and power, all the power we experienced during our prayer night in Bolivia and then some, and He has asked me to pray boldly and in great faith.
That day I learned that my perceptions of myself as student are true, but they’re not the whole truth. I’m a disciple, but I’m also a disciple maker, a learner and yet also a leader.
And that day, I began to believe and to walk in the authority the Lord has given me as His beloved daughter.
*First photo by Aly Badinger
Is God calling you to walk in authority throughout the world? Click here to find out how you can do that on the World Race.
