This month we’re talking about miracles, stories of seeing the power of God in supernatural ways.
During her time in Africa, Sara Tate of 2015 R Squad saw many people healed of headaches and minor illnesses. But she wanted to see something BIG — a leg growing back, the deaf hearing, even the dead being raised. Then God did something she didn’t expect…
“When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.” Matthew 8:15–16
As I read that verse I found myself thinking, Really, God? You, the all-powerful, Most High God think this is a miracle worth recording? It doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.
As we’ve been traveling around Africa, healings like this have been occurring. People with stomach issues come forward. We pray. The pain is gone. Have a headache? Prayer. Poof. Gone.
But to me, as an American with Westernized thinking, it feels a little ridiculous, even menial. So I’ve been wrestling.
I have a lot of faith and know God does these things, but I find myself wondering, is this for real? Did their headache really go away, or did they just want to appease the “azunga” (white person) and get me to stop touching them?
Worse, my heart has been discontent with these “little” miracles, these “little” healings. I don’t mind praying to have a fever go away, but I really want to see something BIG, something absurd, like a leg growing back. I want the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dead to rise. I want to see the lame jump up and begin dancing down the street, giving God all the praise and glory.
Come on, God. I know you can do it.
As I wrestled with this, God asked me a question.
“Sara, what is more important — seeing miraculous healings in the physical realm or this miraculous harvest of salvations I’ve let you be part of? What’s more important — someone growing a temporal leg back or someone gaining eternal life with Me?”
Oh wow, I thought. It’s true. As I’ve been traveling and preaching the Good News in the villages of Malawi, hundreds of people have come to know Jesus. People who were spiritually blind now see. Isn’t that miraculous enough? Isn’t salvation and eternal life more important than seeing God physically heal?
Is that miraculous enough for my heart?
Then, one day, it happened. I went out to the villages and shared the Gospel, and many people accepted Jesus. Then we dispersed to pray for the crowd. I approached an elderly lady and was told she had pain in her eyes and poor sight. I looked into her eyes, which had a thick, white film on them. Then she bowed her head and I prayed for healing.
After I prayed, I searched the crowd for someone who spoke Chichewa to ask her how her eyes felt. Through the translator, the woman responded that the pain had gone, but she was still unable to see clearly.
I prayed again.
When I looked up, our translator had left to speak with someone else and my team was walking away. Everyone was leaving; it was time to go. I looked in her eyes again — and saw that something was significantly, visibly different:
The thick, white film that had covered her eyes just moments ago was now gone. I could see her deep, black eyes clearly.
Finally, I got the attention of someone who could translate. “Could you ask her again how her eyes are?” I pleaded.
“Yes,” they responded. “She’s good.”
“What do you mean, she’s good?”
“She can see.”
“What do you mean, she can see?”
The woman’s sight had been fully restored. She began describing and explaining things she could now see! Seriously, God?!
We smiled, we laughed, we hugged.
Right before my very eyes, it happened. God restored her sight, and at the same time, God grew my faith. That day he did two miracles in one — giving two of his daughters, one old and one young, one from Africa and the other from America, new eyes.
Do you want to experience God’s power while serving him on the World Race? Click HERE to find out how you can GO in Fall 2016!
