One foot in front of the other we hiked up to the foot of the mountain to share the Gospel at a home that had been highlighted to my teammate Monique since we first arrived in Lesotho. Not only did 6 people enter into the body of Christ on this day, a blind woman saw.
Agnes, the grandmother of the family, sat off to the side on the grey dusty ground wrapped in her wool blanket for warmth. Her orange sweatshirt had a burn hole in the front. Her head was wrapped in a colorful black scarf. Her hair was short and curly, greyed from age. Her nose spread widely across the center of her dark skinned face. Her left eye was opened with her blueish gray eye shining through. Instead containing a black pupil, the center glowed white. Her right eye sagged from muscle retention. My first guess was that cataracts hadrobbed her of her sight. Her explanation of how she lost her sight was due to a storm with strong winds that came some time ago and took her sight with it. Our translator later explained this could have meant the dust from the storm got caught in her eyes and caused her blindness. However, when I heard of this storm I was immediately aware of the work of Satan swarming around her, not only hindering her sight of the world but her sight of God. As I knelt down in front of her I told her the story in the bible when Jesus rubs dirt in a man’s eyes to heal his blindness. By His act of faith and the power of Jesus Christ, He was healed. I asked her if it was okay if I placed my hands upon her eyes and prayed for healing over them. 3 separate times I prayed for this woman.
After the first prayer, I asked if she believed God, and only God, had the power to heal her. I explained how we must have faith for our prayers to be affective. I asked her to open her eyes and tell me what she saw. “Only shadows.” In my great desire for this woman to see and faith in Gods healing power, I prayed again, begging for God’s mercy to be poured out upon this woman. After the second prayer, I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to ask her to recall and confess before the Lord any sins she felt too ashamed to bring before Him. After a long pause, she said she had asked for forgiveness for them all. “What can you see now?” I asked. She struggled to open both eyes fully. “I still can’t see clearly, but the pain in my eyes is calming.” My once fierce faith in the Lord wanting to fully heal this woman’s sight was residing. “Three represents completion,” He spoke into my spirit. Therefore, I wearily reached up and prayed for her once more. I prayed for my spirit and her spirit to have fuel thrown on the fire — to not grow faint but to believe with our whole hearts. I prayed against any spirit of unbelief that may be hindering her healing. After the prayer, I asked once more what did she see. “I see blue on the shoulder.” I, sitting directly in front of her nearly a foot from being face to face with this woman, was wearing a green plaid shirt, a grey beanie, with curly blonde hair flowing down onto my shoulders. None of these things she saw. She didn’t see me at all. And she didn’t need to. To her left sat our translator, Paul, wearing a navy blue jacket.
** In this moment the Lord taught me 3 things:
1. He still heals. In my traditionalist upbringing, I quit believing that God heals outside of doctors and medicine. Yet, Jesus said we will do even greater things than He.
2. This has absolutely nothing to do with me. It is not by my prayers she is healed but by His power she is healed. God doesn’t heal people to boost other people’s egos.
3. God doesn’t have to prove Himself to me. At times I find myself telling the Lord if he really still performs miracles then let me see one. Yet, He will heal in His timing, not as proof for my own skeptical heart.
I realized I don’t need her to see me. I need her to look in the mirror and see God in her. I need her to look upon the faces of her beautiful granddaughters and her precious grandson. I need her to open her eyes and see the world through Christ’s eyes.
As her sight faded away again, I held onto her sight of that blue shoulder. As we walked away from her, I held onto the promise that God will never leave her. I hold onto the faith that God will heal her completely.
“Faith is believing in what you can not see.”
— but a tool in the hand of a powerful God,
KP
