His Leg Grew… Really…
When we first got here to Mozambique and saw where we would be staying, we thought, “we are in the bush this month…” Then our host said that we would be leaving there to do ministry in the bush… What? We didn’t think it got anymore bush than that… We may have had a miss judgment there but something we knew for sure after the hassle of getting through the borders, was the fact that the Lord wanted to do something BIG that the enemy didn’t want there…
Our first week there was spent praying over ourselves, our team, and Mozambique in preparation for what God wanted to do. God wanted to show off a bit and supply us with the FAITH necessary for the mission field we were about to step into.
Our host, Jaco Rudolph, was sharing with us his testimony. He has had multiple accidents that severely injured his legs. One leg was shorter than the other. We felt compelled to pray healing over his leg… Yeah, that it would INSTANTLY grow to the same length as the other. I understand if you just had a wave of doubt come over you after reading that sentence. I have felt that more than I like to admit, which may explain why I don’t see more out of the ordinary, super natural things happening, or why It’s not seen more in the States verses places like the bush of Mozambique. In America, WE TEND TO LOGICALLY RUN MORE THAN FAITHFULLY.
Lets push through these walls of doubt and allow faith to perform to it’s full capacity… which is ENDLESS… The Lord says FAITH WITHOUT DOUBT can MOVE MOUNTAINS.. So surely it can perform the very things the Lord said the Holy Spirit would do through us…. HEAL the SICK, RAISE the DEAD, make the LAME WALK, see VISIONS, PROPHESY, dream DREAMS, TEACH, PREACH, BAPTIZE, CAST OUT DEMONS…
We began to pray in faith that the Lord would heal Jaco. Not the next day, a week later, or a month later… INSTANTLY. As we prayed that, right in front of our eyes, underneath our hands, HIS LEG GREW… Yeah, GREW. His feet were then in line with each other. We decided to keep it coming, praying over different things within the group. Physical and spiritual healing took place. So why then, why not all those other times? It was preparation for the week to come. Faith to heal people was what we needed to walk in to take on that ministry. Faith to make healing happen and faith to be okay when it didn’t happen… There are several question of why then and not now? Why that person and not that person? There isn’t a direct answer to that… But it doesn’t matter, the Lord is in control of it all, knows when it’s necessary, and can see more of what’s going on spiritual realm of the giver and the receiver. He knows what He is doing. Who am I to question it? All I must do is BE OBEDIENT.
So we went out to the bush. Our first morning we split up into groups to do prayer walks through the village. We wanted to pray for the village and ask the Lord to reveal to us the need there. It was myself, Deborah, Stacie, and Shannon. As we began to walk, the Lord put two verses on my heart. Mathew 6:24 and Psalms 1:1… I just began praying on them. Deborah and Stacie then mentioned that the Lord was speaking to them about witchcraft. Specifically, they felt the Lord say, “find the witch doctor”. We knew that this was a crazy request we weren’t going to be able to do on our own and we weren’t about to start asking around. We knew the Lord was going to have to do it if that’s what He wanted. And He did…
We ended up coming across this random nice and large house after walking past several mud huts through small paths of the bush. It had nicely kept landscaping with some colorful flowers. Stacie is very intrigued by flowers and wanted to take a picture with them. About that time, I saw this white girl walking on the front porch of this house. She approached us and invited us in. She began telling her family story of living in the bush over a period of 11 years. Starting out in tents (for seven years) and eventually building this beautiful home that was not yet finished. Without going into detail with her about what we were doing walking around the bush and what the Lord had put on our hearts, she began to talk about how it’s a hard area to live in and most missionaries don’t stick around long. She said it’s a very dark place where most people are riding the fence; spending Sunday night in the church and Monday night at the witch doctor… So that’s what those verses the Lord had put on my heart were about… how we CAN NOT SERVE TO MASTERS… He was showing me how that was an issue there… Then, what blew all four of us away; she went on to say, “OH, AND THE WITCH DOCTOR LIVES UP THE ROAD, THE FIRST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.”… We didn’t even ask! The Lord meant what He said, “Find the witch doctor!”
So we went and stood in front of the witch doctors home and prayed there… That the Lord would bring light into this darkness that had taken over the village and what steps we were to take next in approaching this issue… There is more to follow this story but I believe it’s for another blog. There is one main point I’m trying to make in this blog particularly…
1. The Lord is…
CRAZY, POWERFUL, QUICK TO LISTEN, QUICK TO SPEAK, AND QUICK TO TAKE ACTION.
2. The Lord has called us to be His hands and feet; walking in that same authority He did through His Holy Spirit.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12
Mozambique is going down as my #2 favorite country on the race. And to think, if it had been up to me I would have never gone… good thing this race isn’t about me and what I want…
