In the American culture, we are dead to a lot of realities of our God. More blinded than dead, but nonetheless we are unaware. From my church experience from as long as I can remember til this past July, I have personally had no experience with healing. It was something I heard about from “super Christian,” far-out missionaries and evangelists, but never saw with my own eyes. I thought for a long time that miracle healings were limited to third world countries because that’s the way that God “had” to speak to them; I thought American culture was excluded from this type of Christianity…thought healings such as crippled men walking for the first time in decades, blind women seeing clearly once again, babies with diseases being cured, etc all because of prayer were something for very few and very special circumstances or only read in the bible…
I think if I was honest, I’d say that the only reason why I didn’t completely ride off the miraculous from being totally false was only because I was scared to say something like that while only being human. As a human, who am I to say that God can’t preform miracles?? I’d clap after the rare, crazy testimonies, but with skepticism and unbelief at the back of my mind. It doesn’t line up with “logic.” Or at least the perspective of logic I was living within.
So, this goes out to the skeptics! This goes out to the church going, in-the-closet skeptics! This goes out to the skeptics that never even made it to the front door of the church; this goes out to the confused; to the people who are tired of getting “because the bible tells us so” answers; this one goes out to those of you who are too scared to question if things like miracles really do exist because of the risk of being condemned or shamed by the “holier than thou…” This goes out to you, whoever you are:
Here’s a real life story of our miracle working God healing a woman told by a born and raised skeptic just like you.
My squad and I were supposed to serve in South Africa from early January til March 6th, but we realized that a whole bunch of our South African visas were stamped a month earlier than they were supposed to be. So, we had been helping our different ministries that we have been assigned to throughout the beautiful SA for about a month when we got an email in our inboxes from our leaders telling us to pack up and head to Swaziland for a long weekend with hopes of getting out of the country in time to not break any laws and then re-entering a couple days later in hopes of refreshing our visas for another month before
our final three months in the Philippines.
We left on Thursday, February 8th, and all of the teams made their way to the Johannesburg airport where we all piled onto buses for a day’s drive to Swazi!
Swaziland is beautiful; misty mountains with lush, vibrant green hills rolling as we sped through winding roads til we all arrived at Adventure in Mission’s base in a little town called Nsoko.
On Saturday afternoon, everyone was told to come together in the “living room.” When that time arrived, one of our squad leaders, Zach Thayer, said that the reason why he had called everyone together was because he had been praying over our time in Swazi, asking God to bring meaning to the seemingly meaninglessness of this visa fiasco. He said that he believed that it was by no accident that we were unexpectedly here for just a short
time and he saw no use in wasting any of it. He wanted to let the Holy Spirit move through us within this community of Nsoko and not waste this honestly precious time. We then watched a clip from a documentary of some Bethel College students and teachers about how they believe “the miraculous should be just a common, every-day thing in life” (quote by one of the students). The videographer explained that he began to follow the stories of these students out of true interest and amazement at the stories that all of them seemed to have of miraculous things that were happening left and right simply because they were
people who were seeking God in that way- they spent a lot of their time praying to God and asking Him for visions or words or direction as they would head out in groups into their community. Through listening prayer, they’d be led to places all over town, meeting all kinds of people from all walks of life, and they would simply approach people, saying something like “I believe that God sent me here to talk to you tonight. Is there anything I can help you with or pray for or anything you want to talk about?” The stories that these people had were insane. One of the people interviewed was a pastor at Bethel and said, “We have two groups, we have groups of people who are seeing this on a very regular basis while others have never seen this in their lives and they have been raised in such an environment of skepticism that they do not believe it’s possible.”
I’m sure some of you reading this right now are already finding yourselves relating to the second group, not believing the little that I’ve explained so far, not believing that college students could simply pray for a boy in a Chuckee Cheese and see his arm heal to the point that he ripped off his cast and said it was one hundred percent back to normal.
After this clip, we talked about how living in this sort of way that these students are living in should be how all Christians live their every day lives. Zach said that he wanted all of us to spend a couple song’s worth of time in prayer. In these prayers he wanted us to ask God to give us vision for entering the community. Once the few songs were over we were supposed to get in a group of three or four and share what we felt the Lord had spoken to us. After we shared, we’d see what lined up and as we headed out for a couple of hours our groups would stay aware of what God had showed us. A guy named Zach Yoder and a girl named Kate Paulson and one of my team-mates/sisters, Paige Thaxter, all ended up together. Most of the things that we heard or saw were simple- they were colors or mountains, but some were more specific like directions to go down the dirt road to the right of our gates and take the first left on that road or a picture of lungs or another vision of canes. Seemed like we should head down the dirt road and take our rights and lefts, so we headed that way.
We ran into a lot of different people and chatted and prayed a lot of different prayers. We had just walked out of a sweet little family of four’s yard when we decided we might as well walk just a little further before coming back to the base for supper. We walked no longer than thirty seconds when I saw two little girls standing in front of a white house, waving at us and motioning us to come closer and visit them. Kids at every corner waving and giggling and wanting nothing but to smile at you all wide eyed and beautifully innocent, wild and free, is a normal part of my life right now, so I didn’t think much of these girls wanting us to come closer at all. When we walked up to their home, we saw at least eight more kids hopping around, bursting out from behind a tree planted tall and strong in the front yard, laughing through their white, happy smiles. We did the normal high fives and asking of names and ages when one of the two girls that had waved us over insisted we come inside.
Her name was Sweata.
Sweata looked about nine years old. By looking at her you could tell she was mentally disabled to some extent, but was at first glance functioning very well except for her minor limp. I noticed she could speak fine English with only a little speech impediment. She was kind and welcoming, but above all else, I indescribably enjoy that God used her as the instrument of what you’re about to read. God used a girl, a disabled girl, in undeniably mighty ways- this says so much about our God’s character and the love that He has for us.
We followed Sweata, taking our shoes off at the front mat. We immediately saw a woman watching TV, sitting on a recliner looking typical living room sort of chair with her legs laying out in front of her on a couch that was shoved arm rest to arm rest to her chair. We all greeted her and chatted about things like her family and what show she was watching when one of us then asked her if there was anything we could pray with her for. The
woman’s name is Zahneli. This whole time we’re talking with her she hadn’t moved an inch. Zahneli began to tell us that yes we could pray for her- for her family and for the left side of her body which had been paralyzed, without any feeling and little to no motion for two years now. She told us that she has been house ridden, only moving around with a walker innable to move anywhere close to a normal pace since her husband hit her with a wooden hoe on the side of her neck.
Paige first began to pray for Zahneli’s family and for healing in the name of Jesus Christ for her left arm and hand down to her hip to her toes. We all held hands as Paige prayed while we prayed our own prayers in our own minds as well. After she said “Amen,” Paige asked Zahneli if she’d like to stand up and try to walk. Zahneli was eager to try and walk, so we helped her get her feet to the floor and slipped her sandals on. She began to walk a simple circle around one of the sofas in the little room we were sitting in and she immediately said that her leg was feeling lighter- that it usually felt so heavy that she could barely lift that foot up, she could only move the right and sort of drag the left while her left hand hung straight at her side and her right arm held onto the little walker for support. She walked free of any walker, she didn’t even want any of the four of us to hold her hand. She didn’t walk fast and she didn’t walk normal, but she was “lighter” and hadn’t walked like that in years. As she made it to the end of her little stroll around the sofa, she made it back to her seat and sat back down.
After this, Paige asked if she could pray again and Zahneli said yes of course she could, so we all layed hands on her leg and arm and prayed along with Paige.
At “Amen” Zahneli wanted to try and walk again.
She did her loop around the sofa and she began saying things like “I feel like something is different, I feel like God wants to heal me. I have never been closer to walking since the accident than today.”
She sat back down and I asked if I could pray for her again. She said yes.
Layed hands, asked for healing in the name of Jesus, for full restoration, for all that is broken or in need of mending to be mended, for the vein that was hit on her neck to rush with new blood and life that will bring her the ability to walk without stumbling and run without fainting, for simple and complete healing. “Amen.”
Made her way around the sofa. Began to walk faster and lift her leg with much more ease. “It’s lighter, it’s lighter, it’s so much lighter” she was saying again and again. She said that she felt like dancing, I said I’d dance with her. So, we danced in her living room- she spinned in a little circle and lifted her arm!! LIFTED HER ARM! The arm that had been stuck straight down to her side for two years, the arm that was numb! It was in the air!!!
After this, Zach asked if he could pray. He prayed a similar prayer to all that we had been saying earlier, nothing special or radical, no King James Version “thou’s” or “art’s,” just calling God our Father and Healer, proclaiming that He is a miracle working God, asking that Zahneli would be healed in the name of Jesus Christ.
She then walked again. Every time she got herself off her chair, she’d improve in some way or another. She’d smile and say things like “it’s never felt this way before” or “I feel that everything’s changing.” Step by step. Healing came step by step.
Once she sat herself down again, I was reminded of the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man, telling him to “Get up, take your mat, and go home,” after his friends had climbed the roof, ripped open the roof and lowered him into the insanely crowded house Jesus was teaching in- desperate to be healed (Luke 5:17-26). I read thumbed through my bible and found it and read it out loud. The five of us sat there together, imagining how wild all of this must of been together. Talked about how Jesus saw faith as admirable and vital to the point that he rewarded it with forgiveness of sins and full healing of the paralyzed man!! Talked about how Jesus calls them “friend” when he sees their faith. He sees us as friends when we come to him with faith; we can come to him in prayer as his friend, we can speak to him like a friend, free to speak the way that we speak, nothing fancy.
We then asked her if she wanted to pray over herself. Her prayer was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard in my entire life. She said that she was nervous to pray, but that she wanted to speak to God like her friend, so we held hands and she spoke out her simple prayer. “God. You see me sitting here on my couch every single day. I am so tired of sitting here. I’m tired of not being able to walk and live life. I want you to heal me, God. I know that you can heal me, God. I know that you can heal me, God. This is my simple prayer. Amen.” The depth and the heart that she spoke these words with moved me intensely.
She stood right up after her prayer. She began saying that she was feeling pins and needles in her legs! She said that she was feeling something for the first time in years!! “It has been numb for so long, I haven’t felt anything like this in so long! Something is changing, it hurts, but I’m feeling something!” The joy!
We all said hallelujah, beaming with joy and amazement when Kate asked if she could pray since she hadn’t yet. She prayed again, saying that she knows that God sees Zahneli, His daughter, and asking that He heals this daughter in the name of Jesus Christ. As she prayed we each prayed our own hands, each speaking out to God in our own ways, but ultimately praising Him for what He has done so far and asking that this miracle only continue as she walks onward, asking that as she rests that He work a great and mighty work in her slumber, asking that she be made strong enough to fulfill the role of the beautiful and loving mother that she so obviously was and wanted to be, asking that when she is healed that she may use her steps to tell as many people as possible of the miracle that God preformed in her life, asking that she uses her arms to praise Him, asking that she be made strong for His glory…
Zahneli walked and walked like nothing she had so far. She was faster and stronger with a drastically more normal pace and form. The change was all so evident and true- within this time in her living room she was changed. From numb and chained to the couch to a rush of persistent pins and needles tingling up and down her leg! We asked her if she could feel her hand or arm in the way that her legs were reacting and she said no, but began moving her fingers and rotating her arm like a windmill- something she thought she would go into her grave without ever doing again!!!
She sat back down. We were all laughing out of ridiculous amounts of awe. I couldn’t say much but “WOW” and “HALLELUJAH” through my smile and everyone else looked about the exact same.
I told her that I knew that we had prayed a whole lot of times, but asked if I could pray one last time before we went home. This prayer was a prayer of thanksgiving, a prayer of awe and wonder, and a prayer of hopefullness for all that God was going to continue to do in Zahneli’ future as well as all that He had in store for her family.
Once we all finished praying, Zahneli told us that her sons go to the church of the ministry that we were staying with every single Sunday and that since she has barely been able to walk around her house for so long now, she hasn’t been able to even get to her porch let alone the church around a mile or so away! “I’m not going to tell you that I hope I’ll see you tomorrow, I’m going to tell you that I WILL see you tomorrow morning at church because I believe that I will be able to walk to service by the morning and I believe that I’ll be able to worship with the church and praise Him for what He has done in my
life!” she said.
The beauty within all of this left me nearly speechless, but not too speechless to not say “hallelujah.” Breathless too.
Pins and needles! For the first time in two years! FEELING ONCE MORE! MOVEMENT AND DANCING! LIGHTNESS RISING, LIFTING HER AS SHE WALKED AROUND AND AROUND HER SOFA!
All because of prayers!!
All of this happened through four nineteen to twenty year olds’ words spoken through nothing but our every day, human lips with nothing but our common, limited vocabulary. Not to mention that none of this would of happened if Sweata hadn’t of invited us into her home. God uses the most ordinary and “weak” to the world’s standards. Something beyond beautiful about this. Nothing too special. No fire, no lightning, no shooting stars, or gushes of wind. It’s strange how simple this gospel is: love God, love His people. It’s strange how simple this life is: ask and you will receive, the bible says. And with that asking, as a believer the more you know God the more your desires become one with His, so you begin pleaing for things that are holy above things that are selfish, you begin craving things that will benefit others over things that will benefit your small self…you need only to be still, the bible says. Knock and He will answer, the bible says. Approach Him with freedom and confidence, the Bible says. It’s strange, it’s all strange!
We believe in a God that allows His children to reach Him not in ways that are beyond our human capabilities or in formulaic, esoteric religiousness, but rather, in a family like sort of comfortability. Pray without ceasing, the bible says! We can talk our Father’s ear off! He is happy to just talk all day!
Happy to hear from His children, and I believe He is happy to bring all kinds of restoration to His “lost sheep” as well.
This was something so far than anything I had ever experience before.
Out of our whole squad, different people had tasted and seen the miraculous dozens of times, and on my own level, I have as well, but as for seeing a half paralyzed woman
walk for the first time in two years after being beaten by her husband, that I had not seen. I had been craving this adamantly and asking God for opportunities for Him to work through myself in ways like this and He answered. I sought the Lord and He answered.
But the reality is: THIS IS AN EVERY DAY GOSPEL that we believe in! This type of relationship with God is not limited to Africa or villages or third world communities.
I feel pretty confident that something like over 75% of Americans today could confirm that the spiritual realm within churches has been drained out in the sense that most would say miracles are either a myth or dormant in the twenty first century.
With this being the way that I was raised and with all of this being on my mind, I’ve been thinking on how miracles and healing were the life that Jesus lived, the air that He breathed, the way in which God used Him on the very regular- from town to town, touching the lives of man, woman, child, sick, lonely, desperate, poor, powerless…He even interacted with people regardless of if they were DEAD OR ALIVE! I mean just look at the last verse in the book of John, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Laughing just thinking about all that Jesus did in the in betweens- the walks on the way to take a wiz, the moments just before he ate lunch, the times when he was passing by stranger on the road…nothing wild about the timing or the action that brought him to where he was standing- just a man living in simple moments that any human would find him or herself living, yet he had a habit of bringing meaning to the meaningless! He had a habit of allowing love, God love, to steer every single moment he ever breathed. Because of this, the miraculous was a normality to him. The disciples and other Christ followers only documented the moments that for whatever reason they found important enough to put words to! We read of these stories- all of the ones that made the cut- we read of things from Sunday school til funerals, and yet we fail to allow these stories to be much more than stories.
I’ll share something from one of the stories that did make the cut. John wrote down something that Jesus spoke to his disciples in chapter 14 verses 12 til 14, “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. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
Jesus himself tells us that anyone who believes in him will not only do what he did, but they will do things GREATER than he! And if any one of these believers calls Jesus’ name while asking for anything, it will be given to them. This to me validates the truth that this miracle that I wrote to you is real- as real as you and me. And it also validates that Jesus is a man of his word and that his interest is to benefit his children in love. Think about the feet of Jesus for a moment. Jesus’ feet led him to people who couldn’t see, people who were covered in leprosy, people who were exiled socially because of the physical deformities they were living with. If we are told to be his feet then who are we to not walk up to all people just as he? And if we are told so clearly that when we ask for things in the name of Jesus that he will do it, then why aren’t we walking and why aren’t we asking?!!
This is my mindset, and this has revolutionized my life.
Going back to the American church, If I had to summarize the American church it’d be something like this: weak in prayer, heavy in emotion.
And that brings me to something like this: Why shouldn’t the miraculous be a part of our every day life? A common day thing. What a shame that it’s shocking when God does what He is capable of.
It’s just a lie that the spiritual world does not affect the physical world. This lie is infecting our churches, weakening our prayers, and foolishly disabling our Limitless God from working in our lives (well, God can’t be disabled, but we have found a way to box Him in and drain His power in our lives).
So this goes out to the American church. This goes out to the religious cynics, to the doubters, to those who are emotionally obese and spiritually anorexic, this one goes out to the country I love and the pioneers of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, this one goes out to you:
Do not continue to label the acts of the Holy Spirit as intellectual suicide or far out, not of the Lord actions. It’s limiting our Limitless God therefor limiting the American church. Thinking that miracles are too strange to exist is foolish. Why wouldn’t miracles existing today be even more proof of the existence of God? If He is worth devoting our entire eternities too, shouldn’t it be thrilling and comforting to know that He isn’t just sitting up in the sky, condemning everyone for all of the innumerable sins we’re drowning in?? That instead He is a God that is active- no idle hands or immobility! He’s on the move and we can participate in these movements by something as simple and practical as prayer! Rid yourself of prideful nativity! I’m doing it right alongside you, you’re not alone in this. Faith is not childish. To believe in God is not equivalent of being afraid of Hell. Do not call this day and age a time where miracles are of old; just because we live with the gift that is the Bible does not mean that we are now a world without the movements of God. May your zeal flare up once again!!
I’ll end this how Paul together with Silas and Timothy ended their letter to the Thessalonians: “Friends, keep up your prayers for us here in South Africa. Greet all the followers of Jesus back home with a holy embrace. And make sure this letter gets read to all the brothers and sisters. Don’t leave anyone out. The amazing grace of Jesus Christ be with you!” (1 Thessalonians 5:25-28, the MSG, slightly altered for application purposes)
