I’m southern, from the Bible Belt, and have known Jesus since I climbed out of the womb.
Honestly….
I KNOW Jesus healed the sick
I KNOW Jesus made the blind see
I KNOW all this… It’s in my head..
But it’s not in my heart.
I KNEW but I disn’t BELIEVE.
This past week in South Africa has rocked my world.
Carissa {carissachurch.theworldrace.org} was having pains in her side for a couple months. After a lot of convincing, an appointment with the clinic was made. Come To find out she had a swollen liver, and the worst case scenario was Hepatitis B.
{yeah… hep B people}
After two days of dealing with the hospital and insurance, she was admitted into the hospital for further tests, blood work, and an ultrasound to figure out what was really going on.
After Carissa’s first 24 hours in the hospital, I got to go to the hospital during visiting hours to hangout and check on her! At around 8:30 pm three men gladly walk into our room to pray over the needs of the patients in that room. They asked Carissa’s condition, and if they could pray.
{we are the ‘missionaries’ and these men walk in and blow us away by ministering to us!!!}
They lay hands on her, prayed the Lord would heal her liver, thanked the Lord for all His goodness and then laughing joy is coming from His voice. He laughed and smiled as he talked about the Lord’s goodness and that He is a Dad that is so so good. He chuckled again as he recounted all the blessings and promises the Lord has for us, and prayed the Lord’s power over the swollen liver.
{she isn’t healed.. And my skeptical mind is assured that no miracle will happen here tonight}
Because there were more patients for the Lord to heal that night, the men made their way around the room to pray over other ailments. A women in the room had a large sign above her bed that said ‘BLIND PATIENT, NEEDS ASSISTANCE’. The men ask the women what she is in the hospital for and start talking to her about her sight. With no hesitation, they start praying over her sight. {hands over her eyes, hands on her feet, hands on her arms}
I am standing there praying myself but again, skeptical of her sight really being restored.
They feel led to pray again over this woman’s sight and ask her to open her eyes and say anything she sees.
She looks around the room with a lost confusion look on her face and stops on Hayley.
‘I see stripes’ she says.
Imagine my response. What. YOU SERIOUSLY SEE THE STRIPES ON HAYLEY’S SHIRT?!?
Yes. She really did. Seeing a miracle right then and there caused us to keep praying.
We prayed over her again, knowing that the Lord was at work.
She opened her eyes again and saw when the nurse walked past her.
SHE WAS BLIND AND NOW SHE SEES!!
Miracle #1 had happened. I saw it. I believed it.
Leaving the hospital that night I said out loud that I don’t know if I believed in a healing God before this. I knew He had and did, but I hadn’t had an experience that made me really believe it. I left that South African hospital rocked with an experience that made me realize how much space I don’t give the Lord to work and doubting the power I carry because I know Jesus. I am afraid to fail, so of course I don’t walk into hospital rooms and pray over people believing that the Lord can heal if he chooses to.
That’s all I deserved to see right? I should fully believe in a Healing God right?
Just wait…
This morning Carissa had a scheduled ultrasound to check out her liver. She walks in that appointment and the tech had to ask Carissa what she was in the hospital for…she literally had to ask. The tech was looking at an 11 cm wide liver, when a normal size liver is 14 cm. The Lord shrunk her liver to a smaller size than it needed to be. She’s healed. Pain gone, swelling gone. #2 Miracle has happened!
As I am writing this blog, they are on their way to pick her up from the hospital because she is already checked out and nothing else needs to be treated.
Miracles happen people.
I know a healing God.
I have seen a healing God.
The Lord didn’t heal Carissa Monday when they went to the clinic.
The Lord didn’t heal Carissa when we laid hands on her and prayed over her in our hostel room on Tuesday.
The Lord didn’t heal Carissa when we finally got her admitted to the hospital…
The Lord chose to heal her in Umbglandal Hospital. With all the answers sitting around us in the doctors, nurses, tests, and surgery, the Lord chose to heal her His way. He wanted her to be admitted for 30+ hours and get to know the nurses and tell them what’s been going on in her for 2 months. He wanted us to come visit her and see the blind woman see, and have the three men pray over her as well. He wanted us to see the hospital as the problem fixer, and then He come in a slap us in the face with his healing. He wanted that ultrasound tech to hear Carissa say ‘the Lord healed me’, because He did.
It’s 2016, and the Lord still heals! He never stopped, I just never believed enough to witness it.
Carissa is walking out of the hospital right not needing anything the hospital could have offered.
I believe in a Healing God.
I believe in a loving God who sees our needs.
I believe as an heir of Christ, I am given all gifts of the Spirit.
I believe in a Healing God.
I believe in a God who works, even if my faith is too small to believe it.
I believe in a Healing God!
Do you?
Ephesians 1:18-23
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
From the sandy roads of Botswana,
Anna
