if i am honest, i wasn’t expecting to see a miracle.
it was a seemingly regular day. we were out in the bush of uganda for a few days doing the usual kind of african ministry. i wasn’t particularly excited about doing door-to-door evangelism. we had already had an exhausting morning and i knew i had to preach that evening at an open-air crusade. mostly i just wanted to take a nap.
but when the time came, lindsay and i joined a pair of pastors and headed for our designated area of town. we came upon a group of people who were all settled under a tree. there were seven or eight adults and a handful of children. we sat down and began our normal routine of sharing the gospel. i shared the story of my savior with the family in front of me and by the end of it they all decided they would like to receive Jesus into their hearts. after leading them in the prayer of salvation lindsay asked if there was anything we could pray with them for.
the father of the household who had just received Christ told us he was blind in his left eye and that it was incredibly painful. so we laid hands on him and in the name of Jesus we told the pain to go away. we asked the Lord to restore his sight and to lavish His love upon this man. after praying we asked him it was any better. he said the pain had reduced but that he still couldn’t see.
i do not take no for an answer easily.
so we prayed again. we spoke to his eye and commanded it to see. we asked kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. we spoke with the authority God has given us. we were just doing what jesus told us to.
as you can imagine, this was quite the faith builder for all of us who had just witnessed such an incredible miracle. a young woman who was also in the group brought her child up to us. he was maybe three years old and was completely lame. he had no strength in his legs and could not stand, let alone walk. we prayed simply again. we commanded for strength to be restored to this child’s legs. we asked for God to move and to continue proving Himself faithful. we spoke with authority and conviction. we praised God and gave Him all of the glory for what was happening. we finished praying and had the mother of the boy help us test it out.
he walked.
not by himself as he will have to learn. but while his mother was holding his arms he stood up and began to take steps forward.
i have never seen a group of people more grateful in a moment of God moving. because we asked, kingdom came to earth. a little boy who would have been confined to a wheelchair will be able to walk and run and play. a mother who was grieving is now rejoicing. what the enemy intended for evil the Lord worked for good. and now there is a family in bugobi, uganda, in the middle of the bush, who will testify of the goodness and faithfulness of Jesus Christ. they will tell their unbelieving neighbors of that day. the day when God showed up and healed the sick. the day sight and strength were restored. the day heaven invaded earth under a tree.
