One week into ministry here in India, I was feeling less than adequate and unequipped to be used as God’s servant. Exciting events were taking place all around me and although I did not always understand, I was open to how God was working in and through people on my team.
Below is an excerpt from one of my written prayers to God that week, followed by His answer to my prayer and an amazing testament to His power!
Excerpt from Prayer
“… I pray that today you would fully equip me to complete the work you have called me to. Help me to be led by your Spirit and obedient to what you ask of me. Today is yours Father, so I surrender it all to you asking you to take complete control. Be my guide today and help me to be open to your leading. Spirit, I ask you to work in and through me today!
I pray that your presence would fill this place [coffee shop room on our compound] tonight. May all the work and financial efforts put forth into making this event happen be filled with your abundant blessings tonight. I pray for divine appointments and open hearts … allow me and my team to be led by your Spirit. May tonight be an evening in which your name would be honored and glorified.”
God’s Answer #1
During the late morning/early afternoon hours we found ourselves in the home of a woman who had been influenced by witchcraft and struggled with depression for four years. We invited the Holy Spirit to come and fill the home with His presence for we knew we couldn’t battle the enemy alone. After a time of singing praises to our God and anointing the windows and doors of her home, we laid hands on the woman and began praying earnestly for her. I don’t recall exactly the words I prayed, but what I do know is that the words coming out of my mouth were not my own, but rather they were that of the Holy Spirit, as He was speaking through me. The Holy Spirit revealed Himself to this woman in a powerful way that day, and began healing her and setting her free from the evil that had infiltrated her life for so many years. After four years, this woman experienced a new level of freedom. As I looked into her eyes following the intense time of prayer, I truly believed in my heart that God had healed her of depression that day, and told her that the tablets she had been taking were no longer needed because the same God in the Bible who allowed the lame to walk and the blind to see was the same God that healed her of depression and set her free that day. Depression no longer had a stronghold on her life!
God’s Answer #2
Another young lady, Michelle* who had joined us in the home asked specifically for prayer that she would desire more of God. I quickly glanced at my teammates to see if anyone of them was going to initiate the prayer. No one moved and in that moment, I knew God was asking me to step out in boldness. Was I going to obey His leading? As I stepped toward this lady and laid my hands on her shoulders, my heart became burdened for her. I asked God to reveal Himself to her in mighty ways. I prayed that her heart would be open to God knocking at her doorstep and that she would seek after Him in order to find Him and ultimately fall more in love with Him (her Creator). As I prayed, I sensed the Holy Spirit was at work tearing down walls and breaking the chains that had been holding her captive from experiencing life with Christ. She came to the point of being completely filled with the Holy Spirit and radiated with an abundance of joy! Praise the Lord!
God’s Answer #3
As if God had not already answered my prayer from the morning, He wanted to rock my world one more time that day. It was evening and our team had worked hard the previous couple of days to make one of the rooms in our building an inviting coffee shop environment with live worship music. The evening started off slow and we really didn’t know if this idea was going to be beneficial. An important lesson I was reminded of that night: do not doubt God and what He wants to do! Michelle*, the young lady who I prayed for earlier in the day arrived to the coffee shop location and with her was Jenny*, her sister. Jenny came to us confined to a wheelchair. She came to us with her toes pointed downward without a 90 degree bend between her ankle and feet, unable to walk her entire 22 years of life and unable to sit straight up in any kind of chair other than her wheelchair.
As we talked with her through one of our translators, we learned that a previous World Race team had prayed for her, and the amount of pain that she had been experiencing since then was very minimal or non-existent compared to what she was experiencing. Praise the Lord! However, in that moment several of my teammates and I had the same internal thoughts and believed that God was not done healing this woman. Our God is the miracle maker, and we believed that He wanted to use us to be a part of an incredible miracle that night. Without going into all the details, several of us began praying fervently for this woman’s healing. After much prayer, singing praises to our God and washing Jenny’s* feet we asked her if she truly believed that God was healing her. She said yes, and without further ado, our brothers on the team got on both sides of her and helped her take her VERY FIRST STEPS! Jenny* not only took her very first steps tonight, but she sat upright in a wooden chair, wiggled her toes, rotated her ankle joints and by the time she left her pointed toes and lack of a 90 degree bend was no more. The bottoms of her feet could now lay flat on the wheelchair footrests. As our team held her feet, ankles and legs in the palm of our hands that night, Jenny* said that she never felt any pain … only a burning sensation at times. It was as if God was strengthening and realigning each bone, ligament, tendon and nerve in her legs and ankles. Jenny*, along with myself and others from my team were filled with such joy and completely amazed by experiencing our Great Physician’s mighty power and healing hand at work!
What an unforgettable day and an awesome testament to God’s power. May all the glory and honor be praised to His name! Even in my weakness and inabilities God can still use me to be used as a vessel for Him when I ask and allow Him to work in and through me!
*Names changed for privacy reasons.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” –Romans 8:26
