I’ve done a bit of both. I want to believe them, I really do. But my biggest problem is that I think it would never happen to me. That I will never see it. It only happens for the people that are really “spiritual” (whatever that means) and know God so closely and intimately. Will I ever get to that point? Yes, because the truth is, I’ve seen many miracles. I’ve just taken them for granted and not seen them for what they really are.
Maybe I should redefine what kind of miracle I’m talking about. Like I said, we’ve all heard the stories, we’ve desired and/or doubted them. But I saw my first tangible miracle happen right before my eyes. Like right there, in the moment.
Several of the teams had been together in Ireland and had gone through a teaching on healing and learned the model. We were partnered with one of these teams during our stay in Romania. While in Ireland, in their group people had been healed of scoliosis, legs and arms grew and one of our squad leaders had his vision healed. He could only see blurs out of his left eye. They prayed for him and his vision was restored and completely healed! He could see clearly. So they had experienced that kind of stuff and wanted to teach it to us. We were more than willing and really excited. I remember thinking “Wow! Is God actually going to show up and I’ll actually get to see it!?” I believe he heals today but I’ve just never been a part of it or witness to it.
So we got trained a little bit in the healing model that the other team had learned in Ireland and went at it. One of my teammates, Matt, had one leg shorter than the other. Mike and Denise, who have medical training and worked in a hospital so they are legit in all of their medical expertise determined that his legs were in fact, not the same length. So we began to pray and we saw his shorter leg grow! Except, it wasn’t that much shorter than the other one, so I didn’t really believe it. I barely saw it. But we lined up his ankles and they matched and were the same length now.
Then my team leader Tamica had one arm that was about an inch and a half or so shorter than the other. So we laid hands on her. Since Matt had just got healed, we had him lead the prayer for her. This time I SAW HER ARM GROW. It looked like she was just shifting her arm forward to make it the same length, but she wasn’t! The arm just got longer! It was crazy! She said it wasn’t painful and she felt all this craziness and warmth in her arm and then it was longer. I couldn’t believe it! I’ve never seen a miracle like this happen right before my eyes! The crazy thing is that even after it happened, I could barely believe it still. I wanted her to put her arms together again so I could see it. So I could see the proof. But I saw it happen, what more proof did I need? I always wondered how people could see Jesus do miracles and still not believe. I’ve got a lot more grace for them now and I can understand a little more now. As much as my rational mind wanted to refute it, I couldn’t deny the facts. I SAW the arm shoot forward and get longer. That defies all logic. I think its just hard for finite human minds to understand the infine power of God and his supernatural power. I just couldn’t believe what I saw. But why should I be surprised that God showed up? Its what he does! Its who he is! Depite my unbelief he is still true and faithful. I just can’t deny it anymore.
The most interesting thing is that it just seemed so normal and like it wasn’t a big deal. I always thought that if and when I’d see a miracle it would be this crazy epic, dramatic spiritual moment where my heart would be exploding and people would fall on their faces weeping and worshipping. But it wasn’t like that. It just seemed so normal. We were definitely shocked and in awe but it wasn’t nearly as epic as I thought it would be. I guess I’m just a little dramatic. Its funny how we let things get so huge in our heads. Her arm got longer…we prayed for that to happen. How else was it supposed to look like?
The fact of the matter is that God DOES work today and more than that, he WANTS to. We just have to be ready, available and willing to be obedient.
Bottom line: God grew bones! I pray that this is only the start.
