I want to start this story with a confession of faith.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
Of things not seen... so regardless of what my experiences are, regardless of what I see or don’t see, I want my confession of faith to stand true of what I believe.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
I believe that God sent His Son to die on the cross as the one and only sacrifice to pay for the sins of the whole world.
I believe that the same power that rose Jesus from the dead is living inside of us today.
Resurrection life breaks all boxes and defeats all limits. Hallelujah!
The move of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, is living and active, and on the move today.
If the Bible is true, and we believe the same Holy Spirit that empowered the apostles lives inside you and me, then we can believe and trust that God will perform miracles today, like He did then.
I don’t have answers to the hard questions of “why do we not experience those miracles like the early church did?” or “what if I pray and healing doesn’t happen?” or “how can I believe God wants to speak to me if I never heard His voice?”
God forbid that my experience, or lack of experience, would ever dictate my faith. I believe in His healings and miracles, signs and wonders. Whether or not I’ve actually witnessed them, shouldn’t make a difference. Being influenced by opposing opinion or distracted by lesser perspective is a poor excuse for not actively walking in what I believe. I confess I have done so and I am so sorry!
I want to share with you a wonderful story that took place here in the city of Belgrade, Serbia.
I want to start by introducing my sweet squad leader and friend, Shannon. Shannon is full of compassion, and on fire for the Lord. You will find in her an ardent desire for kingdom come and the gospel lived.
In a one on one conversation with Shannon, she asked me how I was doing and specifically addressed my faith in the miracles of God. I knew she knew what I believed and somehow she knew I was not fully walking in that.
The two of us decided to walk the streets together that night to pray and ask God to lead us to people who need love and prayer or even just a word of truth of who Jesus is and how much He loves them.
I felt remorse and conviction in how much I had been limiting God the past months especially in regards to believing Him to bring physical healing. Even as we walked I felt doubt in my heart.
We prayed as we walked, and got to talk to and pray with several people, some who spoke alittle English, and some with the aid of google translate. (Praise God for Google!)
After some time we saw a crippled man in the middle of the street by the traffic lights, begging from the people who were stopped.
Shannon called him over to the sidewalk. His face lighted up as he limped over to us. He spoke almost no English but with google translate, we could have a great conversation with him.
Some time ago, he had been working in construction and fell from the scaffold. He was badly crippled. He had a family of eight children. He said he wants food for his children.
We asked if we may pray for him, and we asked if he believes that Jesus wants to heal him. He said yes to both questions and I could tell by the expression of joy on his face that he truly did believe.
After we prayed we asked if he had felt anything change and he nodded and handed us his crutches he walked a short ways and asked if we would pray again. We prayed and he was praying with us. After that he walked quite a ways without his crutches, quite noticeably in better condition. He kept lifting his hands and expressing hallelujahs.
Now there’s a part of me that wanted to ask God why he wasn’t completely healed. The beggar at the Beautiful Gate was leaping when Peter prayed for him. Why not this man? Like I said, I’ve no answer for those questions, but I will still believe in the wonder working power of our God.
Healing, though, is not the ultimate goal; but seeing more of Jesus, which certainly had been happening!
What I really want you to see in this story is the faithfulness of a wonderful Lord. The results of our walk, talk, and prayer must fully be pointed to the glory of God. I keep mentioning Shannon and myself and the things we said and did, but really, it was the MOVE OF GOD, we were only instruments through which He worked.
This experience was indeed faith-building, but oh, would we not be like Thomas, who refused to believe until he saw. Let’s walk in delighted expectancy, knowing the God of miracles, why should we even be surprised when He moves?
Shannon and I walked several blocks to a nearby pizza shop. I had no money with me and Shannon only had alittle. We used what we had to buy a large pizza and five large sandwiches. While we were waiting for the food we had several other people come up to us asking for money. We had no more to give but we had the love of Jesus, and by the grace of God, we could freely give it.
Of these, were two young Serbian lads. In broken English they answered some of our questions. Durango, age 11 and Milan, age 12.
At one point they couldn’t make sense of what I was saying (even google translate didn’t work because they couldn’t read), then Milan said something in Serbian and all I understood was the word Deutsch.
“Do you speak German?”, I asked.
“Yes!”
I was overcome with delight! To communicate with these young boys in German was so fun!! They were equally delighted that I understood them. We became friends for sure!
This short but sweet interaction touched me so much. I could tell by the lads’ mannerisms that they were not used to receiving this kind of attention from strangers. Most likely, they are used to being turned down or ignored. I loved to love them and it was evident by the way they received it that they were hungry for someone to see them and love them.
Please pray that God will put people in their path that will love them, give them food, and disciple them. They are at such a tender age. I trust the Lord to watch over them. They are His children and they are so loved.
Blessings to all this beautiful Easter season as we celebrate the life of Jesus, the power of the blood, the cross, and ultimately, the resurrection, when once and for all, death was defeated!
Lord, let us walk by faith in the truth of Your Word, that our words may be more than a confession; that it may be our lifestyle.
