August 9, 2012
As I pushed myself off the floor this morning (for the floor is where I sleep), I couldn’t help but let out a loud “UGHHH, AHHH, OHHHH” as my body began to give way to the aches of a previous 4 hour hike mixed with sleeping on the stiff ground for the past 7 hours. As I sat down to eat breakfast with the team I noticed that all of our faces said, “Man oh man did that hike kick our butt yesterday, I am tired!” I knew that I had no strength for ministry today, so I looked to my left as if God were sitting next to me and said, “It’s all you Dad, I got nothing left.” My prayer was that simple, and little did I know He had been waiting for this moment in order to answer my prayers (2 Corinthians 12:9).
You see, as you may remember reading in some of my previous blogs I have briefly mentioned things like “simplistic trust”, or “Child like faith”, or the action of “thrusting my head into my heart”, etc. You may also remember me briefly explaining that God informed me that I must give Him my knowledge as the next sacrifice in order to grow closer to Him. So, the phrases used above are things that the Lord has been teaching me; more or less, my “knowledge” of How God Works Today has been getting in the way of our relationship. It was time to get rid of the junk. So my prayers have been related to this theme.
Anyways, back to the story.
My team and I find out that today will be a very easy day of ministry: a 15 minute hike, pray over one sick woman, hike back down, and done. As we began this easy 15 minute hike I was still so exhausted, and it was honestly hard to find motivation and energy knowing that our day was going to be so simple. Hmmm, simple. So I did all I could do, started talking to Him as if He was hiking next to me,
“So Jesus, I got nothing, but I love you and I want more of your love and presence, I need your Spirit, for right now I am poor of Spirit. Thank you for making the Spirit manifest in me and for being so ridiculously present in my life. Amen!”
After this simple prayer we arrived at the woman’s house. From the outside it was a normal Nepali house, nothing special about it, just average. As I walked into the house I could see only what the light from outside revealed, for there was no other source of light in this dark house. And what the light revealed was a frail old woman sitting on the ground. All I could think was, “OH GOD, I HAVE NOTHING, I NEED YOU!” So we all gathered around and heard that she was sick, poor, a widow, and her son was an alcoholic. Our translator Samuel and his father (who is a LEGIT pastor) began to pray over her, so we proceeded to do the same thing.
I still felt nothing, I knew not what to pray or say, “Oh God, I just want to be in your presence!!!” Right then I heard my team leader Lizi saying and praying the most beautiful things over this woman. I was entranced by the beauty and all I could do was listen! I began to cry as I heard my sister pray, I truly felt the love my Father had for this woman, for us, for Nepal, for the World, for you. I then heard my sister explain what promises God had for this woman and my spirit was ROCKED! I was so awe struck by the audacity of this prayer; I had never heard any one explain the glory of our Father in such a miraculous way. The greatest theological writings of our time paled in comparison to this prayer. All I could do was cry at its beauty.
After we finished praying I immediately looked at out translator and told him to translate for me for I felt led to tell this woman what Lizi just prayed over her. Once I finished declaring this truth over her in simplistic terms (it had to be simple in order for it to translate properly) the woman had the largest grin on her face with SO much hope in her eyes! She just nodded her head vigorously as she accepted the truth spoken over her.
As my team began our decent down the mountain I approached Lizi and told her, “The words you spoke over that woman where just beautiful! I started crying it was so beautiful! Thank you for telling me what to speak over that woman.” While telling Lizi all this I noticed how her face began to resemble a deer in headlights and that she began to take a few steps backwards as if taken back by something I had said. She stared at me and just broke out in laughter, “Hahahahahaha, Grayson! I was speaking in tongues and you understood me!?!?” I quickly looked away from her and stared at the ground thinking, “wait…ummmm….what? No, no, no, I heard what you said and it didn’t sound like gibberish.” I then looked back at her confused and she was just praising God because apparently she had no idea what she was saying, but she was rejoicing because I understood and was able to communicate it to everyone else. All I could say was, “Yeah, I understood it” as I smiled back at her in tears.
Yes!!!! So that’s why it was like nothing I had ever heard before! It was God speaking directly to my spirit! God just unleashed His presence over me, He was saying when you are weak I am strong, I AM the same God you read about in the Bible, and this is what it is like when you don’t bring your knowledge and junk into the equation! Simply trust in me and I will not put you to shame. You must regress in order to progress. I AM so proud of you son, thank you for obeying Me, you’re doing GREAT, but don’t stop, keep going!
PS. We all felt led to go back the next day to see her again and bring her food because her sickness didn't let her climb down the mountain to go get food. When we got there she wasn't there…we turned around and there she was climbing up the mountain! The disease she had been sick with for 10 months was gone the instant we prayed for her! Yeah, she was healed and was now able to get down the mountain! Praise God!
