Devastated
Perplexed
Drained
These are the words that described my morning about a month ago after 50 of my fellow World Racers and I attempted to raise a dead woman to life. Yes, this was no joke, we attempted to raise a dead woman back to life!!! For 2 solid hours we prayed fervently, laid hands diligently, and commanded healing mightily for the Lord to raise her up. Yet these were the emotions I felt afterwards from tirelessly interceding and laying my hands on a pale and frail woman who had been dead for at least 2 days.
The night before, one of the World Race leaders told us of a woman who recently died in the slum neighborhood of the ministry we were staying at our first week in the Philippines. And she wanted us to pray for this deceased lady the following morning because she had made a promise to one of the dead woman’s friends that we would. So the following morning at around 7:30 am, we made the short trek up the hill and as we went I asked a local in Tagalog, “Where is the dead woman?” (Probably, the first time I ever asked a question like that in my life!). The lady pointed us in the right direction and we ended up coming across a tent in the midst of metal, tin, and wood houses. This dead woman was a mother of three and she laid in a white-wooden casket with a glass covering over her upper body.
I took the lead, walked up to the casket, and told the others that the Lord has given us authority as believers over all sickness and that we were commanded to lay our hands on the sick and they would recover (Mark 16:18). So a few of us laid our hands upon the casket and we all began to pray. A few minutes later I asked a local there if we could remove the top covering, so we could lay our hands directly on the body. He allowed us to do so and I proceeded to lay my sweaty hands upon this dead, lifeless corpse. Immediately you could feel the rigor mortis that had set in, and her body felt eerily cold, which caused me all the more to cast sickness out of her and life into her.
We prayed without ceasing, read scripture boldly, and sang worship songs with hearts full of grief and mercy. The most compelling moment was when we sang the chorus to “Our God” by Chris Tomlin, which I got to sing for the first time back in Atlanta, GA at Passion 2010 this past January. The moment brought me back to a night of worship in the midst of 20,000 other believers in Philips Arena, where we cried out for a generation who would be completely abandoned to the name and renown of Jesus. I felt every voice from that cold, winter night in that very moment on a hot, muggy, and dirty side street outside of Manila, Philippines; where 50 new rebels for Christ were actually acting out what we spent years saying we believed.
We grew up believing that God would heal, but most of us never attempted to even see if it would happen. These 2 hours of intense intercession truly tested what our faith was built on and if it had the capacity to stand if we failed. Finally, one of our leaders felt that it was time for us to leave because of the emotional toll the experience was taking upon us. We slowly dispersed in groups back through the dirty side streets of a poor slum to the ministry site we were staying at. It was a very solemn walk back, where more and more questions began to rise.
Why didn’t she rise? Not enough faith? Not enough compassion? I honestly cannot tell you why. I am not a theological scholar, I am not an experienced mystic who has been in-tune with the Spirit for years and years, I’m just a missionary who has a love for Jesus and desires to share his love with others. All I know is that the Word trumps my experience and Jesus Himself said, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, so freely give” (Matt. 10:8). “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
Just because I did not see a miracle on this day doesn’t mean that I will not see miracles to come. The Lord is still good and His Word is still true. I continue to go forth each and everyday, knowing who I am in Christ and what He’s called me to be…
Confident
Bold
Authoritative
