It’s hard to believe what I’m about to write, but I assure you, it’s all true. This is the God I serve:
While in Swaziland for the last 10 days, our team got hooked up with a pastor named Mary. My teammate Sean ended up preaching on Sunday, which led to home visits during the week in the community.
So, Mary takes a few of us into this hut where a woman is lying in bed. She has been in bed for a long time now, like years. She looks to be in her 60’s and seems overweight. She is paralyzed on one side of her body, her mouth sags considerably and she can barely talk. What muttered words find their way out of the almost shut mouth are not intelligible. Her eyes are glossy and rolled back in her head. We are told she is a Christian by her sister-in-law, who has been taking care of her this whole time. It takes 4 women to help her sit up in bed. Myself and three other girls pray over her in faith and turn to leave, silently hoping that maybe something will happen. I think we felt like we had done what we came to do.
The next house we visit is the homestead of a man who is very sick. We adore his mother immediately, who rushes out to greet us. She is the type of woman we just know has been on her knees day and night for her family and has kept her sweet spirit in tact. She is precious! She takes us to the hut where her son stays. He also is bedridden and has been for awhile. He has Aids and has been sick for 3 years now. He is 34. We walk into the room and see a very frail form of a man lying in bed, avoiding eye contact. I ask him if he has a relationship with the Lord, and he says yes, but not a very strong one. We begin to pray for him, and the Lord shows me His heart for this man. I keep seeing him as a young boy, playful and happy. I know that I am in the presence of a man whom the Lord truly delights in. I am also aware that this man has no idea of this love that is all around him. The Lord leads me to Romans 8, the end part that says that nothing can separate us from the love of God once we accept it. I also read the part that says we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. I tell him he is highly favored by the Lord. We finish praying healing over him, and leave, thinking once again that we have done what we were meant to do. Allison had been praying outside around the house and she confirmed what I read over him. She said the Lord had told her that someone needed to tell him that he is more than a conqueror, then she heard me reading. We are encouraged and leave smiling.
Fast forward to the end of the week. I have visited these two people at least three more times, and this is our last day of ministry in this community. We go into the woman’s home who earlier could barely even hold her head up on her own. Though I had begun to see changes over those few days, I was not ready for what we saw our last day there. A woman who looks to be in her 30’s is sitting up in bed. She is thinner in a good way and her skin is healthy and glowing. Her mouth is lined up perfectly, her eyes are clear and focused, and she waves excitedly to us as we enter the room. She speaks perfect plain English and begins to tell us how she feels. We are told that not too long ago she had been unable to speak for three years. She is joyful and speaking a lot, she even prays for us all. We sing praises in that room where sickness once was. We pray again and then sit silently for a moment, trying to grasp just how huge and powerful our God is. She is convinced that God sent us “young Americans” to her specifically, to heal her. Her sister-in-law helps her to stand, and the vision and hope I had for her from our first meeting is realized. She is standing and praising God!
We move on to our other friend’s home, the young bedridden man. I am waiting to be let into his hut where he stays. We seem to be standing around talking to his mother, and I am getting antsy. I ask if we could please go speak to him now. She looks at me and says “He’s right here”. I turn and realize that the man who has been standing near us not speaking is the same man we prayed for! He is standing up and walking around, almost unrecognizable! He looks as if he has already gained some weight and he is smiling shyly. I think one of my teammates had to shut my mouth for me! The Lord must have laughed! We pray for these things and then almost walk past them when they happen because we don’t really expect to see them! After I find my tongue, I ask him how he feels. He says the best he’s felt in a long time, and then he says that he has made some changes in his life. We got to sit down with him and talk for awhile. We asked what we could pray for besides continued healing. He says that he is shy, but he feels the Lord calling him to preach and tell the community what God has done in his life. We as a team had been feeling like the enemy was attacking him with shame, so we took this opportunity to pray against it and to pray against condemnation. We prayed for boldness. After we prayed and when we were about to leave, the Lord told me one other thing to say to His beloved son. I got his attention and told him to hold his head up. Immediately his head jerked up and his eyes met mine. He knew what I meant. I told him there was nothing to hide and no more shame and that God wanted him to hold his head up from now on. I said that if he forgot, the Lord would be there to lift his chin. He met my eyes and said softly “Yes…yes.”
His head stayed raised as we walked away.
I can assure you none of this is fabricated or exaggerated. I have seen the Lord touch two bodies and two lives that were otherwise hopeless and frail. You pray for things, but there is this nagging sense of reality that what you are asking for is pretty much impossible, and those are the thoughts you have to take captive and throw away and choose faith.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He is the Healer. All glory to Him for who He is.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…” -Isaiah 61:1
