My last post from Rusape…check out my teammates blog post for another persepective: http://lizmonroe.theworldrace.org/?filename=when-god-heals-and-when-he-doesnt
Samuel is an amazing warrior for God’s Kingdom. He has a
beautiful wife and son. He is a young Christian who has been following the Lord
for about two years. Our team met Samuel on a treasure hunt, or an ATL time.
This means to simply pray and Ask The Lord to minister to someone particular
who needs Christ’s love. My teammate, Amy, tells our group moments before we
walk the dry, dusty roads of Rusape that we will pray for a cripple. Guess what
happens? Ten minutes into our walk from Pastor Ngoni’s house, we find Samuel,
who happens to be crippled from the waist down for the last seven years. We
knew it was God because we hadn’t seen too many Zimbabwean’s in wheelchairs
rolling themselves down the gravel roads.
We greet Samuel and immediately get to chit-chatting. We
tell him about what we are doing, who we are, why we stopped to talk to him,
and about his inability to walk. He excitedly conversed about his wife and son,
prior work, his childhood, and how he became unable to walk seven years ago.
About eight years ago, he began to feel a loss of blood pressure in his toes
and feet. This began to work up his calves and knees and thighs until it had
reached his waist. He said he had no feeling left in his legs at all. He
described his waist as being bounded by a wire. For the last seven years he had
been in a wheelchair. He had seen doctors, specialists, traditionalists,
witchcraft, and finally, after realizing none of this would ever work, he
turned his life over to Jesus two years ago believing that God and only God
could heal him.
Our team prayed fervently over him for over an hour;
speaking life and laying hands on him. We asked Samuel what he wanted Jesus to
do for him. He replied that he wanted Jesus to allow him to walk once again. A
crowd of at least 30 other Zimbabweans gathered because this was no ordinary
site. I felt like this was the Bible times when Jesus would heal people and
crowds would gather to see his work. Except that one thing was wrong: Samuel was still not walking.
Jesus performs numerous healings throughout his life. In
Matthew 4:34, Jesus was, “healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
In Matthew 8:14, Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law and drove out evil spirits
in others. In Mark 9:14, Jesus rebuked an evil spirit in a young boy. In John
chapter 5, Jesus heals the CRIPPLED.
Jesus is not the only one who heals. Jesus calls us “to
greater things than these.” (John 14:11-14) This is evident as the apostles
start to heal and perform miracles. After Jesus’ ascension in Acts 1, Peter
heals the CRIPPLED beggar. (Acts 3) In Acts 5:12, the apostles “heal many.”
Those who were sick and were tormented by evil spirits were brought into the streets
and “all of them were healed.”
Samuel was a young Christian, but his faith was BOLD. Ashli, Amy, Angela, Liz, Mark,
and I; our faith was BOLD. We read
the World Race blogs about previous racers and their radical and amazing
healings and we knew that Jesus could do the same through us. But Jesus did not
heal Samuel that day. The next morning we received the awesome opportunity to
visit Samuel’s home and meet his wife and child. We hung out and talked and
prayed. We left Samuel hours later- and he was still in his wheelchair.
Sometimes God heals and sometimes God chooses not to. We
will never know the answer to why God didn’t allow Samuel to walk that day.
Just think about the amazing testimony this would have been if Samuel would
have gotten from his chair and walked the first time we met him on the gravel
road in Rusape! More than 30 onlookers were gathered; waiting. Was our faith
not bold ENOUGH? We believed, but was it not enough? Why was it not in God’s
plan to heal Samuel in front of that crowd? But the testimony it would have
been to the crowd….the encouragement to our team this would have been…..the
personal encouragement this would have been…..
In Matthew 7:7 God says, “Ask and it will be given to you;
knock and the door will be opened for you.” I have faith in God that He will heal
Samuel, but in His timing. Samuel has an amazing faith and he continues to
proclaim God’s goodness and grace despite his inabilities.
But the question lingers: why didn’t God choose to heal
Samuel that day in front of the crowd?
This is something I’m discussing with God. What do you
think?
