Written December 16th, 2016 about events that took place in July, 2016
Have you ever been smack dab in the middle of a moment where you asked yourself, “What in the heck is going on?” That’s exactly how I felt the night of our prayer walk here in Penang.
Walking around the city of Georgetown, my friends Julie, Tori, Yong and I scouted out people to strike up conversations with – all while praying that the Holy Spirit would guide our feet. We soon found ourselves sitting next to a homeless man on some steps in an alley. Striking up a conversation, we found that he didn’t believe Jesus was God, but he was curiously asking why we were so sure. “What would make you believe? If you saw Jesus heal someone, would you believe in him?” Julie asked him.
What in the world? Does it work that way? The wheels in my brain started spinning a hundred miles a minute and my adrenaline skyrocketed. I’d never seen a physical healing. I’d heard of them, and heard that some people witnessed it happen on the race, but so far – I hadn’t been a part of it. I wanted to believe that God healed people through prayer, but the concept was hard for me to wrap my head around.
The answer to Julie’s question was yes – the man nodded his head, and Julie’s eyes started scanning the street, looking for someone to pray for. A few minutes later, she said – “let’s go!” and off we went, the four of us and our new friend carrying his bag of clothes with him. Julie said she’d heard the click of a cane but hadn’t actually seen the person using it – so we hurried to turn the corner and scout out the person with the cane.
And that’s when we saw them – THREE men with canes, lined up next to each other on a bus stop bench. What the heck? Which one is the Lord leading us to? Pick one! We told Julie and followed her as she walked up to the man in the middle. We found out he was Buddhist – but asked if we could pray for him anyway, and he said yes. I was terrified, nervous, and had no idea what to pray over him, but I tried to think back to the documentary we watched in Madagascar – Holy Ghost – to remember the healing prayers (if you haven’t seen this movie, WATCH it!). He told us he’d had several surgeries on his knees and I asked him what number he would give the pain – on a scale from 1 to 10 – and he said a 6. We started praying bold prayers – prayers that God would melt metal in his knees, would mend bones and ligaments back together. At one point during the prayer I looked around and a crowd was forming – a family from Australia, our homeless friend, even a few muslims were standing behind us – all staring wide eyed at the man in anticipation. He told us the pain was decreasing, so we continued to pray. Before he got on the bus, he said his pain had decreased to a 1-2 and he was walking with less effort.
“What do you want for the healing?” Confused – we asked our friend who had followed us to clarify. “Doctors make appointments and charge lots of money doing the same thing you are doing.” We explained to him that we were doing it out of the overflow of love we had from our creator. Wide-eyed, he said he had to go.
Then, a second man asked if he could make an appointment with us for a healing prayer. We looked at each other in amazement, and told him we could pray over him right then. He told us he was Hindu and that he had a lot of pain in his leg and knee. He also said his pain was also at a 6, and we started praying over him. When we were finished praying, he told us he felt heat over his knee and that he felt things shifting inside his leg. He got up and walked perfectly without a limp – and told us his pain had completely gone away!
We stood in complete disbelief as we realized we had just seen the Lord work miracles in three different men that night – a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Muslim – the three main religions in Malaysia. Those men may believe in other Gods, but the true God revealed Himself at that bus stop that night.
We’ll probably never see the three men from that night again – but I’ll remember it for years to come and I hope they do too, and think about God’s all consuming love for them.
“Nobody ever changed the world playing it safe, they just didn’t… Following Jesus is one of the most risky things – ever. I mean, not in the sense of salvation – but following Jesus in the sense of really wanting to change the world. Like, it’s risky. You’re going to be put in spots that like, are scary and nerve-wracking and you’re going to have to be willing to look like an idiot and you’e going to have to step out. So, one of the things is just flat out realizing: If you’re going to change the world; I’ve never read about anybody – both in scripture and in history that changed the world that didn’t take a risk.”
Banning Liebscher – Director, Jesus Culture (From the movie Holy Ghost)
