This is what I’ve been waiting for…

Let me tell you a story about a man named Leno (not Jay.)  Leno was pretty hurt, frankly pissed off by his church where he lived, a lot of hurt had been going on in the church, and he stopped going.  Which, I’m pretty sure at one point or another we’ve all been in Leno’s shoes.  Our contact wanted to go to Leno’s house to simply tell him to go back to church. HA!  It’s so interesting what your contacts want you to do, even when you don’t necessarily agree with them wholeheartedly (even with their amazing intentions, you go along with it, with your own little twist you feel from the Lord.)   We didn’t go in there straight up telling Leno to go back to church, we went in there with understanding and love- we went in there laughing and joking around with him as he questioned our teammates race and joked about India being a place that is so “tremendous because people walk around naked with cows.”  Leno is a jolly, jolly man.  We were immediately obsessed with his personality.  His eyes literally sparkled.

After some banter our contact cut-in.  “Okay, so tell him to go back to church.”  A nice, smooth segue, sir!

We started talking to Leno telling him we had heard about the stuff going on his church and understood his hurt, we listened to his heart on it all and asked him where he was on it. He didn’t want to get involved in other’s sins, he didn’t want to get dirty…

We started just pouring encouragement and life into Leno talking about forgiveness and the grace that the Lord gives us that we need to extend to others, we talked about Satan is the one who wants to kill, steal and destroy and the Lord is all about restoration, and how he can so be a part of the restoration for his church- his entire community.  We talked about Ephesians 6:12, (the verse of any world racer.)  

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places..”

We told him the things he was warring against wasn’t his pastor, wasn’t the pastor’s wife but against something bigger than that, against the one who only comes to kill, steal and destroy. Sure, it’s easier to leave your brother or sister out in the cold when they are screwin’ up, and your a little pissed off,  when they are doing things that aren’t of the Lord, but is that Biblical?  We really challenged Leno on it, and he began to tear up.. . not because we defeated him or anything  No!  We had encouraged Leno to stand up and war against the darkness in his town, in his church and to have people join forces to rage against this war surrounding us.  Satan loves disunity, the cracks in churches, the little fights, the scandals, the crap we see on TV, the tele-evangelists, the greed, all of it-satan just loves it.  He wages war against the light, which is why we see it SO much.  It’s a threat and this church here in San Rafael Cedros was no different, the church was a threat and we encouraged Leno to keep it as a threat to Satan to not just throw in the towel.

Towards the end of this conversation Leno told us his knee was really jacked up.  He limped a lot and had a ton of knee problems since a car had hit him last year.  He worked in the market and needed to carry huge, heavy things on a daily basis.   His knee made it extremely difficult and painful for him.  He limped, he was in pain, the whole she-bang.  We asked if we could pray for Leno’s knee and he smiled and said “Claro!” (of course!)  We began praying, unified, asking the Lord to rain Heaven on this man, to bind up the pain, to loose heaven, etc.  (We are always very specific to pray, there isn’t limping/pain or whatever it is in Heaven, and you ask us to pray  “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven….“)

We ended our prayer, asked him how he felt, and he said a little better.  Seriously? (i always ask to make sure they aren’t feeling pressure, and it’s actually the Lord)  Yes,  a little better he said.  So, our team went “allright, lets continue praying!”  we prayed again for a bit, and we asked him how he felt, he said much better he could have weight on his left leg now.  What?  is this guy serious?  Is this “working”?  We asked him to stand up and continued in prayer and in unity.  We got done praying and he had a funny look on his face. …

This man wasn’t lying, and he couldn’t fake it, what would be the benefit to him for that!?  The Lord healed the man in front of us. (WHAT!!!!)  

 Now,  I don’t understand why He’s waited until month 5 for this to for our team to experience this, or why he hasn’t healed children I know back home, family, i know, etc.   I have no clue, but, I am going to trust…  Trust that somehow when things seem entirely jacked up, screwy, wrong, etc that through it all he’s got it under control-I still struggle with that i want to UNDERSTAND.