“And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2 : 4 & 5
July 14, 2015 is a day that I will never forget.
Our ministry in India has been wonderful, we work with children; little precious gifts from God. It is an absolute privilege.
They come to the local church after school where we wait for them to play games with them, teach them a worship song & do a skit about Jesus being the Light of the World. We close with asking them to pray for each other, then we pray for them.
It’s a fantastic ministry, providing the kids with English, education, a nutritious snack, & Bible teachings after school each day, thus keeping the children off the street & at a lower risk of becoming a victim of child labor or sex trafficking.
Afterwards we go to the homes of the families of the children in the program & pray for them.
It is a beautiful thing, but we don’t always get to see the fruit, we are the seed planters in this season.
And sometimes going out with seed to sow is a difficult task, when you know you won’t be the one sticking around to gather the sheaves at harvest.
When you know you’re leaving in a month, it’s hard to just scatter seed & have the faith to know that God will come & water & grow.
I was having trouble keeping this faith, until I learned a lesson on our day off, & witnessed a miracle on July 14th. This past Saturday, one of our leaders here in India took us to a prayer monument, a place that was established by the first missionary to India. A place where people still go today to intercede. He told us the story of this missionary, & how he toiled for 15 years here…fruitlessly.
He labored for the Lord tirelessly in India for over a decade with nothing to show for it. Then it was time for Him to report back to the States. With his ministry looking quite futile to the people back home, He was advised, in his old age, to stay in the US, to which He replied, “If I die, I die in India”. So he went back, but since there were no Christians but him at the time, a young missionary was sent with him in case he did pass away, so he could be given a Christian burial.
When they got back to Ongole & began ministry, on their first day 2222 people were saved.
This story hit me pretty hard, it reminded me of the importance of being patient with the Lord, & being faithful & diligent even in between miracles & mountaintops.
So on July 14th, my attitude was a little different than before, not that my attitude was ever particularly bad, it was just a little off, I knew the significance of what we were doing in the Kingdom, but I was wandering & questioning, asking God if He’d show me a sign that He’s at work for sure. On this day my attitude was a little more hopeful. I really felt like, “Yes Lord, this is my portion right now, & I will be faithful in whatever you give me, you know best. I will wait in expectancy for what You will do, & I’ll receive whatever that is.”
We went & did our usual program, & prayed with & loved the kids with all that we had, like we always do.
Then after deliberating whether or not to go pray for the villagers, we went to our first home (thank God). We walked through the mud & rocks, waving at each beautiful child & Mother. At each curious Grandpa & Grandma, aging but smiling brighter than the sun. We moved out of the way each time a motorcycle came honking through the darkness, & talked with the children who followed along.
We arrived at our first home & I immediately felt the Spirit on me strongly. When we went inside there was a woman named Sujy in the middle of the living room waiting for us, in a beautiful orange saree. We found out that she was actually supposed to be moving that night into a different house, but she was informed we were coming to pray & she decided to come see us.
We asked her about her needs, & her request was kind of big to us, but certainly not too big for God: deliverance from a demon.
We slipped our scarves over our heads as is culturally appropriate, & braced ourselves spiritually & physically for prayer, at this point I was trembling with the Spirit, & by God’s grace (& only by God’s grace) there was no fear in me. The Holy Spirit was so strong in that room that I had no choice but to be obedient.
We all began praying at once, & I found myself speaking in tongues more than anything else. When I would revert back to English all I could do was exalt Jesus over this woman, & claim her for Him. Declare the power of His blood & the power of His name, and sing songs of His power & dominion. We did this for about 15 minutes as she writhed & groaned & eventually began to weep, then went limp.
If this is not a weird situation to you yet, it becomes weird now. Lol. And let me just say, I was a HUGE skeptic of the supernatural even as I first began to walk with Jesus, because there are so many people abusing the power, or working through different powers as the sorcerers did when they imitated Moses’ miracles before Pharaoh. Satan too parades as an angel of light, as it says in the Word, so I think a little skepticism is okay when you have TV preachers pushing people down by their foreheads then asking for a $500 offering (Lord have mercy on them). But let me tell you with 100% assurance, that if you have a heart to know God in all that He is, & you seek Him with all of that heart, & You ask Him to show Himself to you…He will. My journey even to “believe in” tongues is a long one…but He has consistently displayed to me with undeniable certainty that these signs & wonders are legitimate…& He shouldn’t even have to do that, because I should take Him at His Word, where all these things are written about, & it is also written “blessed are they who did not see, & yet believe”. I believed that God could deliver people from demons, but I had never seen it, bless Him for His grace & goodness that He extends to let me witness such miracles.
After Sujy laid on the floor for a while, she opened her eyes, which honestly looked lifeless & dark, and she began to speak with hostility towards her family members. They bickered back & forth as we asked our translator what was happening…now here’s the weird & unbelievable part, which is totally believable because I watched it happen: this woman was speaking but was naming herself a name that wasn’t her own. Her family asked her name & she replied with a male name, a male who was 104 years old, & angry because we had disturbed him. That, my friends, is a demon.
We began to pray again fervently, all at once, declaring His providence & power, His freedom, His might. Beckoning Him to break the chains that bound this woman for 9 years. To send whatever has tormented her so long far, far away & to inhabit her body with the Holy Spirit. We prayed for another solid 15 minutes & I was dripping sweat all over the place, my scarf was completely saturated, I was so energized by the Holy Spirit at this point, you guys don’t even know.
I had oil all over my skirt from putting it on her forehead & I was in the midst of the hottest, sweatiest, most outrageous & holy battle I’d ever been part of in my life.
Villagers had heard the commotion & by the end of our prayers the room, the house, & the yard were filled with people from other families with their own prayer requests.
I looked down at Sujy under our hands & she was laying on her side, calmly. I began to rub her back & sing these words which at that moment were more true to me than they had ever been in my life:
Only Jesus has the power of salvation in His blood
Only Jesus has the power of salvation in His blood
She laid in silence for a while & then reached out her hand to us after fighting to break free from our grip moments earlier, she then took our hands & stood up. Her family asked her name & she replied with the name her parents gave her at birth, no longer hostile or upset.
I was absolutely hyped up in the Spirit at this point, so excited to witness such freedom, I literally don’t have words to express the feeling of utter euphoria.
We ended up praying for more people in the house who had prayer requests for deeper intimacy with the Lord, full healing from former paralysis, & healing for infertility, among other things.
As I was leaving the house Sujy came to me with a scrap piece of paper, with names written in Telugu.
I asked our guide to translate them & it was the names of her family members & her that she wanted us to keep in prayer (please keep her in prayer!).
The people who lived in that home came to me & asked for a prayer of blessing upon them & their house. I prayed, & they thanked us for coming. I kissed Sujy’s hand & we were off, after thanking them for allowing us the opportunity of praying for them.
July 14, 2015 is a day that I will never forget.
As we got in the Tuk-Tuk to leave I found myself deeply hoping & praying that the testimony of Sujy’s deliverance would spread throughout the village & draw many to Jesus, that no glory would ever be ours.
I also found myself overcome with joy…awestruck, dumbfounded. Not even knowing how to express the gratitude to God for all of His grace, faithfulness & power.
Like what do I even do?
Rejoice I guess. Rejoice again & again & again.
But even as I rejoice I find myself wishing I could somehow expand my mind & heart to comprehend & then fully express the endless praises my Lord deserves.
For now I’ll express it with Sujy’s Song:
Only Jesus has the power of salvation in His blood…
Only Jesus. Only & ever & always, Jesus.
