“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” – John 14:12-14
I believe in a God of miracles. A God that shows mercy and compassion. God sent His son to show that through the way Jesus served and loved the people around Him.
He showed His wonders and power through hearings and miracles, if you can separate those into different categories.
Jesus sent His disciples out to do the same things He did, which is actually where the name Christian came from. People gave the disciples that name because it means, “little Christ.” We are made in Gods image. This goes way past the way our bodies were made to look like. Its our personalities, imagination, desires, skills, and so on. So if God created us to be like Him and sent His son to be an example of how to do that, why is it so hard for us to believe we can do all things through Christ and more?
At the beginning of the race you hear about past Racers healing people through prayer and in the name of Jesus. I was so excited for this! I wanted to walk into a new spiritual gifting for the Kingdom. While on the Race, I would be walking down the street and see someone with a broken arm, pigeon toed, one leg shorter than the other, person in a wheel chair, and I would be so excited to pray healing over them! As I walked closer to the person I would wait to be prompted by the Holy Spirit to ensure that I was indeed called to pray for them. 10 out of 10 times I wouldn’t receive that feeling to pray. After a while, I started to get sad over the thought that I wasn’t supposed to pray for them. This was because in my earthly mind, if I wasn’t prompted by God, then it wasn’t His will to heal them.
In Cambodia (month 4) I asked my Squad mentor if I should try to pray for healing if I don’t feel lead by the Holy Spirit. He replied, “If the question is, ‘Can you pray for them?’ the answer is always yes. Whether it’s for healing or not, the answer is always yes when it comes to prayer.”
Since then I have been talking to the Lord about this a lot, and these are the things I have come up with in the past 4 months:
I didn’t want to pray without feeling lead or prompted because I was afraid of nothing happening or “failing.”
I have never had a prayer unanswered. Whether it be a yes, no, or maybe later, I have always received an answer.
Praying without knowing the outcome is Faith.
Last month I was in Bulgaria. First week there I asked the Lord what He wanted to talk about, and this is what He brought up. He asked me if I was willing to start trying to pray for healing. I told Him I would, but I argued with Him… because personally I had been sick for a month already. My team, family, and myself had been praying for healing and nothing had happened. Then I told God, “What if I prayed for myself and I was healed. Then a friend and they were healed. Just to get my confidence up?”
Then, this past weekend at Leadership Development Weekend I had a migraine. I was pretty annoyed by it. It was my 15th one that month. I didn’t want to go to worship or hear my squamate talk, I just wanted to lay down. I decided to go anyway. Halfway through the night I put my hand on the side of my head in frustration, and to myself I said, “I command you to leave in the name of Jesus, Amen…” And suddenly, my migraine was GONE! I smiled and said, “You’re cool” to God.
I continued to listen to the message. Afterward while talking to my new team, one of my teammates said she was a little worried about travel day the next day because she hurt her foot on a hike earlier that week. Our team laid hands on her foot and prayed and nothing happened.
A little later I was talking to her and she said something about her foot again. I didn’t really feel lead, but I care about my friend so I asked if I could pray for her foot again. She put her foot up on a chair, I put my hand on her foot and said in my head, “I command pain and discomfort to leave this foot in the name of Jesus, Amen.” I asked her how it was now and I saw a grateful smile appear. It wasn’t completely healed but it was so much better than before. I said, “God, you’re so cool” and I felt like the Lord wanted me to tell her, “God cares about your foot.” I felt a little silly saying it at first but I thought about it and I know that it really was true. As soon as those words left my mouth, I remembered my conversation with God about how I asked Him to build my confidence earlier that month.
God cares about my friends foot more than He cares about me feeling silly. God created me to be like Him, set a perfect example through Christ on how to achieve that, and now He has built my confidence that God is the God I believe He is.
I just got to Africa and Im not saying that there going to be crazy healing happening or anything but I will say that for the remainder of my time on the Race and on I am going to try to walk in Faith more, who knows what will happen.
To be continued…
