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Nigeria:
I was sitting in a day breakout session after a crusade the night before. I first saw him sitting in a row of people. His mother was talking to the speaker about him. These sessions are a time for testimonies to be told as to what God did the night before during the crusade. His mother was talking about her son, Cornelius. He appeared to be around 20 years old. From what I could understand she was saying he can’t hear and is paralyzed from the waist down. Later on, the meeting broke out into a prayer session to receive tongues. I have noticed in western Africa how much they believe in tongues and whether or not you speak in them often indicates if the holy spirit is active in your life. So I was already feeling my spirit grow to a fiery state. The Holy Spirit is active in your life EVEN if you don’t speak in tongues. We were asked to go and lay hands on people to speak in tongues. However, if you watched and listened EVERYONE was already speaking and yelling some sort of tongues. So I just prayed for some to be touched by God’s love. Then I went back to my seat. Praying, interceding, frustrated.

I looked over and I saw Cornelius being manhandled. Three or four men were around him yanking him every which way, trying to get him to stand up, telling him to walk in Jesus name while yanking and yelling at him. Saying he has demons and that is why he’s paralyzed, that he’s messed up in the mind. Meanwhile they are grabbing him, shouting at him, rebuking some sort of demon. He tried to crab walk out of the door, but they would grab him and hold him. He could only crab walk because of being paralyzed. As I watched I felt a fire come over me, a righteous anger. I could sense God saying, GO.   This is not how my child should be treated. I was about to go, and then felt to call my teammate Matthew over as well. We walked towards him and the men around him parted. Cornelius crawled down the steps outside. One of the men said to me, he’s messed up, he’s got demons. I said I understand, but he should not be manhandled or forced to do something he clearly doesn’t want to do; he needs love and mercy to be shown to him, not force. GOD IS ALWAYS MOTIVATED BY LOVE. I PRAY I WILL BE AND THOSE WHO MINSITER WILL BE AS WELL.

As we followed him outside, many people surrounded us. Everyone seems to gawk and stare when things are going on in Nigeria. Cornelius had nowhere to really go. Everyone was staring at him, but he couldn’t leave because his mother was not there. Matthew tried to approach him and talk to him, but each time Cornelius crawled away. He ended up crawling down the street and Matthew followed, gently talking to him, telling him truths about God. Matthew asked the crowd to leave them alone. The adults shook sticks at the children to run them off. But, it was the adults that needed to leave too. Matthew says towards the end of him attempting to talk to Cornelius, that he reached out his hands to him and Cornelius reached his out as well and then took it away. Matthew says he was so close to just one touch. Then we had to leave.

As I left I felt heartbroken. I thought maybe I had missed a huge opportunity to truly reach this man. I knew he just needed love, to know God LOVES HIM SO MUCH. As we made our way back to our house, my other teammate Mike, who had stayed behind due to being sick, appeared on the road. We stopped to see if he wanted a ride back to the house and he said he was going to pray for someone and would be home shortly. We arrived home and our spirits were heavy. A lot happened during the day session for all of us who were there, things that conflicted with our spirits. We decided to have a time of prayer. Mike made his way back and really helped to minister to us. We talked about what happened and how we were hurt and angry. We confessed and repented. As we prayed at the end, I felt God say to me, I will redeem your time with Cornelius. I thought maybe it meant that somewhere else, in another country, I will minister to someone like Cornelius. 

After we finished praying, Mike said, you know, the man I prayed for sounds a lot like Cornelius.  Mike said he crawled as well and had been like that for five years. And I said, yes, the guy we saw at church had been paralyzed for five years too. See we went to two different places after we left the church. Our contact wanted us to anoint buildings that were now going to be used as churches. So by the time we ran into Mike on the road, Cornelius had arrived home, which was right by where we were staying, and Mike was on his way to pray for him. I got so excited!  It was the one and the same Cornelius!  God was obviously after him!  Mike said I feel like we should go back and pray over him and Maryanne you need to go for sure. I was so happy, I couldn’t believe God was actually going to redeem this time with Cornelius just a few hours later.

As we walked over to his house, we prayed hard. once we arrived Cornelius was lying on a mat outside. As we approached him, he started to crawl away. His mother told him to stay. Mike felt led to ask the parents to leave allowing us time alone with him. When Mike prayed for him earlier, he felt like his father had something to do with the situation. The parents kindly obliged. We spent the next few hours hanging out with Cornelius. We all sat in chairs that were close to his mat. One by one we began just talking to him. Sage introduced herself and said she wanted to be his friend and just talk with him. Matthew again began to just speak truth to him about God’s love. The person that had walked us over to his house said he can’t hear you. But, we knew he could. I KNEW HE HEARD WHAT WE WERE SAYING. 

I began to tell him about how much God loves him, smiles upon him and is not ashamed of him. That he’s God’s son and God delights in him. I could sense something broke his heart five years ago, something caused him to grow silent, some abuse. I spoke to him and told him he could tell about it, he could talk to God and tell him, that God will not hurt him, but hold him. i told him God wants to heal his heart.  I felt led to apologize for how the church has hurt him and tried to fix him. I told him God was so sorry that people came in His name and hurt him. That God was so sad that He has been misrepresented to him. God is loving and would never force His way upon Cornelius.  That He loves him right where he’s at, in the condition he’s in.  God loves him right there.  That he could forgive and that God is a gentle loving father not like his earthly father. Cornelius would look at who was speaking and then quickly look away. Matthew attempted to sit down close to him on the ground, but Cornelius would get up. He then moved over to a bench and would raise himself up and sit down. We pulled an extra chair around and placed it near our own circle of chairs and told him we would love for him to sit with us. That we were there to just hang out with him and love on him. We told him he was worthy to hang out with and that he was our friend. He eventually made his way to that chair and joined us. We were so excited!  A little breakthrough!

It felt like we were making a dent in his heart, that there was an opening, and even if it was the slightest bit of love from us, IT WAS BEING RECEIVED. IT WAS PENETRATING AND CHANGING HIM. Nicole then decided to try and play a game and invite him to join. We picked up a rock and decided to throw it to each other. You could see Cornelius eyeing us with a look of curiosity and a tiny bit of playfullness appeared in his eyes. He wanted to join in you could tell. He cracked a smile. We said, play with us! We want you to play too. He would look away from us half smiling. He didn’t play, but HE SMILED AND WATCHED. He eventually left the circle and moved back over to the bench. Sage decided to go and get drinks and snacks and figured he would like that. We brought him back a coke and some crackers. We placed the coke by him on the bench. He would look over at us in our circle and crack that smile slightly again. Then it became time for us to leave. We felt like our purpose was to just hang out with him, not be like everyone else who just tries to come and rebuke some demon. He just needed love and to know people want to be his friend. We told him how much we enjoyed spending time with him and that he was our friend. I felt led to give him my ring. He wouldn’t take it out of my hand so I left it sitting by him. I told him I loved him and he was my brother. 

We left. As we were leaving we felt joy, JOY. I knew he had been touched. HE HAD JOINED OUR CIRLCE ON HIS OWN ACCORD, HE HAD SMILED, HE HAD WANTED TO PLAY AND JOIN IN.  I knew God would get a hold of him. AND HE WOULD WALK AGAIN. THAT THE CHILDLIKENESS, AN INNOCENCE AND JOY THAT HAD BEEN LOST WOULD RETURN. I knew his legs would dance. It was just awesome to know my time had been redeemed and that Cornelius’s heart had been touched. He is so amazing. He is an awesome man and I pray that those around him can just SHOW HIM LOVE. Sometimes that’s all somebody needs. SIMPLE LOVE not a certain prayer of deliverance. Just showing love can deliver someone. It opened my eyes up to how God works according to our needs at that time. CORNELIUS NEEDED TO KNOW HE’S WORTH HANGING OUT WITH, NOT JUST BEING STARED AT and judged as strange or held down to be delivered in the name of Jesus. Jesus never healed like that. I’m so grateful for meeting Cornelius. HE WILL BE FREE.