I absolutely believe that, amidst all the pain, heartache, and trials that we all face in this world, wherever the corner of your world is – GOD IS ALIVE! I thought it would be great to share with you these faith building stories…and watch this great video. 15 minutes of your time that you won’t regret 🙂
…A week ago, I was sitting down at the kitchen table like any other afternoon, sipping Rooibos and chatting with Anna about random things while she prepared dinner when the subject veered into what to do when you venture upon a demonic manifestation (a natural segue, you know). Anna redirected one of my [many] questions to Felito, who had strolled into the room casually checking up on the progress of dinner. He looked at me, chuckled, and said, “So, you want to cast out a demon?”“Uh. Well. . . not exactly. . . . Yes?”If I could write Felito’s resumé, “Casts out demons” would probably be on there, along with “makes amazing French fries.”
Yeeeeeeah, no big deal.
NO BIG DEAL? Are we even talking about the same thing? I’m not picturing myself in some Ghostbuster uniform and a gigantic industrial-sized vacuum. I’m picturing rotating heads, inappropriate crucifix placement, and pea soup projectile vomit.
Clearly I needed a healthy dose of enlightenment, because I was mortified at the prospect of having to face a demon. Then again, it’s not like the concept was entirely foreign to me. . . you see, I’ve read this book, it’s really helpful and you might have heard of it. It’s called the Bible, and this dude in the New Testament called Jesus Christ casts out heaps of demons and He seemed to do it with the nonchalance of a professional weight lifter at the local gym. So, if you’re still with me, allow me to share with you a little of what I’ve learned. . .
…now it’s story time
we were preparing to go to an outreach in a community…The men set up the equipment: the stage, the speakers, and soon the music played…This woman looked as though she weighed a total of 95 pounds with the physique of a twelve-year-old, but her strength was enough to pull Maria and I to the ground with her, screaming. I cut my knee from the impact of the course dirt beneath us. This demon was not joking around. We were wrestling. Before I had time to look around for more experienced recruits, Felito rushed in and gripped her wrists to keep her from bashing our heads in. She continued to flail. As we prayed, she screamed and ran. She picked up a bottle in the dirt and smashed it against the brick wall.
She held it to her neck and screamed something, which Felito translated into, “I’m going to slit this woman’s throat, do you see what you’re making me do? Because you prayed for her, I will slit her throat.”
His reply was, “The angels of the Lord will not allow you to do such a thing. Leave, now, because she is protected by the blood of Jesus.”
The woman let go of the bottle.
Tiffany prayed for this woman and another and they received healing. Praise God!
– Brian Cook, from B squad, became a Christian a year ago while living in Africa. A World Race team on P squad met him, ministered to him, and now he loves the Lord. He then applied for the race and is on the field right now. He preached for the first time ever. He has caught a fire inside of him that he now loves to share as he preached.
http://briancooke.theworldrace.org/?filename=pastor-brian“I accepted Christ a little over a year ago, and got baptized last month. I am learning more and more about the Lord everyday which is very exciting!! But one thing I NEVER thought I would be doing in my life…..is preach!! Could anyone picture ME in front of 100 people in church preaching the message?! No!! But guess what I did on Sunday…..
I spoke about redemption, encouragement and evangelism. I told them that their past life as a Buddhist is over and God has forgiven them of all the sins they have committed. He knows the offerings they gave and the empty life they lived with out Him. I wanted them to know that they have the King of Kings on their side, the most powerful being in the world has their back!!!
It was amazing!! I felt so confident on stage, I wasn’t shaking, I only lost track a few times. Overall, I LOVED preaching!! I can’t wait to do it again.”
During our night of worship a few of the girls decided that we needed to heal a little girl named Fea.
Let me tell you a little bit about Fea. She was found in a trash bag in the middle of a field when she was only a couple of weeks old; she is now 3. She has cerebral palsy because she was deprived of air for who knows how long. She is constantly drooling and cant form any words. She has little to no control over her bodily functions. She can barely hold her head up, her arms are constantly folded in toward her body and her hands stay clenched in a fist; she doesn’t have control over her fingers. One of her legs is about 5 inches longer than the other one, her feet are turned over in a way and she is not able to put her feet flat on the ground. She has been like this her whole life and we wanted to heal her. We knew that because of our faith God would heal her. She is His, she is His child, she is His daughter, His bride, His beloved. He gave her a voice and He wants her to use it! He wants her to be able to run, jump, skip, play with the other kids. Her story will glorify the Lord, her story will reach nations, her story will point to him.
The next day we brought her into the house where the volunteers live. We began to pray over her. Prayed for healing, for strength. It was so encouraging because I would be hearing a word from the Lord and then someone else would be getting the same word. It was like God kept confirming,
“See Kristen, I am speaking to you, you ARE hearing MY VOICE, continue to listen”
So I would, every time I felt the Lord telling me we needed to pray for something in particular I would say it out loud and listen to what I was discerning. The rest of the team was getting words as well and we all kept listening to our spirit and praying over her, over her body, over her brain, her muscles, every inch of her body was covered in prayer.
We all had our eyes closed praying to God and then he just told me:
“You are asking for a miracle, yet you close your eyes, OPEN your EYES and WATCH me work! Believe that you are going to SEE it Happen!”
With this we all opened our eyes we waited knowing that God was going to show us something, we were going to watch Him work. And with that we saw that leg that was about 5 inches shorter than the other GROW until it was the length of the longer one! PRAISE THE LORD!
Side note: The whole time we had been praying Fea had not drooled one time! Her usual never ending pool of drool was completely dry.
The praying continued. Soon she began saying our names! This child had NEVER spoken a single word in her whole LIFE! There was a carpet on the floor (it had animals on it), she began pointing to the animals and saying what they were… “Elephant, Lion, Giraffe” What! She knows animal names!!
Her arm muscles began to loosen and little by little they fell to her side. Her fingers became unclenched and she began grabbing things around her.
We wanted her to WALK. We wanted her to RUN! Prayer prayer prayer. And then God said:
“Why are you waiting to see some drastic transformation in her body before you let her try? You say you have the faith that I have healed her, yet you aren’t letting her up to actually try and walk. If you truly believe she is healed then have her WALK, give her room to WALK. You are waiting to see before you actually believe! Believe she is HEALED! Believe it enough to TEST IT!”
Moment of truth. We all backed away from her. She had NEVER walked before. She can barely crawl. She was on her knees hobbling from one person to the next, trying to grab hold of her. She was going from person to person trying to get someone to hold her.
And then it dawned on me. What would I feel like if I had never walked, never talked, never crawled, never been able to do anything in my short life and these strange women were proclaiming things over me and telling me that I can walk! Would I believe them? Probably not. Then I realized she needed truth spoken into her. I looked in her eyes and began telling her YOU ARE LOVED, You are Gods DAUGHER, You are BELOVED, You have an INHERITANCE in heaven, He wants you to WALK, He wants you to SPEAK, he has a plan for YOU, you have a STORY to tell! Over an over! Do you know you can walk Fea? Do you know God Loves you? Do you know Jesus DIED for YOU!
She lifted her arms, looked to the sky and said “Amen!”
Its time to take her outside. God wanted us to TEACH her how to walk. Standing behind her, I barely touched her with my fingertips. The kind of trick your dad plays on you when you learn how to ride a bike, you think he is holding on but really he has already let go and you are riding on your own. She started with little steps, slow and cautious. Then little by little it got faster. Her little steps became a run. I was still afraid to let completely go of her. I didn’t want her to fall on her face. Again the Lord calmed my nerves
“Kristen, let her go. Do you believe she is really walking? ‘yes’ Then let her walk, let her run’ ‘but what if she falls?’ ‘Did you fall when you learned to walk? She will be OK, She will get up and she will walk again. Even if she falls it doesn’t mean she is not healed” ‘ok God, ok, you have her.’
PRAISE THE LORD! That little girl was a moving like never before. I looked at her “FEA Jesus healed you!! Jesus LOVES YOU!” She started jumping up and down and screaming sweet praises.
Two of her orphanage brothers that had watched her grow up came over and were in awe! “How, what, when, Fea? Did Jesus do that?” One boy told the other “See I told you God was real!” They then asked “Does God only do miracles at night?” sweet sweet boys! They both accepted Christ in that moment!
Fea’s story will be told all over the world! And every single day she will continue to get stronger and stronger. Praise God for his daughter!
“I couldn’t help but think about how every person’s house we walk up to, we were sent with a specific message, specifically for them. If I have come all the way from America to share with these people in a village in Tanzania, then God obviously has given me words to say to them of life, of joy, of hope. God obviously has something he wants to say through me. In the first 2 days of going to this village, 3 people have accepted Jesus as their savior and demons were cast out of 3 different people.”
http://elizabethhuff.theworldrace.org/?filename=we-come-bringing-a-message-of-hope
“Our pack went to the Home of Hope the other day, a place for the homeless women to “die in dignity.” Trust me when I say there was no dignity involved. The first time our team went there, the spiritual darkness was oppressive.
“Some women stood off by themselves, screaming and hitting their own faces, while others just lay on the ground, staring up with gaunt, haunting eyes. My teammates cried when they left and the only thing they could really say was, ‘We have to go back.’
“So we did. We went back the next day and prayed over the place before we even walked in. I approached the compound with horrific expectations and I wasn’t too far off – the place was dirty and awful and it smelled like urine and sweaty, broken bodies. There was no organization or designated translator. We were just told to head to the dormitory and start whatever we had planned.We were faced with a roomful of women, some of whom looked legitimately insane, others who were mangled and deformed, and others who just stared back at us blankly. Nobody paid attention to us – it was chaos in one of the more unwelcome environments I’ve ever experienced.
“But then we started to worship and everyone fell silent. We sang and spoke for a bit, then broke into groups to pray for the women – we intended to pray over every single woman in that room and we intended to see God move in big ways.
I also never saw miracles. So take that for what it’s worth.On this day, we prayed and sang and prayed some more over more than thirty women and they were all healed. Legs did not ache. Lungs filled with air. Backs bent and stretched in ways that they hadn’t in years. One woman was practically carried up to me, because she could not walk. I put my hands on her hips and prayed and after a few minutes of Amanda, Brittany, and I praying, she walked across the room on her own.SHE WALKED ACROSS THE ROOM ON HER OWN.I have no idea what happened in the Home of Hope that day, except to say that the Spirit of the Most High God showed up. We walked out of the place and there was a tangible change in the atmosphere – there was a lightness and a life that wasn’t there when we arrived. Trust – it was still sad. But for the first time in perhaps a long time, the Home of Hope seemed to deserve its name, just a little bit.”
Read the rest of the story here: http://bit.ly/wHtnl0
