God's been putting people with blindness in their left eye on my path constantly for the past week (week of 5/8). It started with a teammate, Bekah, calling us all out. A lot of us watched two movies called Furious Love and Finger of God. Basically, it's about the amazing things God's love does- cast out demons, heal blind, leave gold dust in Bibles, put gold teeth in peoples mouths… There was general consensus that we all wanted to see God work like that. Bekah pointed out that we have had opportunities to see God do His thing, but we've failed to recognize and act on them. She reminded us that there was a blind man at the church we attend, who we've all seen repeatedly, but have done nothing about. We all were impressed by the other team seeing healings and longing to get on that wagon, but none of us had climbed on.
Sooo after being convicted (and reminded to keep my Spirit on constant alert/be always ready to be used by God), I have encountered 4 people with blindness in their left eye during this week of ministry. Yep FOUR! We prayed for each one of them and, until tonight, saw no immediate physical change. Bekah and I prayed for the first two (and all of us together prayed for one of them the next day), I prayed for the third boy alone and the fourth man was prayed for by me, Elizabeth and Jeff. After the first two, Bekah and I talked about how we were feeling/what we were thinking since no tangible physical change was seen. I told her that from jump when God showed me He was gonna use me for healing (a dream I had in DR on January 14th) I decided then and there to simply always believe. I will, without doubt, believe that after I/we pray for people God directs us to the person is healed. I will absolutely take God at His word and trust His love and finished work on the cross no matter what it looks like. So, although we hadn't seen anything, I'd been praising God and thanking Him for healing these folks.
Tonight, May 17th, God's timing linked up with our natural/earthly time and we got to see His love change someone's physical self right before our eyes. Tonight, we were doing street ministry. One of the places we stopped was a street where lots of homeless people live. As I walked out of the truck a man says to me, "Please come tell me about The Word! Talk to me about The Word!" So I sit down with Him and say, "Well, all these pages and all these words ultimately come down to one thing- a love story. It's a big long 'I love you' from God." He begins to agree with me and we start sharing Scriptures back and forth.
This homeless man, slightly drunk, smelling nothing close to fresh, says to me "if you don't work you don't eat." I then say to Him true, but thankfully "man does not live on bread alone" and he proceeds to finish with "but every word that comes out of the mouth of God." He then says something along the lines of if his spirit is full it doesn't really matter that his stomach is empty. I was humbled and so privileged to be talking to this dude. I told him that God loves him and that's why He sends people like us to provide for his basic physical needs. He expressed a lot of gratitude.
Then he explained that about 2 months ago he fell and received a head injury that caused him to only see darkness in his left eye and blurry out of his right. He tells me he knows I'm there, but can't really make out any of my features or anything about me. I asked him if he believed that God loves him and wants him perfect. He said absolutely. I asked him if he wanted to see God's love work a miracle in his life right now; if he would like to see. He said absolutely. I helped him to his feet and asked 2 of my teammates to join me in prayer. We prayed. In the midst of prayer I asked him to open his eyes and tell me what he saw. He said "a little light." Jeff said we should pray more; so we prayed some more. He then said he could see clearly out of his right eye and a bit more out of his left. Elizabeth said we should give it a third go. We prayed again. This time God put the words in my mouth to pray in Spanish (although I speak it fluently, prayer is a whole nother thing. RARELY do I pray in Spanish because I'm not really thinking and using my logical/reasoning part of my brain in these moments) and the brother starts agreeing and praising God. He opens his eyes after the prayer and I asked him what he saw/how is he?
He covers his left eye and says (about his right eye) "It's clear. I can see." Then he covers his right eye and looks around a bit with his left. He looks me in my face and rubs his hand over my hair saying (loose translation) "Wow! I see your hair. How beautiful!" and reaches out and touches it.
QotM(from Finger of God):
"We like miracles because we like God. You know, when you love somebody you like what they do. Miracles by themselves don't thrill people with God. It didn't always thrill people with Jesus when He was on earth. The fact is, that a miracle by itself does not accomplish what God is after. Miracles demonstrate that God is real. People can see evidence that God is here; His fingerprint is on us. The finger of God has come upon you, as Jesus said. The kingdom of God has come upon you- now what do we do? Now that we know God is real. Now that we know He's done this, how do we respond?"
"Miracles demonstrate that God is real, but it's love- love that is the greatest power in the universe."
