My teams being in Thailand is no accident. For weeks we were missing information about where we would be going and who we were going to be working with. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, shame on you (jk-kinda) go back and read my last blog. It’s very clear that God was up to something when He was changing our travel plans. So when we do ministry in Thailand, big things happen because God’s got His hand all over it.
Yesterday we spent the day visiting different homes of Christians to pray for them and encourage them. One woman we prayed for was elderly and told us of the pain she’s been feeling in her tailbone and that she has a difficult time bending her knees. Naturally we prayed for her pain to be gone, and when we finished guess what happened? She said she wasn’t in pain anymore. Not only that but she could bend her knees. Everyone around me rejoiced and clapped saying hallelujah! But I keep wondering to myself if anything really happened. Was she just saying her pain was gone to please us? There weren’t any real clear signs that a miraculous healing was done. And the thing is, this isn’t the first time this happened. We have been praying for people ever since we arrived at PJ’s church. Almost every single time we pray for healing, a person says they feel exponentially better. Here is the formula: 1. Pray for someone who is sick or hurt 2. Ask if they feel better 3. Pray again if the answer is no, celebrate if the answer is yes. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for seeing the Holy Spirit heal people, but is it really happening? Are we forcing a reaction?
I often wonder if I lived when Jesus walked the earth, would I follow him? Would I believe all of the times he healed people or preformed miracles. Would I believe Jesus for who he said he was? I want to say absolutely yes I would have trusted that He was the messiah because of all the miraculous things he was doing. I want to say that I would have no doubts about his identity or his authority- especially after seeing that power with my own eyes. But then here I am, on this God ordained trip to Thailand praying for people who really are being healed. It’s simple really, sometimes (a lot of the time) my faith is too small. The reality is my God has never changed, nor will he ever change. He stands firm on his promise to heal the sick because that’s who he is. And he still does heal people. Healing sand miracles aren’t reserved for the Old Testament. That part never changes. The only thing that has the capacity to change is the size of my faith.
When I get down to the root of why my faith feels small, it’s because I have a hard time imagining that I have the power to lay hands on someone to heal them. But that’s just the thing, the power to heal has absolutely nothing to do with me or any of my teammates. It has everything to do with the Holy Spirit. I can do things even greater than Jesus did because I have the Holy Spirit inside me.
How sad would it be if I walked through the rest of my life blind to the miracles and missing out on all the miraculous things God does right in front of my face because I don’t have enough faith. And lucky for me, I just need faith the size of a mustard seed. When I open my eyes, I am blown away by the amount of people we have seen healed this week. We have seen broken legs walk, neck pain vanish, digestion problems healed and so many more. The Lord has shown up in miraculous ways and I don’t want to miss out on any of it.
