I guess I am undergoing somewhat of an awakening--an awakening totruth! If God's word is true then we should be seeing it's effects andresults in the real world--right? When I was in 7th grade I playedbasketball for the Lexington Bulldogs. We won exactly 1 game the wholeseason but our pep rally's were amazing! We had the whole school in afrenzy of excitement about defeating our opponents and becoming thebest team on earth. Yet our excitement never translated to actualvictories. Sometimes I feel as if our church services are like peprally's for a team that never wins.
We preach, foam at the mouth, sing, shout, and talk a lot of theoryabout the power and glory of the Kingdom but yet there seems to be adisconnect with the amount of emotion we manage to stir up and theactual results our message has in every day life. And so we leave ourChristian Pep rally's somewhat satisfied only to be moved emotionally.Then we face Monday Morning and people in our lives stay unbelievers,stay sick, depressed, poor and in bondage to something. Wait! Thisisn't what I signed up for.
Lately, our interns have been actually daring to believe the things wepreach. So 12 of us nervously set out for Wal Mart to pray for the sickand proclaim the good-news of the kingdom. We left with greatexcitement and returned with zero testimonies of actual healings orsalvations. Most of our encounters were awkward attempts to share thegood news. In spite of this our hearts were stirred because we wereactually practicing what we say we believe. We counted this as asuccess because we figured we ended up bringing encouragement, hope,and the light of the gospel to dozens of people that day. I feel asthough God smiled on our awkward attempt to share His love.
This first experiment was about "getting over ourselves" and the fearof man! The next day at Wal-Mart doing a fundraiser for our trip toIsrael and as the people streamed in our group couldn't help but prayfor people that obviously had physical problems. What happened nextblew our minds and has forever changed our lives and will foreverchange our city.
The first person that got prayed for was a lady in a wheel chair!Nothing like running toward the giants! I was thinking, "couldn't westart with praying for a head-ache?" They prayed for one of her legswhich was in pain and which had limited mobility. As they prayed thelady started exclaiming that she felt intense heat in her leg and thenthe pain was gone! She kept saying, "there's no pain!" "I came in withpain and now there's no pain!". The fundraiser got abandoned when thishappened! They began praying for everyone they saw with physicalproblems and as a result they reported 7 healings! One lady had a tornACL and got completely healed. Arthritis, and back injuries were amongother notable miracles that day.
Even after such amazing testimonies I found myself defaulting to myChristian Atheism! My unbelief still taunted me with thoughts like,"Was that person being polite by saying they feel better or did theyreally get healed?" Well God is so patient with me and was gracious toconfirm a couple of these healings.
Apparently word started getting around town. I heard from a friend whosaid, "I ran into a lady from church and she said she got completelyhealed when one of your interns prayed for her at Wal-Mart and she hasbeen posting her testimony all over facebook!"
The next day we found ourselves in Wal-Mart again following severalwords of knowledge about a person with hearing loss. The first personwe talked to surprisingly enough had hearing loss in her left ear. Shewore a hearing aid and said she has been believing for healing for along time. With our new found faith we laid hands on her and commandedher to be healed. As we were praying she said she could feel an intenseheat on her ear. Then when we asked her if she was any better she said,"everything is louder! It's as if everyone is talking really loud! Ohmy gosh I can hear that lady over there really clearly!"
To put it lightly our lives are being wrecked by our amazing God. Lastnight we were reliving the glory moments and someone said, "what havewe been doing this whole time?" "How many people could've been healed,saved and encouraged but weren't because we didn't really believe?"
Life can never be the same and we are so thirsty to see people getsaved and encounter our beautiful Jesus and his power to heal, forgive,and deliver! Stay tuned!
Posted on
Monday, November 9, 2009
by Main Administrator
filed under