Miraculous healings

Drafted 2014

I received divine healing myself nearly 20 years ago. A man prayed for me, and I was freed from food allergies that triggered Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. My food sensitivity had been so bad that one mouthful of bread would leave me unable to concentrate for 3 days. I’d go to work, but not achieve anything that required significant thought. Before it was identified, I had days where walking 20m to the mailbox was quite an effort and left me drained for a couple of hours.

Following this particular prayer, I’d say it felt like electricity buzzing through my body for a while. (I’ve had a few 240V shocks when I was younger; they hurt more but felt similar). Then, for the following 3 weeks, no matter what I did I just could not get tired. I was healed.

Since then I’ve heard some good teaching on divine healing, as well as a bit of speculation. I heard of some deceptions, but knew that it can be real, and somehow, some people see it more often than others. Even when cases are verified by leading surgeons, it doesn’t make the news.

Moving on..

A bold statement

As we looked into joining a “Journey of Compassion” to India with Impact Nations, we saw the words “you will heal the sick”. That’s a big call. It was proven true.

We arrived in India, received some teaching, and were assigned into various roles each day as we entered rural villages to offer health clinics, vitamins, medicines, all for free. We also offered to pray with people. The clinic saw around 300 people daily, and only a couple of people declined prayer out of the 6 days. We also prayed with people after evening celebrations in those villages.

Many people were healed directly as a result of prayer.

A lot of people

So all up, 1500-1800 people received prayer for healing at the clinic “prayer station”. We were more concerned with doing the work and sharing our faith, than with keeping precise records and statistics. We weren’t there to win arguments back home, but to share the love of Christ with many people in need, practically as well as (actually, before) theologically.

On the first village day, I spent a couple of hours at the last room of the clinic: the prayer station.  I prayed with people with head pain, neck pain, sore throat, knee problems (common), feet and ankles, chest tumours,  cataracts, deafness, restricted arm movement, stroke, belly pain, fever, and probably other complaints.

Some of the time, we had to rely on the person telling us whether they were better, and if so, how much better. Add that conversation was through a translator, and it’s possible, even likely, that some said “yes” just to be polite. With many people, the changed expression on their face demonstrated that something had happened. Then there were some where the symptoms had been quite obvious, and then obviously gone. These exciting events occurred at different times through most, if not all of our team of more than 30.

With all that in mind, I’m very confident that in 6 days of village clinics, more than 50% of people received at least some noticeable healing. I think it’s more like 95%, but I’m not a doctor and I didn’t personally examine every person we met.

Even taking a most sceptical view, and trusting no-one to tell the truth, there were some dramatic and unmistakable successes. If God can deal with those, then why quibble over headaches?

Through our hands

These are a few people I specifically remember meeting with my wife, where we were blessed to be the conduits for God’s goodness, and where the result was very clear and observable:

• Man left arm restricted – I prayed with an older man who had very limited movement in one arm – shoulder injury? He was very excited to have full use of his arm back.
• Cal – A week in, we visited a village church and taught the locals about healing. In demonstrating our approach, I asked one of our team to stand in and said “suppose Cal has a problem”, and explained how I might talk with Cal and pray and heal in Jesus’ name. In fact Cal had injured his shoulder handling luggage earlier in the week and had limited movement of that arm; and at that point while demonstrating he was instantly healed.
• Old guy with stick – a man very happy he could now walk without using his stick
• Old guy’s ears – a man who was very hard of hearing, could now hear well

Through our friends

I also remember a few undeniable and dramatic healings from around the group:

• A guy with crutches no longer needed them
• Boy with stutter, started speaking clearly
• Boy who had never spoken, I believe he was deaf, said “Jesus”
• Guy with bad vision being able to read a name tag
• Boy with uneven legs, who limped very badly, could now run and play with his friends
• Another profoundly deaf man

See all entries on this journey: Related articles

Mark Virkler + India Teammates share

Mark Virkler writes…

Nine of our readers from four countries responded to the invitation to join Steve Stewart and myself on a Journey of Compassion to India. As you will read below, their lives were greatly impacted! I highly recommend you prayerfully consider doing a Journey of Compassion with Steve. He does about six of these a year. It is a wonderful opportunity to minister to the truly needy, while personally increasing in this healing anointing.

Below are some amazing stories! My personal story is in my India blogs. Six days after returning to the U.S. I did a CWG seminar and a healing activation in the evening using Steve’s 7 Step Healing Model. At least eight people received healing as they were prayed for by various volunteers from the evening service. Praise God!

One had a swollen, painful foot released from pain. Another had a frozen shoulder healed (as we prayed 4-5 times for it). For the first time in five years she was able to feel sensation in her finger tips!

Click here for the full article, including testimonies from several team members who responded to Mark’s invitation.

———————————————————–

See all entries on this journey: Related articles

little pictures

There are some things I will never see the same way again.

On a recent “Journey of Compassion” to India, there was a lot to see. Some of it is common to most of human history, though strangely alien in 21st Century Western living. Some things I have seen pictured, others mentioned in text where I can only guess how they looked. I now have new pictures in my mind.

Photography was limited out of respect, as we were there to give and serve, not to make spectacle of others.  I’ve started this list with things I saw, but ended with things I saw myself doing!

• A man carrying a heavy load (Matthew 23:4). I’ve seen Indian villagers carrying great loads, hanging balanced on a pole carried across the shoulders, or in a basket on the head. The load could be lighter, but then they’d have to walk all that distance again..
  In the same village, some have motorbikes. A strong sense of caste, or social class, means the best tools often don’t  do the greatest work.
• A fisherman sorting and mending his nets (Matthew 4:21)
• Beasts yoked together to pull a cart. Steering is done by whip. If the beasts are “unequally yoked” (2 Cor 6:14), they’ll walk in circles, or the driver will be constantly whipping one side.
• Visiting a village, and being welcomed into someone’s home (Luke 10:8-9)
• Women covering their head to pray (1 Cor 11:5). Not just the fact of being covered, but the act of re-arranging a shawl or sari over the head.

• Caring for the smallest in the flock (Isaiah 40:11).
• Meeting someone at the well (John 4:6-7).  The wells I saw were metal pumps on concrete pads, and each village we visited had more than one, but they were still communal resources. We sat down in the village and talked with people as they came and went.
• Going up onto the roof of a building to rest, sleep, pray, or sit in the cool breeze (Joshua 2, 1 Samuel 9, Matthew 24:17, Acts 10:9)

• Going out into the streets and laneways, inviting all people, “come to the celebration!” (Matthew 22:9)
• Being interrupted by children seeking a blessing (Matthew 19:13-14)
• Being sent, two by two, to heal the sick and proclaim “The Kingdom of God is near you now” (Luke 10:1-9).

Then I saw a bigger picture; a picture that contains:

• Generous (though sensible) giving where there is need
• Acceptance and love, regardless of caste
• Broken families repaired and restored
• Suicidal people rescued, finding hope and reason to live
• God being honoured publicly
• People working alongside each other, in spite of different cultures and personalities, valuing unity and honour above their own plans preferences
• Compassion and care → lives being changed
• Miracles → lives being changed
• Invitation → Salvation → lives being changed
• Literally doing what Jesus told his disciples to do

To me, it’s a picture of the Kingdom of God. It’s not complete and perfect, but it seems a much better illustration than anything I’ve seen before.

On the same journey, Mark Virkler wrote “I have believed for 38 years there should be more to “church” than I had experienced. Now I have experienced the “more” and I never want to go back.”

I have seen, I must concede, a transient picture as I visited villages in another country on a very short healthcare & evangelistic mission. How do I come home from that?  How can I remember, and find or build a similar picture in the place where, by God’s grace, I live?

See other entries on this journey: Related articles