A Testimony of God's Power!

Looking at the boy it was clear that he was nervous. He couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old and if it wasn’t for his friends, probably would’ve never come up for prayer. Though they spoke extremely little English, his friends were able to communicate what was wrong through one word, “arthritis” while pointing at his knees. I knelt down, put my hand on his knee, and uttered a simple command; “be healed in the name of Jesus!” Nothing spectacular happened, there was no lightning from heaven and the boy didn’t get ‘slain in the Spirit’. In fact he just stood there looking up at me the same as before. I don't even think he understood my simple prayer. Knowing that faith often requires action I motioned to the boy to move his leg up and down, bending at the knee. Never before had I seen such fear as was evident in his eyes and it was clear, by the look on his face, that movement meant a pain which he did not want to experience. Even so, as his friends surrounding him encouraged he finally began to slowly, carefully bend his knee. In the process of bending his knee the fear melted off his face before my very eyes and was replaced by pure joy. There was no need for a translator to tell me what had happened, I knew he had been instantly healed by the miraculous power of God. This story took place on my first missions trip in the Philippines and was one of the first times I saw the immediate evidence of the power of God flowing through me into another person. The image of that boy’s face has been burned into my memory for life as a reminder of God's power at work in our lives.

On this trip we saw hundreds of miracles and even more people gave their lives to Christ for the first time! It was three of the most amazing weeks of my life and I still feel tremendously blessed that God chose me to be a part of it. However, seeing so many miracles in such a short time led me back to a question that I have sought God about my entire life. Why don’t we see these miracles more often? As Christians we are supposed to be emulating the life of Jesus here on earth and throughout the Gospels we see that He constantly brought healing and deliverance to those around Him.