Praying for Real! Praying for healing!

Today I was trying to do some clean up in my computer and free up some space.  As I did that I found pictures that I thought were lost when my last computer went dead.  These are pictures of my mission trip to India to the Indian Christian Mission Center.  This is a place that I spent several days meeting orphans, orphanage workers, church planters, and many people through out the country of India.  But there was a moment that God used to really rock my world and challenge my faith.  While we were in India we drove around the area checking up on churches that I.C.M.C. had planted in the area all with pastors that came from the church planting training center. On one day we drove out into the hills in fact one person on the trip was needing for us to pullover because they were getting car sick because of the winding roads.  We eventually came over the hill to see what looked like an unfinished horse barn.  What we soon were told was the new church building that was replacing the hut that they had been meeting in the last year.  When we pulled in we were greeted with cheers, smiles, and hand shakes.  We were then ushered to the front of the barn where we were to meet and great the people of the area, some of these people had walked several miles and waited several hours just to see us.  Pastor Jay the gentleman that started and runs I.C.M.C. then began speaking in their language and began gesturing towards each of us.  What we realized was he was introducing us and what we did to the people that were there.  Then he motioned for us to move to the front of the platform that we were sitting on.  He then turned to us and said pray over them.  Several of us responded with “Say What?”  He said you know place your hands on their head and pray for them to healed, for them to be set free from demons, to be able to trust in Jesus.  We kind of paused and then Jay looked at each of us and said, “You believe that Jesus can heal these people don’t you?” 

What a powerful question.  Did I believe that Jesus could heal these people?  Did I believe that Jesus could set them free from demons?  All of this was running around in my head when I turned and looked into the faces of the people. The faces of mothers with sick children, the faces of old men that were wanting to know Jesus, the faces of those that were truly hurting.  Right then and there I knew that this was where I needed to be and where I needed to be used by Jesus to pray for these people.  So with tears in my eyes I began placing my hands on top of heads and prayed out loud for the things that were coming from the Lord.  Because there was no way that I knew what was going on in these peoples lives and what they were even saying.  It was amazing! Now I have to say that I thought that was all that we were going to do.  So I walked outside to get myself together and prepare for the ride home.  There I found this lady.Now from this picture it looks like a little mom just on her way to church doesn’t it?  Well what you can’t see is her disfigured face, that she is missing some fingers, that this lady has leprosy.  When she walked  up she had her veil pulled closed so that I could not see the damage that the disease that had done.  There happened to be someone there that spoke the Tamil language and then some english, enough english to let me know that this lady wanted to be healed.  After that she opened her veil.  I stood there with my eyes locked on on what should be her face.  My hands actually stopped above her head not touching her as I had an internal conversation.  This is what came back into my head, the words that Jay had spoken earlier; “You believe Jesus can heal these people don’t you?” 

Right then and there I placed my hands on her head and with all the faith that was in my heart I prayed for this lady to be healed, that she could be the mother that the little girls needed her to be, that she would see the power of Christ right then and there.  Now I would love to say that right then and there she was healed.  But you know what?  That did not happen.  What happened was right then and there all of her and all of me were placed before the Lord.  Right then and there God took a man and a sick woman placing amazing faith in their hearts.  My prayer is that I return and there is a lady that remembers me and that I don’t remember her because her face has become new.  Who knows the return that I am talking about might even be when we meet again in heaven standing before Jesus.  

I encourage you to pray. I encourage to place your hands on the heads your children and pray. I encourage husbands to pray with there wives.  I encourage you to pray the prayers that no one else thinks are worth praying.  Why?  Because there is a God in heaven that loves to hear them and loves to do amazing things with them.