Miracles Still Happen
I must believe. God will do what only He can do.
It all started in my country of birth, South Africa. It was 1985, and I was in my first year of training at a local Bible school. I joined my older brother, Johann, and a group of students at an outreach event in an impoverished area several miles outside the capital, Pretoria. I remember it being a scorching summer afternoon. It was dusty and dirty. The tent the event was hosted in had holes in its canopy. The sun filtered through space in dust-filled streaks to reveal our group and Benson, the African evangelist who organized the outreach. To say that the attendance was low is an understatement. It was disappointing!
My brother finished his message, and the altar call ended with a minimal response from the audience. Benson wanted Johann to pray for the sick, and after being invited, some folks shuffled to the front. To make a disappointing meeting even more challenging, the first person in line was a mother with a blind infant. She wanted us to pray for her baby to receive his sight.
My brother moved his pointing finger slowly toward the baby’s eyes, and… nothing. Yes, the baby was blind. No response indicated that the baby was trying to dodge his finger. He prayed with all the faith he could muster. He finished and tested the baby’s eyes again. No response. You could feel the disappointment swell in the tent as he bravely moved on to the next person.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion from where I was standing. Some of the sick people in the line that Johann was moving through received healing from the Lord, but the meeting's feelings of defeat due to the blind baby hung over it like a thick cloud.
Recently, in trying to get all my facts straight, I met with Johann over lunch to ask him about that day. He remembered it like it happened yesterday. Granted, it is about 35 years later, but he recalled the abject feeling of defeat that day as he approached the tent’s entrance to go home. We were all hot, sweaty, and tired. We were frustrated that we had driven so far and spent so much effort to see so few positive results in that dusty tent.
As we walked, we were all unconsciously speeding up with the car in sight, and getting home was the only objective in our minds. It was time to cut our losses and leave with whatever dignity we had left! We did not know that God wasn’t finished with us yet. On our way out the tent door, we were in such a hurry to leave that we barely noticed the frail form of a person lying under a blanket.
Let’s pause the story for some needed context. We were told by the locals back then that in that impoverished area when a family member was beyond hope and within hours of death, they would often lay the dying person in a public space. They would quickly leave, hoping that the authorities would come and pick up the body and take care of the burial expenses. This is relevant to our story in that, while our service was in the tent, a very sick woman was placed by her relatives at the tent's door to die.
On his way out, Benson, our precious African evangelist friend, saw the shape of a person under the thin blanket, barely breathing. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a very ill woman and felt compassion for her.
Benson ran and caught up with us. He asked us to pray for one more person. We walked back with him, and when we saw the woman, she looked like death washed over. She did not even move or look our way. As far as she was concerned, we were not even there.
Can you imagine how we felt when asked to pray for someone in such a desperate condition? The blind baby had left the tent still blind, and some other ill folk left the prayer line sick. Couldn’t Benson see we were not the best candidates to pray for this hopeless case?
Johann took charge of the moment, ready to escape quickly. My brother asked us to circle the woman lying in the dirt. The Holy Spirit reminded him of Peter and John’s story in Acts 3, when they came upon a disabled beggar at the Gate Beautiful. The man was begging for handouts, and Peter and John stopped and looked at the man intently. Peter told the man to look at them and said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
The beggar in the Bible story was instantly healed! While Peter’s faith level may have been high, our faith levels were almost nonexistent. Johann told us to say Peter's words as a group and in unison. We looked at each other and said it haltingly the first time: “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
“Again!” said Johann.
We said it together a second time.
“Again!”
We said it a third time, much bolder and with more intensity.
“Again!”
We said it a fourth time, and our faith began to soar.
“Again!”
The fifth time, we shouted it in perfect unity: “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
It felt like a wave of energizing power hit us all out of nowhere! The poor woman suddenly looked up at the commotion above her and saw five people yelling at her to get up in Jesus’ name.
My brother stretched out his hand to her, and she took it. She slowly stood up with very wobbly legs. He began to take steps with her, leading her. She seemed to grow stronger, healthier, less dead, and more alive with every step! Next, before we knew it, we were all jumping and shouting with her as the power of God transformed this frail person into a bouncing, joyful, healthy woman!
You cannot imagine the relief and delight of that moment. God miraculously healed her! Suddenly, our fatigue and despondency disappeared like mist before the morning sun as we rejoiced and shouted for joy!
She told us later that she was deathly ill. She had been left at the tent’s entrance because her family expected her to die at any moment. Her name was Johanna.
She became a Christian that day and went about her area for many more years, telling anybody who wanted to hear how Jesus transformed her life. It all happened on that dusty, dirty afternoon outside the door of a tent with gaping holes in the canopy!
I tell you this story for one purpose: Miracles still happen in this messed-up world. God is still a miracle-working God, even when our circumstances seem impossible.
That afternoon, thirty-five years ago, we felt utterly defeated as we left the tent. However, we were a different group of people by the time we settled into our seats to drive home! God changed what was impossible into something incredible.
I love this story because nobody could claim to be the big cheese or the powerful man or woman of God. Combining our voices and hearts, we responded to what the Holy Spirit dropped into my brother’s heart. We did our part. God did what only God could do by miraculously healing Johanna.
I don’t understand why the blind baby did not see. I don’t know why Johanna was raised from that dirty patch of soil alive and well while others went home sick. It is still humbling and amazing to me, thirty-five years later.
Since then, I have learned that my job is to be a believer. I don’t have to understand everything God chooses to do. As a believer, it is my privilege to invite God into a situation to be our Healer. How and when He touches a person’s body or heart is His part of the equation, not mine. It is my privilege to ask God for His help. Why He does what He does is beyond my comprehension. He is God. I am not. I am just happy to see what He does in this world.
Excerpted from my book, Simply Supernatural: Believing God For The Impossible Again.
Simply Supernatural: Believing God For The Impossible Again (Study Guide Included)
When Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, He had a supernatural lifestyle in mind for them. Not a barely-get-by-and-hang-on-for-dear-life-until-Jesus-rescues-us-one-day mentality! No, I believe He told us that we would do what He did and even greater things because He returned to be with His Heavenly Father. If you look closely at John 14:12, you will see that the only qualifier for such a supernatural lifestyle was that you needed to believe in Jesus.
Do you believe in Jesus? Well, prepare for an exciting journey through Scripture as you explore the possibilities of embracing a whole new level of living. Yes, at times, there may be opposition to your mission. Yet, in the end, we will emerge victorious as we present a living and powerful opportunity for others to know God's heart toward them. Open these pages and learn about the exciting way Jesus and His followers lived. Discover how a simply supernatural lifestyle is possible and within your reach today.
It is time to accept this invitation to believe God for the impossible again!