God Heals In Sakaraha!

On Tuesday, we headed back to the Anglican church in the town of Sakaraha to lead what turned out to be a full day of teaching on healing and praying for the sick. In the morning, I taught for an hour and a half on the person and power of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the teaching we invited everyone to come up so Shay and I could lay hands on them and pray for a baptism and/or greater release of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit fell heavily upon people, and it was amazing to watch them receive 'more'. Many tears were shed. One woman fell to the ground and it quickly became clear that she was oppressed by evil spirits. We calmly commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus and she quickly grew calm and was completly set free - and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Praise Jesus! (It is actually quite common to encounter people who are oppressed by evil spirits due to people's involvement with the local witch doctors and shamanistic religion.) 

After a terrific lunch provided by the local church, we held a healing service. Shay taught on the account of the woman at the well in John 4, and then we invited people up for prayer. We had two prayer teams - Shay prayed with Avery and Olivia (Rev. Hery's wife) and I prayed with Abigail and Rev. Hery. God moved powerfully during this time of healing and we saw many people healed. One older man with arthritic and stiff arms received healing and regained nearly full range of motion. I was particularly moved by a woman who came to recieve prayer who had been unable to have a child for many years. She felt deep inadequacy and shame, but as we prayed God poured out his love upon her. Another young woman came up to seek prayer for a sharp pain in her stomach. She had been in pain for many months and it was causing her much fear and worry. I sensed in my spirit that she needed to forgive someone who had hurt her. She agreed, and said that someone had, indeed, hurt her -- and that she had not forgiven them. So we led her through prayers of forgiveness. She chose to forgive the person who harmed her, asked God to forgive her for holding unforgiveness in her heart, and forgave herself for holding on to the unforgiveness. Once she forgave and was forgiven, she was completely healed of her physical pain!  It continually astounds me how harmful unforgiveness is - and how incredibly powerful and healing it is when we choose to forgive. If we hold on to unforgiveness, it can become a root of bitterness that can 'metastasize' in our lives and cause us much pain. Forgiveness is a choice - but it is always the right one. Just as we have been forgiven by God, so we are called to forgive others. Forgiveness equals freedom!

At the end of our afternoon of prayer ministry, we heard testimonies from several people. A woman got up to testify that God had healed her completely from pain in her head and hands. Everyone was was amazed at the healing, but also because the woman was normally very shy and would never have spoken in front of people. There was much rejoicing! 

How incredible it is that ours is a God who is willing to stretch out his hand to heal us. And what a blessing it is to be used by God to bring His healing to people's lives. God, I pray that your church will be filled with more and more of your Holy Spirit so that we can powerfully proclaim the Kingdom and share your healing love with our deeply hurting and broken world. 

Shay and I praying for a man to be filled with more of the Holy Spirit.

Shay teaching on the account of the woman at the well (John 4:1-26).

This is the elderly man who regained nearly full range of motion in his arms.

Here is the shy woman who was healed completely of pain in her head and hands.