Bruce Shares
a Dramatic Testimony of Healing
During the April Crusade in South Africa
Those of
you who follow me and MarchMin know that I rarely
highlight things like physical healing. As
remarkable as this story that I'm going to share is,
I'm guessing that most of you don't know that
remarkable healings actually happen with regularity
during our South African Crusades and in the
churches we've planted as an outgrowth. That's
because we don't talk about them much--and that's
because it's of the utmost importance that both your
focus and ours be riveted solidly on, well, what our
Father is focused on: The salvation of human
souls unto eternal life. Yes, that is truly
the most remarkable miracle of all and the one we
children of God should always be the most
astounded by and excited about. Glory to the Name
of Jesus!
That
having been said, folks, I can tell you that our God
is BIG. I've seen him do things that would bend
one's mind in ten different directions. Truly, I
could tell story after story...
My first
encounter was back in December 2002. A week after
our first Crusade I was in one of the churches and
a young man came to me saying God had healed his
asthma. (Now check this out as it's a common thread
through most of the healings that we've seen) He
said he was just sitting there listening to the
preaching when it happened. No one was praying for
him, no one was "exercising faith" or anything like
that. He was just sitting there listening to the
message... and God healed Him.
Today
that young man is married with a beautiful
child--something that was impossible for him with
the asthma if you understand the dynamics and
specific value system of the African culture. He's
gainfully employed and a part of the church's
leadership. I saw him and his wife just last week
at this past Crusade. He's totally healed, spirit,
body, and soul. Glory to Jesus.
Then
there was the time I was standing outside the hall
one Sunday on the final day of a Crusade two years
ago. I was just catching some sun and fresh air
before I took the platform. A late-comer, a woman,
quietly walked to me and told me that God had healed
her when I was there the May before. She'd had a
stroke--said she couldn't move her arm on her right
side. She was prayed for and "bingo!" Amazing.
This may
shock some but there are several church members who
have been healed of AIDS. One of them is in teen
leadership--entirely healed, tests that were
positive are now entirely negative. That too is a
story we've heard over and over.
There was
the
blind woman and the other blind woman in the
first two Crusades--totally restored. I remember
Sharon (who came from a very conservative doctrinal
background and was thus very skeptical) telling me
that when she was there in July 05 she literally,
physically saw cataracts literally disappear from a
woman's eyes right in front of her. Needless to
say, Sharon's not skeptical anymore.
And there
was the time when I saw an old woman come into the
Crusade with this primitive cane, barely able to
walk. As I was the last to leave the service that
night, packing up the sound equipment, there was
that cane lying on the floor. She was there the
next night and every night thereafter, dancing up a
storm in praise to Jesus. I saw her in this past
Crusade in April still dancing up a storm in praise
to Jesus. Glory to Jesus!
So... it
happens and it happens often. A lot of folks try to
reduce things like this to a formula of exercising
faith or saying the right words or whatever... I'm
sure there's some truth there somewhere and I'm no
teacher or anything, but the healings I've
experienced have nothing to do with any of
that. These healings are entirely sovereign
acts of God, mostly happening when no one is
even thinking about it--most especially me! I mean,
again, it's a story I've heard over and over: "During
the preaching." Glory to Jesus!
At the
same time there are specific qualities that I see in
many Africans but rarely if ever see here. Sadly,
these are qualities we seldom hear teaching on and I
don't think we ever hear them mentioned in terms of
"keys to God's power." I may be wrong but I have
a feeling that they are the key; that
they're as fundamental to experiencing the power
of God as they are uncomfortable and challenging to
consider.
I'm
talking about deep, unrestrained, extreme
desperation for God. I'm talking about deep,
unrestrained, extreme prideless-ness before
God. I'm talking about sacrifice like you and I
will never know sacrifice. I mean, what some of
these people go through just to get to a service is
phenomenal--the expense, the hours of dirt roads and
public buses, the hours of walking carrying their
kids on their backs...
One has
to believe such qualities and commitment are the
sweetest incense of all to our Lord. So much so
that I've returned home from this latest African
adventure so challenged and determined to pursue
these precious gifts in my own walk with
Jesus. May God grant me the grace! Glory to the
Name of Jesus!
So...
During my last day in Africa Pastor Martin and I
jumped into his truck and took a drive
to visit our different projects. We were visiting
the site where we make bricks for house and church
building in a village named Mabaloka and suddenly
there was this old man pedaling toward us on a
bicycle, calling out and calling out. When Martin
saw him his eyes bugged out. I had no idea why as
they began talking excitedly in their African
language of Tswana, totally unintelligible to me.
The old man was almost jumping out of his shoes and
so was Martin. There was hugging and laughing and
the guy kept jogging back and forth across this
small room we were standing in, pointing to his one
leg.
Finally
Martin turned to me and said what is one of his
classic lines, "Moruti (pastor), this is amazing!"
He went on, "This man was not able to walk without a
stick. I know him--he's a member of the church here
in Mabaloka for many years. I've never seen him
without a stick. Now look at him! He says God
healed him during the Crusade. He's totally
healed!"
In his
half English this precious, nearly toothless old man
told me his story. He was involved in an accident
twenty five years ago. It left him
disabled--unable to walk without the assistance
of crutches, a walking stick, someone to help. He
lifted his pant leg to show me the scar.
The
interesting thing is that I remembered his face from
the Crusade. I always get to the services early for
prayer and I remembered seeing this same old man
walking into the hall that was virtually empty at
the time, using this crude cane, moving up the aisle
with difficulty. I remember specifically having
a (I confess here) faithless thought of, "What if
that old guy goes forward for prayer with that stick
and then just walks back with that stick."
Seriously, that was what ran through my head when I
saw him. Forgive my embarrassing honesty.
So
now there he was not only walking freely and
prancing excitedly all over this little room, but
riding a bicycle! Hilarious! I pressed him for
details. He told me that he wasn't prayed for--that
he was just sitting there "listening to the
preaching of The Word" and God healed him. He kept
shouting over and over, "Twenty five years...
twenty five years!"
I asked
him how he knew he was healed--if he'd actually felt
it when it happened. I wanted to know what the
experience was like and I had an opportunity to find
out. He said yes, that it was like sudden strength
in his leg. It was like suddenly he had feeling
where for the past twenty five years he'd had
none. Then he got up and the leg was perfectly
normal, perfectly strong. He just went on and on
saying how Jesus had healed him, praising Jesus,
saying things like, "Only my Jesus," and on and
on...
Truly, my
words can't begin to do the event and my encounter
with this man that day even the smallest bit of
jus
tice--standing there eye to eye with this
precious man whom God had sovereignly and remarkably
healed, doing for this man what was literally and
totally impossible. Thank God I happened to have a
camera with me and captured these images that you
see. Just look at his utter joy and the quality of
his excitement. I tell you, God is truly a God of
wonders. As Pastor Martin says so often, "God is a
God who has His own ways." Glory to the Name of
Jesus!
All that
to say it's time to really get on our faces,
Christian. Our God is big--no... He's HUGE.
Yet here we are and let's admit it, so very few of
us truly taste His bigness in our lives. And I
don't mean only in these remarkable ways. Even more
I mean in the way of His intimate,
hands-on involvement in our routinely day-to-day
activities, choices, movements... that which I'm
convinced He longs for open access to.
He longs
to "go before you" in your workplace and with your
child who's seemingly so difficult. He doesn't want
you to "be strong" and "handle it" on your own.
Indeed, it is "in your weakness" (and
acknowledgement of weakness) that "His strength is
perfected" on your and my behalf! You can't, but He
can! And He wants you and me to cry out to Him and
cast it all upon Him--He who alone holds the power
to do the impossible and literally is the
Power that dwarfs all that would pretend to
be power--every problem and difficulty, every
challenge and opposition, every care and
consideration that tries to "exalt itself above the
knowledge of God." These things that so often
overwhelm us--they're nothing in His shadow! We
need to know that, and we need to live
that! Glory to the Name of Jesus!
My
brother, my sister, our Father longs
to go before you in your decisions and choices,
"opening doors that no one can shut," "shattering
gates of bronze," doing things that leave you and I
"utterly amazed." He wants your life and mine to be a
testimony of one Red Sea after another. Yes, that's
what He desires our conversation to be. Not the
latest American Idol or "I want this" or "Why not
that"... He wants it to be, "You won't believe what
God just did!" "God is amazing!" "Let me tell you
a story you won't believe!" Yes, that's
the conversation of God's kingdom! That's the word
He longs to hear spilling from His children's lips!
Glory to the Name of Jesus!
Let's
abandon ourselves, my brother, my sister! Let's
abandon ourselves to Jesus! Then "stand
back, and watch, and be utterly amazed!" Amazed by
Jesus! Yes, that's the thing... amazed by Jesus!
Glory to the Name of Jesus!
