About this time for the past 4 years you all have come to expect some sort of report from my trips to translate for the Grace Fellowship Healing and Miracles missions team.  Last year I shared the entire list of miracles we saw as a team.  This year, however, I have my own miracle to share.

Some of you may or may not know that I have suffered from tendinitis in my right shoulder over that past year.  Part of this is a result of all the working out I have done and it hadn’t gotten better.  One doctor told me to rest it, another told me to exercise it.  I have been taking prescription strength anti-inflammatories, B complex, multiple Turmeric doses a day, icing it at least twice a day, and I had not yet seen a breakthrough.  “Maybe I can ask the healing team to pray for it,” I thought myself in the week leading up to the trip.

As I met up with the team and we started our journey north into the mountainous region of Guatemala, I began to contemplate when  I would ask them to do it.  Looking back I can see the silliness of the notion.  I should have asked them as soon as they got off the plane!  But, my humanity won out and I waited.  It reveals more of the nature of the woman with the bleeding condition that we read about in the bible (Luke 8) and her bold audacity to fight through the crowd, reach out, and touch the hem of Jesus’ cloak.  Here I am surrounded by people who have come to pray for the healing of the sick and I’m hesitating asking them for a simple prayer.

I’ve seen blind eyes opened, deaf ears that can hear, demons cast out, and all sorts of “crazy” miracles happen when these folks come to town.  I’ve even prayed for healing myself for others and have seen immediate results.  Why was this such a difficult thing to do?  Fear.  Fear and faith cannot exist in our hearts at the same time.  I was afraid.  Afraid of God not “loving me enough” to heal me.  I was afraid of God’s glory not being revealed.  I was afraid of being disappointed.  Maybe there was even a little tiny part of me that feared being rejected (for the record, I have yet to see anyone be turned away and denied prayer by these folks).

It was Sunday morning.  We had already been ministering a couple nights and since everyone was at church on Sunday, we had “rest time” in the morning.  At breakfast, I got an overwhelming headache for no reason other than divine providence.  We walked back to the hotel and in a few minutes we were all asked to meet up on the top floor where there was a big meeting area so we could pray and worship.  The team does this once or twice during their trip as a time of encouragement, devotional, and refreshment.  It’s also an opportunity to ask for prayer from the team.  “Ya know, I almost brought headache medicine just in case,” I said to my roommate.  “But I know if Harvey found out, he’d kill me!” I quipped.  I clearly remember when I was packing I picked up the headache medicine, which I rarely use anyway, and then shook my head and put it back in the drawer.

We went upstairs and started our devotional time.  Someone led us in a short bible study and the team leader gave us the details for the day of what we would be doing.  “Does anybody need prayer?” he asked.  We prayed for someone else and then I rogered up.

“Yes, please pray for me as I got this killer headache at breakfast.  While you’re at it, you can pray for my shoulder too,” I said flippantly.  I explained the issues I had had over the past year.  As the team laid hands on me I tried to remember how we minister to others. “You don’t have to pray or ask for healing, just be still and receive, like an open vessel.”  I stood and tried to relax.  Immediately my headache was gone!  I praised God silently in my head.  “But what about my shoulder?” I asked myself.  Instead of focusing on it I just relaxed and let the Holy Spirit do what He does best.  One by one the team took their hands off of me.  I opened my eyes and for the first time since I could remember, there was no pain!  None at all!  One of the guys was moving my arm around and where I would normally wince, I turned and smiled at him.  It was awesome!!!

“MY SHOULDER IS HEALED!!!” I texted Missy.

“I’m in tears right now,” she responded.  “Because when I prayed this morning about your shoulder I really felt that God was gonna do it today!”  She didn’t know we had prayer time as a team.  “I felt in my heart like one of the things you were going to tell me today is that you were healed!  God is so awesome!”

“Yes He is!”

When you receive relief or healing in one area or another of your life, it makes you wonder, “why didn’t I do that sooner?”  I have come to love watching people receive God’s love through His healing.  Whether it is emotional pain, spiritual depression, physical ailments, or anything else, there is nothing much more rewarding than watching God work through you and see the relief on someone else’s face and in their body.  We witnessed a ton of miracles in one week, but I think the greatest miracle that I experienced was the one that removed fear and doubt from my heart!

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