Healing on the streets

The year was 1999.
I was on a School of Worship Outreach with YWAM  in the Philippines.

The pastor of the small country church we were visiting had just told the congregation that the three visiting YWAM'ers would now pray for those who needed healing. It wasn't anything we were used to doing--nothing we felt prepared to do--but we had no choice. We were there to serve and this is what the pastor wanted.  We had to be spontaneous and flexible--ready for anything.

So quite a few people came forward for prayer and I just went around praying for healing. I had a quiet confidence that even though I felt completely out of my depth, I had to pray and God wanted to answer their requests.

When I asked one lady what she wanted prayer for, she told me through a translator that her hands were always cold and her stomach had a continual rumbling. Immediately what came to my mind was "witchcraft." I asked the lady if she was a Christian and she said "yes" and when I asked her if she had ever been involved with witchcraft she said "no." I prayed anyway, in English, without a translator...I prayed for healing but I also "cut off" any witchcraft that was happening or demonic spriit and moved on to the next person.

At the end of the meeting, my fellow staff Annie talked to the lady some more and found out  that she was 1) healed 2) was not a Christian 3) had indeed been involved with witchcraft and 4) and was now ready to accept Jesus as her Saviour because she felt so full of the Spirit of God! Yay God!

That was my first real experience with healing--thrust upon me by a church and pastor who were used to moving in the supernatural.

In February this year  I attended a conference at Bethel church in Redding, California all about healing. Randy Clark and Bill Johnson, both heavy-hitters on this topic, just blew me away with the revelation they brought. For the first time I understood both the importance of healing and the fact that the church has moved so far away from healing ministry being a normal and active part of church life.

It's become the norm for most of us to not experience supernatural physical healing. And we are generally comfortable with this, even though it is not biblical thinking. It's not the kingdom of God to believe for less than healing.

So after this conference, the lights went on for me. It was Randy Clark who said he prayed 200 times or more before he saw his first healing. And he has CRAZY stories of people being healing from Parkinson's and other serious illnesses...so I thought to myself...I can do that, too.

So when I got back to England in February I decided to join the Healing on the Streets team here in York. They go out twice a month on a Saturday. I haven't always been able to go(since I've been away several weekends) but I think today was my fourth or fifth time since March. The team prays and worships for about an hour and then goes out on the street for two hours. We erect a banner that says "Healing" and we set up chairs and have cushions (for us to kneel when we pray) Today was the day I finally got to see people healed!

A lady named Mariana had several physical problems...diabetes, a stiff neck, torn cartilage in her knee, and persistent migraines. She was suffering her third day of head ache pain. When we prayed the first time, her head pain left. She was amazed. we asked her "Shall we pray for your neck again?" and she was excited. She said "Yes!" so we prayed some more and her neck pain was gone completely. She kept moving it and smiling. She called her freind Kathy over "come over here! It really works!" So we prayed for Kathy. She had hip pain and asthma and told us she was struggling with depression. Mary and I were praying for her. Mary had a prophetic word for her about  the depression and the lady confirmed she was right. Then we prayed for her hip pain and when we asked her about it, she said it was gone. I said "Are you sure it's not because you're sitting down?" and she said "No, because I was aware of it as I sat down...but now it's gone!" She was happy.

I was so excited! It was all happening today!

Then Kerry, one of the girls on the team asked for prayer for stomach pain and that left her also. YAY GOD!

It was just so natural and normal to move in this kind of power. That's what I liked about it all. We asked and God just did it.

I want to see this every day.