Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Stories from Africa

I went to Africa expecting miracles. Really, I was just expecting God to be Himself. And over and over again, I was completely amazed at my “Daddy God” (The Africans we were around referred to God in Creole as “Daddy God”).

Miracles aren’t about putting on a show. They’re not magic. And they’re not something of the past.

Miracles flow out of the heart of a loving Abba. God’s extravagant love knows no limit. It’s amazing to me how so many people have put a limit on what an all powerful God, whose very name is LOVE, can do.

His power flows from His love.

I started keeping a list of the miracles that we witnessed when we were on the plane headed to Sierra Leone. The woman sitting next to me on our last little flight from Ghana to Freetown, Sierra Leone wasn’t feeling very well. So I prayed for her. After praying for her, I asked her how she felt. She said her headache went away while I was praying. Wow! Praise the Lord!

And that was just the beginning!

While in Sierra Leone, we visited a few different villages, and ministered to the churches in these different communities. While we were in the first village called Kambia, one particular family served us daily, and prepared all of our meals while we were there.

The youngest daughter in their family had had a fever for 2 weeks. She was three years old and adorable. It wasn’t ok for this little girl to be so sick, so we prayed that the Lord would bring justice to her and heal her.

And He did.

We kept asking her family if the fever had come back since we prayed for her. They said she was 100% better. What a loving Father she has!

While we were in Kambia, the church asked us to pray for two of their kids who were demon-possessed. A little bit of fear went through me when they asked US to cast the demons out. I didn’t really grow up believing in all that “crazy spirit stuff.” But the more I bring the Kingdom of God into the darkness of this world, the more I experience the warfare that goes on in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6)

The fear I felt only lasted for a moment, however, and then I started getting excited about what the Lord was about to do. There was no doubt that He wanted those demons to stop tormenting His precious ones.

The first little guy’s name was Abraham. He might have been 7 or 8 years old. During worship the day before, Abraham had manifested a demon by running bent over through the building at full speed, running into walls and into people, and foaming at the mouth. Someone from the church came and laid hands on him and started praying, and the child fell asleep.

After praying for him the next day, the demon left peacefully. Thank you, Jesus!

The second child we prayed for was a 13 year old girl named Elizabeth. Her demon manifested immediately and threw her on the ground. We prayed that the demon would get out of her and go to Jesus so He could deal with it appropriately. After a few minutes, the demon left and the peace of God came over her.

Elizabeth was all smiles after her deliverance. She started hanging around us regularly from then on, and gave me a gift the last night that we were in Kambia. Because she had received something of high value from us, she gave me something of very high value.

A chicken.

Elizabeth gave me a for real live chicken. This was a pretty big deal. Families in this community struggle to have enough to eat, and only have chicken on special occasions. I named my new chicken, “sozo,” which is the Greek word meaning “to save, heal, and deliver.” The chicken had been “delivered” to me by someone who had been “delivered.”

We found out later that Elizabeth had been in a secret society – it’s pretty common in Africa for people to join these secret societies. And it’s all pretty demonic. People have to make a blood covenant to enter – for girls, they have to be “circumcised” to enter, and guys are cut on the lower part of their backs. Demons are assigned to protect them from leaving the society. Elizabeth’s didn’t want to let go of her.

But God wanted freedom for her. And because of His great love for her, she is FREE indeed!

You see, the demonic is very real. But the more important thing is that God’s power is EVEN MORE REAL. All we have to do is believe that He will show up. The things that we witnessed in Africa would not have happened without God. He loves doing the impossible.

I can’t even count how many people got healed while we were there. And that’s not to mention the 25 people who got baptized in one particular village. 25!! About 3 months ago, no one in this village knew who Jesus was. Now there is a church, and many new believers. What a beautiful work of God! He loves the people in that village so so much.

Our God is supernatural. That’s how He rolls. Jesus didn’t just pray for the sick. He healed them. And He didn’t send His disciples out to just pray for people and do some nice things. He told them to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and raise the dead to life. (Matthew 10:8)

Our God loves to give Freedom, Wholeness, and Life! That’s the kind of Kingdom business our God does. And it all flows abundantly from His deep wells of love.

May Your Kingdom come, Daddy God! May Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!