At age 17, I had been given the opportunity to give a message to a tribe of people up in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. I had my message all prepared when not more than 5 minutes before I was to speak, God nudged me to preach the Gospel from Mark 16. I did just that and by God’s grace, over 90% of the small rural church responded for salvation.
As the service was coming to close, I proclaimed that God not only saves but is also a healer. I opened the front for anyone who needed a miracle. Numerous people came forward, but a short elderly woman stands out clearly in my mind. Slowly she nudged her way through the crowd up to the interpreters. She spoke softly to them and they turned to me with anticipation in their eyes, “She is deaf in one ear and would like you to pray for God to restore her hearing.”
I believed God could do it, but in the moment I was overwhelmed but my own inadequacies. I turned around and faced the back wall for a moment. “God, I am not sure I have enough faith for this, but I trust you.” Tears began to stream down my face as I turned back and faced the woman. Laying my hands on her ear, I began to simply pray for God to heal her.
When I finished, one of the interpreters began to whisper in this woman’s deaf ear. A smile stretched across her wrinkled cheeks as she began to jump up and down with utter enthusiasm shouting something in in her native language.
“She can hear!!! She can hear!!!”
I crumpled to the floor in awe of a merciful and tremendous God who loves all His children, even those lost in the mountains of southern Mexico.
Since that day, I have prayed for healing of others on numerous occasions. Some have been. Others not. But I’ve realized my job is just to act in faith (pray) and leave the results to God. I don’t have to question the why or how. Faithfulness is just being willing to step out and trusting God with the results based on His character.
You see, “enough faith” is acting in a way that displays trust in something we believe to be true. It has nothing really to do with results. Matter of fact, it is quite the opposite. It is action when we aren’t sure of the outcome, but trust that God does. It’s knowing God in the moment and understanding his will. Faith is something we believe enough to move us to action.
That is enough for me. The rest is up to God.
Cool story Zack! When it comes to any spiritual gift it is up to God to do the work.
I take the same approach to evangelism. I’m sure I have the gift of evangelism, but I know what my role is – to be faithful in sharing the good news of Jesus. It is God’s job to be fruitful.
Certainly takes a lot of pressure off, and we can step out in faith when we realize it isn’t us anyway. It’s all up to God. If it were partially up to us, would that be faith anyway?