Recently I have been really challenged. As a church we have seen God continue to move in signs and wonders. In our youth and in our church an importance has been placed on letting our lives speak to others “being the only bible people may read”. Hearing a testimony of someone stepping out and praying for people at work I was really challenged about doing this for myself. I had this debate with God. How can I pray for this person at work knowing their situation is gonna require a serious creative miracle. It was no small cold. I said to God I don’t know if I have the faith for this. God in his mercy is so much bigger than our fears and insecurities. I said to God you are going to have to give me faith. Compassion rose in me as I heard of my colleague being in pain everyday. The opportunity arose so I was like heck I gotta give it a go. What if they do get healed? So I asked this person if I could pray for them. To my surprise they said yes. In a very impractical unglamorous prayer I prayed for them on the move somewhere between the car park and the classroom. They were not healed. A part of me was just pleased I had given it a go. Another part was gutted more for their sake knowing their pain and wanting God to break into their life. Needless to say I felt a little bit disappointed.
But the story doesn’t end there. The following week some friends and I went to the Naturally Supernatural conference hosted by Soul Survivor in Watford. It was during this conference during one of the response times I felt God wanted me to go pray for this girl. I was like ok God here we go. I went over to her and asked if I could pray for her. To which she replied ohhh no im not up the front. Anyway we got chatting and in the end she mentioned she had hearing loss in one ear and asked if I could pray for that. So I said sure whats your name? She said Lauren I said No way that’s funny my name is Lauren. So I prayed for her ear and asked her how it was. She said it didn’t seem different. I thought heck Jesus prayed twice I’m going to pray again. She said she wasn’t sure if something was different she would have to see. So I said I’m gonna pray again. She was still unsure. At this point she asks if I’m going to be at the conference tomorrow to which I replied no. So I said I’m going to pray one last time. At this point I thought that’s it. She then gives me a massive hug. I thought awwww that’s nice. She says to me I CAN HEAR. At this point you can cue the water works. Tears are streaming down my face in awe of God. God of course you heal and you want to heal. I could not even begin to think how this would change her life, hearing worship in its fullness.
The following Sunday my dad was preaching at a church and had asked my family to go support him. He asked if I would share the testimony. On the way I felt a pain in my arm that I don’t normally have. I felt like God might be saying it was arthritis. I had heard of this being a way of God speaking about healing so I thought might as well give it a try. After sharing my story I said that if there was anyone with arthritis in their left hand I’d love to pray for them. Turns out quite a few people have arthritis. One lady in particular had arthritis only in her left hand. After prayer she later came to me and said look I can move my hand I could not do that. With further prayer we found that the tension in her hand seem to go and the movement in her hand increased. Her hand looked remarkably different. Later that week I heard another lady with pain in her hand has also seen the pain go. We serve a wonderful God. If you are feeling disappointed like I was go again you never know when God may just break out and change your situation.
Lauren Evans
