There are moments in our walk with Jesus when faith moves beyond what we can see or understand, and even what we might dare to hope for... Moments when the circumstances tell one story, but something deep within your spirit bears witness to another. I experienced another one of those moments recently.
On Monday night, a prayer request came in from a family whose son had attempted suicide. He had (admittedly) taken 100 pills and consumed two, yes two, fifths of vodka. His condition was catastrophic. He was on life support, and family was told that he was brain dead.
The request was blasted out to our prayer team that evening, and we began interceding.
Our pastor visited this gentleman at the hospital the following evening and prayed over him; he reported back that there had been no change and that the situation appeared dire. By every indication available to us, this man's life was over and slowly slipping away.
But God was not finished writing his story.
The following morning, a member of our church walked through our doors, immediately into an area where a couple of us were chatting. She came for prayer, to lift this gentleman up, and so we did… we began to pray for him, speaking healing and restoration over his life.
Something happened in that moment that is difficult to adequately explain unless you have experienced it yourself. As we prayed, the Spirit moved in me, and I knew he was going to be all right.
I wasn't looking at a medical report. I hadn't received news that his condition had improved. I had every reason, based on what we had been told, to believe the situation was hopeless.
Yet, in that moment, I was filled with a certainty that went beyond the circumstances in front of me. I believed God was going to heal him. And I spoke it out loud, in faith… “Watch and see what our God is going to do.”This is the second time that this has happened to me in the last couple of months, once prior with a baby that had drowned in a bath tub, whom the Holy Spirit confirmed with me would be fine- and she was. I made the same statement in confidence then, and wow!!
Approximately an hour and a half post our prayer, we received the incredible news that the man was awake and off the ventilator.
Let that sink in for a moment. A man who had been reported brain dead and was on life support was now awake and breathing without a ventilator.
We had prayed. We had believed. And we were witnessing a turn of events that left us in awe of what God had done.
No one can take credit for what happened, this was entirely a God thing. I can only testify to what I experienced, what I believed in that moment of prayer, and the extraordinary news that followed. Jesus did that work and He alone deserves the glory.
Prayer is not a religious formality. It is not something we do because we have exhausted every other option. Prayer is an expression of our dependence on God, our confidence in His character, and our willingness to stand consistently in the gap for another person.
We prayed for a man whose situation appeared beyond hope. We spoke healing over him, trusting God with an outcome we could not control. And then we witnessed an extraordinary recovery! Jesus was at work in this situation, and I am deeply grateful that we were able to be a part of this testimony and witness what followed. In fact, I will never forget it.
On Thursday, we had the privilege of meeting with this miracle of God in person and spoke with him about his future and his purpose.
It was an incredible experience, one that I can only describe as witnessing the power of Jesus in a way that deeply moved me. And I am sharing this to build your faith also!
This man's testimony can become someone else’s healing manual. God can radically redeem our weaknesses.
This is twice just recently that I have seen the dead literally brought back to life.
We get to bear witness. Jesus gets the glory.
-Devin
Devin Osborne
The Early Church
