The day a whole school stood up for Jesus
One of my favorite days of open-air evangelism with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) was at a high school, because the entire school was changed that day! Even though I’m not in YWAM anymore, I’ll tell this story to encourage your faith. Just a week later, I encountered a healing prayer request that I will never forget!
We went to evangelize on an island in the Philippines, out in the middle of nowhere. We went into a small school of about 200 students to entertain them with godly skits and testimonies. Right after I gave my testimony about how precious my God is and how He saved a drug dealer like me, I gave the call to accept Jesus as Lord.
Nobody was more amazed than I was when I saw 30+ hands go up, and then the whole school stood up. The entire first and second year of high school said the prayer of salvation. Half of the students said it was their first time praying to make Christ Lord over their lives. At that moment, I knew the heavens were shaking, because it’s written that the angels rejoice over one sinner who repents. How about a hundred!
Healing Prayer Requests to Save Our Souls
As amazing as open-air evangelism is when it’s done well, it doesn’t compare to the impact you can make on someone’s life when you personally visit them at their home. There were some hiccups when I went without first asking God where to go, but with God, lives were changed every time. At one point it seemed that every day 1 to 5 people got saved when we went from house to house. Yes, rejections came, but I’d rather try to obey God and fail than not obey God at all and never do anything for His glory!
Halfway through our outreach in the Visayas region, God really began to pour His Spirit upon me. My only concern was to evangelize house to house. Compassion had brewed up inside of me for the people we met, especially those who hadn’t heard that they can know God personally, not by their own good works but by His mercy. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us” -Titus 3:5 I put my eyes on God to get some evangelism training. I am forever grateful for that, and so are many others!
Powerful Healing Prayer to Save Our Bodies
During one of my ventures to evangelize, I met some Christians who blessed me with a bucket full of fresh oysters! I felt so blessed with all those oysters, but little did I know I’d be even more blessed 20 minutes later!
After we ate some snacks and I tried to make small talk with the translator, the family asked for prayer. I asked the father of the house what they wanted prayer for. He said, “For my family, for many of them are lost.” The father went on about how lost and confused his brother was. Twice I pressed, “What else?” Each time he said, “Nothing.” His wife, on the other hand, pointed right back at him and started speaking in an unknown tongue. At that very moment, God gave me a revelation that his back was in pain. While the gentleman’s words were being translated for me, I was convinced of it.
Sure enough, he said, “My back has been in pain for years.” I told him, “God told me your back is in pain. He’s going to heal you!” Then I said, “I’m going to pray for your family, and then for your back.” I asked him how bad the pain was, and he replied, “My back is at a pain level of 8, zero being no pain and ten being the worst pain.”
I will never forget that short 5-minute prayer. I looked at this grown man’s face as his eyes watered up. Then it was translated to me that all the pain was gone. Glory goes to God! This prayer for healing was a huge step of faith on my part, and it gave me more confidence in God’s character to heal and break bondages.
Your Prayer Requests!
If that man hadn’t asked, he would never have experienced the healing touch of God! I challenge you to ask as well. Don’t ask me, ask God. I’m only an instrument, and an instrument is nothing without the Player holding it. None of us could ever earn our sanctification through good works. It’s only by the blood of Jesus that you can come and boldly ask God anything, because you are heirs with Christ. Go ahead and ask in faith! Be fervent and don’t give up, because persistence is faith.