1986
This event took place 39 years ago, when I was 43 years old. The memory is still vivid as I tell the story…
We had handed over leadership of Bread of Life Ministries Church in Linstead to the Jamaican pastors Emile and Sophie Azan and we were already spending quite a bit of time in Kingston getting to know Al Miller and his team at Whole Life Ministries. Jean and I were still living in Linstead, St Catherine as we planned the move and looked for a place to live in Kingston to work with WLM and develop an interdenominational lay leadership training centre. I was beginning to travel around Jamaica teaching and looking and learning and Al Miller and I had just completed a two day school of evangelism (Al’s focus) and discipleship (My focus) in Port Maria, St Mary Parish, on the north coast. We were finishing up with an evening evangelistic and healing service at the Port Maria Baptist Church which had hosted the training.
I was recovering from a month-long bout of hepatitis, still not very strong, and Jean was at home in Linstead, in St Catherine parish, halfway across the island from Port Maria. Jean was sick with hepatitis, her illness following mine by almost exactly a month. I had an hour and a half drive through the mountains to home each evening after the sessions were over, because Melissa had school each day in Kingston and had to leave on the bus about seven each morning.
After worship and a stirring message from Al, we gave an altar call for people to come for prayer for salvation, re-commitment to Christ, and healing. The people who had attended the training seminar were our up-front prayer and ministry team. Dozens of people came forward at the invitation and I had intended to coordinate the prayer time, but so many came forward, I had to jump right in and begin praying for people. The prayers I prayed in this kind of situation were prophetic prayers, usually sensing something about the person and their situation then waiting for a moment and simply beginning to pray for them and say the words that came to me in the moment. I’d had a significant amount of experience with that kind of praying and often it would provoke an emotional response from the “prayee” as I spoke of specific things about them and their situation that could only have been revealed to me – through me – by the Holy Spirit.
I finished praying with one man and as he stepped away, the woman who had been standing right behind him came forward. I was weak and tired. The physical condition that the hepatitis had left me in was taking its toll. I felt like I needed to go sit down, even better, find a place to lie down!
As the woman stepped up for prayer, I didn’t even need to ask what she wanted prayer for. She was probably in her late-thirties, and just shorter than me. She had a very large growth on the right side of her jaw and face and neck. It distorted her appearance so much that it almost made me want to look away so as not to stare at the growth. I’ve since learned that the growth was probably what’s called a “goiter” and is typically caused by an inflammation, infection, or disease of the thyroid gland. And it’s usually pretty serious, especially one this large!
I took a deep breath, put my hands on either side of her face and started to pray that God would heal her. Before I even completed the prayer, the growth just disappeared! It didn’t begin to gradually shrink, it just disappeared! It happened so suddenly that my hands just kind of came together on either side of her face and jaw!
The growth was gone! There was no sign it had even been there. The skin of her face, jaw, and neck was normal and smooth. It’s not like if a balloon deflated suddenly and was all flabby and wrinkled, it was just normal, like the other side of her face and jaw and neck! It happened so suddenly that she gasped and jumped back, I stepped back too – we were both kind of stunned at the instant and amazing healing God did for her!
I had prayed for sick people many times before that time. I’ve prayed for sick people many times since that time. At our house and in our family we still pray for healing when one of us seems to be coming down with a cold, we pray about my cancer, my hearing loss, about Jean’s Afib condition, about our old-age arthritis, we just pray for health and healing. We pray for our kids and grandkids. We pray for relatives and friends. The other day I prayed for a friend while we were standing on the sidewalk outside a restaurant with people walking around us on both sides as I prayed. And God helps us. Sometimes it seems pretty much like “We prayed and God healed!”
But that evening almost forty years ago at the Baptist Church in Port Maria, St Mary, Jamaica, remains very, very clear in my mind and memory. It was not due to my own energy and strength. It was not due to “super-faith” on my part. That was an immediate intervention of the hand of God!
As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.
Grace to you today, Jim Stephens