maggi says this about great big revival meetings.
and I have to say that my reaction was pretty much the same as hers.
am I faithless? sometimes I do have to wonder, but I just have questions about a God who needs a marquee to turn up 'big style'.
seems to me that the God who turned up in a lower room in a fairly normal house in a run of the mill town, might.. quite.. like.. less razzle?
don't get me wrong, I believe in healing, in fact I'll tell you a story:
when I was just three weeks from getting married my soon to be brother-in-law's daughter fell seriously ill. she had gone to hospital with what seemed like a bad ear infection, but which turned out to be meningitis, the bad kind.
Q and I rushed down the M4 to wait in a waiting room with his brother, his brother's wife, his mum and his sister.
we waited.
and waited.
and our niece got sicker. and sicker.
the temperature of her fingers and toes was 5c colder than her core temperature. her kidneys packed up. she was dying.
she was six months old.
I can't remember exactly what my thought process was at this point. all I remember is that I had the feeling that this was one of those times when God wants you to do something. that he wanted me to lay my hands on her and pray for her. that I really needed to put my money where my mouth was.
so I did it, in secret.
I crept into the room where my baby niece was lying in a little cot, sedated, on dialysis, blotchy, cold. I read the scripture from the end of Mark which talks about signs of healing being with those who follow Jesus. I put my hands on her and I prayed. can't even remember what I prayed.
2 hours later, she wee'd.
I have never seen a man so happy as my brother-in-law when his daughter wee'd all by herself. it's what babies do all the time, but this was something else, a sign of healing, restoration, right in front of our very eyes.
she made a full recovery (she's 10 now)
no crowds, just one person, one baby, and a God who showed up in a fairly unremarkable hospital room.
and I have to say that my reaction was pretty much the same as hers.
am I faithless? sometimes I do have to wonder, but I just have questions about a God who needs a marquee to turn up 'big style'.
seems to me that the God who turned up in a lower room in a fairly normal house in a run of the mill town, might.. quite.. like.. less razzle?
don't get me wrong, I believe in healing, in fact I'll tell you a story:
when I was just three weeks from getting married my soon to be brother-in-law's daughter fell seriously ill. she had gone to hospital with what seemed like a bad ear infection, but which turned out to be meningitis, the bad kind.
Q and I rushed down the M4 to wait in a waiting room with his brother, his brother's wife, his mum and his sister.
we waited.
and waited.
and our niece got sicker. and sicker.
the temperature of her fingers and toes was 5c colder than her core temperature. her kidneys packed up. she was dying.
she was six months old.
I can't remember exactly what my thought process was at this point. all I remember is that I had the feeling that this was one of those times when God wants you to do something. that he wanted me to lay my hands on her and pray for her. that I really needed to put my money where my mouth was.
so I did it, in secret.
I crept into the room where my baby niece was lying in a little cot, sedated, on dialysis, blotchy, cold. I read the scripture from the end of Mark which talks about signs of healing being with those who follow Jesus. I put my hands on her and I prayed. can't even remember what I prayed.
2 hours later, she wee'd.
I have never seen a man so happy as my brother-in-law when his daughter wee'd all by herself. it's what babies do all the time, but this was something else, a sign of healing, restoration, right in front of our very eyes.
she made a full recovery (she's 10 now)
no crowds, just one person, one baby, and a God who showed up in a fairly unremarkable hospital room.
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