The truth is that when Jesus did miracles, there were many people who had a hard time believing that it had really happened. It is for that reason that I want to tell you about a miracle that happened in Sweden. I know this person and the people close to her; in fact the pastor who baptized both her and many others close to her is one of my close friends. But I don’t want to mention her name here since she has only recently been saved. We agreed to wait a year or two until everything settles down for her, but listen to my story.
This woman was the kind of Swede who knows nothing about God, and even less about the church; a total non-believer. In 2005 she got cancer. She had an operation and got a bit better, but in the spring of 2008 the cancer came back and had now spread to several organs in her body. The doctors could do nothing and in the summer of 2009 they told her that she didn’t have much time left. She might make it through autumn, but:
“Unfortunately,” they said, “you won’t survive to see Christmas of 2009.”
When she came home she called a woman she had met at the cancer clinic, a friend of Carina’s and mine, who is an everyday evangelist.
“You have to come with me tonight,” the everyday evangelist said, and brought her to a tent meeting where the woman received Jesus as her savior.
That fall I had an evening Bible school in a large city in Sweden, where I was teaching on how we should do what Jesus did. It was a practical Bible school for mature Christians. That is why I was surprised when this newly-saved woman showed up. She was very sick, her whole body was shaking and she had to go out to smoke constantly. But she listened. I taught on how to lead people to baptism in the Holy Spirit. I also led a prayer for baptism in the Spirit and she came forward and was baptized!
The following week she called the everyday evangelist and said:
“Now I’ve gone crazy too, I started speaking a language that sounded very strange and I couldn’t stop.”
The following month I taught on how to get set free from darkness. After the meeting she came forward and I remember that something manifested even though it wasn’t major.
What was strange, however, was that she had started to feel better, her cheeks were rosier and she looked healthier in general. When she went to the hospital for tests in December they (the doctors!) were in for a shock: the cancer was gone. In February of 2010 she went to the hospital again, and there were no symptoms of cancer left. This woman, who was supposed to have died by Christmas 2009, is alive!
Today she and both her sons have been baptized in my close friend’s church. She goes to the dance club every weekend and tells people about Jesus, prays for her unsaved sick friends to get healed and is a living miracle!
When did this healing happen? She doesn’t know! One thing she remembers is that when she was fishing with some of her friends, she went off by herself for awhile a few meters away, although she could still see what the others were doing. Then a man came along, she doesn’t know where he came from, and placed his hand on her back. She was surprised because it was so warm, and he didn’t say anything, and then he left. But the warmth on her back remained so she went back to her friends and asked if they had seen the man she had seen. But no one had seen this man!
“But look at my back. It still feels warm.”
When her friends looked at her back, there was a reddish mark in the shape of a hand in the same place where the man had placed his hand.
What had happened? I don’t know. Who was that man? No one knows. The important thing is that she is saved, healthy, and tells others about Jesus.
There are some people who ask me about our crusades. How do we double check to make sure that the people who get healed really have been healed? We don’t. We believe that they are telling the truth! Why would anyone lie about that? Why would the parents of a child who has been healed lie to us, with tears of joy in their eyes?
Healing and miracles are a natural part of the gospel. It is wonderful for the person who is healed, but the healing has a higher purpose. It points to something that is bigger than the healing: salvation in Jesus Christ. The greatest miracle of all is a born-again soul, saved for eternity.
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