By Matt Snyder
Chincha, Peru.
Nate shared the story of Lazarus from John 11 with Daisy and talked with her about a relationship with Jesus. She was upset with the Lord for taking away her sister and leaving her nieces and nephews behind without a mother. Daisy wasn’t ready to forgive. Her cries echoed with Martha’s who said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (Jn. 11.21). Nate asked Daisy if we could pray for her.
She ended up sharing with us that her throat hurt a lot from bronchitis and she wasn’t able to talk much, that there was a deep sadness in her heart, and that every time she closed her eyes she saw a beast.
What?
That kind of threw me for a loop. Us boys and Dina kind of looked at each other surprised but knew we shouldn’t have expectations that this couldn’t happen. We surrounded Daisy, knowing that we had to pray this out of her – Robby felt very strongly that we needed to do something about this as did I. He shared with Daisy a story from when he was a teenager and had a similar experience. I definitely believe that the Lord used that to soften Daisy’s heart. Knowing full-well about what we were going to do, we laid our hands on her, looked at each other with fear and faith, and began praying.
We spoke boldly, loudly, and with authority and power. We were filled. Nate was vibrating with the Spirit courageously proclaiming freedom for this captive. Kelton and Robby were no different than Nate. Dina translated certain phrases for us and remained in prayer for the situation as well.
Robby was facing Daisy. He stared wide-eyed at her the whole time and watched her eyes flutter like crazy. We all saw her head shaking side-to-side. We prayed for about a half hour. Finally the resistance stopped – she saw Light. She opened her eyes and began praising God through the pain of her bronchitis. Wanting her to freely praise God, through the power of the Almighty we cast that sickness out of her.
Darkness was defeated with five pillars of Light that day. And we were humbled and could only marvel at what the Lord had ordained us for.
I’m glad we heard Daisy’s screams.
And if I was going to be honest, I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to think about what happened. Sometimes I think it’s okay to not fully understand the extent of what occurred. Occasionally – in fact most days – the outrageousness of grace is going to go further than we can, further than what our feeble minds can be stretched to.
I know that this experience was a much needed thing for my own personal walk with Christ. I’ll be the first to admit that I have had doubts that things like this could happen.
I can only think of the countless times that I’ve read through the gospels, through Acts, or other stories about things like this birthing itself into existence – about the Kingdom being unlocked and spilling forth with an incredible Light, with heart-wrenching speed that it drowns others in its splendor.
Yeah.
This is just the beginning.
Matt graduated from Friends University in May. (Yes, it’s called Friends University, but they do not have a Central Perk…) He loves Jesus very much and is passionate about the Kingdom he seemed to talk about all the time. He likes cheesecake, chick-flicks, traveling, coffee, music, trying to write music, reading, and the outdoors. He is currently traveling the world for a year on the World Race.