Warts

God asked me to write something, and I asked Him what to write about, and He told me this. Enjoy.

I've been watching something amazing happen. I would call it incredible even, except that there are dozens of people who are witnesses. I love sharing this testimony because it seems incredible even to me sometimes, and I'm living it.

I've had a number of warts on both my hands for some years. Last year I started trying to remove them with medication, but it didn't work, and after some time the warts became worse and bigger. A few weeks ago Scott, my friend from the School of Intercessory Prayer, came up to me and told me God had spoken to him that he should pray for my hands, that the warts would die and my hands be healed.

You need to understand that I have been ashamed of my hands and the warts for years. I have been very self-conscience and did not like shaking hands with people. I often tried to hide them. I've used a medication, put duct tape on them, prayed that they would be healed, and nothing has happened or worked.

Until now. Scott asked me if he could pray for me, and the shame I had felt started to brake. He told me he got James 5:16. Which says, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." Scott prayed for me, and said he felt this was a process that would take some time and encouraged me to pray and speak healing to my hands as well. I took a few days to meditate on the verse and asked God how to respond, and He told me to go back to Scott and confess a couple things that I hadn't spoken into the light. Scott and I prayed again. A day or two later, a few of my warts started shrinking.

I didn't know what to think, but as the days went by they shrunk more. Scott came back to me, we went through this process again, and the warts keep shrinking and dying. The warts that are dying are specific, one wart or group of warts at a time, on different hands... it's always random which one dies next.

I don't get it. I really don't. I've never truly believed that God still heals people physically. I always believed God wants much more to heal people inside, spiritually and emotionally and mentally. Not the body. I've been thinking about this a lot the last few weeks. One girl in our class broke her leg, and we started praying for her healing right away. Her bone wasn't miraculously mended. There are other injuries in my class that haven't been healed, and I don't know why not.

I didn't see anything that gave me new faith that God could heal my hands. But I took another passage to heart out of James that Scott also gave me: "Ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (James 1:6-8.) I set myself not to doubt but to receive... and now I am seeing past areas of shame become areas of glory and praise to God as He redeems my hands.

That sounds incredible still to me, and every morning when God's mercies are new, I see a wart has died a little more, and I praise Him that He is turning my confession and faith into healing. Cool.

I'll try to share pictures soon, and then again when the warts are gone.

In other news, I am going to Berlin on Thursday to the Nigerian Embassy for an interview to get a Visa for outreach. If you think of it and God tells you to pray for me, you could pray for the interviews. But even more pray for me in whatever way, for anything, that God brings to your mind. [And if you have a word or direction or image that He gives you to pray (e.g. Grace, or 'Let go' or a red balloon...), that would be encouraging.]

Thanks, and may you know even more God who heals both the spirit and the body,

Chris