On your Mark
Amazed
The people were all so amazed that they asked each other,
“What is this? A new teaching — and with authority! He even gives orders
to the evil spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the
whole region of Galilee. (Mark 1:27,28, NIV)
Recently more than 2,000 ministers and laity gathered in
Springfield, Mo., for the annual Assemblies of God Prayer Summit. We
experienced once again the living authority of Jesus.
In a morning session devoted exclusively to prayer, request
was made for a young pioneering pastor who had spent the previous 12 days in a
coma. A virus had attacked his brain, leaving a damaged area the size of a
pecan. That morning his father had e-mailed me saying the doctors had detected
bleeding in that area. The son’s situation was critical. No one knew whether he
would live, and if he did live whether he would be physically or mentally
impaired.
His wife was expecting their first child in a few weeks, and
he had no health insurance.
We all went to prayer. After a time of intercession, a man
stood and began groaning loudly. At first, it sounded inappropriate —
but, as he called out from his depths to God, the congregation began weeping in
intercession. Then, the noise of several thousand saints praying rose to a
crescendo. I sensed immediately in my spirit that something had happened in the
heavenlies. You could feel it in the room — healing had gone forth.
Within hours, the father called me and told me the bleeding
had stopped. Six days later, this young church planter was sitting up in his
hospital bed, using his computer. Two weeks and four days after we prayed, he
attended the Easter Service at his small but growing church.
One of our pastors sat in that same Prayer Summit service.
He felt his heart being warmed as with a heating pad and knew he was being healed.
A nuclear stress test taken a week earlier had revealed no activity in a
portion of his heart. After the Prayer Summit, he was re-examined and his heart
was completely well.
I reflect on these healings and then the reaction of the
Capernaum synagogue folk to the deliverance Jesus brought to the demoniac in
their midst.
There are some things only the Lord can do. It’s vital that
we, His people, recognize that.
It’s so easy to settle into the routine of going through a
church service, or even our own personal devotions — if we just trip
through the motions, there will never be amazement. But when we throw our
hearts wide open to the ministry of Jesus, wonderful things happen.
The reaction at Capernaum came in response not only to what
Jesus did, but what He said. They were amazed at His teaching. Jesus certainly
never bored people; He spoke with vitality. He never preached just to give
information; He spoke to change hearts.
When words and deeds combine to authentically communicate
the love and power of God, the news will always “spread quickly over the whole
region.” What happened in Capernaum became known in all Galilee. If the reality
of the Lord’s presence becomes known in any one place — large or small,
obscure or at the crossroads — the good news will get out.
GEORGE O. WOOD is general superintendent of the Assemblies
of God.
E-mail your comments to tpe@ag.org.
