You were built for supernatural power encounters

Just recently, I was on a ministry trip to central India with a couple of our up-and-coming leaders from church. On one occasion, we were invited to speak to a small gathering of people in a slum. The woman who asked us has a ministry to people affected by HIV/AIDS. She herself is HIV+, and at the end of our meeting, we were led to pray for her. (How that came about is the stuff of another story.)

There wasn't much room - we were in her small slum home - so we gathered round her as best we could. The only place for me was to kneel down on the ground in front of where she was sitting. I placed both my hands on her knees (the Bible says that believers should lay hands on the sick). As soon as I did that, my stomach muscles clenched so tight it doubled me over. Literally! My head was almost on the ground in front of her feet. It must have looked odd…

As we started to pray, I knew that God was doing something powerful, so I prayed in tongues. After about a minute, both my hands started shaking as I was laying them on her knees. We kept praying. A minute later, her whole body started shaking violently – just like my hands. She shot up out of her seat, arms flailing around and all but screaming.

My head was still almost on the ground! Something deep was going on inside her.

The Lord told me before we went to India that one of the young leaders with me would be used in a deeply impacting deliverance. This felt like it! So I vaguely lifted my head and looked over at him and told him to come over and bring his authority with him.

Poor guy! Freaked him out! I have a habit of throwing people in the deep end! He didn’t know what to do, so he prayed frantically as he stepped over. Then he laid hands on her forehead and commanded the peace of God over her life. As soon as he spoke, the screaming stopped, the convulsions stopped, and there was a great peace as the Spirit took control. That young guy hadn’t realised, but he was carrying the awesome power of God to set her free!

Too many of us don’t realise that we were built for supernatural encounters like that. So we don’t go looking for it. We don’t expect it. It’s time all of us were thrown in the deep end, where we end up desperately calling out to God for his empowerment.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”