This is a testimony story from the Epicentre Advance this past weekend. There are two prefaces before hearing this story:

  • Please hear me when I say that this is not a testimony to how cool Phil is, or how bold Phil is. This is totally not about that.
  • This is a story for the glory of Jesus. It is an example of Jesus being lived through a broken, weak, and ordinary servant.

And if you get that, here’s the story…

My group and I were driving around trying to find a place to evangelize and to bless people with the love of Jesus. My friend Eunice kept saying, “I really want to see someone get healed in Jesus’ name!” We all did and so we were brainstorming on where we could go.

We were all feeling rather bold and full of the Spirit at that time mind you. Someone blurted out, “There are sick people at the hospital!” We were all thinking the same thing! We all thought about the possibility of walking into a hospital, a place full of sick people, and to show that Jesus is alive today and can heal them!

And so off we went! We went to some Methodist hospital and into the Emergency Room.

There we were- in the emergency waiting room. Somewhere along the process, one of us waited outside, one of us wandered to the bathroom, Eunice went to talk with the attendent, and I was alone in the room. I knew our time would be short because we weren’t really visiting anyone or were in need of any emergency, so I just went ahead in faith to the first family I could find.

I saw a family of three- a mom, a dad, and a little girl. I approached them and asked them, “Are you guys here for the emergency room?”

The mom said yes. I asked her which of them was going in. She pointed to her daughter and said that she had a fever.

I said, “Okay mam, I just want you to know that I don’t work here and I’m not trying to sell you anything or want anything from you. My name is Phil and I’m a Christian. I was wondering if you would mind if I prayed for your daughter? I believe that Jesus can heal her before she goes into that emergency room.”

The mother stared at me for bit, looked back to her husband and asked him (he doesn’t speak too much English). Then, he said okay!

So I looked at the little girl and asked her what her name was. She said “Shayla” (sp?). I asked her how old she was. “Seven,” she said.

You could tell she had a fever- she wasn’t happy, she was low in energy, she was just at the hospital because he parents brought her.

Then I asked her and her parents if I could lay my hand on her head and just pray for her. They all said okay. So I stretched out my hand, laid it on her forehead and began praying…

“I pray that healing would be released in Jesus’ name. I command this fever to leave in Jesus’ name. Jesus, You are Lord, and I proclaim healing for Shayla now in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

I opened my eyes and immediately asked her, “How do you feel?”

She said that she felt good. But I wasn’t sure whether it was just a canned response or whether she was shy.

So then I bent down, looked her in the eye and asked her, “Okay Shayla, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being you feel great and 1 you feel bad, how do you feel now?”

She waited a bit, then before you knew it, she beamed a great big smile at me and said, “10!”

Wow!

Joy filled me when I knew that Jesus’ healed Shayla right on the spot. I looked at her parents and told them that God had just healed her daughter of her fever. This was my bridge to testify to the glory of Christ.

I asked whether they went to church and whether they believed in God at all or whether they prayed. They said that they were Mormons. At that moment, I wasn’t sure what to do or say. I just thanked them for letting me bless their daughter and left. I knew that the seeds for the glory of Jesus Christ were planted in them.

It was at that very moment that Eunice had just finished talking with the attendent and they were asking us to leave. Then our group gathered together and I shared with them what happened.

And so that’s a testimony of us walking into the ER and healing someone in Jesus’ name!

This is what Jesus meant when he said, “With God, all things are possible.” This situation was not about Phil healing people. It was about praying and commanding in faith what Jesus promised would happened when we lay hands on people. This is his gospel and his message. We are his conduits and representatives. And we are responsible for representing the kingdom of God by how we live and what we do in Jesus’ name.

People know that instantaneous healing that doesn’t come from man. It exalts the name of Jesus Christ when supernatural things are done by our hands. It demolishes arguments and words which set themselves against the Lordship of Christ.

That’s because, as Paul said in 1 Cor 15, the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.

Glory to Jesus!