Healing at The Ark
Monday morning worship – a regular piece of the AIM office routine. I stood somewhere in the middle of the room, singing, worshiping, and enjoying every moment. Maybe halfway through the set, I realized something.
The place I was standing in the room was almost the exact same place I had been when I had experienced physical healing at Project Searchlight, about a month after completing the World Race. Rather than trying to fit what happened that night into a brief recap, you can read the story here.
What really struck me during that moment in worship was that I hadn’t thought about that event much since it happened – which didn’t make much sense given the significance of it. I had gone back to my specialist, was fitted for a new nighttime mouthguard, and had follow-up scans done (and let me tell you, it’s cool to have a miraculous healing experience essentially be confirmed by your doctor), but as far as what actually happened in the AIM training center, it was far from my mind.
But now it was back in my mind, and would stay there for the next few days. After class that day, my classmates and I were off to The Ark – an awesome house on Lake Lanier – for Welcome Week, where we would officially kick off the semester.
On Wednesday of Welcome Week, the first half of the day was set aside for prayer and fasting. I still couldn’t get the connection I made on Monday out of my mind, and I wondered if maybe I should take some of the time allotted to me today and pray for full healing. So I did, unsure of what – if anything – would happen.
Now that evening, shortly after our last session of the day, I found myself in intense pain all across the right side of my face and neck, originating from my jaw. I wasn’t exactly sure why – perhaps a combination of not sleeping well, fasting, or maybe I was especially tense from a day of sessions that had turned my brain inside out. There was something else on my mind too – after a day of prayer and fasting from 30-plus people in tune with the Holy Spirit, Satan was probably irritated to say the least.
Whatever the reason was, I was in pain. Thankfully, I’d been in this position before, and this time I didn’t hesitate. At our nightly debrief, I asked my housemates if they would pray for me, which they gladly did. As I sat there while they prayed over me, I couldn’t help but see both the uncanny similarities and the stark contrasts to how things went down at Project Searchlight. In this quiet, intimate setting, I silently wondered if maybe this would be the moment I was finally healed completely.
They finish praying, and I gingerly open my mouth to see if anything’s changed. To my disappointment, my jaw pops in and out of place the way it always does, and I retreat upstairs, feeling defeated. When I get to the bedroom I’m staying in, one of my housemates offers me ibuprofen for the pain. That’s when it hits me.
I don’t need it.
In the time it had taken me to walk up a flight of stairs, my pain had entirely left me. While the underlying condition was still there, there was no denying that the resulting symptoms were gone, and there was no explanation for it other than that God had healed me. Again.
I still believe that I will be healed fully in this life, just like I did for the first time at Project Searchlight. But even if that’s not what God has in mind, I will still praise him, and I will have full confidence that if I am not healed on earth, I will be made whole in heaven. After all, this earth is not truly our home anyway.
I’ll wrap this up the way I ended my post about Project Searchlight almost a year and a half ago: This story isn’t over yet. He will finish what He started.
