My physicians told me to expect a number of unpleasant aftereffects once they removed a golf ball-sized tumor from my cerebellum, but when I opened my eyes in the recovery area, I felt remarkably good! Not even a headache. Later, when the surgeon reported that the tumor had been removed whole and intact, I was even more elated. As the day progressed and this miraculous recovery became more evident, the nurse kept telling me I had high blood pressure. (I wonder, when Jesus did miracles in biblical times, did a nurse monitor peoples’ blood pressure as they danced and praised God?) Of course, I had high blood pressure! It was all I could do to keep from dancing down the hallway shouting praises my Great Physician!

That experience caused me to ask myself, “What should be our response when God delivers us from death?” Only one answer comes to mind: Go, tell everyone we encounter that Jesus Christ is our breath, and our life, and our all. When I awoke from surgery and the reality of God’s gift of miraculous healing settled in, all I could think to do was to tell everyone. I had to share.

The first nurse who helped me in ICU introduced herself as Naomi.

I said, “Naomi . . . ‘Your people shall be my people.’”

This wonderful, godly nurse smiled and said, “Ruth and Naomi! You know the Bible!”

“Where are you from, Naomi?”

She replied, “I am from Nairobi, Kenya.”

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Earlier, the Lord had shared with me that this awakening would be for His people to share His heart for the lost and the least (Matt. 25:40). Here before me stood a lady from the very place I had been in January, a place that broke my heart for the “least of these” like nowhere else on earth. The death and poverty of the Huruma slums prompted us to establish H.I.S. BridgeBuilders there and, today, thanks to the faithfulness of several men and women, thirty to forty of the most notorious criminals meet each week to study the Word and to find new life in Christ. The study is led by Sabina Wanjiru Muchunu and a man named David.

David was a Muslim living in the northern edge of Kenya where militant Islam dominates. As he lay dying of cancer on a mat on a dirt floor he began to read discarded magazines, one of which happened to be a Christian publication explaining the gospel. He responded to the invitation of Christ with a genuine prayer of salvation. Later that night, he also prayed in belief that he would be healed of his cancer and then fell asleep.

The following morning he awoke to find that he had been miraculously healed. He had received tangible proof that the Almighty had heard his prayer, had healed his body of disease, and had cleansed his soul of sin. He couldn’t wait to share the good news with his Muslim brethren. So he went to Friday prayers at the mosque and shared that he had submitted to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and that he had been healed of cancer. His Muslim community responded by beating him nearly to death and chasing him from the city. His wife and children were given to his relatives and he hasn’t seen them since. Even so, he continues to be a bold witness for Christ in Nairobi.

When I share this story, it seems surreal. We, in America, do not have to worry about risking our lives to share the gospel. Our circumstances do not demand that we give up everything—including our families—to go and minister to people like our brother David.

When Naomi mentioned Nairobi, Kenya, I was again reminded of our calling as Christians. Just like the leper who returned to give thanks (Luke 17:11–16), how can we not go back and tell others the good news when every breath is a gift? How can we not go back and love others who are fighting for their lives when all of us have been touched by cancer in some way? How can we not go back and give when we know that every dollar we have is a gift from God? How can we not go back and share our stories of how God has healed us, cleansed us from sin, and redeemed us?

As I talked with Naomi and thought of David, it became clearer than ever that my response is to go back to Nairobi and to other urban communities around the world and to share with them the good news. To let them know that our God is bigger than any problem they might have.

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Many are headed for hell today. Many lay dying in hospital beds. Many are starving to death. How shall we respond? The message of the New Testament is clear. If we say we love Jesus yet do not love the lost and the least, then we delude ourselves. In truth, we do not love the Jesus of the Bible but a counterfeit Jesus of our own making. The Jesus of the Bible said, “If you love Me you will obey my commandments.” He also said, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. . . . As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matt. 25:40, 45).

There is no greater authentication that we have grasped the magnitude of the grace we have been given than by the grace we give to others daily. If you think you had something to do with your salvation, your health, or your financial standing, then you will judge others and not be moved to act. If, however, you realize that you are saved, healthy, and financially blessed by the grace of God, you will be the first to say, “Here am I, Lord, send me!”

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Does God still do miracles? Is He truly the same yesterday, today, and forever? The answer is emphatically YES! We have become like the early church, whose members prayed for Peter’s deliverance from prison yet struggled to believe their prayers had been answered. While Peter stood at their door knocking, they argued with the servant announcing his arrival. They dismissed her as crazy rather than believe their prayers had been answered! (Acts12:13–16)

Over the next few weeks, I will attempt to share the many miracles the Lord has done in direct response to your believing prayers. My prayer is that we may know that God has so much more that He wants to do in this generation if we will pray by faith the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit while trusting in our Sovereign Lord for the answer! Miracles are awaiting the church in this season of awakening if we will believe our Great God and pray His Word by faith.

When I was diagnosed thirty-eight months ago with stage 4 non-smoker’s lung cancer, I believed the diagnosis and accepted as truth that I was a dead man walking. I planned my funeral, arranged my affairs, and prepared for death to take me within eight months—eighteen months at the longest—anticipating seeing God face to face. “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21) was ever on my heart.

As I waited for death, a group of intercessors came into my office, among them, Kay Boleman, who had been assigned to be my intercessor while I was on the staff at Prestonwood Baptist Church. These prayer warriors prayed as the Bible instructs us to do:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (James 5:14–15, emphasis mine)

They prayed a “prayer of faith.” The Greek could be translated “a prayer of believing” or “a believing prayer.” That is, they prayed believing that I was already healed.

That was a critical ministry they performed on my behalf. People in the pit of despair simply do not have the capacity to believe. I needed Kay and the others to pray over me and for me. Their prayer of belief lifted my eyes from this death sentence to see my great God and to hear His promises. And I believed, that day, I was healed. I began to walk daily in this confidence, no matter what men would say. I do not ignore science; I simply give more credence to the Word of God. I did accept the best course of medical treatments offered, but I placed my trust in the Great Physician to heal me.

Let me be clear. “Praying in belief” is not our attempt to bring God around to our way of thinking or to get His approval for our desires. God is sovereign and He calls us to trust His character. Trusting in our Sovereign God for the answer to prayer means that if He tells me it’s time to suffer greatly and then go home to be with Him, I should rejoice knowing that this will bring Him Glory. (I will explain this further in a later post.) Jesus is King and we must surrender to His sovereignty.

The week before surgery, the pastors and elders of Prestonwood Baptist Church held a prayer service on my behalf. The elders anointed my head with oil and prayed believing God for my healing. My mother prayed in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming that I was healed. On that day, I believed, by God’s grace and mercy, that this surgery would be the final chapter in my battle with cancer. (Click here to listen to her prayer now.)

Before surgery, Dr. James Batiste, a Neurooncologist with U.T. Southwestern Medical Center, warned that removing a tumor the size of a golf ball from my brain would likely cause balance problems, which would take anywhere from two weeks to six months to resolve. He mentioned that I should expect nausea, headache, impaired speech, sore neck, and muscle spasms during my long recovery.

When I was taken back to surgery, I remembered the last words of my oldest son Michael, who prayed, “Thank you, Lord, for entrusting this to our family.”

When I woke, the surgeons reported that the tumor was completely contained and came out in one piece! My doctor said, “We all know that Somebody else had something to do with this.” I spoke freely and clearly, experienced no nausea, no major headache, felt no more pain than a sore neck. The next day, Dr. Batiste came to see my first attempt to walk; as he watched, I walked with no assistance. He said, “Please quote me on this: This is a miracle.” (Click here to see for yourself.) Less than forty-eight hours later, note the improvement.

By that afternoon my bodily functions were all normal and I needed nothing more than Regular Strength Tylenol for minor pain. In fact, I spent much of my time in the waiting room praying for families whose loved ones lay in the ICU. I was released from the hospital three days after surgery instead of the expected four to seven days, and I have been feeling great. A week after leaving the hospital, I began working out at Gold’s Gym.

I tell you this for two reasons. First, I want to encourage you. We serve a God who continues to work supernaturally for our good and His glory. (Rom. 8:28–39) Second, to proclaim that the Lord is calling all of us to be awakened, to know Him, and to experience Him in a fresh and powerful way! There are miracles yet to be experienced if we will, again, become a people who pray by the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, trusting in the sovereignty of our great God.

As Jesus said to His followers,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:7–11)

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