a WHOAH! day

well...how do I even begin...
 
okay...I guess I'll start when I woke up today...
Its a usual Sunday morning...I wake up and go to the rest room to brush my teeth, but then...I get a 'pop' from my left arm and it begins to hurt...and it hurt bad!  If I moved it anywhere away from my body, a sharp pain would shoot through my left arm that makes me not want to make even the slightest move.   But, I continued to get ready for church and yes with much tolerance to the pain so I can make it to the 7:30 a.m. morning prayer.  On my way to church, I thought...Lord, is my dad's arm hurting?...I pretty much got a "no" on that one...so I asked another question...Is there anyone whose arm  is hurting that you want prayed for?  Hmmm...I guess I'll find out soon enough....
 
And what do you know?  Earlier that morning at church set-up, the custodian of the school we held our church service at approached Aunty Wilberta and told her that his arm hurt so bad that He couldn't move it.  She thought, "We should pray for him."
 
When we were just about to begin praying, I asked the team to pray for my left arm because the pain was so bad that it felt like a rod was stuck inbetween the two bones and if I moved it even just a little, pain would shoot up my arm.  So then Aunty Wilberta said hey...Ernie's (the custodian) arm was hurting too. It was exactly the same arm and the same exact spot hurt.  Coincidence....I DON'T THINK SO!...God is up to something!!!   So we planned to split the team up to pray for Ernie and to prayer walk the facility.  So they began praying for me.  While the team were praying, we were led to find Ernie so that we both could be prayed for because after a time of praying for me, the pain was still there in my arm.  Half of the team including myself went to look for Ernie and the rest prayed over the facility and for the church service. 
 
4 of us talked to Ernie and asked if we could pray for him.  He and his wife was very open for prayer so He sat surrounded by the prayer team.  After praying, Ernie was healed from the pain of his arm and from not being able to lift his arm above his head and around.  He could move it freely now and without pain.  While we were praying, he began to cry and felt a real presence of Jesus during this time.  He didn't only get healed physically but his heart was healed too...during that time of prayer...i felt led to ask if he ever received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior?  His response was...He prayed to the Lord but it was nothing like he experienced today...so I asked...Would you like to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today?  He said Yes, what do I need to do?  Help me? 
 
So, I had the honor and priviledge of sharing with both Ernie and his wife that day.  That Jesus Christ created us to have a personal relationship with Him.  But our sin (turning away from God to do things our own way) separated our relationship with Him.  By this separation, there was nothing that we could do on our own to get back to God, so God by his grace (giving us something we don't deserve) sent Jesus Christ (God in the flesh who committed no sin) to pay the penalty of our sins (death) upon Himself on the cross.  And three days later, Jesus rose from the dead conquering death and through Jesus made a way for us to return to God and spend eternity with Him.  And all we needed to do was acknowledge that we are sinners and ask for His forgiveness, receive Him in our hearts, surrender our lives to Him so He can lead it and trust that through Jesus we are forgiven and spend eternity with Him...and they prayed along with me to make Jesus as their Lord and Savior of their lives.  
 
If you could have seen and heard Ernie and his hunger to know God more!!!  Just think, its only the beginning...He got a real glimpse of how much He is loved by His Creator, how personal He is and cares about their needs.
 
The coolest thing about it was...it was Ernie's 63rd birthday!!!  Jesus' gift to him was eternal life with the God who made him...how AWESOME is that? 
 
Don't worry...God healed me too!!!  And that was just a scratch of what God did that morning!