Listen

Satisified with Righteousness Podcast

Read

THE FIRST HEALING

When I came to this idea that God desired to use me to bring physical healing to someone’s life, I was living and playing professional soccer in Mikkeli, Finland. I finally mustered the courage to go and find someone who would allow me to pray for them to be healed. I decided to go down to my favorite pizza place to look for someone there, and, in case I didn’t find anyone, I could grab some lunch. While I was eating some pizza, a young man hobbled in on crutches with a sports wrap on his ankle. My heart began to pound just thinking about approaching this guy and his girlfriend. Not wanting to distract them from lunch, I waited about 30 minutes until they were done eating. As they exited the restaurant, I was waiting for them with an awkward smile and as much faith in my heart as I could muster. Avoiding any small talk, I cut right to the chase, “Hey, would you mind if I prayed for your ankle to be healed? I believe God can take the pain away and heal whatever is wrong.” The young man resisted saying, “No, it’s fine. It won’t work.” I persisted one more time, and apparently his girlfriend felt sorry for me so she said, “Fine, you can try.”

I knelt down, placed my hand on his ankle, and prayed a simple prayer. Something like this, “Jesus, I ask that you would heal this ankle, take away all the pain, and make it feel brand-new.” I stood, still feeling the adrenaline in my body from taking this step of faith, and asked if he could put weight on it. As he took his weight off the crutches and stepped down on his foot, he exclaimed an expletive in Finnish that I’d rather not repeat. Now the three of us, completely shocked that it worked, began to laugh and rejoice at the goodness of God.

I shared with this couple that it was only by the power and name of Jesus that he had been healed and that Jesus loved them both and wanted to have a relationship with them. They thanked me, then the young man whose ankle had been healed gave his crutches to his girlfriend and began to walk away perfectly, without any pain!

‍