Years ago I made a trip to Germany with a dear friend. I want to share with you some highlights of that wonderful adventure of being led by God’s Spirit, sharing the faith, love, and peace from God we’d experienced, watching it touch the lives of hurting people.
Before leaving home, we had no idea what God had in store for us. All I had was a deep intuitive impression I’d soon be going to Germany again, a dream that warned I was about to miss a trip, and a voice in my dream saying, “guidance through dreams.”
Both of us nurses, we were headed to a little town in the Black Forest for a short internship at a psychiatric clinic. But we soon discovered that the Holy Spirit was moving in a mighty way, not only among the patients, but also the staff.
We were asked to teach Bible Classes, to make a defense of the Gospel to a group of the staff. Ministry appointments were made with patients, and as a result we saw people freed from demonic powers, throw out their occult stuff, hear the good news of Jesus Christ for the first time, and receive Him into their hearts. Some asked to be baptized in water; others to receive the Holy Spirit. They learned how pray for the sick and cast out a demon.
It was amazing that we never tried to make any of these things happen. We simply stumbled into God-ordained situations. Our biggest job was to rest in Him!
Then His people remembered the days of old … Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them (Isaiah 63:11).
From schizophrenia to faith
One day while we enjoyed coffee in a cafe in town, suddenly I felt a stirring in my spirit to return to the clinic. Not knowing what to do when we arrived, we decided to go across the street to another cafe. Interestingly, when we sat down, this stirring in my spirit was no longer there.
After chatting a while, we got up to leave. But a woman stopped me and asked, “Could I borrow your hairbrush”? Although I gulped at her dirty, disheveled appearance, I said yes.
She asked me to sit and talk with her. She told me how she had been in a witches coven and became schizophrenic. When she finished, she looked poignantly at me and asked, “Can you tell me if there is a God?”
“Yes,” I said, “I know there is a living God because of what He has done for me.” I told her how I’d experienced God’s power enter me when I could not go on living. How His love hovered over me just after our son died. How He’d healed my broken heart and changed my life.
As I talked, I knew I was sharing God’s love and life right into her spirit. An amazing thing happened right in front of me: the wild, tormented look in her face disappeared, and peace came into her eyes. I knew what had happened: faith in God had entered her heart.
Discovering the Rock
Another day a psychiatrist made an appointment for me to pray with a young woman whose mother and father had died of cancer. Now her brother was dying of cancer too. “How can there be a God?” she asked through our interpreter. So I shared with her the love and power of God.
I told her of a God who could make sense out of tragedy, who had comforted and sustained me when our son died. And I told her why Jesus is so important: He is the only one who has defeated death. He alone has resurrection life and can bring us out of the grave. Through the interpreter she prayed with me to receive God’s Son into her heart.
A young intern frequently interpreted for me. One day, noticing her fondling a crystal rock, I asked her why she did this. “Oh, I believe there is healing in the rocks”, she said. Then I asked if she knew that Jesus Christ is the greatest rock of all and there is healing in His name. Her eyes got wide, and she said, “No, I don’t know anything about Jesus.” Later she said, “This week I got back my faith in God that I had as a child. Thank you for telling me.”
Revelation frees a sex-addict
A young man from northern Germany had come to the clinic to attend a reunion of former patients. He attended the Bible Study that evening. It was a challenge working through an interpreter; first reading the Scriptures in English, then waiting for someone to read them in German.
When I came to Romans 6:4-9, suddenly this man broke into tears and wept with joy. “Now I see”, he said, “Jesus has truly done it. Not only have I died with Jesus, but I have been resurrected with Jesus.” Then he shared his problem: he was a sex-aholic. I gulped. Who was sitting beside me, I wondered? But this man was being set free; he’d experienced a revelation of Jesus Christ.
How then shall they call upon Him in who they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? … So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:14-17).
Do you want to adventure with the Holy Spirit?
I am thankful that the Holy Spirit took two young women across the ocean to share their experiences in a living Christ. But now we are in our ninth decade; so it’s your turn. The same Holy Spirit is available to you today, if you are willing to go.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)
I am eager whats going on..