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Day Four

Today I met my friend Ali at his home.  We spent some time praying at his home, asking God for specifically who we should pray for and where we should go.  One name I heard God speak to me was “Kumar.”  So, off we went to a place in Artesia called Little India.

We went to a number of stores.  Ali, the more vocal of us, would ask the shop owners if anyone wasn’t feeling well or had some sort of pain in their body.  If there was anyone, Ali, his wife, and I would offer to pray for them.  At the first store there was a woman who had knee problems who after we prayed for her, she felt much better.

Another store we visited, there was a Muslim family working there.  We prayed for the shopowner’s back which was in pain.  She felt much better.  As we were leaving, Ali saw her mother sitting down with a walker next to her.  He asked the owner if her mother had a stroke.  She replied yes.  He then asked her if her mother’s pain was on the left side of her body.  Again she said yes, but now she was looking very surprised.  She asked if we told the future and read palms.

Ali told her he was willing to pray for her and I mentioned to her that the power she was seeing today is not from us, but from God, Khuda se.  He began to pray for her again, asking God’s Spirit, RuhAllah to speak to her.  After we prayed, we said our goodbyes, Khudahafiz.  And made our way to the next store, but as we left I sensed that those in the store had encountered God today in a very personal way.  They knew they were loved by Him.  That’s at least what I could see from their eyes.  It was a great moment.

Right before we were to leave, Ali and his wife stopped at a grocery store to pick some things up for later.  As we were waiting in line, Ali asked the shopowner if anyone needed prayer for healing.  He responded, “Do we have to need healing in order to receive prayer?”  Ali asked if he’d like prayer anyway and he said yes.  Ali then asked him his name, “Kumar” he said proudly.  Wait a minute!  God gave me that name during our prayer time.  So, Ali, his wife and I all prayed for Kumar.  I felt God impressing on me that Kumar is a strong man.  He has a lot of human strength, but that God wanted to give Kumar His strength instead of Kumar just relying on his own.  So I began to pray that for him.  Then I prayed the same thing for Kumar to have God’s love so that anyone entering his store would encounter God’s love.  By the end I and Kumar were both very touched to have met and prayed with each other.  What a great day!

As we left Little India, I remarked to Ali that so many Americans have a naturalistic worldview that makes no room for the supernatural.  It is really hard to offer to pray for these people because they don’t believe in God.  But, what I have found in India is the exact opposite.  Most people believe in God/gods, and so they are open to being prayed for, just as long as you’re not trying to push your religion on them, which we weren’t, so people were more receptive than I had expected.  What an interesting and fun day.  What if every day could be like this one?