Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Numbers 21:8-9
In the few years I have been in the healing ministry, I have had to deal with a lot of questions especially from those who attended my meetings and never received their healing. And it’s usually questions like this, why didn’t I get healed? Please pray for again maybe I will get healed! If he is really anointed why can’t he heal everyone that’s sick!
To answer this questions, I will give you two testimonies. A few years back I held a Rapha conference in a village in Namanga at the border with Tanzania called Olugulului at the invitation of my brother Lesale. Usually when I go to that village the people gather in thousands because of what they have seen God do in their community with their own eyes. The meetings run all through the day and night and Lesale has to slaughter a few bulls to feed over 2000 people.
On this occasion I had done a prophetic service during day but in the night session I sensed the presence of the healing anointing. So, I asked for the blind who came for healing to step forward. Four people stepped forward, two ladies and two gentlemen. I asked them what I usually ask all those who come to me for healing, “Do you believe that when I pray for you, that Jesus will heal you right now” they all answered and said they believed. So, I lay my hands on them starting with one of the the elderly gentlemen. He wore brown shorts and carried a little bag on him. Nothing on him seemed to suggest he was Masai like the rest who wore the Masai Shuka’s with long sharp knives around their waists.
I later discovered he had come all the way from Mbirikani, which was over 100kms from Amboseli where we were. When I prayed for this man, his eyes opened immediately and he started to see everyone clearly. He had been blind for over five years. I will come back to his story later. So, when the crowd erupted I later discovered it wasn’t necessarily because of the miracle. I moved to the rest of the people and I laid my hands on them and they didn’t see. They kept saying please pray again but I said you have been healed, you have to look to Jesus. They tried and tried and I realized it had nothing to do with faith. They thought they would be healed magically without them believing God.
I looked to the crowd and I saw sympathy in their eyes, they really wanted the other three to get their miracle but unfortunately it wasn’t up to me but they each needed to look to Jesus individually in order to receive their healing. This was the instruction that God gave Moses when they were in the desert that whoever was bitten by the snake all they had to do was to lift up their eyes and look to the bronze perpent and they would be healed. Now we have someone better than the bronze snake.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:14
The three didn’t look to Jesus lifted up on that cross, they fixed their eyes on me and they got nothing. The first mzee from Mbirikani fixed his eyes on Jesus Christ who was working through me. The others failed to see Him in me. That’s the difference. They hoped I could do something for them and somehow they could also see. The crowd seemed to really agree with them. I did my best to explain to them that healing had already been given by they had to reach out and take it for themselves.
Back to the mzee from Mbirikani and why the congregation seemed to disagree with his healing. After he got his eye sight back he could see all of them clearly and he started to call them out by name one by one but no one was excited. After walking around and praising God he politely took his sit, he didn’t need anyone leading him anymore. God did a few other healings that night but the healing of the Mzee was so notable they talked about it the whole night.
Later in the wee hours of the morning as I sat with Lesale on the small three-legged stools round a fire while we ate Nyama, I said to him, “I notice people were uneasy when the Mzee recovered his eye sight. Why didn’t people rejoice like they did when others received their healing” his answer was astonishing, he said “That Mzee was a notorious man and everyone sort of celebrated when he went blind because he tortured so many people with his dark ways that involved sorcery, intrigue and many other things he did to so many people.”
Finally, I understood why they didn’t seem amused that he had received his miracle. They felt he was unworthy while they thought the other three blind people were good people and worthy to receive their sight back. I said to Lesale while he tore into that Nyama, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved” Romans 10:13. Scripture is true for everyone. I believe that man found Jesus in his blindness and that’s why he came all that way to receive that healing. He was sure he would be healed. While Lesale was puzzled like everyone else, I learned something valuable that night. God loves people and all who look to Jesus for healing or anything else, they receive it. This is how I am sure that whoever comes for the Rapha Conference on 29th – 30th @ Parliament and they look to Jesus the Son of God, I believe they will receive healing from whatever they suffer.
Here is Your Prayer Path
Dear Father, I lift up my eyes to Jesus for healing right now. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Ps Mark Odeke
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
Rapha Conference 2024 on 29th & 30th November @ Parliament of Uganda. Invite someone sick. Register them now.
