How ready is the harvest field? Many times, we get so caught up in our own little world of work and school that we forget the needs of the souls around us. Sometimes, these souls are desperate. Sometimes, they quietly brood. Whether loud or silent, their eyes say it all: Is there more to life than this? Do we just live, only to die at a certain age?

I went out of town for work, but my two friends and I did something that was not planned for at all. We went into one of the hospitals and prayed for the sick. We entered the wards, some private rooms, and the Intensive Care Unit. We laid our hands on sick bodies, and declared the message of salvation.

“Do you want Jesus to be your Lord and Savior?” we asked. “He died for you. He loves you,” was our message.

I remember one private room that we entered. A woman lay motionless in bed. Her husband sat nearby. Their friend sat forlornly on a chair.

“Can we pray for you?” I asked them.

The man cried. “I have been asking God to speak to me. I do not know what to do. Can God intervene in my wife’s situation?”

The woman explained. “It is so hard to move. There is something wrong with my spine. I have a tumor, and it has spread to my bones.”

In hospitals, death knocks on the doors of the ill. There is a desperation there that is not found in other places. I saw the anguish in the eyes of the woman. I heard the panic in the voice of the husband.  I recognized despair in the silence of the friend.

The Bible says that we can proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom to people. What exactly is the Gospel of the Kingdom? We certainly can pray for healing or show love by giving gifts, but at the crux of this message must be the KING. There is a King who loves the world. This King left Heaven to come to earth so that mankind could be saved from sin. This King was nailed to the cross. We should have been nailed, but He took our place. This King came to give us a new identity. This identity— being a New Creation– is one that embraces royalty and destiny and purpose. No more are we destined to despair and sin and to evil habits and rotten living.  When the King of the Universe gets invited into our hearts, we become sons and daughters of His Kingdom; co-heirs with Christ destined to live out amazing lives.

One encounter with this King is enough to spark a transformation in a person from hopelessness to hope.

“There are two conditions right now that we need to talk about,” I explained kindly. “One is your health, but the other is your heart. You see, Jesus loves you very much.

He wants you to know Him. He can heal you physically, but He also wants to heal your heart.

Would you like to ask Him to enter your heart and change you inside? Jesus died for your sins.”

The couple and their friend nodded. “Yes,” they said.

I continued. “Also when you ask Jesus into your heart, are you willing to follow what He tells you to do? Are you willing for Him to be your Lord?”

The man cried like a baby. “Yes, please. I have been wanting him. I am so hopeless!” Then he wailed in a manner that shook the walls of his room. “I need him! I need him so badly! My wife is in pain. And I am in pain, too! I asked God last night to give me a miracle. I asked him last night to do something; to speak to me. And now, you are here! You must be God’s answer to me!”

God’s answer. How many times do people have questions, and God’s answers are found among the people who know the King of kings? Sometimes, the only Bible that people read is the lives of those who claim to be Christians.

We led the three of them in prayer. “Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sins. Save me. Be my Lord….”  It was a simple prayer, and they prayed to Jesus with so much sincerity. After that, we laid hands on the woman’s body. We asked Jesus to heal her. By proclaiming the Kingdom of God here on earth, we could also proclaim the power of the Kingdom as operative in that hospital room.  The King could heal where doctors could not. Jesus was healer of heart, soul, and body.

The man wiped his tears. “Thank you! Thank you very much!” We said our warm good-byes, then left the room to go to another room.

Was the woman’s body physically healed? I may never know. What I do know is that when healing occurs, it is ALWAYS Jesus’ power, not mine.  What is certain is that the healing of hearts and the deliverance from hopelessness happened on that day in the lives of those three people.

Jesus loves the world so much. He wants US, the Sons and Daughters of His Kingdom, to tell people that. The world has to know that Jesus can give destiny and purpose to the hopeless. The world has to know that Jesus can heal the sick and the brokenhearted. The world has to know that Jesus can break shackles of sin and despair. The world has to know that Jesus Christ is real.

Because we have tasted the reality of God, can we go out into the world to be His answer to those who seek Him? We might be the only Bible that people read.

 

 

Writer’s Bio:
Janina Rivera loves to mull over conversations, swinging them around in her head like she does chocolate on her tongue. She is passionate about God, people, books, and dogs.