A special opportunity came up to go to the beautiful land of Jordan in the Middle East. What a fascinating country, steeped in such ancient history including significant Biblical history, spanning millennia. Moses, Elijah and David were familiar figures there. Jesus and his disciples are recorded as having ministered there and Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist in the river Jordan - at a spot closely shared between Jordan and Israel.
The Jordanian people could not have been more warm and welcoming, wherever we went.
A few special encounters stand out from that trip. This first is quite comical!
At one of the accommodations where we stayed on the outskirts of Petra, a young man was attending the pool area. It was very quiet that afternoon – I was the only guest in that area. When I asked him how he was, he smiled broadly and said “okay…but only speak little English” His name was Amir. I could sense that he was happy to try and have a conversation, though, so it felt timely to ask him about any physical need for healing. The question was – how?!
I tried to mime to him about praying for people with pain in their body – mimicking someone stooped over with back pain or wincing from knee, neck or shoulder pain!! Amir looked quizzical and rather confused (!) but he was still interested and suddenly said “Ah! as he grabbled his phone and put it onto Google translate – English to Arabic - so he could understand what I had been trying to tell him!
I typed in something like:-
“I am a Christian healing minister. I pray for people in pain and God takes their pain away, even if it is severe or long lasting. I have seen many people healed through the name of Jesus. (Isa in the Koran) Do you have any pain in your own body, Amir?”
I saw a look of surprise and amazement come over his face. He was not daunted at all by what I had written, even though he is a Muslim, but messaged back through the phone translator and I followed suit!
“Sometimes I get pain in my neck and down my back. From playing football before”
“Do you have any pain now?”
“Yes, a little now”.
“May I pray for you?”
“Yes!”
I prayed briefly for Amir, commanding all the pain and its root source to go and for all the surrounding muscles and ligaments to be healed and strengthened through the mighty Name of Jesus!
When I checked through the phone how he was doing, he smiled and said “Good! It’s good!” as he moved his neck around and bent over forward and back.
Whilst praying, I had also recieved a word of knowledge concerning Amir’s mother – that she needed healing for irregularities in her blood sugar levels, perhaps a kind of diabetic condition? When I typed that in, Amir nodded and said yes, that was true. His mother is called Fatimah and Amir was so grateful for my prayer for her healing.
I had also felt drawn to pray for financial breakthrough in the family – for supernatural provision of finances for them that they would know could only have come through God – through Jesus! Amir nodded enthusiastically and seemed genuinely excited to be given these words and prayers.
Even though we hadn’t been able to communicate freely with one another, Amir had understood Heaven’s language of love, healing and hope for the future during that short encounter. Through Jesus and via Google translate!! Over to You now, Holy Spirit, make Jesus’ saving love known more and more to Amir and his family.