It had been a roasting hot afternoon at a recent Summer Fair and I was wilting! It was time to head home and find some cool shade. Nearing the field exit, I spotted a middle-aged man using crutches and wearing a knee brace. I felt stirred to approach him and find out more about his situation!
“Oh goodness, what happened?” I asked, as I caught up with him. He seemed open to chat and explained how he had badly wrenched his knee in a recent accident. It was painful and he’d been told he may well need surgery to correct it. Introducing himself - “Jonathan” – he divulged how frustrating he was finding his current limitations as he is a sports coach and keen sportsman himself. I introduced myself and explained that I am someone who regularly prays for people in pain and God takes their pain away, often in the moment. At that point Jonathan said “Let me stop you there”……
To my surprise, rather than shutting down anything to do with God, the church or miracles, Jonathan told me about an extraordinary happening in his own family some decades ago. A precious family member, afflicted with a terminal brain tumour, had been completely healed during a prayer service in a church! Having been given only months to live, their brain scans came back completely clear and they are still alive and well to this day! Although Jonathan described himself as not a believer, I could see that Holy Spirit was stirring this memory in him and bringing him to a place of curiosity and even faith for his own situation today. And so, he readily agreed to my offer to pray for his knee to be healed.
As I quickly pondered how to pray for Jonathan, I noticed the shadows on the ground around us from the very strong sun. Holy Spirit quickened my memory to when the shadow of the apostle Peter in the Bible healed the sick as it passed over them. Not being the sunniest of countries (!) I have not had too many opportunities to practice “shadow healing”, though I had seen a man with a broken foot healed in this way. Holy Spirit was highlighting the opportunity NOW to heal through positioning my shadow over Jonathan’s injured knee.
I explained this to Jonathan first, as a way that Jesus sometimes heals (he was really surprised as he’d never heard of this before) and, without touching his leg, I let my shadow fall over his injured side and commanded healing through the Name of Jesus to every aspect of his knee, reversing all the effects of the accident and bringing everything into wholeness, health and full function through that same Name. Very brief. No drama. He had given me his scale of pain – 5 merely on standing – 7/8 on moving and 11/10 when he tried to get in the car! Now it was time to check it out!!
When I asked if he had sensed anything happen inside any part of his body during the prayer, he suddenly said “My sense is that I want to take this off! ” and proceeded to take of the knee brace and put down his crutches there and then! He then tried out walking without any aid and, wide-eyed , exclaimed “I can’t find the pain. It’s not there. Maybe a tiny bit in one spor but there just isn’t the pain!!” I took care of the “tiny bit” in a brief additional prayer, cancelling any residue and forbidding anything to linger or return. Jonathan tried moving again and was honestly quite speechless. He was wide open to hearing why God heals, as a sign of something greater He wants to be and do in someone’s life, the start of a deep love relationship with those He loves, forged at the cross. Jonathan spoke honestly of some of his own life journey and trials but was soaking up the love of God for him and the reality of who this God might just be ! It was a truly precious time. Please do pray for Jonathan and his family, especially those who do not yet believe.
I heard from Jonathan a week or so later. He was happy to report that he is still walking with no crutches, no knee brace – and no pain!!! He now wants to point his colleagues and friends to where they can find a place of healing through this same Jesus who healed his family member all those years ago and is still healing today – even through a shadow!!! Praise His glorious, wonder working Name!