A few weeks ago in church, I was challenged to step out of my comfort zone. I was praying and seeking the Lord during worship like I always do. And then, suddenly, I felt this weird pain in my left ankle. It wasn’t anything I had ever felt before.
I tried to ignore it and continue to worship, but it was something I couldn’t seem to get out of my head. So, I began to pray and ask the Lord about it. It was during that time that I sensed the Lord say to me, “Maybe there’s someone here experiencing an issue in their left ankle that I want to heal.”
I hate to admit it, but my first thought was NO, I’m not going down that road. It terrified me to think about getting up in front of the congregation and sharing what I was sensing. I mean, people might think I’m crazy. And what if no one has an ankle issue? I might look like a fool. Besides, was that really God!?
I spent the next worship song wrestling with what was stirring inside of me. And I decided to throw out “a fleece” like Gideon did (Judges 6:36-40). I said, “Ok Lord, if this is You and You want me to get up and share this with the congregation, then send another pain through my left ankle.” Immediately a pain shot through my ankle. And tears began to stream down my cheeks, because I knew I needed to be obedient and stand up in front of the church in faith.
So when worship ended, I stood before the congregation and shared about my experience. I said that I believed that someone there was dealing with issues in their left ankle and that God wanted to heal them. And then I prayed that God would heal their ankle.
During our meet and greet time after worship, one of the ladies came up and told me that her husband shattered his left ankle years ago and that he had experienced pain in it ever since. She told me that she had turned to her husband and said, “Do you believe God can heal your ankle?” And he responded, saying, “I know He can….”—but with a tone of uncertainty that we all experience in these moments as to whether God actually would. I simply told her to keep me posted.
The next morning I got a text from her husband that said, “Good morning, I just wanted to let you know I had a good night’s sleep for the first time in a long time. Praise the Lord my left ankle was not hurting!”
On this side of it, it baffles my mind to think that I could have missed out on this miracle because I was afraid of what people might think. I’m learning more and more the importance of listening and obeying: taking time to allow the Lord to speak to us and then being willing to obey whatever it is He is saying.
My prayer is that we would all learn from this experience—and that we would be people who seek to listen for God’s voice more and more…and then faithfully walk in obedience. Because it’s not enough to just listen—We have to learn to listen and obey!
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