I love Chuck Smith’s story from Living Water. A family brought an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair up for prayer. Chuck, prompted by the Spirit, started praying for healing, asking God to get this man out of his wheelchair so he could walk. He said “Amen,” told the man to get up and walk—and he did. The man got up, walked down the aisle, came back. The family was amazed. Then they told Chuck what they’d actually brought him up for: “He has a cold. And now you healed him.”
That’s the power of prayer, friends. When we pray, we bring the power of God down upon us. We don’t always know what God is going to do, but He moves.
E.M. Bounds put it perfectly: “Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honours God and brings Him into active aid.”
A Similar Story in My World
After I shared my testimony about how God healed my lungs—how Jehovah-Rapha placed the gift of healing on me and restored what pulmonary fibrosis had destroyed—a gentleman from my men’s group approached me. His dad had something very similar: pulmonary fibrosis caused by surgeries, on oxygen just like I was. He asked if he could send my testimony to his father. Of course I said yes. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can offer is personal testimony of God’s power.
So he sent it. I kept checking in, asking how his dad was doing. “About the same,” my friend would say. So we kept praying. We kept interceding for healing of those lungs.
But God Knew Something We Didn’t
This past weekend, my friend came up to me at church. I asked how his dad was doing. With tears streaming down his face, he said, “Dennis, it’s just amazing.”
I thought he was going to tell me his dad was healed. Why not? If God healed me, He can continue to heal people. I was ready to celebrate.
But then my friend told me the whole story—the part I hadn’t known.
His dad wasn’t just battling pulmonary fibrosis. He was an atheist at best, agnostic at worst. His heart was hard and cold toward the things of the Lord. He’d moved to Texas but couldn’t come visit Colorado because of the altitude.
Then, a few weeks ago, he called his son with this story:
He was driving through New Mexico, headed home from visiting a friend. He stopped at a small gas station in a little town. There was a homeless man there. And for some reason—he couldn’t explain it—he felt compelled to help this man.
He gave him money. The man said he was hungry, so he bought him food. It was cold, so he got him gloves, a hoodie, a hat from the truck stop. Then he started calling around, trying to find this stranger a place to stay for the night.
And while he was doing all this, he told his son something extraordinary happened. He felt this weird tingling, chilling feeling throughout his body. Like something was happening. Like this was exactly what was supposed to be happening. It caught him completely off guard.
The only thing he could remember was “that video of that guy you sent me”—my testimony—talking about God healing him. He remembered how I described that tingling feeling when God’s presence moved. And he was experiencing it himself.
The Real Miracle
My friend from church was crying as he told me this. I started crying too.
“Dennis,” he said, “he’s going to church now. And for the first time in my life, he texted me ‘I love you’ and ‘God bless you.'”
This man’s heart was so hard and cold toward the things of the Lord that this—this—is the real miracle.
God Knows What Needs Healing
I’ve been pondering and praying over this ever since. My prayers for this man have been for healing. I’m sure his son was praying the same thing. He heard my testimony. He saw me walking around for years with oxygen, and now I’m not on it anymore.
But here’s what hit me: God knows something more than we know. He knows what needs to be healed.
Sure, this man’s lungs need healing. His physical body needs restoration. But more importantly—eternally importantly—this man’s heart needed healing. His soul needed saving.
When we prayed for healing, we were praying for more than we realized. God knew what he needed. And when we pray, we put God into action. As Spurgeon said, we are the energy for His movement.
So God moved on this man for something more important than the healing of his lungs. He moved for this man’s eternal life.
Prayer Moves Heaven
Jesus spent half of His ministry in prayer while He was here on earth. Think about that. The Son of God, God incarnate, made prayer His priority.
And we’re commanded throughout Scripture to do the same:
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
We’re told to pray all prayer and supplication—for ourselves, for others, for all the saints.
Prayer is so powerful, people. When we pray, God moves. He acts. He intervenes in ways we can’t even imagine. We might be praying for one thing, but Elohim sees the bigger picture. He knows what truly needs healing.
So Pray. Just Pray.
Pray for everything. Give all prayer. Pray for all things. Lay all things at the feet of Jesus Christ.
Don’t hold back. Don’t think any request is too small or too big. Don’t assume you know exactly what needs to happen. Just pray.
Because when we pray, we’re not just moving our lips or speaking into the void. We’re partnering with Jehovah-Nissi, our Banner of Victory. We’re inviting Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord Who is There, into every situation. We’re calling on the name of the Lord.
And when we call, He answers. Maybe not always in the way we expect—the family wanted prayer for a cold, but the Spirit prompted Chuck Smith to pray for something greater, and God healed a wheelchair-bound man. I prayed for lungs and God healed a hardened heart.
Find the book here:
Chuck Smith’s Living Water – Available on Amazon
But He always answers. He always moves. He always knows exactly what we need.
So pray, friends. Pray without ceasing. Pray with faith. Pray with expectation. And watch how the Lord moves.
Because I can promise you this: when God’s people pray, heaven moves.
My healing testimony—the one my friend’s dad watched on video—is a powerful reminder that nothing is impossible with God. You can read the full story of how Jehovah-Rapha healed my pulmonary fibrosis here: You Have Seen, Believe. May it stir your faith to believe God for the impossible.