“For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:20 (RSV)
Last Monday, as I was driving to the Nursing home, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to pray for Joanne, a resident who is losing her eyesight due to Vascular Arteritis. I already prayed for her a few times before and nothing much changed. She was still losing sight, worse in one eye. That day I had a mental image in my mind of praying for her healing, along with Martha and Ray, the parents of Andy.
So when I arrived and visited with the residents for a while, this was still lying heavily on my heart and I told Ray and Martha that the Lord wants us to pray together for Joanne’s eyes. Ray pulled out a bottle of holy water, which I was pleasantly surprised to see. I put a drop on her forehead and we all laid hands on her and prayed for healing of her eyes. Our prayers included Ray’s glaucoma, my high eye pressures, Jon and Andy’s healing and all the others at the table.
When I visited the next day, Joanne told me her eyes were better. I hesitated to write about it, wanting to be sure she was really better. That was ten days ago, and yesterday she told me she can really see better in both eyes. She was pointing to things and described how she sees so much clearer, especially with her worse eye. The only thing that we did different was to pray for her as a group of three, and I believe the Lord is healing her.
Since the day we all prayed, I went to my follow up eye doctor appointment and he said my pressures are not really high as first thought. After measuring the thickness of my corneas, my pressures were reevaluated to be within normal range so he canceled glaucoma testing. Meanwhile we still hope for more answered prayers to come.
On that day, Martha, Ray and I gathered together, just as Jesus told us all to do: “When two or three gather in My name- there I am in their midst.” And He was there!
A Jewish resident friend sitting at the table with us, was listening to Joanne talk about her eyes being healed and he asked us to pray for his GI surgery next week. That will be our next gathering of three to pray.
I am so blessed to have met people of faith like Andy’s parents, Martha and Ray, and I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit brought us together for His purpose and for His will to be done there.
Amidst all the confusion, hatred and violence in the world these days, we must never lose heart. Jesus still comes into our midst when we gather together to pray. He is with us even when we pray alone, but something different happens when two or more believers pray together as a group.
It was the Holy Spirit’s idea to pray for Joanne that day and Ray happened to be ready with the holy water. We simply prayed as a group of three and Jesus showed up. Joanne’s healing gives us hope for more to come.
Lord, thank you for coming into our midst in a powerful way when two or more gather in your name through prayer. Give us faith to believe for more answers to come. Amen
