Testimony

Pastor Praveen was going through a time of spiritual discouragement. He was asking himself, “How can I move forward?” 

During this time he had a dream. In that dream the corner of the ceiling in his living room was leaking. Water was gushing from it. Totally confused, he didn’t understand the meaning of it. His wife did not understand it either. Three weeks later, he awoke to the noise of loud thunder and could see lightning through the bedroom window. There was a heavy rain and he remembered the dream. In a panic, he ran from the bedroom to the living room and turned on the light. 

In that moment, he was deeply troubled and his heart was wrenched. The very thing he had seen in his dream was happening. Water was gushing from the corner of his living room ceiling. He didn’t know what to do. With tears, he placed his hand on the wall and said “I command the water to stop in the name of Jesus.” The water instantly stopped. The leak completely stopped. 

Then God said to him, 

“Why are you worrying so much about your ministry? This is your calling. 

You prayed with a broken heart by faith, and I stopped the water. This is the way: whoever comes with their problem and asks you to pray, you have to see their problem as your problem. Their burden must be your burden. 

Their pain must be your pain. 

Their sickness must be your sickness. 

Their brokenness must be your brokenness. 

Then pray, like you did now. 

In this way I will heal, deliver, and bless the people. That is your calling.” 

The Lord reminded him further: 

“I took your infirmity, sickness, failings, and then I interceded with my Father. You then received healing, deliverance, blessing, and everything.  In the same way, when you hear or see somebody’s problem as yours, I will answer you.” 

After this, by the Lord’s grace and by practicing this in his prayer and ministry Pastor Praveen was able to “move forward.” He saw a strengthening in the power God demonstrated through his prayers. The mute began to speak, deaf began to hear, blind began to see, the crippled began to walk. The broken hearted people began to be healed. Whoever had financial emptiness became wealthy. He sees this as a great lesson from the Lord. The Lord is now showing him how to pray for people every day through the Holy Spirit. 

My Takeaways

Pastor Praveen shared this story with me because I am learning what compassion means in practice. Two lessons come out of this testimony for me. 

First, in our life there will come times when we are discouraged. Even Elijah, the powerful prophet, miracle worker, and man whose name means “Yahweh is my God,” ran to the mountains in fear and discouragement (See 1 Kings 19). When we find ourselves stuck in our walk with the Lord, we are to be faithful, even though we do not see it, that God is acting out His plan for us. Cry out to Him in prayer for direction or correction or both. Then listen for that still, small voice as Elijah did.

Next, powerful ministry and prayer requires compassion. Did Jesus not model this thing for all of us? Notice the pattern in these scriptures:

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Matthew 14:14; emphasis added

A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.

Mark 1:40–42 (NLT); emphasis added

As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Luke 7:12-15; emphasis added

In each of these examples, Jesus first felt compassion, and then he healed. This is who our God is, this is how He works. His love even goes beyond the meaning of the word compassion. The word compassion comes from the Latin “compati”, which means “to suffer with.” Jesus indeed suffered with us, and he ultimately took a step further -  he suffered for us. As disciples of Christ, he told us to love as he did: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34. Doesn’t it then make sense that if we want to be effective in our prayers to him on behalf of others, we must obey his commandment to love as he loved? 

These were Pastor Praveen’s words to me, I believe they apply to anyone seeking to walk with the Lord: “If you will do this - if you pray this way in ministry; in the same way, God will do the same for your prayers. This is the way God teaches his children every day. If you are feeling discouraged or ineffective in ministry with your family, your church, your community, or anything else, we have no reason to go to God in frustration with questions of ‘Why? why? why?’ for this. We must go in humility to Him in prayer, and ensure we are praying compassionately for others. God is going to teach you something new in your life.” 

This all feels simple and obvious as I write it, but doing it in practice consistently is very challenging and requires aligning your heart with the Holy Spirit’s. This was Pastor Praveen’s further advice: “Read, pray, worship every day. No excuses, make time.” To me, it echoes 2 Peter 1:5-8. We must make every effort to grow in our love to be effective. That effort requires assistance from the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Without Him, you can do nothing.

Epilogue

As for that leak in Pastor Praveen’s ceiling, not one more drop came in. They did not have the ceiling repaired, yet in all the rain they have had since, it has never leaked again. The water stain is still on the ceiling of his living room. He keeps it as a testimony to the power of God, and will gladly show it to any visitor in his house.