Daniel דּנאל Testimony: Where we started ...

Where we come from

My personal adventure with regards to healing and hospital outreach ministry is an interesting and winding road of which I am very appreciative and thankful.

In 2009 a group of us established a evangelical outreach ministry. This was, at the time, the result of a need felt for sharing the Gospel and for leading people to Jesus.

The outreach was born, at the time, from a feeling of obligation (obscured motivation at the time) to do something for the Lord. Some years ago a group of us decided to no longer be quiet and to preach the Gospel to people in the street.

The outreach initially started as a mall-outreach shortly after some of us attended a Campus Crusade for Christ course as well as several other courses (at the time we were deceived into believing that we needed to do courses and establish ourselves as human-doings instead of human beings). 

Being blinded by our law-based, traditional, religious church upbringing, we embarked on some outreaches to malls in our immediate vicinity. The experience we had with people was not as accommodating as may have been expected and we were constantly met with much resistance and even hostility.

Towards the end of 2009 someone suggested that we take our evangelistic ministry to hospitals where we'd have a new missionary field almost every week. And so, we did.

In doing so a journey commenced with the Lord. For me this was to be, and still is, a journey of personal transformation and readjustment (gennaō anōthen: Joh 3:6-7) of the mind and heart. We immediately became aware of Abba's favour in our behalf. We mostly encountered friendly and agreeable people. We discovered that patients in most cases, welcomed prayer and were even susceptible to be lead to the love of Jesus - the very works we felt obliged to do!

The evangelistic ministry quickly transformed into a healing ministry as we experienced that we were being lead and guided by the Holy Spirit into praying for the sick. Our families joined in. We witnessed awesome miracles as patients came to tell us that they have been awaiting our prayers, being informed of our visits by the Holy Spirit beforehand. Thinking back now, I honestly don't think any of us knew what we were doing. But Jesus doesn't need our perfection, and time and again He'd be healing the sick in front of our very eyes and in spite of our do's and don't's and our sense of law-based obligation.

We knew one thing only: press on as the Spirit of the Lord taught us more and more every-time we'd pray and spend time with a patient. We reached out on a weekly basis to the same hospital, went at other times than those scheduled and even to other hospitals and individuals as lead by the Holy Spirit.

The physical-spritirual journey

Over the years many of us in the hospital outreach group started migrated to various institutional churches and denominations each with their own law-based set of religious rules, policies, principles or dogma. And so we became increasingly aware of the deception of the institutional church in general.

Abba spoke to me at one point saying that we should press through all the man-made religion and doctrine and He would teach us Himself by His Spirit (Exactly what Jesus said in John 14:26 and 16). And, HalleluYAH, I am always surprised at how the goodness of God leads to repentance (agreeing with Him, Rom 2:4) and how it is the Gospel (the extremely Good News of Jesus' finished work) that leads to salvation Rom 1:16. The result is that the outreach group has been a diversified group in terms of denominations since 2010 (there is only one church anyway, isn't there?).

Over the years the hospital outreach group has grown and shrunk, and grown and shrunk as group-members came and went for various reasons. At several times the group was big and we considered splitting it up to visit different hospitals. Twice the group split to visit the hospital as separate groups on different schedules.

Today, at the writing of this information page the mailing list numbers 24 members of which 4-6 regularly meet every Monday (in our group) to pray for and heal the sick.

Was there growth? Relationship-wise?

Well, Jesus is the same today, yesterday and forever! He healed when He walked the surface of this earth and He heals today in exactly the same way!

The growth that I experience by the mentor-ship (discipleship) of God's Spirit since we started out, is humbling in so many ways, but at the same time also absolutely mind-blowing! In saying this, I speak for myself, since others will testify for themselves. 

Initially my prayers would follow along the traditional lines of: 

• Please Lord, if it be Your will, heal this person. 
• We ask you Lord, please heal! 
• We beg you Lord, please heal! 
• We know that you can heal, O Lord, but please find it in Your heart to heal this person. 
• We know You are willing and able Lord, so, pleeeeas heal!

... until Abba Abba spoke to me one day and said: "I gave you the authority and power to heal ... and you pray like this?. Don't ask me ... Take up your inheritance!"

Abba Abba also started sharing with me that we, as Christians, had a language problem - a tense problem, that we tended to pray as if God never did anything. We'd pray in the future tense. We'd pray as if we never received anything.

The way we pray is the result of law-based religion. In fact, it is a gross disregard for the finished work of Jesus on the the cross, His resurrection and the abidance of the Holy Spirit in us. 

My prayer-life started changing dramatically.

My mentor-ship began in earnest one evening at supper at home as I prayed and asked the Lord to please bless our food. I remember hearing the voice of Abba saying just very abruptly: "You bless the food!" What!

And so began a precious journey of apprenticeship ... discipleship ... mentor-ship, whereby the Holy Spirit would teach me Himself. I was taught beautiful and amazing things, some of which I'll post here.I was taken by Him from the position of a defeated follower of Christ to a position where the precious Holy Spirit of Abba (is still) teaches me to walk in the authority, power, and anointing as an heir in Christ Jesus ... as a prince of righteousness, cloaked in that very garment that He attained for me by His finished work on the cross.

Daniel, now you are being arrogant!

Yeah? Tell that to my to my Daddy Abba!

Many questions and things that I struggled with as and by the means of my upbringing in church-traditions and law-based religious beliefs, I brought to Abba. Time and again, faithful as He is, He would without hesitation or delay give me the answer in such a way that I never had to wonder Now, was that really God, or  ... eh, or not? 

One of my first struggles came with praying in tongues. I moved my family to a local charismatic and I was made to understand that we needed to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues if we were going to progress any further in the favour of God. From (the church) where I came, this was taboo!

I searched the internet and many sources of information (instead of focusing on the Word of God) for answers until I was more confused than ever before. Then one evening during the hospital ministry, I directly heard the Voice of Abba speaking to me. 

Two or three of us stood at the bedside of an elderly gentleman and were about to pray for him. We talked to him and asked him the usual questions and permission to pray. I can't remember what exactly was wrong with him but he drifted in and out of semi-consciousness. He was very sick. He would speak and as he was speaking, he'd start mumbling as he drifted into a semi-unconscious state, revive somewhat and then the process would repeat. But he did not want to let us go before praying for him and he insisted that he wanted to pray for us after we had prayed for him. 

So, we prayed. I was up last. When I said "Amen" the gentleman took a hold of my hand and requested that he also pray. His prayer started in words that we could all understand and then after a while he started mumbling as he drifted into the other state. At that very moment I heard the Voice of the Spirit of Abba Abba saying: "Do you hear that? Now it is no longer him praying, but Me praying through him!"

God speaks what is even concealed from us at times! (1Co 2:7 & Col 4:3)

Ever since, I have used praying in tongues on numerous occasions ministering to the sick. The fact of the matter is, looking at the sick and afflicted, I do not always know what to pray for and how ... but God does!

This was a definitive moment in my life and indeed, in my relationship with Abba, when He spoke to me right there. 

A few days later I was embraced by the Spirit of God during a Catch-the-Fire service and spoke in tongues immediately. The charismatic church we attended at the time helped me in this regard. Yet, it was Abba Who touched me and gently walked with me each step of the way.

Today He still is countering a lot of all the law-based religion we are ever so constantly being brainwashed with by the institutional church. I grew to understand that we need to adopt a receptive heart and allow the Holy Spirit to wash us clean (Eph 5:26) of all the deception and tradition so rife in church doctrine even today.  HalleluYAH!

What does Jesus Do?

Right from the start we saw awesome miracles and healings. We prayed for people in all wards you can think of as we do even today. I saw healing everywhere, in and out of hospital. 

My daughter, Kayleigh, broke her arm falling from a tree in my yard, early one Saturday morning in 2010. We prayed for her. Rushed her to the emergency section of the hospital (where we pray on Mondays) and went through all the normal procedures. In the x-ray room the radiologist told me in advance that she had fractured her little arm in such a severe way that she would later need surgery. The end of the story, just about a week later, was two doctors, looking at two sets of x-rays, wanting to know from my wife, Charelene, how it is possible that on one set of x-rays they can clearly identify severe fractures in more than one dimension, whilst on the set taken later there is no trace at all of any kind of fracture whatsoever! They asked her if she could explain. Her simple explanation: "Jesus!"

One case that I remember clearly is that of a young 12 year old boy from Swaziland early in 2010. When we met him we were told that he didn't have even a single white blood cell in his body because of severe leukemia. His biggest dream was to go back home and play soccer with his friends. It was the World Cup in South Africa after all!. We prayed for him and his mother and The Holy Spirit impressed on me to visit him and his mother in the hospital for a few days in succession. We never followed up with the doctors as such, but he was soon discharged. The nurses informed us that at the time of his discharge, he had a normal white blood count. I could imagine him playing soccer in his hometown somewhere in rural Swaziland, free to run and kick a ball as is expected of a normal boy of his age! Praise Jesus! 

In 2012 we were asked to pray for a Lady, Marie, in the intensive care unit. She was about 60 years old and friends with my in-laws. She came in for a minor operation and contracted an infection that caused most of her organs to shut down. When I first saw her she was as yellow as pumpkin. She had liver failure, kidney failure, and a whole lot of other organs that stopped functioning. She was in a coma, connected to a breathing apparatus and had multiple pipes and electric wires attached to her. Over the next couple of months we would visit her during each of our weekly outreaches and even met some of her relatives as they joined in prayer for her.

Within the first two or three months of Marie being in a coma my in-laws phoned with some devastating news. Doctors gave her a mere 4% chance to live and was already leaning towards asking family members to consider switching of the life support. Yet, only a few weeks before my wife, Charelene had a very clear vision during one of our prayers where she saw Marie disembarking an airplane and walking away. We immediately countered the report.

Six months later Marie regained consciousness. When we saw her the first time after this she was still not able to talk to us being attached to the life support units. We shared the Gospel and the vision and prayed for her assuring her that we knew she could hear us and agree with us in her heart. The Holy Spirit laid on my heart to write out a few scriptures cards on healing and to stick them on the walls of her ICU room. I encouraged her to read and pray and stand on these scriptures in her mind since God is inside her, His Spirit being able to distinguish even spirit and soul and the very thoughts of her heart. 

When Marie was finally taken of from the life support she told us that she had no recollection of the 6 months spent in ICU except for the last two weeks. She prayed with us thanking Abba for her progress and healing. The next week we arrived for our visit with her, we were told that Marie had been transferred to a general ward and was subsequently discharged a day or two before our visit. I was informed by my in-laws that Marie and her husband relocated to Cape Town (flying there) and was currently employed there. So much for someone with a 96% chance of death! HalleuYAH!

So, what now?

Jesus is the complete revelation of the Father (Col 1:15 and Rom 1:20) and He is the same today, yesterday and forever. His healing is for us for now for the taking, if only we'd take. We keep witnessing His miracles day by day as we pray and lay hands on the sick and afflicted and depressed and the weary. He does not disappoint! Praise Jesus!

Since we started with the hospital outreach I always maintained that I would not follow-up, unless inclined to do so by the Holy Spirit (and He has on many occasions), to verify and confirm that the healings prayed for did happen (to check up on God, so to speak). Yet, Abba Abba on many occasions, sometimes supernaturally, showed me (us) evidence of His miraculous healing. Lately I have been hearing Abba say that I should witness on some of the feed-backs and experiences we had in this ministry. I will elaborate more on some cases including:

• The 13 year old girl diagnosed with brain cancer;
• Young Thomas from Kenya diagnosed with 7 conditions;
• The toddler diagnosed with a strange sickness doctors described as leprosy;
• Abba's intervention during brain surgery on a baby;
• The man from Botswana bitten by a black-widow spider;
•  The man who had the flesh-eating bacteria;
• The teacher whose pelvis was crushed by a horse;
• The 16 year-old girl whose toxin levels were beyond measure because of a burst appendix;
• The man who left his bed to pray for fellow-patients;
• The paralyzed young man given a second chance;
• The man the doctors closed up again when they saw that he was healed;
• The man with bullet wounds that wouldn't heal;
• The nurse with the impaired vision;
• Restoration of the children's ward relationship; 
• Latest testimonies; and 
• many more

Check out the Hospital & Healing label for more on the subject and watch this space for more blogs!!