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Provision, Prayer & Healing

#7 He Sees the One

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Photo Nicole Tarpoff

When I was in college, I went through a season of rebelling against the Lord, but He brought me back around. I felt like the first thing He wanted me to do was to switch from music school to nursing school. Nursing school was a lot harder than my music major. I began to realize that I had some real problems with anxiety. I got so anxious that I would throw up before exams and sometimes had to leave the exams because I felt so ill. I couldn’t focus on the questions; I couldn’t even process them. Other students would be finished and turning their exams in, and I would be on question number two.

Pharmacology was a particularly difficult course for me. The teacher was kind and let me take the exams in a private room by myself to help my anxiety—but even so, I made a D- on the first exam and an F on the second. After this, my teacher met with me and told me that I would have to get A’s on the rest of the exams to pass pharmacology and that I had to pass pharmacology to stay in nursing school. This was so confusing to me because I truly felt God called me to nursing school.

This was a Friday night and I really just wanted to stay home by myself. I was broken. But my friend insisted that I go to church with her that night. I cried all through worship. There was a guest speaker and in the middle of his sermon he just stopped and said, “If I don’t share this now the rest of what I say won’t be anointed. Is there someone here who wants to be a nurse but feels like they can’t? Raise your hand.”

My friend said, “That’s you!” 

Now, there were close to 1,000 people in attendance and someone else raised their hand before me. I wasn’t sure about it. I was raised Baptist and we just didn’t do that kind of thing. I hadn’t really been to a church before that didn’t follow the bulletin. I halfway raised my hand while the other person was already sprinting toward the front. I made my way to the front as well, but much more timidly. 

The speaker prayed for her and it seemed harmless, so I let him pray for me too. He looked intently at me—right into my eyes—and said, “Oh, honey—it’s you. The enemy has been telling you that you are dumb since you were little and the Lord wants you to know this isn’t true.”

I hadn’t said a word up to this point, but he knew and said, “Do you want all this anxiety to leave?”

I said, “Yes.”

He prayed for the anxiety to leave me and I felt something very heavy lift off of me. He said, “The Lord has called you to be a nurse and the enemy is doing everything he can to stop it but it’s not going to work. The Lord is going to use you in miraculous ways as a nurse.”

After this I had no more anxiety. I made A’s on the rest of my pharmacology exams. It was such a big difference that my teacher pulled me over to the side and asked me how I was cheating! I gave my testimony and she said, “I need that person to pray for me!” 

While I was still in nursing school, I had a dream that I would be working as a nurse at a specific university in their children’s hospital. In my dream, I was in scrubs walking down the hallway of this hospital. When I graduated from college with my degree in nursing, there were no job openings in the university children’s hospital that I had dreamed about. So I applied for a job at Shriners Hospital for Children in the same town.

While I was there on my interview, the manager said she didn’t think Shiners was a good fit for me and thought the university children’s hospital would be better since I had pediatric experience at Vanderbilt and had a passion for working with kids who have cancer. After our interview, the manager already had a walk scheduled with the head of the university children’s hospital. They were friends and regularly met to walk together, and the Shriners manager said she would tell the director at the university hospital to make a position for me and hire me—the university wasn’t hiring at that time. 

Soon after this I was called in for an interview at the university children’s hospital. When I was on my interview there, the hallways looked exactly as I had dreamed about them. I have been working there nearly 10 years now. I started a Bible study on my unit and 40 nurses attended; five gave their lives to Christ and got baptized. God has miraculously healed two children whom I have prayed with.

I came away from this experience seeing how real the enemy is and how he works against God’s plan for us from the time we are children. I also saw how in a room of 1,000 people, God saw the one—He saw me. He knows everything about me and cares about me. There is a freedom available in God that I didn’t know existed before this happened. God set me free of anxiety in a moment. Only God can do that and only God can bring about the plans He has for us. They are always too big for us. That’s why He is the One to be glorified!

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#6. Saturated With The Glory Of God

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Photo by Nicole Tarpoff

 I went to Cuba to minister in a number of house churches in 2004. On the eastern side of Havana, there are hundreds of tenement housing projects that were built in the 1950s to house Soviet Army barracks.  Now, literally thousands of people live in each building—and the buildings stretch one after another after another for miles and miles.  During the last morning that I was teaching, my interpreter didn’t show up. I don’t speak any Spanish and they didn’t speak any English. It was really awkward, being crammed into a small sitting room with about 40 people just staring at me, waiting for me to do something.

As I sat there looking at them, and as they sat there looking at me, I felt like the Holy Spirit engaged me in what became a running conversation. I seem to get in these talks often with the Lord, especially when I muster the audacity to kind of argue with Him:

“Sing.”  The Lord told me very distinctly.

“I don’t sing, Lord.”  Like He didn’t know that already!

He said it again, “Sing.”

“I don’t speak Spanish.”  Like He didn’t know already.

For the final time, He said, “Sing.”

“Sing what?”

“’Nothing but the Blood.’”

If you’ve ever been around me during any worship times, you’d know that I have a singing voice that only the Father could love! Ironically though, the Lord used me as the worship leader in a couple different congregations that I pastored when I was a missionary in the Philippines. He’s not really looking for technically proficient singers—just people who worship Him with whole hearts. 

Anyway, back to Cuba. In that small sitting room on that day in 2004, I opened my mouth and began to let it rip. I know this may sound cliché, but suddenly, it was as if Jesus opened the door and walked in the room. When I started singing, I felt like a big bottle of Coke: someone took the cap off and God came rushing out. The whole atmosphere became super-charged with the presence of the Lord. The air in the room began to feel so heavy that when I tried to lift my hands to Him in worship and adoration, I couldn’t even raise them above my head. After a few minutes, my feet couldn’t support me any longer because the spiritual climate of the room was saturated with the glory of God. I had the sensation that if I could just raise my hands above my head, then I could poke through the ceiling and all of heaven might fall down! 

People began to pray and sing in the Spirit, in Spanish, and even in English. I started gently laying hands on almost everyone present just to bless and encourage them—and men, women, and kids began to fall out all over the place. The power of the Holy Ghost was so pronounced that one guy even hit his head really hard against the wall on his way down, and I remember thinking, “God, this better be you…because if it’s not, that dude is gonna be in pain.” 

It was the most intense, power-packed renewal that I had ever experienced. Maybe the Lord wants these kinds of encounters to be normal? At any rate, this environment continued on for maybe 20 minutes until finally another interpreter arrived. Everyone kind of regained their composure, including me, and I began to minister through some of the material that the Lord had given me. As I’ve said about my singing, I’m not the greatest preacher on the planet, either. Yet that morning, as I stood there and simply talked about Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, people just wept and wept and wept. The floodgates were open. I talked about her posture—how every time she appears in the gospels, she’s always at the feet of Jesus.

The church couldn’t get enough. Jesus was in the room in the many-membered Body of Christ—singing, laughing, weeping, loving. His power and glory were on display in our midst in the most concrete, tangible way.  May it ever be so Lord!

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#5. Just The Right Words

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Photo by Nicole Tarpoff

 This summer I spent time in prayer to prepare for a mission trip to Cali, Colombia. Three days in a row the same image came to me during my prayer time—a white horse. I had no idea what this was about. Then, the day before I left for Colombia, a group of friends was praying for me and although I had not told them about the white horse, one of the girls praying for me said she saw a picture of a white horse. She said she felt God was going to show me a white horse in Colombia and that it would be a sign that I should minister to the owner of the horse. Now, Cali is a big city, around two million people. It’s not like there were going to be horses running around Cali, Colombia—but I trusted that it was in God’s hands and that He could do anything.

The first day in Colombia we went to visit some orphanages and slum areas and then headed back to the couple’s apartment who was hosting us. They had organized horseback riding lessons for some of our group. One of the girls who was taking a lesson needed an interpreter, so I went with her to interpret. She and I walked with the riding instructor over to the barn to find a horse for her lesson. The instructor was very well known in the area. Not only did he own this large farm and employ many individuals, he also trained many people and was very influential in his community. When he opened the stall to get out her horse, there standing before me was the white horse. I could hardly believe it!

I told God, “Lord, I have no idea what to say.” I felt God say, “Good, because it’s not your words anyway.” After her lesson, I asked the instructor if I could talk to him. I told him about the white horse I had seen during my prayers and about my friend’s prayer and what my friend had told me. And without the slightest effort, from my lips escaped the perfect gospel presentation. The Lord, knowing this man so intimately, knew how to present His truth in terminology this man could understand; namely, He connected to this man through horses.

“You have gone places on your own strength already,” I explained to the man, “but you could go so much further if you partner with Jesus. Imagine you are in a race. You are running, but I’m on a horse. Who will go further? Who will move faster? Who is going to win the race?”

The man answered, “You will.”

I responded, “Yes, and in that same way God wants to partner with you to take you places you could never go on your own.”

While I was talking, I felt he had a calling for healing through horse therapy. I told him that I felt that even with this same white horse, he was going to see people healed on a regular basis if he partnered with the Lord. The man’s jaw fell open, and without a word he pulled out his phone and showed me a video from the previous week. A five-year-old boy, who, due to a mental disability had never been able to walk, was brought to this man in hopes that horse therapy would be of help. After the session, almost miraculously, the boy was indeed able to walk!

Now this man had a strange religion—the horse was his God. But he was in awe that a complete stranger from another country had been sent by God to tell him this message. I shared how deeply God loved him and that if he were the only man on the face of the earth, Christ would have gone to the cross just for him, so that he could spend eternity in relationship with Him. Right then, the man made the decision to give his life to Christ. 

Thank you, Jesus, for loving and pursuing us. Thank you for just the right words at just the right time. Thank you for the miracle of healing. All honor, praise, and glory to you, Lord.

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#3 Love In Any Language

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Photo by Nicole Tarpoff

I was formerly an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church (in Florida, in the 1970s). In 1989, I was part of another network of churches and I traveled with a group of pastors from various states to Warsaw, Poland to attend the United Methodist Annual Conference.

We had been invited to speak on John Wesley and the Holy Spirit. At the end of the conference, our group divided up and went to different places in Poland. I went to Auschwitz where I spoke at a small Pentecostal church. At the end of my message, I invited congregants to come forward for prayer. Five people came forward and I prayed for each.

Then a man approached from the side of the church. The man was massive, about six foot two and 260 pounds. He wore a rumpled suit and had a strong odor of alcohol and tobacco. His shoulders were slumped, his head down. He made no eye contact and said nothing. His countenance was one of defeat. I put one hand on his back and the other on his chest.

And then something happened that I had never experienced. This man felt like a cold, concrete pillar, and everything inside of me shut down. I had nothing to pray or say to this man. I knew enough not to just make something up that sounded religious, but instead I stepped back and just looked at him. Tears began squirting out of my eyes. I felt as if this man in front of me was the only person in the world and God was pouring His love through me into this man. I had an overwhelming and heartbreaking sense of love and mercy for him.

I placed my hands on his chest and began praying out loud. I was crying, and my words and tears were mixed together such that I sounded incoherent to myself. About 15 seconds elapsed and the man jerked upright and fell backwards onto the stage. The church members attended to him and the wife of the pastor at this Pentecostal church told me that she knew this man well and assured me that he would be okay. I left the church with the pastor and his wife and did not see the man again.

As we ate dinner that evening, the pastor’s wife asked me, “How much Russian do you know?”

I answered, “None, why?”

She had a very puzzled look on her face and told me that I had spoken to the man who had fallen back on the stage in Russian. She told me what I said in Russian to the man when I prayed for him: “Those who stole your heart and your life are smaller than I am. I, the Lord and your Savior, have come to restore your heart so that you may have a new life.”

I asked her why God would have used Russian words to speak to this man . . . we were in Poland. Why not Polish? She answered that the Soviet system forced all Polish people to learn Russian and that the Russians had removed this man from teaching—a job that he loved—and forced him to work in a factory—a job he hated. His hate of the Russians led him to alcoholism and depression. She said, “I think the Lord chose to speak to him in Russian, words of life and love, so he could forgive the Russians and trust God to be greater than they.”  

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

#1 Single But Never Alone

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Photo by Nicole Tarpoff 

I was a single mom for 17 years. Many of those years I longed to meet a wonderful man and remarry. I was told that my children needed a father, and I truly wanted a good father for them. I was so, so lonely. Life was hard, raising children alone and working long hours to support our family. But I believed that God had a plan for our family and continued to pray each night for God to bring the right man at the right time for me and my children. Night after night, year after year, I prayed this prayer. I waited—sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently. While I waited, I tried to grow and learn and become a better person. I practiced gratitude even when life was hard, and eventually gratitude came much easier.

But as I got older and my last child approached high school graduation, I was pretty sure that a husband and father was not in God’s plan for our family. Strangely, though, I was at peace with this realization. Over the years I head learned to use my time alone to deepen my relationship with God, and I trusted wholeheartedly that I was indeed NOT alone. I felt God’s presence with me. I knew that I could be happy with or without a husband and began looking for a few acres in the country where I could build a small cottage and have a flower garden after my son moved away to college.

But then a man who had been sitting behind me at church for many months, began to talk to me. He walked me to my car—which, in the parking lot full of hundreds of cars, was parked right next to his car! Eventually, he ask me to join him for dinner. Six months later, we were married in a small ceremony in the church where we met.

He has been the answer to my nightly prayer and so much more. I am so thankful for the husband and father that God provided at just the right time. God used my years of singleness to bring me closer to Him and to grow my faith. It was hard, but I don’t believe I would have ever developed the gratitude and deep relationship I have with God now if I had a married earlier. My years alone as a single mom forced a dependence on God that resulted in my KNOWING that God is with me and that God listens, loves, and responds in just the right way, at just the right time!  

A Million God Stories is a Christ-centered ministry which offers a platform for Christians from all streams of Christian faith to give praise for how God has worked in their lives. Christ heals in infinitely creative ways and we acknowledge that His way of helping may differ from person to person.

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