Liz's Testimony I didn't want to go to Africa. It...

Liz's Testimony

I didn’t want to go to Africa. It took me about five days of swaying back and forth between going and not going, until I finally made the decision. However, my heart was not in the right place. For the past couple years I had been wrestling with God. I have grown up going to church and my beliefs were pretty much just handed to me. I struggled to find out what I truly believed in my heart, and not what I believed just because others had told me to. Although I said I was searching to find out what I believed, in my heart I had pretty much become complacent. I just sort of accepted the world and my life the way it was and although I was not happy, did not make much of an effort to change that. I lived my life the way I wanted, made decisions that I shouldn’t have, and for the most part turned my back on God. Little did I know the plan that God would have for me in Africa.

In the beginning of the trip, I wrote in my journal, "God, I want to walk away from this trip changed. I am sick of being complacent. I want to experience you and your love. I want to experience the you that heals the sick and the you that others have seen. Can you do that God? I want passion and fire inside of me." Well, I can truly say that God answered my prayer.
The first night we were in Mozambique, God right away got my attention. It was like he was saying, "Ok, we have no time to waste, let’s get moving". While sitting at dinner with our team, Brenda turned to me and started to prophecy. I had never heard anybody do this before, much less not to me. It was amazing, and I knew the words she was speaking came directly from God. Alright God, you have my attention!

A few days into the trip, our team was invited to the meeting for all the leaders of Iris ministries. Ben and Brenda were going to prophecy over each of them and offer encouragement, and the rest of us were there to pray and encourage with them. All of the leaders were asked to stand up and Ben and Brenda went around to each person individually to prophecy and encourage. The second or third women they were speaking to started to shake with the Holy Spirit as soon as Brenda started speaking. She started to weep and the shaking increased, until it looked to me like she was getting electrocuted she was shaking so much. I was watching her, and all of a sudden I heard a sparking noise and I saw a flame shoot out of her chest like she had just caught on fire. Immediately after I saw this, the women fell to the floor, still weeping and shaking. I looked around me to see if anyone was as shocked and amazed as I was at what my eyes just saw. No one seemed to look as if they had just seen what I saw. I thought to myself, Ok, either what I saw is totally normal and people just aren’t phased by it, or I saw something that others didn’t see. After the meeting ended, I asked several people if they had seen the flame. Nobody I asked had seen anything. Ok God, what’s that all about?!? I still don’t understand exactly why God allowed me to see that, but I know that through seeing that, my faith was increased and I knew that God was real. But God didn’t stop there.

The next night our team was sent on an outreach to a village nearby. After arriving to the village and dancing with the people there, the Jesus film was shown. People were saved and came to Jesus, which was very powerful to see of course. After people were saved, people who needed healing were asked to come up and our team was sent out to pray for them. At first I was hesitant to join in, because I had never been a part of something like this before. However, I wanted so badly to see healings and miracles, so I walked up to where my sister and Kimberly, a woman on our team, were standing. They were praying for a man who was deaf, and after a short prayer, we saw this man get healed. I saw this happen, and I didn’t really no what to do. Of course I was excited, but I just didn’t know where to put this event into my brain. How do you process and store something you have never seen and maybe didn’t even really believe could happen? After the man was healed, Kimberly shared with me that her and my sister had been talking about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. She proceeded to inform me about what this was, because I didn’t have a clue, and then we all prayed together to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. It was a short prayer and I didn’t really feel changed. After that, another man came up to us who was also deaf. We all prayed for him, and he was healed by God. Wow. A third man came up, he was deaf, we prayed, he was healed. I see a pattern here. A fourth man came up, he was deaf, we prayed, he was healed. We prayed and saw four deaf men in one village be healed that night!!! Oh and along with the four deaf men, we saw a baby who was paralyzed on one side of her body be healed. It was incredible!

After all of the healings, Kimberly said she felt God leading her to take my sister and I away from the crowds and talk to us more about getting baptized by the Holy Spirit. We all stood in a circle and held hands and Kimberly began to pray. She began to pray in tongues, and I started to shake. I had seen this happen to other people throughout the week, but not me. At first I it was just my arms that shook and then my legs began to tremble. Had Kimberly and Sarah not been holding my hands, I would have fallen to the ground because my legs were shaking so much. My sister began to speak in tongues and then later I began to also. I started softly and then my voice grew louder. My heart was crying out to God, and I began weeping, but without tears. I have no idea what I was saying to God, but I know my soul was being transformed by Him. I don’t know how long all of this went on for, but after it was over, I felt different. I knew that from this point on, my life would be different. I could no longer claim that I didn’t know if God was real, because I saw and experienced Him in an amazing and powerful way. I had this fire and passion that burned inside of me after this experience. I knew the Holy Spirit was living inside of me.

The fire and passion has continued to grow since we have been home from the trip. I have had joy and peace like never before. I have had a passion to tell my friends and others about my experience and about what God has done. God is using these conversations that I have had with people for His glory and to bring people closer to Him. I am just the vessel by which He does this. I know that Satan can no longer have the power that he had before over my life, although I know he is going to try. God has changed my heart. All I had to do was fly across the globe to Africa to let Him do it. Haha God.