Miracles in the Philippines - Updated Jan 2nd 2007
Since I wrote the first version of this article I have been able to
speak to Jacque Hall and David about a trip to the Philippines where
God performed some wonderful healings. They were able to fill
in some important details and Jacque told me about another amazing
healing that involved an eye growing into an empty eye socket, so here
is a revised version of the article.
The God of the Bible is alive and well. He is still performing miracles
and answering prayer. He is still healing blind and lame people.
In May 1990 a group of Christians went on a missionary trip to the city
of Butuan in Mindanao (the southern major Island of
Philippines).
The group included a number of people that I know. Grant,
Rosie and Emilia
are three
people in particular that I know personally and I have spoken to them
about the trip.
I have also spoken to Jacque and David about the trip.
My friend Grant told me how he was encouraged by a Christian lady on
the plane on the way from Melbourne to the Philippines. He was walking
back to his seat when the lady approached him. (This lady was not from
the same group he was travelling with). She had been to the Philippines
before and had already seen God do some miracles. She said she could
sense the Holy Spirit all over Grant. She told Grant that when he prays
for the sick, he should pray for them with authority in Jesus’ name and
command the sicknesses to go.
Emilia is a dear old Italian lady with a strong faith in Jesus, she was
reluctant to go on the trip because her English was not as fluent as
she would have liked. But she felt God telling her to go and so she
went in spite of her reservations.
On the trip the group split into smaller groups and went to various
places. Miracles occurred wherever they went including hospitals, the
beach and street meetings.
Healings in two hospital wards
Grant told me how various people from the group went with him as they
visited two hospital wards that were filled with children. One of the
members of the group (Cynthia) acted as the interpreter. Before they
prayed they asked for the children to put up their hands if they wanted
to be healed. Most of them did. They prayed for each child confidently
praying that they would all be healed and would be able to leave the
hospital on that day. The following morning Cynthia told Grant that she
had been to the hospital ward early that morning to find out what had
happened. To her surprise both wards were empty apart from one child.
She asked the Doctor where they were. He said they all left yesterday
apart from that one boy. The Doctor exclaimed ‘the God that you prayed
to is a very powerful God’.
Healings in an adult ward
Grant also told of some Adults who were healed including and man with a
gunshot wound who appeared to be on his deathbed. The next day he was
sitting up looking really well. A man who had been stabbed had already
left the hospital after his scar was healed. A man with a back problem
(Grant thought his back was broken) was up out of bed and walking
around the ward with no apparent problem on the day after he was prayed
for.
Healing of a man with white eyes at a street meeting
They held a street meeting on a platform in a township outside of the
city. They walked around inviting people to come to the crusade. While
they were doing this, Grant and David noticed a man with poor vision
standing out the front of his house. That man came to the meeting.
Later on after the message had been given they invited the sick to come
up and be prayed for. The blind man went up for prayer. David was the
one who prayed for him and David described the man’s eyes to me. David
said that one eye was completely white "there was nothing there" and
the other was "very messy".
David saw the man’s eyes become normal while he was watching. This
healing is one of the most amazing miracles that David has ever seen.
The man did not speak much English if any but it was obvious from the
reaction that he and the people around him were very happy. The man who
was healed went forward and spoke to his neighbourhood in his own
dialect about how he had been healed. Grant was so amazed that he
followed him off the stage as he went back to his wife. His wife spoke
English and Grant asked her if this is the same man who was standing
outside of the house before the meeting and she said it was.
Healing of a paralysed girl
The man whose eyes were healed went and found a woman whose daughter
was very sick and brought them back to the meeting. The mother brought
her daughter to the meeting wrapped in a towel. The child was
crippled with disease. Her legs, arms and neck so were badly twisted
that she was shaped like a ball with her legs bent up behind her. Her
head was permanently facing sideways. She could not walk and had to be
carried everywhere. She was dying and had not eaten anything in three
days. David and Grant both remember seeing the girl and
they both confirmed that she was very unwell. As Jacque prayed for her
the Lord
gave Jacque a “word of knowledge” (A word of knowledge is where God
miraculously puts knowledge inside your mind). The Lord had shown
Jacque
that the lady had been to see a witch doctor. Jacque asked the lady
about this and the lady said that she did it because she was desperate
for her child to be healed. Jacque told the lady that she needed to ask
God for forgiveness for that and the lady accepted Jesus that night.
When the lady took her child home, the child still appeared to be ill.
Emilia had seen the lady holding the child in a vision and she was
certain that the child was going to be healed. So they were trying to
organise for them to visit the lady the following morning. However
there were some obstacles for them to overcome. For one thing in was
not safe for Westerners to travel about in the area at that time and
for another they were not certain where the lady lived although they
thought they had her name on a card. They eventually obtained
permission to go but they did not have a lot of time. They went back to
the area and started asking about the lady, it just so happened that
the first person they spoke to was the lady’s neighbour and she led
them straight to the lady’s house. (She left a valuable basket behind
in order to help them). As they were walking along the sight of
Westerners walking around attracted a lot of attention and so a crowd
of about 150 people followed them.
When they arrived, the girl had already experienced some improvement
and had eaten some rice but was still badly contorted.
Jacque started talking about God’s plan for mankind right from the
start of the Bible. As Jacque was preaching about God’s power, God’s
presence was there to heal and the little girls limbs started
unfolding. The girl got up and started walking around. There was
screaming and excitement all around and many people were healed of
illnesses such as heart conditions. A man was healed of tuberculosis
and a lady with a foot that was bent sideways was also healed.
An amazing healing of a blind lady
Jacque has been on more than one trip to the Philippines. On a previous
trip Jacque saw God perform a truly amazing miracle.
She was preaching one Sunday morning when she noticed an elderly man
escorting his wife toward the platform. (They were both in their 70s or
80s).
Now she had not made an alter call and so she was wondering what was
going on.
It soon became apparent why the man was escorting his wife since she
was not only blind in one eye but the other eye wasn’t even there at
all, it was just an empty eye socket. The lady had been blind since
birth. Jacque asked them what they wanted and the man said “I want my
wife to see me before I go to be with the Lord.”
Jacque felt that the Lord wanted her to pray for the lady so she said,
“let it be done for you as you have believed.” Jacque then went to lay
her hand on the one eye that was left but the Lord told her “Not that
eye.”
Jacque felt the power of God as she laid hands on the lady. She soon
felt something moving under her hand. She looked and she saw an eyeball
roll around.
The Lord then told her to remove the membrane. The lady could see but
her vision was blurry so Jacque prayed for the blurriness. She said
that she prayed more fervently for the blurriness than she did for the
missing eye.
The lady looked at her husband and said, “You’re beautiful.”
The whole church was screaming and the Lord started healing people all
over the church, including people with goiters.
On the day that I spoke to Jacque she was able to tell me that just
the night before a musical director from Brisbane was healed of a sore
shoulder. So miracles are still happening and they are happening all
over the world.
God’s healing power is available to you
These miracles clearly defy naturalistic explanations but they are not
the only amazing miracles that I have heard about and they are
definitely not the most recent either. The main reasons I chose this
trip to write about is because the miracles are clearly miraculous
(if you saw a child’s legs straighten while you were watching you would
know that it had to be God who was at work) and because I personally
know three of the people who went on the trip, so it was easy for me to
interview them and none of them are dishonest.
These miracles did occur and the point is that if you need healing then
God can heal you. Don’t worry if you live in a western country, living
in a western country doesn’t stop people from being healed.
If you would like prayer for healing then see the article, “God's Healing Power.” If you would like to
know how God can become real in your life then please read “How do I become a Christian?”
