This is a testimony of what I experienced one December in the late 1990s in India. But the story leading up to the miracle also has value, so I will tell that here as well. If you are only interested in the miracle itself, you can skip the first part.
Sri Lanka
My brother-in-law Kim Torp from Thisted had invited me on a mission trip to Sri Lanka and India. The first week was to be in Sri Lanka and the last week in India. In Sri Lanka we visited Trumpetsound Ministries and Mervin Gunaselvam. In India we visited J. Sam Jebadurai in Chennai.
The reason I was invited on the mission trip was to try to get me back on my feet, after I had been hurt in a church and was living in a depression.
On this first trip to Sri Lanka we had meetings in Colombo and Vavuniya. On subsequent trips we also went to Jaffna. At most meetings Kim Torp spoke, but when it came to prayer, I joined in praying for the sick. They did not speak English, so they pointed to wherever on their body there was a problem. I prayed for them and then asked: "Ok?" They responded with a special head movement that is typical of Tamils. I interpreted this gesture to mean: "It didn't quite work, but it's ok, pastor." I wanted people to be fully healed, so I prayed again and then sent them on their way.
On my next trip to Sri Lanka, I observed the pastor give a person a message, and the person responded with the same head movement. To me this seemed very rude. Something along the lines of: "Forget about it — I'm not doing it." When I asked Mervin about it, he replied that this head movement meant "yes." Then it dawned on me that everyone I had prayed for on the previous trip had answered "yes" when I asked if it was "ok."
India
But this was not something I knew on that first mission trip. I was in a depression before I went on this trip that was supposed to cheer me up, and now I had prayed for hundreds of people and believed that nothing was happening. That my prayers were not being heard. So when we went to India, Chennai and J. Sam Jebadurai, I was quite downcast.
I began to fast and drank only water for 3 days. Those were the days we were travelling and until we arrived at the conference venue that Jebadurai had, where we were to attend a conference on deliverance from demons. There were 3 other guest preachers, so we were 6 preachers including Jebadurai. There were 2 meetings on Friday, 4 meetings on Saturday, and 2 meetings on Sunday. After every 2 meetings there was prayer, where the attendees were lined up in queues, and each preacher got their own queue to pray for. There were about 1,000 people present, so there were about 200 in each queue.
I can still remember that as we walked towards our queue the first time, I said to Kim Torp: "They can't all be possessed." Then I reached my queue and laid my hands on the first person. The person immediately fell down and began to shout and scream. Ok, I thought, maybe they all have the same problems with demons. Having to pray for all these people was a battle.
After we had prayed for people on Saturday, there was a break. We walked around the grounds, and people came wanting to talk or receive prayer. A pair of parents came carrying their boy. He could not walk because his ankles were angled so that the soles of his feet faced each other instead of towards the ground. His parents wanted me to pray for him. I tried to pray, but the boy was crying and clearly distressed. So I commanded his legs to become straight, and then I went into the room to rest.
When I entered my room, I knelt by my bed and prayed. I told God that if people were not healed when I prayed for them, then I would not pray for them anymore. When I finished praying, I lay in bed and thought about something that had been stirring in me while I had been fasting. Is it God, or is it us who heals?
Peter said to the lame man: "What I have, I give you. Rise up and walk." It dawned on me that if no one prays, then very few are healed. If people do pray, then more are healed. This means that those who pray play a role in whether people are healed or not. I had heard various teachings on this subject. Teachings that I understood with my mind but that did not take root in my inner being. Even though this understanding is very simplified and not grounded in scripture and a lot of other things one could say about it, it was what settled the matter for me, so that the understanding took root in my heart and was no longer just head knowledge.
The Miracle
After the next 2 meetings it was Saturday evening, and we were once again to pray for our queues of more than 100 people each. Despite the "revelation" I had experienced, I was still downcast because of the apparent lack of effect of my prayers. So I walked with heavy steps towards my prayer queue.
But on the way to the prayer queue I saw the parents and the boy I had prayed for that afternoon. Earlier the parents had carried him to me, but now he was walking on his own feet, supported by his parents. When I saw that, it was as if a light ignited inside me. I ran over to them and began to pray for him. Now he was no longer distressed but was smiling from ear to ear. I had him hold onto my index fingers and walk forward while I walked backwards and prayed for him. After a few steps I let go, and he walked on his own for the first time in his life.
The entire place erupted in applause and praise to God. I felt that the whole atmosphere of the place changed. Now everything was possible. When I went back to those I was supposed to pray for, and the next person manifested demons, I simply thought: "Ha ha, you have to go."
God is real, and the victory of Jesus on the cross is not just a metaphor.
If you are sceptical of accounts like this, I understand. I would encourage you to approach it with an open mind. A Dutch research team has examined 14 cases of medically remarkable recoveries associated with prayer. The study is peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Religion and Health (2023). It concludes that these healings cannot be fully explained within a purely biomedical framework, and that different forms of knowledge — medical, biographical, and spiritual — together provide a more complete picture.
Read the study: A Dutch Study of Remarkable Recoveries After Prayer (PMC)
