As about one hundred people came forward for healing prayer for back problems at our Seminar near Pondichery, South India, a woman also stepped forward. Approaching me she had a most desperately pleading look on her face, all the while pointing at her eye and her ear. I understood she was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear, and want to be healed in Jesus’ name. But the prayer was for those with back problems, and she stood by patiently as one hundred more believers came forward to lay their hands on those with back infirmities. When I asked who had been healed through the prayer, the great majority of the hundred people raised their hands. I asked for testimonies, and many testified how their backs had been healed, some having suffered for years with pain. When I told everyone to return to their seats, the woman also went back, still blind and deaf.
Looking at her I felt compassion for her and the gift of faith welling up within my spirit. I motioned her to come back up. We were going to minister healing to her in Jesus’ name. She approached the stage.
“Who’s going to minister healing to her?” I asked the crowd of between four and five hundred believers who were attending the three-day Seminar on Signs and Wonders. A middle-aged sister who was a leader in a local church came forward.
“Now, sister, we’re going to minister healing to her just as Jesus would,” I said to her matter-of-factly. “Jesus opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind by putting his fingers in deaf ears or touching blind eyes, and commanding healing with authority. We’re going to do it the same way right now. Put your finger into her deaf ear.” She did as I instructed.
“Now with authority say ‘in the name of Jesus, spirit of deafness, come out. Ear, be open in Jesus’ name.'” After she repeated the command after me, I said, “Now let’s test her hearing.”
The woman said that she could hear again—faith in the name of Jesus had opened up her deaf ear. The Seminar hall erupted in praise to the Lord Jesus.
“Now let’s minister healing to her blind eye in Jesus’ name. Sister, lay your hand on her blind eye, and command it to be restored in Jesus’ name.” Afterwards she covered up her good eye to test the other eye, but she saw nothing but darkness. “Let’s minister to her again,” I said.
Once again the sister spoke over the blind eye, but still there was no restoring of the sight. I could feel the tension in the auditorium. Remembering that the apostle Paul had prayed three times before he accepted that it was not God’s will to remove the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor 12.7-9), I instructed the sister to minister a third time.
This time with her blind eye she could make out the three of us standing in front of her as well as the color of the sister’s pink dress. Once again the sister ministered to her, and now she could see more clearly with the eye. (See Mark 8.22-25 for a similar incident in the ministry of Jesus Christ.)
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