I came across this post in my drafts that I had written a few years ago but I hadn’t published. It was fun to read it again so I thought I would post it even though it’s a few years old. I hope it is helpful

I was teaching for the first time last Sunday since returning from eye surgery which I had at the start of December. While I was preparing for the talk I felt that I needed to push in and pray for healing for others struggling with eye conditions.

In recent years I have learned, through some great people, to recognise that opposition is an invitation to push into more, a sign that breakthrough is close rather than a sign defeat has occurred.

What happened to my eye felt like opposition, you can read about that here, I therefore knew I wanted to keep pushing in and wondered if there was breakthrough waiting for us as a community in this area. I felt the Lord asked me to pray for people with eye conditions 5 times in each service. I don’t know why He specified a number but I wanted to be obedient.

Sunday came and I was excited to see what would happen. Right at the beginning of the talk in our 9:30 gathering I prayed for people with eye conditions;

The first time….nothing seemed to happen

A second time…….nothing seemed to happen

A third time……..I thought a saw a hand go up indicating some change

A fourth time…….nothing (and the hand that had been up previously came back down)

A fifth time, which was the number I felt was specified and therefore where I thought breakthrough might come but……..again nothing seemed to shift in the room.

I carried on teaching, a little disappointed but not deterred, and resolved to go again in the next service. I had a couple of people chat to me after the 9:30 saying that they’d felt something but they hadn’t seen a clear change yet.

I want to be clear. Anytime the Kingdom of heaven comes and touches someone whether that is in what we would deem a large way or a small way I am always thankful but it also creates a desperation in me to see more and that’s why I was disappointed with what happened in that service.

I went for it again at the 11:30 service; my faith level was high even though my success level was low. So I prayed;

The first time….nothing seemed to happen

A second time…….someone who’d had a twitch in their eye felt improvement

A third time……..another hand went up but it wasn’t a major response

A fourth time…….nothing

A fifth time; surely this time right……..nothing

I also had one lady come to me at the end and tell me she had definitely noticed some change in her short sightedness and her eyes felt brighter. Again great news but still less than I’d hoped. I might hear more stories from people this week as I believe healing can come later but how do you react to moments like this?

Moments where you felt you were stepping out and risking it?

Moments where you felt God was really making it clear to do it?

You go again – Keep pushing.

The results in these moments are of course great but the process is sometimes more important. I’d love to see lots of eyes healed of course but the mindset of relentless determination I can learn when I don’t see results is also incredibly valuable; some would even argue more valuable. If you aren’t seeing what you want, keep pushing in.

The God we serve is bigger than the result we seek.