"Brother Word "
by Derek Jackson
Author Testimony/Why I Wrote
Brother Word
First, I have to give God the glory for all that He has
done in my life. The joy of my heart is seeking Him
for stories that bless, encourage and inspire believers. Brother
Word is a story that was birthed out of events I observed
and even experienced during a season of my life where, for
the first time in my life, I began to see His power made
manifest in the form of divine healings.
Although I grew up
in the church and have been involved in the church all my
life, my childhood experience of “church” tended
to be more of a traditional worship experience. I remember
being taught the Bible, the blood of Jesus and the power
of salvation as a result of Jesus’ work on the cross. But
during my childhood, I never saw anyone lay hands on someone
who was sick and believe God for a supernatural healing (akin
to the Book of Acts miracles) during my childhood. The
churches we attended just weren’t those kinds of churches.
When
I went off to college, however, for the first time in my
life I began to meet and interact with Christians who were
more “radical” than me – in that they
hailed from more Pentecostal backgrounds and had no reservations
about publicly praying for students on the campus for whatever
prayer requests those students had. My faith grew in
leaps and bounds from simply being around these bold, young,
Spirit-filled Christians. I can remember several instances
where they would lay hands on students and pray for them,
and not too long afterward, we would hear the praise reports
from their prayers. I think the seeds for Brother
Word were being formed then, because I observed that
even though a believer may have a spiritual gift (including
the gift of healing), that didn’t exclude such a person
from having a deficiency in another area of his/her life. What
was true for the Bible days, how God uses people with deficiencies
to demonstrate how His strength is made perfect in their
weaknesses, remains true today.
So the character of Chance
Howard was created in my mind – a
man whom God had given an extraordinary gift of healing but
who remained in need of an internal “healing” himself. For
how can any man reconcile in his mind the irony of being
able to lay hands on complete strangers and see them healed,
but not see the same result happen to his own wife?
While
writing the story, it was a blessing to study and read about
the lives of Christians who were catalysts during great revivals
in years past. My faith definitely increased,
not only in the area of divine healing, but in the power
of God to be demonstrated more fully even in my own life. God
still works miracles every single day, and it is my prayer
and desire that Brother Word would be an encouraging,
uplifting story that will remind us all of this truth.
Derek Jackson
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At their July 2006 meetings, GLORY GIRLS™ will be discussing
Brother Word by Derek Jackson
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