Gifts of Faith
Testimony at InterVarsity Staff Conference 08by Kristina Crosetto
A couple of years ago I was teaching a Mark study. I’d been on staff a little while and there was always a verse that bothered me. It came from a different book – the book of John. This was the verse, Jesus’ words, John 14:12: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things that these because I am going to the Father.” This was a verse that bothered me.
As I was teaching this Mark study at Catalina Island for our spring break with students, we got into the section about the bleeding woman and her interaction with Jesus. We studied it with the O.I.A. (Observation, Interpretation, Application) method until we had dissected that thing to death.
At the end, one of my students, named Alex, shared his story. He said, with a lot of vulnerability, “My brother is like the bleeding woman. We’ve taken him to see doctor after doctor. We’ve spent all of our money. And he’s on his death bed at 17 years old. Do you believe that this Jesus really can help him?”
Well, as a good staffworker, I said, “Yes.” And after Catalina we went and prayed for his brother Andrew. I got on my knees and I prayed with faith I had never had before.
Three days later, Andrew died.
At that moment, something shut down inside of me. “Maybe I can’t do what Jesus does. Maybe Jesus can’t heal today like he used to.” I didn’t tell anyone, but I made a vow in my heart that I would never ever pray for another person to be healed. I avoided it when people needed it. I didn’t go to certain things because I knew they were going to talk about it.
One day I found myself in a seminar basically teaching on healing prayer. The man kept talking and I kept getting angrier and angrier, until at one point I just almost got up and left. A woman came up to me and said, “I would like to pray for you.”
I said, “Oh, I’m good. I don’t need any prayer. Thank you. I’m healthy as a horse.”
She said, “I don’t think you are. Because, you see, hope deferred makes the heart sick; your heart is very sick, because you hoped in something and it didn’t happen, and now you’re sick.” So she prayed for me, and I started to weep. Then she looked me in the eye and said, “You have a gift of healing. Don’t shut yourself off from it.” I didn’t know how fast Jesus would use that gift of healing.
A couple of weeks later I found myself in a Bible study when a woman came in who I didn’t know. She was from China and she was in her thirties; this was not an InterVarsity Bible study. She explained that she had just found out that she had cancer – multiple tumors in both of her breasts – and it didn’t look good. I am not joking when I say that everyone in the Bible study turned to me and said, “Kristina, would you mind praying for her?”
And I was like, “Let’s all pray for her. I think that would be good. Let’s all just …”
And they said, “No, we don’t have time for that – if you could just lay your hand on her and pray for her, that would be great.” So I did.
I put my hand on her and I said, with very little faith, “Jesus, would you please take away this cancer from her?”
Then all of a sudden God did something I didn’t expect. His Holy Spirit came upon me. He filled me with such love for this woman. My prayer started to change, and I fought for her in the power of his Holy Spirit. I prayed a prayer that I’d never prayed. I asked him to take that cancer away. And then, at the end, I looked her in the eye and I said, “You are healed.”
Now, let me explain. Outwardly I was very confident. Inwardly, I was like, “Take it back. Take it back. Please take it back! You’re going to ruin her faith! She’s going to hate Jesus for the rest of her life!” But outwardly I said, “You are healed. Go in peace.”
Well, she didn’t come back to the Bible study. So I got nervous that I had just wrecked this woman’s faith. Weeks later, she crept back in, sitting in the back of the room. I avoided eye contact, thinking, “That was the lady I prayed for.” She tried to get my attention and I just looked down at my notes, pretending, “I’m just really interested in this Bible study.” I finally glanced at her, waved and mouthed, “Oh, hi, nice to see you.” And she answered back, “I’m fine.”
You see, she went back to the doctor and they told her they had made a mistake. Actually, they had taken new tests and there were no more tumors on her body.
Now before I get off this stage, I have to tell you there were two ripple effects from this miracle that Jesus performed.
One – Amy, as I said, was from China. She shared her story of her healing with her family back in China, who do not know Jesus. She said to them, “Let me tell you what Jesus has done for me.” Her mother and both of her brothers are now walking closely with our God.
The second ripple effect is that I mentioned it to a man named Ryan Pfeiffer, who works at the University of California - San Diego. I was just telling him this amazing story of healing that I had experienced. He, in all of his wisdom, decided to share it with his whole large group meeting. He felt the Holy Spirit tell him to share this story of healing. So he got up in front of 350 students and told them the story of Amy, and what it’s like to take a risk to do something with Jesus that you have never done before.
Another staff, Wendy, told Ryan, “I think there’s someone here that needs God’s healing in their life.” Now they hadn’t been used to this in large group, so Ryan said, “Maybe someone here needs a touch of God. Is there someone here who resonates with Amy’s story?”
A woman in the crowd started to weep, and she collapsed in the middle of the large group. This first-generation Chinese woman, Katrina, had just been diagnosed with cancer at age 19. She said, “That story is for me.” They brought her forward and the whole large group worshipped our Lord and wept for her. They asked his anointing and his healing to pour out. It was a first for their large group to ever try this.
I’m happy to report that Katrina also went back to the doctor, who said he had made a mistake. She no longer has cancer. Praise the Lord!
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Kristina Crosetto is an InterVarsity staff worker in San Diego.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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