Meu coração se apaixonou pelo povo do Brasil

by Timothy Bulsiewicz

Spoiler... before you cheat with Google Translate, like I did (I hope it's accurate), I will share with you what this means.  But first I want you to read through the article and see if you feel the same way.

While we are born in the beautiful image of God, His intent was that we would reflect His image through our lives.  This image is only seen when we become like Him in character by submitting ourselves to His Lordship.  The second half of the verse from Proverbs expresses this point:

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Proverbs 31:30 (NKJV)

The fear of the Lord is all about Lordship and obedience to His voice. Said differently, we must allow ourselves to be clay in the hands of the potter.  I believe this is the most powerful impression we may give the world of His fingerprint upon us.

Conform into His Image

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.  Ps 27:4

We conform to His image when we behold His beauty and allow the Spirit to transform us into His image (2 Cor 3:18).  And just as people looked upon God when they looked upon Christ (see Heb 1:3; 3:1; 12:2 & Col 1:15), so too are we becoming a conduit for mankind to see Him as we are conformed into His image.  [Note that it wasn’t His physical beauty (see Isaiah 53:2).]

Expressions of His Character

Mateus & Ligia

Earlier I shared the story of Mateus and Ligia.  I was so moved by these siblings.  They have such servant hearts; always looking for ways to serve our group and minister to us while also helping us minister to their churches.

One night, Mateus had our whole team of close to 100 over to his family’s restaurant and prepared a most amazing banquet for us all.  They served us (Mt 20:26) with such love (1 Cor 16:14) and care and fed us as if we were family dining in their own home (Mt 25:35)!

Djair

I met DJ on day 1 of the trip.  He traveled from his home in Rio just to serve the Global Awakening team on the trip.  Guys like him enable Randy Clark to accomplish what God has called him to.  This man also has a huge servants heart and great sense of humor (Pr 17:22).

At any hour of the day or night, if something was needed he was on it.  His cheer brought a great sense of unity to the team and his companionship made even the most uneasy feel safe.  He quickly became a good friend like Jonathan was to David.  I watched him love on every team member (1 Jn 4:21) indiscriminately!  He also walks in extreme, cheerful generosity (2 Cor 9:6-7).

Junior & Danieel

In Jales I had this young guy come up and give me a huge hug just like in the pic below.  I thought he had been designated as my translator and that he was just building some chemistry, haha.  So when it came time to pray for the sick, I said let’s go and he said “wait I’m not a translator, I can’t speak english good”.  I said “sounds good enough for me, let’s go”.  The way he stepped out of his comfort to see God move reminded me of Peter (Mt 14:29).

I watched Junior move with such compassion when we prayed over another young man named Danieel.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a high level of compassion (Mt 9:36) flow from someone like that before.  He wrapped this young guy up with his whole body and just wept over him and with him for a few minutes.  That’s the kind of people I want to minister with!  He also stretched my faith because the moment he saw that the first few people we prayed for were healed, he said I have two in the back of the church that want you to pray for them.  Next thing I know he’s rolling up the wheelchairs!  Praise God for child like faith (Mt 18:3).  It truly strengthened me (Lk 22:32).

I became so connected with Junior and Danieel as we worked together as a team to love the people of Jales and got to experience the joy and excitement released into the atmosphere each and every time another beautiful person would have a very real encounter with the God of the Universe.  Love, the Kingdom and the joy of the Lord accompanied our wondrous time together!  I am still blown away by the rate of transformation taking place in Danieel’s life.  I have learned that after we left he took a dive straight into multiple areas of service in his church and community (Ja 1:22) as well as diving into sound, Christ-centered books (Ac 17:11) and genuinely seeking more of God in his life; all fruit of the fingerprint of God on his life.

Adelaide & Raphael

These two encouraged me in such wonderful ways.  The last ministry night of the trip I was blessed with a strong translator named Adelaide.  However, the true blessing was in her willingness to step right into the thick of ministering (Heb 13:7) to the wonderful people.  Once we began praying for the sick, we had a sizable group awaiting prayer for various ailments.  As I began praying for one individual at a time, I realized we had to move quicker to be able to minister to everyone so we began working through the crowd two people at a time.  She would translate one ailment to me and while I was praying for them, she would be interviewing a second person.  Then we would flip and she would assess their progress while I prayed for the one she interviewed.  As I asked her to help me in praying for individuals she quickly jumped into praying for healing (Mk 16:17-18) and many were healed.  It didn’t stop there; by the end of the night, she was ministering prayers of inner healing, encouragement and freedom (James 5:16); all through the tender love of Jesus.  She has great courage and is a mighty woman of God.

She stayed in lock step with me as we ministered well beyond the end of the event right up to the last call for the bus.  That devotion to the people cannot be manufactured.  It only comes from a heart of compassion like Jesus (Mt 14:14).  By the end of the night, we witnessed the most powerful move of Jesus’ healing hand that I have ever been a part of:

• knee in need of surgery
• 8 lower backs (at least 2 sciatic)
• permanent head noise
• 2 shoulders
• extreme pain down whole spine (failed surgery)
• stomach pain
• plus 2 more lower backs on bus after testifying what Jesus did

Raphael is a brave young man who I ministered to on a couple occasions.  He is battling spinal muscular atrophy type 2 and 3.  We prayed for a miraculous healing and he fought and fought to raise his limbs and do something he couldn’t.  He taught me a powerful lesson that reinforced something Randy Clark teaches.  After we prayed, he told me that “I had changed his whole life.”

I realized when you minister to someone, the most important thing you can do is to minister the love of Jesus to them.  We may not have seen the instant miracle, but we did see the love of Jesus poured out.  Not just on him, but from him… in great measure!

Raphael has ministered to me (Eph 4:16) every bit as much as I ministered to him.  He has encouraged and loved on me (Heb 10:24) and reminded me of the overwhelming power of love.  He told me his name means “healed by God”.  I don’t believe that is by coincidence.  I continue to contend for his healing and I would be honored if you would join me in the fight.  He is reading this and would be encouraged to know there are people around the world that care enough to intercede for and with him.  Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom to encourage him or anyone else in this post.  Maranatha!

After all of these memories and so many more, these were the only words I could find to describe it all …

My heart fell in love with the people of Brazil!

For more testimonies from Brazil, check out Straight Out of Acts