In January of 2017, I began to seek God and pray specifically for certain spiritual gifts, in a very intentional way, unlike I had before. This was triggered because not long before that, I noticed as I was reading through 1 Corinthians about spiritual gifts, that God wants us to desire them (1 Corinthians 14:1). Well, when I coupled that with many other passages, like Psalm 37:4 which says, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart,” I decided to take it all very seriously.
Again, God says, “Desire spiritual gifts,” and, “I will give you the desires of your heart.” The result? God will give you the spiritual gifts your heart desires. So, I began desiring. What this looked like was meditating on these scriptures, and many others, usually in the morning, but also throughout the day.
Right around November 2017, one of my good friends, who is kind of now my half cousin by marriage, and the first employee of Vertical Computers, Kody Bakos, came into my office to talk. He said as he was driving back to work, he felt God telling him that he needed to ask me to pray for healing for his hand. Since about 2010, whenever it was cold, Kody would get excruciating pain in his hand. He said his tendons and bones would hurt to the point where he would refrain from moving his hand.
I remember asking Kody, “You need me to pray for it?” as his demeanor was a little strange. He reemphasized that he felt like God had specifically told him to ask me to pray for it, but that he was initially a little hesitant about following through. I leaped with joy internally, because Kody had no idea how I had been seeking God regarding spiritual gifts, and specifically desiring gifts of healings (see 1 Corinthians 12).
As I took his hand with my two hands, I prayed something like this: I thank you God for answering Kody’s cry regarding this pain in his hand, and for speaking so specifically to him about it. I thank you that the prayer of faith heals the sick (James 5:15), and that Jesus, you said one of the signs that follow those who believe you, is that ‘they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover’ (Mark 16:18). So, in the name of Jesus, I command this pain to leave, and the root of it to be eradicated. Hand, be healed in the mighty name of Jesus.
Later that day, Kody told me that about an hour after the prayer, all the pain left! It has been a year now since the seven-year excruciating hand pain, caused by cold, was healed, and Kody still reports that it was and continues to be fully healed! Praise God!
What spiritual gifts is your heart desiring? I encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, and pick at least one spiritual gift that you’d like to see active in your life (a.k.a desire). Once you do, start incorporating that desire into your prayer life, and watch God follow through on His promise!
-Steven Sedory
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