Come, Follow Me

By Joshua T Marthe

Joshua shares many of the encounters he has experienced with God-spanning five continents, thirteen nations, and numerous people groups. Some stories involve overseas missionary work, and some involve work in America. As you read his accounts of events, situations, and scenarios which involve miraculous healings and deliverances, ask God to spea

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua Thomas Marthe
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985941913

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You Look Like Jesus

I still remember like it was yesterday. As I stood over the man who was helplessly lying on the floor, his family stared at me. Watching. Waiting. What was this young missionary from America going to do?

I had never faced anything like this before—never encountered a situation quite like this one.

The man in front of my eyes looked like the dictionary definition of death and hopelessness. His age was likely between forty and fifty, but he looked like a skeleton with his skin tightly strapped on. He was completely paralyzed below the neck, couldn’t move his jaw, and had many other health issues. Now, his family was telling me that they wanted my Jesus to perform a miracle. They wanted this man to be healed.

I turned to my translator and double-checked the information I had heard. Was this really his condition? She confirmed and said that the family was ready for me to pray for the man.

Imagine yourself in my scenario for a moment. Several months earlier, I had celebrated my eighteenth birthday. Now I was sweating my brains out in the middle of the Philippine jungles on the island of Mindanao, far from home. I had never seen a miracle like this on video or in person, and now I had desperate family members staring at me—waiting for my next move.

At that point, I told the translator that we would first minister to the grandmother of the home, whom I had met earlier, and she was totally blind. I walked downstairs to this woman who was sitting by the window. As I approached, I greeted her and knelt in front of her.

As I took her hands in mine, I asked her to close her eyes, and then I prayed a simple prayer: Jesus, thank you for healing this woman right now.

When she opened her eyes, I could see only one thing—pure white. She had cataracts, and had experienced no healing change.

I’ve read in the Gospels that, at times, Jesus prayed for people more than once. Some were healed as they left, and some were healed from that moment on. This time felt like I needed to see an immediate breakthrough. A large majority of the miracles of Jesus had immediate changes happen, and the Bible said that I was expected to walk just like He did.

I took her hands and prayed again. This time, I asked God a question, What is happening here? What do I need to do?

That instant, I was taken into a vision. In it, I saw the outline of the woman in front of me with two dark blotches over her eyes. As I looked closer, I could see that they were serpent scales. Command this spirit of infirmity to leave this woman, immediately, God said.

As suddenly as the vision started, it then vanished, and I was back to seeing and hearing normally. I took authority over the evil spirit in the name of Jesus and commanded her to be free from her affliction. This time, when the grandmother looked up, I saw beautiful brown eyes looking back at me.

Leaning forward, she touched my beard and said something in Filipino. Turning to my translator, I asked what she said. My translator had a shocked expression—understandable, given what she had just witnessed. She said that you look like Jesus. Tears filled my eyes.

That is the greatest desire of my heart. That is my goal, my mission, and my ultimate motive. I want to be exactly like my best friend, Jesus. In every single way that I live, move, speak, and think. I want to imitate Him so closely that people see Him flowing through my every action. I believe that is the highest call that we have in life and the highest form of living. To me, nothing else really matters.

I wiped the tears from my eyes as I rose and said, Let’s go back to the father.

As we walked back upstairs, something felt different. I felt a confidence that wasn’t there before. I knew that God was going to heal this man. The confidence I had inside had risen up in me after what I witnessed moments before.

In general, I was relatively new to the idea that God is a healer and would do it in modern times. I had read the Bible and seen the works of God in the Old and New Testaments. I had read accounts of the prophets of old seeing diseases disappear, Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness being healed from snake bites, the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I saw that God was a healer—but what about now?

When I was enrolled in a Bible college in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, I learned things about the Word of God that I never knew were in it. Mark 16:15-18 changed the course of my life forever:

¹⁵And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. ¹⁷These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

— Mark 16:15-18

I got stuck focusing on verses 17 and 18 in this portion of scripture. It states that those signs would follow those who believed. I could be one who believed. I could see those things happen in my life!

I began to pray for the sick and look for opportunities to see healings. The first time was in a restaurant where I was working. A customer had damaged a disk in her back, and after I prayed for her, she was totally pain-free. I think I was more shocked than she was!

Many more healings followed prior to this spring-break mission trip to Asia, where in front of me was this man who desperately needed help. I knelt next to the paralyzed man and placed my hand on his chest. As I did, I felt his whole body begin to shake. His fingers began to move, and then his toes. I put my hand on his jaw, and it began to move and loosen.

Within five minutes, this man of the house stood up and walked, totally pain-free with complete mobility. He fed himself, thanked me for coming, and looked like a new man. I was amazed at my Jesus. He is faithful to perform His word when we believe and speak it.

My Jesus is a healer. He always was and always will be. God revealed Himself as I AM in the Bible, therefore, I don’t have the right to change that to I USED TO BE. According to Revelation 1:8, Jesus was, is, and is to come. That means that He is constantly and forever I AM.

In Exodus 15:26, God spoke one of His names to Israel: … I, the Lord, am your healer. God is constant, true, and trustworthy. When He speaks, we can believe it!

The following chapters are filled with stories of my encounters with God, spanning five continents, thirteen nations, and numerous people groups. Some stories involve overseas missionary work, some involve work here in America. As you read them, ask God to speak to your spirit, and then realize that you can do the same things I did.

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