Wednesday, July 8, 2015: This afternoon I received a call from Andy Magee. He and his family were vacationing in the windy city of Chicago. When calling, they were walking along a place called the magnificent mile. He wanted to tell me this story:
One evening outside of the hotel, a homeless man came shuffling by, and Andy spoke to him. The homeless man appeared nervous and kept looking back as if he was running from someone or something. As he quickly left, a large security guard came up afterwards. Andy mentioned to the security guard that the homeless man looked as if he was running from something or someone, and the security guard said, “Yes, he was running from me.” This guard then told Andy how he encounters problematic people like him almost on a daily basis in Chicago. He stated how he tries to be kind; however, many seem to react in less than a positive manner. Andy then asked the security guard if, by chance, he was a praying man, and he responded back, “I don’t know about all that.”
Andy struck up a conversation with this security guard and came to find out that he was originally from Ethiopia and his grandfather was a Muslim cleric. The security guard’s name was Dante. In his pursuit of God, Dante had studied many religions and was very knowledgeable about different religions of our day. As Andy talked to him about faith in Jesus Christ, he asked the Lord this question, "Lord, there must be some way that I can minister to this man with power and not with words, help me." The Holy Spirit spoke to Andy and said this man has a problem with his knee. As the conversation began to close he told the Dante, "I would like to pray for you if you don't mind. Dante agreed to let him pray for him. Andy then asked Dante, "Dante, I have to ask you if everything is okay with you physically, because I sense that you may a knee problem. Is this right?” Dante, looking astonished, said "Yes I do. I suffered a bad accident with my left knee, and I now deal with constant pain and discomfort with it all day and night." Taken aback by how Andy knew that, he then asked, "How did you know that?!" Andy said, "Jesus lives inside of me and He speaks to me. He loves you." Andy then told Dante that he believed that Jesus wants to heal his knee, and he began to pray for his healing. While praying, Dante began to say, "Whoah…..Something weird is happening to my knee….What is that feeling I’m feeling down there?!......What's going on?!" Andy responded, “It is Jesus healing you. He loves you with a great passion Dante.” Being overwhelmed and ecstatic, Dante began lifting his leg moving it up and down walking on it. Not believing what just happened, Dante kept saying, “Man, the pain is gone! This is too weird!…..I am not feeling any pain! It’s gone!!” He then looked at Andy and said, “WHERE are you from?” Andy responded with a smile and said, “I am from Louisiana.”
The word of knowledge and healing from the Holy Spirit reopened the door and re-ignited the exploration of Christianity for Dante. Dante could not deny the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. This event gave Andy further opportunity to talk more about Jesus Christ. Andy encouraged and told Dante that he needed to go to a Christian Church where they practiced the Christian religion, and to go to the pastor and ask him for a spiritually mature individual that could disciple him. He agreed that he would do this.
Andy was excited about this testimony and wanted to share it with me.