In the western Christian world, with some exceptions, I guess that we are far less used to hearing stories of divine and miraculous healings, or being at occasions where they happen.

I am fortunate enough to belong to a church where prayer for healing is a major part of what we do and I do know of hundreds of healings from there and from other Christian links I have locally.

Please read now of a very recent account of one meeting, not in the UK but in central Africa, where it seems that people there are much more open to healing and healing prayer.

It was written by Daniel Kolenda, and it goes like this.

"After preaching, I prayed for the sick and many miracles followed. There was a remarkable number of people that said they felt tumours, fibroids and lumps vanish.

"For example, one man, who had been suffering from a painful mass on his left side for two years, felt the mass disappear completely.

"Regina felt a lump in her side vanish, and Mpoyi's stomach growth, which had prevented her from bending, disappeared, allowing her to move freely.

"Tshikuyi felt the fibroids in her womb dissolve, and Nkole's tumour, present for six years, vanished during prayer.

"The atmosphere was charged with the joy and awe of witnessing the finger of God at work."

I hope this doesn’t sound too hard to take in to our western minds, and there is no doubt that what God is doing there, He can do here.

There is so much illness in the UK and beyond, with cancer a major killer. Can God increase our faith to believe there could be major divine healing here too? Can we ask Him to?

I know He will guide us if we ask and we can expect great things from Him. He says to us in the gospel of Matthew: "Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

It’s that word, 'believing', that is the challenge. Yet I believe we can ask Him for increasing faith to believe for Him to move in divine healing here.

I am reminded of one man used in healing in America called John G Lake when there were a reported 100,000 healings in five years from 1915 to 1920. He set up Healing Rooms in many places and his ministry continues today.

Can it happen, and happen here? Let’s pray with belief that it can, and ask God to touch this community with His healing power. And soon.