Luiz Felipe

Only seven minutes were left to end the game against Flamengo. We were losing for one point when Amaury fouled me. If I only could score that time my team, the Sirio Libanes, would claim the final victory. All of a sudden, what looked like a sure score became a thousand times harder to hit home. I felt the responsibility on my shoulders as my nervous team mates tried to calm me down. They yelled several different things at me and I was confused. I just shouted back: "Stop that!"

Right there at the corner of the field I prayed: "Lord, I turn all this over to you. I don't care what may happen."

There were eight thousand people in that packed sports gymnasium. They were all jeering at us. The noise was unbearable. But as I looked at the basketball net, I didn't hear anything else, though I could still see the thousands of desperate faces on the other side of that glassy square.

I threw the two balls with cool and precision at the end of that game against Flamengo. Sirio, my team, was once again the Brazilian basketball champion.

Basketball is a sport that demands a lot of concentration from you. The secret is to turn everything over to God because He always desires what is best for us.

This is the God who is in control of my life and my career. Nothing that happens to me is by chance.

During the last game of the season in Sao Paulo State in 1993 I had a wonderful experience. I had just finished reading the book The Holy Spirit: The god Who Dwells In Us. I was thinking about all that I had read in a careful and analytical manner, as I was used to do. As we started the warm up period, I felt something I had never felt before in my whole life. Suddenly, in those moments of decision, I felt like a strong anointing of the Holy Spirit falling all over me. It felt like an instantaneous and sublime in-filling.

I felt such a strong power that I felt like I was embarrassed in the presence of the Lord. As hard as I would try, I just couldn't contain the tears of joy and happiness in my eyes and down my face.

One of our team officials noticed that something was happening. He was very nervous and I tried to remain cool. Then I asked him: "Are you afraid of something?"

"Oh," he said, "I am just about going to wet my pants so scared I am!"

"Don't worry, everything is OK," I said. "God is on our side, more than before."

I had been experiencing a lot of physical problems, one injury after the other. I was out of the games ten times, and even so I just couldn't get any better. Those injuries were very uncommon; they seemed to jump from one part of my body to another.

I began to pray with my pastor. He understood that we were facing an evil spiritual power of some kind. I was awakened to the fact that I needed to come out of my spiritual inertia and I needed to seek the presence of God in order to solve that difficulty. I needed to lay hold of God's power for that great spiritual battle that I was waging at the time.

Soon everybody in the church was behind me in that battle. God answered fast and in a positive way. I was healed of all my injuries but I soon found out that there was no place for me in our team anymore.

But we resorted to prayer again. This time God did justice and destroyed the weapons of the coach who wanted to keep me away from the games.

I returned to our team exactly when we were all down and out. We were in such a bad situation that nobody believed we had one chance in that championship.

Actually I never played so well as during that time. Besides, I had never seen God bless a basketball team as He blessed us then. Our recovery as a team coincided with my recovery and presence in the team as well, and soon my name was on everybody's lips once again.

I discovered that we are the apple of God's eye. I learned in a wonderful way how the power of God is made perfect in weakness. I saw the word of God accomplish what God had in mind right there in the midst of tribulation and all kinds of problems. I even experience God's justice in action in my own life.

Within one and a half months, I went from an outcast and forgotten player (forgotten even by our coach) to becoming the star of the team and of the whole tournament. We won the game, I scored the highest number of points and I got a medal which I proudly put on my chest.

Above all, I came out of that experience convinced that the medal I held on my chest was in fact on Jesus' chest. He had put me under the spotlight so that I could speak to many people about His ultimate victory: His victory on the cross.

To be a true champion means having Jesus in your heart, not a medal on your chest.

Only seven minutes were left to end the game against Flamengo. We were losing for one point when Amaury fouled me. But then Jesus gave us the victory. . . .

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