MIRACLES and MISSIONS – 005
The Beginning of Healing Campaigns
The greatest
thrill of the whole trip came one night after we
had announced a fasting and prayer day for all those who wanted
prayer for healing of the body. No one had ever prayed for the
sick in Monserrat, and the people had no idea what it involved.
The first healing was during a Quarterly meeting, when all the
churches come together for fasting and prayer, and to give a
report of their spiritual condition. After a sermon on how God grants to heal every sick body, we invited all who were suffering to come forward for prayer. The first to come forward was a little old lady with her head bound up and suffering severe pain in her stomach. We laid hands on her in Jesus’ Name and prayed very earnestly. When we asked her if she felt better, she said, “No, I have a chronic ailment …I am going to the doctor tomorrow, and he will give me something to ease me. Thank you.” Oh …Oh .. . Oh!_ No one had ever said that before (even though many people who come for prayer have the same things in the back of their minds and that is why they don’t get any more from God. They have more faith in the doctor and the medicine than they do in God.)
We explained to her how Jesus died and suffered so that she might not have to suffer. “Surely He bath bore my grief and carried our sorrows…and with His stripes (scourging) we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4, 5, 6.) We thought she understood and so prayed for her again. This time when we asked her if she was any better, she replied: “No, I have a chronic ailment, and the hospital will give me something tomorrow. Thank you.”
Well, we just quit depending on her faith and said, “Lord, make a believer out of her.” Instantly, she jerked back with her eyes wide open and scared to death. The power of God had gone through her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet and had healed her completely in a second time.
Others were healed, and then came
THE UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT
We had announced another day of fasting and prayer when we planned to again pray for the sick in the night meeting.
A little 12 years-old boy heard the announcement and ran to
tell a little crippled woman who had been severely burned in a fire. She was so deformed that she could not sit on a bench — only on the floor. Her legs were twisted to one side and there was no movement at all in her feet and ankle bones. One arm was completely useless, while the other one could move enough for her to feed herself. Her backbone was so curved that it formed a question mark upside down, with the curve reaching the left side. But this is the little woman the boy thought to bring.
Early the next morning before we got go to the church, we saw them bringing her in a homemade wooden carriage that looked more like an apple box than a carriage. They carried her into the church and placed her on the four right in front of the pulpit. We knew we had to pray now! We searched our hearts lest the slightest thought disturb and hinder God from moving.
About 2:30 hours, we all felt such unity of faith that we decided to start praying for the 35 people present, and after a short exhortation on how to believe God for healing, we asked all who wanted to be prayed for to come forward. This little woman dragged herself to the very center of the altar. There were four kneeling on one side of her, and five on the other side. Just take your pick; there she was right in the middle!
We started on the smaller end of the Fine. The first one was blind and his eyes popped open; the next was deaf and his ears opened; the third was some kind of internal trouble and it was healed, while the fourth one had neck pains from carrying heavy loads on her head, and the pain left instantly. Everyone was healed almost as soon as we touched them.
And now we reached the little deformed woman, who had been burned thirty-nine years ago. As we laid hands on her and began to pray, God poured faith into my heart and though we prayed for one hour by the clock, it seemed a matter of only a few moments, for God was so near. `While we were praying I felt led to lay my hands on the curve …and when I did, it straightened right out under my hand and she sat upright.
Then I began wondering if I had been feeling a muscle or was it the real bone? I didn’t dare trust the feeling of my own fingers. My brain and my hands did not work together. So I asked someone else to run their fingers down her spinal cord. They did, and could feel every vertebra exactly in its normal, rightful position! Well, we shouted, and then said, “Let’s pray for her bands” (they were still bound to her sides). It was only a few minutes until she began shouting “Glory! Glory! Glory!” and we looked down to see her waving both hands high above her head, then wrapping them around her body. She scratched her back for the first time in years!
“Well, let’s anoint your legs and pray for them too.” It was thrilling now. A few minutes later she was shouting “Glory, Glory, Glory!” as she stretched her legs almost to normal length and began moving her once stiff hips and legs, ankle bones toes, and arches.
“Lift me up! I want to walk!” she
demanded as her legs swung free for the first time in over 30 years. We were
too excited to have good sense. We should have
prayed again until she could get
up on her own power … but we were all so excited we just lifted her up under her arms and she walked, almost in a run all up and down the aisle, in between the benches, up and down she went until she nearly wore us out!
That night the church and the yard could not hold the people. Souls were saved by the scores, and all the people got healed with just a slight touch and short prayer. From 9:00 P.M. until after midnight we were praying for the sick — one by one. We were so tired we had to sit down to the job and toward the last we were nearly asleep as we laid hands on the sick and suffering; but God was not tired or sleepy, and He was the One who was doing the work anyway. We were just following His instructions to lay hands on the people in His Name and He takes the responsibility to confirm His word and heal each one!
