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In this message I want to share with you the compelling story of a Young Man whose vehicle was hit by a truck, and was left paralyzed for 10 and a half months…….. HELLO/ WELCOME……..
TEXT: JOB 2:7-9; 1Peter 4:12-14; Zech. 4:10
If you do not believe that God is still in the healing business today, if you do not believe that the Holy Spirit’s healing and miraculous power is still with us then please listen to this message. One day, my very good friend returned home from a trip and went to the bank. He was suddenly blindsided by a truck that rammed his vehicle violently. As a result, he was propelled forward and hit his head on the windshield. He said he started feeling numb, and within an hour he had no feeling in his legs. The paralysis continued moving up his body until it reached his neck then stopped. The ambulance was called, he was taken to the hospital, and sometime after airlifted to the capital, Nassau Bahamas. Almost totally paralyzed, able to move only his head. After a battery of tests and being examined by several doctors he was told that nothing could be done for him.
The neurologist said that he was not sure that he would ever walk again, so they sent him home. It was a long journey back to his home in Grand Bahama. He arrived a broken and discouraged man. Even though he was married, it was decided that it would be best for him to be taken to his mother’s home. This would prove to be providential! His mother, a strong born again believer in Jesus Christ had to do everything for him, including feeding him, and giving him a bath. Fortunately a good friend helped his mother take him back and forth to the tub. This was not easy because my friend is a giant of a man. [In this first attack of the enemy he lost his mobility.]•••••• My friend was a very bright, up and coming Bahamian citizen who held a very prominent job in the media field, and performed with excellence. He was very popular. His entrepreneurial skills were also beginning to bud even at the age of 25, and he had opened a clothing store that was doing well, he also owned apartments.
Life was good! For a 25-year-old who started from scratch he was showing great promise of many more things to come. But, as he lay helplessly on his back he felt all was lost. In short order he lost his apartment building and his thriving business, and of course he was unable to return to his job. He lost all sources of income. In the eyes of many he was finished, washed up, done for. I asked my friend if he was a born again believer at this time, and he said he was. I asked him if he was walking faithfully before God, he said for the most part he was.
Usually there’s some opening in our life that allows the enemy to strike us with his fiery darts. This might have been the case here. [In this second attack by the enemy he lost all his worldly possessions. Everything!]••••••• Not too long after, he was perhaps beginning to stabilize emotionally. The biggest challenge in this kind of situation is to come to grips with the reality of what has happened to you, the reality of where you are and what options you still have available to you. Perhaps on this morning his mother had opened the window to the East in order to allow him to feel the warmth of the morning sun. He was beginning to perk up a bit. The morning Sun hitting the side of his face almost made him feel somewhat alive again. However, more bad news was coming down the pipeline. His darling wife walked in hurriedly, fidgeting nervously, and stone faced gave him the bad news.
She had tried to get a grip on their situation, and figure out how to survive being married to a cripple. But she just could not. There was no bone in her body that was willing to go along on this forever sad and hopeless journey. She looked him dead in the eye and said, ‘I cannot do this anymore!’ And she walked out, leaving him stunned!
In the book of Job there’s a situation that mirrored this fateful morning in my friend’s life. The word of God says in Job 2:7-9: “So satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he (Job) took for himself a potsherd (which is broken pottery) with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. Then his wife said to him, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die(Job 2:7-9)!” Job was unmoved, and told her that she was speaking like a foolish woman. The Word of God does not say that Job’s wife left him, but it is clear that she had no hope in God’s restorative powers, and she was not prepared to travel this painful road with her husband for years and years. Similarly, my friend’s wife had no faith in God. She was not willing to stand and see God’s salvation.
[In this third attack my friend lost the love of his life, his soulmate and companion! She removed herself from his life completely.]••••••• But the enemy was not able to take faith in Jesus Christ from my friend. And the Lord had placed his devout mother there at his side to make sure that he never wavered! He remembered the Word of Jesus Christ that promises us, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ Everyday he had to fight off doubts which told him that he would never be the same again. Satan would bombard him with the words of the neurologist telling him that he would never walk again. Thankfully his mother fed him with God’s Word of life everyday, God’s word of Hope.
Like Job, I am sure that he would have been confused about what had happened to him so suddenly. I am sure that during the 10 and a half month ordeal his mother would have become weary at times, but God’s Word sustained her. There is power in God’s word my friend, power to heal and power to deliver. His word tells us: [“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened unto you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy (1Peter 4: 12-14).”]••••••• In other words do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal or painful test that you are going through. I am sure you sometimes think that somebody has cursed you, poisoned you or worked witchcraft against you.
But rejoice, because you are simply sharing in the sufferings of Jesus Christ your Lord, and soon His glory will show up for you, and make you exceedingly glad! Ten and a half long months dragged by, with my friend spending long nights staring at the ceiling, and longer days unable to do anything, except turn his head from one side to the other. One day something amazing happened right out of the blue!
As he lay on his back watching a Christian program on TBN, and still unable to move anything except his head, my friend suddenly saw movement in another part of his body. All of a sudden he saw his right big toe make a slight movement. This had never happened before during the entire 10 month period. No part of his lower body had ever moved! Now his big toe moved. Wow! He said to himself! I believe I’m healed! What faith he demonstrated at this point! After all it was only a little movement by his big toe, everything else was completely dead. However his faithful declaration on that day is in accordance with Zechariah 4:10 which says:
[“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel hands.”]••••••• When the scripture was written by the prophet Zechariah, only the foundation of the temple rebuilding project had been laid, which did not seem like much. But the Lord says he rejoices in small beginnings. God is saying here that he always starts small. [The Lord himself rejoiced that day! Likewise, my friend rejoiced and celebrated at the small movement of his big toe, and told his mother that he believed that he was healed! He told everyone that came to see him, the same thing. ]••••••• In a matter of days more life would come into His limbs, on the right side, then on the left hand side. Someone brought him a wheelchair, but he refused to go into it. More and more life and movement continued to come into his entire body day by day. Many times people of God miss the gift of healing because they refused to recognize the day of small things, and failed to give God thanks and praise for the small movement of God’s hand. They want complete healing, complete deliverance, and they want it right away.
A month and a half later they began taking him to the hospital for physiotherapy. My friend continued to hold on to the Word of God, daily saying and believing that he was healed. Soon he was able to hobble into work dragging himself around. He held constant faith in God believing that God had healed him, eventually mobility came back to his entire body. He says the only sign of his ordeal today is the fact that his left shoe wears down much faster than his right shoe. Apart from that, his healing has been 100% complete. He returned to the capital for the doctors to examine him once again. After a barrage of tests the amazed doctors concluded that they could not tell what caused him to be able to walk. In other words based on what their examinations showed he should not be able to walk. This is nothing other than the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, bringing healing to my friend’s body. The doctor’s notes in their medical report simply say, [“MOBILITY UNDETERMINED!”]
I’m familiar with another situation that happened years ago which did not end so well. In fact this situation was quite the opposite. A lady at our church became paralyzed suddenly as she went through some unexplained illness. She was saved, and consistently attended church along with her husband and children. She participated actively in weekly Bible studies at the home of one of the church’s cell group leaders. The doctors could not determine what was wrong with her. She had movement in her upper body, however her lower extremity was numb. She could not walk. One evening we had a healing service at the church, and the power of the Holy Spirit was strong. I was believing along with other members of our prayer group and praying for her healing. In the middle of the service she suddenly began to rise up out of the wheelchair without assistance. This was something that she was never able to do since her illness. The whole church came alive. She was rising up, up and was almost completely up and out of the chair, then all of a sudden she slumped back down into the chair with a crash.
We prayed and prayed, but she never rose up again. Our prayer group went to her house to encourage, and pray for her many times. I thought her faith might not have been strong enough, or perhaps she despised the day of small beginnings, and her healing slipped away, forever. Sadly, she never tried to walk again, and a short while later she passed away.
Today my friend who received God’s miraculous healing is a doctor of Theology, and works along with two major Christian organizations in the US. He travels the US, and all around the Caribbean assisting pastors and church leaders by conducting training programs on Church growth and development.
