| I popped a couple of disks in my back in the summer of
1963, and was in bed for about two weeks recovering. I was out of work at
the time, and we were living with my wife's parents in New Hampshire. I
had been a technician on electronic flight simulators for several years,
and a technical writer for a couple of years. There wasn't much work for
flight simulator technicians, and I had to drive from New Hampshire to
Philadelphia, PA, to find work as a technical writer. To sit that long in a car, I stuffed pillows around myself and aspirins into myself. Whenever I had to stop to get out of the car, it would take me about ten minutes to force myself against the pain and get to a standing position. It took almost as long to get back in the car. Over the next 9 years, my back would periodically act up. When it did, I would be unable to lift my left leg completely off the ground when I took a step. As a result, I must have worn out a dozen heels on my left shoe. Needless to say, I would also be unable to lift anything and would be in terrific pain until my back calmed down again. I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in 1971. We were then living in the suburbs of Cincinnati, OH, and I was director of a correspondence school for writers. The school was located in an office building in downtown Cincinnati. In the spring of 1973, we had to move from the house where we lived into a smaller house, and since we had no money for movers we had to move ourselves. Some of the folks from the church we were then attending were going to help us move on Saturday. On Monday, my back went out again, worst than ever, and I could do nothing better than drag my left leg when I took a step. It was quite discouraging, since I did not see how I was going to be able to help to move anything - and being still macho it was going to be tough for me not to do anything. Now Beverlee's healing of her rheumatoid arthritis (see "Healed of Rheumatoid Arthritis") had made good progress, and I believed in healing more than I ever did and was continually reading books on it. Out of all the Scriptures about healing, the one that was most firmly fixed in me was 1 Peter 2:24, "by whose stripes you were healed" (past tense). Whenever my back acted up, I would say to myself and often out loud every time I took a step with my left leg, "By His stripes my leg was healed." But up to this time the healing that was accomplished 2000 years ago had not yet manifested in my body. The building in which I worked was on 12th Street in Cincinnati, and every Friday afternoon I had to go to 5th Street to give money to a debt consolidator. Since it was taking me about 5 minutes to get out of my chair, I wasn't looking forward to the walk. (Whenever I stood up, I would have to hang on to my desk for about 5 minutes while pain screamed through my back - same when I sat down.) I talked to myself for some time before deciding I had to walk to 5th Street whether I wanted to or not - but I also decided that I was going to say "By His stripes my leg was healed' every time I swung my left leg forward. This suddenly came very strong in me, stronger than ever before. I did not know it then, but faith was being imparted to me. I made my way gingerly down to the street, my office was on the 3rd floor, and started slowly walking up Vine Street toward 5th Street. I got to the first corner and realized that I wasn't making any progress - although I did not know what kind of progress I was supposed to be making - it just seemed to me that I wasn't making any. So I decided that when the next person passed me going my way, I would keep up with them. As the Lord would have it, the first person who passed me was a girl who worked on the same floor I did, and who must have been the fastest walker in the world - or at least it seemed so to me at that moment in time. Nevertheless, I stepped in behind her and swung my left leg as fast as I could, saying each time, "By His stripes my leg was healed." I think at times I must have said it out loud because a few people stared at me as I went by. To the Lord's glory, I can testify that by the time we reached 7th Street the pain in my back was no more than half what it had been and I was swinging my left left with reckless abandonment. And by the time we reached 5th Street, the pain in my back was TOTALLY GONE! Now it is most important to understand that the faith did not come from the act, the act came from the faith that was imparted to me. The next day, Saturday, I carried boxes, chairs, and many heavy things up and down stairs with absolutely no pain in my back. And my back has remained healed to this day, some 30 years later! Now here are some things you should keep in mind whenever you receive a healing. About 1976, I was invited to teach on faith and healing in a fellowship in a nearby town. During the teaching, I testified about the healing to my back, which is, of course, something we should always do about a healing whenever we get the opportunity. The next morning, I bend over to pick my shoes up out of my closet, and I felt, actually felt, the muscles in my lower back rip - so badly that I could barely straighten up. Fortunately, I had already determined that what the Lord heals stays healed, and so rather than bemoaning my fate, I immediately attacked the demon of pain that was trying to latch onto me by attempting to convince me I had injured my back, or that my disk problem had come back. It took me about ten minutes of commanding him to leave me, using the blood, repeating my favorite healing Scripture, and getting highly indignant that some lying demon of pain should try to get hold of me. I won, he lost. Now, pay attention to this. About 3 months later, I testified at our Sunday night meeting about my back being healed. The next morning I bent down to pick up my shoes, and guess what happened? You're right, that lying demon, or one of its brothers or cousins, tried to latch onto my back again. This time it only took me about 5 minutes to get rid of it. It's now been 31 years since then, and its never tried it again, and my back is still healed. |
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