| Although Bill had been delivered from cigarette smoking
and nicotine addiction, he increasingly suffered from emphysema - having
trouble breathing and often coughing. The night he was healed of emphysema, we were holding our Sunday evening Worship and Healing Services in a school auditorium, something you could do in those days. I had just finished ministering to a young man who had epileptic seizures when over to my left I saw Bill approach Bev and ask her to pray for him - his emphysema had been acting up all through the worship and teaching. Bev laid hands on his chest and began commanding a spirit of emphysema to come out of him in the name of Jesus Christ. By now we almost always administered healing by assuming it was a spirit causing the problem and casting it out. Bill almost immediately began coughing violently and struggling for air. As I watched what was happening, I could see Bill's face turn red and then purple and his breathing get increasingly difficult as Bev kept commanding the spirit of emphysema to come out of him. (We had many times experienced the ailment immediately manifesting when we commanded the spirit causing it to come out, so we were no longer concerned or daunted when it happened. See Mark 9:25-26.) About the time it seemed as though Bill couldn't handle another cough or get any more air, he let out a truly violent cough, almost a roar, and you could literally hear air rushing back into his lungs. And almost faster than I can write this, he was breathing normally - something he hadn't done in a couple of years. Many in the congregation had been praying for Bill's healing for some time, so there were many shouts of joy and praise to the Lord.
I wish I could say that Bill never had any problem with emphysema again, but such is not the case. He did not have any more manifestation of it for about three years, but then he and I had a foolish dispute and he left our church. He attended another church, and then after some time got into controversy with the leaders of that church over prophecies that he said he was receiving from the Lord and wanted to read in the church services, but they wouldn't let him and so he left. After that Bill rarely ever read his Bible, but depended on his prophecies to guide him. I went down to see him once and we settle the problems between us. While I was there he showed me a book full of prophecies from the Lord that he had written down. I talked to him a few times on the phone over the next couple of years - and all he wanted to talk about were his prophecies. Whether they were actually from the Lord or not I could never decide. Bill's emphysema returned gradually until it was worse than ever. The last time we talked he said he had to call 911 three or four times a month because of attacks he was having. I don't know when he passed away. |
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