| Some may not feel that hemorrhoids are not a fit subject to
testify about, but when they're your hemorrhoids and the Lord healed them,
they're a great subject to testify about. Besides, I've already testified
about this healing several times in church meetings, so there's no reason
not to do it here. I first "acquired" the hemorrhoids up in northern Maine in the middle of winter, and increasingly suffered with them for the next 13 years. We weren't yet in the ministry when the healing occurred. I had received the Lord about two years before, and at the time I was director of a correspondence school for writers in Cincinnati. The pain accompanying this particular "attack of the hemorrhoids" was so severe that I was unable to go to work for several days, and even had to apologize to our five children a couple of times because the pain got the best of me. Even using suppositories and hot baths would only lessen the pain for a couple of hours, and having a bowel movement was excruciating. Short of an operation, I was about out of options. Before going to bed this last night, I had sat in a hot bath for 30 or more minutes and then used a couple of suppositories to try to get a few hours sleep without pain - and that was about all I did get. I woke up around 2 A.M. with the sensation that hot knives were being driving into me you know where. The pain throbbed and throbbed with unbelievable intensity. Sleep, of course, was impossible, and so was staying in bed. I got up and slowly made my way into the bathroom and fixed a hot bath and sat in for about 15 minutes, but it did absolutely no good. The pain was so strong that I had to force myself to use a suppository. Sweat poured off me from the intensity of the pain. While waiting for the suppository to work and give me some relief, I stood in front of the vanity, gripping the each of the basins with both hands. My body and face were so tense from the terrible pain that I looked like a wild man in the mirror. Bev and I had both been healed of serious problems prior to this, so, of course, I had prayed over and again for the Lord to heal me, but to no avail. Now, however, the pain was so intense that I couldn't even think of how to pray, couldn't think of any words. But suddenly as I stood there hanging on to the basin, a cry came from somewhere deep inside of me, a cry of total desperation, a cry that burst forth from me in only three words: "Jesus, help me!" And the pain instantly stopped! Immediately and completely! My body had been so tense, and the pain stopped so suddenly, that I actually staggered from it. I stood there staring at myself in the mirror, unable to believe that the pain was gone. I could still feel the pressure of the hemorrhoids, but there was absolutely no pain. After a few minutes, I made my way slowly back to my bed, and slowly climbed into it, and lay quietly without moving, fearful of doing something that would bring back the pain. I remember lying there thinking that it was amazing that the suppository had worked so well, and so suddenly, and wondering how it could have since they hadn't been doing much good. Nevertheless, I was extremely grateful for the relief and hoped it would last for a few hours. It was a little after 6 A.M. when I woke up, the sun was just beginning to shine in the bedroom window, and through the open window I could hear birds singing in the backyard. But the thing that I was most strongly aware of was that I had no pain, none whatsoever, for the first time in nearly a week. I also could not feel the pressure of the hemorrhoids, they were gone! It was only then that I remembered my cry, "Jesus, help me!" and realized what the Lord had done for me. I got up out of bed and went over to the window and looked out at the beautiful sunlight and listened to the beautiful birds singing and cried like a baby out of joy and gratefulness. That was 30 years ago, and the hemorrhoids have never come back. Now that is worth a testimony! |
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