He sat in a wheelchair for 27 years, of which he was in a wheelchair for the last three years. His legs didn’t work at all. But something happened that made his mother stop crying.
A couple of months ago I was preaching the gospel in the United States, in Arkansas. That’s where the highest level of methamphetamine production is.
People were saying to me, “Are you preaching where methamphetamine is produced?” Because they need the gospel, too!
The place was packed. A wheelchair was wheeled in…
I walked over to the chair, and there were about 15-20 people gathered around. They were family members, many of them were crying. I figured out who was responsible for all of this. It was a woman-mother, she was holding a boy by the shoulders and crying. I asked: “How’s it going?” The answer was, “Ah…ah… а…» (sobbing)…
“How long has he been in the chair?” I asked. “Twenty-seven years,” she replied. “A long time. And you’ve been crying the whole time?” “Yes,” she said. “Then you must stop crying! It’s not working…”
My mother’s response began with sobbing and ended with anger. I was not impressed with either. Ignoring her, I reached out to remove the restraining harness. As I grabbed the first rope, this mother hit me. Looking at her, I said: “Don’t do that!” I reached out to remove the second rope. Bam! She hit me again. I told her: “Sorry, ma’am. Don’t hit me again or you’ll lose more teeth.”
The whole family came because they thought I could heal this guy. They wanted to show their emotions and not let me do my thing…
I looked at her and reached for a third one, I thought she would hit again, but she didn’t touch. Leaning over to the chair, picked this guy up. He’s a big man, a heavy man. I didn’t know what was wrong with him or what the problem was. I just saw and knew his family was scared. Walked along with him for a few minutes, he got real heavy. Went back to that chair and shoved him back in there. And the women started tying him up again. And that was it. I left.
About five days later, I was in a place that was the second-largest producer of methamphetamine. Preaching the gospel. A tall, big man walks up to me. I look up at him and start to move away from him. He is still coming at me. I extend my hand forward, “Stop! Step back! Don’t come close to me. I don’t know you! Stay right there.” He says back to me, “But I want to say something!” “From there, I can hear well!”, I replied…
“Don’t you recognize me?” he says. I said: “No, I don’t recognize you.” He began to tell me, “Five days ago I was sitting in a wheelchair. You took those ropes off me, got me out of the chair, and then threw me back in it.” “Yes, you were heavy! But what happened?” I asked. “Don’t you know?” “I don’t know.”
We prayed for him Friday night. On Monday he was going to have both legs amputated because of diabetes. There was no circulation, his legs were rotting. I didn’t know any of that. I just knew that woman was beating me.
I went home, they put me in bed. I woke up at about 4:00 in the morning. There was so much pain in my legs I couldn’t take it. They took me quickly to the hospital. A team of doctors got together and studied me for two days. Finally, the doctor came in and said – this is your discharge. You’re free to go.”
Oh, you should have seen him! He was dancing like I was dancing! Sitting in a chair for 27 years in all, and he’d been out of the chair for the last three years. His legs didn’t work at all. But now he was completely healed.
There’s another part. The doctors asked, “What were you doing? We’ve been working with patients like this for 30 years and we have the best equipment in the United States for diabetes. But none of us have seen anything like what happened to you.” His legs were healing themselves from the inside out.
The guy cheered: “Just want to say thank you.” I asked: “Where’s your mom?” “She’s back there,” he replied. “Keep her away from me,” I asked.
I don’t know why you want to weep for 27 years, if you spent that many years looking for God, you’d get results. But for some reason we are stubborn, we have to break our stubbornness and let the grace of God flow through us…
Source: from a sermon by David Hogan
Published at imbf.org
