"These
signs will follow those who believe... they will lay
hands on the sick, and they will recover."
- Mark 16:17-18
I was at my granny's house one evening when
a car pulled up outside. The screen door soon opened and my cousin, Danny,
walked into the living room.
We visited for a while when the conversation
turned to a physical problem Danny had been dealing with for nearly a month.
It seems in the recent past he had gotten
into an altercation with a rather rough old boy. An argument had quickly
escalated into a full-blown fight and the next thing Danny knew, this man grabbed
a whisky bottle by the neck and broke it over his head.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the man then
proceeded to thrust the jagged end of the bottle neck against Danny's jaw, puncturing
his skin.
Danny then showed me the spot where the
sharp glass had penetrated his face. There, I could see a open slit with clear
liquid slowly oozing out.
He said he initially went to the emergency
room as soon as the injury occurred and the doctor put a few stitches in the
cut. But in a short time his face swelled up and turned red.
He then went back to the doctor who had to
reopen the cut and place a tube in it so the fluid would drain. The physician explained
that the jagged glass had pierced a saliva gland which accounted for the clear
liquid oozing from the cut.
The doctor said the procedure to repair the
injury required delicate surgery and needed to be performed by a specialist. So Danny made
arrangements to see one.
Despite the fact I had been raised in a
denomination that didn't believe in laying hands on the sick, I had learned
from reading the Bible that Christians are actually supposed to lay hands on the sick and to fully expect them to recover.
I explained all of this to Danny and told
him I would like to pray for him, to which he was more than willing. I laid my
hand next to the wound and simply commanded it to close up and be healed
"in the name of Jesus."
Though I saw no immediate results, I told Danny
I was confident it would happen and encouraged him to just believe. He seemed
satisfied with my advice and went on his way.
To be honest with you, I had completely
forgotten about the whole incident until I saw Danny again several weeks later at
his parent's house.
I was sharing with everyone there about how
I believed God could still use people to heal others, when Danny
suddenly spoke up.
"I believe it," Danny said, with
an absolute tone in his voice.
"Jimmy healed me.
He prayed for that cut on my face and it closed up!"
He then pointed to the spot where the wound
had been and there was no clear liquid or open cut to be seen. Later, Danny told
me more details of the story which made the whole incident even more remarkable.
"When I would go into a restaurant I
would have to hold a napkin over my jaw because of the drainage and try to eat
with the other hand. It was really embarrassing," he explained.
"You prayed for me on Friday evening. I
was driving a truck then and was supposed to take a load to Dallas on Saturday.
I had heard Billy Graham was holding a crusade in Dallas at the time," he
recalled.
"On the way to Granny's house that night I joked
with my friends saying, 'Maybe I should look up Billy Graham when I get there and
get him to pray for my jaw.' "
Danny went on to explain that he was actually
scheduled to see the specialist the next Monday, but by Saturday the saliva had
stop flowing and the cut had completely closed up.
His testimony is a wonderful confirmation to
the promise Jesus made in Mark 16 that believers will indeed -
"lay hands on the
sick, and they will recover."
* * *
* * * *
If you will step out in faith on God's promises, you will find
that He is faithful to fulfill what
He has said in His Word.
See more testimonies about a
supernatural God at:
https://www.facebook.com/ActsofanAwesomeGod
