Note from the Editor: This amazing testimony was published by Joshua Bartle in Facebook this week.
ASK WHAT. SPEAK UP!
I often found it interesting in the Bible that Jesus would ask someone with an obvious need, “What is it that you want me to do for you?” We know that Jesus knew their needs. He told us that our Father in heaven knows the things we need even before we ask. I think the reason is that there is an importance to asking. It demonstrates our attitude toward God, it signifies our position before him, and it expresses humility. It is the love between a father and a child. It expresses our dependence on him. He encourages us, to “Seek and you will find, ask and it will be given you, knock and the door will be opened unto you.”
IMPOSSIBLE HEALING
On a certain day another individual and myself were praying for a woman with a black and purple dead withered arm from the elbow down to her hand. Her arm was completely lifeless, and her hand was dead. It was just all black dead flesh hanging loosely off of the bone from what I could tell. She told us it was scheduled for amputation shortly. I was wondering why it hadn’t been already. I was shocked that any doctor would leave it on there like that for any length of time. we began praying for her and it was obvious she was being touched by the Lord is a way that seemed to be touching her heart. We just gently prayed for her for a while, while she rocked back and forth while smiling through gentle tears. Time was going by, and nothing was changing as far as the arm went. So, I asked the Lord, “What should I do now? The Lord said, “Ask her what it is that I should do for her.” Again, this seems like an obvious question, but I have learned that he wants us to reach out to him for the things we need specifically.
WHAT IS IT THAT YOU WANT?
When I said this to her, she burst out in great sobs and tears. She began shouting over and over again with rivers running down her cheeks, “O God! I just want to be whole again! O God! I just want to be whole again!” Now she is crying, we are crying, and I say to the Lord, “O Lord you had to have heard that? What should I do now?” He said, “Take hold of her arm and rub it all over with anointing oil.” We had some anointing oil on hand at that time because the Bible says that “If anyone is sick among you let them call for the elders of the church come together praying for them and anoint them with oil that the prayer of faith will save the sick.” Anointing oil historically in the Bible was used for consecration. I don’t think there is anything magical about oil in itself, but it is symbolic of greater things, and I have not found it always necessary in praying for the sick. I think too the Lord wanted to help me out in the grossness factor as the oil smelled nice. I really didn’t want to touch her arm. The thought was repulsive to me. But in the moment, I thought about men of God in the past, one in particular who would visit a bitter man with leprosy who would curse him whenever he would go by. One day the Lord told the man of God to give the man with leprosy a sponge bath. At first this repulsed him, but when he did, the man broke down crying because the man of God was not afraid to touch him. The man hadn’t felt touch since he got the disease and everywhere the man of God washed the leprosy disappeared.
A CALL TO ACTION
I said to myself, “I guess it’s my turn now.” So, I grabbed hold of that arm and began rubbing it all over. It felt like soft clay on my hands. But as I rubbed her arm, hands, and fingers I watched as the color pink started at her elbow and moved down her whole arm. I watched as her muscles reformed and her hand began to work again. It went from black and purple to pink to tan right before my eyes. I felt the muscles and skin firm up under my hands. She was elated as she opened and closed her hand over and over. I gave her a piece of paper and had her write her testimony of what the Lord had done for her with the hand that had been previously dead. She ran out holding the rolled-up paper in the same hand tears still flowing to tell everyone what the Lord had done. It was a good day.
Joshua Bartle
Libby, MT
