Testimonies

To submit a testimony of how God has answered prayer to be posted here on our site as an encouragement to others, please email Karen-Dickinson@highlandbc.org. Below are some of the most recent submissions, but you can find more by following the links in the sidebar to the left.

Wrist Pain Vanishes

A year or so ago, I was in a frame shop, meeting with the shop owner about getting a picture frame made. As he was laying out various sample frames and mats around my picture, it wasn't hard to miss the braces he had wrapped around both of his wrists. He explained that his wrists had become so painful, it was increasingly difficult for him to work, even with the wrist braces on. I offered to pray for him and he eagerly accepted.

The Lord is so good - He instantly took away all the pain in both wrists. The shop owner was greatly surprised; he even felt the pain leave. He removed both braces, moved his hands around and reported feeling terrific for the first time in many months.

Of course one may legitimately wonder if the shop owner was trying to please his client in order to encourage business. But in every subsequent visit over the ensuing twelve months, the shop owner spontaneously brought up how great his wrists have continued to feel, and that he's been able to work with no pain ever since that first day.

Jesus did that!

Running Injury Healed

One Sunday morning at Highland, I was approaching the landing of the outside 30th Street staircase at the Education Building, just as a college student was hobbling his way down the stairs from the top floor. He kept his weight off his right leg by supporting himself with his right arm on the stair rail and then carefully hopping down each step on his good left leg. I met him and his girlfriend about the moment they reached the landing.

"That looks painful. What happened?"

He explained that the day before, he'd been in a 5K race (or something similar... I've forgotten exactly what it was) and had badly injured the ligaments or tendons in his right leg. Whatever the problem was, he couldn't put any weight on that leg.

Figuring he couldn't run away if he found my offer strange, I asked if I could pray for the Lord to heal him. The idea of healing seemed almost a challenge to his view of how the world works ("God doesn't do stuff like that any more"), but he agreed to let me pray.

The Lord touched him immediately and took away nearly all the pain. The expression on his face was priceless, as if he didn't want to believe what had just happened. I asked him to check it out. Still a bit stunned, he decided to attempt what he couldn't do 30 seconds before - he began moving it around, did some knee-bends, then he turned and leapt back up the stairs and then ran back down, all with no apparent limitation.

He did report some residual discomfort but he was clearly amazed at what had undeniably happened to him. (His theology probably needed healing after that, but that's a good thing.)

Jesus did that!

Tooth and Ear Pain Vanish

Mid November 2011, I walked into one of the Christian bookstores in Waco, right about the time two of the clerks were huddled near the front, talking in concerned tones with each other. It wasn't hard to overhear; one of them was close to tears from pain and was about to leave work. She had a tooth infection in her right jaw that had spread to her right inner ear. She said the pain was so intense, she couldn't take a step without terrible spikes of pain hitting her.

I stepped over and asked forgiveness for eavesdropping and then offered to pray. The lady eagerly replied, "Please!"

The Lord quickly touched her, and within 20 seconds the pain had disappeared to such an extent she couldn't tell if it was really gone or if there was a little left over. Either way, she was thrilled and so taken aback, she didn't know quite what to do.

I stopped in the store the following week and she said the pain never returned and she's been fine ever since.

Jesus did that!

Shoulder Spasm Released, Movement Restored

One October Saturday morning a few years ago, I took my son to the athletic complex where his football team was about to start warming up for their afternoon game. I spoke briefly with one of his coaches, who told me why he was standing in such a peculiar way - he had been doing his usual freeweight workout early that morning and got a terrible shoulder muscle spasm. He couldn't move his left arm much or raise it at all. He was in a lot of pain, but he had a game to coach, so he came anyway.

I was about to offer to pray for him, but he had a lot to get done with the team before game time and turned back to coaching. Shortly thereafter, the game started.

I was the designated "water boy", so I got to be on the sidelines with the coaches. All of them were fully engaged - during plays, between plays, during time outs and at halftime - no opportunity whatsoever to say anything to this poor coach, much less pray over him.

As the third quarter started, the coach seemed to be having a harder time with the shoulder pain. I found myself getting angry at the situation. Strange to say, I decided he had suffered long enough... as if I could make the pain stop. But I figured if I couldn't get a moment to talk to him or pray for him, at least I could still pray at a distance.

So that's what I did - as he was running the defense, I stood about ten feet behind him, and under my breath I quietly commanded the spasm in his left shoulder to completely release and for all the pain to leave.

A few moments into the prayer, this coach (who was standing quite apart from everyone else), suddenly jolted, as if someone had poked him. Startled, he looked around to his left, then to his right, as if to search for whomever or whatever it was that had bopped him. The only person he saw was me, and I was at least ten feet away; everyone else was at least twenty feet away. For a brief second, he gave me a quizzical look, then went back to coaching.

After the game ended and the players and coaches were done with their post-game team huddle, the coach saw me at a distance and yelled - "HEY - WERE YOU PRAYING FOR ME?" I gave him a somewhat noncommittal "Yeah, why?"

With a big smile on his face, he answered, "Look at this! -- " And then he stood tall and swung his left arm around in a circle, enjoying full range of motion and no pain in that formerly spasmed shoulder. He was thrilled and grateful to God.

Jesus did that!

New Coronary Arteries, Renewed Life

Around the time a Highland lady (for privacy, herein called "HL") turned 80, her energy and stamina began to slip. She couldn't stand even for moment during worship, and was less and less able to function at home.

HL went to see her doctor for an unrelated problem. Since she'd had a history of heart trouble, he sent her to a cardiologist to check on blood flow to her heart. The nuclear stress test showed that HL had very little blood flow to the lower part of her heart. A stent placed in a coronary artery years before had failed.

The cardiologist scheduled a day to replace the stent, with the understanding that if a new stent did not improve blood flow before the end of the procedure, or if other problems developed, heart bypass surgery would immediately follow. The procedure was scheduled three weeks after the nuclear stress test.

In the time leading up to the day of the stent procedure, HL passed the time praying for others and simply worshiping the Lord, enjoying resting in His presence, free from worry and fear. She never particularly contended for her own healing.

By the time it was two days before the stent procedure, HL was so fatigued, she didn't leave her house or her couch. But strangely, when she got up the day before the procedure, she was amazed at the energy she had and the work she could do. She listened to praise songs as she accomplished more than she had in weeks.

The day of the stent replacement, HL checked in, and the medical staff prepared her for the procedure and brought her into the operating room. The cardiologist and two technicians started by repeating the blood flow test to confirm the areas needing attention and the extent of the restriction. HL was awake, but mildly sedated.

The first indication HL knew something wonderful had really happened was that the three men began shouting their astonishment at what they were plainly seeing on the monitors - HL had two new coronary arteries serving that area of her heart where three weeks before, those vessels did not exist. HL now had full blood flow to her heart because God did a double bypass of the stent area! The cardiologist did not have to do anything more than chart HL's miracle, pronounce her well and send her home.

Today, a year later, HL has more stamina than she has had in years, and even her color looks more youthful.

Thanks be to God!

Set Free From Bulimia

(Introductory note: The following story illustrates that the Lord does set people free from destructive compulsions. It is not at all intended to endorse what happened in this story as a "how to"; there are much more mature, peaceful expressions of what is usually called deliverance or freedom ministry. Neither is this a story of demon possession. Christians cannot be demon possessed, but anyone can be tormented by both natural and unseen sources. The "take away" from this testimony is that God is good and will use even a clueless follower to accomplish His purposes of setting people free.)

"Sue", a young liberal arts graduate student, was a brilliant, happy, normal Christian girl, disciplined, and not given to any excess of any kind. I'd met her family a few times, and they were very nice folks too, and Sue had an enviable relationship with them.

As a friend, I'd known Sue about a year at the time of this story, and never had any reason for any concern about her. I had a background in clinical psychology, and Sue always struck me as an exceptionally well-adjusted person. Relevant to this story, she looked neither too thin nor overweight. Simply, normal.

One afternoon, Sue came by my apartment. She was feeling out of sorts, and wanted to pray with someone. I invited her in, and we sat on opposite seats and began praying.

After a while, in the middle of praying, I heard "something" telling me to "pray against a spirit of bulimia."

In those days, I went to a church that neither talked about nor believed in God speaking like this, much less in healing or setting people free from demonic torment. Other than a passing familiarity with Bible stories, I had no exposure to this sort of thing. The other thing was that in my estimation, bulimia was as far from Sue's life as east is from the west, probably further. No way this was a problem she dealt with.

Given all that, I wasn't sure what to do with this odd, specific "knowing voice" that I should pray against a spirit of bulimia. So I ignored it and kept praying.

A few moments later, the voice again told me to "pray against a spirit of bulimia." Thinking I must be bored or distracted, I again ignored it. (The experience of this was very similar to "hearing" your own voice inside your head when you read something and speak it to yourself without actually moving your lips.)

Within a few breaths, the voice "spoke" a third time. Same command: "Pray against a spirit of bulimia.

I figured, "Ok, I don't get this at all, but there must be something must be up with that," so I finally obeyed it and prayed out loud, saying, "And I speak against a spirit of bulimia."

The instant I spoke that out loud, suddenly this petite woman roared and yelled like an angry 300-lb. truck driver. It was so powerful there was no way Sue could have acted that out in her own strength. I had no clue what just happened, and trying not to freak out myself as I thought, "What do I do now?!!"

Remembering stories in the Gospels about Jesus casting out demons, I started yelling all sorts of things at whatever "it" was that had Sue in its grip - "In Jesus' Name you come out of her! Please leave! In the Name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, stop it! Whatever you are - cut it out!" It's a little humorous now, but in the moment it was the most intense battle I'd ever had with another person short of an actual fist fight. And nothing I did or said seemed to have any impact. I had no idea what was going on or what to do about it.

Sue's yelling and bellowing and flailing about went on for about ten minutes. Suddenly, the demon that reacted to the "spirit of bulimia" prayer let go of Sue, and she fell limp and exhausted to the floor, as if puppet strings had been cut.

When she recovered and gathered herself, she looked at me and asked, "How did you know?"

I told Sue I didn't know - it was just revealed to me, but after three promptings, I spoke that word, in Jesus' Name somehow commanded whatever it was to let go and leave, and God set her free.

It turns out Sue had a well-concealed problem with bulimia for years and had gotten to a point where she couldn't stop. The Lord revealed the presence of the spirit behind it; prompted me to command it to get off her and leave, and she was totally set free from any further compulsion toward bulimia.

Wisely, with her new freedom, Sue sought a wise counselor to explore what she did to invite this spiritual enslavement, and she learned what she needed to do to stay free. Sue never had a problem with bulimia since.

Jesus did that! And He showed, as in "Bible times," where there are destructive compulsions like these, even if there is more going on than meets the eye, there is still freedom.