Articles
The Miracle of Hope

I am sometimes called a man of great faith and I always deny it. But I am a man of huge hope. Let me explain what I mean by that. When King David faced off Goliath I have no idea about what he was thinking but if I were that David I’d be thinking I defended my sheep from a big bear. And I defended my flock from a roaring lion. God helped me both times so I’m always hoping God will help me again against this giant who does not honor God.

In many ways I’m not the guy with all the faith but I might be the champion of hope. We hear so much about faith if we’re listening to the contemporary gospel but hope is often barely mentioned yet faith is the substantiation for substance of things hoped for. The love chapter, 1Corinthians 13:13 says, “Now abide these three: faith, hope and love.” And the greatest of these is love. I found hope must be extremely important to be in the top three and having led a full life with Christ I must say hope has never let me down in the long run.

Having just returned from the Incredibly Bad News Department I have to give the praise and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for having done yet another miracle in my life and this is that story and an explanation of why I’ve been absent from my website for some time.

I am legally blind and then some, but I manage to do a lot on the farm working by grace, familiarity and touch. This June however, I had a bizarre accident. My athletic shoes developed a large split in them just above the sole. I was completely unaware that this had happened and never thought for a moment that the foundation for the sole of the shoe was cutting into my foot filling my body with toxic bacteria. The base of the shoe consisted of a piece of foot shaped hard flexible plastic with teeth on the top of it like the blade on a hand saw. On the day this accident began those teeth continuously torn into the side of my foot and allowed surface water mixed with vintage manure to be injected into my foot and leg.

I began taking some antibiotics I had in the medicine cabinet and my foot seemed to begin very slowly to recover. After a few days I was able to see my doctor. There is no exaggeration in this story. When my doctor saw my foot, she shouted, “Oh my God!” and added, “You must go to the emergency room and possibly be hospitalized for a long time or your choices will be amputation or death!” She then quickly grabbed the nurse and exclaimed, “Run down the hall and get the other doctor right away.” There were just two doctors working at this clinic and when he came he actually said the very same thing beginning with the shout of, “Oh my God!” and the assertion that I faced a long time recovery, amputation or death.

I can’t say that I had full faith that I was going to be just fine, but I’m sure the prayers of my wife helped a great deal. I did have hope that God would not fail me this time just as He hasn’t on other occasions. Without going into many details I ascertained and determined that I could not go to the emergency room at a distant hospital and be admitted because there were things that had recently developed on the farm that my wife could not be expected to handle, so it was six days before I got there.

When I was brought in to the ER, the third doctor who was the ER physician was much more laid back so he casually looked at my foot and said, “You have to be admitted or your choices are amputation or death.” Fortunately on the way to this distant hospital, my wife and I prayed that God would give us at least one person who would stand with the counsel of God and as the greeting nurse prepared my foot for the doctor’s inspection, she commented, “You know your foot is in very serious condition and you may only have two choices.” Because I had already been told several times what those choices were, I said, “I’m still hoping for another opinion from a higher authority.” She smiled, patted me on the back and said, “Well, it’s for certain that our God is a miracle working God.” That was part of what it took to move my hope a little closer towards being faith.

After the ER doctor gave me an IV antibiotic and informed me that I must spend the night I vehemently refused. At that point he said, “My alternative, if you are really willing to take that chance is that you return to see the surgical team tomorrow.” The surgical team turned out to be one man who had worked with wounds and difficult infections like mine for over two decades and he said, “Your foot is already much better than your records indicated although it may take many weeks before your foot is fully healed, you are well on that road to recovery.” He gave me a hug as we exited the surgical department and said, “Don’t worry about a thing; your foot is going to be just fine.”

This man was one of those people who had discovered his purpose and thank God he was so good at it. Unfortunately, the antibiotic prescribed by the ER doctor sometimes has the side effect of causing acute tendonitis and guess who got it! For weeks I have been walking like someone a little older than Methuselah. I believe I can now say that the tendonitis is fast disappearing and the foot continues to make a slow but sure recovery.

Considering the options I had been given I feel very blessed and fortunate to know and trust this scripture found in Romans 5:5 (Amplified) which says, “Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” God heals us because of His great love for us and He forgives sin for the same reason. Did you know that healing and forgiveness have a related purpose?

Look at Matthew 9:1-8. I’ll just abbreviate it in modern language. People brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. Jesus said to him, “Take courage son, for your sins are forgiven and they are paid for.” The crowd called him a blasphemer because Jesus claimed rights and powers that only belonged to God. Jesus knew their thoughts and asked them, “Why do you harbor malicious and evil thoughts in your heart? Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven and remitted or rise up, you who were crippled and walk? So that you may absolutely know the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins and pay the penalty for them I say to this man, Get and walk home for you are healed in my name.” And to the crowds amazement the paralyzed man got and walked to his own home. Then the crowd praised Jesus as they recognized the power and authority that God had given him not only to heal the sick but to forgive everyone’s sin who has been drawn to Him.

There is a song, “Spirit in the Sky,” in which the writer says, “I’m not a sinner, I never sin, I’ve got a friend in Jesus.” Well I never met anyone like that. I was a sinner and I often sinned but I’ve still got a precious friend in Jesus because He has forgiven me much. You can conclude from Luke 7:47 those who are forgiven much love Christ much. I assure you with that 7:47 you will be flying high. I’ve written this testimony of a potentially deadly situation being healed by Jesus Christ to remind you that He is also waiting to have you trust Him until you are not only seeing your healing manifested but also set free and forgiven for sins that are past. Praise His name! Never give up Hope!

Love and Peace from Christ our Lord,

Minister David Prather

 

This site is hosted and maintained by:
The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation
Thank you for visiting all-creatures.org.
Since