My mother stood up and said, “That’s my son, but we are not making funeral arrangements. We are going to pray until Jesus raises him up.” Then the nurse said, “…you must be praying to the real God, because your son just sat up out of the coma and said he just came from here watching you all pray.”
My mother and my aunt walked into my room holding each other by the arm. When they saw me sitting up, their knees buckled, and they began to weep. I heard them say, “I can’t believe it! God really did it! I can’t believe it! God really did it!”
A Vision of Hope
Why was Richard’s mother so confident that God would heal her son despite the massive nature of his injuries and the fact that initially he was pronounced dead on arrival? Richard says it was because of a vision she received.
She went into the ladies’ room to wash her face and suddenly saw me in the mirror with a sheet over me. As she watched, the sheet dropped down until it looked more like a gown than a sheet. At that moment she believed that the Lord had revealed to her that He was going to raise me up and use me as a minister.
Delivered from Addiction
In addition to being healed of his massive internal injuries, Richard discovered also that the Lord had delivered him instantly from past and current addictions. None of the doctors could understand why I suddenly was awake or why I had a sound mind. For days I had been receiving large amounts of morphine for pain. One of the trauma physicians told me he was going to take me off the morphine gradually in order to prevent withdrawal. Still unable to speak, I wrote down, “Jesus raised me from the dead. I am not addicted to medicine.”
I didn’t want any more cocaine, marijuana, or alcohol. So I just assumed that I did not need any more morphine. Jesus had set me free instantly. This was a miracle, because I had wasted thousands of dollars on drugs and I did not need any drugs. Now the doctors wanted to give me drugs and I did not want any. God took the desire away—even for cigarettes.
A Doctor’s Confession
Five days later, the trauma physician came into my room and said, “Richard, I pronounced you dead on arrival. You shouldn’t be here. You were a vegetable, yet now you have a sound mind. Your neck was broken. We had three x-rays showing it broken and now we have three more showing it not broken. We gave you large quantities of blood, and large quantities of morphine.
I remember what you wrote on that paper about how you believe that Jesus raised you up and that you did not need any more medicine. Never in my medical profession have I ever seen anyone come off the amount of morphine that we gave you without being weaned off. There must be a God and He is watching over you.”
Learning to Walk Again
Even though God had healed him of his internal injuries and brought him back to life and soundness of mind from a brain-dead coma, Richard faced another challenge: learning to walk again. Because Richard had been brain dead, the doctors had not bothered to deal with his broken bones.
Since they expected him to die, they did not feel that setting the fractures was a worthy investment of their time. Even with this, however, Richard experienced the miraculous. The doctors waited 25 days to repair my broken bones. In the process they accidentally severed the sciatic nerve into my left leg. They also took three bones out of my right foot. They told me that I had a steel rod, 9 screws, and 2 pins in my left hip. I also had a steel rod and 9 screws in my right foot and I probably would never be able to walk again on my own. Perhaps in a year I might be able to walk with arm crutches.
Walking by Faith
Forty-nine days after the accident I left the hospital in a wheelchair. One day about eight weeks later I was praying. I was still a baby believer at that point and was still learning how to pray and how to use the name of Jesus. There was still a lot I did not know. I said, “Jesus, put feeling in my legs and I will get up and walk.”
Then I heard an audible voice, a whisper. The Lord said, “Arise and walk.” I replied, “I know that is You, Jesus, but I can’t walk; I don’t have any feeling in my legs.” He said, “You don’t walk by feeling. You walk by faith.”
“How do you walk by faith?” I asked. “Just trust Me,” He answered. “Stand up and walk.” I trusted the voice of God.
To Be Continued…
Miraculous Monday: 21st August 2023
Miraculous Monday 052
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