For a while a friend of mine (Scott) had asked if I could lay hands on the husband of one of his coworkers, Tina. The man's name was Doby. We had some trouble synchronizing our schedules, but finally on 30-Jan me and my sister (TammyC) were able to meet Doby at my sister's place of business after work. Doby is a kind fellow that is certainly not afraid of hard work. He is humble almost to a fault. He believes strongly in God and the Lord Jesus but doesn't consider himself well-studied in the scriptures and even expressed he should be a better person than he is. Of course you know what Jesus thinks of that... hahaha. Jesus unequivocally loves Doby and doesn't count his faults against him and I told him that in not so many words. We chatted further about Jesus and His kindness toward us and I was quick to point out that Jesus wanted him healed and He was going to at least start that healing in just a few minutes. Doby was worried that nothing would happen because he had doubts, so I assured him that he really DID have faith (the size of a mustard seed) or he wouldn't be here in the first place. I told him the only faith most folks showed toward Jesus healing them was that they just came to get prayed for, that's all. That's not great faith, but nevertheless it is enough to move a mountain and get healed.
So I asked Doby to tell me what was wrong. He explained that he had a messed-up shoulder, that there were some ligaments torn away in his shoulder that caused terrible pain at times. It was mostly noticeable to him when he lay down to sleep. He had been to the doctor several years ago for something similar in the same shoulder and had had surgery. The recovery time previously had been 4-6 months and it was pretty good for several years afterward. But then it started hurting again. He went back to the same doctor who told him he had tears and disconnects again and that it was going to take surgery to attempt to fix him back again.
The way the doctor demonstrated to Doby that he had specific tears was a very specific motion that Doby found he couldn't do: Place the back of his right hand in the small of his back and try to push straight backward away from the body. Doby demonstrated to me that he couldn't do it. He even had me place my hand on his hand while he attempted to push... I felt next to nothing while Doby's face grimmaced in pain. Then he put his left hand there and showed me how he could move it easily back and forth really fast. Good! Now we had a measuring point to start.
Me & my sister laid hands on him and immediately felt tingling, movement and localized warmth. At first Doby didn't feel anything, but after a few minutes he said he felt tingling going all the way down his left arm. His pain diminished immediately, he said. I encouraged him to try to move his shoulder around and make it hurt. He found one more spot of pain. I laid hands on it and commanded it to leave and immediately asked him to try again... he couldn't find any pain!
Next, I had him test the small of the back movement. Much to his surprise he could move it perfectly like his other hand! Doby said, "Guys, unless I'm crazy, I don't think I could do that when I came in here, could I?" His mind was reeling and not wanting to accept what just happened to him.
All in all we spent about 45 minutes with Doby, and all he had remaining was some "tightness" but no pain, and he had freedom of movement. He was scheduled for surgery 15-Feb-2012 and we tried to get back together with him for some more prayer but failed to sync up our schedules again. But I got the following e-mail from Scott today (20-Feb-2012). Jesus, when given even half a chance through imperfect vessels, does amazing things!
Hey Greg,
Doby's surgery went very well. Guess what? The doctor told Tina that the shoulder was a lot better than he previously expected it to be and he just had to repair some small tears, for a 6 week recovery instead of the 3-4 month recovery he was expecting! The doctor was very surprised because before he had told Doby that he didn't even know if he could get him back to normal this time. Praise the Lord!
Thanks for praying with him. :-) I wish y'all would have been able to get together a second time, but the first time definitely did some amazing things!
Now if I could just convince my co-worker Cami to come to lunch with us sometime... she is having some severe back issues. She was off a couple of weeks ago bed-ridden from this, but I can't convince her. :-( She is a Christian but very self-conscious and somewhat skeptical.
Scott
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