Online Tracts
Marvelously Healed
Essie (McDonald) Wilson
(August, 1942)
"Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." (Psa. 103:1-3). His benefits to me have been wonderful. He has always been so good to me. My mother was a Christian and lived to what light she had, so always taught us children to pray. The dear Lord began to strive with my heart when I was about 9 years old, and I went to the altar to seek the Lord, but my father thought me too young to seek the Lord so wouldn't let me go back to meeting; but the dear Lord continued to knock at my heart. At about 13 years of age, I was out in a field under a pecan tree praying for my father. He had the drink habit and I was almost always praying for him. Then the dear Lord sent conviction on me for my salvation. I cried out to my God, and he heard and answered, bless His dear name! Yes, He took every stain of sin away and satisfied my longing soul. I went to the house shouting praise to God and telling my mother I was saved. But my father said I was not, for I had not been baptized. This bothered me, for I wasn't where I could be baptized just then; but as soon as I could, I went and joined the Christian Church so I could be baptfzed.
The preacher gave me a Testament. Thank God for that Testament! It was a little red backed Testament. Oh, how I did love it. I had received many presents before this, but never such a wonderful present as that. I said I surely was going to read it through, so I began to study the precious little book; and what wonders I found in it!
I was very sickly, had never been strong. I had always had bad stomach trouble and spinal touble and by that time had very bad heart trouble and a complication of diseases setting in. In this dear little book I read that Jesus healed when on earth, and read in James what to do when sick. Dear reader, turn to the 5th chapter of James and you can read it, too. I read where Jesus washed his disciples' feet and said we ought to wash one another's feet. I asked the preacher why we didn't wash feet. I wanted them to come and pray for my healing, but of course they didn't believe in that part of God's Word.
But I would read it again and again. It was God's Word, and I must believe it, even if the preacher didn't. Oh, how can I ever praise the dear Lord enough as I lay sick for four years, for talking to my heart and teaching me as I read the precious treasure, the little red Testament that He had given me through some one who did not believe it all himself. He opened the scriptures to me. Oh, how good and precious He was to me. How constantly He stayed with me, how many dreams and visions He sent me, because He knew I had no one else to teach me.
One disease after another set up on my already frail body. I had spinal trouble, rheumatism, heart trouble, female trouble, and such awful nervous trouble. The blood would rush to my head and I would be unconscious for several days at a time. I was suffering almost everything at the hands of doctors different surgical treatments and bad medicine; yet through it all, every one that saw me said I was the most patient sufferer they ever saw, and almost every time I was conscious I would call children around my bed and read the precious little book to them and talk to them about the goodness of God.
Oh, dear readers, it wasn't in my own strength I had this patience and courage, it was because I was hid away in Jesus. Oh, what a friend He proved to me! What if I had not found Him? 0, what would I have done without Him? But He had found me, a little sick girl, and He was caring for me until He could teach me to fully trust Him, so He could heal me. I kept the precious little book under my pillow and read it as long as I could use my hands to hold it. I read in the dear Book where we should not wear gold or pearls (l Peter 3:3-4), so I took off my rings. Anything I read in God's Word I measured up to.
I read that we should be holy, so I sought the Lord for a holy life, and lIe sanctified my nature. Remember, dear reader, I had never heard any of this preached, but I read it in God's Word, and was glad to measure to God's Word. The trouble with so many people, instead of measuring to God's Word they are trying to turn it around to suit themselves. We read in 1 John 3:22, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."
My parents spent all they had and all they could make for doctors, but I got no better, but worse and worse. Twenty-two doctors, in all, gave me up. But, thank God, while my body w as getting worse and wasting away, I w as learning more and my dependence w as on God. Finaliy, paralysis of the muscles and nerves set in. I lost use of myself also control of most all the organs Or my body, and was in this condition about eleven months. I could slide my right hand and roll my head on the pillow, and that is all the use I had of myself. The doctors all quit. I could stand no more treatments nor bad medicine. Just the scent of it would cause me to faint away. I was cold all the time from my breast down, and wrapped in wrapped in woolen blankets all the tim,e winter and summer; and fanned in the face most of the time day and night to help me get my breath. I smothered all the time, and would sink away, and they would have to shake me and call me. I would struggle for my breath and still live.
At last a few months before I was healed I gave my little Testament away. I told my mother one day that before I died I wanted to give it to someone and pray for it to do them some good as it had me. So I soon gave it away for I thought I was going. Thank God, I was ready to go, but the dear Lord had it planned otherwise. It would have been sweet to have gone home to Jesus then, but it will be better still to stay and take a few others with me when I go. Dear reader, if you are not saved, won't you give Jesus your heart and go with me to heaven?
The last place my parents took me was to Dallas, Texas. The last two weeks [ lived in this condition, I was so low I could not be allowed to sleep more than a minute or two at a time, or I would quit breathing, for I had to struggle for every breath. The folks would shake and call me, telling me to get my breath and I would begin to struggle for breath again. But praise our God, on the 28th night of April, 1902, the dear Lord let me sleep. my folks said about an hour, and He sent me a dream. I dreamed I was in a large building which was on fire, and Jesus helped me out and said, "Essie, whatever you trust me in, I will help you, now and forever." When I awoke the first thing I thought of was of what Jesus had said, and I thought, "Now I am going to trust him to make me walk." I couldn't tell anyone, for sometimes I could whisper and sometimes I couldn't; but I don't think I could at this time, so I just prayed a very short prayer. About all I said was, "Jesus, you said whatever I would trust you in you would help mc now and forever. Now Lord, I am going to trust you to make me walk." I mentioned just a few of His promises in the Bible and that was all, but I knew when I said Amen, I was well.
My sister was sitting by me just then, for I was never left alone a minute. 1 said out loud, "Dolly, tell mama to come here." Mama was on the porch just outside my room. So she went and said. "Mama, Essie called for you out loud." This excited her. She came and I said, "Mama stand at the foot of my bed, I want to tell you my dream. She stood there and I told it to her, "and Mama I prayed and Jesus has healed me and I can get up and walk." She said, "Honey, do you want Mama to try to raise you up?"
I said, "Mama, you can't raise me up." And she couldn't, for one couldn't bend my back to raise me up, but I said, "God can raise me up. But I want you to go tell the neighbors. I want to show you all what God has done." So she ran out telling the near neighbors how I was talking. One began to tell another, and the house was soon almost full.
My mother and most of the others thought I was dying and the Lord was just giving me marvelous strength in my dying hour because I was living so close to Him. Most all wanted to come to my bed, saying, "Do you want me to try and raise you up?" I would answer, "No, you can't raise me up, but God can. Don't come to me. God has healed me and God will get the praise. I don't want a human hand laid on me. There are here Christian Scientists, Magnetic healers, and others that would like to have the praise for this." My mother would say, "Please let me come to you." But I would answer, "No Mama, I am coming to you this time. You have come to me long enough. Have everyone stand back and let me alone; and you stand right in that door and God will help me out of this bed and I will come to you."
So she got them all quieted and she stood in the door. I threw the cover off, jumped out of bed and ran to my mother. Praise our God. I had prayed to walk, but the Lord always does more than we think or ask. I ran, leaped, and shouted, went rejoicing up and down the steps to the house. It was about 8 o'clock in the morning when I was healed. I went to the table at noon and ate my dinner, lay down about two o'clock; the next morning, walked six or eight blocks to prayer meeting, which was the first meeting of any kind I had attended in two years. I was so poor some of my backbone and hip bones were cut through
My father had left early in the morning before I was healed, as he had some important business away and was late getting back. When he came home, my bedding was all out and a large crowd of people was there, so he thought I was surely dead, as that was what was expected all the time. He sat down on the back porch and was weeping. Someone told my mother and she said, "He thinks Essie is dead." So she went to him, but followed her, not realizing what a shock it would be for him. I went up behind him and spoke to him. It almost excited him to death. He was a man of very strong nerve, but he cried, "Who is this?" When told it was I, his Essie, he cried "No, it can't be, she is dead." He was so stunned he could not believe it though looking me in the face. He searched the house for my corpse then came and sat down just facing me, and wanted to be told all about it; he would cry loudly, "I can't stand that!" then again would say, "Tell about it." This he did many times, each time stopping us again. At last he called my mother into another room, and she told him all about it. They said it was truly God that did it and that it was wonderful. They asked me to pray, and they and all the rest again knelt in prayer and praise.
All who saw me were so shocked and felt so much the power of God they wanted me to call on God for them. The man that became my husband later, had never seen me walk before. He said he thought he was a Christian, but when he saw so much of the power of God, he felt like he was the meanest man in the world. He sat down and couldn't speak for some time, and when he could he asked me to pray for him. He is now my husband and a child of God, and often says that was the most wonderful healing he ever saw and that God used me to save his soul.
Many souls were savcd and convinced of God's power to heal, so I feel a thousand times repaid for my suffering. To God bc all the glory.
He has healed me of differcnt things many times since, and His promise that "He would help me now and forever," He has proven true so many times. I am determined by his grace to spend all my life in His service. He is still just as dear to me as He was the 29th day of April. 1902. I was 18 years old the first day of April and healed the 29th day of the same month. My name was Essie Birmingham before I married.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. He is so good to me and to all those that love Him! I love Him with all my heart. He is my life, my strength, my all, my Saviour my healer, my keeper. Praise our wonderful Saviour. ‹Essie McDonald
(We have known this Sister, who is a minister of the gospel, for many years and heard her tell her wonderful experience. On this date, May 197, she is living with her daughter in Glendale, Calif., at past 92 years of age. ‹Lawrence Pruitt. )
DIVINE HEALING IS FOR YOU
The examples and promises of God for the healing of our bodies are numerous in the Holy Bible. In Exodus 15:26 the Lord makes promises to His children, saying, "For I am the Lord that healeth thee." In Psalms 103:3, we read these words: "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." Isaiah, prophesying of the work of Christ, said, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him-and with his stripes we are healed." Here the prophet places the healing of the body right along with our forgiveness of sins and thereby makes it a part of the atonement.
Turning to Matt. 8:17, we read what is written after Jesus had been doing much healing: "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, HimselI took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." This is a positive statement that in Christ we have healing for the body as well as the soul.
James, writing to the twelve tribes of Israel, God's children, has this to say as to what we should do when afflicted or sick: "Is any sick among you ? Iet him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed sins. they shall be forgiven him." James 5:14-15. He also holds the healing of the body right along with forgiveness of sins, which His atonemcnt has accomplished for us.
James did not tell us to send for the doctor and let him give medicine while the elders prayed No, God heals without the doctor's medicine. In all of His mighty healings we have no record that He ever called an earthly doctor, neither did the apostles do such a thing, but God got all the glory for the miracles performed in the healing of bodies. We read in Heb. 13:8. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forcver." 0, that men would make Jesus Christ real to them today so He could show Himself strong in their behalf and get glory to His name! It is certainly a very weak fzith, indeed, in anyone who would take medicine and then claim that he was trusting God for his healing as though God needed man's aid in healing the body that He has purchased with His own blood!
In our forty years of serving God and rearing a family of six children, we have never taken any medicine nor given any to our children, and we have seen the Lord heal diseases and stop pain and suffering hundreds of times. It is so blessed and precious to receive healing directly from the Lord, and know that man's medicine had no part nor lot in it.
When God sanctified my soul and baptized me with His Spirit, He also healed an affliction which I had had on my body for fourteen years. I took the strap from around my body and burned it up, and have never used it since, neither have I needed it. The Lord has permitted me to have many diseases upon my body, but He has healed me of them all. Our children were often sick in different manners and ways, and when we called on God He would heal them. I can never, in the least, doubt the healing power of God.
In our ministry of forty years and more, we have seen many wonderful healings. One woman was paralyzed on one side and was in that condition for many months and could not dress herself. Her flesh was so dead that one could put a finger on her and the dent would remain. Before we anointed her with oil, I asked her if she would get up when we finished praying and said amen. She said that she would. So we anointed her with oil, and when we said amen she threw her feet off the bed, I reached my hand to her, and she arose and went shouting the victory across the room, back and forth. In a few days we visited her again and she met us out on the porch with victory over the disease.
We were called to Colorado one time to pray for a sick woman who was bedfast. When she was anointed and prayed for, she arose at once and with a loud voice gave praise to God while she went from one room to another. She ate supper with the family and rode in a car about eight miles where she stayed all night at her son's house.
These are just a few of the hundreds of cases of healing which we have witnessed. Several times the Lord has brought life back to bodies after the pulse had ceased. Bones came together that had been crushed or broken. One time we visited a family where the baby was deathly sick and had been given up by the physicians. The child was anointed, and while prayer was being offered, the Lord healed the baby. One could see the color coming back into its face. The husband got saved and five devils were cast out of the wife by the power of God.
In Mark 11:24, we read, "Therefore say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
In Mark 9:23 we read again, "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to them that believe." In John 14:12 we read, "Verily, verily I say unto you I Ic that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father."
"And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him. bccause we keep his commandments. and do those things that are pleasing in llis sight." 1 John 3:22.
Yes dear brothers and sisters, divine healing is for our bodies today just the same as it always has been, and we are exhorted to call upon our High Priest even Jesus Christ who has passed into the heavens and is touched by the feeling of our infirmities. He tells us to come boldlv to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of nced. Read Heb. 4:14, on to the end of the chapter. Have faith in God. ‹Fred Pruitt
Send for sample of different gospel tracts
Also the paper, "Faith and Victory."
FAITH PUBLISHING HOUSE
PO Box 518, Guthrie. Oklahoma 73044
|
