Just in Time Ministries

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:7

 

 

 

 

Don't Let Fear Cripple Your Walk

 

 

As a local pastor, I like to prepare my message early in the week, waiting on the Holy Spirit to prompt me and to direct me as to the message for that Sunday.  However, what He gave me was a message with the title "Don't let fear cripple your walk."  I was not happy with it at all, but since it was Monday, a lot could happen to change the message during the week.

 

Wednesday evening, I had to walk only four houses down to a Home Fellowship Meeting at a neighbor's home.  I got halfway there when suddenly something snapped in my right leg, and I could not move one step in any direction.

 

It was eight o'clock at night - I was alone - standing in the middle of the street.  By chance, my friend came by in his car, stopped and asked me, "What are you doing in the middle of the road?"  I replied that I could not walk, but would he help me to get to where the body of Christ was meeting, that I might receive prayer.  This he did, and when the meeting was over and after receiving prayer, the pain was so severe that everyone believed that I should go to the emergency room, only five minutes away.  Thank God, the emergency room was quiet that evening.  Within an hour I had received an injection of a painkiller, a leg brace and crutches before being sent home.  Once home, I did not move for four days, as every move brought stabbing pain.  The X-rays did not show that the leg was broken, but the swelling was too severe for an orthopedic doctor to examine the leg or do an MRI.  I just had to wait.

 

Sunday morning I received a call from a pastor in Illinois, and he was excited.  He had been waiting two hours to call, for fear of waking me.  He blurted out, "God is going to do a miracle in your church service this morning!"

 

I was glad to hear it.  The service was definitely going to need it, as I was going to need help getting there with a wheelchair and crutches, and besides, I had this message to give: " Don't let fear cripple your walk."  The message seemed all the more amusing, as I gave it from the wheelchair, but the Holy Spirit had given me such a powerful message that people were coming forth, being delivered from fear, tears streaming down their faces - set free.

 

I was excited at the response, but where was the miracle that my pastor friend had mentioned would happen in the service?  Suddenly, I heard something inside me say, "Stand Up."  I rose to my feet and started walking, saying, "By Faith, I am walking out of here!"

 

My wife grabbed the crutches - a nurse who had helped me get to church ran to my side, and I waved her off, saying "God is healing me."  Now, tears were forming in my eyes as I realized that the miracle prophesied that morning was for me.  I walked out of the church, through the front door and down the stairs to the church parking lot, as others looked on in amazement.  I was healed - and I was praising God.

 

The following Wednesday, I went to my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon.  To his amazement, there was nothing to treat, as his thorough examination revealed.  I told him what had happened at the church that Sunday, and he nodded in belief, that there were some things that the medical profession could not explain.  I know now that fear could have kept me in that wheelchair that Sunday morning.  I also knew that my God answers prayers, and He has always been and is the great physician and my provider.  If you let Him, He can do the very same for you.

 

Yes, it may take a walk of faith, but "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," Hebrews 11:1 NKJ.

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- Pastor Gary Stafford

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