by Eric Metaxas
In the early part of the 1900s, her great-great-grandfather Gu Kim Fui traveled from China to Hawaii and became an extremely wealthy man, controlling a large part of the sugar trade. At one point he owned more than half of the island of Oahu. He became the first Christian in the family and started a church, which exists to this day. He returned to China and started churches there. Eventually Gu Kim Fui became the consul general from China to Hawaii.*
Christine’s first encounter with the miraculous took place when she was fifteen years old and living in Taiwan. She had been having a number of challenges at that time in school and elsewhere. She had no difficulty believing that God was real, which is to say that he existed, but she didn’t know him in any personal way, although her parents both did. Perhaps because she was going through a challenging time she began to feel that she really ought to try and have a relationship with God in the way that her parents did, but she simply didn’t know how. So one day she prayed a very simple prayer. “God,” she prayed, “I know you are real. Everybody says you are real, but I’ve never personally experienced you myself. So if you are real, show me that you are real.” That was all. But it was sincere and heartfelt.
During this period, Christine’s grandfather was living with them. For about six months he had been experiencing some kind of illness, though they knew not what. He was unable to stand up straight or to walk at all. He was able to hobble from his bed to the bathroom, but only very slowly and with great difficulty. Beyond this, there were no symptoms.
That summer, one of Christine’s aunts returned to Taiwan from New York. During her time in New York, she had experienced a healing during a church service, which affected her faith dramatically. So at some point, with Christine and her father present, the aunt came into the grandfather’s room and, with great directness, asked him: “Do you believe God can heal you?” On hearing these words, the grandfather began to weep. He said, “I believe . . . I believe . . . I believe only God can heal me. I have seen doctors, but none of them can help me. I’m just too old.”
Christine’s aunt decided to pray for the grandfather right there. She put her hands on the grandfather’s legs and prayed a very powerful prayer that he be healed. A moment after she had finished, the grandfather stood up and immediately started walking. They were all stunned to witness it. Christine said that even now, so many years after it happened, remembering it makes her very emotional. She remembers thinking that she couldn’t believe it was possible for a miracle to happen right in front of her eyes, that in just a moment’s time God could wipe away so many months of misery and pain.
Christine remembered that moments later her grandfather decided he must go outside. When the neighbors saw him walking around, they were all stunned. “What happened to you?” they asked. “We haven’t seen you in such a long time! How could you be walking?” Her grandfather was beaming with joy and simply continued walking, talking to different neighbors. “After that moment,” Christine said, “I decided that I would never doubt God again. I suddenly realized just how real he is and how powerful. Christine’s whole family had their faith changed by witnessing the miracle. They had previously believed in God, but perhaps in a somewhat abstract, intellectual way; after this experience their faith in God and his power was tremendously deepened.
A WATCH STOPS
It was early Friday morning, May 7, 2004. I was in the sanctuary of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Darien, Connecticut, for a weekly gathering of what we call the New Canaan Society, a group of men that gets together to hear a speaker, to pray, and to encourage each other to be better husbands and fathers. The group had grown like a weed, so we had to move out of my friend Jim Lane’s house and into this church. This morning the speaker was our friend Paul Teske. He was then fifty-five years old and the pastor of a Lutheran church in nearby Westport, also called Saint Paul’s.
It was my job to introduce the speakers every week, so I introduced Paul and then sat down in the front row to hear his talk. He told us that he had planned on giving a talk titled “Christian Ethics and Morality in Business.” But at the last minute he had felt “led by God” to change his direction and instead talk about Saint John, the disciple closest to Jesus, who alone among the twelve lived to a ripe old age. He is believed to have been about ninety years old when he wrote what we now know as the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. He was then imprisoned in a Greek penal colony on the Isle of Patmos.
What none of us knew as we listened to Paul that morning was that roughly two minutes into this forty-minute talk he found that he suddenly couldn’t put any weight on his left leg. He said that when it happened, he was utterly baffled, but instead of stopping, he just clung to the podium, kept his weight on his right leg, and continued talking, as though nothing were the matter. I was in the front row and noticed nothing, nor did anyone else notice. But as he was giving his talk, Paul was wondering what in the world was happening. Perhaps it was sciatica? Or a pinched nerve? He felt otherwise fine, so he just kept talking and making his points, all the while continuing to puzzle over what had happened to his leg, which just hung there, as he later said, “like a sack of potatoes.”
When Paul was finished with his talk, he calmly said, “Would somebody be able to help me into a chair? I seem to be having a problem with my leg.” Those of us in the front row leapt up immediately. What did Paul mean? He was obviously putting all his weight on his right leg while holding on to the podium with both hands. As soon as a few of us grabbed his arms to move him to a chair it became clear that this wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, Paul started to go down, and instead of bringing him to the chair, we found ourselves just easing him onto the carpeted floor of the sanctuary.
There was a doctor among us that morning. He came over, knelt down, and began taking Paul’s vitals and asking him questions. Paul said he couldn’t move his left leg or foot at all. Other than that, he felt absolutely fine. Not long after this an ambulance arrived and the EMTs took Paul to the hospital. We all stood around, wondering what had happened.
Paul was told by the doctor in the ER that he didn’t seem to have the symptoms of a stroke. If he had had a stroke—which is a cerebral hemorrhage—he would likely have had a headache so painful that he would have passed out. Paul confirmed that he hadn’t had any pain whatsoever. Paul began to wonder if perhaps it might be a brain tumor. But after a CAT scan, the doctor said that Paul had indeed had a cerebral hemorrhage—which is to say, a stroke. Why there hadn’t been any pain was a mystery. But he was checked into CCU for the night and an MRI was promptly scheduled for the following morning.
Once Paul was settled in the CCU, a physician stopped by to let him know that the situation ahead was not at all certain. He said that if Paul’s brain began to hemorrhage again, medical intervention was “not promising.” He even told Paul that it would be best to get his affairs in order, “just in case.” This was, of course, sobering.
Paul told his wife, Rivers, the news. Then he told her that he had two requests if he were to die. First, that the congregation of his church throw a huge “Easter celebration” because he would be home in Heaven. Paul said, “If there is no resurrection then I have been in the wrong business.” Then he said that he didn’t want anyone to wish him back from death: “Who would want to leave Heaven for any reason? I will be waiting for the rest of you to finally arrive.” They wept and hugged each other and Rivers went home.
The night was happily uneventful and the next morning Paul woke up feeling fine. But he still couldn’t move his leg a millimeter. He began to think about living the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He had never considered not being mobile. A bit later he had his MRI, and for the rest of the day he cheerfully dealt with a steady stream of visitors and phone calls. The next day the doctor came in to say that the MRI hadn’t told them much, so they scheduled another test in the hospital’s angioplasty unit. But that test also failed to clarify what had happened. This much was c
lear: A blood vessel had ruptured and had then clotted itself. But no one knew why. What they did know was that the blood that issued from that hemorrhage had flowed into that part of Paul’s brain controlling the left side of his body, below his hip. The doctor made it clear he had no real idea whether Paul would be able to walk again. “We’ll have to wait and see,” he said.
Paul was then transferred to the neurological unit, where he would have therapy and try to regain movement in his foot and leg. It took a long time, but eventually he thought he was able to move his big toe ever so slightly. But the rest of his foot and his whole leg were utterly immobile. After a couple of days he could move his foot slightly and then his leg, but only slightly. They said he had regained about 15 percent of the use of his leg. So he was taught to use crutches and a wheelchair. The days passed.
Almost two weeks after being in the hospital, Paul had an experience with God. The first thing that happened, he said, was that God impressed a Bible passage on his mind very strongly, so strongly that he knew it was related to his situation. The Bible passage was Hosea 6:1–3. But Paul had no idea what Hosea 6:1–3 said. He just felt that God wanted him to look it up and know that it was God’s promise to him. So he did. Paul read the following:
Come, let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but he will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up
That we may live in His sight . . .
Four years earlier, Paul had been prayed for by a pastor from Ghana named Kingsley Fletcher. That pastor had “prophesied” over Paul and said that God was going to do something over a span of twenty-one days. When that twenty-one-day period was supposed to be was unclear, but for some reason, when Paul was reading this passage from Hosea, he remembered that prophecy and strongly felt that God was telling him that he would be healed twenty-one days after he had had his stroke. According to Paul, since he had the stroke on May 7, he reckoned that the day of his healing would be May 28. Paul felt so strongly about this that he wrote it in his journal and told his wife, Rivers. In fact, he actually told just about anyone who would listen. For sure, some of them must have thought he was crazy. I confess that if he had told me this I would have struggled mightily to make sense of it or believe it. How did he arrive at that date? Nonetheless, Paul was supremely convinced that this was what God had told him and he had no doubt that God would heal him on that date.
Paul was released from the hospital on May 20, and the following morning, a Friday, the New Canaan Society would again meet at Saint Paul’s in Darien. Paul wanted to be there, but of course he couldn’t drive. So he asked Rivers to drive him. They would have to leave their house in Westport just after 7:00 A.M. Before they left, Paul asked Rivers if she knew where his watch was. She said that it was in his briefcase. It had been locked in there with his cuff links when they were taken from him that first day at the hospital. Rivers handed Paul the briefcase as they drove out of their driveway, and there in the passenger seat he opened it and took out the watch.
He immediately saw that the hands weren’t moving. Then he noticed that the time on the stopped watch was 7:58. And the date was May 7—the day he had the stroke. Why would a self-winding watch have stopped on that day? Paul advanced the hands on the watch to see if the date would change over to May 8, when the hands passed twelve. But the date did not change. So he knew that the watch had stopped at 7:58 on the morning of the seventh, which was either exactly when he had his stroke or within a few minutes of that time. There was no doubt about that. Of course, he immediately told Rivers as she was driving and they tried to figure out what might have happened. Paul had worn the watch for perhaps an hour after the stroke. The New Canaan Society speakers always ended around 8:20. The watch hadn’t been taken from him till close to 9:00. It had obviously stopped around the time when he had had his stroke, while he was standing at the podium giving his talk.
And now as they drove toward Darien, he wondered: Was the watch broken forever? Paul gave it a little shake and the hands immediately started working again.
Paul’s arrival at the New Canaan Society that morning, two weeks after his stroke in that same place, was moving. When asked to say a few words he hobbled to the podium with a four-legged aluminum walker, wearing a brace on his left leg. We gave him a standing ovation, of course. Paul said that his being there that morning was by God’s grace. Then the famous evangelist Reinhard Bonnke spoke and afterward prayed for Paul, but Paul did not expect to be healed that morning. He simply “knew” that his appointment with God’s healing power was May 28, seven days hence.
Paul was not supposed to be doing much traveling in his condition. The doctors forbade driving for six months since he was taking seizure medication as a precaution. But Paul felt that he must go to Baltimore, to the Benny Hinn crusade taking place on May 27 and 28. Benny Hinn is the world-famous, if sometimes controversial, preacher with a renowned healing ministry. Paul wanted to be in the audience at Hinn’s event on the appointed date. But before he went to Baltimore to claim his own healing, another healing took place.
That Tuesday the twenty-fifth, Paul got a phone call from another Lutheran pastor who was his friend. Pastor Mark Zehnder, who pastored in Omaha, Nebraska, was calling to say that their mutual friend Pastor Greg Smith was ill. Greg had flown from Saint Louis to Connecticut to fill in for Paul when he was in the hospital, but on his return to Saint Louis he had experienced tightness in his chest. After what had happened to Paul, Greg wasn’t taking any chances. He immediately saw his own physician, who gave him an EKG and a stress test. They revealed that he had major blockage around his heart and he must come in the following day, Wednesday the twenty-sixth, for an angiogram. If it confirmed what the physician knew it would—major blockage—Greg would need to have surgery so that a stent could be inserted, or perhaps he would even need bypass surgery.
On the phone with Mark, Paul confidently declared that God had Greg’s heart “in his hand” and Paul said that God was healing his heart and he even boldly declared that the next day the doctors would be confounded by what they saw. Then Paul and Mark called Greg. Together Paul and Mark prayed that any damage to Greg’s heart would be completely healed and that the doctors “would be confounded” the next day.
That following day, Rivers and Paul left for Baltimore. On the way, Paul left a voice mail message for Greg. Paul felt what some Christians call an “anointing” in his prayers and “faith” for what God was going to do in Greg. In his voice mail he said that he felt this “anointing”—or “unction” as it is also sometimes called—and he said that he saw Greg as “Greg the lion-hearted,” and he said that Greg would “run with the lions.”
Later that day Paul got a call from Greg, who was almost speechless as he told Paul about what took place that morning. After the first angiogram test, the physician said he had made a mistake and decided to do another one. After the second angiogram, he said that what the first angiogram showed must be correct: Greg was absolutely fine. There was no blockage whatever and he could go home. Paul told Greg that God had healed him, and informed him that he must tell his congregation about it. Greg was rather less bold than Paul on this score, but he agreed in principle to share this story with his congregation.
Paul and Rivers checked into their hotel in Baltimore that Wednesday, and on Thursday morning they headed over to the huge arena for the Benny Hinn crusade. Paul was now using a cane, and the brace was still on his leg, albeit under his trousers. Paul knew someone in the organization who had arranged seats for them. Still, Paul was thrilled to see that they were seated in the fifth row. There were many thousands of people there that day, so to be right down front was something unexpected. Even more unexpected was when Benny Hinn himself came down off the stage to pray for a few people. Indeed, as if on cue, he walked over and prayed for Paul and R
ivers. It was a gentle prayer—and again, Paul “knew” his healing was to happen on the twenty-eighth, the next day, not the twenty-seventh—but Paul and Rivers nonetheless “went down” under the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a phenomenon in some Christian healing services where the pastor who prays for healing often has the effect of causing the people for whom he is praying to be “slain in the Spirit”: For no explainable reason they wilt and fall down, as though the power to stand has gone right out of their bodies. To be sure, some people do this because it seems to be expected of them, but I have spoken to many people who promise me that it had nothing at all to do with them, that it was real, that they fell down as soon as they were touched. There are usually “catchers” at these services too, to help the people go down gently. Still, Paul had not been healed in any discernible way, and he hobbled back to his hotel room with his brace and his cane.
The next morning, Paul awoke feeling extremely fatigued. Although he felt that this was his day to be healed, he thought he should stay in bed and rest, skipping the 10:00 A.M. service. But Rivers wouldn’t hear of it. She volunteered to go over to the arena early and save seats for them. Paul followed at nine thirty. They were seated in the seventh row when someone approached them. He was with the Benny Hinn ministry and thought they looked familiar. He left and then reappeared, telling them to please follow him to the center section, second row. After they were seated there for a while the man returned again and asked them to please leave their seats and sit in the front row.
The service that morning was wonderful, and at the end Benny Hinn told all pastors in the audience to please come forward so that he could pray a blessing over them. The pastors were escorted onto the large stage, but because of Paul’s leg brace he didn’t dare try to negotiate the stairs leading to the stage. Instead, he stood at the edge of the stage, on the ground level. That was plenty close anyway. But a woman approached him and insisted that he must come onto the stage to receive the blessing. Someone helped him up the stairs and while he was on the stage Benny Hinn prayed individually for those standing there. When it was Paul’s turn, he prayed for Paul twice. And then prayed for him a third time. Paul wasn’t sure why he was prayed for three times, but he certainly felt blessed. But he had not yet been healed.
