The Paralyzed Carpenter

Jesus heals the paralyzed carpenter and the woman with Parkinson's disease.

Jesus, himself, was a Carpenter.

   (Photo by Peter Griffin, PDPics.)

One of my favorite healings took place at a Full Gospel Businessmen's meeting in Ocala. Toward the end of the meeting, Mary and I as the guest speaker ministered to several people for the visible readjustment of arms and legs.

At one point, a man came up with a paralyzed arm frozen in an outward, awkward position with his elbow in the air. He told us he was a carpenter who had fallen off a ladder two stories high. We prayed for him with no immediate results.

That evening, almost everyone else we prayed over displayed the visible readjusting arm and leg lengths which often demonstrate shoulder, back, and hip alignments. This is common.

Then I was quite surprised to find myself praying over a younger man for whom nothing at all seemed to happen. That was until I looked up at him from ministering at his feet and saw he was facially mocking my prayer. God could not heal him. When the evening was over, as the people left, I felt troubled for the individuals we had not been able to help. Healing is always a mystery, God's determination, not man's.

As we picked up our things, only one man remained in the room. Suddenly, he began to cheer and shout excitedly. It was the carpenter.

"Look, I'm healed! I'm healed!" 

he exclaimed.

He had just discovered his healing. He was spinning his once paralyzed arm in circles over his head. He was so exuberantly happy. His paralyzed arm was free!

"Look, I couldn't do that before!" he said, picking up, pouring, and balancing a cup of coffee.

No one else was present to see the carpenter's exuberant moment of healing. God always picks the time and circumstance in which he acts.

Friends that knew him, however, reported to us the carpenter bought all the tools he needed from a pawnbroker and returned to work, a free man. Everywhere, he told people about his healing.

"The doctor said I have Parkinson's disease.”

One elderly woman cried softly. “I really don't know why. This is a terrible thing. I just don't know what to do."

Mary and I, sitting in an Ocala, Florida, church, overheard one gray-haired lady seated behind us talking to her friend. Compelled by the Holy Spirit, we both turned around in our seats. My wife asked the lady if she had heard right, if the disease was Parkinson's, and the lady affirmed her condition.

"May we pray with you?" 

I asked my favorite question.

Over the backs of our hard metal chairs, we commanded the woman's mind and body to be healed. The woman later reported she returned from her doctor who found absolutely no evidence of the condition remaining.

Another woman in her forty's wore a thick two-inch lift sole on one shoe to support her short leg. In fact, all her shoes were so equipped with this medical device. Mary asked her to come to the front of the church with us.

My wife invited the congregation to watch.

The woman's legs readjusted as she prayed over her. The short leg grew out until both legs matched in length.

“God says to buy yourself new shoes for the new walk he is giving you,” Mary smiled at her.

As a result of this healing, the woman's husband began attending church with her.

Yes, the Great Carpenter, himself, healed them. When I see healing, I want to tell what God has done. People need to know the healing love of Jesus.

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22 NKJ).

--Bill Hunt

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