The other day I had the thrill of shooting a video interview with a couple in our church that just experienced a supernatural healing. This is their story, minus their names for now (I’ll call them Bob and Cathy instead).

Four years ago, Bob and Cathy were on their way to swing dance lessons with some friends when a drunk driver nailed their car. While everyone in their car was shaken, Bob’s back was seriously damaged.

After the first week, the pain didn’t subside. It went deeper. Over time it became obvious that something was seriously wrong. He couldn’t bend over without excruciating pain and muscle flare ups the next day. He couldn’t hug Cathy for more than a few seconds at a time because it hurt too much. Every morning was a painful ordeal as he found his hands that had gone totally numb. His back needed a hot shower and serious stretching just to get things moving. He couldn’t help with simple housework (honest) and found walking around too painful to sustain more than a few minutes at a time. A single collision had reduced him from a hiking, active man and husband to a medication dependent couch potato.

A month or two ago, Bob and Cathy were listening to me preach about power, authority, and healing on a Sunday morning. As Cathy listened, something in her heart shifted and she realized that maybe—just maybe—she could try what I was suggesting. She could talk to God differently about Bob’s condition. So late one night, after Bob had fallen asleep, that’s what she did. Simply put, she asked God if he might give her the authority to heal her husband. And then she prayed.

Feeling nothing spectacular, Cathy joined her husband in bed.

At three in the morning, Bob awoke to a strange sensation. His body was moving around, but he wasn’t in control of it. Not only that, but he was talking in a language he couldn’t understand—though he says it felt like walking into a room where people have been talking about you. Cathy also woke up, wondering what was going on. Bob reassured her, telling her he was fine. For some unfathomable reason, they felt such peace that they both fell back asleep.

When morning came, Bob opened his eyes, sat up, stood up, and then realized his hands weren’t numb like as usual. Still a little foggy from the night’s sleep, he stepped into the shower and reached for the shampoo, at which point he realized: there was no pain. All through that day and the week following, Bob and Cathy marveled at this strange development, until they had to admit to themselves and to God: He’d healed Bob’s back. Bob’s chiropractor and massage therapist were stunned by the change.

Talking to Bob and Cathy last week was a whole lot of fun. They were grinning like ninnies, for one thing. And Bob is like a kid in a candy store—or maybe, a kid on the playground shouting out, “Hey dad, watch! Watch what I can do!” He’s still amazed at the complete absence of pain, though he confesses through a chuckle that his muscles have atrophied so badly that he doesn’t yet have the strength or endurance to do what his back gives him permission to do. Tears well up in his eyes as he says, “Now, for the first time in four years, I can hold my wife without pain.”

I should also say, Bob and Cathy are regular folks, not given to sensationalism or over-the-top strangeness. There’s only one explanation, and Bob shows me what it is. He lifts his hands to the heavens and proclaims, “Thank you, Jesus.”

If you attend DCC, we’ll probably air the video interview sometime in July.

Praise God.