In the earlier days of his ministry, Bro.Lawrie had such a hard time praying for people who were sick and maimed that he was crushed, as it were, by the weight of their infirmities. Yet, for the glory of God, he cheerfully stood at his post praying and laying his hands on them. As for number of miraculous healings that have been recorded there is no count. I set this Chapter aside to record a few of the incidents to give the reader an idea of the diversity and immensity of Bro.Lawrie's ministry. These are not set in chronological order.
A LEPER HEALED:
A 41 years old man, George, from a place called Arumuganeri in South India was suffering from the incurable disease, Leprosy, since the age of 12 that he attempted to commit suicide. He attended one of the open air preachings of Bro.Lawrie, as he could not get closer to him. "Suddenly", he says, "I was trembling under the power of God as Bro.Lawrie prayed, and received a great joy that cannot be explained. My skin is all right now. Lord Jesus has healed me of the dreaded disease".
PRAYER THAT GIRDLED THE GLOBE:
People from far and wide write to the Lawries with requests to pray for their various ills. Thanking Mrs.Lawrie, who was in India, one Miss M.A.Scott, Devon, England had this to write. For 13 years this Miss Scott was bedridden due to a spinal fracture sustained by a fall on the ice. She happened to come across a copy of "Healing Leaves" and wrote to Bro.Lawrie, who at that time was touring America. Bro.Lawrie wrote back assuring her that he was praying for her. The night she received the letter, Miss Scott had a comfortable sleep; and when she got up the next morning, she was completely cured!SOLDIER SAVED:
The distraught parents of a soldier wrote to Bro.Lawrie to pray for their son who was then at the fighting front in Europe. They sent their soldier son the reply they received from Bro.Lawrie that he had remembered their son in his prayer. As the soldier was reading this mail from home, a shell burst close-by killing all those near him, leaving him unscathed. That the prayer protected him could be the only explainable answer for this miraculous escape.
PRAYER AND FASTING FOR POWER:
In India there is much practice of witchcraft, and those who indulge in such acts are able to do astounding things that Westerners can scarcely believe. In order to have control over these powerful ones, the Lord told Bro.Lawrie that he would have to fast for forty days drinking water alone. Although this was a difficult task, he completed the ordeal and from then on was able to control the fiercest of them. After this fast, one of the very powerful demons in a man challenged him and said he would destroy him. Upon meeting him, this demon started to work his power on Bro.Lawrie who was saved from death only by the hand of the Lord who lifted him up in the air clear off the ground. He was just suspended there and the demon was unable to cause any harm. He also found that people who worship these demons, also fast for 40 days to receive such power from Satan. They are able to curse a threshold, so that anyone passing over it to enter the cursed building will get a disease or some other affliction. There is much Devil worship, sun and moon worship, as well as the worship of the many false gods in India. But Bro.Lawrie, by his powerful preaching, gained thousands of such persons of Jesus Christ.
DRIVING DROVES OF DEVILS:
There had been times when Bro.Lawrie was called upon to clear out demonic forces out of haunted houses. At a place called Illanthayadivillai near Thamarai Kulam. Kanyakumari District, existed a haunted house belonging to a Miner working in Nagpur, Central India. Gospel workers and sorcerers could not get the evil spirits out of this house.
The Daniels who moved into this house in December 1957 had terrifying experiences. As they went to bed, they could hear loud knocks on the door. The kitchen window was forced open by some unknown hand and hole was found in it dug up. Mysteriously the lights in the house would be blown off.
On a Friday at about seven in the evening, the inmates could hear loud noises from every direction. When the neighbours came up, they found no one near the premises. The next day when they came down the stairs, they heard such a frightening noise that they scurried back upstairs. They saw a black apparition on the northern side of the house. That night at about eleven, terrible screech shattered the quiet of the night, followed by the crash of a jar from the table upstairs. Lights went off and the Bibles too had been thrown down. Two persons who came for help had seen the flower pots thrown down from upstairs, but they did not see any one doing it. These bold men stayed awake asking the inmates to rest, when suddenly a table was thrown off. Early in the morning a hideous noise as a lion's roar could be heard. On investigation all they could find was the lamp which was upstairs, buried in the kitchen.
About ten in the morning everyone could hear voices around but no one could see any person. So the inmates shouted questions asking the evil spirits what they were after. To this they replied, that they wanted the life of one of the daughters, who also felt some unseen power strangling her throat.
The men who practised withcraft demanded an exhorbitant amount of money to drive the devils out. In those days Bro.Lawrie was at Nagercoil addressing meetings. The Daniels sent out a cab to get him over and drive the evil spirits out. Bro.Lawrie had just two hours before a meeting, but drove there and prayed in the name of Jesus and sprinkled water all over the house. There was mighty deliverance from the evil forces and the inmates were never bothered afterwards.
FIRM FAITH, AID TO CURE:
People close to Bro.Lawrie at times had the glimpse of Apostolic days. At a place called Mudalur, Bro.Lawrie was taken to the house of one Mr.Jayaraj, who was for many years crippled by a paralytic attack. On reaching the place, Bro.Lawrie looked at the expectant face of the man and asked, "Do you want to get up?" To this Jayaraj replied, "Sir, I believe that I will get up". "If the Bible is true you will get up", said Bro.Lawrie, and taking some oil anointed him according to what the Bible enjoins us. The cripple, who could not as much stand on legs for many years, immediately jumped up and walked. There was a big stir round the place because of this healing.
Later this same man had a tumor in his eye. It was gruesome to see his eyeball protruding as if it would pop out of its socket. With faith in prayer - strengthened by his earlier cure - he came to Bro.Lawrie to be prayed for, and he advised him to go to a surgeon and get the tumor out by a surgical operation. But Jayaraj insited that he be prayed for, which he said would suffice. Jayaraj went on pleading to Bro.Lawrie to pray for him and not to advise him to go to a doctor. So he prayed for the man and sent him away. After a month, when he happened to pass that way, Bro.Lawrie learnt that the tumor was cured without an incision, and the eye was normal again.
SNAKE BITE - SNAKE BITE:
At one time a college student came rushing into the prayer hall at Nagercoil, where Bro.Lawrie was praying, shouting, 'Snake bite - Snake bite' and fell down in the midst of those assembled. Holding him where he showed them as the place of bite, Bro.Lawrie prayed asking God to heal him. After a few moments, the boy got up healed.
PROMISE GOD? KEEP IT:
Once the Lawries promised God that they would not talk anymore about a sister-in-law of Bro.Lawrie. The sequence for this was that this lady always created trouble and dissension within the family and made the life bitter for everyone. As a self-assumed penance, they promised God that they would not talk about her.
They slipped one day in observing this promise as they were driving in a cab to Cape Comorin, and by mistake talked about her. As a consequence, Dayavoo was thrown out of the moving car by a hand which opened the door and pushed him out. The little boy was picked up cold and lifeless. After sometime, his life came back. But he was bleeding heavily from a gash in the head and the skull had fractured. That night Bro.Lawrie was to preach in a Church in Nagercoil. As they entered the town, people had already started going to the Church. With full of faith in God's power of healing, they did not take their son to any doctor. Instead they took him to the meeting. While Bro.Lawrie was preaching, he could see his son's face brightening up. When in the last the healing prayer was said, he could stand up. And as the meeting was over, he came running to his father, saying, "Daddy, I saw Jesus touching me and I am completely healed". There was not even the trace of the wound nor the scar. This four-year old youngster was a great testimony at that time in a number of meetings.
HIMSELF HEALED:
Bro.Lawrie and his son Dayavoo were riding a scooter one day along the highway. They were in haste as there was an important meeting the next day. As they were speeding fast, a girl carrying a big bundle of hay suddenly lurched and dropped her load in front of the scooter. Bro.Lawrie applied the brake suddenly. They were both thrown out. Bro.Lawrie sustained a fracture of his leg. They manage to reach home. As the people had started gathering, everyone was anxious about Bro.Lawrie. He asked them to allow him to sleep for couple of hours, after the bone was set. He prayed, "Lord, tomorrow there's a big meeting and my leg is fractured, you can heal me". After two hours' rest, he got up completely healed. It was a miracle done on himself.
WHO CAN STAND AGAINST GOD'S FURY:
An open-air meeting was arranged in the little town of Pudukottai near Trichinopoly. Lots of people, both Christians and Non-Christians, flocked to hear the Word of God and be healed physically as well as spiritually. To divert the people especially the Non-Christians away from this meeting, interested parties arranged with a circus company to pitch their tents close-by. The circus did attract many people away so that there was a feeling in Bro.Lawrie's camp that the meeting would be a failure. So they huddled together and prayed God that He must not fail them. That night a terrific cyclone came up and ripped up the circus tent and all canvas to shreds. The damage was so greet that the circus company was put out of commission for more than a month. Without this distraction, the meeting was a great success.
CURES THAT BAFFLED MEDICAL SCIENCE:
Prayer requests are telegraphically conveyed to Bro.Lawrie for those persons critically ill. Some of the healings have baffled doctors and scientists. A fully qualified and well-experienced doctor gives this testimony.
Dr.K.N.Rabindranath, M.B.,B.S., Raphael Hospital, Kakinada, India writes:
"During the 10 days' ministry of Bro.Lawrie, the blind gained sight. The lame walked. Tumours in the body disappeared. No medical explanations can be given for these. These cures were nothing but miracles!"
There are instances that are beyond the conception of common sense either. One Miss. Alexander, Madras came to Bro.Lawrie with her trouble that her right leg was shorter by 3 inches than her left leg. Without even a hesitation, Bro.Lawrie held the shorter leg in his hand, pulled it as he prayed in the name of Jesus and corrected this infirmity! This is not an individual case on record. Another Hindu girl, Miss S.Subbulakshmi, Perambur had such a deformity with the imbalance of three and a half inches between both legs, again corrected by Bro.Lawrie with the power of prayer.
SALVAGING PHYSICAL WRECKS:
Hair growing grey overnight has been heard of whereas grey hair turning natural black is not known. This reversal did happen to one Mr.D.Amelia, Katpadi at one of the meetings. But one of the strangest cases on record is about Mr.T.Jeyavelu, Ayanavaram, Madras. This Hindu gentleman was an employee of the Southern Railways, India. While he was working in the factory, a heavy hammer accidentally fell on his head, and due to the internal injury in the head, he lost the sight of both eyes and became stone deaf. He was crippled by the nervous breakdown in such a way that he could not use either his hands or legs. He was removed from the service roster after the doctors had declared their inability to salvage this wreck.
Eighteen months he survived with these handicaps, a burden to his family. At this stage, a member or the Salvation Army carried Jeyavelu like a bundle of rags to Perambur where Bro.Lawrie was holding meetings. As Bro.Lawrie prayed for him in the name of Jesus, Jeyavelu felt the surge of energy pass through his entire body. Immediately he felt his senses returning marvellously.
For the first time after one year and six months, he could look at the faces of his wife and children and converse with them. He could jump up and walk. Jeyavelu went before a Medical Board and was declared fit. He was reinstated in his old job.
Similar was the case of an official in the Central Rice Research Institute in Orissa, North India. This youth was a wheel chair patient for 18 years. His body was a mass of immobile flesh. To the surprise of all, including the scientists at the Research Institute, this young man could walk unaided after a week of prayer.
SAVED FROM SURGICAL KNIVES:
A very touching incident is narrated by a widowed mother who is a refugee from Burma. On return to India, this woman's youngest daughter developed gangrene in one of her legs. The doctors decided to amputate the leg, ankle down to save her life. Though the mother agreed with the doctors, her daughter, Suganthy stubbornly resisted. "The day my leg is cut off, I will take poison", she warned them all. However she was taken by force to the Operation theatre. But the girl's pathetic appeals was too much for the mother to bear. She stopped the nurses who were applying some medicine on the wound, and took her daughter home even though the doctors warned that the child would not live beyond a few days.
When they reached home, Suganthy found at the doorstep a copy of 'Nambikkayin Thoothan" - a Tamil bi-monthly published by Bro.Lawrie. After reading it, she placed the sheets of this journal on her gangrenous ankle and prayed with full faith. Suddenly she felt the surge of Heavenly powers within her. From then on, to the amazement of the doctors of the Government Hospital, Madras, the wound started healing and new flesh covered the necrosis. By the time the grateful mother wrote to thank Bro.Lawrie - according to her letter - there were signs of new toes growing in place of the rotten ones. The mother ebullient, in her conclusion of the letter, wrote that she believed in God and that she and her daughter would one day walk to the Ashram.
A similar case was that of one N.Thangiah. the eczema on both his legs in his younger days turned gangrenous. After a certain state he could not walk but moved about on all fours and was forced to beg for his sustenance. He was placed beyond all the scope of medicine, but was miraculously and completely cured when he was prayed for by Bro.Lawrie in the meeting at a place called Alangode.
DEAD BROUGHT TO LIFE:
At one such meeting dropped her three and a half year-old daughter in the crowd, and people trampled the child. The mother could not pick it up but had to retrieve the child by dragging it between the hundred of pairs of legs. The child was dead when taken out. The mother's plaintive appeal brought Bro.Lawrie to her side. He took the child in his arms, and holding it closely to his bosom, prayed for it. To the joy of the mother and praise to God by the crowd, the child opened its eyes and spoke.
Earlier in his life, even before he was waiting for God's lead to begin his ministry, one morning a man came running to him and cried, "Brother, my wife is dead and there is a wedding in the house this evening. Please come and pray". It is usual among Christians of these parts to call an elder or Gospel Worker to pray for the departed soul. The dead body was laid on the cot and people were crying their hearts out as Bro.Lawrie, with his unshaven face (he had no money to have a shave for many weeks), walked into the funeral house. As he prayed touching the body, he felt the power of God flow through him, and the woman sat up. This shook everyone around there and a great fear fell among them. From then on Bro.Lawrie was approached for any ailment from headache to cancer.
While Bro.Lawrie was holding a meeting in a place near Nagercoil, a woman brought her dead child to him crying, 'O man of God, can't you bring back my child to life as Elijah did?' Bro.Lawrie took the child and held in embrace, while others in the congregation were praying intently. Within a few minutes the child came back to life, and was handed over to the mother.
At Dr.Williams' Hospital in Nagercoil, a girl named Rani was at the point of death. The doctors gave her only fifteen minutes to live. The Pastor of the Church at Nagercoil was at her bedside praying for a painless death. Rani's mother went running to Bro.Lawrie and requested him to go to the hospital and pray for her dying daughter. On seeing Bro.Lawrie, the pastor frowned, "Have you come even to steal the dying sheep?" and left the hospital. Life was almost extinct in Rani, and her eyes were completely dead and closed. Bro.Lawrie knelt by her bedside and prayed. Within ten minutes, she was completely revived. She is still living in Nagercoil, happily married.
The scope of this book is limited to record the thousands of miraculous healings that have been witnessed in Bro.Lawrie's ministry. Physical well being is only the toddler's steps compared to the great strides millions have taken towards God in the meetings conducted by Bro.Lawrie and blessed with spiritual salvation. Everyone who has heard the spirit-filled messages through the lips of Bro.Lawrie and has been filled with the Spirit of God, has experienced this "Peace that passes all understanding".