MIRACLE HEALING TESTIMONY
by:  Terry Somers, New Castle, New Brunswick, Canada

"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

I RECEIVED A HEALING MIRACLE FROM JESUS CHRIST

I have suffered for 17 years with back problems

An accident in a mine changed my life in 1977 and our little dream would fall apart.  I had a home, a family and a little baby girl 5 months old.  We had a new car, good jobs and everything we needed, until it all collapsed one day!

I WORKED IN THE MINES

I worked in the mines and we had a lot of trouble with pipes pumping water from underground to the surface.  As I began my shift one morning, I was told, "The pumps have stopped pumping again.  You'll have to do a clean-out."

Sometimes we had to use dynamite and get the pumps going, but they didn't want us to use dynamite because it was too dangerous and could do a lot of damage.

I WAS THROWN ON A PLATFORM AND LANDED ON MY BACK

I got under the pipe and began working on it when everything let loose.  When it let go, I was standing on the wet, greasy platform.  The water pressure hit my chest and threw me backwards.  I fell of the platform and landed on my back, on a set of railroad tracks below.

THE DOCTORS OPERATED ON MY BACK AND REMOVED A DISK

I was taken to the hospital and they tried different things.  Nothing helped.  Finally they decided to operate - the first of many - and took a disk out of my back.

THE OPERATION ON MY BACK DIDN"T HELP - I HAD CONSTANT BACK PAIN

I was told by the doctor before the operation that the chances were 50-50.  After the operation, I was no better.  They tried other things.  I went to doctors in Fredericton, St. John, Halifax & Toronto.  I saw a lot of doctors.  No one could help me!  A doctor in Fredericton said, "Lets try another operation on your back."  So I went back on the operating table.  This time he told me "there is no guarantee."

I said, "Well, I look at it this way - have have to try something."  Soon after the second operation, I still had constant back pain and I started going to a chiropractor and I continued going there for 13 1/2 years.

Eventually I did get back to work, but I never had a pain free day for 17 years - NOT ONE MINUTE WITHOUT PAIN".  My back pain was constant and the back pain made my life miserable.

I LEARNED TO LIVE WITH THE BACK PAIN

I learned to live with the back pain.  Most of the time I could live with it.  When it got too back and I couldn't stand it, I would go home, park my tractor trailer (18 wheeler) and stay in bed for a week or two and just get out of bed to get treatment.  When I got the back pain under control I would go back to work again.

The doctors and chiropractors kept telling me, "This is not good - each time you do this, you are doing more damage to your back and body!"

Eventually the back pain got so bad I started losing all feeling from the waist down.  I'd be driving, when suddenly all feeling would go from my waist down.  There was nothing!  I would pull myself over with my arms into a different position, and the feeling would come back and I'd keep on going.

I WAS PARALYZED FROM THE WAIST DOWN

Then one day, I began getting out of the truck, I turned around, stepped out and there was nothing.  I landed on my face on the ground, completely paralyzed from the waist down.

I laid there for quite a while.  Then I pulled myself over a little bit with my airms using the step of the fuel tank.  I tried to get myself in a position to stand up when the feeling would return, which it eventually did.

I went to the doctor and told him what had happened.  He said, "You are going to have to stop working.  One of these days the feeling will not come back and you'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life."  So I headed down to 'Compensation' again.  They tried various procedures which they had not used before - like hooking up different machines - one after another - but nothing helped.

All the time I was going through this horrible back pain I still believed in the back of my mind that someday a doctor would come up with a cure for me.  I thought I would somehow meet a doctor who would help me.  Well, for the last 2 1/2 years before my miracle, I worked 6 months and I had a hard time doing so.

THE DOCTOR SAID - THERE IS NO CURE FOR YOU

One day they 'sat me down' on a bed and told me, ":There will never be a cure.  you will eventually be in a wheelchair.  You will never work again."

At that time I had to face reality - there was no hope.  People had been praying for me for 17 years.  I had prayed for myself.  Now I was giving up on the doctors and the people around me and putting my trust totally in the Lord.

I was taking 3 times the amount of prescribed medicines and yet I could not stand the pain.  I was praying every night that God would take me home.  That I would die.  Many days, I couldn't sleep at all - day or night.  My wife would hear me crying and asking God to let me die.

I was allowed one pill every 4 hours, another one every 12 hours and another one at night.  I got to the point that I would open up the bottle and take 2 or 3 pills at one time.  I couldn't wait for the 4 hours.  The pills I was to take one every 12 hours - I was taking 2-3 every 3-4 hours.

PASTOR MAX SOLBREKKEN CAME TO LYTTLETON FOR A CRUSADE

I was born and raised in a Christian home and went to the Baptist Church in Lytleton.  My daughter Tasha started attending the Pentecostal Church.  She said, "Dad, there is a man coming you preaches the gospel and prays for the sick and many people are getting healed.  Will you come?"

I said, "Tasha, I'd love to go but with all the pain I'm in and the suffering I am going through - I wouldn't be able to sit through the service."

At that time I still believed that there was a doctor coming - I still had the thought in the back of my mind - I would be cured through medical science.

Anyway, Pastor Max Solbrekken came and Tasha asked him to pray for me.  Pastor Solbrekken gave her an anointed prayer cloth for me to use.  I carried that cloth until Pastor Solbrekken cam back in September.  When Tasha told me that he was returning she asked, "Dad, will you come?"  I said, "Tasha, I don't know how I can do it, but I will go.  I promise you I will."

I have a good friend, Mervin Mutch, whom I work with.  He called me on Thursday and said, "What are you doing?"  I said, "Nothing."  He asked, "How's your back?"  I answered, "Terrible."

HE BROUGHT DOWN THE BETTY BAXTER STORY OF GOD'S MIRACLE IN HER LIFE

I finally got to see to see most of it (sitting, standing and lying down) - in starts and stops - and saw what God for done for her.  Mervin asked, "Will you come to the Max Solbrekken Crusade?"

I answered, "I promised my daughter and i am going to promise you that I will go to the meeting even though I do not know how I am going to stand the pain."

On Friday night I didn't go because the pain was too great.  Saturday, the pain was as bad as the night before.  Cathy asked, "Are you going to go to church tonight?"  I answered, "I don't know.  I  am in an awful lot of pain."  She said, "You promised."  I asked her if she was going and she said she wasn't.

I said, "I think I will go", and as soon as I said those words, the pain got worse.  I am sure it was the devil trying to keep me away from the crusade.

I took a bunch of pills before going.  I also put extra pills in my pocket and I went to the church and sat on the back seat.

Mervin came to me and said, "Come sit with me at the front and when Pastor Max prays for the sick, you'll be right there."  I said, "No, I will be in so much, I'll have to go in and out and I don't want to disturb the service so I will stay at the back."

After Brother Max was through preaching he asked if anyone wanted prayer.  A lot of people went for prayer so I thought, "I'll stay here until they are finished."  Mervin started to bring me to the alter area when Pastor A.W. Rowe approached me.  I was in bad shape.  He asked, "What is your name?"  I told him.  He said, "We have been praying for you for a long time.  After Pastor Max is finished praying with this person, I am going to tell him that you are here."

Pastor Max asked me to sit down on a chair, he took my feet in his hands and tried to raise my legs but the pain was so bad I couldn't lift them very high.

AS PASTOR MAX SOLBREKKEN PRAYED I WAS INSTANTLY HEALED

As he prayed, I was instantly healed.  The pain left - there was no pain.  I couldn't bend over enough to get my finger tips below my knee caps but instantly I could touch my toes and jump up and down and lift heavy things.  I was in total shock.

I stayed after the service and picked up Pastor A.W. Rowe - who weighed 230 pounds - and a few other people.  As I was leaving the church I thought I'd go and tell Mom and Dad who lived about 1 1/2 miles from the church but decided to go straight home (15-20 miles) so that my wife would be the first to know about my miracle.

 thought,  "I've had this for 17 years and I've got a wife and 2 children who have been with me through everything."

When I got home, the house was empty.  My wife had gone to visit her sister and the kids were with their friends.  I got wild and  I ran up and down the stairs, did push-ups and sit-ups with no pain whatsoever.

I GOT DOWN ON MY KNEES AND THANKED GOD.  PRAISE THE LORD

When my wife got home, she was at the sink and I came up behind her and said, "Guess what?"  She said, "You got healed".  I said, "Yes, I got healed."  She turned around and looked at me.  And she knew that the pain was gone.

I love my children and I love my wife.  She has been with me now for 22 years.  For 17 years I was crippled up.  I have a daughter and a son who will be 17 and 20 this summer.

I couldn't do anything with them for 17 years.  I wouldn't pick them up or play with them.  Anytime I was working, when I would come home, I didn't try to do anything with them so as not to hurt my back.  I wasn't allowed to pick up anything and couldn't.  But I've been doing stuff with them in the last 3 years like water-skiing and ski-dooing.

The back pain used to be so terrible that I, as a grown man, would lie in bed at night and cry and couldn't sleep for days because of the terrible pain.  Its a very hard thing for a grown man to lie in bed, night after night, crying and praying that God would take me home.

FOR 3 YEARS I HAVE BEEN PAIN FREE NO PILLS & NO PAIN

My wife heard me pray this prayer night after night.  I didn't want to leave my family, but I couldn't stand the pain.  I couldn't deal with it anymore but now for nearly 3 years I have been PAIN FREE - NO PILLS & NO PAIN.

I have been working since my miracle from God.  I work in the woods and I have been trucking every day - hauling logs.  I have 12 stakes which I have to change 2-3 times a day.  Each stake weighs 200 pounds.

While driving - before my miracle - others had to change my stakes for me.  Since the miracle I change all my own stakes.  On the night of my miracle, my daughter and son came home.  Tasha;s boyfriend's family has a motorboat and I said, "You know what, next summer I'm going to go water-skiing."

And that following summer they got me in the boat and I went water-skiing.  People say to me, "You went water-skiing??"  And I say, "I've got a problem - I'm 40 years old and I've got a 20 year old mind."  I am doing all the things I've never done in my life!  And my wife says she has a new husband and the children say that they have a new Dad.

INTERVIEW DONE AT LYTTLETON PENTECOSTAL CHURCH 
on May 25, 1997

Cathy Somers:  I've got a new husband in every way.  And I thank God for it.

Pastor Max Solbrekken:  Pastor A.W. Rowe faxed me 17 pages from the Workers Compensation Board's doctors and specialists regarding Terry Somers.

Terry Somers:  Exactly one month after the miracle happened, I went back to the specialists and after x-rays and a thorough examination, he said, "If you did not have the scars on your back or the monograms and all the extensive medical reports, any doctor examining you or x-raying your spine, would say that you never had the accident or were never operated on.  Your back is the same as before you had the accident."

Cathy Somers:  It's like having a new life.  Now we can do a lot of things together as a family.

Mervin Mutch:  Well, I phoned Terry the day before Max Solbrekken was coming to Lyttleton for a Labor Day Rally in 1994.  I asked Terry how he was.  He said, "Not good."  My back is in bad shape.  I can't do anything."  He said that he had 2 back operations where they removed a disc and the nerves were damaged.  He told me about all the hospitals he had spent time in and that the doctors tell him as always, "There is nothing we can do.  There is no hope.  Your case is incurable."

He said that he was just a young man but he would just as soon die.  I said, "Terry, you don't need to believe that.  God Almighty can heal your back.  Max Solbrekken is coming here Friday and you come on up."  I asked him if he had a VCR and I took Betty Baxter's testimony tape of how God healed her from several incurable diseases."

TERRY HAD HOPE WAS WHEN HE SAW THE BETTY BAXTER VIDEO AND PROMISED HE WOULD ATTEND THE MAX SOLBREKKEN CRUSADE

He didn't come to the meeting on Friday and on Saturday his wife Cathy and her daughter Tasha got after him to go.  On Saturday night when I came here, he was standing at the door and I noticed he was in terrific pain, leaning against the wall.

I said, "Terry, come and sit with me near the front".  But he said he needed to sit near the back so he could get up and move around because of the pain.  He didn't know whether he could even stay for the service because of terrible pain."

I said, "Alright, after Max Solbrekken finished preaching and calls for the sick, you come up."  After the message, people became coming forward for prayer but I saw Terry still at the back leaning against the wall.  I went to the back to get him.  I said, "Terry, come on up, you've got nothing to lose."

Pastor Max Solbrekken sat Terry down on a chair and prayed and then in a minute or two, Terry was jumping up and down saying that all the pain was gone.  Then Pastor Max asked him to lift Pastor A.W. Rowe who weighed 230 pounds and that kind of scared me, but Terry did it with no ill effects.

I thought, "A man that could not lift anything just a few minutes earlier, but now can lift a man weighing 230 pounds.  That is the work of God Almighty."  God is no respecter of persons and what He has done for Terry - He can do for anyone else."

Terry came to me Monday and asked if he could use one of my trucks because he wanted to go back to work right away.  I told Pastor Solbrekken and was a bit worried that he could over do it - but Pastor Solbrekken said, "These miracles usually stand.  They hold good."

TERRY WORKED FOR A FULL WEEK AND ON THE FRIDAY WAS AS FRESH AS ANY OTHER HEALTHY PERSON.  Praise God.

Pastor Max Solbrekken:  Tasha, what do you think about all this?

Tasha:  Great.  I love it.  I have a new Dad.

Pastor Max Solbrekken:  How do you feel Terrance?  How do you feel about your Dad's miracle?

Terrance:  Il love it.  My Dad's a new man, and we have got a new family.

WHAT IS THE KEY
 to receiving healing, miracles and answers to Prayer?
By: Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.

SEEKING GOD IN PRAYER, PRAISE, WORSHIP AND EXPECTANT FAITH

The key to receiving miracles and answers to prayers in found in seeking God in prayer, praise, worship and having expectant faith. Unfailing faith that God will answer your prayers and expect a miracle.  I believe that a major key to  miraculous healing miracles can be found in the steadfast faith, steadfast godly lifestyle and exemplary Christian testimony.

A DOCTOR ANSWERS QUESTIONS ON FAITH HEALING
By: Dr. A. Wagenaar of Hilversum, Holland

Questions: Dr. Wagenaar, will you tell us what your position is in the field of science?

Answers: "I have been medical superintendent in the Orchidee Hospital, Hilversum, for the last six years. Before that I was a family doctor for 23 years in Dordrecht."

Questions:  Do you believe in miracles of healing?

Answers: "Of course! In my practice as a family doctor I have seen many miracles take place."

Questions: When is healing a miracle?

Answers: "When it is not the result of medical treatment."

Questions: Can a miracle not be explained away psychologically?

Answers: "No, that is not to be thought of. Just as you cannot explain away the miracles of the New Testament.

"Every physician knows that spontaneous miracles do occur. You will be interested to know that spontaneous hearings have even been reported in patients who suffer from cancer. This has been publicized several times in medical journals. Medical science has admitted that miracles do occur after the prayer of faith."

Questions: You said that you have seen miracles occur in your practice. Could you give us an example?

Answers: "Yes, in Dordrecht I had a very busy practice. A family doctor in the course of his practice meets many people who are in urgent need of medical help and he does all he can to help them.

"I will tell you about one patient. He used to play music in bars and was inclined to treat life lightly. He needed an operation and I gave him a card for the hospital. But before he was to be operated on I asked him to go with me to one of Ev. Johan Maasbach's big meetings. He agreed and, during the meeting, concentrated on God. When he went later to check in for the operation the surgeon said, You can go home, we are not going to operate on you, you are totally healed!"

Questions: Have you advised other people too to go to Johan Maasbach's meetings?

Answers: "Yes, many! Generally after an introductory talk and often after I have spoken to one of the elders of the church; I asked the elder to visit my patient and, so to speak, break the ice. I know that Br. Maasbach sends the patient on to the Heavenly Doctor who can do more than all the branches of science combined.

"Over and above those I have mentioned I have sent many others to Br. Maasbach after they had been to consult me. I have seen them saved in the meeting and healed as well. I am so glad that in this time when one church after another is being broken down there are still people who let their voices be heard more than ever. We urgently need more men like Johan Maasbach.

He is a man who has preached for many years that sickness usually comes from within - from the heart of man - and is often the result of hate, envy, grudges and bitterness. Now medical science too admits that many diseases are a result of inner tensions!"

Questions: You believe then that Br. Maasbach is not being medically irresponsible in what he preaches?

Answers: "No indeed! He preaches that people who come forward for healing must bring not only their sins but also their cares and all their inner problems to God. That is a healing truth. That is biblical truth."

Questions: How did you yourself come to faith in Christ?

Answers: "I will tell you! When I was a young man of 23 1 almost drowned. I was trying to save a woman who had fallen into the water and it nearly resulted in my own death. However, after fighting for my life and finally reaching dry land, I was a new man. I knew that I had reached a spiritual turning point. God had let me live!"

Questions: What do you think about certain doctors who have seen miracles with their own eyes and still refuse to believe?

Answers: "I have met people who have had their healing confirmed by many people and who afterwards went to various doctors to demonstrate their hea5;ng only to be rejected. I must assume that these doctors are totally blind to God's existence..

This is not however a problem peculiar to medical science; you know as well as I do that many ministers, preachers and priests; are just as blind to the message of divine heating."

Questions: Doctor, do you often speak to your patients about faith in Jesus Christ?

Answers: "I always do so when I feel so guided. When you know that, medically speaking, there is no cure possible then - at least this is how it is for me - you can only speak a positive word, the Word of God.

"I have personally led several people who were ill to the through inner tensions to the Lord. Only He, Jesus Christ, can give that desperately needed rest."

Questions: Do you think that later a medical cure may be found for certain illnesses which can now only be cured by a miracle?

Answers: "If I think of cancer, I know that man is hard at work to find a cure. This is the prediction and hope of everyone working in that field. However they have not yet found a cure. And should a medical cure be found there will still be other incurable illnesses…"

Questions: Finally doctor, do you consider that personal faith in Jesus Christ is of importance to science?

Answers: "Very important!! You know that science has gone out on a limb in believing that man is descended from apes. Science is still trying to find the missing link!! The friction between faith and science is that when man comes to faith he can no longer accept such theories as that of evolution.

"Faith in Jesus Christ is of the utmost importance for all, including those engaged in the pursuit of scientific knowledge."

"... and with His stripes we were healed." Isaiah 53:5