"Don’t get your hopes up, John. You may never get your voice back.” Those were the words of my surgeon after he operated on me for throat cancer in 2000. The cancer was successfully removed but my vocal chords were severely damaged.
I couldn’t sing anymore, something I loved to do, and my speaking voice was reduced to a whisper. I’m a Christian but I suffered from bouts of depression over the next two years as I struggled to get my voice back.
I’m a truck driver and in January of 2002 I stopped to eat at a little restaurant in Georgia. A woman I had never seen before walked over to my table from the opposite side of the restaurant.
“Sir,” she said, “do you mind if I obey the voice of the Lord? He is telling me to lay hands on you and pray for the healing of your throat.”
“Yes, please sit down,” I told her. This woman was a total stranger to me but she had the boldness to speak the words the Lord gave her.
She was probably around 40 years old with brown hair pulled into a bun on top of her head. She was well-dressed in a long white skirt and a long-sleeved pink blouse. She sat down across from me, pulled a bottle of baby oil out of her purse, and anointed me with oil as she placed her hands on my throat and prayed:
“Dear Lord Jesus, I am doing what you impressed upon my heart to do. I am anointing this man in your name and asking you to heal his vocal chords, to restore his voice to what it was before the cancer. You have a reason for wanting his voice to return. I am asking you to heal him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
All I could do was cry tears of joy as she prayed for me. I felt a warmth in my throat from her hand and the feeling of depression lifted immediately. I felt as if I were on a mountaintop. I knew I had experienced a miracle.
The woman’s parting words to me were, “Don’t get too settled in trucking because God has something else in store for you. God will use the dark times you’ve had in your life in a powerful way if you follow His leading and teaching. You have much to share with people about your past life. You will be able to help others who are going through those same valleys.”
She was right about my life. I had gone through a lot of dark times, including drugs and a prison sentence, but my life was changed when I invited Jesus to be Lord of my life.
When I spoke to the cashier as I left the restaurant, I noticed an immediate improvement in my voice. The sensation of warmth on my throat that I had felt when she placed her hands on me continued for several hours.
Over the next month, my voice gradually improved. In fact, my voice improved to the point that my pastor asked me to fill the pulpit for him two Sundays while he was on vacation.
I saw God’s hand move in other parts of my life as well. I prayed for a trucking job that would allow me to be home on weekends so I could attend church. God answered that prayer, allowing me to be home 99 percent of the time on weekends. The depression, too, completely disappeared, another one of God’s miracles.
It has been nine years since my surgery. My voice is still raspy, but understandable. God made that possible so I can share my testimony. Now I witness for Christ every chance I get, even at prisons. We have a great God and He gets all the glory!
(Originally published in The Times Frankfort, IN, on 9 February 2002, in a devotional story for the religion page.)
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