Here's the story!!
In the Christmas season of 2004, i was spending Christmas looking after my parents' pets and home while they were away on holidays in the US.
It had snowed like crazy, and i decided to be nice, and shovel the roof off for my dad.
While i was pulling the snow off with this special shovel my dad has, i was standing on the banister of their sun deck, which is only about 3 1/2 feet off the deck level, and only about 6 feet off of the ground.
It was the last shovel full being pulled off on the deck side, and a big gust of wind came circling around me, and i didn't fight it because i knew that there was a nice big snow bank behind me, and so i stepped back, thinking i was stepping into a soft, five foot high snow bank, but there was no snow bank!
I stepped straight back, off the banister, and fell straight down onto the icy ground - dad's friend had cleaned the area right next to the deck right down to the frozen ground - because i was expecting a cushion, i didn't bend my legs, and landed full-force, right onto my feet - i felt a terrible pain and rolled around on the parking lot for a while. The dog, trying to help me & encouraging me to get up, came and licked my face while i was lying there!
i tried to stand up, and fell down again, realizing that i'd done something really awful - i had broken something in my right foot.
Anyways, i crawled in the house, called some friends to pray, got a bag of peas from the freezer, wrapped it around my foot, and waited for my son and his family, who were supposed to come and help me celebrate new year's eve.
When he arrived, he got his family situated, and then drove me to the hospital - i was having the cast put on my foot as the clock struck midnite of 2005. I had cracked my heel, and jammed all the bones in my foot - it was very painful.
2 days later, i was laying on the couch, in severe pain, and watching
"God Knows" on the Miracle Channel over Bell ExpressVu.
"..right now, God is healing your foot, and taking away the pain."I received her word by faith, and felt the tangible presence of God touch me.
I had, up to that point, been taking at least 3 tylenol 3's every 3 hours for the pain.
After that, i never took another painkiller for pain in that foot!
The healing process was progressive - it took from New Year's Eve to May 2005 for the foot to be healed - i gave up my cane in June of 2005, and now i rarely get even a twinge of reminder from the injury. I still know the injury was there, but i have full use of the foot.
I never went back to the doctor after the cast had been put on, because i cut the cast off myself. I trusted God for the whole process.
The journey to wholeness for my heel was amazing - i had many people praying for it, did a prophetic declarative prayer journey by bus across Canada on my crutches for the first half, and then by cane for the second half.
In Vancouver, at the first church of the prayer journey for the El Gibbor tour, there had just been a healing conference and training school, and a bunch of the young people gathered around by faith, to pray for my foot, taking away my crutches, trying to make me walk. I couldn't walk. There was absolutely no strength in those bones to be able to walk on them.
They were very upset and frustrated, because here i was, broken foot, and there they were, all trained in healing, full of faith, and i wasn't healed.
I tried to encourage them that it was okay, because sometimes healing is progressive, and that their prayers were not going unanswered. It just wasn't time.
As i worshipped and prayed for our nation, one of the speakers began to talk about the healing of our nation, Canada, and how it takes years of prayer and process for the deep wounds of a nation to be healed.
All of a sudden, the Lord gave me an assurance that i was going to be progressively healed as i travelled across the nation by faith, and even as Canada was in the process of progressive healing, so was i going to be progressively healed. I was very encouraged. Their prayers for me were not in vain, as the healing was already starting.
It wouldn't happen over night, or in one try, but as we continued to pray, and press in, and not give up, Canada would be healed, just as my heel was being healed - bit by bit, measure by measure.
A few stops later, i had a friend sit and massage and pray over my foot for a whole hour! The healing of the bones didn't manifest that moment, but her prayers prepared the atmosphere for what i'm going to tell you next!
i was continuing on my journey across Canada, and my next stop after my friend's house was Grande Prairie, Alberta. Pictured here: Trumpeter Swans and Beaver by Kakwa Falls, Pavement art in Grande Prairie, AB, Canada © Ulla Taylor 2004.
In every city i went to, i always liked to go to the centre of the city, to feel the flavour of the city. In Grande Prairie, i got on the city bus, and rode the bus around the city, getting off and on where i saw something that interested me.
I'd gotten off of the bus, and gone into a shop, wandered around a bit, still using my crutches, because i couldn't put any weight on the foot. I was standing, waiting for the bus, and a drunk aboriginal lady met me there.
(i didn't have a camera with me at that time, or i would have taken her picture, and as it was, she didn't even want to tell me her name. However, God knows her name, and i will never forget her, and this is her story of obedience to Jesus!)
She proceeded to tell me that Jesus had spoken to her, telling her that she was to go downtown and wait for me (she actually even knew what i was going to look like, and that i would be on crutches) and pray for my foot - she actually said that she hadn't wanted to go because she was drunk, but God insisted, so she went. And there she was, standing in front of me, and her drinking buddies were there to witness a healing miracle!
She asked me if i would allow her to lay hands on and pray for my foot.
I was so astounded that God would speak to someone about me that of course i gave her permission to go ahead - i could use all the prayer i could get!
As she prayed, she would look up at me, and ask, "how does that feel?", and i'd say, "no different", and so she'd pray some more.
Finally she said, "OK, now, it's time to test it. I need you to actually try to put some weight on it now."
So i did, and there was no strength in it at all. I nearly fell over!
This beautiful, albeit broken, woman, in her own pain, ministering to me, out of her pain. It was too much.
I was so moved that God had called her, in the midst of her pain to minister to me, that i wanted to be healed, just because of her obedience!
"You must start putting weight on it, and strengthening it, because it's healed. It just needs some use. You need to trust God, and begin to use it more and more each day."
(Note: this all happened on the sidewalk in view of the clock pictured here.)
So, by faith, i put my foot down very gingerly, and began to put a bit of weight on it. Amazingly enough, what had been impossible a few minutes before, was possible.
- all the amazing people, prayer warriors, intercessors, who prayed for my foot, and when this drunk lady prayed, i felt the power of God come over me again, and i put my uncasted foot on the ground, and after 3 months, i was actually able to put some weight on that foot!
Jesus is no respecter of persons, i'll tell you that!
I was so excited, that after praying for healing for her and thanking God for her, i jumped on the next bus and went straight to the church where the next meeting was, and showed the girls (who'd prayed for me in Vancouver for healing & gotten frustrated because i wasn't healed) that i could actually walk (albeit slightly gingerly) on my foot!!!!
When i told them the story of the drunk lady who'd been told by Jesus to come and pray for me, you could see their eyes glaze over, and i just knew that they didn't believe that she had been sent by God. Others were greatly encouraged, and believed God with me!!
Because i'd ministered all those years at a food bank, i knew that it was God sending her. And i know by the evidence of the fact that my foot got better and better from that day forward, and by the end of the journey i was walking miles on that foot, still with a limp and still using my cane, but i was using it!
It's now five years later, and i walk miles and miles. The evidence of the injury is still there, but it hinders me not at all, and it's now a "war-wound"! And a good victory story!
I am so thankful to Cindy Jacobs, to that drunk lady, to my friends who prayed, for their obedience to speak the word of God, in season, and out of season - Even on a pre-taped broadcast, the word of knowledge is still effective, and never returns void!!
We praise you Jesus, for YOU are so awesome, and we thank YOU Holy Spirit, for Your ministry is Wonderful! We thank you Father, for YOU never forget us.
Thank you that you didn't forget me Lord, even 30 miles in the bush, laying on a couch, weeping in pain, watching Christian re-runs on the television!!
And thank You that You placed all those wonderful people on my path during that journey, to agree with the Lord for the healing of my foot, even as they agreed for the healing of the nation.
God, Your awesome care for us as individuals and as nations (which are groups of individuals i guess!) astounds me.
I love You Lord Jesus. And i'm eternally grateful.
