I've Got Legs!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
A few years ago, I experienced something I believed could never happen to me.  I was a philosophical theologian-I'm still a philosophical theologian-but now I'm a theologian who believes in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
     The Lord brought me to this belief in a miraculous way.  I knew the answers theologically and apologetically, but experientially I'd never seen the evidence that Jesus Christ is alive.  Someone may say, "Well, every newborn soul is evidence."  Of course it is, but to the person who's philosophically oriented you need more evidence then just a testimony.
     I was in New England at the time, and I happened to be preaching in a church near Cape Cod.  It had been a hard week, and I was dead tired.  I decided I was not going to preach any more that week; I wanted to go home and rest.  On my way back to New Jersey I stopped to visit a friend, who was also a pastor.  We chatted for a while and as I was leaving he said, "Oh, by the way Walter, there's a very special meeting tonight.  They're all converted drug addicts.  Would you like to come?"
     I smiled and shook my head.  ""No thank you.  I'm just too tired."
     He said, "Look, you don't have to preach.  Just come and enjoy the meeting.  It's a great time of testimony."
      "I'm tired and I don't want to go," I said, as nicely as possible under the circumstances.  (I was so exhausted, I couldn't think of anything else to say!)
     "You'll get blessed!"  He promised.
    "Oh, alright-I'll go."  This guy wouldn't give up!  I was beat, but I needed to be blessed.
     So, I went.  He told me, "I give you my word, Doc, you don't have to preach."
     You know, you meet people like this in life.  They give you their word that you won't have to do one thing, then they get you to do something else; very sneaky people.  When we got there he casually suggested, "You don't have to preach tonight, Walt, but maybe you'd like to give a testimony?"  I gave my testimony, and I spoke of how the Lord had touched my life and shown me some things about the spirit of God-and how I praised Him for it.
     After the service, I slipped down the left aisle of the auditorium and headed straight for a side exit hidden behind some curtains.  I walked out the door, and as I came down the back steps, a nice-looking boy-about seventeen years of age- was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.  When I saw him I thought: How sad . . . a handsome, healthy young boy leaning on crutches.
     "Sir," he said, very quietly.  "Would you do me a favor?"
     "What is it?" I asked.
     "I heard you say that you believe Jesus can heal."
     "I do."
     "Would you pray for me?"
     In that instant, I panicked and looked around for help (being at heart a man of great faith.)
      "Uh, well," I said, still looking for help.  (There wasn't anyone around!)  I had just talked about Acts 3:6, so what could I do?  I said, "Alright, I'll pray for you."
     I laid my hands on him and just before I started to pray, one person came out of the door-a Roman Catholic nun wearing the Holy Spirit emblem of a dove.  She was a Charismatic!  Oh well, I thought, I need all the help I can get.
     I began to pray.  Oh, did I pray!  "Lord, touch this boy.  Lord, heal him."  I didn't know what was wrong with him, except that he had crutches.
     We got finished and I asked him how he felt.  He said, "I don't rightly know.  But I feel like I've got legs!"
     "Like you have what?"
     "Legs!"  He shouted.
     "Don't you have any legs?"  I said, stunned.
     "Yes, Sir, but I have steel braces on my legs because I've never walked.  My legs are atrophied, and I can't feel anything."
     "What do you feel like now?"
     "I feel like I've got legs!"
     I'm such a great man of faith.  I turned around to two buck-skinned brothers who were standing there, complete with beards, and I said, "Come over here, brothers."
     They stood on either side of him, and he handed me his crutches.  I said, "If Jesus touched you, you can walk."  And he walked.  He walked towards me and threw his arms around me, and kissed me.  He walked all over that auditorium.  He walked up and down the stairs eight times.  He walked across the parking lot, and I had to stop him from walking home!  I found out later he walked until four o'clock in the morning because he was afraid if he stopped walking, he'd never walk again.
     God showed me for the first time that night the experiential evidence that Jesus Christ was alive.  The power of the Holy Spirit was as real today as it was two thousand years ago when the apostle Peter said, "Walk!"  God healed this young boy and in the process, he touched my heart in a way that would forever change my life.