Evangelist R. W. Schambach writes:
"I'll never forget, the greatest miracle I ever witnessed began with an offering. It happened under the ministry of Brother A. A. Allen. I was with this man of God for about five years in the fifties. . ."
". . . . A woman brought her child, who had twenty-six major diseases, to our meeting. I'll never forget this as long as I live. The boy was born blind, deaf and mute. Both arms were crippled and deformed. His elbows protruded up into his little tummy; his knees touched his elbows. Both legs were crippled and deformed; he had club feet. When he was born, his doctors said that boy would never live to see his first birthday, but they were wrong; he was approaching four years of age. Of course, his condition was breaking his mama's heart. She came to our meetings all week, and I got concerned about that boy. In those crusades, we had each person with a need fill out a prayer card, and as the Holy Spirit moved, we would pray for the needs God inspired us to pray for. And the Holy Spirit didn't seem to be moving us to pray for that little boy."
"The following Sunday, his mother came to me and said, 'Brother Schambach, I'm down to my last twenty dollars. I've paid the hotel bill, but we've been eating in the restaurant, coming to three services a day and giving in every offering. All the money has run out. My baby has not been prayed for.' She was very upset, and she was ready to give up and go home."
"I said 'Ma'am, I can't apologize for the moving of the Holy Ghost. I know you have to leave tonight, but if you come to the service and, once again, the Holy Spirit leads in another direction, and your son's prayer card is not drawn for prayer, I will personally take your baby to the man of God's trailer house and see that he lays hands on your baby. You will not leave disappointed.' And I meant that from my heart."
"That night I came out, and I led the singing in that evening service. Then I introduced Brother A. A. Allen, and he came bouncing out on that platform and said 'Tonight we're going to receive an offering of faith.' I had never heard him use that expression before, and I saw eyebrows lift all over the congregation. He went on, 'Now, if you don't know what I mean when I say an 'offering of faith,' I mean for you to give God something you cannot afford to give. That's a good definition, isn't it? If you can afford it, there's no faith connected to it. So give Him something you can't afford to give.'"
"As soon as Brother Allen said that, I saw that boy's mother leap out into the aisle and come running. Three thousand people were watching her in that Birmingham Fairgrounds Arena as she threw something in that offering bucket. I never saw anybody in such a hurry to give, and, I confess, I was nosy. I came down off that platform to see what she had given. You know what I saw in that bucket? A twenty dollar bill."
"I knew that was all she had. She had told me that. She had driven from Knoxville, Tennessee, to the meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. She didn't know how she was going to get home or what she was going to use to feed herself and her baby on the way. I went behind the platform and wept. I prayed, 'Lord, I've been trying to teach that woman faith all week. But now I'm asking You to give me faith like she's got!'"
". . . Brother Allen went on and collected the offering and launched into his sermon. But about fifteen minutes into his message he stopped and said, 'I'm being carried away in the Spirit.'"
"I said to myself, 'Here we go again on another trip.' This is how God used him: he said he could see what the Holy Spirit wanted to communicate to him like he was watching it on a television screen. He would describe it as he saw it. That night he said, 'I'm being carried away to a huge white building. Oh, it's a hospital.' Of course, I heard this kind of thing every night that I worked with Brother Allen so I was sitting there unmoved."
"Then he said, 'I'm inside the hospital, and there's no doubt in my mind where I'm heading because I hear all these babies crying. It's a maternity ward. I see five doctors around a table. A little baby has been born. The baby was born with twelve, no, sixteen, no, twenty-six diseases.'"
"When he said that, I started getting chill bumps up and down my spine. I said, 'Oh, my God, tonight's that baby's night!"
"Brother Allen continued, 'Twenty-six diseases. The doctors said he'd never live to see his first birthday, but that's not so. That boy is approaching four. Now I see the mother packing a suitcase. They're going on a trip. Another lady's with her. The baby's in a bassinet. It's in the back seat of an old Ford. They're driving down the highway. I see the Alabama/Tennessee border. That automobile is driving in the parking lot. Lady you're here tonight. Bring me that baby! God's going to give you twenty-six miracles.'"
"That woman came running again for the second time that night. She put the baby in Brother Allen's arms. I jumped up to stand beside him, and everybody in the audience, 3,000 strong, was standing. Brother Allen must have wanted to be sure that the audience was agreeing in faith for the miracle because he said, 'Everybody, close your eyes.' But I thought, 'Not me, mister. I'm going to be scriptural on this one. I'm going to watch and pray. I've been waiting for this all week.'"
"That little boy's tongue had been hanging out of his mouth all week. The first thing I saw as Brother Allen prayed was that tongue snapped back in the mouth like a rubber band. For the first time in four years, the little guy's tongue was in his mouth. I saw two little whirlpools in his eyes, just a milky color. You couldn't tell whether he had blue or brown or what color of eyes. But during the prayer, that whirlpool ceased, and I saw two brand new brown eyes! I knew God had opened his eyes, and if God opened the eyes, I knew He had unstopped the deaf ears."
"Then those little arms began to snap like pieces of wood; and for the first time, they stretched out. The legs cracked like wood popping. All of sudden, I saw God form toes out of those club feet as easily as child forms something with silly-putty. The crowd was watching by this time going wild! I've never seen any people shout and rejoice so much in all my life."
"I saw that baby placed on his feet, and he began to run for the first time in his life. He had never seen his mama before, never said a word, but he began running across the platform and I was running right after him to catch him. He leaped into his mama's arms, and I heard him say his first word, 'Mama.'"
" . . . . The following Saturday after his healing, I received a special delivery letter from his mother. . . She said 'Brother Schambach, I took the baby to the hospital Monday morning, and the doctors won't give him back. They kept him all week. They have called in every doctor from all over the country who has had anything to do with the case. They have pronounced my baby cured of twenty-six major diseases.' Of course, we went on to get the copies of the affidavits from the doctors certifying that boy's life was a genuine miracle."
"Her letter continued, 'You remember that last Sunday when I told you all I had was twenty dollars? God knows that was the truth. But when that man of God said to give something you can't afford, I leaped into the aisle. The moment I hit that aisle, for the first time in my life I heard the devil talk. The devil told me, 'You can't give that; that's not yours. Fifteen dollars of that goes to the doctor. Five dollars is for gas to get home.' The faster I ran, the faster he talked. But as soon as I turned loose of that money, he stopped talking.'
"'Brother Schambach, all you saw was those twenty-six miracles, but there is one you don't know anything about. After you were gone, people were staying there. They wanted to see the baby and see what God had done. People shook hands with me. When one lady shook my hands, I felt a folded piece of paper between my palms. I opened it up and saw it was a twenty dollar bill. As I shook hands with the people who had lined up, every one of them had a folded paper in their hand. I went into the ladies room and counted $235!'"
THE ABOVE EXCERPT WAS TAKEN FROM
Schambach, R. W. You Can't Beat God Givin': Miracle Testimonies from Ordinary People Serving an Extraordinary God. Tyler, TX: Power Publications, 1994.
