BE DISCIPLINED AND DETERMINED

One day I sat talking to Tom Seymour in Los Angeles. I told him about the following incident in the life of Elias Letwaba, one of our native preachers in South Africa. I went to Letwaba’s house one day in the country, and his wife said, “He is not home. A little baby is hurt, and he is praying for it.”

So, I went over to the native hut where he was, got down on my knees, and crawled inside. I saw Letwaba kneeling in a corner by a child. I said, “Letwaba, it is me. What is the matter with the child?” He told me the mother had been carrying it on her back in a blanket, as natives carry their children, and it fell out. He said, “I think it hurt its neck.” I examined the baby and saw that its neck was broken. It would turn from side to side like the neck of a doll. “Why, Letwaba, the baby’s neck is broken!” I did not have faith for a broken neck, but Letwaba did not know the difference. I saw that he did not understand. He discerned the spirit of doubt in my soul, and I said to myself, I am not going to interfere with his faith. He will just feel the doubt generated by all the old traditional things I have learned, so I will go outside.

I went to another hut and kept on praying. I lay down at 1 a.m. At 3 o’clock, Letwaba came in. I said, “Well, Letwaba, how about the baby?” He looked at me, so lovingly and sweetly, and said, “Why, brother, the baby is all well! Jesus do heal the baby.” I said, “The baby is well! Letwaba, take me to the baby at once.”

So, we went to the baby. I took the little thing on my arm and came out of the hut praying: “Lord, take every cursed thing out of my soul that keeps me from believing the Lord Jesus Christ.” As I related the incident to Mr. Seymour, he shouted, “Praise God, brother! That is not healing—it is life!” (John G. Lake)