Lightning Struck…

Working in the fields with his father, Omar Mohammed watched a black scowl gathering across the face of the sky and heard thunderclouds growling with menace. Omar and his father ran for shelter, the storm pursuing them with lightning flashing like a glittering sword.

Presently he stirred, finding himself alive. Near by, his father’s twisted form lay sprawled. Omar crawled over but could see he was lifeless. The angry storm had robbed him of his father. What would have been his shocked scream of panic, issued as a wordless croak. He could not utter a syllable. He was dumb!

Uncanny silence also engulfed him. Neither the thunder nor the hissing of the gale were penetrating his ears. They were dead. In fact, later diagnoses revealed that the high electric voltage lightning had burned out his voice and aural capacities. In one tragic second his future had been wrecked.

Desperately ill, in hospital, doctors and specialists studied and examined his injuries. Weeks, months, no improvement. More hospital visits, more examinations, more consultants and the final verdict – the damage was irreversible. Nothing in the world could be done for the young man.

Omar had grown up in Southern Sudan, the only country in Africa with a religious government, where Muslim Shariah law operated. Now he was officially registered as having a major handicap, being deaf and dumb. The government granted him identification as a disabled person, giving him license to beg.

Begging was his only way to survive. Omar set himself up daily outside the busy campus of the Khartoum University and for over five years became part of the scene familiar to thousands.

Then at the beginning of the year 2000, he read that the German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke and the Christ for all Nations team were coming to Khartoum for meetings in the vast Green Square, the area where government rallies were held. For Omar, events were rare, especially free events like this one. When he saw people moving in like great streams, flooding the square, he joined them.

 

…Twice

The multitude sang around him and Omar could see this man speaking from the platform. But despite the high-powered amplifiers not a word reached him He grasped what was happening however, when the evangelist made a prayer for all sick and afflicted people, for many pressed forward to demonstrate they had been healed. In his silent word he heard the whisper of hope.

On the second afternoon Omar was there again in the service near the front. Once more the preacher spoke, following it with instruction and prayer for the afflicted. Then it happened. Bitter fate had once flashed from the sky and wrecked his life, but as Reinhard named the name of Jesus, it felt to Omar as if lighting had again struck him. He was felled to the ground as before. What now?

He soon knew. An explosion of sound burst upon him – two hundred thousand people roaring with joy. He could hear, acutely! He leaped to his feet and shouted, in words! It was impossible but there was his voice back, full strength! Heaven held no angry kismet. This Jesus about whom Reinhard Bonnke spoke wielded better power than destructive judgment. This God of mercy had targeted a shaft of healing at him and healed him.
 

Totally Healed

He became conspicuous, jumping delirious with joy. Close by sat important officials of the Khartoum government keeping an eye on these Christian proceedings. Muslims all, they saw what they never dreamed possible on this earth, a deaf-mute restored, shouting and hearing. The magnitude of the marvel before their very eyes stunned them, moved and touched them. They knew Omar, like thousands did. In this moment sheer gratitude naturally meant that they had to thank God. Who would wish to deny it was the hand of the Almighty?

On the last day of the mission Omar came and stood before the multitudes demonstrating the restoration of his faculties, his once lost voice declaring the goodness of the Lord. He said he was returning to his home in the south to take up work, no longer having to beg, now able to earn his daily bread. As 210,000 spectators praised God, He announced he would be surrendering his disability document to the appropriate officials together with the explanation that he no longer needed it as Jesus Christ had healed him.

Reinhard Bonnke stood with Omar and prophesied that God had His hand upon him, and that one day he would preach Jesus, and become an evangelist.

He will not be the only one. Many others are being launched into the service of the Lord from the Bonnke campaigns, to stun the world with amazing stories. Knowing a Jesus like that, who would expect them to stay quiet?