John G. Lake lived from March 18, 1870, until 1935, and was mightily used of God to bring healing to untold numbers of people. The following information comes from a book entitled: "John G. Lake - His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith"
(pg 317)
On June 15 we were waited upon at our Healing Rooms by a committee of the Better Business Bureau of the city of Spokane, whose duty in part it is to investigate the truthfulness of all public announcements appearing in the city papers. For some time previous to this we had been publishing some of the wonderful testimonies of healing by the power of God that had taken place in the daily course of our ministry at the Divine Healing Institute.
Among the testimonies that had appeared was the wonderful testimony of Mrs. John A Graham, nee Peterson, whose healing astonished the medical world. Testimony of Rev. Joseph Osborne, left to die of Bright's disease at the Deaconess Hospital, analysis showing 15 per cent albumen; Rev. Charles B. LeDoux, healed when in very death from pneumonia; Mrs. Mary Mero, Mrs. Lena Lakey, Grover Risdon, Baby Agnes Young, Mrs. Mary Matheny, of Portland, Oregon, who was healed of 40 cancers, and others.
These testimonies were so astounding that complaints reached the Better Business Bureau to the effect that the testimonies must certainly be untrue. The Better Business Bureau promptly undertook an investigation and the call at our Healing Rooms was for that purpose.
In the presence of the committee, as they waited, we called 18 persons, whose testimonies had appeared in the public print, who in turn gave testimony as to their own condition and the wonder of their healing by the power of God in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, under this ministry. After 18 had been examined we presented them with names of many healed persons in the city, desiring them to go personally to these persons and investigate for themselves whether these things were so.
Realizing the amount of labor necessary for a proper investigation, I suggested to the committee that on Sunday, June 23, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, at our public service, we would present 100 cases of healed persons for their investigation and invited them to form a committee composed of physicians, lawyers, judges, educators, and business men who should render a verdict.
In the days lapsing between the interview at the Healing Rooms and Sunday, June 23, the committee continued their investigation, interviewing persons whose names we had furnished them. On Friday, June 21, before our great Sunday meeting, we received a letter from the committee, assuring us that they had no desire in any way to interfere with the good which we were doing, and gently let themselves down so that their appearance at the Sunday meeting would not be necessary. Two members of the committee saw us privately and said that the committee was astounded. They said, "We soon found out, upon investigation, you did not tell half of it."
Mr. Lake, however, announced that there would be no change in the program, but that the meeting as announced would take place, and if the Better Business Bureau would not take their place, he would appeal to the public for a verdict. The meeting took place before a large audience, estimated by the police to number one thousand. Hundreds were compelled to stand throughout the entire service, and hundreds were refused admittance.
After a brief statement by Dr. Lake on the reasons for the meeting and of the desire to glorify God by permitting the city and the world to know that Jesus Christ has never changed, that prayer was answerable today as much as it ever was, and that the days of miracles had not passed, but were forever possible through the exercise of faith in God, the following testimonies were given:
* * * Baby Agnes Young, N169 Post Street, healed of extreme malnutrition. She was a patient at the Deaconess Hospital for nine months, from the time of birth until her healing. She weighed six and a half pounds at birth and at the age of nine months, only four and a half pounds. One evening when one of the ministers from Rev. Lake's Healing Rooms was called to minister to her, she was found in a state of coma and the nurse, supposing her to be dead, had removed her to the dead-room. He took the supposedly dead child in his arms, praying the prayer of faith, removed her from the hospital and placed her in the hands of a Christian woman for nursing. In six weeks she was perfectly well and strong. The father and mother arose to corroborate the testimony. They are both members of Dr. Lake's church.
* * * Mrs. Everetts, 1911 Boone Avenue, testified to her healing of varicose veins. She had suffered from them for 38 years. The veins were enlarged until they were the size of goose eggs in spots. Under the right, there was a sack of blood so large that the knee was made stiff. She had exhausted every medical method. After being ministered to at the Healing Rooms for a short period, she was entirely well, and the veins are perfectly clear.
* * * Mrs. Constance Hoag, Puyallup, Washington, broke her knee cap. A section of the bone protruded through the flesh. She wrote requesting that the ministers of the Healing Rooms lay their hands upon a handkerchief in faith and prayer and send it to her, in accordance with Acts 19:12. This was done. She applied the handkerchief to the knee and in 15 minutes the pain had gone, and in an hour the bone had returned to place. A few days later she visited Spokane - well.
* * * Mrs. John A. Graham, nee Peterson, E369 Hartson, a nurse and hospital matron, was operated on for fibroid tumor. The generative (reproductive) organs were removed, and at a later date was operated on a second time for gallstones. The operation not being a success, she was eventually left to die, and when in the throes of death and unconscious, she was healed by the power of God in answer to prayer of one of the minsters called from the Healing Rooms. The organs that had been removed in the operation re-grew in the body, and she became a normal woman.
* * * Mrs. Wolverton was injured in a Great Northern railroad wreck and was awarded large damages by the court. (See court record.) Physicians testified her injuries to be such that motherhood was impossible. After her marriage, the physicians' testimony was confirmed. She was healed in answer to prayer and gave birth to a son, and since has given birth to twins.
* * * Mrs. Lamphear, 115 1/2 Sprague Avenue, was an invalid for 11 years, suffering from prolapsus of the stomach, bowels and uterus, also from tuberculosis and rheumatism. Her husband carried her from place to place in his arms. After 11 years of terrible suffering, upon the advice of her physicians who were unable to assist her, she was sent to Hot Lake, Oregon, for bath treatments. Ordinary baths had no effect on her and the superintendent testified that they had finally placed her in superheated baths, hotter than they had ever put any human being in before. Through this treatment, an abnormal growth was started in the left leg and foot. Her leg became three inches shorter than the other and her foot one inch longer. A bone as large as an orange grew on the knee. She received an instant healing of rheumatism. After several other events and prayer, she came to the Healing Rooms and was ministered to by Mr. Westwood. He put his hands on that lump and prayed, and God dissolved that lump of bone, the leg grew at the rate of an inch a day, the foot also shortened to its normal length, and the bone growth on the knee totally disappeared. Her tuberculosis was healed, and she is praising God for His goodness.
* * * Mrs. Ben Eastman, nee Koch, 1115 First Avenue, pronounced incurable from the tubercular glands by 73 physicians. She was operated on 26 times and remained in the same dying condition. Later she was taken to the Osteopathic Institute in Los Angeles, California, and was a patient there for three and a half years. Her father testified that his daughter's illness cost him three houses in the city of Davenport, a valuable wheat ranch of 160 acres, 147 carloads of wood, and all the money he had. She is now healed of the Lord and since then has become the happy wife of Mr. Ben Eastman.
* * * Mrs. Carter of S714 Sherman Street, wife of Policeman Carter, was examined by seven physicians who pronounced her to be suffering from a fibroid tumor, estimated to weigh 15 pounds. She was ministered to at the Healing Rooms at 4:30 in the afternoon and at 11 o'clock the next day, returned to the Healing Rooms perfectly healed and wearing her corsets. The enormous tumor had dematerialized.
* * * Mrs. O.D. Stutsman, Hansen Apartments, testified to having been an invalid for 13 years. On one occasion, she lay in the Sacred Heart Hospital with a 20-pound weight attached to her foot for 32 days, while suffering from inflammatory rheumatism. Her suffering was so intense that she begged her husband to take her home, preferring to remain a cripple rather than endure such suffering. Reverend Lake was called to minister to her at her home. As prayer was offered, the power of the Spirit of God came upon her. Five minutes after his hands were laid upon her, she arose from her bed perfectly healed.
* * * Mr. John Dewitt of Granby Court, testified on behalf of Frederick Barnard, 32 years of age,who was injured in his babyhood from a fall from a baby cab, causing curvature of the spine. As he grew to boyhood and manhood, he was never able to take part in the sports common to boyhood and manhood. When the great war came on, he would stand around the recruiting offices, longing and covetously watching the men who enlisted for the war. One day he expressed to Mr. Dewitt the sorrow of his soul that he was not able to enlist also. Mr. Dewitt told him of Mr. Lake's Healing Rooms and invited him to come and be ministered to. The curvature of his spine straightened and his height increased one inch. He applied for enlistment in the Canadian army and was accepted by the army physician as first class and sent abroad.
(pg 323)
God In Surgery
Mrs. O. Gilbertson, N4115 Helena Street, testified that through disease, her hip came out of joint, and the limb would turn like the leg of a doll, showing that it was entirely out of the socket. Her home is about five miles distant from the Healing Rooms. Reverend Lake and his co-workers engaged in prayer for her at the Healing Rooms, and as prayer was offered, the power of God came upon her, resetting the joint.
The following remarks were made by Rev. Lake as the testimony was given: "Do you hear it, you folks who worship a dead Christ? You doctors, hear it? You preachers who lie to the people and say the days of miracles are past, do you hear it? You doubters, hear it? God set the woman's hip. Because faith in God applied the blessed power of God to her life and limb."
Now comes one of the most remarkable cases in history. The Risdon family stand holding their six-year-old son on their shoulders. This boy was born with a closed head. In consequence, as he increased in years, the skull was forced upward like the roof of a house, the forehead and the back of the head also being forced out in similar manner, giving the head the appearance of the hull of a yacht upside down. The pressure on the brain caused the right side to become paralyzed and the child was dumb. Physicians said that nothing could be done for him until he was 12 years old, and then the entire top of the head would have to be removed, the sides of the skull expanded, and the entire head covered with a silver plate. Under divine healing ministration, in answer to prayer, the bones softened, the head expanded, the skull was reduced to its normal size, the paralysis disappeared, and the dumbness was gone. He speaks like other children and now attends public school.
Remarks by Rev. Lake: "I want you to see that in the Spirit of God there is a science far beyond physical or psychological science, and the man or woman who enters into the spirit relation with God and exercises His power is most scientific; that the power of God in this instance was sufficient to soften the bones of the head, expand the skull, and bring the head down to normal when the child was four and a half years old. This is something that no medicine could do and no surgical operation could accomplish without endangering the life of the child. The doctors plainly stated that the chances of recovering were one in a thousand."
Casting Out of Demons & Healing of Insane
Mrs. Lena Lakey, W116 Riverside Avenue, testified of having suffered with violent insanity. She was a cook at a lumber camp. She told of the men at the camp endeavoring to overpower her to tie her in the bed; of her tearing the bed to pieces and breaking her arms free; of how she struck one man with the side of the bed, rendering him unconscious. Another was in the hospital three weeks recovering from injuries. She escaped into the woods in a drenching rain, eventually falling exhausted in a copse of trees, where she lay unconscious for six hours until a searching party found her.
She was brought to Spokane in an auto by six men and was tied with ropes. Before taking her to the court to be committed to the insane asylum, they decided to take her to the Healing Rooms. Rev. Lake and Rev. Fogwill laid their hands on her in prayer, and the demons were cast out, and she was instantly healed.
An abscess in her side, from which she had suffered for 15 years, totally disappeared in 24 hours; and a rheumatic bone deposit between the joints of the fingers and toes, so extensive that it forced the joints apart, was gone in 48 hours. She was made every whit whole.
Healed of Insanity
A woman, holding the infant baby of Mrs. Lloyd McLaughlin, was asked to stand. Mr. Lake said: "This baby is just one month old. When the baby was born, the mother was given twilight sleep, which resulted in insanity, as it so often does. This church has been praying for the dear woman. On Monday, a group of our people went aside to particularly pray for this dear woman. I called them on the phone about five o'clock and asked one of the sisters, 'What is the answer from heaven?'
She replied, 'Well, brother, we have the answer. Our hearts have the victory, and we know the woman is healed.' Yesterday morning, the woman awoke healed! Praise the Lord!"
* * * In my younger days, when I first touched the ministry of healing, and as yet had developed a very small portion of faith in God, a young lady who lived nine miles in the country had a tubercular limb. Her physicians had tried to build her up in strength so they could amputate the limb, but on the final examination, the disease was found to have made such progress that the amputation would not save her life. One day we received a request to join in prayer for her the next morning at nine, and to invite all the people who know God and had faith in Him to unite with us. So I telegraphed all around the country to those I knew.
The physician told me that the knee had become so decayed that he could put his finger through the joint. Her suffering was more than ordinary. It required three men to hold her in bed the night before she was healed.
But in the morning, she desired to be left alone for the last half hour before prayer. She lay with her eyes closed and her body still, and after a while she said, "I opened my eyes and saw it was just exactly the time for the people to pray for me." She said in her soul, "It is time for the people to pray for me. It is the time I ought to be healed." And letting her faith reach out to God, she said, "In the Name of Jesus Christ, it is the time I AM healed." And she made a motion toward the side of the bed, and landed out on the floor, perfectly whole.
She rushed downstairs two steps at a time. Her sister-in-law had a tub of water on the floor. The girl stuck her diseased limb into it, and the entire mass of rotten flesh of the leg disappeared in the tub, and there was a new leg, as new as a newly born baby, both flesh and bone. That is the POWER OF DIVINE HEALING.
"When you pray, believe that you receive, and you shall have..." OR "believe that you HAVE received."
Mark 11:24
We used to have a little Englishman in our evangelistic party who would say to the people when they were praying, "Now, let us stop praying for five minutes and BELIEVE God, and see what will happen." It is perfectly amazing the wonderful things that will happen when people believe God.
The book "John G. Lake - His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith" is published by Kenneth Copeland Publications, Ft. Worth, TX.
For some time previous to this we had been publishing some of the wonderful testimonies of healing by the power of God that had taken place in the daily course of our ministry at the Divine Healing Institute.
