THE DOUBLE WHAMMY STORY
By Frank E. Henrich 1978
What
is this Double Whammy? This true story began in April 1975. My name is Frank Henrich and I began to question whether prayer
is as powerful as some would claim.
My employment was as a sales representative in my own little company, selling
products throughout the San Francisco Bay Area to large industrial companies. Many a book on prayer had met my perusal with
the result of always being still in greater wonderment. Could prayer really be that powerful was my thought? A wonderment
which left as its access a desire to see prayer as an effective spiritual weapon for me but one I still questioned. Let me
put your mind at rest, I did not question that prayer works. What I questioned was would God answer direct prayers of a very
specific nature. I, in frustration, turning all books aside, decided to trouble my mind no more on it. (I do this often when
I do not know the answer, and I find my mind troubled because I do not know. I turn to Matthew 7:7-11, and ask God to fulfill
the promise of Jesus by giving me a clear mind on this subject as a gift from Him. It is a call for spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Paul in his letter to the Colossians expressed it so beautifully in Chapter 1, Verse 9: “We have not ceased to pray
for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”) Therefore,
I turned it over to the Lord and let the matter slip from my mind, trusting that He would instruct me in His time.
My wife was a nurse in a hospital. One of her fellow workers, a woman
named Joan, had a problem with which my wife, Barbara, felt I could assist her. Joan’s husband was rushed to the hospital
with emphysema. Joan came from a Catholic background. Her husband, Matt, was a Protestant in his youth but not active in any
church for years. Joan did not know any Christian ministers, yet Matt wanted to see a minister. When Joan mentioned this
to Barbara, she suggested that I come and pray with him. The meeting was arranged and I prayed over him. His health improved
enough for him to go home.
Some weeks passed, and I was
calling on clients. It was a Wednesday and my appointment calendar was full. I started the day eager to obtain some sales.
At noon, I called my answering service for messages. My wife had left a message for me to call her. I called her and she said
Matt was again in the hospital and his condition was critical. His wife wanted me to come to the hospital immediately and
pray for him. Before I responded to my wife’s request, all my afternoon appointments and their importance flashed through
my mind, but then did God want me to pray for Matt? It seemed as though before I could ponder further I said that I would
come at once. I hung up the receiver of the pay booth phone and began canceling my afternoon appointments.
I was 50 miles from the hospital, and I was going out there during my prime selling time.
The thought kept repeating in my mind as I drove to Novato, CA “Lord, you don’t need me there. You can heal him
without me. You don’t need me there.” I could not seem to erase this recurring thought and the seemingly emptiness
of my going there. I became irked with myself and thought, “It must be that God wants me to comfort Joan. That must
be why He’s sending me there.”
Fifty minutes
later, I arrived at the hospital. I found Barbara and she told me the number of Matt’s private room. I pushed open the
door expecting to find Joan there and expecting to soothe her troubled mind. To my surprise, she was not there. Only Matt
was there and he was unconscious. I said in my thoughts, “Why should I pray over this man? He will not know that I am
praying for him. This doesn’t make sense.” There was a large, comfortable chair at the foot of the bed and I went
and sat down.
I do not know how long I sat there, but I
certainly remember what happened. Suddenly, I had an inward knowing that God wanted to restore Matt and for a reason beyond
my intellect, I was to pray for him. I jumped up and mightily did I pray over Matt. Later when I left the room, Matt
was still unconscious, and no one had entered even though I prayed for a long time.
Matt passed the crisis and in a few days returned home. I went over to see him to ask for his forgiveness
for being reluctant to pray for him. I told him of the events of that day and the prayer for restoration for his life. He
began to cry. You would have to know Matt to understand that it was difficult for him to cry; he was a man’s man. He
then told me that when he was around 17 he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior in a small Protestant church in the South.
There he had been very active in the work of the Lord. At age 20, he left there and went into the world and from that point
for him, it was wine, women, and song.
Now time had passed,
no longer was he pleasing to the world. He was 55 and had emphysema in the advanced stages, and yet God still loved him. I
believe he was crying because Jesus wanted to restore him. I too wanted to cry because God had answered my question on the
power of direct prayer. He used me in His work and that brings the greatest joy to me; and while doing this, showed me the
power of prayer. For Matt and me, it was a double whammy. Matt lived for a year and a half confined to his bed with constant
oxygen. The Lord filled him with a peace and a joy that surmounted all his obstacles.
I saw him often. I would go over to encourage him, to exhort him but found that he exhorted me. He
began a study in the Bible and the Lord used him to touch those in his life and in the mobile home community in which he lived.
It was not the kind of testimony that Matt would have thought he should give for the Lord. It was not the testimony of a successful,
manly, proud male, but rather of a man dying while proclaiming in his words and actions that God loves me and has restored
me. If you are a fallen away Christian, Matt would be saying, “God can restore you.” I know of two persons who
received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior through the witness of Matt.
All
true stories have to have an ending. I am at a loss as to how to end this story. Perhaps I am not qualified to pen an ending.
Could it be that this story is meant to live on in your life and after you have added your element, your reaction, and then
only you can add the ending? To this approach, I pray God will assist you. Let us all give the glory to the One deserving,
our Lord and our God. Last Sunday, my pastor Bob Collins, said a prayer that fits so well here. He called for prayer and then
said, “Pray though us and our church, others will see God.” To this, I can only say, amen. Read Scriptures Colossians
4:2, Exodus 15:26, Acts 9:40, Matt 7:7
Read Psalms 63:1-4 and 141:2
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SWEET JESUS PRAYER, HEAR MY PRAYER ON THIS PRAYER DAY. I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PRAY ABOUTTHE
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