A Dead Walking Man Brought Back to Life
“Oh! I just saw him walking down th
e street yesterday, a couple of hours later he is dead!” Or: “We just finished playing Tennis, ate lunch together and he went to take a nap. A few minutes later he is pronounced dead!” Sounds incredible? Well, this happens in places around the world. And this was what happened to a 59-year-old man I know; an engineer, a draftsman and a building inspector from Accra, Ghana.
A True Story About a Christian Who Was Bewitched, And The Testimony of How a Departed Soul Was Miraculously Restored to its Original Body
“…The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (James 5:16. NRSV).
I thought my family and I flew to vacation. But to Mrs Skanford (commonly known as sister Maggie), a long-time prayer partner and a passionate intercessor, whom I had known for over two and a half decades, my 2004 trip to Ghana was a timely mission perfectly planned by God. In her own words, it was “a true answer to my prayers” Why?
Before 2004, sister Maggie and I had not seen or heard from each other for over ten years. But, a week before we arrived in the capital Accra, she was heard to have testified to other prayer partners (of which I was a part before I left for Germany), how the Lord had used me in 1989 to heal and restore a woman who fell into a coma and was near death. A few days later, sister Maggie told others about a vision she had received from the Lord about my arrival in the country.
About a week after her testimony, one of our prayer partners was said to have told sister Maggie of a dream she had about my arrival in the country. In turn, Sister Maggie was said to have responded and have narrated her similar vision to that prayer partner. She concluded by saying: “maybe he would soon be in the country if he´s not already in.” All this played out before I arrived in Ghana, with the main actors not knowing each other´s experiences.
We arrived on August 9, 2004. Being exhausted from the long journey, we spent three days acclimatising with the equatorial climate before making ourselves known to the public. On August 12, I informed my relatives and friends about our arrival in the country. The news reached out to sister Maggie. She called later to verify. On hearing my voice, she exclaimed with joy and said: “Hallelujah! God is so wonderful!!” We had a long talk in which she told me about the past week’s incident, the severe illness that had struck her husband, and how he could hardly walk. She expressed the desire to come over to me with a chartered taxi, but the fare would have been unbearable. I told her: “just charter it and come over; I will take care of the fare.” Two hours later, they arrived. I was shocked when I saw him. My wife, who knew him ten years before, reacted the same way. The last time I saw him was about ten years before; he was healthy and vital then. But he had now aged and looked deadly sick. His eyes, hands and feet were swollen, with open wounds. He needed somebody to support him before taking a step or turning himself on his axis. My children were worried about his general condition.
Sister Maggie said he was bewitched from a contention about a family property. A common thing in many African countries. She said: “We must pray for Mr Skanford!” I said, sure! We agreed and built on Isaiah 10:27 and James 5:14, prayed for, and anointed him in the name of the Lord. The weeks following our meeting were silent; I did not hear anything from the family. All my attempts to reach them on the phone went dead. I later decided to drive there to verify. There I found out she had wanted to call and share a testimony with me, but unfortunately, she lost her cell phone in the same taxi they came home with. What followed, surprised me. She gave detailed testimony about what transpired. She said:
“Since my husband was bewitched, he became completely dead. You could see him sitting and talking, but he was not present, he was dead. He had been in this condition for over six months. The doctors could not help us, so prayer became my ultimate hope. I´ve seen the same vision repeatedly during the time. His body would be lying there in our house, but his soul would be separated from it and would be standing at a distance from the house. It always distanced itself further away from the body by the day, and from our house. I intensified my prayers and fasted for the soul to return to its body. But I would see it came closer to the entrance of our house, stop there, turned its back to the house and would sit down. The soul had never come beyond the entrance. I became frustrated at the repeated vision and did not know the way forward anymore. “I´m nursing my mentally deranged old mother in my house, and now have to nurse my husband also?” I asked myself repeatedly. “Lord, are you there? Send me help, please!” “
But praise the Lord, who hears prayer and sends help in due time!!! On the very day I arrived home from your place, my daughter, who lives with her husband in the other side of the city, called and told me of a dream she had on that same day. In that dream, she saw her father’s corpse lying in front of her, but his soul stood at the far end of their plot and gazed at its own dead body—its home. She observed as the soul suddenly started marching towards its dead body. Curiously, she watched the situation further and saw how the soul drew closer and closer to its corpse and stopped at a distance of about 5m. For a while, she observed how nothing happened. Suddenly, the soul continued its move towards the corpse, stopped at a close distance and continued to gaze at it. After some time, she witnessed something very unusual. She saw how the soul moved from its vertical into a horizontal position, hovered over the dead body, aligned its position perfectly to its corpse and entered into the body. Immediately after that happened, her father woke up and stood on his feet.”
“Mum (she said), I´ve never seen anything like this before. It´s bizarre.” She remarked. “I shouted: Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! A miracle has happened! Two days after our prayer, I watched how my husband started running around the house and briskly entering into taxis in ways I´ve not seen in the past six months. Praise the Lord! Our God reigns, Jesus is still alive. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
Little did I know that what I planned as a vacation was an answer to sister Maggie´s prayer. God heard her heart cry and sent healing and restoration to her then living but bewitched dead husband.
The joy that flooded their lives, which resulted from the miracle they experienced, made them forget to tell me how much the chartered taxi cost. On reminding them of how much they paid for the taxi, she responded: “Hey, man! What God has done through you is greater than the taxi fare. Forget the taxi debt. I´ll take care of it.”
On this note, THANK YOU, Lord, for everything!
Rev. Hayford Addokwei
(Summer 2004)
