WALKING WITH CRUTCHES

I had been using crutches all my life but did not even know. 

When I was attacked by armed-robbers, a bullet splintered a bone in my left leg.  Nevertheless, the Lord insisted nothing was wrong with my leg.  At the hospital, my leg was encased in plaster and I had to walk with crutches.  However, the Lord assured me I would keep all my bones.   Not one of them is broken (Psalm 34:20).

A painful revelation

One morning, I suddenly found myself standing in front of a television set where a film was showing.  The film was entitled “Leap of Faith,” starring Steve Martin.  I stood there leaning on my crutches; with eyes glued to the screen.  I saw a boy, with crutches like mine, at a healing service.  He dropped his crutches and started to walk by faith.  His gait was a bit unsteady at first.  But gradually, it got better and better until finally, he walked normally and even started running.  I knew the Lord was sending a message to me.  But, as usual, I was a bit slow on the uptake.

Some days later, I went to the Lord in prayer to thank him again, for the umpteenth time, for delivering me from armed-robbers.  Out of the blue, he said to me: “Femi, I allowed you to be shot because I wanted you to see yourself using crutches.  You have been using crutches all your life.  I decided to show it to you physically otherwise you would never know.” 

Then he asked me: “Can a man walk properly with crutches?” I answered: “No.”  He continued: “That is what you have been doing. You have been trusting in chariots and in horses. Now listen to me Femi, put down your crutches and walk.”  “But my leg is broken,” I protested.  “No,” he said, “there is nothing wrong with your leg.  It is not about your leg.  It is about your faith.  I want you to walk by trusting in me, without using any crutches whatsoever.”

That was the end of the prayer session.  I was so overwhelmed; I got up and told the Lord I needed time to process what he just told me.  I did drop my crutches, but I could not walk.  I just hobbled about on one leg in my bedroom.  But that did not bother me in the least.  Like a little child taking his first faltering steps, I knew it was a matter of time.  Sooner than later, I would be able to walk uprightly.

Blind Nicodemus

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, but he did not know he was blind.  I did not have such distinction, but I too was blind and did not know it.  Neither was I aware that I had been walking with crutches.

Jesus said: “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (John 9:39).  Therefore, when I met the Lord, the first thing he did was to heal me of my blindness and deafness.  Then he shouted in the middle of the night in my left ear: “Matthew 13:13 to 16.”  The last verse of that scripture declares: “Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.”

The more I thought about it, the more I realised that my “crutches” were actually my designer shoes.  My crutches were precisely those things I thought gave me an edge.  They were my pedigree; my educational background; my presumed intelligence and, at that time, my buoyant finances.  But how could I comfortably drop such “crutches” and walk confidently without them? 

Isaiah’s blindness

Isaiah was so taken by the glory of King Uzziah; he could not see the glory of God.  He did not know that every mountain and hill must be made low before the glory of the Lord would be revealed (Isaiah 40:4-5).  Isaiah only saw the Lord after the king’s death.  He said: “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).

Before then, Isaiah had spent his ministry proclaiming woe on different transgressors.  He said: “Woe to those who join house to house” (Isaiah 5:8).  “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity” (Isaiah 5:18).  “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).  “Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink” (Isaiah 5:22).

But when God opened his eyes and he finally saw the glory of the Lord, Isaiah exclaimed: “Woe is me” (Isaiah 6:5).