Sid: My guest by way of telephone, I’m speaking to him at his home in Jasper, Alabama which is thirty – forty miles west of Birmingham, Alabama is Pastor Ben Godwin. And Ben what you went through as a young child on July 16, 1977, how old were you?
Ben: I was seven years old, at the time of the accident.
Sid: It wasn’t just one accident, he was hit while on his bicycle and then the ambulance that was taking him they got blindsided, then you get to the hospital and there’s no room available for surgery. It’s a Saturday afternoon and the operating rooms are all busy, and they were worried that shock would set in, and you had to have the surgery. So you began to have a praying family do what they’re supposed to do, pray. What happened?
Ben: I was fortunate to be raised in a church with a strong emphasis on prayer in fact on top of our church building they had gigantic praying hands that rotated and the slogan of the church was “Around the clock and around the world we are praying.” It was a network of prayer groups. And that’s what they did, they began to intercede and within three to four hours unexpectedly to the hospitals schedule an operating room did become available and they were able to go in and tend to my leg and prevent the infection and to prevent the shock from setting in.
Sid: Well, I got a picture in your book, I mean you really have this documented of what the X-ray showed at that stage. Tell me about this particular X-ray, what are these two lines in your leg right above and right beneath?
Ben: Well on page 62 of my book you’re looking at the X-ray there that was taken on September 15, 1977, it had been virtually no difference from the original X-rays. And what happened was when they went in for surgery that night, the piece of bone that had been dislodged from my leg was damaged beyond repair, it was too splintered, too jagged, they could not reinsert it in my leg. So what you’re looking at on page 62 there Sid is two pins, one just below my knee that goes all the way through my leg horizontally, and one just above my ankle and that same night in surgery they put after cleaning the wound they decided to leave the wound open. They placed on the leg a full length plaster cast from my hip all the way to my toes. Then later they cut a window over my calf on the foreleg so that they could tend to the wound later on, but they didn’t do anything with the bone because it was damaged beyond repair.
Sid: Alright the bone was damaged beyond repair, but the X-ray I’m looking at shows there isn’t any bone there’s a three inch missing bone there.
Ben: That’s correct.
Sid: And why did they put those steel rods in?
Ben: Mainly to restrict movement so that my leg wouldn’t compress together. To use a crude analogy, like an accordion they wanted some rigidity there to where my bone, my other bone, the fibula which is a small bone in your body, it had to be set. It had also broken and penetrated through the top of my leg, so I actually had two compound fractures.
Sid: Okay, what was the medical prognosis after this surgery?
Ben: Well, the orthopedic surgeon told my parents after that first surgery that your son Ben will basically never walk again without a terrible limp. They said in essence he’ll be a semi-cripple. They said, “His left leg will always be shorter than his right leg.” They brought up again the possibility of amputation if infection were to set in. They basically braced my parents for the reality that barring a miracle that I would be a semi-cripple the rest of my life.
Sid: Or worse, lose your leg!
Ben: Correct.
Sid: I mean that’s not a good prognosis. There were two ministers that came to the hospital that one had a Word of Knowledge and one had a Vision. Tell me about that.
Ben: That’s correct. Two ministers came and visited my parents and me while I was in the hospital. One of them had a Word of Knowledge that my leg would be totally restored by a miracle. And of course my parents just clung to that tenaciously because they were strong believers to begin with.
Sid: What’s going on with the little seven year old, what’s going on inside of you over all of this?
Ben: Well, I’d have to say I had child like faith you know I was raised believing in the supernatural. So you know I was hopeful, I was expectant. I may not have had the mature faith that I do now but I was you know following my parents lead. What my parents would do is they would get the Word of God out and they would literally from the Bible read many of the healing promises that are in the scriptures, they would read them to me out loud over and over and over again.
Sid: How important was that?
Ben: Well, you know Paul said, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” So sometimes you have to tune out the negative news that you receive.
Sid: But what did you think about that Word of Knowledge and that Vision that you were going to be healed?
Ben: Well, I was ecstatic. I mean that would definitely be my preference over more surgery and lengthy therapy and rehabilitation.
Sid: So if I was to have interviewed you at seven years old, and I would say “Little Ben, is God going to perform a miracle, what would you have said?”
Ben: I would have probably said, “Yes.”
Sid: Okay, then your Mom has a vision of your healing, tell me about that.
Ben: That’s correct, now I spent 18 days in the hospital. I was sent home in a wheelchair, I started third grade in a wheelchair and I went to church on a Sunday, soon thereafter. One of the Elders of our church came and during the course of the Worship Service was praying for me. He just had a real burden, a real concern, and he came and he began to pray for me. While he did my Mom who was standing beside us saw a vision, and in the vision she saw an X-ray, and she saw the X-ray like you saw it on page 62 of my book, where there’s a three inch gap of missing bone. But in the vision suddenly a thin thread like milky substance began to span from one end of the bone to the other and then was solidly filled in to where it was a complete and whole bone.
Sid: Did she tell you about that, did she tell others about that vision?
Ben: Yes, definitely, my Mom was a very vocal, very bold women. She definitely whenever God spoke to her in any means she would, she would definitely share it.
Sid: And then you went to a prayer meeting, how long did it take from the time of the vision to the prayer meeting?
Ben: I’m not sure about the time of the vision but from the time of the accident which happened in July 16, 1977 the prayer meeting was on October 7, so less than three months later.
Sid: Okay, tell me about your recollection of that prayer meeting.
Ben: Well, the prayer meeting was at my then Pastor’s home, my Pastor, her name was Bertha Madden, and she formed our church out of a prayer meeting. Kind of like the New Testament Church in the Book of Acts. You know it all started at a prayer meeting, and then the Holy Spirit showed up and the Church was born. Well, that’s how our church was founded out of a prayer meeting in her home. Well she would have these prayer meetings every Thursday morning with ladies that didn’t work and every Friday night with couples and families. And we went to that prayer meeting, happened to be a Friday night October 7, 1977 and by then I was out of a wheelchair, I had graduated to crutches, but the doctors told me I was not to put any weight on my leg because I still had the missing bone, I was still awaiting a bone graft surgery. And so I came into that prayer meeting and plopped down on one of the couches and after a few minutes of prayer, intercession going forth it just seemed like a powerful presence of God came into that room. And my pastor did something very, you might say unorthodox, very…
Sid: I’ll tell you what hold that though we’ll pick up right here on tomorrow’s broadcast but then as important as this great verifiable modern day miracle so documented I’ve never seen a miracle as documented and you have it in this book. And so someone that says, “Show me one miracle where is Geraldo?” I want him to say that to you, “Show me one miracle,” you’ve nailed it.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth