Epilogue to "Love Walks by Faith"

I knew very little about Charlie Osburn before I set out to work on this book, except for a short tale that my friend, Harvey Whitney, had told me several years ago. I had noticed a picture in Harvey’s office of some guy standing next to Mother Teresa. When I asked about that guy, Harvey told me that there were some amazing events in the man’s life that had caused him to give up everything he had worked to achieve in order to tell the world about Jesus. The man’s name was Charlie Osburn.

As I began the work on this book, I listened to Charlie’s tapes, read his materials, and talked to him by phone. In the process, the Holy Spirit began to work in me. I now know a great deal about Charlie and how he came alongside Mother Teresa to serve people who were physically and spiritually dying. I found out why he is so excited about telling everyone in the world that Jesus loves them.  I have a story of my own that has resulted from working with Charlie.

I have known about Jesus since I was about four years old, when my parents began taking me to worship services and Sunday school every week without fail. I raised my four children in the church, and my husband is a hospital chaplain. I was baptized as an infant and then again through immersion on my fortieth birthday. You would think that I would be an all-together Christian. Whenever we went to church, though, everyone else seemed really happy. I would just sit and cry through most services. Something was missing inside of me.

For the past four years, I have struggled with multiple sclerosis. Over time, the flare-ups grew worse until I had to rely on an electric wheelchair to get around whenever I left the house. On the day Harvey called me about working on this book, I had gotten out of bed for the first time in six days. Unbearable pain in my left leg had made it impossible for me to put any weight on it. I had been using a walker to get from my bed to my bathroom, and my daughters were bringing meals to me in my bed. For several years, I was only able to sit up at my desk for a couple of hours a day before I became too exhausted to work.

Harvey had given me a deadline for finishing this book, due to an upcoming conference where Charlie would be speaking. I knew that if I wanted to make that deadline, I would have to work more than two hours a day. I knew that something in my life had to change.

I was still getting around the house in a wheelchair when I began to read Charlie’s first book, The Charlie Osburn Story. That was on a Friday. By Sunday, I wondered if the Holy Spirit could change me as it had changed Charlie. I wanted what Charlie was talking about.

On Monday morning, I lay in my bed and began praying, “Jesus, I have tried every doctor, pill, and treatment there is for my pain. I cannot deal with this illness any longer. I am giving it to you.” I paused, then said, “Holy Spirit, fill me with your power and light. Please give me the strength that I had in my youth.” I continued praying, but I felt that there was something blocking my prayers. I remembered something Charlie had said about rebuking Satan. So I said, “Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke all the pain and weakness that you have brought into my body. Leave me alone!” I felt the need to breathe deeply, and as soon as I exhaled, my arms and legs jerked as if I were having a mild seizure.

Immediately, I thought, wow, that was weird.  In the next instant, I thought, no, it was the power of the Holy Spirit.

I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed and wiggled my toes. For the first time in months, my toes actually moved. I rotated my feet at the ankles. They worked! I stood up carefully and slowly eased my weight onto my left leg. No pain! I looked at myself in the full length mirror at the other end of the room. I was standing up without a walker! A big grin spread over my face, and I did a little dance along the side of the bed. I raised my arms over my head and high-stepped around the end of the bed. Every muscle and joint in my body moved like it had when I was a teenager.

“Thank you, Jesus!” I said. All I wanted to do at that point was spend every moment praising Jesus for bringing me into his kingdom. Worship music exalting the name of Jesus began running through my mind.

On Tuesday, I repeated my prayer to the Holy Spirit, asking for healing in every cell of my body. I asked him to fill each cell with so much goodness that it would crowd out any illness around it. Again, in the name of Jesus, I rebuked any spirits of illness to leave my body. As before, I felt that same need to breathe deeply, and when I exhaled, my arms and legs jerked, but not quite as long as they had on Monday.

I repeated this process each morning until Friday. When I finished my prayers that day, my fingers and toes only gave a mild twitch. I knew at that point that whatever spirits of illness that had been keeping me from being healed were gone. I lay on my bed, feeling completely relaxed and at peace. A wonderful sense of light washed over my entire body and seemed to fill the room. I never wanted to move, and once again, I began to hear praise music in my mind. I suppose Charlie would say that on that day, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The following day, our family left to travel to the mountains in North Carolina, where our son would be attending college. We decided to go on a hike to a waterfall. I had not been able to walk from our house to the end of our block for the past several years. On that day, I trekked two miles over uneven terrain, uphill and down. The only pain I felt was the next-day stiffness of muscles that had not been used in years.

Every morning since then, I have awakened to various praise songs in my head, even though I have not heard some of them in ages. I feel so energized and renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus that I have been able to write for ten or twelve hours a day. The time has flown by, and I have not wanted to stop working with Charlie on this book. I’m excited about telling others how wonderful it feels to be all lit up inside by God’s love.

Some people question whether or not Jesus has given all believers authority to rebuke demons and command them to leave. Luke 9:1 reads, "When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." Jesus later sent seventy-two messengers ahead of him into every town where he was going to visit. Luke 10:17 tells us, "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’"

Some believers may have difficulty accepting that they have this power, because Jesus replied to those seventy-two in Luke 10:18, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." In other words, Jesus was saying it's okay to rebuke the spirits, as long as we don't become proud and begin to boast that we are the ones who are empowered to make them leave. We should be most thankful for our salvation through Christ.

In a few days, we will be leaving for our first family vacation in five years. We have not gone anywhere, partly because I have been too ill to travel, and partly because we have spent most of our money on medical expenses. We are planning to start out at an amusement park, and I intend to ride a roller coaster. I am not taking my wheelchair.

I hope that you will be blessed by the stories that Charlie has to tell. And when you finish reading, I pray that you will share this book with someone else. It’s a story that can change the world, one soul at a time.

--Cheryl Denton, Editor