W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

took the meeting out of my hand, electrifying the congregation with his thrilling testimony to bodily healing,
(which was little known in that country), telling them of how he was burning, as if in a furnace, and I had
prayed for him and told him how to trust Jesus for healing, and his fever was gone, and the perspiration was on
his body, which in that region is regarded as prima facie evidence that the fever is gone to stay. Then suddenly
running to the altar he shouted as he went, “Now, Brother Godbey, I want that other thing you have been talking
about.” His congregation followed him as the flock follows the shepherd. He and many others got gloriously
sanctified, and he is a leader in the Movement today.
You will always find bodily healing a powerful auxiliary of soul saving. In all of your peregrinations, never fail
to visit the sick and pray for their healing. In that way you will reach many wicked people, otherwise utterly out
of your reach.
When I was conducting the Free Methodist Campmeeting at Emporia, Kansas, among the people who received
bodily healing was a dumb woman who had not spoken in two and a half years, dear Sister Jones, the wife of a
Free Methodist preacher. While I was laboring with the seekers at the altar, who had come on the invitation for
bodily healing, and they had all risen with bright faces and some of them even shouting testimonies, this one
sister continued at the altar. I did not at that time identify her as the dumb one, but then the presiding elder in an
undertone notified me, as I appealed to her and received no answer, that she was the dumb sister and he had
never heard her voice, and she was seeking the healing of her dumbness. Then I appealed to her straight:
“Believe, my sister, that Jesus now heals your dumbness and gives you back your speech which you lost two
and a half years ago. John Wesley says, 'We are to believe that He doeth it.' “ Then she became exceedingly
energized, evidently exercising all her spiritual powers of abandonment, supplication and faith, at the same time
falling back on the carpet and turning her face Heavenward, the movement of her mouth indicating the prayer of
her heart. Then I saw a light flash over her face, and her eyes sparkle with preternatural brilliancy; when
suddenly she leaped to her feet and shouted louder than I could and running up and down the aisle continued to
shout aloud. All the people present knew her and were so excited that they shouted aloud with her.
When the noise somewhat abated, a fine looking man arose and asked permission to speak, which was freely
granted. He proceeded to state that he was that woman's physician, and had done everything in his power to
restore her voice, even taking her off to cities and having her treated by specialists, and he just wanted to testify
that her healing was a miracle of the Lord. Oh, how that miraculous case of healing did stir the city and boom
the campmeeting! It is a great mistake of the Lord's people to neglect bodily healing.
Some of our beloved holiness people tell us that healing is not for sinners, but only for Christians.
This is a mistake, as you see in the case of the ten lepers whom our Savior healed, only the one who turned back
and shouted out his joyous testimony being saved. In case of sinners, we should always give the preference to
the salvation of their souls, and never encourage them to seek healing and leave out the salvation, because it
may be that God needs the temporal affliction to bring them to repentance, and save them from Hell. We should
never fail to visit the sick and pray for their healing, but in case of the unconverted, we should show them the
infinite value of their souls above their bodies, and exhort them to repent and seek the pardoning mercy of God
and bodily healing, too, assuring them of His abounding love in using the disease to bring them to repentance
and make it an auxiliary to their salvation. If God did not heal the wicked, they would soon all be dead, because
He is the only Healer, and all mortals are full of diseases, of which sickness is simply their development. Oh,
how amiable the attitude of a Gospel preacher coming with the panacea of all human woe, healing not only the
soul but the body. While Satan is the author of all physical ailments, of every form and phase, the transcendent
victory of Christ is gloriously illustrated in the sanctification of all diseases and physical ailments and
disabilities to our spiritual good. If everybody were to enjoy perfect health to the end of life and drop dead
suddenly with no time to repent, very few would be saved. Such is the awful power of sin, the dominion of
Satan and the alarming potency of temptation, that we need aches, pains, fevers, chills, wounds and bruises to
keep us constantly reminded of our mortality, on the lookout for death and therefore robed and ready every
minute to meet the Lord.
All of these sufferings, with the misfortunes and apparent calamities of this transitory life, are included in the
“all things” that work together for good to them that love God with divine love. The same is true of Satan and all