"I believe God opened the curtain and allowed me to look into the future!"

The following text is taken from a book excerpt and a video report of the American evangelist Robert W. Schambach, who died in 2012 and who, over many decades, had a tremendous evangelistic healing ministry. He served as early as during the great healing movement of the 1950s in the USA, among other things for several years as a leading coworker and co-speaker under the well-known A. A. Allen.

He reports on a gripping move of God in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, under evangelist A. A. Allen in 1959, which he witnessed live at the time. Back then, the healing evangelists would each pray for only one single person on stage. Because of the huge crowds, cards were handed out to those seeking help, which were then drawn and called out.

Supplementary clips (click on the image):

Information on A. A. Allen's evangelistic work in the 1950s. Shown: R. W. Schambach (in the white suit) opens the event

An excerpt from a healing event with A. A. Allen in the 1950s

Evangelist R. W. Schambach in action

The Little Boy with the 26 Miracles

I will never forget that the greatest miracle I can testify to began with an offering. It happened under the ministry of Brother A. A. Allen. I served with this man of God for about five years in the fifties.

A woman brought her child, who had been born with 26 severe afflictions or disabilities, to our meeting. The boy had been blind, deaf, and mute from birth. Both arms were paralyzed and deformed. His elbows pressed into his little belly, his knees touched his elbows, both legs were paralyzed and deformed, and he had club feet. When he was born, the doctors said the boy would never see his first birthday, but they were wrong. He was four years old. His condition naturally broke his mother's heart. She came to our meetings the whole week, and I kept thinking about the boy. In these evangelistic meetings we had prayer cards that every person in need had to fill out. And however the Holy Spirit would lead us, we would pray for the needs. And the Holy Spirit had not led us to pray for this little boy.

On Sunday his mother came to me and said: "Brother Schambach, I only have my last 20 dollars left. I had to pay the hotel bill, the restaurant, came to three services a day and gave at every single offering appeal. My money is running out, and my baby hasn't been prayed for." She was very upset and ready to give up and go home.

I said: "Ma'am, I can't apologize for the way the Holy Spirit moves. I understand you have to leave tonight, but if you come to the service and the Holy Spirit again leads in a different direction and your son's prayer card isn't drawn, then I will personally bring your baby to the man of God's trailer and make sure he lays hands on your child. You will not go home disappointed." And I meant that with my whole heart.

That evening I led worship in the evening service. Then I welcomed Brother A. A. Allen, and he came up onto the platform and said: "Tonight we will take up a faith offering." I had never heard him use that expression before, and I saw eyebrows go up all over the congregation. He continued: "Now, if you don't know what I mean when I say faith offering, it means giving God something you can't afford. That's a good definition, isn't it? If you can afford it, there's no faith involved. So give him something you can't afford to give."

As soon as Brother Allen said that, I saw the boy's mother jump out into the aisle and run forward. Three thousand people were in that arena in Birmingham. I saw her throw something into the offering bucket. I had never seen anyone give something in such a hurry, and I have to admit I was curious. I came down from the platform to see what she had thrown in. Do you know what I saw in the bucket? A 20-dollar bill. I knew that was everything she had. She had told me so. She had come from Knoxville, Tennessee, to the meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. She didn't know how she would get home or how she would buy food for herself and her baby along the way. I went behind the platform and wept. I prayed: "Lord, I've spent the whole week trying to teach this woman about faith. But now I ask you: give me the faith that she has."

Brother Allen carried on, took up the offering, and began his sermon. But after 15 minutes he paused during his message and said: "I am being carried away in the Spirit."

I said to myself: here we go on another journey. For that's how God used him. He said he could see, as if on a television screen, what the Holy Spirit wanted to tell him. He described what he saw. That evening he said: "I am being carried to a large white building. Oh, it's a hospital." Of course I heard this kind of impression every single evening I worked together with Brother Allen, so I sat there unmoved.

Then he said: "I am in the hospital, and there's no doubt where I'm heading, because I hear babies crying. It's a maternity ward. I see five doctors around a table. A little baby has been born. The child was born with twelve, … no, sixteen, … no, twenty-six afflictions."

When he said that, a chill ran down my spine. I said: "My God, tonight is the baby's night!"

Brother Allen continued: "Twenty-six disabilities. The doctors said he would never see his first birthday, but that wasn't true. This boy is nearly four years old now. Now I see his mother packing a suitcase. They're going on a trip. Another woman is with her. The baby is in a little basket on the back seat of an old Ford. They're driving on the highway. I see the Alabama-Tennessee border. The car is pulling into the parking lot. … Lady, you are here tonight. Bring me the baby! God is about to give you twenty-six miracles."

The woman ran forward for the second time that evening. She placed the baby into Brother Allen's arms. I jumped up and stood beside him. Everyone in the audience, 3,000 people, was on their feet.

The little boy's tongue had been hanging out of his mouth the whole week. The first thing I saw, as Brother Allen prayed, was the tongue snapping back into his mouth like a rubber band. For the first time in four years, the little guy's tongue was in his mouth. I saw two little whirlpools in his eyes, which had only a milky color. You couldn't tell if they were blue or brown, or what color the eyes were at all. But during the prayer, the whirlpool stopped, and I saw two brand-new brown eyes! I knew God had opened his eyes, and when God opened the eyes, I also knew he had opened the deaf ears.

Then the little arms began to snap out like branches of wood. And for the first time they stretched out. His legs cracked like wood as they popped out. Suddenly I saw God shaping toes out of the club feet, as easily as a child shapes something out of modeling clay. The crowd watched it and went wild! I have never again in my life seen people scream and shout for joy like that.

I saw the child set on his feet, and he began to walk for the first time in his life. He had never seen his mother, never spoken a word, yet he began to walk across the platform, and I ran behind him to catch him. He ran into his mama's arms, and I heard him say his first word: "Mama!"

People had their arms raised, some fell to the ground under the power. We knew: we were standing in the presence of an awe-inspiring God. It was a sovereign act of God.

12 wheelchairs stood on one side next to the stage. As if a sergeant had given a command, all 12 people stood up at the same moment and walked without their wheelchairs.

There were some broken spines, several of them from motorcycle accidents. 3,000 people watched what happened. 13 or 14 stretchers stood on the other side. Every one of them stood up and walked away completely healed.

Then people started jumping up and coming forward to the stage.

Back in 1957, hearing aids were as big as transistor radios. They pulled them out of their ears and out of their pockets and laid them on the stage. Two dozen of them. They no longer needed them. People took off their glasses and laid them on the stage. Every cane, every crutch, every walking aid was brought forward. People had been healed while they sat there. Because someone had laid hands on them. They were the nail-pierced hands of Golgotha.

Then 6 people came, completely blind, with white canes. Their eyes popped open.

Women lost 4 or 5 dress sizes because tumors simply vanished.

Every single person in the building was healed. Every person was healed by a sovereign act of God.

And people ask me: why and how did that happen? I have only one answer to that: God lifted the curtain and allowed me to look into the future, to show what he will do in the last days. It won't be 2 out of 10 or 3 out of 7, not even 8 out of 10, but I believe we're coming to the day when everyone will be healed by the power of God. No one will get the honor for it, only God, who works among his people.

On the Saturday after the healing, I received an express letter from the mother. She wrote: "Brother Schambach, I took the child to the hospital on Monday morning, and the doctors would not give him back to me. They kept him there the whole week. They called in every doctor from the whole state who had had anything to do with the case. They have declared that my baby has been healed of twenty-six severe afflictions."

Of course we asked for copies of the doctors' letters certifying that this boy's life is a genuine miracle.

Her letter continued: "You remember I told you last Sunday that all I had left was that 20 dollars? God knows it's true. But when the man of God called for giving something you can't afford, I jumped into the aisle. The moment I hit the aisle, I heard the devil talk for the first time in my life. The devil said to me: 'You can't give that. It's not yours. 15 dollars of it goes to the doctor. You need 5 dollars for gas to get home.' The faster I ran, the faster he talked. As soon as I was rid of the money, he stopped talking.

Brother Schambach, everything you saw was the twenty-six miracles, but there's one thing you don't know yet. After you had left, the people were still standing there. They wanted to see the baby and what God had done. People shook my hand. When one lady shook my hand, I felt a folded piece of paper in my hand. When I opened it, I saw it was a 20-dollar bill. The people who had lined up there to shake my hand each put a folded piece of paper in my hand. I counted it up in the ladies' room: 235 dollars."

Excerpt from the English "You Can't Beat God Givin': Miracle Testimonies from Ordinary People Serving an Extraordinary God" by R.W. Schambach, Power Publications, 1994. As well as the video message "RW Shambach and the 26 Miracles."
Translation: Martin Baron

Download: PDF Miracle Magazine 1959 (PDF, only available in German)​​​​​​​