No More Crutches!—After 66 Years as a Cripple
Congressman William Upshaw
Editor’s Note:
Ordinary people receive miracles all the time, which is
known to them and their immediate circles, but not much
beyond that. But when a famous person receives a miracle, it
is known to a larger audience. The physical disability of
Congressman William Upshaw was public and well
documented. Even in official photos, he had his crutches,
unlike Franklin Roosevelt who hid his disability. Upshaw ran
against Roosevelt as a presidential candidate in 1932, getting
over 80,000 votes.
So when, years later, at 84 years old, he was suddenly able
to discard those crutches, it was a public miracle. We have
reprinted his personal testimony of the event below.
Newspapers such as the L.A. Times also carried the story.
Upshaw told the Times, “I didn’t have the strength to support myself
for more than two or three steps. Now it is different. Yesterday, I walked
four blocks.”
William Upshaw wrote a letter to every member of congress telling them of his healing. He lived another year and
a half, walking, and died at 86.
Here is Congressman Upshaw's testimony in his own words: “I walked into that meeting loving God and His blessed Word, and leaning on my crutches that had been my “buddies,” my inseparable companions, for 59 of my 66 years as a cripple (seven years of which I
spent in bed). I walked out that night leaving my crutches on the platform, a song of deliverance ringing in my heart in happy consolace with the shouts of victory from those who thronged about me. But my story will be a truer story, and far more helpful to those seeking what I now enjoy, if it deals in something besides “Hallelujahs” and “Hosannahs” to the Lord. It was a stony path that led through Gethsemane to Golgotha’s cross and the resurrection that lifted a fallen world up to God.
My father was a farmer, as well as a teacher and general merchant, and when I was eighteen years old I fell on a crosspiece in a wagon frame, fracturing my spine. But, thank God, I was converted just before I was hurt, and the Lord Jesus walked with me through the valley and for seven years He made that vale of tears a lily-strewn path of joy and victory. For He is the Lily of the Valley. Naturally, I prayed to be healed, but I know now that there was “too much Willie Upshaw” in that prayer.
I wanted to be suddenly healed, to dash down to the lot, saddle a mule or a horse, and go galloping to my church at Powder Springs or Lost Mountain or Mount Zion, and run up to the pulpit, stop the pastor with his hands uplifted toward heaven, and shout: “Stop, Brother, I have been healed—let me tell my story!” Every time I prayed to be immediately healed, the Lord seemed to say to me: “Not yet! I am going to do something through you in this condition that could not be done otherwise—leave it to Me!” He smiled as He said it, and my tranquil heart replied: “Even so, Lord, if it seemeth good in Thy sight. If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me whole.”
I rested under the shadow of His wings. Certain it is that if He had healed me then in my impetuous youth, lying amid the wreckage of my shattered dreams, I could not have written the book that I sold from my rolling chair, earning the money to enter Mercer University at Macon, Georgia; and I never could have taught millions of students my motto: “Let nothing discourage you, never give up,” inspiring their young lives with “a purpose linked to God.” I mention this for the comfort of those who “serve and suffer,” showing how God can bless the ministry of sufferers. “But,” said my Bible-loving wife and some of her devout friends, “that contract with the Lord was long ago. He has brought you victoriously through many trials. Now it would honor Him if, after being healed, you would testify for Him everywhere, not only as the personal Saviour of your soul but also as the Great Physician who has healed your body.”
And I knew it was true. No one knows how I suffered as I sat under the preaching of various men whom God is using in the great salvation-healing meetings of today. Evangelist Wilbur Ogilvie, under God, prayed away the cancer on my face two years ago, after medical help had failed; but still, I could not “take hold and walk. I kept praying for “appropriating faith.” Then came God’s humble servant, William Branham, and his co-worker, Ern Baxter. I sat entranced under Brother Baxter’s preaching still praying for “appropriating faith,” but held in bondage somehow by that word which I had received from the Lord sixty-odd years ago. Others were being healed all around me. Then Brother Branham lifted his hands and said, “Everyone lay your hands on your loved one as we pray.”
A great volume of prayer ascended throughout that congregation of more than three thousand. Angels were hovering near! I knew my precious wife and her “prayer warriors” were wrapping me in prayer. I remember how she said: “When you are trying to lead a sinner to Christ, you say, ‘Accept, confess Christ, and step out—He will do the rest and bring the joy of answered prayer.’” That was the secret. Just then, Brother Branham said, “The Congressman is healed.” My heart leaped. I stepped out and accepted the Lord as my Healer. I laid aside my crutches and started toward the pulpit. The bottom of heaven fell out! “Heaven came down our souls to greet, and glory crowned the Mercy Seat.” Now at eighty-four, with no gray hairs and no crutches, I begin a new life, joyously testifying that my Saviour not only can save the souls of wicked men and women, but also can heal the sick, the maimed, the deaf, the blind (Matthew 11:5), bringing heaven down into the hearts of those who believe.
—by William D. Upshaw, 2524 Fourteenth Street, Santa
Monica, California.
