A pastor crashed a tricycle, broke a rib, and hit his head on the pavement, sustaining a major concussion. For 18 months, he had a few moments when the symptoms would go away when someone was praying for a specific symptom, but he never had a moment when all the symptoms went away. The symptoms he experienced was losing the ability to fall asleep, poor short-term memory, pressure headaches, couldn’t stay engaged with a complex mental process such as teaching, couldn’t handle conflict at all, and struggled with depression. He was also unable to play with his children, as any jostling of his head would exacerbate the symptoms. Most of the symptoms were slowly improving, but not always discernibly.
Some time later, he went to a clinic that specializes in brain issues and had a scan of the function of his brain. The impact on the function on his brain was consistent with that of someone who was unconscious for several days after an injury. He started taking an anticonvulsant medicine along with several supplements, and was starting to feel like he was getting his mind back. But memory and sleep were both still elusive.
One day, during worship at Bethel Church, he went into the men’s room and as he was standing there, he felt a level of the presence of God and that God was available. He told God that He could come any way He wanted to. He leaned his head forward against the wall, thinking this could last a moment or two. He was aware that it was pretty embarrassing because he couldn’t really move. He was there 10 minutes or so. Then he had the thought that his head was just healed. Right after that, he thought he needed to hit his head against the wall but was afraid to. He was aware that pretty soon he could start to slide. So he moved his head over a little and hit it lightly, and he heard the Lord say, “That’s good enough.” Somehow, he realized he was done there although he could still feel the presence of the Lord. At some point, he realized that his symptoms were gone.