The miracle under the thorn tree

I love to tell this story because it is the story of a hungry man. A short time after I went to South Africa and God had begun to work very marvelously in the city of Johannesburg, a butcher who lived in the suburbs was advised by his physicians that he had developed such a tubercular state that he might not live more than nine months. He wanted to make provision so that his family would be cared for after he was gone. He bought a farm and undertook to develop it so that when he died his family would have a means of existence.

One day he received a letter from friends at Johannesburg telling of the coming of what they spoke of as “the American brethren,” and of the wonderful things that were taking place. They told of so-and-so, a terrible drunkard, who had been converted; of his niece who had been an invalid in a wheel chair for five years who had been healed of God; how one of his other relatives had been baptized in the Holy Ghost and was speaking in tongues; of other friends and neighbors who had been baptized and healed. He told of the powerful change that had come in the community, and all the marvels a vigorous work for God produces.

Dan Von Vuuren took the letter and crawled under an African thorn tree. He spread the letter out before God and began to discuss it with the Lord. He said, “God in heaven, if you could come to Mr. So-and-so, a drunkard, and deliver him from his sin and save his soul, and put the joy of God in him; if you could come to this niece of mine, save her soul, heal her body, and send her out to be a blessing instead of a weight and burden upon her friends. If you could come to so-and-so and they were baptized in the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues—Lord, if you can do these things at Johannesburg, you can do something for me, too.”

He knelt down, put his face to the ground, and cried to God that He would do something for him. That morning Von Vuuren was so stirred by the reading of that letter that his desire to be made whole got bigger than anything else in his consciousness. His heart reached for God, and that morning his prayer went through to heaven. God came down in his life. In ten minutes he took all the breath he wanted; the pain was gone. The tuberculosis had disappeared and he was a whole man.

But that was not all. He not only received a great physical healing, but God also had literally come in and taken possession of the man’s life until he did not understand himself any more.

In telling me he said, “Brother, a new prayer from heaven was born in my spirit. I had prayed for my wife’s salvation for 18 years, but I never could pray through. But that morning I prayed through. It was all done when I got to the house. She stood and looked at me for two minutes, until it dawned in her soul that I was gloriously healed of God. She never asked a question as to how it took place, but fell on her knees, threw her hands up to heaven and said, ‘Pray for me, Dan; for God’s sake, pray for me. I must find God today.’And God came into her soul.”

Von Vuuren had eleven splendid children. The mother and he began praying, and within a week the whole household of thirteen had been baptized in the Holy Ghost. He went to his brother’s farm, told of the wonder that God had done, prayed through, and in a little while nineteen families were baptized in the Holy Ghost.