Will

Lura Johnson Grubb

Contributed by J. Preston Eby

I am deeply impressed to share here the testimony of Sis. Lura Grubb, a friend of ours from many years ago — one of the most remarkable testimonies I have known in my lifetime. The following is transcribed from a message she delivered to a Convention some years ago, along with other materials. "I believe that my restoration to life in 1932, was a sign of a sort of LIFE into which God plans to bring His sons for manifestation in the end time. I was a Baptist girl when God healed me and raised me from the dead. After three years of serious health crises I was seized with horrible convulsions which continued for six days. Again my family doctor consulted with the surgeon from Marks, Mississippi. His verdict was grave this time as before. There was no hope for complete recovery. There was little possibility of sustained life. He said that I was in too serious a condition to be removed to the hospital, that I would not live to get five miles. I was to remain where I was. And if I should recover enough to undergo an operation, he would perform it, and perhaps relieve the condition partially.

"The family physician returned early the following morning. He was not sure that he would find me alive. He found me in the continuous convulsions and unconscious, just as I had been for the past six days. Again he examined my uncontrollable body. With a note of hesitancy in his voice, he said to mother, 'Mrs. White, I hate to have to tell you this, but Lura is dying now. We have done all we know to do. I will call in any specialist you suggest, but it will do no good. We have done all that medical science has to offer in a case like this. Lura is dying, and if you have any messages to send to relatives, you should send them immediately. These convulsions will continue until she passes away. She may die in the next one, but she might last until midnight. But she is dying and cannot pull through the night. With your consent, I can inject a fatal sedative into her vein which will stop the convulsions, and she will die a peaceful death. If not, she will continue to have convulsions, and die in just as pathetic a condition as she is in at present.'

"Mother consented for the injection to be given. Her compassion could not endure the thoughts of my dying in such a pitiful state. The doctor prepared the medicine and administered it to my body. It was too late. I was too far gone already. My circulation was so poor by that time, that it circulated no further around the injection than a spot the size of a quarter. The doctor shook his head, and told mother to make me as comfortable as possible. Mother looked up to that tall man of medical skill, and with a spark of faith still flickering in her soul, said, ‘But doctor, can't God?' That fearful tone called forth all the sympathy within the kindly soul of that good man. He looked her straight in the eye, and encouraged, ‘If anything is done now, it will be from a Higher Power than medical science.'

"That evening, the godly, white-haired, Holiness Baptist evangelist came to the house. He had been coming to see me and to encourage mother every day. This was the last day of the revival at the church, but not in mother's heart. That last visit was a lighthouse in a storm for my mother who had prayed and fasted without sleep nor rest for six days and nights. She remained close beside my bed those six days and nights of convulsions. That day he told mother that he had had a revelation while in prayer that morning, and that God showed him that her daughter would live and ‘be a shining light for Jesus.’ The veil of sorrow enshrouding her despairing soul was parted by that message of hope. Her faith revived, and she took another tenacious hold upon God and fortified herself against the doubting taunts of Satan. The convulsions continued until midnight — the crisis hour, beyond which the doctor predicted that I could not live. Everyone was tense as thirteen strong men and women held my convulsive form on the bed and waited for the final hour to strike and the curtain to fall.

"The fatal hour struck — it was midnight. I became conscious for the first time in six days and nights. But the consciousness was not earthly. I was yet unaware of the things transpiring about my bed in the darkened room. I had become fully conscious of the heavenly. I beheld a great shaft of light, more brilliant than the noonday sun, stream to me directly from heaven. A blinding radiance, very large in diameter, circumscribed the beam of glittering glory which terminated at my bed. The bed seemed afire with its brightness. I will not recount all my experiences during the time I was dead, in which I saw the Lord Jesus and was commissioned to come back to earth because the Lord had a work for me to do. Down — down — down I drifted until I reached the small frame farmhouse in which lay my lifeless physical form. Then, suddenly, the corpse sat up — the miracle took place! The miracle was not the result of any personal knowledge I had of healing, to say nothing of being raised from the dead. My humble, farm- woman, mother was a Methodist, that fasted six days and nights and prayed for my healing, and finally my resurrection from the dead. I was pronounced dead, and preparations for my funeral were already underway. My mother would not submit to death, even as she stared it in the face of her dead daughter.

"Sometimes I think that we Kingdom people do an injustice to our testimony by so readily submitting to death. We do not contend for the faith of the Son of God. I believe that there is a vast area that we are failing to march into and possess, of the Kingdom provisions. We proclaim Kingdom, but God expects us to have more than revelation. We are called upon to go beyond revelation to manifestation. We are tempted to dwell on a platform of revelation. Revelation is wonderful, but it will never amount to much until it is translated into manifestation. The manifestation of the sons of God is what groaning creation is waiting for, and not just revelation of some mystic character. Some have thought it to be some special revelation for which groaning creation is waiting, but this is not the case. They wait for a manifestation. They want deliverance from their bondage to corruption. We also groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our bodies.

"Now this redemption of the body is interesting. Before we ever heard that there be a Holy Ghost, my mother prayed for my restoration to life in 1932 in Mississippi. Before she committed me to God like Abraham did Isaac, God spoke to her, 'Will you give her to Me if I restore her to life?’ When He got her commitment, He said to her, ‘Get up, I have heard your prayer. See what I have done.' When He instructed her to come to my room and look again into my cold, dead face, she obeyed in faith, believing, without any hesitation. She believed God. I tell you, our faith must go beyond what we are expressing today. She had to go in obedience to the Word of God, and look at me with no life in me, until she saw me begin to breathe and open my eyes. That obedience was her faith in action. For twelve days and nights after God raised me from the dead, I walked in a resurrected body. It was not a glorified body. It was still mortal, not glorified, but resurrected. When you begin to talk about these resurrections and these proofs of Life, people immediately say that we are talking about glorification. No. The Spirit by the pen of Paul in Romans 8 tells us that, ‘If that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He shall also make alive your mortal body' - not glorified body. We shall not need quickening when we receive our body of glory like unto His glorious body. A resurrected body and a glorified body are two different things.

"The same power which raised Jesus from the dead raised me from the dead. I was also miraculously healed of multiple afflictions instantly and restored to life after the spirit departed my body. We really do not need long, drawn out healing services. We just need God to come on the scene. As I looked into the face of Jesus, I was instantly healed. I never became hungry, sleepy nor tired for twelve days and nights after I was healed and restored to life. When my feet touched the floor, a supernatural phenomenon occurred. I felt myself being raised to my tiptoes, and my arms being raised heavenward. The power of God enveloped my body, and I felt so light I hardly had my feet on the floor. Many times during the twelve days and nights that followed, I would unconsciously grab the furniture to hold myself down to the floor. I can describe it as none other than the resurrection power of God — the power that restored my spirit to the body — the power that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. When my hands were down, it was by force. My feet would rest flat on the floor only by force. My natural position those days was on tiptoes and hands upraised. When I forced myself to an arms-down, flat-footed position, I was unable to take a step. This supernatural sign convinced the newspaper photographers and reporters. This was at the conclusion of three years of illness and six days of convulsions and lockjaw. After the miracle, I ministered to thousands of people who came from all over the country, having seen the news story in all the major press service papers in August of 1932. It reached as far as the Shanghai, China newspapers. One hundred fifty three of the largest city newspapers of America carried a full page story in the Sunday Magazine Section of this miracle God performed in Mississippi.

"The thing that is so wonderful to me is the fact that God performed this miracle. We must point the groaning creation to God. He is the miracle worker. In all these years I have enjoyed life and strength from God to preach the Gospel of Divine Life to forty-nine nations. During those twelve days and nights I saw all types of healing and miracles. I did not know how to pray for the sick. As the Spirit led me to touch sick ones who were brought, God performed the miracles, not I. God wants to show forth His glory and ability. God is not looking for people who have excessive knowledge and understand mystical truths. He is looking for a people who are committed that He can fill with Himself and manifest Himself through to the world. He is looking for people who will yield, people who will obey Him, a people who have faith and will allow Him to just flow through them. The vessel is not the important thing. It is God who must perform His work and express His power. Only through committed vessels can this be done. God chose a cotton picking girl in Mississippi, who had no formal knowledge and education to perform this miracle through. He is doing what He will in this hour and manifesting His glory through 'the base things of the world' as the apostle Paul declared. ‘Not many mighty, not many noble,’ respond. God can take nobodies who are submitted to His will and reveal Himself through them to the world. People of low degree are going to make up His Joel's Army Company in this endtime hour.

"During those twelve days and nights, I would sense my spirit leaving my body, and being present in other locations. For example, I found myself in one car of skeptics coming to the farm house where I was ministering to the sick. I heard their conversations. When the auto drove up some time later, I informed them of what they discussed on the way. They recognized that it was a phenomenon of God. They were made believers by the supernatural manifestation of God in the event. Many times I was transferred out of my body while I stood praying for the sick and was conscious of that which was transpiring many miles away. Many were made believers by this miracle manifestation.

"God is going to have a manifestation of Himself in this endtime. I can take no credit for having been raised from the dead. But I do expect to be 'alive and remaining' and see it all through to the climax of this church age. The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die — I have met my appointment and do not expect to set another appointment with death. Some may mark me as heretic, fanatic, or off-brand doctrinally. But it is still true. From the day I was raised from the dead, I started declaring the generation that would never have to die to be the one in which we are now living. I believe that my generation is being offered this victory over death. And I believe I happen to be one of the ‘living and remaining’ ones unto the coming of the Lord. Death holds no fear for me. But God is ordaining this thing for this generation. We will never be able to convince mankind just by preaching. We will have to begin demonstrating the presence of the supernatural God in manifestation. It must take the Spirit of God to draw men unto Him. The scripture declares that 'it is unto Shiloh (Christ) that the gathering of the people shall be.' It was not an unlearned, unimportant, cotton picking girl unto whom was the gathering of the people in 1932. It was unto GOD who performed the miracle in this life which could take no credit for it.

"I believe the full manifestation of God into earth is closer than we can believe. We know that God is going to have a company in which to make this revelation of Himself. He did so with me, one who knew nothing about miracles. He is going to show that the power is of God and not of man. It is unto Christ that the Father purposes to draw mankind. Although I knew nothing about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, God manifested each one of them through me at that time. It was not my doing. Our heavenly Father is bringing a company of believers to the place of commitment to Himself that He can manifest Himself in a way in which no man will receive the glory. It must be a company of sons who are dead to self, filled with Christ, manifesting God life and God power only. It must be a manifestation of God in His many-membered body of sons. God is going to begin to speak through his sons. And when the dead hear the voice of the Son through the sons they shall live! That is the thing that will bring the dead out of their graves. That is the thing that will loose the captives. The son company will not consist of just one select group of believers. No preacher or church has a corner on God! It will be the qualified ones from all of God's groups of believers. The dead shall hear the voice of God through His sons, and they shall live. This must be the company who will submit to God, step out in faith and believe what God has promised. We have preached this for many years. But unless we start manifesting it, we shall not participate in it. We have to believe that God is ready to do it, and it does not depend upon our abilities. It depends on Him. It is time for His sons to rise up and possess their possessions" — end quote.