15 VOICE IN AN EMPTY ROOM

15 VOICE IN AN EMPTY ROOM

"When I die, you'd jolly well better be sad!"

"Rubbish, I'll celebrate."

Nita's mind recalled the old funny exchange from her teen years as the hour approached when Sandy would have to leave. It was the fifth day of the new year, and they had spent virtually every daylight hour together over the past three weeks, precious times for Nita, considering the circumstances.

Now they were over. Nita felt a heavy load in the pit of her stomach as she looked at her petite friend, so alive and healthy, and so grief-stricken for her. In a way she would rather have died while Sandy was here in Sri Lanka, instead of waiting till she was back in Australia.

But I'll never see her again, Nita realized. As the noon departure hour overtook them, the girls repeated their opening scene, weeping without words. Sandy finally walked out of the door, and as quickly the apartment was draped in a spirit of heaviness.

Psalm 31:1 rolled through Nita's mind, as it had many times in the past weeks: "In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust . . . deliver me in thy righteousness." It had encouraged her before, and now she clung to it again.

She had leaned on Psalm 91:2 as well: "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust."

And still she was waiting on the Lord to renew her strength, waiting to mount up as an eagle, waiting for the time when she would run without weariness, and walk without fainting.

But the emptiness - the sense of hopelessness - was devastating as Sandy's absence engulfed the room.

She lay in her misery for four hours, wide awake, unable to escape into sleep. The soft sounds of the afternoon filtered lightly into her room.

Suddenly, without warning or fanfare, at about four o'clock she heard a voice. It was a man speaking to her in a soft, but authoritative tone. It was the most powerful tone she had ever heard.

"Nita, I'm going to raise you up to make you a witness to Asia."

She was startled. If she had been able to, she would have jumped. She had thought she was alone in the room. Where had that voice come from? It said further: "I'm going to heal you on Friday the eleventh of February."

Nita's heart pounded. She was sure no one was in the room. She had never heard that voice before. She felt an uncanny twinge in her spirit. But she knew better than to be fooled into thinking the Lord had actually spoken to her in an audible voice.

She rolled her eyes around the room as far as she could see. The voice had come from behind her, so she couldn't see who was there. But someone must be there!

She struggled for the call button and buzzed for the attendant. If there was a man in the room, she wanted to know.

Since Nita's voice had failed, the attendant could often guess her meaning by the way she moved her eyes. Nita looked toward the door with a fearful face. The attendant had checked Nita's room for lizards many times, here and in the hospital - they were always crawling into corners, and Nita was terrified of them - so now the nurse proceeded to look for a lizard behind the door. There was nothing there. Nita's eyes moved to another corner, then another, and eventually the attendant had scoured the room. No man nor lizard turned up.

Perhaps under the bed? Nita made the girl get down on her hands and knees and look. But no one was there.

Sceptically, but with excitement slowly mounting inside of her, Nita mentally checked off the possibilities. It could be a dream, but she was wide awake. It could be a hallucination, but she had been off all drugs for several days. It could be her own imagination, but she wasn't even in a good frame of mind - and she knew she had heard a man speak to her, as clearly as anyone had ever spoken to her.

Knowing the extremism of some of her family and friends, it could even be a set-up; someone trying to do her good, give her hope, pretending to be the voice of God - except that the lizard check had ruled out that possibility. The radio was off and there was no recording equipment around at all.

Which left two possible sources: God and the devil.

Nita had never taken kindly to people who proclaimed that God had spoken to them. She had always been suspicious of that whole realm of thinking. To her, even Colton sometimes very nearly crossed the line. But deep in her heart, she already knew she had heard from God; that He had answered her question; that He was going to heal her on Friday, February 11, and that He had answered her question in a completely unique and thoroughly dramatic way.

Still, she just had to be sure.

So she prayed a hard-nosed, practical prayer:

"Lord, I've heard this voice. If it's yours, I want a confirmation."

She felt suddenly awkward, being so bold with the Almighty Creator who had just promised to heal her and done so in an audible voice. But she thought of Gideon, laying out his fleece, and so decided to press on with it.

"I want to hear the promise again," she prayed bravely. "In public. Let other people hear it too."

It was an impossible request, especially since Nita never left her apartment.

She never mentioned the incident to anyone; never hinted that she had heard from God or that she was seeking a confirmation. But she steadily kept her heart open, worshipping her Lord alone, and with Colton and Suzanne and her mother, for hours on end, day after day.

Colton's schedule tugged him away a little more each week. His huge church building programme was drawing to a close, and the grand finale - the dedication of the new church building - was fast approaching. Syvelle Phillips, a major international voice of the Full Gospel movement, was flying in from California to preach the dedication service for Colton's church. It was to be an event of such significance to Colton and his family that they never thought to ask Nita if she wanted to go; instead, they simply presumed it. Nita was unenthusiastic when she heard their plan.

Ted flew a collapsible wheelchair in from England. When it arrived, Colton and Suzanne and the boys unpacked it with giddy excitement. Nita was morose. She had no desire whatsoever to be wheeled into a brand-new church building with fourteen hundred people peering all around. Besides, Colton had requested prayer for her so often and had spent so much time visiting her that she had become something of a joke to the young people of that church - and almost a sore point with some of the older ones.

Colton would not be denied, though, and reluctantly Nita agreed to go. She could not disappoint these people who had been so kind to her for so long. It would mean a lot to them if she would attend.

The boys had loads of fun wheeling themselves around in the new wheelchair, but Nita did not even want to look at it. To her, it was a symbol of what she had become. She could no longer control her body functions at all. The attendant had to change her bedclothes several times a day, like the ritual diaper change on an oversized baby.

"Let's try out this new wheelchair, Nita!"

Michaele pushed her around the garden a few times, then they left for the church. It was a beautiful structure, but Nita could not take much of it in. Colton had graciously arranged for them to arrive early, so Nita could be situated in the choir loft between the piano and the wall - neither Colton nor Nita wanted her to be a spectacle. From her cubicle and with her vision problems, she could see very little of what went on, but in the divine plan she was really only there to hear one thing.

A message in tongues, familiar in Pentecostal services, cut through the service like a knife, arresting the attention of the people assembled there. As the last sounds echoed into the rafters, Syvelle Phillips lifted his voice and began declaring the interpretation. Only Nita had heard the phrases before: "God will raise you up to be a witness to all of Asia. His word to you is true. Trust Him. He will not lead you astray. He will glorify Himself through you."

Nita's heart began to leap with joy. It was true. She had heard from God, and He had confirmed it - here, before fourteen hundred people, honouring her request to hear it in public! The very words God had said!

Nita was ecstatic. Long after the crowd had cleared, she was hoisted out of her little hole. She was still radiant. And in her heart, she felt the assurance of the Lord that there would be icing as well as cake: He would give her yet another confirmation.

It was in this victorious frame of mind that Nita decided to ask for more information. As the nurse changed her bed linen, the next morning, Nita was placed in her wheelchair. She sat by the window, with the sunlight streaming in on the pages of her Bible, and she thought about the day she would be healed.

"Father, you told me the day and the date," she said simply. "Please, don't keep me waiting all day. Please tell me the time too."

She half-expected to hear the voice again, but she heard nothing. Instead, a silent inner voice spoke to her heart: she would be healed at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Nita thought she would burst with excitement. She had the date and the hour now - February 11 at 3:30 p.m. She was going to be healed by the power of God, and she was going to watch it happen!

The next Sunday, Ted decided he wanted to take his little sister to church. Nita didn't look forward to this outing any more than she had looked forward to the last. But Ted was so driven to do things for her that she acquiesced. The dignified accountant had no idea how to carry a cripple so he was helpless trying to get her out of the apartment until Colton's boys, experts by now, came to the rescue. At the church, Nita was positioned in the aisle, with Ted protectively seated next to her.

Suddenly a message in tongues split the air, and again the interpretation rang clearly through the sanctuary. A message miraculously similar to the first one. Nita could hardly believe the great love of her Heavenly Father in giving her not one, but two confirmations.

Nita wept uncontrollably, riveted by the majesty of God. She was embarrassed by her reaction, real emotional tears flooding down her cheeks. She had never cried in public in all these months. She had even waited every night, back in the hospital, until the nurses made their final rounds, before she would let herself cry. But now there was no more doubt in her and she wept with joy. The voice she had heard was her Heavenly Father's. She had waited on the Lord to renew her strength, and soon she would mount up as an eagle, she would walk and not be weary, she would run and not faint. Friday, February 11, she knew without question, she would leave that bed and wheelchair forever, and walk away a free woman.

She wanted to tell the world, but she felt deeply impressed not to share the news with anyone yet. It took a conscious effort to control the urge.

Colton's boys came to lift her away at the end of the service, and Nita knew, as they jostled her down the aisle and out to the car, that it was one of the last times she would be borne like this, like luggage going where someone else wanted it to go.