Rain fell in drenching torrents, blowing leaves and debris across the cold, farm landscape. The sun setting below the horizon made the dark, ominous clouds seem even more threatening. Thunder crashed; the following lightning revealed the barren fields. It was early in winter of 1917, and a half-Cherokee woman was walking determinedly across the farmland of southeastern Oklahoma. Claudius Roberts had been called out of her home by a panic-stricken neighbor because the doctor had announced that his ailing son was close to death. “Please, come pray for my boy, Sister Roberts,” he’d pleaded. House calls had become a burden of her faith.
Claudius Roberts believed firmly in the power of prayer to a God who heals the sick. She went out on that cold, rain-swept night seven months pregnant with her fourth child, believing in a God who would keep her safe, in a God who is the Healer. As Claudius approached the heavy, barbed-wire fence that separated her home from the neighbors, she prayed that she would reach the young boy in time. The gate was broken, and it stuck tight. Even though heavy with child, she lifted up a piece of barbed wire, pressed her foot down on the wire below it, and crawled through the fence.
As suddenly as it had begun, the storm stopped raging, and, in the quiet night, Claudius “felt the Spirit of the Lord hovering hear.” God was speaking to her: the child she carried in her womb “was a special child that would have God’s anointing upon him.” On that dark night, as she made her way to the neighbor’s home, Claudius made a promise to God. If He would heal the neighbor’s sick child, she would dedicate the baby in her womb to the Lord as Hannah had dedicated Samuel. (See 1 Samuel 1:11.)
As she neared the sick child’s bed in a spirit of prayer, Claudius felt the power of the Holy Spirit fall upon that small room. Claudius prayed for healing, and the little boy was healed instantly and completely! From that day forward, she knew that God had anointed her unborn child, who would be dedicated in service to Him.
