Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people!
~ Psalm 66:5
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” Paul wrote in Romans.
But faith is also built by hearing the testimonies of God’s powerful works for and among His people.
The Psalms continually exhort us to make known the great things that God has done for us.
Today, I’d like to hear from you about something God has done for you in the way of answered prayer that was clearly (to your mind at least) a work of God and not a coincidence.
Something that was either miraculous in nature or that borders on the miraculous. (So no “My Aunt Felicia had a hangnail and God healed it” kinds of reports.)
But something a skeptic would have a hard time attributing to mere chance.
Let’s increase one another’s faith today by sharing such stories.
Interview with Rachel Smith
When l was Age 19 after football training l fell asleep at the wheel of my first car. I woke up to the vehicle veering from the left lane to clipping the middle gutter median strip. It flipped the car onto two wheels then l rolled end to end not sure how many times. A lot. A witness, saw the whole accident and attended. I was upside down in a field still in my seatbelt. This was still the days of beatbox, in my centre console had a big cassette player as l didnt have a car radio. The large D size batteries fell out onto me. I wound down the window and crawled out of the car. No whiplash. Not a single injury on me. Thankyou Jesus.
Awesome testimonies. Our God answers prayers. He watches over His word to perform it. To Him be all the glory !
It was when I was about 16 that I became rather sick in my stomach. We didn’t have the money for a doctor visit so I don’t know what was actually wrong with me. That summer I was planning on going to some camp meetings for a week but being still sick I thought I may have to cancel. I went anyway. Well, the third night or so this woman stood up during our singing songs and said that in times past the Lord has used her to heal the sick and that those who desired to have her lay hands on them for healing could come and she would do so. With faith in my heart I asked her to pray for me and I was healed instantly. ( funny thing.. the woman was just somebody’s mother )
I tell my children that story often like Psalm 78 says to not forget our father’s wondrous works. I now see my children’s prayers answered and I see our fathers love through a fathers eyes. What a joy to see them walk in truth. Christ is at work in his people. Especially somebody’s mother.
1977 August – recovering from a tragic car accident and surgery on right femur (3 screws/krod) – my Mom branch manager of Fulton Federal Savings & Loan invited me to hang out at her work, I was 22 at the time a young believer. I had a dream the night before that her bank was robbed, I talked to God this way in the middle of night after the dream, “Lord please don’t let this happen, but if it does, please don’t let me be there.” I was at my Mom’s so when I awoke I told her the dream. She didn’t think much of it, but when arriving at the bank she did tell her tellers all 4 of them, one of which was new. At 12:00 the new teller asked Mom if she would switch lunch hours, Mom asked me, I told her I didn’t care. So we went to lunch at 1:00. When we were at lunch, an armed man robbed the bank, told all the tellers to get on the ground at gun point and told them to open cash drawers and vault. When we were leaving the restaurant that was about 3 blocks from the bank we saw this white car on the sidewalk, I was just 2 weeks out of surgery and was still on crutches and not allowed to do anything strenuous, let alone get down on the ground suddenly. The bank was robbed when we were at lunch, the police, detectives and branch CEO’s were at the branch. Everyone looked at me in disbelief. I had been protected. There was no injury to the employees, but they said they were very frightened. Many months later I asked the Lord why didn’t he just make the guy not do that act of crime. This is what I believe I heard him tell me. “Pennee, I couldn’t change this man’s course of action, he had already determined in his heart what he had planned to do, but I could get you out of there.” God loves us so much he gives us free will and he will never thwart that, he will do everything in his power to create ways of escape but once a human mind is set on something he will not intrude. Finally, I was such a young believer then, and funny thing is, now at 59 I have walked on many religious and came to the same conclusions as your penned in PAGAN CHRISTIANITY and now pretty much am enjoying my life in Christ as I did as a 22 year old, trusting and believing in simple childlike faith. So much easier, and fun. Thanks for the opportunity to post this testimony.
Thanks for sharing. I really hope you read the constructive sequels as PC isn’t a stand alone book and not very good on its own. They are all here: http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org
In the fall of 2007 my husband, who was not a believer in the Bible being the true word of God, became suddenly depressed, then angry. This was the opposite of his former personality. We have four children ages 26, 23, 19, and 15. His anger and depression turned my family upside down. His depression and temper got so bad that I took him to the emergency room of the hospital fearing he had a brain tumor. After visits with several doctors in various fields, they gave him a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Over the span of a year he was given 16 different medications, and none of them helped. Life felt like a living hell. I was living with someone who looked like my husband but acted like someone I wouldn’t want to know, much less live with.
I grew up a Christian raised Catholic but had left the church. I went to a non denominational church with a friend and began attending regularly. For the first time in my life I was free to worship and praise openly. I learned so much about the power of the holy spirit. I began asking for prayer for my husband. Not long after he began attending church regularly. At first he would leave in the middle, leave angry, depressed. Finally, one day after church he sat in the sanctuary and he began sobbing and saying he want to give his life to Christ right then. He did. A few months later He was baptized in the ocean. Today, He is free from any sign of depression, anger or illness, and is also medicine free. He has been on 3 missions trips and just recieved his letter of Chaplaincy to be a chaplain at the Fire Dept. where he works. The only explanation from anyone who knows him has been a complete healing by God from darkness that tried to overtake him. Praise God, He allows things sometimes to bring us to Him, and He heals.. believe!
Fantastic. Praise God
I know of a number of healing miracles. I personally had my hearing “adjusted” by our Lord’s hand. Because of the influence of you Frank and others, like Milt Rodriquez, I have begun to realize that in the past I have spent a lot of time looking at man when I saw a miracle. “Oh, he has such an effective prayer ministry!” or “OUR CHURCH sees a lot of miracles!!” I am, lately, trying to “wonder” at God when we see a miracle.
There are so many instances of God’s intervention in my life that it is hard for me too choose one. I am a living miracle, in so many ways. I was born prematurely with physical problems into an abusive family where alcohol was God. By the time I was eighteen, drugs were my God. My life was hopeless and death seemed like the best solution to me. However, God had another plan and He reached down and saved me by revealing, Jesus to me as the savior from my sin. Faith in, Jesus saved me from spiritual death but also, physical death and Jesus changed my life by changing me. Before Jesus, my life was dark but after, Jesus there was light and life where before, there was only death. I wasn’t saved in a church or because of any church minstry. I didn’t even attend a church for ten years after my conversion because they were so forgein to me. At one point, I tried very hard to quit being a Christian because I had no Christian friends and the friends I did have thought it was hokey. However, even though I tried to turn my back on Jesus, He would not turn His back on me. He continued to work in me as I had an intense hunger for the Bible and through the Bible, God rewired my thinking and gave me His view on myself and the world I live in. My experience of faith in, Jesus has been nothing less than a total transformation that is still taking place over thirty years since I first received Jesus Christ. I don’t know if my talking about it is enough to convince a skeptic that who I am now is a work of God or not but if they knew me back then and suddenly, saw me now, I think they would be awed. I know I am. The world would never have ascribed any hope to me but Jesus loved me and continually works in me to help me be the person that God created me to be. God has done other miracles in my life, but my salvation and redemption is the daily, continuing miracle that is of the greatest value to me.
Pam
Since I keep coming back to this post to read the latest testimonies (which I have been so blessed by) I am inclined to add one more that the Lord reminded me of…it was the day my 6 yr old taught me a lesson in faith:)
A few months ago my son came home from daycare with a’pulled elbow’, a common thing in young kids where the elbow sort of gets out of joint, usually by having the forearm pulled in some way..the arms hangs funny afterward, they dont want to use it and are unable to raise it above the head..anyway since he had had this before a few years back I wasnt too concerned..its an easy and pretty painless fix, the worst part is the wait in the ER. So off we went to the hospital..when the doc finally saw us what should have been just a simple 123 , a turn this way and a push that way and its in.. wasnt turning out like that..and this time it hurt…alot! After numerous attempts the doc said to go home and he’d call in a couple days and refer us to a surgeon if necessary..at my request the doc showed me the maneuver to do at home, Im thinkin I’d take care of it myself..lol…we went home to bed and the next day I told my son we either had to go back to emerg or he had to let mommy fix it…he flat out refused both options! He asked me if God could do it and make it so it wouldnt hurt..I said ‘yes… but God uses doctors sometimes’..I explained that anyway God would still need to ‘physically’ push the arm back in place somehow…and he is not gonna just reach a hand out of heaven and push it in…so I suggested we pray that the doc (or mommy) will do it and that it wont hurt. He said no. He told me very clearly he wanted God to do it Himself. I didnt know what to do..I wanted him to trust God but I was afraid of what I would say to him if God didnt fix it! Not my proudest christian moment.lol..but I was genuinley worried it could actually have a negative impact on his faith if nothing happened.. at this point I was a little frustrated and unsure how to proceed because I knew we had to get the arm back in soon…so I tried to coax him again to let me do it or go back to the ER..finally he said to me very boldly “GOD IS THE KING OF THE WHOLE WORLD, HE CAN DO ANYTHING!!!” at that I felt the Holy Spirit tell me not to discourage him…so hesitantly I said ‘ok…lets pray and wait a few hours to see what God will do.’ We prayed together that God would put his elbow back in..I felt the power of the Holy Spirit so strongly as we did. When we finished praying I went to my room and I earnestly cried out to God..”Lord, you have to do something..he is waiting for you, he believes that you will fix it, your Word says that those who trust in You will not be put to shame..please, please reward his faith”..I was still praying when I heard my son walking down the hall toward my room saying something…then suddenly I heard a loud thump..and a small whimper….he had tripped and fell (over nothing)..the moment I heard the sound I just knew..I ran to him and said “show me your arm!” and low and behold it was right back in place and he could move it just fine!:) What a joyous moment that was as we ran around the house thanking God that He had fixed Sam’s arm..allbeit in an unconventional way:)
Jewell, thanks for sharing this powerful testimony. i’m really encouraged by your son’s faith in God!
My wife and I have been planning an RV trip with another Christian couple for the summer ending up at the Balloon festival in Albuquerque, NM. in Oct. The planning has been in the making for over 2 years.
We are in small “Simple Church” and the people have prayed for traveling mercies for us as we started, we also have given it up in prayer in our devotional times, because of health issues, family problems and ect.
Getting to the point- The second day of travel we were ending the day of travel coming around Columbia, SC just getting into rush hour traffic, with about 35 miles to get to our stay for the night, my eyes were feeling fatigued and we decided to stop and find an RV park for the night, we pulled into a small park and registered when I noticed right side trailer tire looked low and upon further examination saw steel sticking out the side and serious tread separation which would have resulted in a blow-out in a few more miles, which might resulted in destruction to the trailer and worst an accident on that very busy section of interstate.
My wife and I have not stopped praising God for taking us off the highway, and the answered prayers of Gods righteous.
On July 14th, 2008 our beautiful baby girls were born. Abbie and Emma. A few days after their birth, we found out that Abbie had Turner Syndrome (TS). 99.9% of babies with TS are never born, lost through miscarriage or abortion. God saved Abbie.
February, March, and April of 2009 – We spent a week during each of these months in the hospital with Abbie. She had developed a serious blood infection (due to extreme eczema and visiting a filthy doctor’s office) that was difficult to get rid of with the strongest antibiotics. Over 12,000 people in the U.S. die every year from blood infections. God saved Abbie again.
July 7, 2009 Abbie had surgery for Craniosynotosis, which occurs in one in 2000 births. Major reconstruction was required for the front half of her skull. God protected Abbie and guided the hands of the surgeons.
As Christians we tell people to “give your child to God.” It’s a little different saying it than when you actually have to do it, over and over. I know there are many parents out there who are going through the same thing. I remember walking through the halls of the hospital and praying for other families’ little ones in need. So many different stories.
We are just Thankful, for every moment we have with her. Abbie is a spitfire, and a fighter, nothing stops her. There will be obstacles to overcome in the future because of TS, but we will handle them as they come with God’s help. He’s kept her with us this long, we look forward to many more years to come. We can’t wait to see God’s plan unfold in her life. Abbie and Emma just turned 4 years old this past weekend. All the Praise goes to God!
Here is a little more about our story:
Frank,
I have an amazing testimony that I would like to share with you. I will try to keep it brief. However, the miracles continue today so I probably need to write a book. Here’s the Reader’s Digest Version. Received Christ in my heart on 19 November 1983 (33 years old). My entire outlook on life changed at that moment. My bride (wife of 41 years today and counting)and I fell in love again. Many miracles occurred from 11/1983 to present. One that clearly stands out was a Government Contract award to my small business of 5 employees. The contract had potential ceiling value of $94,000,000. We competed and beat Raytheon and L-3 Communications as well as another reputable manufacturer. This award was placed without any discussions or a request for Best and Final Offer. I have been in the Defense Marketing and Contract business for more than 30 years. I have NEVER witnessed any Government contract awarded without discussions or negotiations. This was clearly a miracle and I continue to testify of this to all my business associates and anyone else who cares to listen. Papa is good and truly interacts in my life on a daily basis in real and tangible ways.
When I was 23 weeks pregnant with my second child, the doctor found my that my son’s kidneys were not functioning correctly. The valves did not open and close correctly causing toxic fluid to back-up into his abdomen. So by definition it was a birth defect. It could be fixed, but the operation to get to a newborn’s kidney’s is extensive and I was terrified.
When he was born, the problem persisted and the operation was scheduled. At our tearful request our church laid hands on him and prayed for healing. A healing that I truly believed that would not happen. I was just too afraid that he would say no.
Just as a back-up, another sonogram was ordered. A very puzzled look crossed the doctor’s face when he put the film up in the examination room. Followed by an even more surprised look when I jumped up and started giving glory to my Lord;)
His valves were both working correctly and no surgery was required. It was the first miracle I ever witnessed myself, a true testament to the power of prayer.
Please pray for my 24 mo old Isaiah. He is having an autism screening tomorrow at 10 AM. Please pray for my and my wife’s faith.
May God grant your and your wife’s heart’s desires. May He also grant you both the faith, wisdom, and understanding of His good will for your family.
Two stories. 1. I recently did a Bible school with YWAM. We raise all of our support and are way too busy to work a job. At the beginning of the school year we needed God to provide $72,000. Throughout the year money would come in for people who needed it, myself included. It was the first time that I’d seen God provide financially for me. With one week left before the deadline, people in my school owed $12,000. It all came in, including $3,000 on the last possible day from an anonymous donor.
2. One day God told me to go to Bangladesh. I had never heard of a nation called Bangladesh before, so I looked it up online, thinking that I had made it up. Turns out it is a small Muslim nation, with .03% Christian. I was shocked. I was more shocked when our speaker for that week (I was doing another school with YWAM) mentioned Bangladesh every day after God told me to go, and she hadn’t mentioned it once before that. Then I found out that my parents are on the board of a missions organization that supports two missionaries in Bangladesh. I had no clue about that. I decided to go to Bangladesh, even though I was broke. Well, after God has raised over $2000 for me, I’m going to Bangladesh in two weeks to teach in a DTS there. And it’s just the beginning. Go God.
I was living in California when i got saved in 1986. I had spent over 10 years in and out of a relationship which was going no where. In 1987 a friend of mine said she felt the Lord wanted me to move back to Michigan. I had no intentions of leaving because I really enjoyed living there. I think the Lord knew what it would take to get me to go because after seeking a confirmation to my friends word, the Lord said, “Anne, that’s were you will meet your husband.”. So needless to say, I was willing to go. It would be a whole new story to tell of His miraculous provisions to get me home but I will skip that for now.
When I moved home I decided to become a manicurist and while at school, I met a women who told me where I could find a job and the owners are Christians. Long story short, I did get a job there. I had grown restless waiting for my prince charming so I started to date this man I met. In the mean time my mom was diagnosed with stage four cancer and was unsaved. In the mean time, the owner to the salon wanted me to meet her pastor. I’m cutting details but i met with him and he was shocked to find that I was 32 and had never been married. As I was leaving, a lady from the church told me she had a word for me and wrote it down. All that it said was Isaiah 62:5 & 6. I tucked it away and waited.
In the meantime, I started attended my bosses church and knew I needed to brake off the relationship I had been in. The Lord showed me in my first ever “God dream” that this man, although divorced, God wanted to reconcile him with his wife and daughter. I was obedient and broke it off. During that time my mother was miraculously saved but died 5 weeks later. Soon after her death, the Lord woke me up one Sunday morning and said, “Get up and get dressed today you will meet your husband.”. I was so excited, so I got dressed and headed for church. I say down and told a friend what the Lord showed me that morning and she was just as excited as I was.
That morning, the pastor introduced a young man who had called him saying that God directed him to come to our church with his testimony. After he spoke I was introduced to him but thought certainly this can’t be my husband to be, he is too young. After I broke up with the last man I had dated, I swore to God that I wouldn’t date again. To shorten this story, this gentleman and I hung out with the same crowd from church and got to know one another. One day we were in a Christian book store and I noticed these name tags like bike license plates. I quickly found his name which was Greg. When I turned it over, I almost fainted . His name means Watchman…. Is. 62:5 & 6 says, Ye shall be married….. And I will place a watchman over you. There were 10 total confirmations between the two of us that God wanted us to marry. Three months later we were married and celebrated our 20th anniversary last week. Oh, the man I broke off the relationship with, his last name was Jankowski.
I started dating a guy as I was signing a 2 year contract for missionary work in Haiti. On top of that, 2 months prior to us dating, his dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. I don’t know what I was thinking–well I wasn’t, God did the thinking for me, because I had such a beautiful peace in it all. Because if I would have thought about it before I started dating him, I don’t think I would have under the circumstances we were in: he and I, long distance, while trying to support him through the terminal illness of his father. It was all going very well, or as well as it could go with inconsistent/blurry video chats, emails, and Facebook messages, but his father was declining rapidly, not getting better, but much worse.
The previous year (before the time I had started dating my boyfriend) I had made plans to come for a visit for a good friend of mines wedding (this trip was within 4 months after I started dating my boyfriend and 6 months after his dad was diagnosed). God’s timing was impeccable: my boyfriend’s dad passed away while I was in town for my 2-week visit home to the states. The timing of his dad’s death was obviously not the perfection, but the fact that God perfectly and strategically placed the timing of my home-coming in alignment with my boyfriend’s dad’s passing. He knew it was impossible for us to support/mourn together from where I was, so He let me be right beside him for all of it.
And in all of this, here’s a little fun fact: my boyfriend and I were in kindergarten together, grew up together till age 12. We lost touch in my family’s move away from our hometown, but in the disconnect we both became followers of Christ (God had His hands in the disconnect for us to mature in Him before our paths met again). Now, 14 years later, we were miraculously reconnected through old friendships and the spreading petition for prayers of his father’s illness, and through God’s divine intervening, we now have hopes to be a wonderful team for His kingdom. God is at work people!
I loved hearing everyone’s beautiful stories, thanks for sharing!
wow i can hardly type this comment after reading all these posts–but i assure you i am more encouragred to trust God for my daily provisions.
about 6 1/2 years ago my best friend was diagnosed w/Hep C & she needed a liver transplant. On my way to Bible study, i stopped by to see her & b/c of my insistence an ambulance was called. Her numbers were so bad that the physical area which she was eligible for a transplant enlarged. The next day a liver came available but she was too sick & had to wait another day before transplant. Transplant was successful. The day before i went into deep prayer & felt SURE God showed me He would heal her, i just knew it in my spirit & it was settled. There were many different people @ the hospital & most were sending bad reports via phone & texts. i reported good signs & good reports & they were confused b/c they were getting bad reports from others that were in the room with me. i can look back now & i remember the alarms going off & the nurses rushing in saying life threatening things, but for some reason that wasnt what i saw & wasnt what i spoke. Then my friend’s husband took me off to the side & said, she is dying. i ran into the bathroom & cried out to God, saying i KNOW you said she would be healed & i felt sure you meant here on earth. i simply heard: There is a difference between facts & the Truth. That settled it for me, He changed me right there. My friend is doing wonderful, she was sent home to die & had the family called in & her liver was failing & they said nothing more could be done. She is the bill of health & no one could say it was less than a miracle. i feel honored to have been part of that. God is mind-blowing!!
What im about to share is my 1st known encounter with Jesus. i wasnt raised in church, i always saw God waiting to zap me every time i failed. when i was invited to church i felt i didnt have nice enough clothes so i would decline. i divorced my husband in 1994 & he kept the 2kids. i began drinking out of control & attempted suicide several times yet heard if i did i would go to Hell so i was too scared to do it. i didnt want to die so much as to have never lived. i wanted the memory of me erased from every person who knew me so they wouldnt be hurt or plagued w/ suicide. In July of ’99, i ‘came to’ out of a black out drunk & found myself in a jail cell. i had no idea what i had done but i knew what i was capable of. i began cursing my mom & my ex-husband yelling about it being their fault. Then something happened, i remember it as if it happened yesterday. It was like a giant book of my life was placed before me & the pages slowed at the very lowest points of my life. That was the 1st time i ever took responsibility, i realized i was in that jail cell b/c of my bad choices. i remember i simply cried out “God help me” then the most amazing thing happened to me. (Back then i didnt know what it was called b/c i had never ever experienced it.) i described it as Liguid Love enveloping me. It was the most beautiful, extraordinary feeling i ever felt. (i now realize it was His perfect peace, i didnt recognize it b/c i had never experienced it before) i was still in that cell with cement floors, metal bars, itchy wool blanket & i had to step onto the toilet to get to my bunk….BUT something had changed, i KNEW i was going to be Ok, something happened, i was changed. i later found out i was there for the week-end for public intoxication. (i later found out i had gone into a revival tent & was dancing seductively to Christian music! such a proud moment!~NOT) Anyway i was let out, went into a half-way house for 4 months. Was invited to a Third Day concert, was drawn to their love of Jesus & began my path to finding Him. In that halfway house i was told to get on my knees & ask God to help me stay sober & at night if i didnt drink or drug to thank Him. That’s how it started for me. No altar call, no IC. No Bible study. Just me & Jesus in a jail cell & i cant forget ot mention the many people who prayed for me for years. i was the girl they said would never change…could never change, i was the hopeless one in the bunch. God has brought me a long way,, it has been a wonderfully beautiful journey thus far & i trust that He will finish the good work that He started in me. He is mine & i am HIs. Praise Him!
My husband and I went away for holidays to central Australia to a place called Ormiston Gorge not far from Uluru (Aires Rock). It is a beautiful part of the country, red dirt, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, wild life and of course the wonderful terrane. I had got up very early before sunrise to go and do some photography in and around the Gorge. With my husband still asleep in the van, I set off with tripod and camera. After 2 hours of being away, walking through lots of parts of the lengthy gorge, I got back to the camp and discovered I had lost an earring, one my daughter had made and given me a few years back. It was a special item and I was devastated to think I had lost it, and of course thought I would never see it again. Later that day we went for a walk back through the tracks to the gorge and over the rocks and sand and along the waters edge and a young couple were playing near the waters edge with their 3 year old. I had been praying as I walked along, “Oh Lord, this earring was special to me, you are the only one who could help me to find it”. I stopped to talk to these people for a moment, then gazing down I saw this shiny earring half immersed in the sandy water. I couldn’t believe it, …well yes I could, nothing is impossible for God. I picked it up, shared with the couple what had happened and how I had prayed, and praised God for what he had done. That day the Lord reminded me of the ‘axe head that floated” and how he is concerned about the little things in our lives as well as the big things. We have a great God who cares for every part of our lives.
I experienced undeniable physical healing from the Lord at the age of 21 after years of anger toward Him (for my dad abandoning my family, perceived rejection from our church, and several abusive relationships). I was managing a retail shop at the time. I had clocked in for a shift toward closing time to do an inventory and, after the staff had gone home, fix some product displays. As I was finishing up the last display (about 1:30 AM), I lost my balance and fell off a ladder. I got up quickly, but I felt a strange buzz creeping up my spine. By the time I clocked out and got to my car, I was sobbing from pain. I became frightened because it was in the middle of the night and I didn’t know what to do except drive myself to an emergency room (about 15 miles from the store). The pain became worse until I was writhing in my car seat and I had not even entirely cried out, “Jesus!” when I saw, in a split second, a hand reach down from the night sky and move like a cloud over my car. I felt a very reassuring warmth wash over my back and heard several “snaps”–the Lord healed my back in the dead of night! A few seconds later, I was at a stop light with no pain and a sense of comfort I have seldom experienced since. He is our Abba Father!
My friend’s mother was diagnosed with a malignant tumor – colon cancer. All the test results were in – she was scheduled for surgery and radiation treatments. God told me to bring her some soup and tell her, “You will be just fine.” I am very skeptical about so-called faith-healings. To this day, I don’t think it had anything to do with faith. I certainly didn’t have the faith that she would be healed. And as worried as she and her family was, it didn’t seem like they had faith either. But God kept bugging me. He would not let me rest until I obeyed Him. So I grudgingly did what He said, expecting to look like a fool and cause even more heartache for this family by offering false hope. I got a call from my friend after her surgery. “You’re never going to believe this,” she said. “They went to remove the tumor and it wasn’t there.” As a precaution, they removed a small section where the tumor should have been and sent it to the lab. It came back negative. Go figure. Actually, go God! I still find it hard to wrap my brain around this.
I posted this on my facebook about two weeks ago! I hope it is encouraging!
A good name is rather to be chosen.
In 2006 we thought we had the world figured out! We both had great jobs making good money. We had been married for three years and the time was right. We decided we would start having kids! In the summer of 2006 we became pregnant and we were well on the way to completing our plans.
But God’s plans are not our plans and his ways are not our ways. We miscarried. Then we tried again and again. Each time met with disaster. We came to the place where we couldn’t even tell people when we got pregnant because we knew the incredible disappointment we would eventually have to share with them. This was a dark time for us. Our faith in a loving good God was put on trial. We could look around and see so many people in our lives having kids and we weren’t.
We continued to try. But now instead of miscarriages we couldn’t get pregnant. No matter what we tried it wouldn’t happen. The pressure and disappointment were overwhelming. So many people kept telling us “don’t give up. Never lose hope.” And yet it seemed the hope was the most painful part. Our marriage began to be stressed. There was so much pressure on this one part of our life all the other parts revolved around it and we met failure month after month. As we met failure the disappointment infected the rest of our marriage. We sat in the car one night and made a clear conscious choice. We decided to give up. We decided to abandon all hopes and dreams and visions of the future. They were dead along with every baby we had ever conceived. We couldn’t have children.
The trial of our faith in a God who loves us wasn’t over. Now we were filled with disappointment not only in the circumstance, but in the God who either caused or allowed it to happen. How can this loving and good God hang his people out to dry the way he had with us? We were serving him faithfully and he had denied us a gift he seemed to hand out without discretion to everyone else. If he was there at all, was he the God we’d been told about all our life or something more distant and cold? We reached a major crisis in our beliefs.
Questioning turned to seeking. We came to a place of attempting to find what God really wanted from us. We stumbled upon a verse in Matthew 6:23, “But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” This verse filled us with something close to fear. Was it possible that what we thought of as light was actually darkness? Rachel and I have spent our lives in the church system. We had accumulated more Bible knowledge and facts and teaching about God than most. But we had never spent that much time and effort on actually knowing God. We knew about him, but it is not the same as knowing him. I know lots of facts about many historical figures (because I am a home schooled nerd) but this does not mean I know those people. This is the way we had treated God. Somehow we had been taught and believed to have knowledge about God is the same as knowing him. As we came to him and said “God, we want to know you. We will do anything you ask if it means we will know you better.” It was a simple prayer but a turning point in our walk with God.
As we grew to know our God so much changed in our life. Our motivation, our perspective on church, our ministry, everything changed in our life. We came to our God with all the hurt we felt towards him about not being able to have children. We laid it at his feet. God exploded our ministry. We started working to found local neighborhood churches, I became involved in ministering to the homeless and traveling to India. Rachel began mentoring high school girls. We were being used in ways we never imagined by our God.
Our hearts desire was to have children and yet the hope of it had been abandoned. But God continually comforted us with a passage from Matthew. Matthew 6:27-29: “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.”
We came to have true faith in the goodness of God. Many might look at our situation and have reason to question (as we did) whether God is good. But we believed that since he would take care of a Lily he would take care of us. This was faith. The evidence seemed to point in another direction but by faith we believe God is good. We believe no matter what our God brings us he is good. If the baby is stillborn he is still just as good. If we had never become pregnant again he is still just as good. It is truth to say our God is love and he is good.
I am sitting in the labor and delivery room where my daughter will shortly be born. In all our troubles having a child the doctors could never tell us what was wrong. They could never explain from their tests. They had no solution to fix the problem. This child was an incredible surprise. The baby that will be born today is not because of vast sums of money we spent on procedures. It is not because of some doctor’s skill. This baby is born purely out of God’s hand. There is no other reason for our daughter to enter the world except that our God has decided it is so. I want to be clear that all glory and praise for this birth belongs to God alone.
Well now that you have endured my ramblings I guess this is the part everyone has been waiting for. We struggled to come up with the right name for this baby. We continued to come back to the words of Christ in Matthew. If he can take care of a lily he can take care of us. If he can take care of all the lilies he can take care of this one too. We have decided name this baby Lily Jewel McGowan.
Beautiful name and congratulations mom and dad! God is indeed good!
So many wonderful answers from God through my 48 years…but 2 instances where he stared me straight in my eyes with physical acts:
Early in our marriage we lost a $1,000 down payment on a house that we were trying to buy. The owner had not disclosed severe flood damage and we were young, naive and trusting. We pulled out of the deal and lost the money but did file a judgement in court and went on our way. Ten years later, my husband was in a period of unemployment and at one point was fearful and broken not knowing how we would make our house note. I went on a ladies retreat and prayed with friends and surrendered my fear. The next morning at church a lady told me that she saw my name in the paper of a list of people the State Comptroller had money for. It was the $1,000 + interest and covered 2 house notes…God had prepared that provision a decade in advance and delivered it in a way that I could not mistake his involvement.
Fast forward to about 4 years ago when I’m exiting traditional church, feeling like I’m swimming against the current. Working at a local school one day, I was waiting to clear an intersection with other young students. In my mind I thought, “We’re like salmon swimming up stream” in this crowded hallway. I said to the students, “You know, we’re swimming upstream,” leaving out “salmon.” The logic was lost on the 6th graders, the traffic cleared, I crossed the patio to the adjoining building to find a library book on the floor face down…I hollered for scampering students that someone dropped a book but no one heeded. I picked up the book, turned it over to see a large blue fish leaping from a stream and the title “Salmon Stream.” It was a jaw dropping realization from God during my heartbreak of leaving my organized church, that he hears my every thought, word for word, even those I don’t utter. I hurried to share the moment with a fellow Christian colleague. Later that day his wife brought me a can of Salmon that I have in my office to this day…occasionally someone asks about it and I get to share that very special moment that God made himself so starkly real, personal and present in my daily life.
As a new christian, I was marvelling at God’s creation and sad that I probably would not see most of the beauty of His world. Two weeks later, my daughter of 8 years, placed my name into a contest for a free trip to Hawaii 5 minutes before the contest closed. I received a call a little later to say I had won the trip. My name was drawn at the local store then from about 41 stores across Ontario. It was not a prayer request but I believe God gave me a gift and wanted to show me the beauty of His creation.
Sold home and moved from central Florida:
– Four months before Florida home sold we moved to Kentucky and bought a much nicer home
– Florida home sold for cash while out of town: (offer via Email on Monday morning, home closed and cash was in the Kentucky bank on Thursday of the same week; that is three days and a couple hours, start to finish).
Just those two (2) items alone would qualify for immediate Sainthood; as both are impossible. There are not enough pages to list of obstacles the Lord overcame to get us where He has us.
We are thankful and exceedingly grateful. The Lord is good, Let the redeemed say so,
Paul
I decided to end my life instead of facing my wife and everyone else with truth and disappointment. I ran my car into a steel utility pole at 65 miles an hour. My mother says at the moment of the accident she was driven to her knees with an overwhelming sense of dread and knew that it involved me. I survived with only sprained ribs, collapsed lungs and a broken ankle. In the time that followed, even tho my wife forgave me and I was getting counseling, my depression over past failures and subsequent lying and suicide attempt only grew. I hated myself so much for trying to kill myself that I felt more depressed than before and was ready to do it again. Ironic and insane, no? But every time those darkest thoughts came upon me, the Lord sent me a vision. I’m looking at myself and my Lord in a dark place and His arms are around me. I can see the expression on His face. It is one of intense pain and even more intense love. Tears are streaming down His face. He is heartbroken. The Lord knows empathy like no one else. Two things come to mind, the story of Lazarus (when Jesus wept, “See how He loved him”) and the verse from Hebrews, “for we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.” Each time after the vision, the suicidal thoughts would pass until I didn’t have them anymore. I began seeing every day as a miracle because it is the day the Lord has made. And I laugh at Christians who believe The Age of Miracles Has Ceased (that’s in 2 Speculations 3:19)! LOL
For over a decade I enjoyed a friendship with a young man who was a foreign exchange student in my home. He was from eastern Europe and raised under communist rule, which had erased any sign of Christianity from his life. My family prayed for him, included him in Christian activities and tried to model sincere faith, but he was firm in believing that God was a myth for ignorant people. But now that he has returned to his native country, God is revealing to him how different a world of unbelievers can be. He recently wrote to me, saying that he has learned that God is in control, and that “all I decide is what I am going to eat for breakfast!”. I see more than ever how faithful God is to keep working when I have given up!
In 1999, I woke up with severe pain in my side. The pain was constant and severely hampered my day-to-day activities. I saw many doctors, had numerous tests and a few surgeries, but the pain did not leave. About four years into this, we met a fellow Christian who had been healed from an inoperable brain tumor. Even though we had been followers of Jesus for many years, we did not realize that God still heals today. We thought that was for over emotional people in frenzied meetings. :). We then started praying for healing, seeking prayer from friends, and went coast to coast in the US seeking out people with the gift of healing. In July 2009, we were at a Christian conference where a speaker asked if anyone had pain in their right side. We were sitting in the front of the building and out of 1,200 people, I was the only person that stood up. The speaker said, God wants to heal you. He asked me to check to see if the pain was gone. It was, and I sat down. After 10 years of excruciating pain it was finally over. The Lord completely healed me. I would encourage everyone who is seeking healing to continue to pray and persist, dont get discouraged as it is His will to heal. My healing was not instantaneous though I have seen those happen too. His ways are not our ways, though His is always the best way.
Three people I prayed for while doing stuff in India with AIDS were healed with medical record to prove it, and in one congregation i asked for every woman that could not have children to come forward, the number of women was seven and some had been trying for over seven years, one year later they were all pregnant. Seen blind eyes opened, skin grow back on peoples face, demons cast out, etc.
Two years ago, I just sat before God in meditation. Asking for nothing but just seeking the person of Christ then in closing, simply asked if He’d have anything to say to me. He said, “I have a present for your womb.” Since my husband and I were trying for our second child (first one was already seven year old and had a miscarriage about two years before), I just thought maybe I’m hearing my own desire, but made a note in my journal. Exactly one week from that date, I was pregnant! At that point, I had to ask God why He even bother to tell me about something I’d find out in a week. What is the purpose, especially when I didn’t even ask him for it. Without hearing Him, I knew it was because of previous miscarriage experience. He wanted to reassure me that all is well. Then I asked why at this point and He gave me blessings on the baby by starting to say, “He is …” so I asked, if the baby is a boy and he said yes. After four months, the doctor confirmed, it is a boy. I was interested in the name Nathan which when I looked it up, the meaning was “God gives” or “God’s present”. That one sentence “I have a present for your womb” carried me through my pregnancy for I am over 40 yrs old and was concerned with the health of the baby. God knowing me so well, provided my needs even when I didn’t know what to ask for and it all happened when I sought the person of Christ. I truly believe, in Christ is the answer to all and He is the answer to all. May you all be richly blessed as you seek the person of Christ.
This is the story of how God put me and My wife (Heidi) together.
We became friends at the beginning of October, 2010.
God had laid it on my heart to go to Egypt or India. The Egypt thing was shortly before the huge catastrophe broke out. After the situation in Egypt happened the Lord had me praying a LOT for Egypt. So, I later realized that the Egypt thing may not have been for me to visit, now. I prayed about India and the Lord laid it on my heart to start looking for someone to go with me. I was asking around, the various people I knew from house church and from the ministries on campus. God had me ask Heidi if she wanted to go. I wasn’t expecting it, but she felt the yes immediately when I asked her. I continued to question if she was really going to go with me. I asked her over and over, and kept praying about it.
We were just friends. Nothing more at that time.
A few weeks after that situation, we were having a prophetic night at Heidi’s house the second week in February of 2011 and during it God had Heidi prophesy over me words verbatim that He had given her 2 years ago about the character of her husband. I had no clue the gravity of what she was speaking. She left the room briefly to pray over what God had just spoken and when she asked, God said to her, “You heard me.”
Heidi then asked for more confirmations because she wasn’t going to say a word until God told me.
2 days later Heidi, some friends and me went up to a friends ministry house. That weekend, Saturday morning, God spoke to Heidi again about me and then Saturday night God pretty bluntly told me that I was going to marry Heidi. I was very uncertain and was NOT going to say a thing to her until I got more confirmation.
I waited about a week and a half, maybe more. I was talking to God about it, really unsure. I was asking for confirmation and for him to tell Heidi.
God spoke to me and stated that He was going to confirm it for me. He wanted me to say exactly what He tells me. God told me I was going to ask Heidi one question and if she responded and knew exactly what I was speaking about that it would be one of the confirmations. I was to ask Heidi, “Did the Spirit tell you the same thing.” I thought that there was NO way I could ask such a broad question and she would know. But, I was going to be obedient and let God take over. On a Thursday there were a few of us worshipping, before “house church” (A ministry here at the college), and God told me to ask. So, I went over to her asked the question and she looked at me, smiled, and said yes. I immediately started questioning if she really knew what I was talking about, but the Lord affirmed it, immediately, and we sat there and laughed about it for a few minutes and left the conversation at that. We still hadn’t talked about the exact “thing” the Lord had spoken to us, but in spirit we both knew.
About a week later we sat down and briefly mentioned it but didn’t speak in detail because we were both so shocked and we both were NOT ready to accept it, that this was our husband and wife. I was especially not ready to accept it because I was a bit of a modern day monk and had convinced myself that I was to be celibate. At this point, nobody knew but Heidi and I. Because the situation was so crazy I was still slightly uncertain, as was Heidi, so God began confirming through others.
A few days later, during another prophetic time, a brother prophesied over me that their was a girl stepping into my life or was going to step into my life. Then, another brother told me that God told him that Heidi and I were going to get married. I was pretty shocked and blown away. Oddly enough, the same night that brother told me, One of Heidi’s roommates told her the same thing.
If things weren’t confirmed enough, I was on the phone with a brother that is living in Kansas. In the middle of the confirmation, he stopped talking because the Lord gave him a vision. This brother, then asked me if I knew whom I was going to marry? I was INSTANTLY shocked but was curious to see if God would confirm this partnership again, so I asked Jaren to tell me what God had shown/told him. The brother then told me that the Lord had shown Heidi and I married and then explained some other future things that the Lord showed him. Now I was getting even more confirmation. I was actually going to have to take this seriously and see what God wants to do. But, that wasn’t the end of it, because the next day Heidi was hanging out praying with some people and a brother prophesied over her that her and I were going to get married.
Another week or so of not confronting each other, we were divinely forced into a car together for 3 hours and in much more detail, talked about what the Lord had told us. This was when the whole picture came together and we realized we should take this seriously. Since then, we have been taking steps and spending time together, when the Lord tells us to. I suppose you could call us betrothed or intended or something similar to that because we aren’t in any kind of traditional relationship. We are REALLY uncertain about what God has in store and how it is supposed to look. But, because God started this thing we figure He will tell us how to act and what to do. Now it is a mater of being obedient and giving God control.
That was a post I wrote a month or so before my wife and I got married.
We ended up going on the trip to India together as a newly married couple. We left May 31, 2011 and spent 68 days backpacking India ministering and getting ministered to. God did some good marriage counseling.
Oh and another God story: We met a lady in India and she couldn’t have kids. We prayed for her and God did what only God can do. We got report that she had a little girl. God is good.
Now we have been married for over a year, May 26, 2011 was the day we got married. The God stories, of Him being the leader over the past year and a month can go on and on. God is good and God is a romantic.
Jesus is Lord.
Much love in Christ,
Clark
I was raising four children while living at poverty level when my refrigerator died. It was winter so I put everything in containers out on the porch. And began to fret and cry and worry when I heard a voice speaking from my redeemed imagination saying, “We can do this the Hard Way or the Easy Way. You can fret and worry. And I will provide a refrigerator. Or you can trust me and be at peace. And I will provide a refrigerator.” So I decided to do it the Easy Way. A few hours later a friend called and said, “Do you know anybody who needs a refrigerator?” Her husband, a contractor, was remodeling a kitchen and the owner asked her to drive her perfectly good refrigerator to the dump because she was buying a new one that matched the remodeling. He drove to my house, put the new/used one in place and carted off my broken one before I served supper that evening, and not one thing from my refrigerator spoiled. I recommend the Easy Way.
I love this story; it’s simple yet profound. God gives without strings attached just because He is our Father.
When I was 20 I was newly married and expecting our first child. We had conceived out of wedlock and i was filled with dissapointment in myself. As my pregnancy progressed I slipped into depression which became very dark and deep after I had my little girl. I knew about ” Mother’s blues” but this depression was so overwhelming I didn’t recognize it for what it was, plus, my guilt and shame greatly compounded it.
Before I had my little girl I was given a baby shower. I recieved some very lovely things and everything I needed to get us off to a good start. Yet, in the back if my mind I desired a rocking horse for my baby. Even after delivering her and putting all the shower gifts to use, I remember distinctly wishing I had a rocking horse for her.
When my daughter was almost a month old a long time family friend wanted to stop by with a gift. When I unwrapped the box and saw the picture of the rocking horse I was overwhelmed. I felt like God was saying, ” I haven’t stopped loving you…” It was the beginning of the Lord loving me back into His arms.
Shortly after that we had friends over for dinner. After we ate I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to share about the deep depression I had been struggling with. As a believer, the guilt I had over being depressed made my experience even more bleak. I felt isolated and trapped. I spoke up and everyone surrounded me and began to pray. I just BAWLED ( I am NOT a crier) as I felt a great weight being lifted off of me.
The depression never returned.
The Lord has done so many things for me…delivered me from drugs, healed me miraculously and provided for me in supernatural ways..but I will share this one incident, although it may seem small in comparison it really meant a lot to me…
I was feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, down and a little sad one day early in my christian life..and I said to God in my heart..’please just let me feel your love right now’…almost immediately I heard my phone ring..when I answered it was a brother who said ” the Lord layed it on my heart just to call you and tell you He loves you.”
🙂
His care for us never ceases to amaze me.
When my wife and I were expecting our first child, our income was very low and we did not have health insurance. We could not afford an oby/gyn doctor. Then we heard about a clinic in Houston near where we lived that offered pre-natal care and would also cover the cost of the delivery of the baby for about $3000 total. We did not have anything in savings and with our monthly expenses we could only save $50 a month. There was no way we could afford the clinic. Then at our church service a few weeks after that a visiting guest minister named Terri Pullen called us out of the congregation and gave us a prophetic word that she saw money coming to us supernaturally. About two weeks after that we got an unexpected check in the mail for $3100. It came from my grandmother in Florida who said she had been setting aside this money for me since the time I was born and now she felt it was the right time to give it to me. She had no idea about our financial need at the time. We enrolled in the clinic and we had wonderful pre-natal care for my wife and a great doctor to deliver our baby girl Jennifer and it was all paid for! We still praise the Lord for that wonderful miracle.
I do not have a story similar to what has been posted but I do see God at work on a weekly basis.
I am self-employed and only get paid for the work I complete. Each week I do not know what I will make. I struggled with this for many years when work was slow. Worry and fretting were almost a weekly event for me. It has taken time but the last several years I have realized that I simply must trust God to provide what I need. If I could trust Him for eternal life, providing my needs was nothing. None of my lack was because of some secret sin or not living up to some law. If I really don’t need it then it won’t happen and I can rest in Christ for this too.
God has showed me that He is transforming me through those difficult times and will do so in everything. I will be careful to call how He works a miracle because they occur so often. I call them ordinaries. The ordinary things a loving Father does for His own. He can be trusted.
Skeptics attribute everything from the instantaneous healing of broken bones to the recovery of a man doctors had given up to being on a ventilator for the rest of his life to mere chance or misdiagnosis, in my experience. Most likely what the skeptic needs is a dramatic display of God’s power in his own life or the life of someone near and dear. The skeptic wouldn’t make exception for my latest story . . . but it’s important to me, and maybe it will help build the faith of more willing brothers and sisters. 😉
I’ve suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts for as long as I can remember (and I’m 52). I’ve been offered drugs, but have never taken them. I’ve asked God over and over to take this from me, but for whatever reason, He never did.
But this year, February, I received an e-mail from a ministry I follow and decided to read some of the testimonies of healing that were linked there. As you said, hearing others’ stories does help to build faith, but I think this was just something Father was ready to do for me, and He used this.
I suddenly just KNEW that He wanted to heal me. I went to a quiet place and commanded the depression to go, and it went. I could feel it leave me, and while many things have happened this year that make me exceedingly sad, that horrible grayness and sometimes blackness have gone — forever, I know. I’d still like to escape when hurt comes, but I’m content to remain right where God has put me and wait for Him to make things right.
Before, when I started to feel bad (whether over some event or for no reason I could see) I kept on feeling worse and worse. I couldn’t seem to turn myself around, and it was so hard to even arouse the energy to try, or to want to try. I had to force myself. Now, I only feel ordinary, normal emotions, and I’m so grateful to our Father! Unless you’ve been there, I’m sure no one can even imagine what a great thing He’s done for me.
I could tell you more objective stories, but this is the most recent big thing. (There are always small things.)
Blessings, Cindy
My “baby” brother was 19 when he was diagnosed with Leukemia and given three months to live. Our family was crushed beyond belief. My mother’s grief was so intense. That type of grief is unimaginable to anyone who has not faced the loss of a child.
It was shortly after the discovery of his illness that God came to me personally and spoke a word assuring me that my brother would not die. On what our family thought was his last day on earth, with my faith wavering, I wondered about that moment in time when God’s presence was so near and His voice so clear; had I misunderstood and would I lose my brother after all?
On that same day the decision was made to give him a blood transfusion. We are talking 40 years ago now when medicine wasn’t then what it is now. To make a long story short, I never misunderstood God’s voice. My brother is now in his 60’s and has never ventured out of remission. Not only did the miracle of complete physical restoration take place, my brother also had a heart transformation that led him back to Jesus.
I was in a serious car accident last week. I was on my way to pick up my sister and her newborn son for a doctor’s appointment. My four year old daughter Lyli was supposed to go with me. As it turns out, Lyli had a slight stomach bug and my husband unexpectedly took the afternoon off, so I was able to leave her home with him. If she hadn’t had the stomach bug, I would have wanted to take her with me, and if my husband had been at work, I would have had to take her with me in spite of the upset stomach, and if she had been with me in the car, she likely would have sustained serious injuries from the car accident, because of the location of her booster seat in the car. I am so thankful that she was not in the car with me when I had the accident. I believe as awful as the accident was, that it was the mercy and grace of God that kept my daughter from being in the car.
About half a year ago this Swedish Christian guy suddenly disappeared, and I happened to be at the same new-years-party as his fiancee’s brother. The guy had then been gone for a few days, I think, and the family was of course very worried. When I was home from the party I asked God if he wanted to show me something that might help them find the guy, and I suddently got the Swedish word for the flower Wood anemone in my head, and saw a picture of it with my mind’s eye. I wasn’t sure, but I felt it might be from God, so I sent a message to the fiancee about it. Later I was told that this message had reminded the mother of the disappeared guy of a poem he had once written – a poem about wood anemones. They had looked for and found the book where the poem was written down, and in that book they found a letter from a young woman. This very woman later prooved to be one out of two people who had kidnapped the guy, and she’s now been convicted. The letter was part of the evidence brought to the court. I don’t know what help they may have had from finding the letter, but it seems pretty clear to me that God was the one who gave me the name of that flower. =)
This past weekend our 10 year old granddaughter Mikayla sang a song she wrote. It was clearly a gift from the Lord. The words and the melody were deep, complex and very powerful, way beyond her years. Praise the Lord, what an amazing blessing!
I was hooked on drugs at age 15 and one day was accidentally over dosing. I prayed to Jesus and suddenly heard him say, “Remember I do miracles.” (I had read a child’s bible when I was 12). Suddenly I was standing up and saw a bright yellow light pouring down on my head and a black shackle band around my head fall to the ground. I was instantly delivered from drug addiction, filled with joy, peace and could think clearly.
A few months before this I was very depressed and decided to jump off a high bridge. I suddenly heard god speak to me “But I love you. ” I reasoned that he was the only one, and that Because He lived in heaven, it would only help me when I got there. He said , “but I love you ” twice more very firmly, and made me realize he had plans for my life if I would agree he would be enough for me even if he was the only one.
My home was unsafe and I moved out on my own while still in high school. For some reason, I was attacked several times by random people. Once a person had a large coffee can filled with boiling water holding it with
oven mitts and was about to throw it on me. I called Jesus name and the girl suddenly looked above me and screaming and tossed the boiling water behind her. She later became a Christian.
Once a man had me in his car and was screaming about all the plans he had to rape and kill me. I heard Jesus tell me to just calmly tell him how to drive me home.. Turn here, take this left ect. The man was still acting crazy, but was obeying the directions. When we got to my place I jumped out of the car and ran into the neighbors house who I didn’t know. He had two large German shepards that for some reason didn’t attack me but instead went out the open door and were trying to attack the crazy man’s car.
I’ve heard Jeus tell me to go here or there and say what he tells me and have seen people get a deaf ear opened, healed from bad burns instantly, and suddenly receive a sound mind to leave a batterer after ten years. There’s more, but these are what come to mind first.
Miracles are just part of who God is. I don’t think they are rare with him. So just simply want toJ be with him.
Not really an answer to prayer but an incident that showed my dh and I Father’s care over us.
3 years ago my husband was diagnosed with Afib. The 1st time he had to have his heart shocked back into normal rhythm. After that he was put on blood thinners. He saw a cardiologist who sent him to have a sleep apnea test. After the test we went on with life figuring if anything was wrong we’d here from the dr. A week after the test my dh and sons were planning on pouring cement for the new driveway. It was Oct. in MN so weather can be a bit unpredictable. He had everything ready to pour on Sat. and it snowed overnight, not much but enough to cancel the pour that day. On Sun evening he started feeling achy, sore throat, etc. By the time he went to bed he had a fever. Mon he still wasn’t feeling well so I called the dr. because I was scared it was the flu and with his heart condition I thought he needed to be seen. We went in and his heart was in afib again. Dr. called over to the hospital and told the emergency room dr. that dh needed to have heart shocked back into rhythm. Dr. came back into room and told us that the shock treatment was not going to be done. He was going to be admitted to the hospital. The emergency room dr. pulled my husband’s chart and found out that my dh had been in afib when the sleep apnea test was done. My dh had been in afib for over a week. We were told by the dr’s that if a person is in afib for 48 hrs or more they have a high probability of throwing a blood clot which could cause a stroke or even death.
When I look back on that incident I see the Father’s care. I believe, to this day, that if my dh had poured the cement that Sat. he would’ve died. He’d already been in afib for 10 days at that point. And, it turned out, he never had the flu. I believe that was also the Lord’s way of getting him to the doctor.
To Him be the glory!
Sherry
All of these posts have been extremely encouraging. I would like to share a little bit about my personal journey…
About a year ago I was hiking the Camino de Santiago across Spain with my college roommate, and although the month-long trip was actually a very spiritually dry time for me, I had one instance in a hostel that I truly believe was a vision from God. My roommate and I are both Christians and we undertook the hike as a way of “stepping back” from our life in America so that we could spend time in prayer, discernment, and solitude before entering our senior year of college at a small liberal arts school in Arkansas. We both have a passion to serve God, but had no idea what that would look like after we graduated from college.
One night as I was sitting in my bunkbed after a long day of walking on the Camino, I felt God was trying to tell me something so I quickly grabbed my journal and began writing as fast as I could. In my mind I could see myself in a brightly colored yet very simple room, tucking orphaned and abandoned children into bed in a room full of bunkbeds. I was immediately filled with peace, joy, and purpose, and from that moment on I knew God wanted me to be a mother — whether that was fostering in the States, running some kind of orphanage overseas, or something else — to children who otherwise would not have one.
After that moment of divine inspiration I still felt somewhat confused, though, because I did not know how this vision would actually take shape in my life. I had been praying for a home for several months and continued to do so during the months following our time on the Camino. I had traveled a lot during college (which was/is a blessing), but I felt a distinct yearning for a place to put down roots. I did not want to return to the suburbs of Texas that I came from, but I did not know where God wanted me to go.
Through a long series of events, a mentor of mine put me in contact with an elderly missionary in Honduras who has been constructing an orphanage on a rural plot of 17 acres. I was able to visit with the woman several months ago, we both felt peace with the decision for me to return after graduation, and now I have been living in Honduras for almost two months with no foreseeable return to the States. The missionary who was to be my mentor fell ill, so now I am living here alone and am spending these next several months in preparation before the orphanage opens and I will live on the property and run the orphanage.
When I visited several months ago and saw the property for the first time, the elderly missionary looked at me — and without knowing this is something I had been praying for — said, “Jennifer, this will be your home.” It was only after the fact that I realized the simple buildings had brightly colored walls inside and would be filled with bunkbeds for the orphaned children.
God hears our prayers!
We were desperate about our son’s schooling. He didn’t fit the system here in Germany – which is a one-system-fits-all type of thing. He spent two years in an academic school, and because his grades weren’t high enough to continue, we moved him to another school. He did well at first, but kids began to tease him because of the high grades he was getting and because he wanted to be accepted, his grades began to fail again.
We are a double nationality family – English/German – and we had long wished that both our children would be able to have the opportunity to experience both Germany and England as they grew up. My father and others in the family had been to a private school in northern England, and we had sometimes dreamed of being able to send the children there, but we could never have afforded it on two incomes, let alone one.
In 2007 a wealthy non-Christian cousin of my mother’s visited our town, meeting American friends who were visiting Germany. I had never met him before, but he wanted to meet us and several months before, had invited us out for a meal, on a mutually convenient evening.
We had just got back, ill, from leading an exhausting two weeks in Norway with the Royal Rangers and had been at home for a week recovering and preparing my husband’s office for his new job, when our 13 year old son said, that morning, that he was bored stiff, wanted to apply for a green card and go to America to join the military (!) If he couldn’t do this then he wanted to go to the school in England where Grandpa had been. I said that there was no way we could ever afford either and he’d better pray hard and learn a little more gratitude for what he already had!
That evening we went out for dinner with my mother’s cousin, who asked our son what he wanted to do with his life. Straight away he said that he wanted to go to school in England. We shut him up pretty quickly, as you can imagine. We had a pleasant evening and thought no more about it, but on driving home, the Lord spoke to me and said that R. would be a source of blessing to us. I considered this, and thought, ‘Ok, we’ll see what happens.’
Two weeks later my mother phoned and said that R. had asked her what we would think if he offered to sponsor Ben to go to this school. Later he offered to pay for our 16 year old daughter to go there too. He paid for all their expenses, including air fares, extras, uniform – the lot. He is also providing for their university fees and lodging, which means that they won’t have to start their careers in debt. Our daughter is studying bio-medicine, and has just finished her second year. Our son has matured at school in ways in which he would never have matured in Germany. And he now wants to join the British army. (We’re rather unhappy about this, but it seems that it’s from the Lord -so far). Life is full of paradoxes.
Around 17 years ago my son was briefly married to a girl and they had a son. They were divorced soon after. My son was sent to prison. His ex-wife had custody of the baby. She moved away and for 14 years we had no contact at all. I had cried and prayed many times over the years for God to make a way for us to hear from my grandson. This past November, out of the blue and totally unexpected my grandson contacted me on facebook. He told me that he had been trying to find his Dad and his family. He was very excited and so were we! We haved talked on facebook and on the phone. Hopefully, one day soon we will get to visit with him in person. I thank God that he did find us and we now know where he is and that he is ok.
P.S. – Thanks, Frank! My faith is definitely strengthened in remembering this story and reading the stories of others.
Six months ago I felt the Lord moving me to a holy discontentment with life. I was working 2 part-time jobs that functioned more like 2 full-time jobs. I knew my next step in life could be right around the corner. I spent some serious time seeking the Lord on who He has made me to be and where He might be leading me with this discontentment.
Over the last six months, God has opened the doors for me to serve as a missionary in Manila for two years. HE lined up the following items to make it possible:
–A complete change of heart in me which created an openness to mission work
–Job description changes at one of my jobs
–More free time in my schedule to pray and fast
–Solid spiritual mentors
–Certification to teach when I had none
–Money to apply for the certification — came “out of nowhere”
–A great college friend who pointed me to my mission organization
–A mission organization that was thrilled to have someone with my gifts apply
–A school that needed someone with my gifts
–A job description at the school that encompasses both my degrees AND my heart’s desire: worship
–Reasons to be at peace with quitting my two jobs
–Friends who are fully supportive of mission work
–A woman who willingly has hosted me for the last 3 months, free of rent!
–Sponsorship from people I’ve never talked to!
–Training week moved from Wheaton, IL to MY NEIGHBORHOOD
–VBS at one job moved so it would not conflict with training
–Countless “divine appointments” for encouragement and confirmation, usually in times of doubt
–Countless connections to the Philippines through friends, family, landlords, people at church, etc.
And so far I’m at 35% pledged monthly support. I need to be at 90% THIS WEEK in order to get on a plane and get to Manila in time for school to start.
FRIENDS IN CHRIST: PLEASE PRAY FOR THE REMAINING 55% TO COME IN!!!!!!!!!
God has brought me this far. So many believers have said, “God will NEVER let the righteous fall and He does not make promises so that He can go back on them. HE IS FAITHFUL!”
Amen?
What are you going to do in Manila? I have friends who teach at Faith Academy. I’m praying for the funds for you!
I’M TEACHING AT FAITH ACADEMY!?! Yeah!!! That’s awesome!!
This is kind of a long story, but I’ll try to trim it down…
When my wife was pregnant with our second child, Evan, we were told during an early ultrasound that his kidneys were too large. They said this was because he wasn’t processing the fluid, but this condition would often correct itself as the baby grew. If it didn’t correct itself, then an invasive surgery would be needed to correct it.
I don’t know how to explain it, but I never doubted that God was going to intervene and heal our son. For some reason, I was unable to doubt that the surgery would not be needed. We and our church and family prayed fervently for this.
After several more ultrasounds, the condition did not get better. Evan was born five weeks early and spent a week in the NICU. A specialist checked him out and said that if the baby is born with this “birth defect” he always has to do the surgery and basically said there was no hope of it fixing itself at that point.
After several more ultrasounds of Evan’s kidneys and other tests, we were confirmed for a surgery date. He was four months old. The doctor asked us to come in for one last ultrasound a week before the scheduled surgery. Afterwards, the technician handed us the file to take up to the doctor, which usually didn’t happen. As I sat waiting I was looking at the notes and noticed that the numbers (measuring the amount of fluid in his kidneys) had decreased and was substantially lower than the previous numbers. The doctor looked at them and said that he had no explanation, but it seemed like Evan would be fine and not need surgery! Finally after 10 months our prayers were answered! Evan had a follow up after 6 months, and then a year, and everything was fine and he hasn’t had a problem since. PTL!
my miracle is a healing. not your standard physical kind…but the emotional and spiritual kind. my husband and i have had major marital issues. i have had so much fear of his “friendship” with a single woman we both know. this friendship has become such an obsession i have been unable to keep my hands off his phone, drive by to see if her vehicle is where my husband’s is, anxiety attacks, just becoming physically ill with the fear and obsession.
one night late, after following him around in my car and hiding down the street. i asked God to remove my fear, my obsession and my anxiety.
it was crazy!! within a few minutes as i sat in my car in the dark, i literally felt the fear, anxiety and obsession leaving me, from my mind, heart and body. it truly was a healing.
i have not had that “illness” return.
i am grateful for God’s care and faithfulness.
A few years ago when I was in my mid-thirties I injured my knees playing softball. I was in pain whenever I stood or walked.
A few weeks later we had a guest speaker at church who was known as a “healing evangelist”. I was very skeptical but reluctantly went to the meeting. The man had an obvious physical impairment which added to my skepticism. I mean, here was a person who supposedly had the gift of healing but wasn’t healed himself. I listened to his message and was basically waiting for the meeting to end so we could get home. At the end of the meeting he suggested that anyone who wanted to be prayed for should come forward.
I wasn’t going up, that was certain. At that moment however I felt very compelled to go forward. I began to argue (to myself and the Lord) that If HE wanted me to be healed, He could do it at any moment, I didn’t need this guy to pray for me. I kept hearing “go forward”. I didn’t want to.
Finally I gave in, and stepped out into the aisle. The instant I got to the aisle, my knees were healed. I walked to the front of the church totally pain free. When the speaker came to me and asked me what to pray for, I told him that the Lord had healed me before I got down front.
The Lord is able, HE works in His way, in His time. I believe that it was faith and obedience that he honored at that moment. Thank you Lord for loving us so!
For the 10 years prior to 2000 I had worked for a company and was moving up the ladder, finding rapid success. Suddenly everything went off the rails and I found myself giving notice. I took another position that was less stable and so I joined my insurance and my son’s to my husband’s. Three months later my three-year old son was diagnosed with cancer. (I was not a believer at the time.) I bargained with God that if He would save my son, I would do anything He wanted me to do.The new company I worked for allowed me to work part-time during my son’s chemo, which was something I would not have been able to do in my former position, but which meant I would have lost my benefits if I had not moved them to my husband’s company. Almost a year passed while my son was still in weekly chemo, and for lack of company growth I was “downsized” from my job, but during that year God took me up on my bargain and brought me into a women’s Bible study group where I began to hear the Word and eventually accepted Jesus as my savior. (It actually wasn’t that neat and tidy, but that’s another story!) Now my son is 15 and was baptized 4 years ago. I believe that the greatest miracle of all is the one where a sinner is saved by the grace and love of God. I see all of the circumstances surrounding my son’s illness – before and after – as the work of God drawing a FAMILY to Himself. If you had known me before…you would have no trouble calling my salvation a miracle that God arranged before the foundation of time! The details are just icing, but they’re pretty impressive icing!
Praise the Lord! Wonderful!
At one of our church meetings, a young lady who was very heavily involved in Wicca visited. She had a sprained, swollen ankle (I know it’s not life-threatening, but still) and was talking to us about how she and her friends were able to heal each other, but were required to take the pain themselves. The Spirit led us to tell her, “In the Name of Jesus, get up and walk!” She got up, and the pain had vanished. We explained to her that we didn’t have to take the pain ourselves because Jesus had already paid for it. She believed that evening, and we took her to the local river and baptized her.
Recently a young lady, the new owner of a coffee shop near my businesses, was set to close due to unforseen overheads and the general economy.
I really felt it would be a shame for her to do this… usually I would advise the owner to cut losses and get out but I didn’t think this would be right for her.
She needed a cash injection to see her through.
I said “oh Lord what do You think would be the right thing to do?”
It was in my mind for most of the morning…I even prayed in her bathroom during my coffee break.
That afternoon a gentleman out of town ,here for a funeral,went in for coffee.
He complimented her on the lovely service and the place itself, whereupon she mentioned that she was on the brink of closing.
He offered to pay her backlog of debt,spoke to her partner on the phone, returned the following morning and paid the amount into her bank account !
I mean I was skeptical ….I didn’t think he would return but I so hoped he would !!
I mean it was unbelievable !Oh ye of little faith !
I went to college (5 years) on an ROTC scholarship. All expenses paid. The agreement was that I’d serve in the military when I graduated. After I graduated, I wrote a letter to the Army asking for release of service, and I offered to pay for my 5 years of schooling. I explained I was getting married and had a different view of war and didn’t want to participate in good conscience. I waited and prayed with friends. The letter came back granting me full release and they never asked me to pay a penny. We were stunned. There is no logical explanation for this. Only God’s mercy.
Ok…there are several things that God has done, but I’ll tell the story of how God called me into ministry.
I grew up as a believer in Jesus, but left the church after experiencing several forms of abuse at the hands of supposedly godly leaders. In response I left the church, was angry at God, and sought comfort and healing in other various religious and spiritual experiences. I studied reiki, Wicca, polarity, unitariananism, Hinduism. At one point I invited any spirit that wanted control of my body to enter me. I stayed in this lifestyle for several years and did almost every drug known to man.
God used several godly people to interceed for me. A couple who had learned of my past experiences in church invited me over for dinner and said they would like an opportunity to apologize on behalf of the church and pray that God would heal me of my hurts. I reluctantly accepted to be kind to a friend. Three hours later I was delivered of witchcraft, drugs, and an alternative lifestyle. God instructed me in my prayer time to return to the church where I had been hurt.
I knew God placed a desire in my heart to love and pastor others, but I thought I was disqualified from ever being involved in ministry. I spent a year in counseling and during that time people kept asking me to apply for a ministry position that opened up in my local church (the same church I had been abused in). I asked God to clarify if I should. I specifically asked that an elder ask me to apply. The following week an elder did exactly that. Wanting further confirmation I asked that the head of staff committee ask me to apply. The following week the head of staff asked me to apply. Wanting more confirmation I asked that the senior pastor ask, and he did. I year and two days to the date that God delivered me I was restored to a place of ministry where I was able to share the grace that God gave me.
God wastes nothing. He used my hurt and disobedience to show me that He is more concerned about who I am in Christ than what I do or where I’ve been.
I hope more people share!
n8
Awesome! Did you ever read Frank and George Barna’s book “Pagan Christianity”? If not, you really should. The chapter on the pastor office is something you should know about. It changed my husband’s (a pastor) life. Here is the site http://www.paganchristianity.org
My friend Adrien was diagnosed with lung cancer. She is a woman of deep faith, known for her disciplines of prayer, worship, and service. She is also known for how well she cares for her body. People began to join her in prayer for her need. She called me while driving out of town for a second opinion and we prayed over the phone. When she arrived, the doctor performed a second scan. The cancer was gone. The doctor compared the two scans and could not explain its disappearance.
About 3 years ago, a friend gave birth to a baby girl with serious cleft pallette. It meant much pain, reconstructive surgery and trouble. When she and her husband conceived their second baby, the doctors were concerned about it reoccurring. 6 weeks before birth, ultrasounds showed another serious case of cleft pallette. Upper mouth and nose were like one great big hole. It was worse than the first baby. So family and friends began six weeks of intense fasting and prayer. When the baby was born, there was nothing wrong with the mouth and nose! There is one neat scar line along the top of the inner mouth, as if a surgeon had done a neat and clean operation. I believe God was the surgeon. And they have the before and after ultrasound pictures to show the reality of what God did.
Praise God, I have had several experiences of God’s mercy in divine healing.
In 1991 I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. But we were in the process of changing health insurance providers, so my husband suggested that I wait a couple months before addressing it.
When I went to a new doctor, she explained my options in terms of radiation, surgery, etc. I opted for radiation, which would have disabled my thyroid altogether and put me on medication the rest of my life.
But in the meantime I had been drinking Knox Drinking Gelatin every day after a “voice” told me in the grocery store that if I did so, I would be well. At first I resisted and started toward the check-out counter, thinking that was crazy and must be my imagination. But then the Voice said, “That’s how Naaman resisted when he was told to dip in the Jordan River.”
So then I went back and bought the drinking gelatin and took some every day, with no perceptible effect. In fact, I experienced characteristic symptoms of weakness the very morning of my appointment with the endocrinologist.
After my consultation with the doctor, I was sent to the lab for blood work. She had told me she would contact me after she received the lab results and we would set up an appointment for the radiation treatment.
But when she called me the next day, she said, “This is very strange. Please come back tomorrow for another blood sample.”
Two or three times over the next few weeks I returned to have additional blood work done, and the doctor finally dismissed me, saying my thyroid was functioning normally.
During the 4th of July bicentennial celebration in 1976, my family celebrated with a huge barbecue bash with decorations and plenty of food. The forecast for that day was for rain all day so the hosts were worried that we would be washed out. I was a new Christian so I believed everything and that miracles were a natural part of the faith. I had just finished reading the passage where Elijah caused the rain to stop so I believed that God could stop the rain for us. There were many unbelievers there who were worried so I told them don’t worry, I will pray that there will be no rain for the whole day. In those days I had long hair, a big cross around my neck and a bible in my hand. I said a prayer for the rain to stay away from our area and really believed it. The party went on, the sun came out and we had a wonderful time for the whole day. All the areas around us had rain. My relatives were talking about this miracle for days.
I was dating an atheist in college long distance over the phone and increasingly each conversation became an argument about God. One night during one of these theological arguments he yelled, “There is NO GOD!” and hung up on me. He called back a few minutes later to explain that the corded phone had “shocked” him and he dropped it and it went dead. Years later I married that Christian man.
LOL! I am laughing with familiarity, not because he got shocked, but because truly, God is not mocked. (Although I do find him getting shocked particularly appropriate! Ha!)
A friend was diagnosed with stage one ovarian cancer a few months ago. Friends have been praying. She had no surgery, meds or chemo-therapy. Last week the doctor declared her cancer-free.
Around the time that my wife and I got married, she had a $40,000 debt to pay. Just before we married, she received a letter in the mail from the debt company telling her the debt had been forgiven and she didn’t have to pay it. There was no explanation. We did mention the debt to the Lord in prayer, but never dreamed or expected this would or could happen. It doesn’t make sense to this day.
Please,pray with me that the same will be possible with the debts we have (about 40 000$ to)that the Lord make it disapear because its very hard in every day life since 4 years. Thank you for your help in prayer.
My wife and I were told we would never be able to conceive due to an illness and if she did the baby would not make it. Doctor gave medicine to possibly help, she took those for a couple months and did not like affect so we declared if God can hang the moon in the sky we can have a Baby then a month later she was pregnant! this July the 8th we celebrated our babies first birthday and have one on the way.
Thank you Lord! I just said the same prayer! My wife’s health isn’t well right now and we both want a baby. I will post the praise report on this blog when we have it.
Hey Im glad I encouraged you. Will pray for you both
@Robert,
Since our Father is still in the business of taking requests, I will throw your name up to Him in petition. His will be done, in all things!