INTRODUCTION

One of the worst experiences as a parent is to see something bad happen to one of your children. Recently, I had this happen as my oldest had gotten injured and God showed up in power.

THE POWER OF PRAYER

Friday night, July 6, my family and I were heading out to our car to go out to rent a movie to watch that evening. As we got to the car, I had taken a bag of garbage over to the dumpster and was on my way back to my family when I heard a scream. Not just any scream, but that blood curling scream of a child who was in pain. Worse, the scream of my eldest daughter who was in pain.

Immediately, I raced to the car to find out what had happened. James, my youngest, was playing, at least in his mind, with Katie, my oldest, and had closed the car door on Katie before she could get in. Unknown to James was that Katie’s hand was in the door jam and was caught in the door when James slammed it shut. This accounts for the scream of pain that I had heard.

When I arrived on the scene, I immediately looked at my daughter’s hand. The door had caught her pinky finger between the two knuckles that allow the finger to bend. To make it even worse, I could see that Katie’s finger was broken as the finger bent a good at about a good forty-five degree angle between these two knuckles where there is nothing but a straight bone except Katie’s was no longer straight.

Immediately our plans changed. I was bringing my daughter to a medical clinic place as our doctor’s office was closed and the emergency room had a large wait. However, all the doctor’s and clinics in Texas seem to be equipped with x-ray and the tools to handle broken bones that an emergency room visit is just not necessary.

We pulled up to the clinic and parked. Before we went inside, I told Katie that we were going to pray and believe on God for healing. We prayed together the Scriptures for healing (Psalm 107:20, Psalm 103:3, Isaiah 53:5) as well as the ones that declare we can ask for anything in Jesus name and receive it (John 15:7, John 14:14, Mark 11:24). We did not see a change in her finger, but we believed and went inside the clinic.

I signed Katie in and sat down to fill out the paperwork. Just as I was finishing, Katie turned to me and said, “Dad look.” She was holding up her finger, which now was whole. It was not bent, it was not broken, it was nothing but whole. Katie added as I looked at her finger, “And it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Somewhere between signing Katie in and finishing filling out the paperwork unseen by either of our eyes, God fixed and healed Katie’s finger.

Well, I was ready to go home at this point, but as it happened this was the exact moment that we got called. So, I did what any born again word of faith Bible believing Christian would have done. I went back into the room and told everyone who came in to see Katie that God had healed her. It amazed me how many people did not believe us. They still took x-rays and as we already knew discovered that she had nothing wrong with her. Eventually, the doctor came in and told us to keep an eye on it. At that point, I just smiled and nodded because they didn’t believe me anyway.

We returned home to great joy had by all the family especially James who was happy that God healed her and she was no longer hurt. PRAISE GOD!

SCRIPTURE

God promises healing and promises to answer prayers if we believe and do not doubt. Well, Katie and I did not doubt and we saw God move to heal her finger and show himself strong to my daughter whom I am sure will not soon forget what God did.

CONCLUSION

If you are sick and suffering, pray to God and believe for healing. If he doesn’t do anything, you have lost nothing. But should he show up and heal you, you will have a powerful testimony to His love and grace.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

What if God told you to buy a lottery ticket? What if God told you that he was going to ensure that you won the lottery? What if you were or are a Christian and know what the Bible says about Gambling, would you do it? Well, that is exactly what happened to me and here is what happened.

GOD AND THE LOTTERY

On Wednesday June 20th, 2007, while driving home, I saw a billboard for the Texas Lottery and it jumped off of the sign and glowed and just screamed at me. Well, I knew that there was no way that God wanted me to play the lottery so I rebuked that in Jesus name. However, it would not leave my thoughts. It kept constantly coming back up in my mind and pushing itself to the front. The strange thing was that it had the same sense and feeling of when I receive something that I know is from God, but I knew it couldn’t be and kept rebuking it. It got so strong at one point that I enlisted my wife to pray with me against this obvious thing from the devil. My wife had an interesting comment in her prayer after I had rebuked the devil and told him to flee and get that lottery thought out of my mind. She said in prayer, “God, if somehow this is from you, forgive us and clearly give us the numbers.”

Well, I was a bit shocked, but often my wife is wiser then I am and I agreed with her certain in my mind that God did not want me to play the lottery. That very night in prayer, as I prayed before me in large numbers that glowed, I saw six numbers. The numbers were given in a specific order. Immediately, I remembered what my wife had prayed even though I was still convinced that it must not be from God. In fact, I was so convinced that somehow the enemy had gotten intermixed with my attempts to pray that I opened my eyes to not see the numbers. But every time I closed my eyes to focus in on prayer, the numbers were there. After a bit of going back and forth, I just told God that if this was him, then he would have to make it clear, and he did. The numbers glowed brighter and resonated in my spirit. I wrote them down and decided that I had better play the lottery still unsure of what that meant.

The next morning was Friday. I mention this because I woke up with an overwhelming sense that I had to buy the lottery ticket today. I was not really sure why because the lottery was drawn on Saturday, but I could not shake it and decided that God knew better what he was doing then I was. So, I went into a convenience store and bought the ticket. At this point, I am still feeling uneasy about this because I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept that God wanted me to buy a lottery ticket. But I bought the ticket.

I get out in the car, and I get an overwhelming sense that something is wrong. To be clear, I did not get a sense that buying the ticket was wrong, but that I had the wrong ticket. This was supported by two facts. First, the Texas Lottery is not dependant on the order of the numbers because you color in the six blocks on one game panel and I knew that the order was important. Second, the billboard for the lottery had a specific number on it as to what the jackpot was and this ticket’s listed jackpot did not match that number. I would have shaken this off, but it was clear and strong that this was the wrong ticket.

To determine what was wrong, I decided to drive to work in a manner that would have me pass the very same billboard. When I did, I had my wife read it (because it was facing the other side of traffic) and discovered to my surprise that there were two Texas Lotteries (actually there are more, I just thought that there was one). As my wife read off which lottery it was, I realized that I had bought the wrong ticket as God was telling me.

So, I found another convenience store. When I got to the lottery station, I pulled out the appropriate ticket. This lottery was one of those that had you pick five of the six numbers and then select the special number for your last pick. Since God had already told me that the order was important, I then selected my numbers placing the last number given as the special number.

Here is where things really start to get interesting. As I looked at the card, the remaining six numbers filled in and made a pattern that was the number seven. I took this as an odd occurrence and possible sign that I was doing what God really wanted me to do because it still seemed odd to me. Furthermore, the original ticket I bought was to be drawn on Saturday as I understood the lottery to be, but this one was to be drawn Friday night. In other words, if I had waited until Saturday like I thought I had the time to do, I would have missed this drawing. This is why God impressed upon me that it was important that I buy the ticket on Friday.

I bought the right ticket and went back to the car. My wife was quick to point out that God must really want to do something with us because the enemy attacked and made us buy the wrong ticket to begin with. I agreed, but still had an issue with the concept that God wanted me to buy a lottery ticket. But I did it and I was obedient and I prayed to God that if somehow I was missing this, that he forgive me.

Now, during this time, I had been listening to a series on CD by Kenneth and Gloria Copeland about the power of Faith (Victory Campaign 2003). I am a Word of Faith Holy Spirit filled believer, but I have not walked in great victory because I had not believed and cut off the Holy Spirit from sending it to me. I knew the scriptures, but it was still something I was struggling with. Well, during this series, they were speaking about believing God and having your faith out there for God to perform his word and prosper you. I knew that God was speaking to me and I went to him in repentance and prayer. During this prayer, God clearly showed me (and to be honest he had showed me the night before, but I had not believed it) that I had to believe that I was going to win the lottery because God was going to make it happen. All I had to do was believe.

Well, I struggled all day long and the enemy did his share to keep me having to press into God. I was praying almost all day that God would prosper me, bless me, fill me, give me to the overflow and every other scripture that I knew about prosperity. I was pressing in with all that I had and still had to struggle against the unbelief that kept trying to find its way back into me. My wife joined me in this prayer and believed with me. Actually, it was easier for her to believe then for me, but then that is why I have a great wife.

Now, before I tell you what happened, I need to explain a misconception that I had. I had put my faith in God having me win the lottery, but I had inadvertently believed the lottery to be my source. I saw God as the one that was going to have me win, and then saw the lottery as the way I was going to get out of debt. This was not right and I had to get myself correct in my thinking. That came from another gift from the Copeland’s in the “From Faith to Faith” daily devotional. As God would have it, the subject for that day was that we should give and expect a harvest a concept that I believed in. But one of the points they made was that God was our source and that we should always look to him. It was then that I realized my mistake about seeing the lottery as my source and repented and felt the presence of God come over me. And he spoke to me, but before I tell you what he told me, let me tell you the outcome of the lottery.

When I checked the numbers of the lottery, I discovered that I did not win the jackpot prize. I was bummed. I felt like a failure because I knew that God was well able to have me win the lottery and I really thought I heard him tell me that I would win. This then did not connect with my understanding of scripture and that God could carry out his promises. Because remember, I believed that God told me that I would win the lottery and I did not win the jackpot. This was not that I asked to win the lottery at least not before God told me that I would win and that I had to believe on him that he would make me win. He told me first. So, I was struggling as I looked to the book I mentioned earlier by the Copelands. That is when I received revelation.

Now, I did in fact win the lottery. As it happens, on this particular lottery game, if you match the special number, you win a prize. I did match the special number and won four times the cost of the ticket as a prize. I didn’t win the jackpot, but God never promised me that I would. However, God did have me win the lottery just as he told me I would.

Back to my revelation about God being my source. When I got that and prayed to him, he spoke to me. What he said is powerful. He told me the following. “I had you buy the ticket and win the lottery so that I could show you that just as I had you win the lottery I can and will prosper you. Just believe in me and I will see to you.”

I now know that God will always provide for me and will prosper me as his word declares because he loves me.

SCRIPTURE

I am God’s, Jesus’ and the Holy Spirit’s. I am not my own but am Christ’s. I am one of his sheep and I hear his voice and I follow what he tells me to do even if it does not make sense to me.

Jesus told me to pray and ask for the lottery to be mine and I did. This was because I was in Jesus and standing on his word that was in me and therefore I saw what I asked for happen.

God is my source and I am his. My life is his, and he is my source for all things. Furthermore, if I remain in him, I can ask for whatever I want and he will give it to me. This is what God was teaching me and I am grateful for it.

CONCLUSION

God’s ways are not our ways, but he does have a plan and a purpose for each of us because he loves us and wants to bless us, prosper us, heal us and grow us into maturity. Follow him when he speaks to you and do not doubt no matter how odd it may sound.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

God can make the impossible possible especially when it comes to how he wants to bless us. After we had lost our third child (Sent From God Part III), which followed the blessing of how God gave us two daughters (Sent From God Part I and Sent From God Part II), God did something simply amazing.

SENT FROM GOD PART IV

After having lost our third child during pregnancy, the doctors began to tell us that my wife’s system was shutting down. In fact, they had told us that we would not have any more children. This was a shock and it hurt, but we were already blessed with two great kids and decided that if this is God’s will then we will accept it. And for the two years we did just that. We happily accepted God’s decision and focused solely on raising our two girls.

God, however, had something different in mind.

Early 2002, my wife had stopped having her monthly cycle and we became worried that she was at risk for cancer. However, we had no money because Pat had been laid off in 2001 and there simply was no work following the events of 9/11 and the collapse of telecommunications industry. This meant that we did not have any insurance and a doctor’s visit was out of the question. As my wife’s condition did not get any better, we did find a clinic and they prescribed Provera for her to take, which she did in the beginning of May.

June 1st, 2002, my wife and I were at wits end. For the last ten days, my wife was sick tossing everything she ate and then some. She was supposed to start the Provera again and take it for ten days, but something in our spirits did not seem right about this. Added to this, I was beginning to feel as impossible as it was that my wife was acting pregnant. This feeling was so strong that we argued over getting the home pregnancy test, which I eventually won (or perhaps I only think I won). My wife conceded that we would at least rule pregnancy out as the cause.

Delighted in having won an argument, even if I only thought I did, I ran out and picked up a home pregnancy test. I picked up the dual package because there was an attached coupon that made it cheaper then the single package and we could always give the other test to someone.

I raced home.

Vicky began the test and told me to time three minutes. As it turned out, we didn’t need that much time. Immediately, the test showed positive (that we were pregnant). We were shocked. We were not sure if we should believe the test even though we have never had one be incorrect. We decided to use the second test in the morning just to be sure. We went to bed not able to sleep wondering and praying about what a pregnancy would mean.

The next morning was a Sunday, and again the test showed a positive result. We were pregnant. God had produced a little miracle inside Vicky that was defying all the doctors’ prognosis. Immediately we were filled with joy and horror at the same time.

In addition to all of this, we were faced with an impossible decision. Should we tell anyone? Vicky had lost the last baby she was pregnant with and we were not sure what was going to happen. Further, without the hormone, we knew that the baby would not last.

So we prayed again and harder.

My wife and I were filled with the presence and love of God surrounding us and telling us that this baby was going to happen. First, we told our daughters (who were now 8 and 6 years old) about it and they went through the roof with excitement and were praising God. All of us were happy as well and scared; however, we trusted that God had is under control and that there will be many more miracles on this road to come and we were not wrong on that on.

Immediately we were faced with problems. To begin with, the clinic we went to for the Provera, which my wife was not taking, did not handle pregnancies. They told us to go to our doctor however our doctor as well as any other doctor in the area told us they wanted a minimum of five hundred dollars up front which we did not have. This was further complicated by the fact that social services denied our claim for help for the pregnancy stating my unemployment check was too much and we were over the limit. A family of soon to be five making barely a thousand dollars a month and we didn’t qualify for any help. And if this was not enough, Texas has a public health clinic that will help people who do not have the means and they would help us, but could not see us until October, and that was not seeing a doctor, just a preliminary examine. With all of these, we explained my wife’s condition and the need to be on the hormone and none were sympathetic to our need.

Again, we prayed. We prayed a lot through this pregnancy.

As much as we felt like we were being shunned by every possible place of help, God had not left us in the cold. In the church we attended at that time, there was a man who was an herbalist and holistic healer. In our prayer time, my wife had received from the Lord that we should call the healer and we did. He immediately saw my wife and helped her get the hormone she needed by natural means. Furthermore, he did not require us to pay him up front. Instead he placed it all on account and then wound up writing it off. This meant that all his help was free which is what we needed at the time. It was also God providing for us.

In our weakness, we held our breathe during the tenth week of her pregnancy because it was the week that we lost the last child. This time was very different from that time and we had assurances and promises from God as well as his manifested provision. However, with all of this, we were still weak during the tenth week, and God was good to fill us and continue to provide for us even in our weakness.

The holistic healer could only take us so far and I began to be concerned about where God was going to take this pregnancy issue. As God would have it, he placed a midwife in our life. When she discovered that we did not have any type of care for the baby, she immediately saw us. She never even asked us for payment, but just saw us and checked out my wife. We got to hear the heartbeat, which lifted our spirits immensely. Even though this was our fourth child (third to hear the heartbeat on), hearing your babies heart never gets old. The midwife was able to come any fears we had by giving my wife a clean bill of health, which we should have known because God was moving mightily in this whole situation.

Now, if all of this was not enough of a miracle, God kept providing. The midwife gave us a number to a place where we could get a free sonogram. Yes, you heard me correctly, a free sonogram. As God would have, there is a school near where we lived that needed patients to practice on for the sonogram. And as long as we did not mind an audience and a few students trying the equipment out, we could have the sonogram totally for free. We just about past out with excitement and praise to God when we found this out. Obviously, we went to the school and not only got a great report had a great time. In fact, they told us that most people are uneasy about having an audience, which is understandable, but we were just so thankful for God’s provision that we were totally at ease during the examine.

God is so good, as I was driving to the school to have the sonogram done, I got a call from a company I had interviewed with offering me a job and asking me if I could start on Monday (it was Friday). I told them a resounding yes. We had two mighty reasons to praise God that day and God continued to provide.

God began to accelerate everything from this point forward. Now that I was working and had insurance, which not only would cover the pregnancy started the day I started work. We were able to get into a doctor, which we needed because of my wife’s tendency to have difficult births and the midwife’s unavailability for the birth itself. But God provided and we were back under the care of an OBGYN, a women’s doctor.

Things continued to progress into the beginning of December. There was some conjecture with the doctor on the due date. We knew that my wife was not pregnant at the beginning of May and therefore projected a due date of about the end of January. The doctor went by the sonogram she did which showed a possible due date as the end of December. While this had been a little bit of concern, we had really gotten to the point in this faith walk that we just knew that God had it under control and we didn’t worry about it.

December 14th, my wife and I returned from our evening walk. Her pants were wet and I told her that I believed it was her water breaking. She told me that it was not and it was too early to have our baby. We had a slightly heated argument about this, but I finally got her to call the doctor. The doctor had us go directly to the hospital and they confirmed that my wife’s water had indeed broken and everything began.

December 15th, after about twenty hours of labor, God blessed us with a son and we marvel at the blessings of God every time we look into our son’s eyes.

SCRIPTURE

At every step and every turn through this pregnancy, God was exceeding abundantly above what we asked for because he loves us.

CONCLUSION

God was there for us and he will be there for you. Put your trust in him and let him take care of everything for you.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

God works in wonderful and exciting ways. One of those ways is the joy of having children. For my wife and I, we were fortunate to have had one child (read about that Sent From God Part I) and then we were told we could not have more, which was until God moved.

SENT FROM GOD PART II

After we had our first child, the doctor’s hope that my wife’s body would realign and sort of fix itself did not happen. The doctor told us that we would have a great ordeal getting pregnant again (trying fertility drugs and charting temperatures, etc). Because of this, we decided that we would be happy with the one child that God had blessed us with even though our heart was to have more.

Labor day weekend in 1995, we were over a friend’s house celebrating the holiday. While we were there, my wife spent a bunch of time in the bathroom (the first trimester for my wife is tough as she gets all-day sickness). Our friends conjectured that my wife was acting pregnant. They, of course, knew what the doctor had told us and that we were not even trying, but decided almost as a ruse to get a pregnancy test and at least rule out pregnancy as a reason she was sick. You can imagine our surprise when the test came back stating that my wife was pregnant.

Since we had a great doctor for my wife who delivered our first child, we returned to him when the holiday was over to check on our results of the home test. To that date, a home test had not been wrong, but it was definitely not what we were expecting to discover. It was what we wanted, but not what we were expecting given what we had been told. The doctor confirmed that my wife was indeed pregnant which was a pleasant shock even to our doctor. He really was a cool doctor.

Like the first, this pregnancy progressed really well and before long we were reaching the end. This time, as my wife was not dilating early, we were able to attend the full lamas class and learn how to have a baby, even though this was our second child.

Well, our due date came and went and my wife was a bit upset. Remember that our first child was three weeks early and this one was one day late and she was disappointed. Fortunately, I had been through having a pregnant wife and knew to just agree and nod.

On April 24th, my wife had a sonogram to determine the size of the baby. The doctor had informed my wife that usually the second child is smaller since our first was eight pounds. However, the sonogram had estimated the baby to be about nine and a half pounds with a one pound degree of accuracy. My wife took this information and yelled back at the doctor, “You LIED to me.” The doctor, experienced at handling pregnant women, just smiled.

On April 25th, the doctor had us walking to kick start the contractions and it was working my wife was indeed having contractions. We were walking in the local mall because it was climate controlled. I, under the doctor’s instructions, was forcing my wife to continue to walk even though she was in some pain. I can’t tell you what the looks I was getting was like as I forced this pregnant woman in pain continue to walk. Eventually, we got our contractions about five minutes apart and went to the hospital. However, once we arrived the contractions stopped.

Having experienced almost completely natural childbirth for the first child, we decided that we would receive the epidural.

After the epidural was in, my wife pulled a transition from Mr. Hyde back to Dr. Jekyll. She was able to sit up, carry intelligent conversations and just enjoy everyone pampering her. This is one of the reasons that we now highly recommend the epidural to all of our friends whether they are having a baby or not.

Finally, the time had come. The doctor had checked my wife and she was ready to begin pushing to get the baby out. Typically this is a thirty minute plus event where the baby is pushed out the birth canal and having its first moments of life outside the womb. In my wife’s case, the doctor stepped out as the nurse and I instructed my wife to begin. With almost a screech of horror, the nurse shouted to my wife to stop and hollered for the doctor to return. The baby was crowning, a term which means that the head of the baby was at the end of the birth canal and showing. From this point, birth is moments away. The doctor rushed back in and proceeded with birthing the baby.

The baby was birthed very easily especially when compared to our first child. As an experienced new father, I had a much more active role in the delivery room. I think this was due in part to having not fainted or had issue with watching our first child born and because we had a great doctor. I greatly enjoyed being more involved in the birthing process, which included the cutting of the cord.

On April 25th, God provided us with our second child and we praise him every day for this blessing.

SCRIPTURE

We are so fortunate and bless to have any children and we thank God for that everyday.

CONCLUSION

God is awesome. Creation of life in a woman’s womb is amazing and a total blessing from God. We are truly thankful to God for giving us a second child.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

God works in wonderful and exciting ways. One of those ways is the joy of having children. For my wife and I, this was one area that had brought us discouragement until God moved in our situation.

SENT FROM GOD PART I

My wife and I met on a college campus in a computer class that at the time my wife had no idea why her adviser had made her take. Of course, today we can look back and see the hand of God to bring us together. Once she asked me out and we began dating, we knew that we were the one for each other. We began to plan and talk about the future and the way our family would grow. We talked about having kids and how many we would have and even speculated as to what sex each of the children would be. We were as happy as two young children in love could be.

Our happiness began to fade in late 1992 when my wife was diagnosed with PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), which is a hormonal disorder that affects less the seven percent of all women and is the leading cause of infertility (PCOS Wikipedia Entry). People with PCOS usually don’t have children and if they do, they usually only have one because of the many issues related with PCOS and the reproductive systems. We were young and had been married just over a year and had been walking with Christ for about four months when this discovery occurred. And I think that actually helped us rather then hurt us because to be honest we were too young and na?ve to understand the full gravity of this situation. We just continued with our plans for a future as if there was nothing wrong with my wife.

Our doctor decided the best course of action for us was to actually attempt to get pregnant because in his many years he had seen the wonder of the women’s body correct many problems through having a child and hoped this would be the case with us. As with many PCOS sufferers, my wife had a severe lack of ovulation and that means a severe lack of chances to get pregnant. However, we began with optimism that some how God would give us our hearts desire and provide for us a child. That was the end of 1992.

Throughout most of 1993, we continued to work at trying to get pregnant. We had tried several methods including fertility drugs with no success. Our doctor was informing us that we were running out of options due largely in part to my wife’s lack of ovulation response from our previous attempts. By December 1993, our doctor was on his last concept for helping us get pregnant. If this had failed, then his suggestion was adoption which we were beginning to serious consider.

Before I go on, you need to understand that working with infertility is a very frustrating situation. You are constantly under a microscope and despite everyone’s attempts to make you not feel bad because you can’t get pregnant, you still feel like a strange freak of nature. By the end of a year of trying to get pregnant, we had almost lost hope and were tired of all the procedures. As disheartening as it was that we might not be able to have children, we had gotten to the end of our own rope with the subject and were looking forward to having an end even if it was not the one we wanted.

Add to this struggle the fact that one of the elders in our church was a doctor. In fact, the husband was a family doctor and the wife was a pediatrician and they had been trying for years to have children (like twelve years) and had no success. Today they have three children, but at the time, they were more a picture of the direction we were heading then a testimony to the power and love of God.

Desperate to even understand why this was happen to us, we turned to God. We were very young in the Lord, but we got together as a couple and prayed to God that if this was his will we would accept it, but that we wanted to have children. We prayed about the desire that burned in our hearts to have children and how we knew that God himself had placed that desire there. We prayed that God move on our behalf.

December 23, 1993, my wife and I were making one of our many appointments with the doctor. We had our temperature chart in hand, and to be honest, we dragged ourselves in exhausted at everything we were doing and at this point we were just looking for ovulation not pregnancy. The doctor had taken the chart and all the information from the pre-visit tests that the office would run and had entered our room and the following conversation took place.

“Well, it is iffy,” declared the doctor.

“Ok,” I replied as we had hoped that the spike in temperature was indeed an ovulation, but it was hard to tell. “What do we do now?”

“We take a blood test.”

“You mean we can tell from a blood test,” I almost shouted at the doctor. After all, why wake every morning at the same time to take my wife’s temperature if we could discover that she was ovulating by a blood test.

“It is the best way to know for sure,” replied the doctor a little taken back by my response.

“If after all this you could tell from a blood test then why were we taking her temperature?” I protested completely upset that they would put my wife through this ordeal.

“What are you talking about?!?” Loudly questioned the doctor.

“Her ovulating,” I declare with authority and anger concerning my wife.

The doctor smiled while still replying loudly, “I’m checking to see if she is pregnant!!”

Well, you could have heard a pin drop at that moment as I stood there mouth hanging wide and scraping the floor. You see we had gotten so caught up in just watching her temperature and seeing if she ovulated that I had completely disconnected from the thought of her getting pregnant. After all, it was a near impossible task and we needed to take step one first, but God worked a miracle and my wife got pregnant with PCOS. We were happy and excited.

The pregnancy progressed well and before we knew it, we were approaching our due date. At six weeks out, we discovered at one of the almost daily doctor’s visits that my wife started dilating.

My wife’s water had not broken and she had not had a contraction, but she dilated up to two centimeters. Being six weeks out, there were many potential complications to our child being born at this time and therefore the doctor placed my wife on bed rest. She was not to move except to go to the bathroom. Well, you can imagine what it must be like telling a pregnant woman who can’t get comfortable or sit still to begin with that she needs to be on constant bed rest. It was an uphill battle, but my wife, the trooper that she is, did very well.

August 9th, 1994, we returned to the doctor’s office after two weeks of bed rest and about four weeks until our due date. The doctor discovered that my wife was now six centimeters dilated and performed a sonogram finding that the baby was face up. This was not a major problem, but was something that he would need to address when the baby was born. He then told us to go and walk and see what we could get started.

So, we walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and, well you get the picture. Eventually, we went home and, remember we just walked, my wife after having two weeks of bed rest had energy to spare. She set up the entire baby’s room and cleaned the house. She later said that she knew the baby was coming and instinctively had energy to get all these things done.

The doctor told us to continue to walk. Eventually, we were admitted to the hospital. The doctor broke the water and we were in for the long haul. The doctor was augmenting (with pitocin) to make the contractions come faster.

Several hours later, my wife was pushing with all her might. The doctor was becoming concerned because she had been pushing for over ninety minutes and the baby could be having issues. However, the head began to pop out and then from my standpoint everything went into slow motion. The doctor looked at the nurse who immediately shoved me out of the way while leaping up on to the delivery bed. When she straddled my wife, she began to push down on her stomach. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew well enough and had enough trust in the doctor to stand back and watch. Several minutes later, our daughter was born.

What had happened was that in the twenty four hours since the sonogram, our child decided that she needed to turn and got half way. You see a woman’s pelvic bone is designed to stretch and move left to right, but not forward or backward (up or down when laying on a bed). Since our child was face up the day before and she only made it half way around, her shoulder was caught on my wife’s pelvic bone creating a potentially dangerous situation for both. Thank God that the doctor and nurses reacted quick enough with the help of God to birth our daughter without complications to either the mother or the baby.

The doctor and I looked at each other and then my daughter and then back to each other. My wife was asking what was wrong, and there was nothing it was just that both of us were shocked and happy that it was a girl. After a moment, the doctor finally turned to my wife and told her that she had a girl. They wrapped my daughter and presented her to my wife. A moment that will surely never be forgotten.

On August 10th, 1994, God provided us with a child and we praise him every day for this blessing.

SCRIPTURES

We delighted ourselves in the Lord and he gave us a daughter when all the odds were stacked against us. Trust in him and give him your life and he will bless you beyond what you can think or imagine.

CONCLUSION

God is truly awesome to create life in a woman’s womb and truly awesome to bless us with the joys of parenthood. We are truly thankful to God for giving us a child.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

The amazing God who created the universe desires to take care of our needs as declared in the scripture. This is one account where God brought his super on our natural and did something wild to provide for us.

GOD’S WAY OR MY WAY

The month of April has been a very interesting one for us. In our finances, we have some fairly big obstacles that are beyond our ability to meet within our needs. We didn’t happen into this situation overnight, but there were two distinct issues that were in the works causing a spiral downfall. These two issues were making decisions without checking fully with God and the devil coming and stealing from us. Allow me to explain further what I mean.

Back a little while ago, we had taken out a loan that seemed good at the time. This loan was a quick fix to our immediate need at the time and seemed to answer our problems. It seemed like a lifeline out of the hole we were in. However, it was not. Looks can be deceiving and this is why everything especially in finances should be taken before the Lord and let him sort out what is good and what is not. That is what we should have done, but not what we did. Instead, we jumped at this loan and were even celebrating that a way was provided out of our hole. This was the beginning of our problems.

Continuing on this same issue, when we had gotten our tax refund from the government, we also saw this as a blessing as it was larger then expected. If we had checked with God first, we would have learned the best way to spend our money. However, again, we did not. Instead we paid what seemed good to pay and brought a few extra items that we had wanted. When we finally got around to asking God what should we do, he was faithful to tell us how to proceed. The problem was that the money was gone and we were not able to follow his commands. We repented of this problem as soon as we realized what we had done, but the damage had been done and our spiraling downward issues with our financial hole were rapidly expanding.

Thrown into this mix was the devil. The Bible tells us that he comes to steal, kill and destroy, and with our finances he was able to get a three for one. Since we had not followed God’s plan for our money and we had not listened to God, we opened the door for the devil to come in and mess with our finances to a degree. The reason he did not have full reign within our money was because we were tithing and God was preventing him from being able to run a complete muck. However, even though we were tithing, we were not obedient to God and the door was open. So, the devil came in and caused some havoc. That loan that seemed like such a good idea is now costing us $600 a month to keep up with. But that is not all; we have had mysterious issues occur within our bank account to cause many overdraft charges and extra fees. In other words, the devil stole money from us and in doing so destroyed our ability to help spread the kingdom through giving and killed our witness to others. After all, who would look at our situation and say that they want what we have. The devil had a field day.

That was our problem heading into the month of April where my wife and I had gotten to a point where we had enough. We began to fast and pray and seek God. We began to look to God and follow his way instead of our own.

On one particular Friday, we had gotten down to the wire. We had been following God’s plan for our finances and trusting him to provide. On this day, we had just about run out of food. We had just dinner left in the house and no money to buy anything for the family. My wife and I got together in our bedroom and prayed. It was not a fancy prayer, but an earnest one in which we just told God that we were taking him at his word and that we would trust him, but also that we needed something to happen. We finished our prayer and waited to hear from God to go somewhere, do something or have something show up.

There we were waiting on the Lord. One of our children had gone and retrieved the mail for us. The mail itself looked like a stack of bills. Included within this stack was an envelope that declared it was from a “Payment Processing” center. I have seen these before and they are usually some sweepstakes gimmicks and not worth my time. I opened this envelope and found myself looking at a check. It was not an ordinary check as it was electronically created and mailed through an online bill pay system. In fact, it looked so different that I just sat there staring at it for about two minutes before I noticed whom the check was from. When I saw my best friend’s name, I called over my wife. Her eyes grew as big as saucers as she stared at the check. Immediately, we went to God in prayer and found our how he wanted us to spend the money and went to the bank and did just that.

What had happened, unknown to me, was that God put it on my best friend’s heart to take a certain sum of money and send it to us. My friend, being the Godly man that he is, just obeyed God. He didn’t question just obeyed and was a tremendous blessing to us. And in return, I know that God will abundantly bless him back.

We are still facing some big issued to overcome in our finances, but thanks be to God that he has a plan and will work this all out.

SCRIPTURES

God tells us in his word that he wants to prosper us.

Furthermore, he tells us that as long as we do not rob him, he will bless us. In fact, this is the only place where God tells us to actually test him on his word.

Tithing is giving God ten percent of all of our income (before taxes) or one dime off of every dollar. That is God’s money. The remaining money is our money and out of that God wants us to seek him on what offering we are to make. And the really good news there is that God blesses the offering as well as the tithe. That is what Malachi is telling us. Jesus furthers this concept in Luke.

If we tithe (giving God what is his) and offer (giving out of what is ours) God promises to bless us with supernatural abundant overflow that there will not be room enough to contain. And if that was not enough, he makes another promise for when we tithe and offer.

If we tithe and offer, following and obey what God has told us to do, he will bless us and keep the devil off of our back. How much better can this get! But this is the nature of God. Take a look.

CONCLUSION

God wants to bless you. Just obey him and he will and he even tells you to test him in this. Give it a try and see how big our God is and how great he will bless you.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

Our God is an awesome God! A little while ago, I was going to a revival and God did something really awesome that I just have to share it with you.

A LITTLE GAS

During the summer months of 2005, the church we were attending was having a revival. A man named David had come to the church with a message and then held nightly meetings for weeks. My family and I attended because for the first time someone was not just talking about walking in the Holy Spirit and operating in the manifestations of the Spirit, but was actually training us. He was literally taking our hand and walking us through how to move in the Spirit. It was an amazing time and I grew tremendously from the experience and my walk with God has never been the same. It was during this revival that my spiritual eyes were opened and the things that I have seen since then still blow my mind.

During this conference we did have a personal miracle happen. My paycheck during this time came on Wednesday. However, on Monday the low fuel light came on in our car. This meant that we had about two gallons of gas left in the tank which would provide us about forty more miles of driving on average. However, to drive to church and back was about fifteen miles and to drive back and forth to work was almost fifty miles. This meant that from Monday afternoon, I had to drive home from work, then to church and home, and then back to work and home and then to the church again and home before there would be money in the bank. The total mileage was somewhere around one hundred miles not counting waiting at lights and for the train and other things that burn gas. We knew that God wanted us to go to the revival and therefore we prayed that God would show up. In all honesty, I prayed that God would provide the money to get some gas, but as Monday night went on, I didn’t receive any money.

Tuesday morning came and I decided to go to work and see if I would get any money from there. I had surmised that I had just enough gas to get to work, but not enough to get home. I worked the entire day and no one brought me any money. Feeling a little discouraged, I sat in the car at the end of the day praying to God that he would do something. After waiting and praying and not receiving an answer, I decided to drive as far home as I could see what happened when the gas ran out. I was thinking that perhaps God wanted to get my money from someone who would take pity on me broken down on the side of road.

To my amazement, I made it all the way home. It was at this moment that I looked at the gas gage and not the low fuel light. The fuel was for sure low, but it was not out. What I mean is that the low fuel light indicator comes on just as the needle hits the top side of the white dash designator for Empty and then the needle drops down below the white dash when we are out of gas. However, the needle was still sitting on the top side of the white dash, where it would be if the low fuel light had just come on and not had been on for well over forty miles already. I was amazed, but had not truly realized what happened yet.

I entered my home and ate a quick dinner. My wife and I spoke about the car and the low fuel problem and what I had noticed about the fuel gage. We decided that God must be doing something and that we would go to the revival. We drove to church and home that night and the needle never moved off of the top side of the white dash. Truly amazing especially the way that old car would go through gas!

Wednesday morning my paycheck had arrived in the bank and the first thing I did was fill up the car. The fuel gage still had not moved even after all that driving. To my astonishment, when I filled the tank, I discovered that there had still been two gallons of gas in the car. Remember, it was at the two-gallon mark that the low fuel light would come on and I never had before or after this time any problems with the fuel gage or the light. The only answer was that while I was looking for money to buy gas, God was constantly putting gas in my tank for me so that I could continue to both go to work and to the revival with my family. He truly is an awesome God.

SCRIPTURE

I asked of God and he provided. But you might be asking why did I not get what I asked for. There is a reason.

I ask God for money and he provided gas. The reason is what I really needed was the spiritual meat that was given at the revival and not necessarily a few dollars. I needed to be able to get to both work and the revival and God provided. In essence, I asked God for stone and he gave me bread. This does not mean that God doesn’t answer some prayers with money. But what he does is answers each prayer with the perfect gift or perfect answer to our need.

CONCLUSION

If you have not made the decision to let Jesus Christ become part of your life, do so today. Jesus promised that when you accept him, he would never leave or forsake you. In other words, he will always be right there with you no matter what you are going through.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

God recently reminded me in prayer of a time when my family and I were homeless and how God moved to change that situation. Being a powerful testimony to following God, I thought I would share it with everyone. I apologize for the length, but this is a really powerful testimony to the power of God.

IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE

After the beginning of the year 2000 when none of the computers had failed, I found myself praying and asking God for direction. I distinctly heard in prayer that God wanted me to move. However, instead of waiting to find out when or where, I jumped ahead and moved my family to upstate New York.

I had many reasons for selecting there to move. First off, we had family in the area. Second, we had a promise of a place to stay. And finally, I had a promise of a job. It all looked good, but as you will see, it was not. The reason is because if I had bothered to wait on God, I would have found out that he did not want me to move there. When I did move my family to New York, I stepped out of God’s will for my life and my family.

I left my good job at Motorola, loaded up the U-Haul and headed out with my wife and two daughters (age 3 and 5) in tow. We were going to a little town called Broadalbin, which lay about an hour west and slightly north of Albany, the state capital. All the while, smiling and singing to myself how spiritual I was being because I took a step out in faith and was following what God wanted me to do. Of course, I didn’t spend any further time in prayer because I had already gotten the message and there was really no time with all that was going on to pray more.

It was a short four-hour drive to where we would be staying; however, we quickly ran into problems. The place that had to stay at immediately became unavailable. Well, this was no problem for a man of God. We will just put our stuff in temporary storage and stay in a hotel for a brief period before the paychecks start rolling in. Which is what we did. We had some money in the bank, not much, but enough for several days at a hotel. I thought everything was fine.

I contacted the person whom I thought was a hiring manager of some electronics company. I discovered during our conversation that I was mistaken. He was not a manager nor did he have hiring power. He was a technical recruiter and he was interested in floating my resume to see what might happen. I told him I needed a job and go ahead and send my resume out.

At this point, two of the reasons that I moved to New York had fallen through and I sat in a hotel with my family unsure of what the future would hold or how I would pay for anything. Here I made another mistake. Instead of seeking God’s will, I arrogantly stated that God would have to bless me because I stepped out in faith and was doing exactly what he told me to do. This was not correct, but my arrogance that I was doing the right and Godly thing had blinded me to seeing the truth of the situation. It didn’t blind my wife, but I wasn’t really listening to her either. Major mistakes on top of my initial mistake did not make our situation better.

Several days later, we ran out of money for the hotel. We talked with our family and discovered that one of my wife’s aunts had an apartment we could use. The catch was that she had already signed a lease for someone to move in about a month from this point. It was not a permanent place to stay, but it was some place to hang our hat for a short time. And again, I was walking around like I was a super spiritual man on a mission and a calling from God and somewhere, some how God was going to come through.

While the apartment was great, there were problems. First off, the kids were sleeping on mattresses on the floor. My wife and I were sleeping on a couch. However, the biggest problem was that in anticipation of the place we were supposedly going to be able to stay at, we signed our oldest daughter into the local school. We cheated in telling the school that we were staying at an address that we were not actually staying at to keep her in school. While this was a lie, we had to get up early every day and drive to that address in order for her to take the bus to school in the morning and then return when the bus dropped her off in order to keep up appearances and keep her in school.

After a short time, I was beginning to feel a bit beaten down. So, we decided to find a local church. After all, if God had called us to this area, there had to be a church somewhere to go to. We find a place and decided on Saturday night to get up and go in the morning. When we woke, there was six inches of snow on the ground. This did not stop us as we made the drive and God showed up. A couple in the church happened to have a rental property that they were going to let us stay at. Of course, this was another temporary situation, but I was happy that my family had another place to stay.

At this point, the job search was not going well at all. In fact, without any money, my wife went out and found a job at the local Big Kmart in order to have some income. I broadened my search, but no one wanted to hire an Engineer because they feared that I would leave for better paying jobs which in all honesty I probably would have done.

Things were bleak and money was really tight. At this point, I told everyone that I was on a fast down to at most one meal a day in order to hear from God. The reality was that we just didn’t have the money to continue to feed my family and me. So, I fasted for almost three months time. In that time, God was trying to speak to me, but I was being stubborn and standing on my arrogant concept that I was right about the move to New York. I remember one conversation with the Associate Pastor of the church we were attending. He told me flat out that he believed that God was calling us somewhere else in the in world and that I needed to be open to moving where God wanted. I was so upset with him that I almost stopped going to church. But I still continued.

After close to four months, I finally reached my end. My kids were sleeping on mattresses on the floor. My wife and I were sleeping on mattresses on the floor. My wife was working and extremely frustrated with me. While thankful for the place to stay, we did have to fight with bugs as well as how we were going to pay the sky high electric bill or any other bill. I could not find a single job in the entire area or even in the Albany area. I was mad at God because he obviously let me down.

Finally, I got down on my knees and prayed to God. I told him that I could take no more. I was at my end. I had heard messages about God’s plans to prosper us and that he was working all things in our life for the good. But I saw none of it. I told God that it was more then I could bear. I told him that I will serve him all my days but as far as I was concerned he could just take me and my family now because I couldn’t bare to look in my daughter’s eyes any more and tell her that the meager feast was all we had when she said she was still hungry. I couldn’t take my wife working so hard when she had worked to put me through college and she was supposed to be able to be home with the kids. I couldn’t take any of it any more. I told God that whatever he wanted he could do. I didn’t know it then, but something broke in the spiritual realm the moment I said that prayer.

A very short time later, like about an hour, I got a call from a friend of mine whom I had not seen in close to four years. When I left Plattsburgh for New Jersey to go to college, his wife entered the Navy. At this time, she had gotten out and had gotten a job in Dallas, TX area. He told me of the immense amount of jobs in the area and how I would be easily able to get a job. Well, my heart jumped and was excited. I could feel something move in my spirit about the potential and decided to pursue this and see where it would lead. After getting encouragement from my friend, I went online and searched from jobs while updating my resume at the usual online places. Within twenty-four hours, I have something like forty calls for jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area. I could not believe it.

With all this excitement, the enemy was quick to strike. I began to take calls and talk about a possible trip to the DFW area when our landlords stopped by to tell us that we had less then two days, something like thirty-six hours, to vacate the premises. This was a shock, but what could we do. We contacted our family and told them the situation. Vicky’s older brother took us in at this time so that we had a place. The reason he hesitated before was because in his little home lived seven people already and we were adding four more to that. However, he was insistent that we had a place to stay.

Calls continued to come in including a call for Motorola of Fort Worth. This was of particular interest because I had worked for them before. Everything was looking great, but we had a problem. I was in upstate New York and the interviews were in the DFW area. Some of the companies were working on plans, but I knew from prayer that this is what God wanted. I knew deep inside that this was finally what God had originally called me to when he told us to move. I had a peace that past understanding even though everything around me was a whirlwind. I had a knowing inside that it would all work out even though nothing seemed to be working out. It wasn’t arrogance this time, but the presence of God and his Holy Spirit.

My grandfather stepped in and loaned us the money to get to Texas and back. Although, he was not sure if we were really following God this time because of what had transpired over the previous four months. But he did loan us the money. We left the kids with Vicky’s older brother and took off for Texas and our interviews.

On our way to Texas, I had several phone interviews and lined up face-to-face interviews for when I arrived. While traveling through Tennessee, our thermostat went out. Not able to find a service station right away, we drove for some time with the heat on and the windows down with it over ninety outside and about ninety percent humidity. Finally, we noticed a building with the word service stenciled on the side. We pulled in only to find out that this building only services trucks. They directed us down the road to a service station and for the first time in my life the directions included the phrase, “And you will leave the pavement, but keep on going about two miles.” We did just that and found a small run down service station that was out in the middle of nowhere. As I looked at this place all I could think was that this was the type of place they make horror movies out of. However, we didn’t have another choice.

We walked into the customer area and spoke with the nicest elderly lady that I think I have ever met. As we talk, her husband worked on the car. She asked us where we were going and we told her all about our story. She was very sweet and a comfort to us as we waited. Now, to understand what happened next, you must understand that my wife had worked as a bookkeeper for a service station. In her mind, she is adding up the bill of parts and labor. There was a sign on the wall that declared how much they charged per hour, but I have forgotten how much it was. Needless to say, it was at least $30 per hour but most likely more. The husband worked on our car for almost four hours. When we were presented with the bill, we expected the worst, but it was under $100. In addition, my wife knowing the service industry was able to see that they only charged us what they paid for the thermostat part. On top of that, our car never ran better after we left the place. I truly wonder if they were angels or just really awesome God loving people.

We arrive back at the interstate and have a choice to make. Even though the repairs were cheap, it was enough to break our bank. We had enough money to make it to Texas or to return home, but not both. This was not an easy decision. After all, if we got to Texas and nothing happened, what would we do? How would we get back home and get back to our kids. However, there were no jobs back in New York for me. And both of us believed that God told us to go. So, we said a prayer and headed for Texas with the Texas or bust attitude. Of course, this time we had God on our side and there was no way he was going to let us down.

We get to Texas and my friend puts us up in his apartment. We slept on his couches and I am sure that we put him and his wife out, but he never even batted an eye at helping us. He was a true friend and I am very thankful for his friendship.

We had left New York on a Wednesday and arrived in Texas on Saturday. I had an interview with Motorola on Wednesday. I also had other interviews, but this one I was excited about. I went to the interview and was feeling good all day long. As I left the building, they were putting the finishing touches on the offer for a job. Not only did they reinstate everything from my previous position, but gave me a raise. I signed the letter as soon as I got it on Thursday and handed it back to them. As I was walking out to the car, my wife received a call from their relocation department.

What happened next was a whirlwind of God moving and changing everything in our life. We were flown back to meet the movers and get our children. We were able to see and say goodbye to everyone while we were there because they gave us a rental car with unlimited mileage. Furthermore, when we returned to Texas, they put us up in a furnished apartment until our stuff arrived and our local apartment was ready.

In short, in the twinkling of an eye (which was less then one month), God turned everything around. I had a job and an apartment and my family was very happy. Sure, people were sad to see us go, but my wife and children were happy. And I was right with God again, which was the most important part.

SCRIPTURE

When God told me to move, I didn’t wait on him to find out that he wanted me to move to Texas. Instead, I stepped out of his perfect will for my life and my families and moved to New York. When I did that, I opened my family and I up to disaster because I walked out of the protection that comes from being in God’s will. In the disaster that I created, I was crying out for God to come and save me the way I wanted. God was telling me that he was more then willing to rescue me, but that I had to trust him and go where he was calling me. And until, I got right with God and aligned myself with his will, I was going to stay there. But once I did get in his will, everything moved at light speed to take my family and me out of that horrible situation and restore to us the lifestyle that God originally wanted for us.

I would like to encourage everyone that if God is telling you something it is for you good. You may not see it now, but he really does have your best at heart and he really is out to prosper you and give you a hope and a future. Trust him and follow in his perfect will.

CONCLUSION

I really can’t stress enough the importance of trusting God and knowing that his is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

God is very interesting when he tells us to do something because many times it does not make sense to us at the time. Back in 1994, God told us to buy a car and I didn’t listen at first. See what happened.

GOD, THE LITTLE GIRL AND THE TRACER

It was a point in 1994 and we had issues with out Ford Escort and we were in need of a new car. It was tax return time and we had $1,500 to spend on this new car. At this time, I had communicated my need to my grandfather and the elders of my church. Now, I was still new to being a Christian, but I knew that I wanted what God was telling me.

My grandfather decided to go down to a local dealer that he has dealt with and talk to him on our behalf. The result of this was a deal on a brand new Mercury Tracer. It was basically the Mercury version of an Escort with a wagon back instead of a hatchback. The way the deal would work was that we would put down $1,500 and then pay a monthly payment that I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was in the $200 range say like $250.

Another option opened up to us. An elder of our church had a 1979 Pontiac Lemans car that he had done a bunch of work on. It ran well, but did burn oil. It was a large car and would easily fit my family and he was offering this car for the low low price of $1,500, the exact price that I had from my tax return.

I prayed about what to do and I did hear God tell me to buy the Lemans. However, I really wanted a new car and not a car that was fifteen years old. In fact, I wanted this so much that I convinced myself that God would want me to get the new car, after all why would he want me to have a used car.

To get the Tracer, we had to get to Northern New Jersey from upstate New York. This was a six to seven hour drive, and I knew my Escort would not handle it. Eventually, I got a ride to Albany NY and my grandfather drove up and met us there. This made it a shorter drive for each one. We arrived back at my grandfather’s house on Tuesday and were excited about the car in the driveway. We spent a little time visiting and then returned home, yes the six to seven hour drive back home.

That Saturday, we drove the three hours down to my in-laws in order to show off the new car. We decided to go to lunch with my sister in law at Ponderosa. While inside the restaurant, we discussed moving the baby car seat from the center of the back seat to right behind the drive to give my sister in law more space. However, as we exited the restaurant it began to rain, and God made us forget about doing just that. The reason would be evident in a moment.

We were driving around looking for a Christian bookstore that we later discovered was just barely wider then the door. So, we could not find it. While looking, I had turned around and came upon an intersection that I still to this day believe that the light was green. However, all the witnesses said it was red. Anyway, I went through the light and was hit hard on the driver’s side by an old Chevy pickup truck. We were pushed almost completely out of the intersection before stopping.

At this point, I had the presence of mind to shut off the car. My wife on the other hand freaked out and immediately looked back to see our little girl with a face full of glass. Furthermore, the front bumper of the pickup truck was just touching the side of the car seat. Let me make this picture clear, there was nothing left of the seat directly behind the driver and if we had moved the car seat, our little girl would have been destroyed by the front bumper of the pickup truck. I have no doubt in my mind that God was protecting my family. Furthermore, while my little girl’s face was full of glass pieces, she did not swallow any or had any cuts from it. Again, this was God protecting my family.

After the dust settled and the insurance came out, the decision was to totally the car. This was not surprising because we had been hit with such force that the frame was bent and that was very bad. Since we did not have very many miles on the car (like 380 total), our insurance company at the time gave us back the full price of the car which included our $1,500 down payment.

Armed with new money, my grandfather had offered to get us another deal; however, this time I decided it would be best to follow what God had told me to do in the beginning. I went back and bought the 1979 Pontiac Lemans from the elder. Now, just so that everyone understands why this was the case, in a couple of months Vicky would discover she was pregnant again which meant she could not return to work as planned which meant our finances would not have supported the car payment. God knew what he was doing when he told us this, but I didn’t listen.

One other point I want to make, I am not saying in any way that God had us crash the car. I believe that came as a direct result of walking outside of God’s will. The reason is that when we walk in God’s will, we walk with his blessings and protection. However, when we go outside of his perfect will, then we open ourselves up to possible attacks from the enemy. I firmly believe that if that day I was driving the Lemans, there would not have been an accident because I would have been under the protection of God to prevent something that the enemy meant for harm. However, even within what the enemy meant for harm of my family, God was there. My little girl is alive today because God protected her. We survived having a second child at that time financially because we got back the entire price of the car something that even our insurance agent suggested would not happen.

SCRIPTURE

When God tells us to do something it is for our benefit. He tells us over and over again to trust him and that he works all thing for our good to give us a future and a hope. Therefore, when he speaks, we should listen and obey.

The crash was meant for evil, but God did some cool things to make it for good like saving my daughter and returning to us all the money we spent. God is truly awesome.

CONCLUSION

I want to encourage everyone to walk in the perfect will of God. And if by some chance you are not, come back to him. He is a very loving and forgiving God. However, he is also a gentleman and will let you walk your own way if that is really what you want. However, who doesn’t walk in this life with the creator of the universe blessing and protecting them.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

Our church and family have been on a time of dedicating and consecrating ourselves before God. During this time, the enemy has attacked heavily. One such attack did not come against myself of my wife, but against my son proving that the devil is in fact a low down, good for nothing, coward, slimy, cow-eating snake.

BROKEN AND HEALED

Many of you may recall a post about my son, James, falling out of a second story window back when he was 18 months old called “Falling in to the Hands of God.” If you have not read that, it is a great read about how he fell out of the window and God healed him. I mention this just to set the stage for what happened last Friday.

It was Friday just after noon and I was going through some emails, when my son, James, suddenly let out a blood-curling scream. This was the kind of scream that immediately alerts you as a parent that there was serious pain. I immediately turned around and saw James getting up off of the floor next to the sofa. He was holding his right arm as tears steadily flowed down his face. Immediately and instinctively, I called him over. He responded as my wife explained that he had flipped off the edge of the sofa on to the floor, a practice that he had acquired lately and one that he had been told repeatedly not to perform. After all, the likelihood was that one of these times he would get hurt.

As I placed James gently on my lap, I examined his arm. I could tell from his admissions of pain that there was something wrong with his forearm/wrist area. I knew that we needed to get the arm x-rayed for further information. I asked James if he felt bad enough to go to the doctor’s office and he told me yes. This was another affirmation that he was indeed in pain, because he only wants to go to the doctor’s office when he feels sick. This has come about due to the many shots that kids get these days and James being smart enough to know that if he wasn’t feeling sick and he was going to the doctor’s, it meant a pain in his arm, leg or hind quarters.

As we got ready, we prayed over James arm because we knew if there was anyone anywhere who would know what was wrong and how to fix it, it was God. The prayer was a short and quick one that basically thanked God for the healing and that we were only heading to the doctor to get confirmation of the healing. I have learned that my God is a big God and that he hears the prayers of the faithful who stand on his word.

We quickly got ready and took James to our doctor’s office. This is where having a great Christian family doctor really comes in to shine. We entered the office officially during after hours care. What this means is that the regular doctor’s office is closed and there is a single on call doctor to service anyone who walks in. I asked the receptionist if our doctor was in and by chance could we see him because James in the car asked for him by name (we love our doctor). She told me that he left the building. Knowing my doctor, I asked her if she would physically check for me. She went into the back for a moment and then came out and told us that our doctor will see James before he leaves for the day (see why we love our doctor).

The first thing my doctor did was to send James for x-rays. Now, if you have never had a young child who has had to go for x-rays, then you will not understand fully the depth of what is required. As the parent, you are required to hold the child in whatever position is best for the x-ray, knowing this is what is best, all the while your child is pleading in pain for you to stop. It is almost more then a parent can bare. James was a trooper though and made it through the first set without really complaining. Then we found out that they had a wrong setting on the x-ray machine and had to do them again. This second set was where James pleaded for it to stop and be over and I had to hold him down in position so that they could see in the picture what might be wrong with his arm. Sometimes being a parent is the hardest thing you will ever have to do.

When the x-rays were over, we returned to the room. As we waited, James began to act differently. He was no longer holding his arm and to look at him playing you would not know that just a half an hour prior he was screaming in pain. In fact, this was the same sentiment of the nurse who had come in to get James’s height and weight. She commented on how he was not behaving like a child that had a broken arm.

Our Doctor explained to us that James had a buckle fracture, which is the best type of fracture you can have if you have to have a break. It heals quick and without any life changing effects. That was good news. Then the doctor proceeded to place a fiberglass cast on James’s forearm and wrist area while remarking that he was not acting like a kid who had a broken arm. We did tell him that we prayed over James and that we had only really come down to see the proof of his healing. The doctor agreed with us, but decided to put the cast on just to be sure.

We left the doctor’s office knowing that despite James’s big band-aide as he calls it his arm is healed. Otherwise, he would not have been acting like a normal four year old boy as they prepared the cast, put it on him and even after he returned home quickly adapting to using and even leaning on his cast.

SCRIPTURE

God has been really showing us lately how to stand on his word and speak his word in prayer because his word is:

Therefore, we prayed and spoke out the following scriptures as we prayed over James:

And true to his word, God healed James. He truly is an awesome God.

CONCLUSION

I would like to encourage everyone to speak out in prayer to God his word. He has given us so many promises and he is so faithful to fulfill them because “You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” (Psalm 138:2)

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.