Some More Miracles

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Sometimes the smallest of things makes for a miracle.

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Friendly Stomach Pains

She walked quickly across the circular drive when she saw me, an underclassman I knew fairly well.  “I really need prayer for healing,” she said almost breathlessly as she came up to me.

I was in my last year in the leadership training program of the international Christian Bible ministry I was a part of, and she was in her first year.  It was 1979, and we were in a small town in Kansas, in an old school that had a big circular drive across the front of the 40 acres the school was situated on.  A sidewalk ringed both sides of the drive.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.  She looked at me a little askew.  I mean, if you’re so good at healing, you shouldn’t have to ask, I imagine she was thinking.  “I’ve got this really bad stomach ache, and it just won’t go away,” she told me.

‘Why do you have a stomach ache?” I asked.  Well now, that was simply too much.  “Why are you asking me that?” she demanded.  “I just want you to pray for me.  You shouldn’t have to ask me how I got the stomach ache!”

“Hey, you came to me,” I told her.  “If you want me to pray for you to be healed, then tell me why you have a stomach ache.”  She looked at me for maybe 5 seconds, and then told me.  “I had a real bad fight with my best friend, and I’ve had a stomach ache ever since.”

‘Well then,” I patiently told her, “Just go make up with your friend, and your stomach ache will go away.”  She looked dubious as she walked away.  Later that afternoon she saw me, again across the circular drive, and this time she ran over to me with a huge smile on her face, and gave me a big hug.  “You were right!” she exclaimed, with all the excitement her youth could muster.  “Me and my friend made up and  my stomach ache went away right away.  I’m healed!”

Praise the Lord!

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Broken bones

Right at the head of that drive in that school in Kansas, there stood the big old 19th century administration building.  4 stories, all brick, with cooling towers on either side of the grand old entrance.  It was the showpiece of the campus, and it was a great building in which to get an aerobic workout during the frigid Kansas winter, when running outside was a matter of survival.

The building’s floors and staircases were all marble, and the stairs were wide, with a landing in between floors.  Thus you could run up the 4 flights of stairs, run across the top floor of the wide hall on the top floor to the other flight of stairs, maybe 100′,  run down to the basement, and then across and repeat the cycle.  20 – 30 times and you were breathing fairly heavily.

Of course this could only be done early morning or evening, when the building was fairly empty.  On this particular evening, there was a young woman in her 20’s doing the same thing I was, and as I ran across the top floor, she was ahead of me, starting her journey down the stairs.  Just before I got to the doorway down, I hear a sharp cry of pain, and as I rounded the corner, I saw her crumpled up down on the landing, in a pile in the corner, holding her knee against her chest, a look of traumatic pain on her face.

I quickly knelt down in front of her and asked her what had happened.  “I think I broke my foot,” she exclaimed, as she rocked back and forth, waiting for the intense pain to subside.  “Is there anything I can do for you, do you want me to pray for you?” I asked, ready to do what I could.

A few moments later, she nodded to me, tears of pain in her eyes.  I closed my eyes as I laid my right hand on her knee.  As my eyes closed, I saw a remarkable sight.  I saw every bone of her foot, clear as day,  only they were all spread apart.  “I command those bones to come back together exactly the way they’re supposed to be, in the name of Jesus Christ,” I prayed earnestly.  That was all.  I opened my eyes, and her eyes were wide open, looking at me.

“How does it feel?” I asked.  “A lot better,” she answered.    “Now stand up and go back to your dorm.  You’ll walk with a slight limp for 2 days, but then you’ll be completely better,” I told her.  I don’t know how I knew that, I just did.  And she stood up and walked with a slight limp only.  And for the next 2 days, every time I saw her, she had only a slight limp.  And the 3rd day, there was none.

Praise the Lord!

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Red Rings in Norway

Jostein Hanson was a bass guitar player, a member of Kerrs Pink, a technically artistic rock band who had 2 or 3 albums out, and actually ended up staying together for over 20 years.  I heard that they were musicians’ musicians, and that they had a loyal following throughout Europe over the years.

Jostein was a great guy, and he really hungered for the things of God.  He came to my home Bible fellowship, and through him many, many people came to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and live long productive lives of spiritual splendor….but that is a different story.

On this particular winter evening, in Oslo, 1981, as I wound up the teaching for the small group of maybe 15 people in my apartment, I asked if anyone wanted to be prayed for, and Jostein said he did.  I sat to his left side, my right knee almost touching his left, and asked him what was wrong.  He said that his knee had begun hurting about a month ago, and that the pain had been getting worse and worse, and that he was starting to worry about it.

I reached forward and laid my right hand on his left knee and began to pray and the first thought that came into my mind was, “Gosh, I never asked him which knee it was…..I hope this is the correct one.”  And then I prayed, and with my eyes closed, I “saw” a red ring around his right knee, like a donut.   And I prayed for that ring to go away.  Immediately after I said those words, I “felt” heat go up his leg.  I put quote marks around the word “felt”, because that feeling of heat was in the same realm as the “seeing” of the red ring.

When I was done, Jostein had an amazed look on his face, and said that as I prayed, he’d felt this heat go up his leg.  Wow!  Cool!

2 days later we had another fellowship, and Jostein was there.  “How’s your knee?” I asked him.  “Completely healed!” he exclaimed with a big smile on his face.  We’d had 3 feet of snow fall since that last fellowship, and he said he’d been going to school, and had to cross this field which had the new fallen snow on it.

He had been feeling no pain since I’d prayed for him, but now he wanted to really see if the knee was healed, so he decided to cross that field with all that snow, and really force the issue, pushing through the snow with his legs as hard as he could.  And he did, and….there….was….no….pain….at ……all!

Praise the Lord!

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3 weeks ago

So most of you know we have a Thursday Night fellowship in our home here in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.  Fitchburg is a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin.  2 weeks ago, my sister-in-law, Gina, brought a friend with her to the fellowship who is from Delaware.  Now Gina lives in Sheboygan with her husband (my brother) and 3 kids still at home (4 others are out…3 are married & 1 is in college).

It’s always a blessing to see Gina.  She loves the Lord, and the fellowship of the saints.  She’d timed this visit, so that her friend Yvonne could come to the fellowship on Thursday, and then fly out of Madison the next day.

I’d met Yvonne before.  She’d gotten to know Tad & Gina when they’d lived in Delaware, 8 years before, and she has an interesting story.  But so do we all, don’t we?  Anyway, Yvonne has 8 kids.  She also had a life-threatening condition, and she wanted us to pray for her.

She had fluid buildup in the sac around her heart, and the pressure was threatening her heart’s ability to function.  The day after she returned from her trip (I think it was), she was to go in to the doctor for a battery of tests, and she was afraid for what the doctors were going to find, as they’d indicated that this condition was serious, and could have a fatal prognosis.

So we prayed.  First Gina.  When she was done praying, I felt the need to be a little assertive.  First let me tell you what I think of prayer.

I see no need for long prayers.  I see no need for prayers that use awareness of every single body part and function, and describe in detail what they are.  You know what I mean,  as if God needs us to tell him how the body should work.  I see no need for theatrics as I pray, for waving my hands and arms around.  No 2 times of praying for healing or deliverance need be the same.

Sometimes I pray with no results.  Sometimes I pray and just know that’s it’s a done deal.  Sometimes I see, or feel things before, during or after I pray.  If that’s the case, then miracles occur, every time.  Healing need not be instantaneous.  I’ve prayed, knowing that a serious condition has reversed itself, and that the healing process has now begun.

This time, with Yvonne, I felt a need to demand her healing, after Gina ( I think it was Gina) had prayed.  And as I demanded that the fluid leave her body, I just knew it was a done deal.

3 days later Yvonne left a message on my phone, saying I needed to call her.  For all I know, she was going to ask for more prayer, and that her condition was even worse than the doctors had imagined.  But when I returned her call, she had this amazing story to tell me.

The doctors had called the day after her tests, telling her she needed to come see them within the hour.  She said she almost had a heart attack she was so afraid of what they were going to say.  If they needed to see her so soon, the news could not be good!

But when she got to the doctor’s office, she was told that there was nothing wrong with her, and that the doctors were stymied.  They had no idea what had happened or how it could happen.   But for some reason, she had lost her medical condition!  The doctors kept her there for 15 minutes, expressing their amazement and chagrin (because they could not explain) over the fact that she was healthy and normal!

Praise the Lord!
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See other true stories:
A Few Miracles
MMFN – The Man No One Knew
The Resurrection of Jesse James
The Miracle of the Norwegian Bus
The Miracle of Corkscrew Mountain
And these miracles.