Miracles
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One of the coolest things about knowing God is realizing when He does something for you that is so far out of the ordinary, everyone around you (non-believers included) agrees that it is a miracle. This page is dedicated to the things that God has done in my life after I made Him my Savior. If they seem fantastic to you as you read them, try to imagine them happening to you and realize that as I experienced them, I was left with an even greater love and admiration for Jesus. I have listened to accounts by others of things even more fantastic and thought- “Oh my! So I’m not the only one!”
The miracle of salvation is amazing and many people miss the magnitude of it. It is an odd thing to hear people speak about salvation as though it is just a really cool thing that happened to them at a church or meeting of some kind yet people everywhere will flock to see anything that has the mere appearance of a supernatural event.
Jesus pointed out to some that they should not find these things so amazing in light of the fact that God saves them from sin! Here is a clipped portion of Luke Chapter 10:
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17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."
20 [Jesus said] "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."
(This text is hyperlinked bible study tools on www.Crosswalk.com)
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Our First Refrigerator- We married in 1989 when I was twenty-six years old. Wendy was nineteen at the time. We lived with her parents for several months while we searched for a house and built up savings. We found an old renovated house in the town of New Haven, MI. Most of the house furnishings were given to us since we did not have much beyond the down payment of the house. The furniture was mostly used stuff that Wendy’s parents had given us. Our kitchen table and chairs were a card table and folding chairs that they had sitting in their basement. To us, every item was a gift and cherished as such. Our stove was left behind by the former home owners. We discovered later that a mouse had taken up residence in it. Another thing that they had provided was an older refrigerator that they had. In 1991, it began to fail. The most critical part of the unit would fail to work. If we unplugged it for a few minutes, it would start and run- until the next time. One day, it stopped working again and we unplugged it as has become “normal” and plugged it in again. This time however, it did not start again as it had in the past. I thought that perhaps we should unplug it for a longer period of time so I unplugged it again for thirty minutes. Again we tried to start it but the refrigerator did not work. I unplugged it again for as much as two hours but it would not start again. Now we had a big problem. The refrigerator was full of food and money was tight. We could buy one on credit but there must be something else we could do for today. I suggested we should pray that God would restore the refrigerator.
We prayed and unplugged the refrigerator again and then plugged it back in. It started immediately! Our food was saved from spoiling! Weeks later, we acknowledged that the refrigerator was old and that we should replace it. We did buy a new one but our old refrigerator lived until the new one arrived. It could be argued that God didn’t do anything and that the refrigerator just started again in a repeat of its previous actions. The oddity with that argument is that it did not start after only a few minutes of being unplugged nor stretching out the time to two hours. It is also against the odds that the unit would start, as if on cue, immediately after we prayed. As with the other miracles I mentioned here, the reader must decide. Did God touch the refrigerator to help us through that time or is it just coincidence? For me, I trust God and he shall meet all my needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. (This text is hyperlinked to Crosswalk.com)
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Leslie’s Broken Jaw- My younger brother, Leslie was a troublesome teenager who did not improve as he merged into his twenties. He was a heavy drinker and enjoyed parties wherever he could find them. My family got a call from the state police one night. Leslie had crashed his car into a semi-trailer which was parked on the side of the road. We were told that he was alive at a hospital and that alone was a miracle. The officer said that judging by the condition of the car, he should not have survived the impact. We found Leslie in the hospital with his head thoroughly bandaged and he had a breathing tube feeding him air. He looked like a mess with many scrapes and blood covering what we could see of him. The doctor said that most of the damage was superficial. The significant damage was to Leslie’s jaw. It was broken at both sides and in the chin area. The doctor had wired it shut after placing the bones together and he had a metal structure to hold everything together under the bandages. He had a high blood-alcohol level far above the legal limit. The police and doctor figure he either did not realize what he was driving towards or that he had passed out at the wheel from the alcohol. He would need to stay at least overnight there and would require care for a few weeks after being released from the hospital. Leslie came to stay with my mom and I to recover until he could take care of himself. All of his food had to be chopped up in a blender- a liquid diet. He could not open his mouth at all while the wires held his jaw in place. We would feed him through a straw when he was hungry. He was in a lot of pain and slept most of the day due to the drugs he took for pain. After a couple of weeks, the doctor removed the metal support around Leslie’s jaw but his jaw remained wired shut while the bones continued to heal. The doctor took him off of the heavy-duty and Leslie could only have a lighter medication for pain. At one point, I was preparing to leave the house. I was scheduled to go on a church visit to someone’s house with one of the ministers of the church that I was attending at that time. My brother was laying on the couch where he slept and was groaning loudly. He was complaining about the pain but had already taken as much medication as he could. He was clearly suffering badly but we could not offer him more drugs.
Leslie got my complete attention when he said, “Chris, can’t God take away my pain?” Leslie was not a Christian but did believe that God existed. Further, he knew that I trusted God. This is how the exchange went:
“Do you believe that God can take away your pain?” I answered.
“I believe that you believe He can.” he moaned.
“That’s not good enough, Leslie. Do you believe that God will do as you ask?”
“I believe, I believe!” he cried. (This text is hyperlinked to Crosswalk.com)
I did not touch Leslie and he was out of my reach where I was sitting but I stretched my right hand toward him and said, “Then according to your faith, may the Lord give you what you ask!” I did raise my voice a bit since he was moaning so much. God is faithful. Somewhere, Leslie found the ability to believe that God would help him. Suddenly, the moaning stopped and Leslie laughed quietly. The pain was gone. My brother had stopped feeling the pain from his injuries. Not just some of the pain- all of it. He had just been touched by God whom he has not known or seen. His pain was gone and in its place he experienced joy! My mom was there to witness the entire event. I am not certain she was willing to acknowledge it or not. Leslie however, has shared this experience with many of his friends. Years later, he began attending a local church. In the Bible, God performed miracles to both those who were believing Jews and to others who were not. What the single required element appears to be is obedience-faith. I state this as a single thing because one without the other is not sustainable. Even when you can only understand and trust a little bit about God, whatever you are given, you must use it with obedience. Years later, Leslie had told me how he was experiencing a case of reflux. After being on medication for a few weeks, he prayed and asked God to heal him of this. Again, Leslie trusted God as much as he knew how and God was faithful to heal him of the condition. (This text is hyperlinked to Crosswalk.com)
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Breathing Into The Carburetor- One of my friends that I had gained after I was saved was David Morence. His family lived near the North side of Detroit. His younger sister, Gale was a small girl just getting past her teen years. She had a car and enjoyed being independent. While I was visiting with Dave at his house, Gale called from a pay phone. Her car was broken down and was stuck in the middle of the road. She was not far from the house but had no way to move the car or get it running again. Dave and I jumped into my car and went to see what we could do. When we arrived, Gale was in the car which was still in the middle of the road. I lifted the hood and looked around at the engine to see if I could see anything wrong. Thankfully, she did not run the battery down to nothing and Gale tried to start the engine while I searched for the problem. The engine did not start after several seconds of trying and I could see nothing wrong at all. Again, God spoke to me. He told me to breath into the carburetor. Now to a mechanic, this would be nonsense. What good would that do? But this was God directing me to do something simple and easy. All I had to do was obey him. I already had the air filter housing removed so that I could check the connections to the carburetor so I leaned over the engine, drew open the butterfly valve at the top and gently breathed into the carburator. I then pulled myself clear of the engine and told Gale to try starting the engine again. It cranked for a moment and then started running! It did not act different or run roughly. It sounded perfectly normal. I put the air filter housing back together and Gale drove the car off the road and into a nearby parking lot. I think the three of us were equally astonished when I told them what happened. Dave asked me, “What did you do?” I told him that the Lord had told me to breath into the carburetor and so I did. (This text is hyperlinked to Crosswalk.com).
They both looked at me skeptically but they knew that I loved God and was not likely to be lying about it. I told them that I did nothing else to the car and the fact that the car is running now is because God fixed it.
This was the oddest thing God had told me to do. Why bother with such a thing and why make the car run again by breathing into the carburetor? (This text is hyperlinked to Crosswalk.com) Yet, the Bible shows that Jesus did many miracles before those who were not yet believers to demonstrate how much He cares for them. Sometimes, He would tell those he healed to do something that did not make sense at the time but through obedience and faith, those people would be healed. It was a joy to be a part of His work and love towards Dave and Gale Morence. His breath of life is in each one of us. He wants us to know and trust Him for our lives here on Earth and our spiritual lives for eternity. Not everyone has the opportunity to see the power of God like this but as believers share their experiences with others, we can gain faith that God acts in power for our good. Where there is a willing servant, God can work through them to cause others to come to believe and trust in Him. God told the disciples that they would do even greater things than what they saw Him do. Can you imagine what that means! Trust and obey!
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Kimberly’s Son- Sometimes, being there is the miracle! I was working as a punch press operator at a plastics manufacturer. I was only 22-24 at the time and had only been saved myself for 2-4 years. A short time before lunch, the Lord spoke to me. I knew instantly it was Him! He told me to go talk to ‘her’. He did not say, “Go talk to Kimberly Johnson” and follow up with an explanation. He simply said, “Go talk to her” and I somehow knew who he was talking about. I could not see this person who the Lord was sending me to. She was on the other side of my large press working on another machine. Kimberly was a women who recently been saved (right there in the middle of the factory!) Her history before Jesus was muddy like many of us and her salvation was meeting with some speculation around the plant.
As I approached Kimberly, I could see that her facial expression was sad and concerned. Something was wrong. I told her that the Lord had just told me to come and see her but that he did not explain why. Following up on her sad expression, I asked the simple question, “What’s wrong?” She told me that her young son had become ill a couple of days ago and needed to be hospitalized for the condition. The doctors were not able to tell her why his health was suddenly poor and that they were still running tests even today! He was stable but still undiagnosed. Her husband was attending their son and she did not yet have any time off available so she had to come to work. She was understandably distressed and near tears as she was telling me about her son.
Now I understood why the Lord sent me! I told Kimberly that if God sent me to talk to her, the Lord must have sent me to pray with her. I also said that the Lord must have a plan about her son’s condition because He knows everything and cares! We prayed. As a person who has prayed, I can say that while a person trusts God, a mom with a sick child is still a woman full of concern. Praying together brought her some comfort but she was still feeling the pain of her son’s illness. She finished the work day and went to the hospital. Kimberly returned the next day with an amazing story! Her son was restored to complete health that afternoon! The doctors had no idea why and never did determine the cause of his previous condition. She rejoiced and began to tell others of how we had prayed and that God had healed her son. Ah, the power of a praying mom! The power of our God! Praise His name!
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Revitalized for Service- I worked as a maintenance man for a period of time at the same company where Kimberly’s miracle occurred and where I learned about the Holy Spirit. I was fortunate to be working on the day shift which allowed me to have a relatively normal life although I did not have the seniority to justify being a part of the “A Team”. I worked a twelve hour day on this occasion which left me drained and tired. After getting home and taking care of household needs, I showered, watched some TV and went to bed. It was already late in the evening. I should have gone to bed sooner. I was lying in bed and praying to be prepared for the next day at CPI. As I was praying, I had the sensation as though something was being poured onto the top of my head. That was odd because I was lying down on my back but it felt as though some liquid was flowing down from my head over my entire body. I began to feel relaxed and de-stressed. Then the sensation of being revitalized came over me. It was as though I had slept, showered and was ready to blast into the next day’s trial. I felt confident and cheerful. It was an incredible experience for me. This went on for several minutes as I laid there simply enjoying the sensation. Then the phone next to my bed rang. Hank Katchor, the midnight’s foreman called me at home. The time was late- about midnight. He explained that several machines had stopped working and that production requirements for the next day were in jeopardy. His maintenance men were not able to diagnose the situation. He said that he could not get in touch with the other maintenance men who were familiar with the machines. Hank needed me to come and get the machines running again.
What could I say? God had just prepared me through His power for such an event. I honored God and told Hank I would be right in. It took the rest of the night to get all of the machines running again. During the normal day shift hours, I was allowed to return home and take the rest of the day off. What an experience!
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Cat Healed- While I was yet a single man, I had a pet cat that was my joy to have. I had always loved cats and my family kept several. This one was a stripped tabby about two years old. His name was Max II. The original Max died many years ago and my mom thought that this one looked so similar that it deserved the namesake. Max II had become sick and was steadily getting worse. He had stopped eating days ago and barely moved. My family did not take pets to vets. None of our animals had significant monetary value and we thought of dogs, cats and rodents as ‘replaceable’ critters. Not to say that we did not love them. We simply did not feel that they should be medicated or treated medically beyond what care we could provide at home. With Max’s health failing, I figured it would not be long before we found him dead when we woke up or came home from work. One day, after working the night shift, I came home, showered and prepared for bed. I placed Max II at the foot of my bed so that he could be close to me. He was looking poorly and barely moved as I laid him on the mattress. I stroked his head thinking this may be the last time. I fell asleep asking God to take care of Max II and not let him suffer. I woke up a few hours later and looked to the foot of the bed to see if Max II was still breathing. He was gone! He was not where I laid him. At that moment, God spoke to me. He told me to go back to sleep and that Max II was alright. I felt very tired and immediately fell back to sleep. I woke up early in the evening and looked around my bedroom. Max II was nowhere to be found in the room. I left my room to see where he had gone. I met my mom in the kitchen and she told me that Max II had wanted to go out earlier. She said they do that sometimes to go off somewhere to die. I was sad to hear that but God had told me otherwise. I opened our back door and called for Max II. After a couple of calls, Max came running to the door! He was not only alive but acting healthy and normal! I got down on the floor and messed around with him but he wanted nothing to do with me, he was focused on getting to his food dish! He ate ravenously and emptied the bowl. After slurping some water, he then let me play with him and snuggle his furry hide. Max II had been healed of whatever had caused him to be ill by God and God had spoken to me when I woke to find Max II missing. A cat is a small thing (like a sparrow) in this world and many can come and go in the life span of a person. Yet God used this situation to show me how even the small things in my life were important to him. Such miracles helped me to trust Him more for bigger things in life- such as life itself. God is Good!
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Oldsmobile Engine Repaired- I had a 1977 Oldsmobile Coupe once. It was one of the older body styles from that period which ran well and sucked plenty of gas. As with most cars, it had minor issues now and then but one day it began to have serious engine trouble which I was not able to overcome with a tune up. I could not determine what the problem was so I had it checked by a service garage. I was told that the trouble was internal and would require approximately $300 to repair. Ha! At that time, $300 was almost two pay checks! In the mean time I began to save for the repair and continued to drive the car sputtering and backfiring along the road. A couple of weeks had gone by and as I was driving to work, I was listening to a radio program of a local minister. He spoke on his topic and at the end of program he spoke about an urgent need for contributions in order for that program to stay on the air. His reasoning was sound and his goal was understandable- stay on the air. I felt compelled to share in his burden and so I took the money I had saved toward the car repair ($200) and sent it to the radio program. I didn’t think of it as such a loss at the time. It had the sensation of complaining about being hungry when you are seeing a truly starving person with only ribs and skin left. A week later, I was again traveling to work and listening to the same radio program. The minister was again asking for support to keep the program on the air. As I listened, I was driving up and over a bridge that was particularly difficult for the ailing Oldsmobile. As I climbed up to the bridge, the engine complaining and sputtering fretfully, I wondered silently if the radio minister had received my donation. In that moment, my engine may a loud cough and booming sound. I thought it was the end of the car but the moment after the “boom”, my Oldsmobile began climbing that bridge with enthusiasm! The engine was running smoothly again! Coincidence? I doubt it. That engine was going, going and heading for gone until that moment. I am convinced that God waited for that precise moment to cause my car to run normally again. He waited for me to reflect on the sacrifice I had made for the sake of another while experiencing the pain of an uphill drive with an ill car. I think I must have shouted, “Halleluiah!” on the spot.
I was overjoyed with the experience of my God coming to my rescue and demonstrating His faithfulness. He gave what I could not afford to buy when I gave of what I had. God is faithful to those who love Him and trust Him. He has so much more to give than we could ever hope for. Never think that you could ever out-give God. If he urges you to give, then do so generously. He will reward those who trust him.
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Ken Millarski Singing For My Rejuvenation- While I was still working on that punch press a different day, I was running on fumes. The plant had been working on 7 days/12hr shifts for several weeks. I was exhausted but no one was allowed time off due to the orders we needed to fill. A fellow Christian stopped by and asked how I was doing. I turned around to see Ken Millarski smiling at me. He was a peaceful person and always friendly. Ken had introduced me to the teaching of the Holy Spirit indwelling believers. I was still contemplating this teaching during this time. So there I stood, tired but trying to smile back. I told him I was way-tired and in need of sleep. He began singing quietly continuing to maintain a peaceful smile on his face. I could not understand what he was saying. It sounded like another language. As he sang, I began to feel stronger and more alert. In a few seconds, I felt fully awake and rejuvenated. The lack of sleep was furthest from my mind in that moment. I must have looked as elated as I felt. He stopped singing and waited for me to say something.
“What was that?” I asked. “What just happened? What were you singing?” I shot the questions out in rapid fire. I just went from my slumped state to feeling very good by what appeared to be… a song!
“I was singing in tongues.” Ken told me. "What you’re feeling is God’s gift."
“But what were you saying?” I demanded.
“I don’t know exactly what I was saying”, he said, “but I was asking God to restore you”.
Now if you want someone to believe in something, a live demonstration can be very convincing. I still did not comprehend this experience fully at that time but I asked Ken if this has anything to do with the teaching of the Holy Spirit that he was talking about earlier. He told me that it was and asked if I wanted to learn more. I told him I would and he asked me to read the book of Acts, chapter 2 and decide if I wanted to take the next step. That day was incredible for me and a large step in my Christian walk. God worked through a believer and did a work in my life without anyone laying a finger on me. A gift. No strings attached. Our God is awesome!
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The Baptism of The Holy Spirit- Let me state this before going further: If someone receives something from God, it is should never be made a point of contention between believers. This even happened when a blind man received his sight- when Jesus healed a man that was born blind. I know that some will make statements about this kind of thing and I have heard plenty of debate on the subject. My purpose of placing this event here is the same as all other miracles which I want to share with you. These are all works of God and not of man. I am not boasting of myself here- I have no right to. I do want to let others know that my God is a God of love and power. He is merciful and good.
The day that Ken sang in that other language and my strength was restored, he asked me to read Acts chapter 2 in the New Testament of the Bible. So I went home that night and read that passage. I was a young believer at that time- I was ‘born again’ only a short time ago and did not know the Bible very well at all. I was eager to learn though and dived into the Book of acts from the beginning. In this passage, the believers were, like me, learning more and more about God but had already spent years with Jesus and seeing God act through them with power. The passage describes how 120 believers were all together praying in a room according to the instructions Jesus had given them just a short time ago. It was a special time in Jerusalem- a feast and celebration called Pentecost. It was to commemorate a particular event in Jewish history. It is a fascinating account and I encourage every believer to read it. Now back to my part in this.
I read the passage and thought that if it is possible to experience more of God this way, I want to learn more. The next day, Ken passed by and asked me if I had read the chapter and what my thoughts were about it. I told him that I was interested and wanted to learn more. Ken invited me to visit his church and attend a service with him. I said I would this Sunday. I was not connected with a church at that time- which is an interesting story in itself. I found the service at this church very different from what I had known at any other time in the church I had gone to as a child and what I had seen in the Catholic church that I attended after I was saved. In Ken’s church, people were smiling and raising their hands as they sang songs that praised God and encouraged believers. Instead of an organ or piano, a band of players strummed guitars, played a flute and even a drummer with a full set was actively worshipping on their instruments. A message was given with the question, “What kind of ground are you?” During the message, Ken turned to me with his eyes locked on mine and asked, “What kind of ground are you, Chris?” The depth of the question was challenging for me. What kind of ground was I? How would I know what I would be like in a few months or years. How would I know what kind of Christian I would be like ten years from now? I knew that God had spoken to me and that he had forgiven me completely. How could I discount that or make it a trivial thing in any way? I think that moment was one of the early milestones in my Christian life. I am not sure how long I hesitated before responding to Ken’s question. I knew however that what I said needed to be true and needed to stick. It was almost like I was responding to a question that God Himself had asked me. A glib answer, made in haste would not do. Coming back to the moment and Ken, I gave my answer- “Good ground.”
There, I said it. I made a statement that I had no idea how to make happen. All I knew is that if I was to be a Christian for life, the other examples in the story were of others who lost their salvation and I did not want to be like them. I loved God for what he had done for me and wanted to please him. Whatever ‘good ground’ looked like, I wanted God to make me into that and help me to do what I needed to do.
The end of the message came, the musical group began playing softly and the minister asked the group if anyone would like to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is what I read about- and Ken knew that this question would be asked. Some of us raised our hands and the minister asked us to come forward to where he was speaking. I am not a timid person. I wear the term “extrovert” proudly. This situation was different somehow. Why be called forward? Why make yourself the center of attention? I stood there at the platform where the minister was and one of the other men who had been on the platform came over to me. He was another believer who helped the minister in the work of the church and his title was “Deacon”. He wanted to pray with me for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I agreed. We began to pray and after a few moments of praying in a low voice, he said, “Speak English no more”, and continued to pray silently. I felt an odd sensation of lightness as though I were almost floating and from my mouth came a single word which I did not understand. “Sanashin.” I had no idea what it meant or why I said it. But I repeated it again. It seemed to naturally come out although I did not understand why. No more words of any kind came out after that, English or otherwise. I stood quietly and prayed silently until I felt more ‘normal’, like both feet were still planted on the ground. The deacon who was praying with me stopped praying as the music softly ended and hugged me while telling me that God loves me.
From that time on, it seemed that I have been able to understand God’s word, the Bible more clearly and I had a greater desire to pray. I also believed that this event was an evidence of God continuing His work in my life, making me more like Him. Since then, I learned more about the Baptism of the Holy Sprit and what others had experienced. Speaking in Tongues as this is called, is taught as being a means of prayer and as evidence that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit has taken place. I cannot say that this has been the case by everyone’s account I have spoken to, having had similar experiences. The scripture reveals some examples where entire families and others had gained the Baptism and did “speak in tongues”. It was only after several months of ‘nothing happening here’ ( I did not speak in tongues much) that I was listening to a radio minister, a Pastor Bogle in Detroit, MI. that the tongues thing changed. He was preaching about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and boldly said, “Many of you listening tonight have been Baptized in the Holy Spirit but have not spoke in tongues or have stopped [for this reason or that]. In the name of Jesus, I loose you to speak as God give you utterance.” Immediately, I began speaking in another language and doing so at a fast pace as though I had a lot to say. It was another incredible experience where I was saying words that I did not understand but it seemed that what I was saying had purpose. Since that time, I have ‘spoken in tongues’ many times and have also sung in tongues once, although I did not notice until well into the song! I find that the desire to do so comes upon me at various times. The Lord is Lord of all and He gives gifts to men.
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