Tag Archives: miracle

Day Eleven: Donna’s Miracle

Sometimes God speaks to us in His “outside” voice and shows up big with a miracle.  While we are cautioned against demanding such signs and wonders, it’s clear. Miracles leave us forever changed.  Our view of God is dramatically enlarged.  My friend Donna was eyewitness to a true miracle. Her story leaves me a bit breathless, and thankful that she’s alive to tell the story.

GUEST BLOG:  By Donna Elyea

When I was in my mid-thirties, I prayed an audacious prayer.  I asked the Lord to allow me to see, first-hand, a miracle during my lifetime. I believed He is a God of miracles but I wanted to know that I know what I know, so to speak. I say this was audacious because I should have recognized by then that having four healthy children after three miscarriages and a diagnosis of infertility was miracle enough.  Four miracles, in fact.

But I did dare to ask.  Several years later, an extended family member was accidentally shot in the face at close range and lived! I knew I had seen my miracle because the bullet entered and lodged in just such a way that, though hearing was lost in one ear, there was no trauma to the brain, vision, or any other long-term injury! The doctor all but called it a miracle.  I am certain that it was and just knew that I had witnessed, personally, the miracle for which I had asked.

Never did I dream that I would be the one in whom God would work out a miracle for others to witness. Almost three years ago, without warning, or any prior known risk, I collapsed in Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA.) We now know this was due to an electrical issue within my heart causing a sudden, extremely rapid heart rate which made my heart stop beating– no pulse, no breathing, no life.

Fortunately, my family was close by and my husband, Chuck, began CPR. Without immediate intervention I would have certainly died. Medics were called and my heart was restarted before I was transported to the hospital and again on the way. I had been without much oxygen for enough time to cause long-term brain damage. Once I was somewhat stable and in a medically-induced coma, my husband was told that if I survived he should expect minor brain impairment at best.

So many people were praying for me and for my sweet family at that time. I am alive today and my brain, apparently, is 100% normal, except for some short-term memory loss surrounding the actual cardiac event. I am so thankful for the gift of more time here with those I love and give God all the glory for His miraculous healing of me. Truly He is in the business of present-day miracles!

Thank you Lord that you are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You continue to do mighty works; may your receive all honor and glory for the great things you have done.

Living Expectantly,

Donna


Day Twelve: Nothing is Impossible with God

Some of you may have received Day Twelve a day early by mistake. Here is the “real” Day Twelve of our 21 Day Fast. So sorry for the confusion.  

I’m glad you’ve made it past the half way mark in our 21 Day Fast for Pastor Saeed.  Good for you!  Let’s continue to believe for a breakthrough for Saeed!  I’ve been so encouraged by Naghmeh Abedini’s perseverance throughout her two year ordeal.

When you’re in your own “waiting room” of faith, it helps to draw inspiration from others who have stood firm in hard places.  I think you’ll be inspired by another example of perseverance by my friend, Kris.  She shares her nearly two-decade “fight of faith” for the  life of her son,  diagnosed as an infant with leukemia.

GUEST BLOG: By Kris McBride

Growing up in church I had always heard, “Nothing is impossible with God.”   As I grew in my faith, I began to grasp the magnitude of these words.  Little did I know that after our son Andrew was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia as a nine month old,  I would eventually see the truth and power of this Scripture.

It was a week after our son’s bone marrow transplant, and he developed a strange rash. At this point he had no immune system so everyone was trying to determine what it was so treatment could begin. Within hours he began to run a low-grade fever , which was extremely serious. As I rocked him, I prayed that the Lord would protect and heal him.

Suddenly, it was a though someone turned on a stove in his little body and heat began radiating out of him. His temperature began a steady climb. I called for my husband to get the nurses but all the alarms started going off. In a matter of minutes his temperature went from 101 to over 106. I knew he was dying.

As they worked on him in my arms I remember praying Luke 1:37  “Nothing is impossible with God.” I prayed in the name of Jesus that Andrew would be healed. As I kept repeating the verse over and over again I also felt led to pray, “Lord, I know you can save Andrew, but even if you don’t may you give us grace and mercy to praise You anyway.” As quickly as his temperature began to climb it dropped and leveled out around 100. To everyone’s amazement, Andrew stabilized and was not moved to ICU. The doctors where perplexed and could not understand what happened. We told them, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

We were so grateful for God’s grace.  But that was not the end of the journey. A year and a half later Andrew had a toxicity to a medication and went into shock and suffered brain damage. Once again we prayed for healing.  Then, a few months later, his graft vs. host disease became so severe he could hardly move because his skin was so tight. He began extensive physical therapy and we prayed for healing. After almost of year he regained almost 90% of his mobility and we were thankful.

A year after that episode,  his blood pressure began to increase and every two weeks we were either increasing one of his medications or adding a new one. By the time he stabilized, he was on sixteen medications–six were for blood pressure.  They gave Andrew less than two years to live. We prayed like crazy for healing.  Six months later he was put on a medication that began to heal him. We prayed for complete healing for the next twelve years.

When Andrew was eighteen years old,  he was finally taken off his last medication. Although it took many, many years, the Lord healed Andrew completely. Today he is a twenty one year old junior at Liberty University and in good health.  Andrew’s story is an example of how sometimes God’s healing is not instantaneous but happens over a long period time. We are so thankful there is healing power in the name of Jesus.


wish!

Wish!  Make a wish…Wish upon a star…I grant you three wishes…  Lines from some of my favorite fairy tales.  A wish seems magical–but there’s something way out of reach about the nature of a wish.  Webster defines wish: “to have a strong desire to have or do something—usually something unattainable.”

The disabled man in John 5 must have felt like all his wishes were “unattainable.” After all, he had been an invalid for thirty-eight long years. Life had passed him by. Continue reading