Note: Shown to the right is Mt. Harvard, a 14,420 ft. peak in Colorado I climbed when I was 17. I was going through a boulder field on the way down and about a 1000 pounder came rolling by, just grazing me. When you are 17 you simply think; "Hmm, that was close."
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When
Jackie and I resided in Kalamazoo we knew an older couple from the
prayer meeting we attended. They had two sons, both rough characters and
non-believers. One son, Mick, did the hitch hike out to California
without any money thing, actually lived for several months in the large
cemetery that is near downtown Kalamazoo, and was into tarot cards and
other occult things. One day my father-in-law talked to him, led him
to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and as baptizer in the Holy Spirit.
As a new believer he got rid of all the occult stuff, pretty much
straightened himself out, and had a great thirst to read the Bible,
although sometimes while high on drugs. At that point in his life it
seemed like a natural thing to do. After a couple of months the Holy
Spirit got to him and he gladly gave up the drugs.
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I
remember Mick especially for two occurrences. We had a family prayer
meeting for years that met every Friday or Saturday night with Jackie's
parents and a large bunch of her sisters and brothers, spouses and other
family. We included Mick and his wife for a time, and during one prayer
meeting about a half year in, Mick said that he felt the Holy Spirit
was telling him to ask that we pray for his teeth. Mick had a mouthful
of really crooked teeth, and after we put him on the "hot seat" and laid
our hands on him and were praying, his mouth started to quiver and
shake like jelly. After a couple of minutes it seemed to me that there
had been about a 70 per cent improvement in the condition of his teeth. I
know now, after reading about spiritual giants in the healing ministry
such as John G. Lake, that if we persevered longer with prayer for Mick
that it was very likely that the healing for his teeth would have been
complete. However, 70 per cent was a huge improvement, and it was really
exciting because that was the first miracle I had seen.
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Awhile
after Jackie and I moved to Holland there was a prayer meeting at the
house of a couple we knew and I invited Mick to come and share his
testimony. At the end of the meeting we had a time for prayer. One of
the men there, Lloyd, had started coming to the Holland prayer meetings
as an unbeliever a year earlier. He had also been a pretty rough
character as a young man, and marriage to a believing wife had changed
him quite a bit. He initially went to the meetings to be with his wife,
but God got to him early on, and the fruit of accepting Jesus continued
to change him. At this meeting Lloyd asked for prayer for his arthritis.
Every morning Lloyd would need to place his hands under a hot faucet
for 20 minutes to get his fingers loose enough to work well. Mick
advised Lloyd that sometimes arthritis is the result of unforgiveness.
That immediately struck a nerve with Lloyd, who felt that God was
telling him that he would get healed from the arthritis after he sought
out his father and another person with whom he had really bitter
feelings for and ask for their forgiveness. Lloyd did as God directed
and the arthritis was completely gone.
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Now
back to Mick's brother. Eventually he came over to talk with my
father-in-law, asked Jesus into his heart, and was filled with the Holy
Spirit. He left the house flying high, got into his car, and found that
the battery was dead. Thinking that this shouldn't be a problem for the
God of the universe, he laid his hands on the hood of the car and prayed
something like; 'Start in the name of Jesus'. He then got back into the
car and it started. Mick's brother, unjaded at that point by theology or
the world, could simply pray "without doubting" in commanding the
battery to "move".
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It
is interesting to notice the different aspects of faith present in the
stories above. All three men saw something about Jesus that they desired
enough that they were able to surrender the lordship of their lives to
Him. They heard the living word about Him, and believed that He was
Savior and Lord. And they heard the living word about the empowering of
the Holy Spirit, and by faith willingly asked and received. The Holy
Spirit was able, at the moment of salvation, and over time, to change
the desires and thus the actions and lives of those men. Mick and Lloyd
both sensed the Spirit's direction as to how to obtain healing, and by
faith were obedient to the Spirit's leading.
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And
of course there is the faith of the rest of us. Obedient at times,
confused at times, sometimes strong in faith and sometimes weak. We grow
in faith by trusting God when He seems both near and far, by taking
time with Him in prayer, by searching the scriptures with a desire to
know the truth, and by listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Through these things we know the will of God, and trusting that it is
the will of God, we can say without doubt to the mountain Jesus mentions
in Matthew 21: 21-22, "Be taken up and cast into the sea. And all things you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive."
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