Miracles and Testimonies

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This is, in my mind the biggest miracle that God has ever done for me. He sent an Angel to my garage sale and he over paid me to help me.

This is when I was still living in Colorado Springs CO, and I had a 4 BR house for 1000 a month. I've been self employed as a Mechanical Contractor (HVAC) since 1994. Back in the mid 90's I was doing great but the economy has been doing the big slide downhill and I found myself with less and less work, until I was 2 months behind in rent, plus, I had a utility shut off notice for Monday, for 300 dollars. This was Saturday. I had a 1-1/2 car detached garage and so was trying to make extra money by selling off all the household goods that a single man don't really care about having. But when my Wife left after 26 years...she took the gold & cash and good SUV and left. So I built two 4 X 8 tables out of plywood and set up in the garage for a garage sale. I had been doing this for a few weeks and on sunny weekends, I'd throw an ad on Craigslist and sit in the driveway on a couch, to sell the junk off, ya' know? Now you know how garage sales are...they don't pay the rent, lol. But it kept me fed sorta and in cigarettes, lol.

One Saturday I'm out doing the garage sale thing, and my landlord pulls up. He had my walking papers. He said Ed, I like you but I have bills too so I have to get someone in here that can pay consistently. I had been behind before some here and there, but then catch it up when a nice job comes in. I guess 2 grand was his limit. He gave me my 3 day notice and said goodbye and left. I sunk back down into the couch very discouraged. I prayed to the Lord for some help. After praying it was about dusk so I went ahead and closed it up and went back into the house. As soon as I went downstairs to my family room where my computer is and sat down, the phone rang. A man said he seen my ad on CL but could he come by after he got off work in about an hour and a half to look at my garage sale? I of course said yes. And He showed up exactly on time.

We walked out to the garage and I opened it up, and as soon as I stepped inside, He said to me, How much do you need? Now I went (tilt) because that's an odd question, so I ignored it and went into salesman mode and began telling Him about the stuff. I walked to a table, picked something up and talked about it...He didn't even look at it. He said again, how much do you need? (Tilt!). I began talking about other things and didn't answer His question. (What do you say to something like that?!). I was expectig Him to begin looking at my merchandise, but He didn't seem really all that interested. I forget what I picked up but I did and said blah blah blah, and handed it to him for him to check it out, and he took it and gave it a quick sideways glance and set it down and said, how much do you need?

And I still wasn't putting two and two together! So I ignored the question and began talking about other stuff. I handed him a couple different things but he set them back down so fast that I didn't think he was interested in the type of stuff that I had. He said again, how much do you need? (Tilt). I looked at him...and didn't get it! So he says, well how about 1900 for everything on that table over there? ...(Tilt!)

Now that is not how a garage sale goes. They just don't. So I couldn't answer Him. My head was spinning at this point. I looked down at the floor...then He says, well how about 2400 then? Now I knew This was a joke, and I did want to hear the punch line, so I looked at Him and said, sure, sounds fine.
and the punch line was...he pulled out a stack of 100 dollar bills big enough to choke a horse and counted me out 24 of them! Now I began thinking that maybe He was some kind of dealer, a flea market guy wanting to stock up or something? (I hadn't yet remembered that I had prayed for help!). But He paid me, so I asked if He would like some help loading it up into his pickup. He said, yes thank you. So I got some cardboard boxes and we bagan boxing stuff up. Then He reaches over and takes somethng out of the box that I had just put into it, and says, oh you can keep that I wont need it..that too, this too...(Tilt!) He wound up leaving about 25% of the stuff on the table that He had just paid me for! Not just the cheapest junkiest stuff, just random stuff. Some of it nice, my Wife loved to spend money.

I took a real close look at him to see if he was the type with more cash than brains...or what? He was well groomed, fit, well spoken, and drove a nicer pickup truck. Nope, He wasn't that type. My head was spinning. We finished loading up, shook hands, he smiled real big, and then drove off...I closed up the garage and went back into the house and as I was going back down the basement stairs and was feeling the wad of cash in my pocket...I said, Praise the Lord!...and then it hit me...that was an Angel come to answer my prayer!

Then I thought about my bills...2400...2 grand for the back rent...300 for the utilities, and a hundred bucks extra for groceries! Bam! Within 2 hours of praying for help. Then it all made very perfect sense to me. I needed help and prayed, He came, why He kept asking me how much I needed, all of it. There is no other answer to explain what happened. Garage salers do not come talk the price up! They talk it down, right? Right. I sat down and lost it...I cried and thanked the Lord and thanked the Lord and praised Him...!!!

Then I felt stupid for not realizing it was an Angel come to help when He was here! Entertaining Angels unawares...the Grace of the Lord...you have not because ye ask not...I knew all that! Why couldn't I see it when He was there?! I had so many questions I could have asked Him, lol! That was absolutely awesome. Praise the Lord!

Feel free to comment or share one of your own Testimonies of when the Lord has helped you out.

 

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Here is a testimony of some missionaries that I heard about. It's not mine, but it's good so I thought to share it.

Testimony of Missionaries who visited Viet Nam 25 years after the war.

The is no source found by me to prove to naysayers of this having happened. However, the Lord quickened my spirit while I listened to this (second hand) oral account of these missionaries in order to let me know that it is the truth. As best as I can remember...

It was near the end of the war in Viet Nam and the Khmer Rouge were going village to village killing everyone in them and burning the villages. The missionaries were told of a single village out in (can't remember) the jungle, and the missionaries felt led to go there. They eventually found the village and entered it with their translators and told the village people that we are missionaries and have come to preach the Gospel of the true God, who sent His own Son into the world to save it's people and gather them to Himself...

Suddenly the village erupted into laughter and shouting, and chaos ensued in the village. The missionaries had never seen this reaction before, and it both confused them and made them feel insulted because they felt they were being laughed at...For the next two hours the people of the village would not stop shouting and carrying on. They could not calm anyone down enough to even talk to them. Even the translator was baffled. The people were running everywhere and more people seemed to be there by each passing moment. They began to get uneasy for their safety and wasn't sure what to do next. The people of the village seemed somewhat joyful and yet there was so much laughter that they didn't know what to expect.

After more than two hours of this, the people began to calm down enough that they felt as if they could talk to some of them again. The translator asked a man in the village, what is the meaning of this? And the man pointed to old lady of the village, and began to talk about her. It seems that many years before, (perhaps before the war?) this lady had taken a trip into a land somewhere (can't remember) reasonably close I think. She had never been anywhere before and as she rode in a taxi somewhere, she was enjoying all of the sights of this land which was new to her. The lights and the big buildings and so forth. She seen something on top of a building, (a cross), and asked the taxi-driver what is that? The taxi-driver replied, that is the sign of the people who's God sent His Son into the world to save them. Oh, she said, and went on about her business on her trip. Eventually she returned to her village.

Then the war and the Khmer Rouge...Several villages had already been burnt and all it's people killed. Then one morning the Khmer Rouge entered their village with machine guns, herded the village people together and began readying torches to light huts on fire. The villagers knew they were about to die, and many of them began crying out to their various gods that they worship, but nothing happened. Any moment they would be dead. The lady seen them crying out to their (false) gods and nothing was happening. She didn't want to die. The image of that cross that she had seen years before flashed into her mind. In desperation she cried out in a loud voice, "God who sent His son into the world, SAVE US!" Suddenly there was a bright flash of light between the village people and the Khmer Rouge and glowed. The Khmer Rouge were stricken with terror and dropped their guns as they ran from the village into the jungle. Word spead among the Khmer Rouge to not touch that village, something spooky and powerful is there!

They knew at once that this God who sent His Son into the world was the true God, for none of the other gods cried out to came to save them. They did not even know His name! But they thanked Him and praised Him and worshiped Him and have been praying to Him ever since to send someone who can tell them the name of this God. For 25 years they did this. So what happened was, when the missionaries entered the village and said we are here to tell you about the true God who sent His Son to save the world...they were over-joyed because thier prayers had been answered after such a long time! His name is Jesus Christ and He is the true God. We know Him they said, but just didn't know His Name.

This testimony blew me away! I know it is true.

 

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Oh I remember a good testimony of my own. When I lived in Colorado, our Lord changed one of my Bibles from an NIV version into a NKJV! No joke. I have two witnesses that can attest to this truth! One brother in Christ, a good friend of mine who I used to work with doing HVAC out there, bought me a very nice large black leather NIV Bible to match his bible so that we could Bible study over the phone together, and he wanted us to have matching Bibles so we could. So He gifted me an NIV Bible. Thanks, Richard.

So uh, one day a year or so later, another friend happened to come by and visit me. Another Brother in Christ named Dave. He saw my NIV Bible on the table and told me that it's not a great Bible to use because the NIV version has missing verses in it. I had never heard of this, so he whipped out his Bible (KJV) and showed me 8 or 10 different passages that did indeed have verses in it, that my NIV Bible did not have in it. We sat there for 45 minutes or so looking them up and talking about it.

Ok, so I kept the Bible anyway I just read my KJV more because, it was complete and I am used to the language in it, having been weaned on a KJV from when I was a kid. (Well, plus I use BibleGateway.com a lot, lol). So fast-forward a couple years and I was on a Christian forum board and they happened to have a thread started about different versions of the Bible and which version do you like and so forth. So I posted and told them that the NIV Bible version has missing verses in it that the KJV does not. Well a Brother on the board asked me to post a couple of these missing verses so that He could confirm this for himself. I said no problem Brother and set to work looking up a couple verses that I could remember that we had found (or not found, lol). They were in there. Oh, I don't remember the exact verses then, duh. So I called up my other brother in Christ, Dave and asked him what was those missing verses exactly? He gave me several of them and I wrote them down and hung up and started again to look them up so I could post them.

The verses were in there. What? I looked up all of them and no missing verses! I had already opened up my big pie-hole and said something that apparently I could not back up. Dave was working and he had give me all the ones he could remember, so I googled missing verses in the NIV. Wow, there were a bunch more than Dave had given me! The NIV missing verses is a well known fact, and a lot of them!. So I Looked them up. Waitaminute...what's going on here. All of these verses are in my Bible. I'm looking at google and there they are, the list, here is my Bible, and they are not missing. Discouragement and confusion set in. I spent an hour and a half looking up missing verses that were not missing! What's going on here? So I decided to give it a break. Go make some coffee. Sometimes taking a break from a frustrating task will allow one to come back later and have it all click into place, when one is thinking more clearly and can find his stupid little mistake, lol. So I did take a break.

I got my coffee and couldn't help but still wonder about what's going on here. We had looked them up and they were missing, and now they weren't. So I leaned back in my chair and prayed, Lord, please help me with this? What am I doing wrong here?...Lol. Then my eyes ran across the side of the my Bible sitting on the table there, and there it was very plain..."NKJV" in gold lettering. WHAT??!! This is an NIV BIBLE! The one Richard gave me! I picked it up and leafed through it... and my mind began whirling. I know this was an NIV Bible. Richard gifted it to me...me and Dave looked up missing verses in them.

I called Dave back. Hey Dave, am I going nuts? Was this an NIV Bible or not? It says NKJV now. Yes Ed, don't you remember we looked up all those verses? Yes I do remember. Which Bible was it? Your big black one Ed... Ok, thanks. I hung up. I looked through it some more. All of my papers were in it. My underlined passages were still underlined...But it's a NKJV now.

No one came in and switched me Bibles. I do not own a similar Bible that it could be confused with...it is the largest Bible that I own. there can be no mistake, it's like 6" X 10" or something, pretty big. no mistake. I sat back down and thought about it...and the only thing that could explain it, is that the Lord changed it from an NIV to a NKJV. Period. I do not know why the Lord changed it. I had not prayed about it or anything like that...it just was changed. The Lord even left all of my underlined verses in it for me.

I do not put down the NIV Bible now, but I surely do endorse the NKJV version! Lol. When I eventually see the Lord Jesus, I'm gong to ask Him about this! Lol. Richard knows he bought me an NIV Bible, I know it. Dave knows it was an NIV. This is very verifiable.

How's that for a miracle Brothers and Sisters?!

 

[Vicomte13]

When I was 10 or 11, I ran down a dock alone and dove headfirst into a strange lake. It looked like my lake, but it wasn't. I hit my head on the rocky, shallow bottom, broke my neck and flopped over by momentum on my back, completely paralyzed and drowning. God reached down and healed my neck and saved my life. He told me to tell no one or they would take me to the hospital, check my neck, find it broken, and I would be paralyzed from the neck down for life. I told no one at the time. I never spoke about it again for the next 37 years, but I did not forget.

I was a nominal Catholic child when that happened. That is the first major miracle I experienced.

 

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When I was 10 or 11, I ran down a dock alone and dove headfirst into a strange lake. It looked like my lake, but it wasn't. I hit my head on the rocky, shallow bottom, broke my neck and flopped over by momentum on my back, completely paralyzed and drowning. God reached down and healed my neck and saved my life. He told me to tell no one or they would take me to the hospital, check my neck, find it broken, and I would be paralyzed from the neck down for life. I told no one at the time. I never spoke about it again for the next 37 years, but I did not forget.

I was a nominal Catholic child when that happened. That is the first major miracle I experienced.

Whoaaa. Brother, that's huge! Glory to God that you're ok. Wow..

Thanks for sharing that.

 

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I'll share another one. God healed me and reset my dislocated hip bone.

After my auto accident in 2009 in Ohio, my kids were getting very busy with business that I left them in Colorado when I moved. My son called me and said that he has a lot of trouble being able to get out the door in the morning to go to work because of the phones ringing and stuff. (I was a licensed Mechanical Contractor (HVAC) in Colorado from 1994 to 2016, and trained my sons, then left it for them and moved) My son called me after my accident telling how much they needed me back there. I could run the office and let them go to work. I agreed so they came and moved me back to Colorado.

It was so busy that they actually got me out onto a jobsite to help them finish installing the ductwork in a new home. The doctor had me on pain pills so I was able to work with them, after awhile. So I was up on a 10' ladder running round pipe to a register boot...and had an epileptic seizure and fell from the top of the 10' ladder onto the concrete floor. I dislocated my hip. The bone was sticking out. But I didn't have insurance so didn't go to the hospital. My son took me home and I layed in bed for a week or so hobbling crawling back and forth to the bathroom with my hip dislocated.

One night before going to sleep, I prayed and begged the Lord to heal my hip, please...while I sleep. I was woke up in the night, and my hip was on fire!! It was so hot that I cried out in pain and anger! The heat did subside and so I went back to sleep. In the morning, I remembered what happened and recalled hearing testimonies of people who had been healed of various things reporting feeling a heat sensation while they were being healed. So I got out of bed and pulled down my Jammies and looked at my hip. It was flat again! No bone sticking out! But still it was very sore.

But I know that there will be soreness whenever a bone is reset. So I figured, if I was really healed then the soreness would be gone in a couple days and then I'd have my confirmation. I was pretty positive already, but I'm no doctor so, plus we always hear the doubts and stuff...
But sure enough two days later the soreness was gone and I was walking normally. Glory to God!

 

[Vicomte13]

This falls more in the range of "stupid" than miraculous, but I've had appendicitis four times. Been hospitalized for it once, didn't have insurance two other times.

I still have my appendix.

I remember the doctor screaming at me that my appendix was going to burst and that I was going to get peritonitis and "PROBABLY DIE!!!" and that I needed to get it taken out "RIGHT NOW!" But I refused.

I was in the hospital for nearly a week with no food, and they were really mean to me. I think that they were disappointed when I turned the corner and started getting better. At check out the doctor said really quite bitterly "Well, I guess you didn't die. Go home." Very brusque.

 

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Here's a minor miracle that happened. I was in Colorado and busted up back, running the office and reading scripture, praying, drawing closer to God, and all that. But I wasn't really doing anything for God, and this was on my heart that all I really did was for myself. learning and drawing closer. I would like to be useful to the kingdom. But with a busted up back, I can't even go handing out tracts or anything. So I prayed to God to let me have something to do that I could do for Him to help, but something that I could do from home, from my easy chair. Someone to witness to perhaps.

In Jesus name, Amen. 5 minutes later the phone rang. Hi Ed I haven't seen you in a while, mind if I stop by and visit and ask you some questions about God? He was an old friend I hadn't seen in a couple years and he knew I was a Christian. Praise the Lord. Prayer answered.

I'm a pretty big coffee drinker. So is my friend. I had just made the last half a pot of coffee that I had, and I had no money to go buy more. Oh well. I considered praying about that, for God to send me some work or something so I could make some dough and get more coffee and so forth, but I remembered that scripture says that God knows our needs before we ask so I did not pray about that. about a half hour later my buddy shows up and as soon as he walks in the door, he hands me something...it's a bag of fresh coffee beans Whoa! I didn't even pray. Not just any coffee though, some gourmet coffee from Hawaii that I don't buy. I buy the cheap stuff, Folgers. I had not told my buddy that I was out of coffee. He just brought it to me. How bout that eh?! and more than that, if I had coffee, it was time to put on another pot. I was drinking the last cup of mine. That blew my mind! Glory to God!

The Lord did lots of stuff for me in Colorado so I have many testimonies about Him. But He did so much for me, that I was able to notice a pattern in how He does it. He helps me...last minute never late! And that still holds true to this day. He's been doing things for me since I have moved back here to Ohio again now too. Also, last minute never late. That taught me to not stress about anything, bulls money whatever. I don't stress over money like I used to.

 

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This falls more in the range of "stupid" than miraculous, but I've had appendicitis four times. Been hospitalized for it once, didn't have insurance two other times.

I still have my appendix.

I remember the doctor screaming at me that my appendix was going to burst and that I was going to get peritonitis and "PROBABLY DIE!!!" and that I needed to get it taken out "RIGHT NOW!" But I refused.

I was in the hospital for nearly a week with no food, and they were really mean to me. I think that they were disappointed when I turned the corner and started getting better. At check out the doctor said really quite bitterly "Well, I guess you didn't die. Go home." Very brusque.

I had a doctor be mean to me once and I put him in his place because I knew he was just showing off. It was in 1998 and I had had the first seizure in 17 years. I've been epileptic since about age 5 and in the 80's they had me on some weird medicine that had side effects. It was Depakote, and it affected my vision and my teeth, it made them overly brittle. So I cut down my dosage without doctors knowledge. Eventually they caught on from seeing low levels in my lab work. They said I either had to take a therapeutic level or go off the medication altogether. SO I went off of it. I didn't like that medicine and had been seizure free for awhile anyway. Besides I was a big pot head then and had read the literature about how it helps epileptics. So I felt confident enough to go off of it. I stayed seizure free for 17 years. Then in 1998 when I was 36, I got the urge to stop smoking pot. It was a young man thing and I was getting older, and I liked to be clear headed anyway. My Wife has never liked that I smoked pot and she only tried it once and never again. So I knew that would please her too. So I quit smoking pot in 1998.

3 days later I had my first seizure in 17 years. It was as soon as I got home from work and I was in the bathroom washing up. Boom Grand Mal seizure. So I spent a few days in the hospital for observation and testing. EEG's and so forth. One morning a Doctor and about 6 or 8 interns came in to talk to me and discuss, and teach the interns. I have no problem with that, but I did know that I had just stopped smoking pot and wanted to discuss that aspect with the Doctor. There was actually two Doctors, an older one, a younger one, and a bunch of interns. The younger Doctor was speaking with me saying his Doctor stuff and so forth and I began to speak to him about marijuana and the effects upon epileptic persons da da da...and he cut me off and began ranting at me in a disgusted voice like I was some sort of drug addict or something. I think he was just trying to show off for the interns at my expense and I didn't like it one bit. I had honest questions and he was belittling me. I let him finish and when he did, I said, with all due respect for your medical education doctor, what makes you think that you can waltz in here, read my chart for two minutes, and think that you know more about my case than I do? I've been epileptic my entire life and you wont even listen to the feedback from your patient? You disgust me and are a poor representative of the medical profession.

Hoo-boy, the room broke out into snickers from all of the interns and the doctor got angry and walked out. Lol. Then the older Doctor said to me, you're exactly right Sir. That's how the medical profession works. We listen to the patient and decide a course of treatment based upon what we're told. Nobody knows better than the patient themselves because they live with their condition whatever it may be. I felt pretty good then. I knew I was right, but to have a real doctor agree with me and stuff was pretty satisfying. I enjoyed putting that smart aleck in his place. Then the older Doctor listened to me about being a pot smoker and then quitting it only to have a seizure 3 days later. He said it was highly likely that the marijuana had been helping to keep me seizure free.

So I started smoking pot again and they put me on Tegretol. That is good stuff for me because it does control my seizures and it has no side effects like the Depakote did.

 

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I may as well write up this other testimony now also because it is sort of related to that. So I was a pot smoker again, and took tegretol and was seizure free for another 11 years. Then it was 2009 and I got the urge to stop smoking pot again. I have smoked pot most of my life and it just got old. A young man thing. I do like to be clear headed. Besides...maybe it was just a fluke that I had a seizure in 1998 and not related to the pot. (That's what I told myself). So I quit smoking pot again in 2009. I figured if I continue to take the medication...I'll be ok. It's been 11 years since I had a seizure...Why not?

4 days later I had a grand mal seizure, and I had been taking my medication. Except this time, I was doing 70 MPH on the freeway in rush hour traffic. One of only two seizures that I have ever felt coming on. Usually I just wake up talking to the paramedics or whatever. I felt it. I looked at the speedometer, 70 mph. I glanced quickly around the truck, traffic everywhere. I looked into the rear view mirror...and saw myself fading out. I knew that in an instant, I'd be unconscious. I spoke...Lord be with me...then I blacked out.

Witnesses report that I shot through traffic to the right at a high rate of speed, never touching any car in the least. I left the road and hit a downed log, which launched my truck into the air. While airborne, I hit a tree. The passenger side front took the tree, and it spun the truck sideways and it rolled three complete revolutions. This was a 2005 ford van with the commercial package. Bulkhead behind the seats, shelving in the back on both sides and so forth. Both airbags deployed. The passenger seat went through the bulkhead and was in the back of the truck. The only window that wasn't broken was the driver side door window. The console/engine cover was basically disintegrated and I was drenched in motor oil. They said I was scrunched down in the corner of the seat up against the driver door.

God saved my life that day. I didn't die. Nor am I in a wheelchair! I walk on my own. I broke my back in two places, and have related nerve damage which affects my left foot and lower leg. I think I'd be dead if I hadn't said, Lord be with me.

4 days after I had quit smoking pot again. I guess I'll be a pot smoker for the rest of my earthly life now. It was no fluke. Or until perhaps the Lord heals me? He hasn't yet, but he could. Perhaps this is my thorn in the flesh, one of them. For me to suffer with. Epileptic. Bad back. Glory to God! I thank Him anyway. This earthly life is but for a moment.

 

[Vicomte13]

Those are great testimonies. I'm shy about mine because, well, because (except for the lake when I was ten), they mostly involve encounters with God.

I suppose I've been absurdly lucky medically, and that that is God protecting me.

The neck was God saving me while revealing very little.

Some things have been delivered by God, and I knew it, but could be chalked up to coincidence or my personality by somebody wanting to dismiss it. At the depths of the financial crisis, with everything crashing to ruin all around as the company I worked for went out of business, when our house was about to be taken and all fall into ruin, somebody I know simply gave me $92,000. Somebody I only know as an acquaintance from Church, out of the blue, lent me $36,000. This, of course, stabilized everything. It's so much money. It has taken me time to pay back the loan, because we were past being on our knees. I suppose it could be my scintillating personality. But you've seen on another thread that, in truth, I'm not particularly Mr. Sunshine. Truth be told, God whispered in their ears and they did this thing for me.

The other things involve direct communications with God, not men, all when I was alone. They are not difficult to explain, but because they happened, and essentially prove everything I believe...and are really the reason WHY I believe what I believe...I am doubly and triply shy about them.

Example: two very dead animals came back to life in my hands because I asked God to do it, and he did. What can anybody else do with that knowledge other than call me a liar (a standard response), or really hate me (because of what it could mean).

I'm sure you've heard Peter Gabriel's song "Solsbury Hill". It's a place in Western England, where Gabriel had a spiritual experience that changed his life and the course of his music.

When I listen to it, it's practically autobiographical. I know exactly the feelings he is trying to express.

If I might give the lyrics:

First, there was the encounter with the divine itself:
"Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city lights.
Wind was blowing, time stood still.
Eagle flew out of the night.
He was something to observe
Drawing close, I heard a voice
Standing, stretching every nerve
Had to listen - had no choice.
I did not believe the information
I just had to trust imagination
My heart going Boom-boom-boom
"Son," he said, "grab your things, I've come to take you home."

Then, there was the aftermath, the difficulty of trying to fit into society again after such a thing:

To keep in silence I resigned -
My friends would think I was a nut.
Turning water into wine,
Open doors would soon be shut.

Well, that's exactly it. My initial instinct was to tell all of my friends and family. So I did.
There are very, very few of them who speak to me of this anymore - and very few who wanted to at the time. It was clear to them that I was having some sort of mental episodes. It was clear to me that this is what they thought. So I stopped talking about it. I searched out on the Internet for people who have experienced similar things. That's essentially why I am here on Christian Forums.

The problem is that I have discovered that an awful lot of people are religious fanatics for gods that I have never encountered, insisting on strange and repulsive things. I find it difficult to talk to religious people, because they tell me about God, but none of it is firsthand, but from a book or from somebody else. But my firsthand experiences are only acceptable if they fit the templates of others.

This, in turn, makes me frustrated and just want to withdraw.

So, it is good to speak to somebody who has experienced miracles and knows them for what they are.

When dead animals are brought back to life, and severed spines are healed, those are major miracles. When God grabs my face and speaks to me, that's a miracle too.

Your car accident story, and your survival largely unscathed - that is clearly a miracle.

 

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Those are great testimonies. I'm shy about mine because, well, because (except for the lake when I was ten), they mostly involve encounters with God.

I suppose I've been absurdly lucky medically, and that that is God protecting me.

The neck was God saving me while revealing very little.

Some things have been delivered by God, and I knew it, but could be chalked up to coincidence or my personality by somebody wanting to dismiss it. At the depths of the financial crisis, with everything crashing to ruin all around as the company I worked for went out of business, when our house was about to be taken and all fall into ruin, somebody I know simply gave me $92,000. Somebody I only know as an acquaintance from Church, out of the blue, lent me $36,000. This, of course, stabilized everything. It's so much money. It has taken me time to pay back the loan, because we were past being on our knees. I suppose it could be my scintillating personality. But you've seen on another thread that, in truth, I'm not particularly Mr. Sunshine. Truth be told, God whispered in their ears and they did this thing for me.

The other things involve direct communications with God, not men, all when I was alone. They are not difficult to explain, but because they happened, and essentially prove everything I believe...and are really the reason WHY I believe what I believe...I am doubly and triply shy about them.

Example: two very dead animals came back to life in my hands because I asked God to do it, and he did. What can anybody else do with that knowledge other than call me a liar (a standard response), or really hate me (because of what it could mean).

I'm sure you've heard Peter Gabriel's song "Solsbury Hill". It's a place in Western England, where Gabriel had a spiritual experience that changed his life and the course of his music.

When I listen to it, it's practically autobiographical. I know exactly the feelings he is trying to express.

If I might give the lyrics:

First, there was the encounter with the divine itself:
"Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city lights.
Wind was blowing, time stood still.
Eagle flew out of the night.
He was something to observe
Drawing close, I heard a voice
Standing, stretching every nerve
Had to listen - had no choice.
I did not believe the information
I just had to trust imagination
My heart going Boom-boom-boom
"Son," he said, "grab your things, I've come to take you home."

Then, there was the aftermath, the difficulty of trying to fit into society again after such a thing:

To keep in silence I resigned -
My friends would think I was a nut.
Turning water into wine,
Open doors would soon be shut.

Well, that's exactly it. My initial instinct was to tell all of my friends and family. So I did.
There are very, very few of them who speak to me of this anymore - and very few who wanted to at the time. It was clear to them that I was having some sort of mental episodes. It was clear to me that this is what they thought. So I stopped talking about it. I searched out on the Internet for people who have experienced similar things. That's essentially why I am here on Christian Forums.

The problem is that I have discovered that an awful lot of people are religious fanatics for gods that I have never encountered, insisting on strange and repulsive things. I find it difficult to talk to religious people, because they tell me about God, but none of it is firsthand, but from a book or from somebody else. But my firsthand experiences are only acceptable if they fit the templates of others.

This, in turn, makes me frustrated and just want to withdraw.

So, it is good to speak to somebody who has experienced miracles and knows them for what they are.

When dead animals are brought back to life, and severed spines are healed, those are major miracles. When God grabs my face and speaks to me, that's a miracle too.

Your car accident story, and your survival largely unscathed - that is clearly a miracle.

Thank you Brother. I don't think you should be shy about sharing testimonies. I'm not and never will be because I don't care if people believe me or not. I know that they're true. God lets you know in your heart that that He did something for you whenever He does. At least He does me. He lets me know if what I am reading or watching is true. This started on youtube when I was watching testimonies. At first I didn't realize exactly what it was so I called it that God "pinged" my spirit. Later I learned that this is really called a quickening of the spirit. Untruth, no quickening. Truth, quickening. I love that He does this for me. I've thought before that this quickening in and of itself may be a reason for some to call me a liar but it's never happened, but then again, I don't care about that. That's between me and God and scripture says we're supposed to share our testimonies with people.

I've not heard any people saying that someone is lying about a testimony. It's like people leave that alone for some reason. I've never called someone out on a testimony either. Why would I? People have no reason to lie about testimonies. It makes sense too. Why would satan lie to someone and say, God did a miracle for me da da da. ?? That's the equivalent of advertising for God! Lol. That would make satans house divided.

For some reason that is beyond me, people on forums don't seem to share a lot of testimonies. Maybe they just don't have any? I dunno. It sometimes just inspires me to share more often. Scripture says if you draw closer to God, then He will draw closer to you. And when God draws closer to you, things happen! sometimes God does do miracles for people without their asking. Because He wants to give them a chance to come to Him. He is not willing that any should perish.

I wish you would share some of the many testimonies that you have. You sound as if you have some good ones!

 

[Vicomte13]

Thank you Brother. I don't think you should be shy about sharing testimonies. I'm not and never will be because I don't care if people believe me or not. I know that they're true. God lets you know in your heart that that He did something for you whenever He does. At least He does me. He lets me know if what I am reading or watching is true. This started on youtube when I was watching testimonies. At first I didn't realize exactly what it was so I called it that God "pinged" my spirit. Later I learned that this is really called a quickening of the spirit. Untruth, no quickening. Truth, quickening. I love that He does this for me. I've thought before that this quickening in and of itself may be a reason for some to call me a liar but it's never happened, but then again, I don't care about that. That's between me and God and scripture says we're supposed to share our testimonies with people.

I've not heard any people saying that someone is lying about a testimony. It's like people leave that alone for some reason. I've never called someone out on a testimony either. Why would I? People have no reason to lie about testimonies. It makes sense too. Why would satan lie to someone and say, God did a miracle for me da da da. ?? That's the equivalent of advertising for God! Lol. That would make satans house divided.

For some reason that is beyond me, people on forums don't seem to share a lot of testimonies. Maybe they just don't have any? I dunno. It sometimes just inspires me to share more often. Scripture says if you draw closer to God, then He will draw closer to you. And when God draws closer to you, things happen! sometimes God does do miracles for people without their asking. Because He wants to give them a chance to come to Him. He is not willing that any should perish.

I wish you would share some of the many testimonies that you have. You sound as if you have some good ones!

Thank you for that.

I will proceed, then, with the miracles.

The first one was the lake.

The next one was in Appleton, Wisconsin in July of 2001. I was there on business. God simply reached out of the air and grabbed my face, then grabbed my arm, pulled it and turned on a light and told me something that makes sense to me and me alone, without pages of explanation: "I work on my nature through my nature."

Over the next span of time he talked to me a few more times - always pressing into my nose as he did it.

I was demanding, and at one point he cast me into the black abyss. Then he pulled me up out of it and sat me on a plain, and showed me one gate of the City, high above and far away. It was beautiful.

Awhile later a demon attacked me, a visible demon, and I cried out to God aloud. He flew a white bird with an orange beak and feet straight INTO my head through the bridge of my nose with such force that it knocked me down. The bird passed INTO my head and exploded in bright light that was at once the greatest peace and joy I have ever known or can imagine. The demon was immediately gone.

Another time, in a dream, Jesus embraced me - but that was in a dream, and things that happen in dreams may just be dreams. Miracles are things that happen when I'm wide awake.

I've mentioned the raising of two small animals - a mouse and a small lizard - from the dead, in my hand, because I asked him to.

I've mentioned the money - $92,000 flat out given to me, and $36,000 lent - just at the crucial moment when everything was flying apart. God provides.

There was an absurd business with a new car, a mountain and a shrub that is longer to tell than it is worth, but that could just be dumb luck.

I've mentioned the four bouts of appendicitis, but that could also be dumb luck and cussedness.

When I don't feel God telling me something specific by the miracle, or have him talk to me, things can feel like miracles, but I'm not sure. It could just be a blessing. When God talks to me as he does the impossible, that I call a miracle.

After Appleton, I became a religious person. I was always a superstitious Catholic, but I became quite serious about learning what was there once God spoke to me as an adult and grabbed me. It made an impression. I wanted to share it and tell everybody about it. When I encountered disbelief and "please stop" embarrassment, I went out to research other miracles, and found them. It was that research that confirmed my Christianity, for I searched the world for miracles, verifiable ones, ones that forensic science can prove.

Testimonies like my own, coming from somebody else, I might believe NOW, or might not, but I would NOT have believed back before they happened to me. I looked for miracles that I would have HAD to accept, whether I wanted to or not, because of the forensic science. They exist. God left them sprinkled across history for the Thomases like me. There are a fair number of them. They have one feature in common: they are all Christian, all of them, except maybe one that is ambiguous. There are perhaps 200 of these miracles, and 199 are Christian. The one "maybe" is Bhuddist.

There aren't any miracles that aren't religious, and the religion that has them is Christianity.

This, to me, is the proof that the God who grabbed me and interacted with me, who did those miracles to me, is the Christian God. Other than Jesus embracing me in a dream, which isn't a miracle but a dream, the miracles I have experienced, and the conversations I had with God, were not clearly Christian. They weren't un-Christian either. Christian religion has never really interested me. I talked to God about what interested me, and he has given me his answer. The fact that there IS God, who can raise dead things to life, grab me, send birds into my head, heal a broken neck - all of it - that I know directly. That this God is the CHRISTIAN God I only know by inference. I didn't approach God as a Christian, but as myself, a superstitious Catholic. That there are Christian overtones to some of the miracles - the City, the dove, the dead animals rising - doesn't prove anything to me in and of itself. It is the external miracles that I studied. in part to confirm that I am not crazy, that there ARE such miracles - that is what clinches the deal for me. That is why I have been assiduous about learning exactly what the Bible says, learn the tenets of each branch of the religion assiduously, and compare them to what I know. It's why I am no longer a superstitious Catholic, just a Catholic.

One of the things it inspired me to do was to fast. Two years in a row, for 40 days and 40 nights, consecutive, I ate nothing, drank only water, and prayed. Obviously that caused huge weight loss (55 pounds, both times). I was aware of being in a state of grace, what the feeling of being truly without sin for a period of time.

I don't like spiders. I find them ugly and scary. When I was about a month into one of the fasts, I recall getting out of the shower and standing there, drying myself off in the bathroom, when suddenly a massive, very ugly spider, something grey and horrible, like a wolf spider, came charging out from under the toilet running across the floor right at me. I've lived for a half-century plus and seen thousands of spiders: they don't behave like that. I knew what this was instinctively. I pointed my finger straight at it and shouted "No!" The spider leaped six inches into the air. Curled up into a ball, and landed back on the floor on its back, dead. The demon that possessed that spider - whether the spider was dead or alive before that I do not know - was driven out by God. I know that's what happened. If spiders died of fright by shouting "No" at them, I'd be a madman shouting "No!" all over my house all the time.

When I string things together over the years and think about them, about the highly improbable circumstances of my life, and about all of the good things that have come my way, I see the hand of God in all of it. What I don't know, at least not yet, is what exactly I'm supposed to do with it.

I do know that I have a real aversion to a certain approach to religion that I find prevalent among people who like to talk about religion. So I am at once drawn to the places where religion is discussed, such as here, and yet repelled by the WAY people assert their religion. I don't sense God in it, or feel him, and I find the logic frequently to not actually follow. And I find, in turn, that my own attempts to set the record straight are received very poorly, and that I am called unpleasant things.

It has been pleasant talking about miracles, though. These things reveal the existence, presence and goodness of God. This talk is edifying. The kind of bickering that happens elsewhere here isn't.

So let's continue here.

 

[Solomons Porch]

This is, in my mind the biggest miracle that God has ever done for me. He sent an Angel to my garage sale and he over paid me to help me.

This is when I was still living in Colorado Springs CO, and I had a 4 BR house for 1000 a month. I've been self employed as a Mechanical Contractor (HVAC) since 1994. Back in the mid 90's I was doing great but the economy has been doing the big slide downhill and I found myself with less and less work, until I was 2 months behind in rent, plus, I had a utility shut off notice for Monday, for 300 dollars. This was Saturday. I had a 1-1/2 car detached garage and so was trying to make extra money by selling off all the household goods that a single man don't really care about having. But when my Wife left after 26 years...she took the gold & cash and good SUV and left. So I built two 4 X 8 tables out of plywood and set up in the garage for a garage sale. I had been doing this for a few weeks and on sunny weekends, I'd throw an ad on Craigslist and sit in the driveway on a couch, to sell the junk off, ya' know? Now you know how garage sales are...they don't pay the rent, lol. But it kept me fed sorta and in cigarettes, lol.

One Saturday I'm out doing the garage sale thing, and my landlord pulls up. He had my walking papers. He said Ed, I like you but I have bills too so I have to get someone in here that can pay consistently. I had been behind before some here and there, but then catch it up when a nice job comes in. I guess 2 grand was his limit. He gave me my 3 day notice and said goodbye and left. I sunk back down into the couch very discouraged. I prayed to the Lord for some help. After praying it was about dusk so I went ahead and closed it up and went back into the house. As soon as I went downstairs to my family room where my computer is and sat down, the phone rang. A man said he seen my ad on CL but could he come by after he got off work in about an hour and a half to look at my garage sale? I of course said yes. And He showed up exactly on time.

We walked out to the garage and I opened it up, and as soon as I stepped inside, He said to me, How much do you need? Now I went (tilt) because that's an odd question, so I ignored it and went into salesman mode and began telling Him about the stuff. I walked to a table, picked something up and talked about it...He didn't even look at it. He said again, how much do you need? (Tilt!). I began talking about other things and didn't answer His question. (What do you say to something like that?!). I was expectig Him to begin looking at my merchandise, but He didn't seem really all that interested. I forget what I picked up but I did and said blah blah blah, and handed it to him for him to check it out, and he took it and gave it a quick sideways glance and set it down and said, how much do you need?

And I still wasn't putting two and two together! So I ignored the question and began talking about other stuff. I handed him a couple different things but he set them back down so fast that I didn't think he was interested in the type of stuff that I had. He said again, how much do you need? (Tilt). I looked at him...and didn't get it! So he says, well how about 1900 for everything on that table over there? ...(Tilt!)

Now that is not how a garage sale goes. They just don't. So I couldn't answer Him. My head was spinning at this point. I looked down at the floor...then He says, well how about 2400 then? Now I knew This was a joke, and I did want to hear the punch line, so I looked at Him and said, sure, sounds fine.
and the punch line was...he pulled out a stack of 100 dollar bills big enough to choke a horse and counted me out 24 of them! Now I began thinking that maybe He was some kind of dealer, a flea market guy wanting to stock up or something? (I hadn't yet remembered that I had prayed for help!). But He paid me, so I asked if He would like some help loading it up into his pickup. He said, yes thank you. So I got some cardboard boxes and we bagan boxing stuff up. Then He reaches over and takes somethng out of the box that I had just put into it, and says, oh you can keep that I wont need it..that too, this too...(Tilt!) He wound up leaving about 25% of the stuff on the table that He had just paid me for! Not just the cheapest junkiest stuff, just random stuff. Some of it nice, my Wife loved to spend money.

I took a real close look at him to see if he was the type with more cash than brains...or what? He was well groomed, fit, well spoken, and drove a nicer pickup truck. Nope, He wasn't that type. My head was spinning. We finished loading up, shook hands, he smiled real big, and then drove off...I closed up the garage and went back into the house and as I was going back down the basement stairs and was feeling the wad of cash in my pocket...I said, Praise the Lord!...and then it hit me...that was an Angel come to answer my prayer!

Then I thought about my bills...2400...2 grand for the back rent...300 for the utilities, and a hundred bucks extra for groceries! Bam! Within 2 hours of praying for help. Then it all made very perfect sense to me. I needed help and prayed, He came, why He kept asking me how much I needed, all of it. There is no other answer to explain what happened. Garage salers do not come talk the price up! They talk it down, right? Right. I sat down and lost it...I cried and thanked the Lord and thanked the Lord and praised Him...!!!

Then I felt stupid for not realizing it was an Angel come to help when He was here! Entertaining Angels unawares...the Grace of the Lord...you have not because ye ask not...I knew all that! Why couldn't I see it when He was there?! I had so many questions I could have asked Him, lol! That was absolutely awesome. Praise the Lord!

Feel free to comment or share one of your own Testimonies of when the Lord has helped you out.

Love it

 

[Vicomte13]

God lets you know in your heart that that He did something for you whenever He does. At least He does me. He lets me know if what I am reading or watching is true. This started on youtube when I was watching testimonies. At first I didn't realize exactly what it was so I called it that God "pinged" my spirit. Later I learned that this is really called a quickening of the spirit. Untruth, no quickening. Truth, quickening. I love that He does this for me.

Here is a test of the spirit: what did you feel when you read what I wrote about my experiences? Did you feel the quickening of the spirit to tell that what you read was true, or didn't you. Know this: every word I wrote is the truth.

 

[Vicomte13]

People have no reason to lie about testimonies.

They do.

Attention, for one.

Being special.

A cry for help.

Also, power seeking. And a quest for authority. Religious leaders are often multi-milliionaires thanks to their ability to persuade others to follow them and give money "to support the Church".

Such people have millions of reasons to lie about testimonies, and they do lie.

 

[Divide]

Here is a test of the spirit: what did you feel when you read what I wrote about my experiences? Did you feel the quickening of the spirit to tell that what you read was true, or didn't you. Know this: every word I wrote is the truth.

Oh no Brother. I can't do that. This is something God does for me and I don't want to abuse it. I'm no seer or fortune teller or anything like that. This whole earth thing is about faith, and if I got on here and said what I felt about that, someone would get discouraged or angry or something. Some would feel good but others it would be a stumbling bock to them. So I can't...Sorry.

 

[Divide]

They do.

Attention, for one.

Being special.

A cry for help.

Also, power seeking. And a quest for authority. Religious leaders are often multi-milliionaires thanks to their ability to persuade others to follow them and give money "to support the Church".

Such people have millions of reasons to lie about testimonies, and they do lie.

I'm sure there's a little bit of that going on. But I don't really watch those shows. I watch the ones from private people who are not trying to sell a book or gather offerings or anything like that.

God is doing a lot of stuff on Earth right now.

 

[Vicomte13]

Oh no Brother. I can't do that. This is something God does for me and I don't want to abuse it. I'm no seer or fortune teller or anything like that. This whole earth thing is about faith, and if I got on here and said what I felt about that, someone would get discouraged or angry or something. Some would feel good but others it would be a stumbling bock to them. So I can't...Sorry.

I'm not suggesting you tell me the result. I'm suggesting that you test it for yourself.

 

[Vicomte13]

I'm sure there's a little bit of that going on. But I don't really watch those shows. I watch the ones from private people who are not trying to sell a book or gather offerings or anything like that.

God is doing a lot of stuff on Earth right now.

God has always been holding up everything on Earth since he created it!