At a ladies retreat last week, I met my roommate, the pastor of the Family for Christ Assembly of God Church in the Bronx. She grew up in Africa. She moved to the United States some years ago. Monica drove to this function with three other women. All three women told me to talk to her about her life experiences. When we were alone I asked her to share some of her stories.
She gave her life, soul and spirit over to Jesus Christ as a girl. As she began to know God’s voice in comparison to her own thoughts or the voice of the enemy of our souls, she said God told her she would marry a man from another country. Later, He told her the name of her husband, a student at her school she didn’t really know. When she met him, he fell in love with her and she with him. Years later, after the birth of four sons, God gave her a dream. Do not take your husband to a certain hospital in California. He will receive an IV, a man will come in and put a shot into the IV. Your husband will die.
When her husband got ill they took him by ambulance to that hospital, and when she protested and told of her dream, they ignored her. She watched the man come into her husband’s room, put a shot into the IV, and her husband died within two minutes. She never felt such a lack of control.
When she spoke of falling some months later and getting seriously hurt, the doctor told her he couldn’t help her. She needed to rest and let the body heal itself. She cried to God. “I need to work. What am I going to do for money?” She said God sent angels to massage her sore muscles and a man glowing white, who she thought was Jesus Christ, to touch her stomach. When she woke up, she was totally healed,
Then I remembered about twenty years ago being at a different ladies retreat, and I went to my room to be alone. I cried over a deep hurt and I felt the arms of an angel or God hugging me. I felt no warmth from the embrace, but comfort. I had forgotten all about it.
God answers prayer and fulfills His promises in my life, so I know that I know that He’s real. But some of these highly personal touches bring me to a higher level of appreciation.
No wonder God tells us not to forsake the assembling together of believers. We get ignited from the fire of others’ faith. It builds up our faith and reminds us of the fact that God is not a respecter of any person. He loves the ones He’s created. John 3:16 says: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
Yay God!
