Birthday Miracle
I want to share my Birthday miracle!!!
BTW, God is SOOO good!
Here's how it went down...
It's my birthday morning.
My husband and I are heading to breakfast to a restaurant around the corner from us.
Oddly, we were running waaay 1 hour later than normal.
On the drive over, he mentions, "You remember Ronnie the guy who we see with the bandana at the restaurant?"
"Yes" I replied hesitantly. "You mean the fence guy?"
"Yeah, that's him. I saw a post on Facebook from his daughter saying he had brain cancer and had surgery last week. So she did a GoFundMe account. I need your help to donate money to that."
"Oh, yeah, of course!" I replied. "I can't believe that happened to him. That's so crazy."
As we drove up to the restaurant, I hopped out of the truck as my husband parked the car.
I walked into the restaurant to grab a seat and all our usual booths were dirty or taken.
I spotted an open table close by so I sat down quickly to stake my claim.
As I set my purse down and looked up, there was Ronnie! I was in shock. "What in the world was he doing at a restaurant?"
Our tables were merely separated by a thin clear divider. I poked my head over and started talking to him.
He shared how he had surgery 10 days ago and already started doing manual labor as he was a fence contractor. He said had to work because he needed the money.
The worst part was...
His girlfriend of 3 years left him after 2 days of caring for him!
He was devestated. His eyes started welling up as he described how she left him when he needed her the most.
My heart broke for him. Ouch!
I invited him to eat with us and he hesitantly accepted as he didn't want to be a bother.
We assured him he wasn't and said we would be talking through the divider the whole time if he didn't.
He smiled and moved his food over to our table.
My husband came in and started chatting with him right away.
It turns out the surgery was through his nose and the doctor couldn't get all of the cancer. There was still some left so he had to start radiation right away for 8 weeks.
Wow! My husband felt the move of the Holy Spirit and said, "Christine, why don't you go sit next to him and lay hands on him and we'll pray for him."
I couldn't believe my ears.
My husband is not in the same place with faith as I am. He had his own horrible experience before and still felt burned and distant from God.
For example, the day before he got mad when I asked him if he wanted to listen to anything. He got angry assuming I was trying to stuff a youtube sermon down his throat. This was a hot trigger for him.
Shocked and excited, I got up and sat down next to Ronnie and laid hands on him and we all held hands in prayer, right at the table in the restaurant.
My husband was bold and shameless about doing this.
We lifted Ronnie up to God in prayer and asked for healing and wholeness in Jesus name. The prayer was simple yet beautiful.
We continued back to chit chat.
As we were finishing up breakfast, I had a tickling of the brain (aka Holy Spirit tickle) and I asked "Hey Ronnie, just out of curiosity, what is your story on your spiritual or faith journey? What did you grow up with, what did you experience and where are you at now?"
He explained that his family was Catholic growing up but he didn't really connect with all that stuff. His adult life he didn't have anything to do with it."I got saved a couple times." he said. One time in Daytona, someone did some prayer for him, but he didn't really mean it.
Just by those words, I knew he didn't really understand what "getting saved" meant.
So I asked "Do you understand what all of that means or the concept behind all of that and getting saved?"
"No" he replied.
"Is it ok if I share?" I asked.
"You mean now?... I'm supposed to pickup some medicine shortly, but sure."
I gave the Cliff's Notes version of why Jesus came and died for us. That we were all sinners and the only way that God could get us back was to sacrifice Jesus, His only son, to pay for our sins. And that was enough to get us back into heaven to live in a perfect eternal life with God.
Most importantly, I explained that salvation or "getting saved" is a simple gift like a Christmas gift.
"Salvation by faith.
That means it's FREE.
You don't have to DO anything or BE a certain way.
You just accept and that it's the simplest thing in the world.
There's a simple prayer to accept it.
Do you mind if I share? Would you like to accept this gift?" I asked.
"Sure." he replied.
My mind was BLOWN!
I can't believe this is happening!
We all held hands in prayer again. Ronnie repeated the Sinner's Prayer and accepted Jesus into his heart as lord and savior and asked for forgiveness.
It was simple and beautiful.
"Wow, thanks. I never understood it before. Now I mean it."
OMG! Did that just happen?!?!?
Did my husband and I just lead someone to Christ?Whhhaaattt?!?!?!?!
Just yesterday my husband was bickering not to shove anything down his throat, and today he prompted me to lay hands on Ronnie AND lead him to salvation.
My head was numb from shock!!
I never would have thought this was possible in a million years!
Not this soon! Not today!
God answered my prayer.
No way!!
Looking back, so many things lined up for this to happen.
- First, my husband saw the post on Facebook the night before.
- Because of that, he told me about it on the way over.
- We also went to breakfast waaayy later than normal.
- Ronnie's breakfast got delayed way later than normal.
- Because of that, a booth wasn't available so I ended up sitting at that table and saw Ronnie.
- Because my husband made the commen on the Facebook and Ronnie's surgery I took special interest and invited him to our table.
- Because of that, it opened up conversation and the Holy Spirit nudged my husband to pray for him.
- Because that happened, that opened up conversation to ask about his spiritual journey.
- Because of that, the Holy Spirit nudge my husband to offer to pray for salvation.
- Because of that, Ronnie got saved.
God is SOOOOO good.
God gave me #1 thing on my heart and I thought it was impossible so soon.
It goes to show you...
Nothing is impossible for God.
God can soften hearts.
God can harden hearts.
All it takes is a prayer God's hand to make a miracle.
Thank you Jesus for my birthday miracle and the best birthday present in the world.
And there's more!!... (sounds like a Ginzu knife commercial, lol)
This was the gift that keeps on giving.
1) Afterwards, I shared it with my grandma and she started crying.
2) I also shared it with a non-believing friend who asked about my birthday. I shared this testimony and now she is curious about faith being a free gift!
This friend had a hardened heart towards God her whole life, and NOW she's interested in the gift of salvation?!? Whaaatt?!??!?!
We're supposed to have a talk in 4 weeks so meanwhile, I'm going to pray with all my heart that God's will be done in her heart.
UNBELIEVABLE!
God is so good!!
Glory to God.
Glory, Glory, Glory!
I'm speechless.
Figuratively speaking. ^_^
I believe in miracles!!
Do you?!
Reply to share a miracle story of your own.
Would love to hear it and share it.
Cheers to a beautiful, miraculous day!
P.S. It goes to show you that "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."
There are so many people that don't know God and are shy about asking cuz it's not appropriate. There's a hunger in all of us to get right with God.
Be the light.
Show the way.
Dare to ask about their spiritual journey and story.
Open up conversation.
Be curious and brave.
You just might save a life... for eternity. Now THAT'S cool.
In Jesus name Amen!
