I’ve waited 3 years to tell this testimony because at the time I didn’t like how it left off. Truth be told, not all testimonies are like NBA highlight reals. I wish they were but every “spiritual victory” seen in this life is between the bookends of what we call “a fallen world”. In fact many testimonies of God’s power that I have personally been a part of do not end as “awesome,” clean and sanitized as we hear them told. There’s always more to the story. With that being said, I give Jesus all the praise for what He did 3 years ago.
3 years ago we were notified that the mother of a certain teenage girl who, at the time, started coming to youth group, being invited by my niece, had been pronounced dead at Billings Clinic do to an overdose on drugs. This mother, daughter and family lived in a state of poverty, drugs, alcohol, family dysfunction, lies, anger (normal life), and yet by God’s grace her daughter had been introduced to the things of God through Keema (my niece) by inviting her to hang out and go to youth group. News about this woman dying spread through their school. After all, its a pretty big deal and yet the news was spread by this girl in a nonchalant way. Kinda like, “oh yeah…my mom is dead” with no real emotion attached to it. Frankly, when we heard about it we didn’t know if what she was saying was true. After all you’d expect her attitude to be more dramatic if I fact her mom died. I suppose it just lends credence to the type of atmosphere their family chronically lived in. Anyway, we found out that she had flat lined and had been on life support for three days. She had been declared brain dead by the doctors. The only thing keeping her body “alive” were the machines. They kept her “alive” so that the extended family could travel to Billings to say good bye. So, after I found out all that I prayed and went up to the hospital with the plan that I was going to pray for her and command life to come back into her body. After all, that’s what Jesus gave us authority to do and given her lifestyle, if this woman didn’t come back and have another chance to repent and give her life to Christ she would not be ready to face judgement. I got up to the room where a bunch of people, extended family I didn’t know, had gathered and were mourning. I could smell cigarettes and alcohol as I looked at their fallen faces. I introduced myself and being full of the Holy Spirit, I said, “I believe God will raise her from the dead. Who else believes that and wants to pray?” Buzzed and drunk, many, if not all of them, stood with me as we held hands and prayed around her lifeless body. 10 seconds after we prayed her body made some kind of contortion. It was holy moment. Her eye lids started to open. As the family was in awe I grabbed the woman’s hand and said, ” if you can hear me, squeeze my hand.” She squeezed my hand. Because she had life support tubes in her mouth and couldn’t talk. I told her again, “if you can hear me, blink your eyes 3 times fast.” She blinked three quick times. As the family beheld all this the feeling in the room was that of amazement and hysteria. As this point, the nurses and doctors had come in and were bewildered and rushing around. “We are so sorry” was what one of the doctors said as he began to refer to what he said he had never seen happen. She continued to show signs that she was not dead but rather very much alive. To make a long story short, I left the family and doctors. I told them that I would check on them later. Because she had been declared dead, the family had already made plans to take this woman’s daughter, Keema’s friend, and sister to go live with her aunt in another state. Needless to say, this was a major new development in the post mortem mourning process of this family.
I went to go inform the rest of the family (including the husband) who by this time we’re back in the family’s mobile home and had done what they knew to do in dulling their pain with alcohol. I told them that she had come back to life but it was as though the words I was saying did not register to them. By this time, thanks to Peggy and the New Life Women’s ministry we had also gathered about $300 to help the family with food and whatever during the process. Sadly, I couldn’t give it to any adult, because of everyone’s drunken state, so I gave it to this wide-eyed teenage girl, Keema’s friend, and told her that it was for food and necessities for her and her sister.
Over the next couple days I stayed in contact with the family but as I communicated with them I got the feeling that this woman’s resurrection had actually resurrected gross and difficult family problems that were temporarily laid to rest as she laid dead for 3 days. Even though a person who had a part to plan in the problems was gone, the problems were still there as soon as she woke up. Trying to make a long story short, the family ended up being divided up and leaving Billings in various directions. The kids went to live with and aunt and uncle for a period of time and the mother and father went to another western state. It was a very disturbing, sad and yet miraculous event. Even though it was awesome to see someone who was medically pronounced dead come back to life, my excitement was simmered down by the life she was resurrected back into. Resurrection is good but don’t forget, the Bible talks about 2. One is into life and the other is unto death. Now, I know this is yet to come when Jesus physically returns the second time (come Lord Jesus) but needless to say resurrection will only benefit you if Jesus is Lord.
I know God has a plan for this woman and her family and last I heard she is still alive. If she hasn’t yet, I pray that she surrenders her life to Jesus. After all, what good does it do for someone to experience a divine miracle and then go back to their own destructive way of life?
Anyway, all that being said, her story is not over but I wanted to share that with you so that you’ll keep in mind that God’s work can be very messy and doesn’t look like a highlight real where everything is perfect. He works in the midst of our sin and brokenness and one day we’ll be able to look back and see how he used the evils and uglies of people’s lives for a backdrop to let His glory shine.
May God bless you all.
Shared by Abe Madinger