I receive this email recently:
Last year March, I had traveled from the United States with a beautiful diamond ring that Nathan had purchased for his girlfriend Shannon Carter. It was his intention to propose to her while I was there in Australia. He had already asked her father for his blessing. The Friday prior to the big day, I received a phone call from my husband Vic regarding our son Brad and his pregnant wife Annie. There was some horrific news concerning their baby. All was not well. In this Christian life we are always learning, always growing, well hopefully we are. One can never say they have arrived. So I often find myself meditating on certain scriptures, different verses. In 2014 the verse that had my attention most of the year was Romans 8:6 To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. This truth has become a goal in my life. Back to the phone call. Upon hearing the news that something was seriously wrong with the baby I called Brad our son, all three of us were now on a conference call. Brad started to tell me what the doctors had found. Something rose up in me. I literally held up my hand and demanded Stop! I refused to hear this report. Doctors may have the diagnosis but Almighty God has the prognosis. All I knew at that point in time was that the umbilical cord only had 2 blood vessels running through instead of 3. This I was told would have a dire outcome for the baby. I literally refused to hear any of it. I knew I had two choices. The first was to believe that God is the God of the impossible, and He promises abundant life and this was the work of the devil who comes to kill, steal and destroy. The second was to believe and to take on board the diagnosis from the medical profession. I chose to trust God.  My son Brad is a very courageous guy. His line of work takes him up cell phone towers all over America. He has climbed the tallest tower in America over 1700 feet, He skis off cliffs, and He is a strong and very capable guy. The sort of guy you want around you if you are in any kind of trouble. Here was my son sobbing on the phone. I will never forget that as long as I live. It did something to me, I almost broke. But instead I chose to fight. I announced to him in no uncertain terms, that he needed to get serious with God. He needed to get his wife down to the alter of the church and have the elders pray over her. He needed to lay hands on her stomach and pray over that baby. I apologized for being so harsh with him but told him he had been coasting with his Christian life for too long and now was the time to step up and become the spiritual leader in his home. I told him to just do it and I would see him in two weeks. Then I said goodbye.  His father meantime was listening on the line and was waiting to fill me in with the details. Again I stood up to the attempt of the enemy to get me into a very black hole. I began demanding that my husband tell no-one about the doctor’s report. We will not have any negative chatter. I said. He tried a second time to tell me. I said NO! Do not speak it out of your mouth. After I hung up the phone, Satan attacked me on all fronts. I felt physically sick and emotionally drained. This was a battle I was in and I knew it. My husband thought I was not facing reality, as did my son. Both walked around me for the next 6 months with body language that said, Poor Mum she will be so disappointed when she sees this baby. My poor wife what am I going to do with her when she finds out the truth about this baby. My daughter-in-law was rationalizing that any child will be a perfect gift. Meantime I had determined that I was trusting God. I decided that even with two hulking men in the family my son and my husband if I had to be the warrior, so be it. I reached for Daniel Kenny guitar which was in the living room at Nathan’s house and began to sing praises to the Lord. What I discovered was that I was unable to sing an actual song. My emotions were too deep. I praised God in made up little phrases in English and in tongues. I don’t know how long I praised Him, but during that time God dropped a scripture into my spirit. James 1:17 every good and perfect gift comes down from above coming down from the Father of lights. This was a particularly meaningful scripture to me because of my time running the playgroup at Narara Valley Baptist church. When a Mum had a new baby I would write that scripture inside a card. This scripture encouraged me in my time of need and was a powerful message of hope from the Lord spoken directly to my heart. I emailed my son to encourage him with the news. Now to Sunday morning at Grace Community Church. Our son Nathan proposed to his bride on the Saturday at Somersby Falls. A very romantic and happy time. Nathan still knew nothing about his brother’s pain. I had not told anyone. Sunday morning I was invited to church by my sister and her family and accompanied them to Grace Community. A guest was preaching. It was a very dynamic service. The alter call was one where almost everyone went forward for prayer. However, I honestly didn’t feel led to go forward but decided to accompany my 12 year old nephew. As the lines were long he decided to go and get a drink and a chocolate biscuit! I was about to sit down when a lady with very kind eyes asked me if I wanted prayer. I said yes. I think she was expecting me to explain what for, but you see I wasn’t telling anyone, instead I held out my hands and said to the Lord, Lord you know our need. Let me paint the picture a little. Your church meets in a gymnasium the floors are not overly clean, also it was raining that morning. I had been invited to meet my son’s soon to be in-laws for lunch, it is summer, I am wearing white pants and the Holy Spirit is on me. I am swaying. I am resisting! I hear the Lord speak to my heart, you are fighting this aren’t you Vicki. Yes is my confession, Well don’t. Came the reply, so I didn’t and I fell back on to the floor. The lady who was praying for me placed her hand on my diaphragm and for the first time in 2 days and 2 nights I felt peace. I lay there and it was pleasant. Nice to take a rest from the battle, the battle that was constantly taking place in my mind. The battle that caused me to awaken in the night, the battle that caused me to enter into prayer at 2am, the fight that propelled me into the scriptures for peace. Peace was what I felt on that floor, the peace that passes all understanding, and a slight pressure on my diaphragm. Suddenly as I lay there enjoying the rest, a picture came into my mind, a picture of a winding mountain road. Liquid light began to travel down the road. Then I noticed two thin black lines traveling down the road alongside the light, the lines turned red. Immediately I realized that this in fact wasn’t a road, it was an umbilical cord, it was Annie’s umbilical cord and the Lord was showing me that He was nourishing the baby in Annie’s womb. The Lord Himself was standing in the gap and was meeting the need of the third blood vessel. I began thanking Him. During this whole experience I felt the slight pressure on my diaphragm. I wanted to thank the lady for praying and release her. The Lord has shown me His hand in this situation. I debated with myself do I get up? Do I stay and let her decide. While debating I was thinking, what a lovely church this is. How generous of this woman to spend so much time with me, especially as probably 80% of the church had gone forward for prayer that morning. I opened my eyes. No-one was there! My praying lady was praying for someone else! The Lord had kept me on the floor. He had wanted me to remain there to give me the vision as a gift. How great and marvellous He is. Lunch was wonderful, a nice time with Shannon’s folks. Now a week in Canberra with three of my sisters. Still I have told no-one. Every day is a challenge to remain in the Word. I said earlier that this Christian life is a journey. It has been a journey of discovery for me. I’ve discovered several things about the Word of God. I have discovered that I used to read it to gain knowledge. It became a kind of guide book to live by. I also discovered that as the Word became familiar to me, I would skim over it. Oh I know this story. But now I’ve discovered some interesting facts. For example over in John chapter 8, Jesus says to dwell in His Word, In Psalm 138 God says He values His Word over His name. For many years now I have moved from reading the Bible to gain an academic understanding to reading it with an expectation that God speaks today and will speak directly to me in His Word and through His Word. Now the Word has become an exciting journey of discovery. And what I have discovered is that Jesus says in Mark 9 that if I am able to believe, nothing is impossible for the Lord to him who believes. I was now on a journey of believing the Word of God no matter what. Taking God at His word. Let God be true and everyman a liar. I discovered something about myself, that many times I rationalized the Word of God to suit me and to suit my lack of belief. But not this time! This time I had determined in my heart and I had become true grit. A week had passed. It was now Sunday morning and the Lord spoke to my heart and told me to share this testimony with the church. This would become an act of faith. My faith had become the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The believing was the substance the evidence of things not seen before I get to see. Once I would have argued, debated. Well let’s wait until the baby is born. But not this time. Not my will by His will be done. Nath, jump in the shower, we are going to church early today, I have to talk to Pastor Rae. If you Pastor invited me to share this story with the congregation then I knew I had heard the Lord that morning. I met with you before church shared the story. Would you share this with the congregation? you ask. Of course and now I write to say, the Lord is good. He has been good to me. I have tasted and I have seen that the Lord is good. I give Him all the praise and all the glory. I also want to thank you for your faithfulness to the move of the Holy Spirit, Thank you for not quenching Him and thank you for allowing Him freedom in your church. Both times I was present there was a very sweet atmosphere in your congregation. It was a joy to be with brothers and sisters who obviously love the Lord. Oh by the way. The diagnosis for Brad and Annie’s baby was for a down syndrome child but instead, the Lord has given us a bright, alert, beautiful and healthy grandson who loves his grandma!!I’ve enclosed some pictures. God is faithful!
Tony Rae
Senior Leader, Grace Wamberal
My vision for Grace Community is to serve, equip and empower people to reach their Godly potential in an atmosphere of Grace within the context of Community. I believe we can accomplish this by following the direction of the Holy Spirit, teaching the truth of God’s Word and by taking the Gospel into the Community.