Miracle – Page 2 – The Faith Travels

Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice: Prevention Through Prayer Pt.1

Hi Faith Travelers!

Happy Faith Friday!

So let’s to talk about obedience and the power of prayer. If it’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of truly serving God with my life, it’s that prayer is our greatest weapon. Prayer fights the seen and unseen battles. It prevents what seems unpreventable, hinders the unpredictable and binds up the hands of the devil(the real enemy). The moment you think prayer doesn’t work is the moment you put down your greatest weapon. Our prayers can accomplish more in a situation than us physically being in the midst of that situation. How do I know this you may ask…well I’ve lived it on more than one occasion but today I’ll share one story with you.

In 2018, the house I grew up in, the home my late grandfather renovated with his own hands, and the home my grandmother and family had lived in since the 70s went up in flames. The fire started in my old room where my mom had been staying to help look out for my grandmother after recent medical issues. Around 3am that same morning I felt the strong unction to pray. I didn’t know why or for what I was praying for, but I was praying, trusting God to handle whatever He needed through me praying in tongues, a gift available to everyone who receives (Read about Praying in tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:2 and Acts 2:4,2:38). As I prayed I could feel things shifting but little did I know the shifting was impacting lives and situations connected to me.

When I looked back on that day, I realized God was orchestrating for good what the enemy meant for evil. My mom never stays up late and when I say never, I mean she faithfully went to bed at 6:30/7pm everyday to be up at 4:30/5am ish to prepare for work. This day was different. We were both up texting at 1am for some reason talking about God’s faithfulness. This led me to still be up when the prompting to pray came around 3am because I was wide awake after texting with my mom. Around 5am my mom got up to get ready for work and saw smoke and fire in the very area she was laying her head. The smoke detectors never went off but she was able to alert my grandmother to get up and get out of the house. Of course my grandmother took her sweet time knowing that God had her covered while she was grabbing her purse and cash that she had hidden in the house. You gotta love the elderly.

News Report of the fire that displaced my mother and grandmother and destroyed my childhood home in May of 2018.

I received back to back calls from my aunt that morning and when I answered with a pounding heart because I had a feeling something was wrong, she told me she had bad news and the house nearly burned down from a fire. She told me the house and items in it were pretty much destroyed and non salvageable but thank you Jesus my mom and grandmother were able to get out completely UNSCATHED!

In my God time later that night, I thanked God for His faithfulness and protection over my family. God told me clearly that it was my prayers that prevented an even worse tragedy from happening that the devil had planned with my mom and grandmother. In that moment, I realized had I not been obedient when the prompting to pray came, there could’ve been a much different outcome. This is why obedience is better than sacrifice.

“But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”1 Samuel‬ ‭15‬:‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬

Until the next Faith testimony…

Unknown Illness Miraculously Healed Pt. 2

So I shared my battle with the unknown illness with you in Part 1 and now I want to share My Victory over that unknown illness in Part 2. The Bible says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world– our faith. (1 John 5:4) ” By faith, sickness and disease was eradicated from my body and defeated!

The enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy but God has come to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). I received my full healing and restoration back in March of 2016! I went from barely being able to move to dancing before the Lord at my church. How you ask? Here’s the part you’ve been waiting on since Part 1.

Well during that time my Pastor was teaching on healing in the Bible. He mentioned the Bible story of the woman with the issue of blood (See Matthew 9, Mark 5 and Luke 8) and how her faith was in being healed once she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. He said the Centurion’s servant was sick but the Centurion felt that he wasn’t worthy of Jesus coming to his house so his faith was in Jesus just saying the word and he knew his servant would be healed. Then the story of Jairus whose daughter was said to be dead, his faith was in Jesus coming to his house and healing his daughter. My pastor asked the general question “what is your faith in for receiving your healing?” Then he asked, if you feel like you need to be touched (by the laying on of hands) and prayed for to receive your healing that Jesus already died on the cross for, then come to the altar. In that moment, I felt like he was talking to me but I began to feel fear rise up in me. In the midst of feeling afraid, I heard a still voice say, “ this is what you asked me for, go up there”. I said under my breath while looking around, “Jesus is that you?!” As I walked up there I had already had this conversation in my mind that out of all the people praying I wanted the pastor to do it( not that it would’ve made a difference…God can use anyone). Well I got up there and I closed my eyes while praying to myself. I then hear the pastor say, “ Tell me what’s going on”. I open my eyes while thinking, “Lord did you tell this man my business already” (sarcasm…because me and the Lord have that kind of relationship). I began to tell him what was going on and said I want full healing and restoration. He said “well full healing and restoration, that’s easy for God…That’s easy right?”….as he looked for me to agree, I just shook my head in a yeah sure kind of way. He began to pray over me and someone behind me was praying in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:14). Next thing I know I was laid out on the ground. And here I was thinking that people were being polite and falling out to appease the pastor. This was not the case here. I got up in expectation that something had changed even though I didn’t feel 100% better; I knew God was going to do what He said.

The next day I went to dance ministry practice. Even though I couldn’t dance because of my condition, I would still go to help and serve where I could. Well, they were practicing a ballet move for the next ministry performance and I decided to try the move. Just a bit of a back-story, I have never taken any ballet or dance classes and the restrictions I still had limited me from doing low extremity moves. In that moment as I began to do the ballet leg lift move, I watched my leg rise like I had taken classes for years. This was the same leg rising that at one point would not even move and had to be dragged around the house. I stopped and with tears in my eyes I said, God you did it, you healed me!!!

From being unable to move to Ministering through dance. Me: Bottom Left corner

In the next couple of weeks, I ministered through dance for the first time before the congregation. I can remember fighting back the ugly cry during my performance because I was still in awe of what God had done for me. My friend Tiffany was in the audience and after service I asked if she was able to record me. She said, “I’m sorry I didn’t because I was crying so hard at the goodness of God because I saw you when you couldn’t move!” There was nothing but tears of gratefulness and joy as I reflected on the same.

I went from being unable to move to a mighty move of God on my behalf. These are the moments that took my faith and walk with God to another level and part of the reason why I share my faith and testimony with you today. Someone else’s faith story helped me in the midst of my trials and my prayer is that my story and the many more that I will share here will help someone to also see and experience the faithfulness of God in whatever circumstance they may be going through.

Until the next faith testimony…