MIRACLES & TESTIMONIES

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Lisa’s Testimony

         I had a surgery done on my abdomen.  After the surgery, Pastor Craig prayed over the incision.  When the doctor came in to check up on me the next day, the incision had already sealed.  The doctor was amazed at the amount of healing which had taken place.  He said he had never seen an incision heal that quickly.
         There have been many times when illnesses or injuries have been prayed for at the church and either the healing was immediate or there was drastic improvement.

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Burglary Attempt (Craig)        

   
         While I was working at a Christian bookstore, a man came in acting as though his car had broken down and asked if he could wait in our store until his ride came.  He pretended to be a burglar alarm salesman in order to find out what security measures we had in place.  His supposed ride had not yet come by closing time, and I was with him all alone.  He came over to where I was working and started talking.  I only half paid attention, muttering a few "uh huh's" or "I don't know's" when he asked questions.  Then he told me, in my half awareness, that he had found out that our store’s policy was that if a person tried to hold one of us up with a gun, we should hand over the store's money.  He asked if I agreed.  Semi-consciously, I muttered some vague reply, at which point he moved behind me, stuck something hard against my back and said, "This is it!"
         Suddenly quite alert, I needed time to pray.  Stalling, I stated the first thing I could think of, "This is what?" At first he seemed flustered by the question and gave me time to pray silently until he said, "This is a stick-up, now give me all your cash!" As I had been praying, the verse from Isaiah 54,"no weapon that is formed against you will prosper," rose up within me with faith. I was certain of the Lord's protection, assuming at least that I acted according to His direction and wisdom.  So I said, "It is our policy that we should hand over our store's money if someone holds us up with a gun.  But I have not yet seen a gun!" He again looked flustered; I silently met his gaze.  After a few less important statements, he angrily said, "Here, you wanna see a gun, I'll show you a gun!" and moved behind me again,  taking out what he was holding in his pocket, and hit me on the back of the head with it.  What he hit me with felt hard, but not hard enough to be the solid metal of a gun.  Praying, I turned around as he was putting it back in his pocket, and saw what it was.  It was a gun!
         A squirt gun!  With God's help, I had won!  I looked down at the gun and he followed my gaze and did not know what to do.  At that point, I could have calmly and authoritatively led him out of the store; but with the battle over, I acted on my own, without prayer, and laughed!
         Of course, he got angry.  He said, "You can be just as dead without a gun as with a gun, now give me your cash," and pushed me over to the register.  He was a big guy, about my height and 40 lean pounds heavier.  I had no specific direction from God, so I allowed him to push me to the register, but refused to give him any money, "Until I see a gun!" He pushed me around and threatened me for quite awhile.  At one point, while he was distracted, I considered trying to take him out, but I could see the headline, "Local Merchant Attacks Innocent Customer;" it would have been his word against mine.
         After quite awhile of this going nowhere, he became even more angry and threatened me – with a Precious Moments figurine!  When I still refused, he swung it at me.  Though I largely blocked the blow with my arm, it still impacted enough on my head that it broke off the arrow that was in the "love" target of the Precious Moments figure!
         At that point I got serious.  I needed him out of there, and told God so in prayer.  I felt God's hand upon me, so I looked at him and declared, "You need to leave NOW!  If you don't, you will be in a lot of trouble!"  He looked puzzled, but didn't move.  Then a siren started up, headed in our direction.
         The would-be thief calmly moved behind me where he could use me as a shield, and waited.  An ambulance drove by, sirens blaring.  It was enough to break his nerve, and he ran.  I called the police on another phone (he had torn the lines out of the wall when I attempted to call previously), and it turned out that there were about eight patrol cars in the area because of another event.  They arrested him only a couple blocks away.
         The owner of the store threw a small party for me.  Officially, I was told whenever someone tries to hold me up, I should hand over the money.  Unofficially, "Good job!"

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Attacked (Craig)             

             
         I was sharing an apartment with two other Christians, though not necessarily mature Christians.  The newest of the roommates had a brother who had been in prison.  This roommate separately asked both me and my original roommate, Keith, if his brother could stay with us for awhile.  We were both told that the other person had said it was okay, and the roommate added, at least to me, that Keith had met him and was okay with him. Keith and I were working opposite shifts, and by the time we figured out we had been hoodwinked, the ex-con was in the house.  One night I received a call at work from Keith that the con had gone crazy and come at him with a switchblade.  Keith was calling from his room, where he had locked himself in for protection.  I raced home and found the con, switchblade in hand, coming at me, eyes glazed over and looking crazy.  As I prayed, I sensed a demonic influence, no doubt partially drug-assisted.  I looked at the con and said, "I rebuke you, Satan, in the name of Jesus!" He turned around, muttering, "Ain't nobody gonna rebuke me in the name of Jesus!" but he was trying to move as far away from me as he could get!

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Rick and Lisa’s Membership Testimony

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         There were tornado-strength winds through this portion of the state.  Pastor Craig called Rick and I to let us know that he needed Rick’s help to get a tree off of his driveway that was blocking him from getting out. We cut the tree, which was 12-15 inch in diameter, into pieces so that Craig could get out of his driveway to church; nothing is going to stop us from being faithful to God in going to church. Craig had taught us nothing should stop us from making it. Then we went into town, and there were trees down all over the place.   When we got to the church, a tree was blocking the entrance to the church and a stranger helped us cut and move the tree. We went inside the church and it was dark, so we lit some candles and then started the service. Rick and I were becoming members that day and there had been other spiritual attacks when others had sought to become members.  We needed to keep pressing on through the attacks and not quit. Curtis and Clint also stood up and decided to become members because they had seen the attacks  others had been experiencing to try to stop them from becoming members, and so they decided to do it right away. 

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Brian’s Miracle (Testimony)   

                   
         I had been working a lot, and so I was pretty tired.   I think it was a Tuesday or Wednesday night, and I was sleeping in bed.  I was out pretty good immediately after I laid down.  I went to bed at about eleven.  At about one thirty in the morning, I woke up with a start all of a sudden.  The only thought in my mind was to just get up and get out of bed.  I woke up and just jumped right out of bed as soon as I was awake.  Pretty much as soon as I got out of bed, the ceiling fell down onto the bed right where I had been laying.

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Betty

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         Betty reluctantly came to the church.  Her first visit to the church building was in a wheelchair.  It was an effort to get her in and out of the building.  After being at the church for about a month, Pastor Craig and some of the other people in the church prayed for her to be able to walk.  Another person in the church had a prophesy that Betty would be walking within nine months.  Pastor Craig had a revelation of the accuracy of the prophesy. After six months, Betty took her first step out of the wheelchair.  Three months after that, she was walking completely on her own.  Within a year, she was walking a mile daily.

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Donna’s Testimony

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         I grew up in a church which believed miracles had passed away.  I had been looking for a miracle to have my foot healed for years.  I kept reading in the Bible that none of this stuff [miracles] had passed away and was looking and kept searching for my healing -- searching anywhere, including the 700 Club.  For three years, I kept wanting to hear that when they had their words of knowledge that God would have a word for me.  I got a word, but it was not the word I wanted; but it is what I needed: “you are not living for Christ.  You think you are; you are doing all the works, but you are not doing it for Me, you are doing it to be seen and to receive glory from the people around you! You work in a Sunday school, sing in a choir, do much service, but not for Me.  You need to get real!  You need to repent and live for Me!”
         I knew that the word was from God to me from the deepest part of my heart because He answered every single argument before I could disagree with it. So, that night I got real before God on my face and prayed that He would show me how to stop living for myself and my glory and how to live for Him.  That very night I started getting some dreams.  He started showing me where I would be going if I chose to live for Him – it was a place over a convenience store.  The convenience store represented the world and I was above it.  It had people in it from different denominational backgrounds that had come together to serve God and had an energetic young pastor in charge, who was different than any pastor I had met before.  We were invited to go there by my sister and her husband.  I noticed in the dream my parents had left because it did not fit for them (not understanding that later on they would be leaving the church).
         When I woke from the dream, I was told by God that I could tell anyone about the dream except Rick and Lisa for that time.  Over the next several months, I had many dreams showing me things that I would have to give up and be willing to leave. I was given a year to pray and decide if I wanted what I was shown in the first dream (the church) or if I wanted to stay where I was. 
         Over the course of the year, God showed me that if I left the choir at my current church, they could continue without me.  Also that the more I pulled away from activities, the church would want me to do more, and I would become trapped.  As time went by, the façade of the church and that it was not God’s church was shown to me. 
         After a year of these dreams, and after a one month vacation when the choir got along without me, I was told that I could tell Rick and Lisa the dream. Lisa started laughing and turned to Rick and said, “Who does that sound like?” Then they told me about meeting Pastor Craig, and that they had talked him into starting a discipleship class.  They asked me if I would be interested in going. 
         The first night that I was at the discipleship class was the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for Rick’s mother, Betty, which was really intense for someone who does not believe in “that stuff.” I knew I wanted the Baptism of the Holy Spirit the first night even though I was not going to get it then.  Two things happened including that Pastor Craig told Betty to pray in tongues no matter what was going on (no matter if she was having a heart attack or not) and that Jo was told not to tell anyone outside of the group about the fears she was having about what was happening. 
         I got home really late, but I felt like I was supposed to stay up and stay dressed.  About a half hour later, I got a phone call that Betty was having a heart attack and Rick and Lisa needed me to come and watch the kids.  When I got to the house, I remembered that I should have reminded Betty to pray in tongues. There was so much going on that I did not want to get in the way and so I didn’t tell her, but I prayed that Rick and Lisa would remind her.  Eventually, Rick reminded her in the hospital.  The hospital staff then could not find any evidence that she was having or did have a heart attack that night, nor could they find any damage from her previous heart attacks. 
         The next day, Jo disobeyed her instructions not to talk to anyone outside the group about her fears of what was going on, and ended up planting seeds of fear that eventually caused my dad to leave the church. Both instructions had been accurate and from God.  I learned from those examples.  
         That was the beginning of my journey with the church.

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Donna’s Short Story

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         I used to tell everybody, “I fall down the stairs about three times a year or once really badly,” because I was really klutzy.  I wanted to overcome the klutziness and God had brought to mind that the words of my mouth were causing the problem. So one night I was cleaning the church and I was washing the walls and praying about overcoming the klutziness and on a short set of stairs while I was praying over a short five minute period I fell three times. I asked God why I kept falling and He said it was because of what I was saying.  Since then, I’ve hardly ever fallen, whereas it used to happen regularly.

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Trust Issues (Jo)

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         I was having trust issues with Pastor Craig because he was expecting things from me that no other pastor had before.  Pastor Craig expected me to change things in my life and I didn’t want to change anything.  This caused me to be fearful and angry toward him.  I was newly baptized in the Spirit and I was praying in tongues and wasn’t even sure they were real.  But I had been instructed to pray in tongues and that was another thing I was fighting.
         Because of these things, when I was at work, I was feeling angry towards Pastor.  I remembered the Bible said you could pray for your enemies.  That idea struck me as funny, so I grabbed it.  In that moment, it pleased me to think of him as my enemy.  So I started praying in tongues for Pastor.  I prayed in English specifically that he would have a productive day, that he would get a lot of things done and have a blessed day. When I was done praying for him, I looked up toward Heaven and told God, “And you can tell him I prayed for him!” because I was very angry and judging.
         I didn’t think about it for the rest of the day, and when I got home, my answering machine was beeping.  It was Pastor Craig, and the message was, “Hi, this is Pastor Craig.  I wanted to let you know that God told me that you had prayed for me and I wanted to tell you that I had a blessed and productive day.”  I stared at the phone.  I was in shock.  I grabbed the phone and called Pastor Craig back and asked him again what he had said on my answering machine.  I wanted to hear it live.  When he repeated the message, I almost cried and told him what I had prayed for at work.  It was the first real step that helped me believe that Pastor Craig (and believers outside the Bible) could truly hear from God.

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Joy and Andrew

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         Andrew sold a car on the first day of the month.  Joy jokingly said, “There are 31 days in December." Andrew replied that if he sold 31 cars that month he would forgive the significant financial debt she owed him. Joy began praying for Andrew to sell at least 31 cars that month. Previously, in over a year of working there, he had never exceeded 18 car sales in any one month.  He was achieving his goal of an average of one per day until halfway through the month when the sales dried up.  They kept on praying and believing for 31 cars anyway.  Andrew ended up selling 14 cars in the last 7 days of the month.  Not only did he achieve the goal of 31 cars, but he broke the dealership record by selling 33.  Andrew was happy to forgive Joy’s debt as both of them enjoyed the prosperity they had received.  Praise God!

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Annie’s Testimony

         When I first started to ask Pastor Craig for help in my life, it was springtime and my manager had just told me that I could either set up an appointment with someone at our hospital for customer service training or he could write me up for disciplinary action.  How far I had fallen!  I have always been a perfectionist and generally a rule follower.  But I was at a point in my life that I was so drained I had very little to give to other people – a big problem when you’re a nurse in a busy emergency department!  Several patients, over the course of the preceding few months, had filed complaints about me specifically – my lack of caring, my gruffness or how I was just being flat out rude.    I needed help!  Pastor Craig gave me hope.  He listened to me and genuinely cared about me.  Most importantly, he actually had advice about what I needed to do and how I needed to change.  And it worked!  What Pastor said was based on the biblical principles he knows so well. And as for the Bible, God obviously knows what He’s talking about!  Following Pastor Craig’s advice, by fall of that year, instead of disciplinary action, I was being asked to lead a committee in my department at the hospital!  
         I had only been visiting the church occasionally, but over the course of just a few months, I realized that this church’s commitment to God and practical solutions were real.  People grow here!  People follow God here!  I wanted to be a part of it and my visits blossomed into membership and attendance at every service, even though at that point, I was still commuting almost two hours to get to church from my home or work.  By the following spring, I had been promoted to a leadership position at my hospital.  I am very grateful to have purpose in my life and be back to helping people.

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Some of these are praise reports while others are more a testimony to the power of God and a warning to us.

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Albert

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         Albert came to our church, having previously been engaged in various nefarious  activities.  He repented of his ways.  His life turned around.  He got a decent job.  He was getting close to finishing his education and starting to build his own business.  Then his child’s mother visited the church and since she did not want Albert to stop sleeping with her, she insisted that Albert not go to the River of God.  He stopped going and gradually slid back into his old lifestyle.  Pastor Craig called him up.  Albert agreed he needed to repent and promised he would return to church within a year.  The church continued praying for protection for him until that date.  
         The year was up August 31, 2011.  In spite of continued broken promises, he did not show up.  Within a couple hours after August 31st, in the wee hours of the morning, Albert robbed a McDonald's.  Within three days, he was arrested.  He was sentenced to twenty-five to fifty years in prison with earliest possible release being August 31, 2033.

 

 

Christine’s Story

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         Christine was a witch.  She came to the church because of problems with her husband.  The conversation quickly moved to her witchcraft.  She did not initially consider herself to be a witch, but only a person who occasionally practiced magic.  After we discussed in more detail the amount of magic she was practicing, she changed her viewpoint to that she was a “white” witch.  Then I asked her if she had done curses on people. After which, she admitted to being a black witch, specifically a seventh generation black witch.  After a long discussion, she renounced her witchcraft and made Jesus Lord of her life.
         Previously, she had been on the verge of losing her husband, car, job, son, house and other things.  Her entire life was in shambles.  Within three months after making Jesus Lord of her life, she was discussing with her husband going on a second honeymoon, her son was no longer in danger of being arrested but was instead considering going into the ministry, the church had found her an excellent deal on a vehicle and she had been given a second one, she had a great job and the bills were being paid.  Then her husband (who before had been ready to divorce her) became jealous of the influence the church had with her, telling her she could no longer go to this church; she could go to any church except for this one.  She left and went with her husband to a church that was spiritually dead.  Within the next three months, she had lost her husband, one car and her job, house, and son.  
         The last time I spoke with her, I reminded her of what God had given her and what Satan had taken away. She said, “Pastor, I believe what you’re saying is true because you’re telling it to me, but I cannot remember hardly any of that.  Everything you’re talking about is like in a fog for me.” Christine did not repent and she drove away in a cloud of smoke in her last car that was still “running.”