When G-d Spoke

So I've mentioned before how back in August of 2006, the pastor of the church we visit, Dr. Becton, was involved in a miracle.  While he was unconscious from anesthesia for a routine surgery, he starting talking and the doctors quickly realized that it was the Holy Spirit speaking through him.

Well, my wife and I watched the video of the service in which those doctors came and testified about what happened.  Powerful stuff.

The first woman to speak was the anesthesiologist Gail Heppner.  She said her first reaction when Becton started talking was "Oh, no, I didn't do my job!  I didn't give him enough sedative!" So she upped the dosage and still Becton kept right on speaking clearly and articulately.

The room became quiet.  There were no interruptions.  A phone that typically rang off the hook, didn't ring once.  The doctors, Heppner and Sundin, and the nurse, Miller, were unable to speak.

And then, as Heppner listened to what Becton was saying, she realized that it was the Holy Spirit addressing a prayer request she'd made the previous week.

The week prior, her coworker Miller had come to work upset.  She was usually upbeat and cheerful but she finally came clean about her grief over the loss of her husband and daughter.  Heppner listened as Miller confided that she felt "empty, used up...and I feel guilty that I don't have anything left to give G-d."

As Becton lay unconscious, he said, "I know there are people in the room in pain.  They feel empty, used up, and guilty because they feel they have nothing left to give G-d....Carol, let me have it, all your pain, just give it up."

Later in the service, Carol Miller got up and told her perspective of the event, how she was initially skeptical, thinking "How did he know about that?"  But the presence of the Holy Spirit filled the room and she did what the Spirit said--she gave up all the pain.

The last to speak was Dr. Sundin.  He explained how, before the surgery, he had been praying for relief for feeling burnt out.  It was the day before Becton's surgery, and Sundin was staring at the pile of papers on his desk.  He felt completely broken as a young surgeon trying to make a successful practice. He knew he needed to seek G-d.

And so in the operatory, Becton started speaking again, "Dr. Sundin, you were delivered to me specifically to be my surgeon. And God has great plans for you and your life. And he has given you many gifts. They are His gifts, and He wants to use them through you, for Him. He has chosen you specifically to be His servant. ... God hears your prayers. He is near."

Sundin, also talked about how Becton quoted a verse that was especially meaningful to Sundin in particular.  Then, when Sundin was convinced that the Holy Spirit was somehow speaking through Becton, Becton outlined several major points:

(1) G-d hears your prayers;

(2) G-d has a purpose for your life;

(3) Satan is a liar.  He will try to make you think that G-d doesn't listen and that you don't have a purpose.  Don't believe him.

So that was pretty much it.  Then later that day I was listening to a British man talk about the Gospel narrative.  He explained how immediately after Yeshua was baptized and the voice of His Father spoke from heaven, "This is my beloved Son.  With you I am very pleased!"--how right after that, Satan came to Yeshua and tried to plant seeds of doubt in Yeshua's mind:

"If you're really the Son of G-d..."

And, after Yeshua successfully resisted Satan, it said ominously that Satan left Him...for a while.

So then I thought that maybe G-d was confirming somehow the things that Becton had said in the operating room.  Up until then I had been extremely skeptical.  Plus I prayed something this morning, thinking all the while how G-d was listening to me (not that I believed He would grant what I was asking, just that I believed He was listening).  And the prayer request was granted in the most amusing way possible.  I can't give details about that, sorry.

No request is too small either.  My precious wife asks the most endearing things.  As a mother, she is often in a hurry and has trouble locating something.  She'll pray "Father please help me to find such and such" and then, usually in a matter of moments, I hear her say something like "Oh, thank you L-rd!"

I think G-d is especially compassionate toward mothers.  Yeshua had a mother after all!  : )

Well, I hope you'll all think about those three points:

(1) G-d hears your prayers;

(2) G-d has a purpose for your life;

(3) Satan is a liar.  He will try to make you think that G-d doesn't listen and that you don't have a purpose.  Don't believe him. 

Shalom,

Peter