Fascinating Miracles in the life of a Country Preacher
A Faith Inspiring ChronicleBy Jack O. GilesAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 Jack O. Giles
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4389-9559-5Contents
Dedication.................................................................vAcknowledgements...........................................................viiPreface....................................................................ixIntroduction...............................................................1Sowing a House into the Kingdom of God.....................................2Receiving Supernaturally the Gift to Preach................................5Lost Bible Appears out of No Where.........................................7Dog Gone...................................................................8Authority over Rattlesnakes................................................9Miracle Reinstates Insurance Coverage......................................10Dog Attack Foiled..........................................................12God Cancels a Hospital Bill................................................13Prayer Vanquishes Rain Clouds..............................................15A Prayer Is Answered Before It Is Voiced...................................16Tractor Accident Culminates in a Miracle...................................18An Absolute Miracle of Healing.............................................19Testimony by Joe Giles.....................................................21Retired Teacher's Testimony................................................23Nan's Healing..............................................................24Author Healed of Incurable Disease.........................................27A Little Boy and a Baseball................................................30Happenstance: A Name for the Unexplainable.................................32Docile Dog Rescues Couple..................................................33Existence of Church Validated by Prophecy..................................35Believers' Authority has no Limits.........................................37Two Miracles in One Day....................................................38My Critic Is Corrected by God..............................................39Unusual Miracle at the Camp Meeting........................................41The X Factor in Lois's Healing.............................................43Graduate Degree Rescued by a Miracle.......................................45Graduate School Expenses met by a Miracle..................................47Ankle was broken in two Places.............................................48Gospel Singer Healed.......................................................50Migraine Misery Ended......................................................51Life Long Ear Infection....................................................52Patient Healed of Staph Infection..........................................53Pastor's Daughter Healed...................................................54A Baby is Healed Instantly.................................................56Dyslexic Child Healed......................................................57Leg Brace Discarded........................................................58Miracle Healing for Diane..................................................59Church Pianist Healed......................................................60Pain Vanquished by Command.................................................61Problem in Hand Healed.....................................................62Marvelous Healing of a Broken Body.........................................63Saved from Disaster by the Seat of my Breeches.............................65Worker Incredibly Protected When Falling off the Roof......................66A Creative Response to a Church Conflict...................................68Children's Dog Becomes Their Rescuer.......................................70Virginia's Unexpected Miracle..............................................71An Angel on Assignment.....................................................74The Love of God Demonstrated by a Great Miracle............................75Burning Car Saved by Grace.................................................78An Unheralded Method of Killing Bugs.......................................80A Cigar Smoking Lady.......................................................81Tragic Fire Averted........................................................82Assisted by an Angel.......................................................83God and Ann's Automobile...................................................85Prayer and Linda's Washing Machine.........................................87God Repairs a Volkswagen...................................................88Hydroplaning is Not Cool...................................................90A Divine Appointment for a Gideon..........................................91The Miraculous Building of Macedonia Baptist Sanctuary.....................93Misty's Miracles...........................................................96Happenstance or Providence.................................................98A Miracle in the Surgery Room..............................................99A Medical Mistake or Divine Intervention...................................100Unique Church Real Estate..................................................102Darnell's Epiphany.........................................................104Angie's Despair is Vanquished..............................................106Otha's Miracle.............................................................107Providential Care..........................................................108Drunken Driver Slams Playground............................................109An Angel Rode with Joy.....................................................110Toyota Demolished..........................................................111Joe Giles Remembers a Twister..............................................112Teen Age Driver Delivered from Folly.......................................114Miracle on a Hunting Trip..................................................116Divine Protection for Joe's Family.........................................118Epilogue...................................................................120
Chapter One
Sowing a House into the Kingdom of God
The term "to sow" normally refers to the planting of a physical seed. The expression may be used literally or as a figure of speech. It is, therefore, possible to sow all kinds of things. One may sow a word or a deed as a seed. The spiritual reality is that words and deeds are seeds that having been sown are pregnant with possibility.
My wife Joy and I had the privilege to plant a seed that produced incredible results. The seed was our house, the place that we called home.
Our church had birthed a Christian school which was conducted the first year in a large old house behind the church sanctuary. The next year, the Church's educational facility was utilized to accommodate the growing school. It became obvious that a separate building for the school was a pressing need.
Everyone in the school family was praying for someone to make a significant gift for the needed structure. Joy and I owned a nice house that would be debt free in two years. We also possessed an acre of land in the country. A nice 12 by 56 foot mobile home adorned what we had dubbed "God's little acre." It was our place for rest and relaxation. We thought that we would live for the rest of our lives in our house in the city.
God had a really big surprise in store for us. It was a hot Monday in early June when God revealed to us His plan. I was cutting the grass on the country acre when I heard a gentle, yet firm command. "Sell your house and give the money toward the erection of a school building" was the clear message. I just kept right on cutting the grass, not knowing what to do with the words that I had been given. I had been praying for someone to make a significant contribution, never considering that such a mandate might be given to us.
Soon, I went inside to rest and get a cool drink of water. It was then that Joy shared something that would change our lives forever. "God has been speaking to me for the last hour! Do you want to hear what He has been saying," she intoned. How could the answer be anything except yes?
"Well," she said, "God has been saying that we need to sell the house and give the money to the school." All I could do was to weep. I actually wept for most of the next two weeks. What an incredible experience this was.
The Saturday before this surprise, God had reminded me of an awesome quotation that I had read years before. This indelible quote was on my mind all that day, for I thought it would be a part of my Sunday message. As it turned out, the quote didn't fit and I could not use it. In the middle of the night on Monday, I was to learn why God provoked my mind with the quotation.
About one in the morning, I was summonsed to a local hospital to pray for a troubled man. When I finally got to bed again, all I could hear was an accusation: "You are a fool. You are fifty nine years of age and you will never have another house. You are a fool."
All of a sudden the saying from Saturday came back clearly and distinctly: it was this: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose." I thought, "Wow!" God had simply reminded me of the quotation before I needed it. I promptly went to sleep.
We put a sign in our yard reading, "For Sale" by owner. The very next day after putting the sign outside, a real estate agent stopped by to ask if she could sell the house for us. We responded that we did not want to pay to sell the house since the money received was being donated to the school, King's Academy. The agent declared that she already had a buyer and that she would pay our asking price. The lady was true to her word on both accounts.
People have said, "You must have had a lot of faith to do such a thing." The answer is no. It was a matter of simply being obedient to God and knowing that our future was in His hands, even though we had no savings. All our extra money had been applied to the loan principal for the house.
At our age we did not know if we would ever have another house. One of the grandchildren asked, "Mamaw, where will we have our family Christmas this year?" We had always met at our home to have a sharing time. The fact that our entire family could not gather in the midget mobile home that we would move into was obvious. We moved from a 2350 square footage home to a 600 square footage Trailer. Other plans would have to be made for Christmas this year.
Almost all our possessions quickly became disposable. We settled down in our tiny space to serve our Lord and to allow Him to order our steps. We were and still are surrounded by many, wonderful, caring and praying people.
The reader is admonished to remember that we had absolutely no money to invest in another house. In spite of this dire position, four and one-half years later we had a fabulous new home that was paid for, except for the heating and cooling system. We were able to pay this cost in six months to a gracious creditor who granted us this time frame.
The building of this house was a labor of love that involved many people and many miracles. Joy and I are indebted to a large number of beautiful people who sowed time, labor, and money into our lives so generously. We gave a house with no thought of what the result would be for us.
The school building was built and hundreds of children were blessed. Our new house is valued about four times more that the one we liquidated and gave to God. It is really true that you can not out give God. The reader is encouraged to understand that obedience to God releases favor from Heaven.
Receiving Supernaturally the Gift to Preach
At a Billy Graham Crusade in Atlanta, Georgia, I received, by Sovereign grace, a gift to preach. The year was 1973. The events that took place, resulting in my attendance at the Crusade were highly unusual and unexpected.
My need for a miracle in pulpit communication skill was nothing short of glaring. From childhood, I had been painfully shy in all interpersonal relationships. To the lectern I would carry a dozen or so pages of notes, grab each side of it, and hold on for dear life, and never look up until the sermon was over. To suggest that this behavior indicated an inadequacy would be a huge understatement.
God's plan to solve my large problem borders on the bizarre. Some months before the Crusade, I and a neighboring pastor shared a funeral responsibility together. I rode with him from the funeral home to the place where the body was to be interred. We were actually not friends, but merely acquaintances.
I knew almost nothing about this clergyman and vice versa. Enroute to the cemetery, he said to me, "Pastor, are you going to the Graham School of Evangelism in Atlanta?"
"No," I responded, "I threw away my application."
"Well, you need to go," he continued by saying, "I will take my invitation to town and get it copied for you." The next day I answered a knock on the door and discovered my new friend with his hand outstretched. "Here," he said, "complete this application and put it in the mail today."
When Dr. Graham conducted a crusade in a large city, there would always be a pastor's school made available for several hundred pastors. The Evangelistic Association sent invitations to all pastors within a radius of several hundred miles. The Graham organization was profoundly generous and benevolent. A large number of scholarships were always available for pastors who could not otherwise attend.
Pastors in attendance had the awesome privilege to attend seminars each morning and afternoon during Graham's campaigns. Pastors traveled together to the night meetings. Leading pastors across America were brought in to teach in the seminars. A large number of different classes were available from which to choose in both morning and evening sessions. All the speakers offered vital input into the lives of those present.
God had a divine appointment for me that week. The Rev. John Bisango, a noted evangelistic preacher from Houston, Texas, was to be God's catalyst to change my life forever. In his message, Bisango stressed the importance of one's voice, eye contact, and gestures in effectively delivering a sermon. At this point he made a comparison between himself and Sandy Kofax.
Kofax was perhaps the world's greatest left-handed pitcher. At that precise moment, Sandy was at the height of his career. "Both Sandy Kofax and I can throw a baseball from the mound to home plate," the speaker noted. "However," he continued, "the comparison ends there because Kofax has a delivery and I do not."
The impact of his words hit me like a ton of bricks! In my heart, I said, "Oh, my Lord, I certainly do not have a delivery." The next moment became the defining point for the rest of my life. Deep down in my heart I heard God like never before.
"From this moment on," the voice echoed, "you will never have to use notes."
Though not accustomed to hearing God in this manner, I knew that it was He. Instinctively I cried out, "I receive that, Lord!" A strange story, yes, indeed it is. Was it wonderful? Absolutely! I was radically and permanently changed.
Lost Bible Appears out of No Where
I was awed, amazed and excited all at the same time. The manner in which the lost Bible materialized defies understanding. The search that I had conducted for the missing Bible had been diligent and extensive. For some reason though, I had never prayed about the issue.
This cherished copy of God's Word was a wonderful and appreciated gift. I had supposed that I had merely misplaced it, and it was no big deal. After two weeks of relentless looking, however, I began to think that my Bible was gone forever.
A new Bible always takes time to "break in," so I limited its use to reading in the office. I did not remember taking it to church or any other place. I was mystified by its disappearance. Then came the miracle!
In those days I had a radio program every Sunday morning. The sermon was always taped on Saturday and carried to the station for its airing. That particular Saturday morning, I was grieving over my lost Bible. Then I prayed a simple prayer, "Lord, it sure is bad when some one receives such a nice gift only to lose it. Would you please bring it back to me?"
As I set up the recorder and proceeded to tape the week's message, I obviously used my old Bible. When the taping was finished, I placed the Bible that I was using right in the center of my desk. I then went to the church office and labeled the tape.
The incredible incident happened while our church building was being constructed. A spare room in the front of our home was used for our church office.
My trip to the front office and back took about ninety seconds. Walking back into my study I was astonished at what I saw. On my desk lay the missing Bible, right next to the old one. God had answered the simple prayer of a longing heart.
I am convinced that my Bible was transported by an angel. Later I whispered another prayer about the wondrous experience. "Why, Lord, did you do this for me?" What I heard was simple: "Just because I love you," said the quiet voice.
Dog Gone
It has been said that a dog is man's best friend. Quite obviously there are exceptions to all such truisms. My friend Jay would certainly agree with this. Here is the reason for his opinion.
"Brother Jay, did you get my letter today?" I asked. He and his wife had not been well, and I had gone to check on them.
With a bit of frustration, he replied, "No. A stray dog destroyed all our mail today. I don't know how he got it out of the mail box, but it all got chewed up."
"Why do you ask, pastor?" Estelle, his wife, wanted to know.
After explaining to them the reason why I had sent every church member a letter, I requested, "Tell me about the dog."
"He just showed up a few days ago," they shared, "and he's a real nuisance. First, he gets our paper out of the box every day and ruins it. Now he's started getting our mail. Preacher, that dog's got a devil in him and you need to cast it out," Jay firmly declared.
We all had a good laugh over that remark. Jay brought in coffee and Estelle proceeded to serve the best lemon ice box pie in the USA. After a wonderful and encouraging visit, we shared a prayer time and my wife and I prepared to leave.
Jay was walking us to the car when the action happened. "There's that dog now," Jay exclaimed. I looked around and there stood, not six feet away, a brown mutt about knee high looking right at me.
I took a step toward him and said, "I command you, foul spirit, come out of that dog in Jesus' name."
The challenged canine turned a flip backward and departed to parts unknown. That was several months ago, and the demented pooch has not been seen since. Authority is a powerful weapon that has been given to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Authority over Rattlesnakes
"Almost every time we walk in the yard, a Rattlesnake is encountered," the couple shared with exasperation. When this condition, exists it is no small problem. It is almost impossible to overestimate the danger of such a situation.
Jay and Estelle lived in a beautiful house in rural Newton County, Mississippi. They always have an attractive yard and a fine vegetable garden. Numerous fruit trees enhance their comfortable dwelling place.
The tranquility of this charming home was severely threatened by the frequent sightings of these dangerous reptiles. Some ten years ago they shared with me their urgent concern. They asked if I would come and pray over their property.
As I considered their request, I remembered that God gave to man dominion over all created beings (Genesis 1:26). This truth is reinforced in Luke 10:19. Emboldened by this truth the serpents were challenged.
We walked around their yard and took authority over the venomous beings. We commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus Christ and not to return. Not one snake has been seen on their property since that time.
It should be recognized that "authority" means the right to exercise power. This is a choice that must be deliberately made. Many enemies of the believer can be vanquished by boldly exercising this option.
Miracle Reinstates Insurance Coverage
Should we really pray about cancelled insurance? Absolutely! We did and God gave to us a magnificent answer. What He did for us is an unheard of miracle.
At the time of this experience, our church sponsored a K-12 grade school. Six accident claims were filed by parents in the span of a few months. Five of these claims were actually very small and should never have been filed. Consequently, the church received a notice of cancellation at the policy's anniversary.
When a client has coverage cancelled in such situations, it is nearly impossible to find a new under-writer. The cost of coverage becomes nearly cost prohibitive. Only two companies were willing to quote on our facilities, and their proposals were unacceptable.
Time was running out on our existing coverage, and no one seemed to have an answer to our dilemma. I was praying about the matter one day, and it was as though a light suddenly came on. I knew the answer to our difficulty.
I was convinced that I should appeal directly to the person who cancelled the coverage. I had the person's letter and obviously his name, but the letter had neither a telephone number nor an address.
It was glaringly obvious that he did not want to hear from me. I prayed some more and felt directed to talk with one of their local agents. When the local representative saw my desperation, he was moved to share a telephone number with me.
I proceeded to call the person who wrote the ill-fated letter to me, but the secretary would not connect me with the writer of the literary guillotine. I gently cajoled and haggled, but the lady was adamant in her refusal. Ultimately, I was allowed to talk with the boss's number one assistant.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Fascinating Miracles in the life of a Country Preacherby Jack O. Giles Copyright © 2009 by Jack O. Giles . Excerpted by permission.
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