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Healed from Pain –

I’ve been experiencing body aches and pains for some weeks prior to June 27, and had to take pain medication at least 3 times a day. Sunday June 27 at the start of the service, Josh called for those with migraine headaches and also included those with body pains for prayer. That Sunday my shoulders were hurting real bad even after I’d taken some pain medication. As Josh prayed 2 ladies that were close to me laid their hands on me and immediately the pain left. It’s now Thursday and I’ve not taken any pain medication. Glory to God!

-M

Though we don’t attend this church on a regular basis since we live out of state, we still feel a connection since my parents, and my sister, both attend this church. I was able to attend a service for the first time a few weeks ago, and we’re excited to make it a point to visit anytime we’re in town  We just wanted to share this testimony as I know people a part of this church were fighting along side of us with prayer and we appreciate it so much.

A few weeks ago, our one year old daughter, suddenly started crying and moving in a way that showed her stomach was upset. As soon as I picked her up, she turned ghost white, lips purple, and went completely limp in my arms. I immediately called 911. The only other thing I knew to do while holding her was to repeat the name of Jesus and pray in the spirit.

She was rushed to ER and they began running their tests. Blood work, Xray, urine check, and ultrasound. They were able to quickly diagnose what’s called intussusception. Essentially, her small intestine was going inside of the large intestine. A life threatening condition if left untreated in a timely manner. She was immediately life-flighted to Wilmington Children’s hospital. By the time we got to Wilmington, she was showing no symptoms – so they did another ultrasound and it showed that the condition had resolved on it’s own. Praise Jesus. We were filled with relief. 

They wanted to keep us overnight for observation, so we stayed. By morning she was starting to show symptoms again, so they sent her down to ultrasound and saw that the issue had reoccurred. They performed an air enema which has about a 75% success rate without the need for surgery. It immediately fixed the issue. We breathed another sigh of relief.  But a few hours later, she started acting fussy again. Anyone that knows our daughter, knows that she is a happy, content baby so we knew something was off. While the staff tried to tell us that she may just have a virus she’s fighting off, we insisted that they do another ultrasound. Sure enough, her intestines had shown reoccurrence of intussusception. By this point, we started to come undone emotionally. The surgeon gave us 2 options, so we needed Holy Spirit to give us an answer quickly. And He did. 

As much as nobody likes hearing that your baby needs surgery, we knew she was in good hands. They performed emergency surgery to correct the issue. They found 2 large lymph nodes that were causing the issue, and had to take out her appendix as well. The whole procedure took about an hour. She came out of surgery and woke up a completely different baby.  We were hesitant to write this testimony, because during the process, things weren’t going the way WE wanted them to go. But looking back and recounting where God was in all of this, is nothing short of a miracle. So here’s the good part….

A few weeks prior to this, Holy Spirit beckoned me to fast. Had I not been in His word and in prayer as much as I was, I would have handled this entire situation from a totally different head space. The moment her body went limp, instead of acting in fear, I boldly plead the blood of Jesus over her. She went from vomiting profusely, in and out of consciousness, to riding in the back of the ambulance, peacefully.  Jesus was there.

I reached out to my mom and sister and they began to declare that every single doctor, nurse, and tech that worked on her, be filled with supernatural wisdom. They diagnosed the issue promptly and conducted every test flawlessly. Jesus was there.

She was in and out of pain while we were in the ER at Onslow.  I was supposed to be at rehearsal that night, so I reached out to our pastor and told her to gather the worship team and pray. Pastor Mac lead the team in prayer and sent the voice recording to us. He shared Matthew 8:5-13, and Isaiah 53:5. The word is a powerful tool. When Jesus was in the wilderness, He fought the devil off with scripture. We prayed and read scripture out loud. The baby immediately shifted from a place of discomfort to a place of comfort. She fell asleep during the entire ultrasound, so they were able to quickly diagnose the issue a lot faster than if she were to be as restless and she was.  Jesus was there.

She slept the entire flight to Wilmington Children’s Hospital. All of her symptoms were gone by the time we arrived there. They ran another ultrasound and saw that the issue had resolved on it’s own. We were able to rest that night. God knew that’s what she needed. He knew that’s what we all needed. He was there.

In the morning, she started to show symptoms of pain again, so we replayed the prayer that the worship team had sent and played worship music in our room. She again shifted from a place of discomfort to a place of stillness. My husband took her down to ultrasound this time and I stayed back in the room, reading the word out loud and praying in the spirit. I was scared, but Jesus was there. Immediately after the ultrasound, they conducted the air enema, which resolved the issue right away. 

A few hours later, she started to show symptoms of reoccurrence. Again. We were told there was a very slight chance of this happening, so for her to now go through this pain again for the 3rd time, we were starting to come undone emotionally. It felt like a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.  In the book of James, it says to call for the elders of the church to pray over the sick. We needed help fighting this battle. We sent word to the pastors of our church to gather the prayer warriors to not only pray for her, but to pray for the strength for my husband and myself to keep running this race. The surgeon then gave us a few options. We needed Holy Spirit to lead us with an answer quickly. At that moment the surgeon said, “as a dad, do you want my opinion?” I knew that was our answer. Jesus was there.

Our baby isn’t a huge fan of strangers. At that point, she was so over the random doctors and nurses looking at her. But when we got to the operating room, the team that was ready for her, took her and held her like she was their own and said, “don’t worry, we’ve got her.” She didn’t even cry when they took her. Jesus was there.

We waited in the waiting room for about an hour, reading the bible. I remember looking out the window and seeing the birds flying around and Holy Spirit reminding me that He takes care of the sparrows. He loves our baby more than we love our baby, which is unfathomable to think about. How could we not trust Him? Her surgery went flawlessly. She woke up a totally different baby. Other than the fact that she was exhausted, she was content. Jesus was there.

We were sent home a few days later and she ran a low grade fever for about a week. They kept telling us it was probably a virus, unrelated to the surgery. She was getting back to her normal self, so we went to Virginia to visit family and celebrate her first birthday. The night we got there, I had an intense anxiety attack. Even after witnessing miracle after miracle during her whole procedure, the enemy started attacking my mind. I was overwhelmed with PTSD, unable to get the images out of my head of her limp body in my arms and the what if’s of this happening again. I felt horrible for doubting. I probably asked for forgiveness a thousand times when my faith got weak during the ups and downs in the hospital and at home during recovery. I’m Human, but thank God for His grace!!! I cried myself to sleep, but our baby was right next to me, sleeping so peacefully.  Jesus was there. 

The next day, she spiked a fever of 103.6. I was at my sister’s house at the time. As much as my flesh wanted to panic, I was overwhelmed with peace. Even my husband heard it in my voice when I called to tell him. My sister has a gift of healing. She took her and held her while repeating the name of Jesus over and over again. She then read out loud the story in Matthew 8 where Jesus took the fever from Peter’s mother in law. We held her hand and prayed over her. We read that verse out loud, not to remind Jesus of what He’s done and what He’s capable of doing. We read it out loud to remind ourselves, and to declare it over our situation. Our daughter’s fever broke and it never came back. Jesus was there.

It’s been a few weeks now, and the baby is back to her normal, fun loving self, praise Jesus! She’s been going to physical therapy for the past 6 months to work on her core strength and crawling. They wanted to send her to a pediatric neurologist as they were concerned she wasn’t making very good strides with her crawling. We figured she’d probably need time to recover with the incision site in her belly, slightly worried that she may be set back in her accomplishments with physical therapy, but y’all – she started crawling FLAWLESSLY,  literally the day after surgery.  Everyone was amazed by how well she all the sudden started moving around. JESUS WAS THERE.

Though we weren’t understanding why things were happening the way they were happening, especially in the middle of the storm we were going through – God saw the whole entire picture. He knew what He was doing. It’s not our job to understand. It’s our job to trust The One who created her. The one who created us. He loves us so much. He is good and He is faithful. HE IS THERE. 

Thank you, Jesus.

-J

My children have been set on fire by God. They knew the Lord; but during the fast (Feb 1-21, 2021) I was fervently praying for them to experience something more real and deeper with God. I was praying for literal encounters with Jesus. My prayer was that He would show up in big and powerful way in their lives. IT HAPPENED! They have experienced God like never before and Jesus is all they can talk about! God didn’t even wait for the fast to end. He answered this prayer rapidly and with great power. I am overjoyed to see my children with a new passion for Jesus. The ripple effect has already begun as they are now talking to my nephew about what the Lord has done for them and we are seeing God at work in his life, now, too. Do it AGAIN, Lord! Thank you for your wonders that never cease!

D

Part 1: Three weeks ago, coincidental with the FLC fast, I received an email from a very good customer of ours who had not been in touch with us for months. This was related to the impact which the Covid19 lockdowns had had on their business. Subsequent to the conversations which ensued, it developed that they would be moving forward with a larger volume of work in one wave than I can ever recall receiving since we have been in business.

Part 2: A material order related to a portion of the work they were moving on was large by our standards. It occurred to me to invite the supplier to consider any additional discounts which might be available on the purchase. They in fact did offer a discount. But before I tell how the math worked out on the discount, I’ll back up a bit.

I’m regularly awakened by the Holy Spirit in the fourth watch of the night (3:00AM to 6:00AM), often at precise times which have biblical numerical significance, including times which coincide with chapter and verse references in God’s Word, i.e. 3:33AM (Jeremiah 33:3), 3:16AM (do I need to say which verse?), 2:22AM (Daniel 2:22, Acts 2:22) etc.

Last Sunday morning I woke up precisely at 3:33AM. Then, on Monday, I awoke just as the clock turned to 3:16AM. At the usual time that day, I went into the office, where my testimony resumes…  

I was ordering 3700 ft2 of a certain product. The extra discount offered, which I referred to above, was $.90 per square foot. I was delighted to save some money, but even more delighted when I did the math to see what the discount would amount to. 3700 ft2 x $.90 = $3330.00. Three is the number of the Godhead, and I also associate 333 with the aforementioned verse in Jeremiah “Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and unsearchable things which you do not know.”  In Biblical numerology, the addition of one or more zeros does not change the character of a number, but the magnitude. As the message in this “coincidence” sunk in, I felt such gratitude to the Lord that He is with me, and for my brothers and sisters at FLC, who were fasting, in part, for the release of resources for the Lords kingdom.

How great, indeed, is our God!!!

An FLC saint

I’ve been a Christian since I was a kid. I went to Bible college for 4 years but I had never fasted.

For the past month, the Lord kept giving me words like “humble” and “humility” and then “fast”.

I’ve always shied away from fasting due to my ignorance on the matter and also because of my weight. I’m built quite small and have feared it wouldn’t be good for my body to skip meals.

But I couldn’t shake the words.

I do not attend Free Life Church, but my mother, who does, sent me a link to Clayton’s series of teaching on fasting. I listened to the first one last Friday night. I was so encouraged that I woke up and listened to the second one before my feet hit the ground that Saturday morning. And before I knew it, I committed to fasting that day. I didn’t even give myself an opportunity to “think it through”, I just found myself locked in my guest room with my Bible in my lap. I didn’t even tell my husband… I just escaped and trusted him to take care of the needs of the household.

I didn’t have anything specific I wanted to fast and pray for. I honestly just wanted to meet with the Lord and for him to reveal himself to me. So I humbled myself. Emptied myself of all that was me and just waited. It felt silly and empty at first. No real need other than just a deep desire for Him. So I waited. No music. No prayers. Just a whisper of “God, here I am. I humble myself. I just want you.”

And I waited…. and waited some more. Unsure of the time. I grew hungry. “God, this is not fun. I want you. I’m hungry for you. I want to see your heart” I opened up the Bible and read the first 9 chapters of Mark….Because I knew the things Jesus did would be in there. And that’s when He showed up. I’ve read Mark a million times it seems. But never like that. God revealed himself to me in a new way. Answering questions without me even asking them. He shed light on it all.

As I sat there hungry, God began to love on me and “feed” me. He taught me about fasting after the Bridegroom had left. He revealed truths to me that came from His heart. I turned to Psalm 119 and thought I would end my time of fasting by reading it aloud. (Phew that’s a looooong psalm!) I came out of my guest room and saw that it was now 2:00 and I missed lunch. I was only planning on missing breakfast. I decided to go ahead and break my fast at 3 so I listened to Clayton’s third sermon during that time. Funny thing is that God taught me everything that Clayton taught even before I could hear his message. Everything lined up perfectly. It was really, really cool!

I had so much clarity during that time with the Lord. He revealed so much to me and gave me understanding. All I wanted was HIM and HE showed up. I am so thankful for that. Praise Him! He is Holy!!

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share this.

-A

I have been on a spiritual journey for most of my life. Growing up in a culturally Jewish home, I never read the Bible, went to temple or worshiped God in any way, shape or form. I knew that he existed however because no matter what happened in my life, I trusted that all would be well in the end . . . and it was. While I didn’t have an ideal childhood, I felt guided by an inherent knowing . . . not really knowing what that was. 

I have visited temples, churches, studied other faiths and nothing felt quite right. From the very first day my husband and I attended Free Life I felt something move in me…I spent most of that morning worshiping in tears and asked for prayer.  

Today . . . my relationship with [with the Lord] is growing and reading or listening to the Bible has become a part of my joy and curiosity. I cannot think of a better book to immerse myself in. After reading the book of Revelation (yes I started at the end) I am totally convinced that walking in the path of Jesus Christ is the only path for me. 

I was recently affected by the chickenpox virus. According to doctors healing could take about 10-15 days. I prayed and asked God to please have a speedy supernatural recovery so I could go back to work as soon as possible. After only 2 days God healed my body.

Thanks, praise and glory to our mighty God!!

-M

I had an infection and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic. After a few days, the symptoms hadn’t really changed. I wondered if the dose was strong enough, or if the medicine itself was strong enough. The symptoms made me very uncomfortable and took me away from important things that I needed and wanted to do.

A leader prayed for me and the symptoms started to get worse – worse than they had been before. After about an hour, they almost completely disappeared and stayed that way. My only conclusion was that the prayer had activated the medicine and kicked into high gear.

A few days later, the doctor called to tell me that the infection involved a bacteria that was resistant to the antibiotic they prescribed for me, which meant that the antibiotic would not work. It hit me that prayer did not activate the medicine, prayer was responsible for 100% of the healing.

I got to tell the nurse that it was OK, because the symptoms were gone anyway. God is good!!

During this past Sunday’s baby dedication I service, I wondered if I was dedicated as a baby as my now deceased parents didn’t tell me – I’m now a grandma, long time in wondering about it. Well, I said it would be no harm ‘dedicating myself’ alongside the babies being dedicated. I especially connected with Eden’s mom who said that all the lies she’d believed left because of Eden, or something like that. I said, whatever it is in my life that needs to leave should leave as well. I prayed alongside Josh as he prayed for the individual families, and immediately after the service I went into my closet, knelt down, anointed myself with oil and prayed a blessing over my life. Later that day I called our oldest sister and asked her if we were dedicated as babies and she said no, and I told her what I’d done.

It is difficult to explain what has happened to me, but is like God has put in me order, not that I was disorganized, I’m very regimented, though at times it would be stressful, but God has just supernaturally transformed me. Like I say, it’s difficult to explain it, but it feels good!!

-M.