Contemporary Testimonies of Answered Prayer
There exist many written and oral reports of answered prayer. Although the majority of them are accepted at face value by individuals who believe in the miraculous, there have been instances when a miracle was claimed but later proved to be fraudulent or false. The cause of Christ is hindered rather than helped when people try to authenticate the message or the messenger by fraudulent means.
The following answers to prayer are more than coincidences. So they require authentication. At the time of this writing, the participant in each of the miraculous answers to prayer is living. Four of the six testimonials are by members of the Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God and long-time leaders in the Movement. The other three have been verified by R. L. Brandt, coauthor of this book and also a member of the Executive Presbytery. The testimonies are shared not to bring recognition to the individuals whose prayers were answered but to give glory to God as He authenticates His word with signs following.
The following situation of nature’s yielding for the proclamation of the gospel happened in the ministry of Paul E. Lowenberg, executive presbyter. (Note that the initiative for the prayer was not with Lowenberg.) The story is told in his words.
We had pitched our evangelistic tent in an area totally unfamiliar to us. It was, as we soon found out, a very wicked and godless community. God and the church were absent from the thoughts of the residents; there was not a church within miles. We had felt strongly impressed to move our tent into this rural area, probably because the need to hear about Jesus Christ was so great.
From the very first service we felt a strong sense of God’s presence. The crowds were surprisingly large. Response to the gospel message was amazing. Night after night people came to acknowledge Christ as Savior and Lord. We had planned on a week’s meeting, but God had other plans.
About the second week of the meeting, it began to rain. The rain fell continuously for several days, until the entire countryside was water-soaked. We thought at times that the meetings must end, but we persisted and kept them going.
On a Thursday night, in spite of the rain, thunder, and lightning, the tent was full of people. I knew it was impossible to carry on the service under these conditions. A strong wind swayed the tent. The rain poured through its many holes. Thunder and lightning added to the consternation. In my mind I wondered what I should do. I felt God was speaking to me, Ask me to stop the wind and rain.
I raised my voice (there was no sound system) and told the people what I was going to do. They were incredulous; they could not believe we would do something so outlandish and irrational.
Speaking so all could hear me pray, I told God that if I could not preach the Word to these people because of the storm, they would die and go to hell. I remember saying, “If Calvary means more to You than wind or rain, if these people being saved from hell means more to You than this storm, in Jesus’ name stop the wind and the rain.”
I had hardly said amen when the wind stopped blowing and the rain stopped falling.
The effect on the audience was electrifying. They sat stunned. In that moment Matthew 24:27 flashed across my mind: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
The interesting part of the miracle was that I had not thought to ask God to stop the thunder and lighting. So against the backdrop of brilliant electric flashes and the cannonade of thunder, I spoke on the second coming of Christ. When the invitation was given, the audience moved forward to seek God at the altar.
Out of this answer to a simple prayer came a revival that swept across the entire community, resulting in more than a four-month stay and a strong church built and dedicated debt-free, a testimony to the faithfulness of God.
The following provision of land for the Lord’s work is told by Glen D. Cole, executive presbyter and pastor of Capital Christian Center, Sacramento, California:
After being in Sacramento a short time, it became apparent that the location of Capital Christian Center would not accommodate the growth that God was going to grant. We needed more than the thirteen acres currently available [1978]. We began to pray that God would supply a miracle of property.
In 1979, a Christian businessman was in my office discussing the possible relocation of the church. He had a piece of property on a major freeway that might possibly be available. He asked, “Do you think this is the best piece of land that we can get to build your church on? Are you satisfied that this site is God’s best for your church?”
To my amazement, I heard myself say, “Yes, I think it is. And I think you should make it a gift to the church because we need a miracle!”
My remark probably stunned this Christian businessman, for he stood up and prepared to leave before I could ask permission to pray with him. On his way out of my office, he said, “I’ll call you.”
Sure enough, at 10:30 the next morning my phone rang. This Christian developer was on the line. He simply announced, “It’s yours.” A sixty-three-acre piece of prime land became a miracle gift to Capital Christian Center. It was indeed an answer to prayer!
In 1981 construction began on that piece of property, which today houses two hundred thousand square feet of buildings, plus a complete outdoor athletic facility for the Christian school and church sports programs. Capital Christian Center grew from approximately a thousand in 1979 to six thousand in 1990.
The miracle catapulted the church into an era of faith and expectancy. It was the catalyst that inspired the congregation to believe God for other miracles and answers to prayer. And the miracle goes on day after day.
The tithe on all building monies given during the construction of the facilities was given to missions. Many others around the world have had answers to prayer because of the thousands of dollars that resulted from the original miracle. Christian ministries and missionaries have been blessed, thousands have been saved, and the answer goes on!
The following is an answer to prayer offered spontaneously for and coincident with the need of G. Raymond Carson, general superintendent and chairman of the Executive Presbytery, when he was a student:
God has graciously answered many scores of my prayers. He has given wonderful healings, wrought miracles, provided material needs, saved relatives, and has been Jehovah-Jireh [the Lord will provide] over and over again.
I wish to relate a simple but very profound answer to prayer that deeply affected my young life and continues to inspire me to this day. During my Bible school days there were several of us young men rooming on the second floor of a large house. My room was directly at the head of the stairs and was the only one without a working latch.
All of us had been out for thirty minutes one evening. Upon returning, the fellows came dashing out of their rooms with a common question: “What happened in your room?” A burglar had gotten into the house and stolen various items from every room except mine. Mine was the most accessible, yet nothing in it had been touched.
About three days were required for mail to reach me from my parents several hundred miles away. Three days after the rooms had been burglarized, a letter came from my mother in which she asked if anything had happened to my things. She went on to relate how on that very night God had burdened her to pray for my possessions. The burden came at 8 P.M. and lifted at 8:30 P.M., the exact time that were away from our rooms. God had intervened on my behalf as my godly mother responded to the urging of the Holy Spirit to pray.
Thank God, He answers prayer. And may we act when He impresses us to pray.
The following provision for an overwhelming financial need is told by Ronald F. McManus, pastor of First Assembly of God, Winston-Salem, North Carolina:
During our building program around 1985, we were extremely tight financially. While we were involved in an extensive fundraising campaign, some property adjacent to us became available. Property was at a premium, and we had to buy when it became available because we might not have the opportunity again.
I had been negotiating with the owners. The price of the property was $110,000. Unfortunately, we did not have any money to apply toward the purchase, nor could we borrow against the new property because we already had a substantial loan from the bank and were raising funds monthly to cover additional building costs.
Going to the congregation on a Sunday morning, I simply expressed the need. I explained that the property was available and that we had thirty days to close on it. Otherwise, someone else was going to buy it. It was property we had to have for future growth. I asked the congregation to take an offering envelope and indicate what they believed God would help them do within the next thirty days to deal with the situation.
On Monday, when the offering and the pledges were counted, $60,000 had been given or pledged. We were $50,000 short. And I knew our people had done all they were able to do. I remember praying on that Monday morning, “Lord, I don’t know what else to do or where to turn, but I am trusting You to provide a miracle.”
At about five in the evening, the same day, a secretary indicated that the pastor of the home mission work we had begun a couple of years earlier was in the lobby asking to see me for a few minutes. He walked into my office with a briefcase in his hand and said, “Pastor, I have come today because a member of your congregation came to my office a couple of hours ago with this briefcase. He indicated that whatever you needed beyond the offering and commitments yesterday would be in the briefcase.”
The home mission pastor had been given a key to the briefcase but had not looked in it. We set the briefcase on my desk, unlocked it, and counted $50,000 in cash! We had a camp meeting that afternoon as we witnessed God’s miracle of provision.
The following is an answer to prayer offered spontaneously for and coincident with the need of Paul E. Lowenberg, now an executive presbyter, early in his ministry:
In January of 1951 I had gone to Japan to assist a friend from England who had a burden to start a church in Osaka, a city in ruin. World War II had left it shattered. American bombing had leveled the city. Mile after mile of factories were nothing more than grotesque scenes of twisted steel and silent emptiness.
For several months bombed-out areas had served as sites for evangelistic open-air services. At one location, three or four services were conducted daily, drawing large crowds. Finally, we purchased two army barracks from the U.S. government, moved them to a well-located bombed-out area, and established a permanent church.
My visa was to expire in early May, so I began planning for my return to Shreveport, Louisiana, where my wife and twenty-month-old daughter lived. My plane ticket had been purchased earlier, and I was eager to get home, to be with my family, and to resume my responsibilities at our church.
However, my excitement about going home was somewhat dampened by an inner feeling that all was not well concerning my flight. The closer the day of my departure, the more disturbed I became. After much prayer, restlessness, and uneasiness, I concluded I could not fly on the airline whose ticket I held.
Consulting with the airport authorities, I was informed I could either fly as planned or be delayed for approximately thirty days; there were absolutely no seats available on any airline flying out of Japan. I was faced with a stubborn dilemma. Should I take a chance and fly as planned, in spite of the disturbed feelings within, or should I wait thirty days for the first available flight? I was so sure I was hearing the voice of God, I decided to wait. Although I was deeply disappointed, I felt a deep inner peace about making the decision.
Nevertheless, because of other transportation problems, I had to remain at Haneda Airport in Tokyo for several additional hours. All at once I heard a voice calling my name above the din of a busy and bustling airport. “Lowenberg, Sensi, report to Pan American ticket counter immediately.” I rushed to the ticket counter and to my utter astonishment was informed a seat had been located for me on a Pan American flight later that evening. I was excited and thrilled. In a few hours I was winging my way across the blue Pacific.
While changing planes in San Francisco, I was jolted by a newspaper headline: “Tokyo to Anchorage Airliner Crashes in Aleutian Islands.” That was my original flight! Anchorage was an intermediate refueling stop. The Holy Spirit had guided unerringly. My life and ministry had been preserved by the intervention of the Spirit.
But that was only part of the story. In a home in a small town of Western Canada, about the time I was to return to the United States, my father became very restless and disturbed about my flight home. Rising at 3 A.M., he informed my mother of his deep concern for me, and that he would give himself to prayer and intercession.
My father was a comparatively short man; but when he got on his knees, he could reach all the way to heaven. He gave himself to intense prayer “in the Spirit,” appealing for heaven’s help whatever the problem was. Though lacking in education, and seventy-five years old, he moved the hand of God all the way from heaven to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, moved his son from one plane to another—though there were no seats available for thirty days—and brought him home safely to his family and his work. To God be the glory!
The following is an account of God’s care in the midst of trial, as told by Mel Erickson, missionary to native Americans in North Dakota:
In 1989 our foster daughter ran away from home four times. When she was picked up by the police on the last occasion, she pleaded child abuse. She was kept from our home, and we were treated like criminals. We were prohibited from contacting her in the shelter where she was staying.
During the fall months we endured numerous hearings and meetings at which we were examined and cross-examined concerning our foster daughter’s unruly behavior. The authorities refused to consult with our other children, the school, or our church, choosing rather to believe her story. So we had to engage a lawyer to assist us with the proceedings.
We wondered how we could ever pay for the attorney’s services; we were home missions workers laboring among native Americans, and our income was minimal. We were required to pay $2,500 up front, which we had to borrow. The balance had to be paid not long after that, and we had no idea where the funds would be found. We prayed earnestly for the Lord’s help.
Finally, it was Saturday—two days until the due date to pay back the $2,500 loan plus another $2,500 to the attorney. We prayed earnestly that the Lord would meet our urgent need. A couple called, inviting us to dinner at a restaurant. As we were finishing our meal, they related to us that five months earlier they had been strongly impressed to give us a certain amount of money, but had put off doing so. They discussed the matter again a couple of months later, but again delayed doing anything. Then they told how the husband, on the day we had prayed so earnestly, had gone out to do chores. Upon returning to the house, his wife had asked if he still felt they should give the specific amount of money they had previously talked about. When he responded, “Yes,” she said, “If we are to do it, we must do it today.”
They handed us a check for the exact amount of money needed. The checks were written on Saturday, and the money was delivered on Monday, the due date. We praise God for His faithful answer to our prayer.
The following is told by Herman Rattai, layman of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, Manitoba, British Columbia, who experienced deliverance from danger in the wild as a result of prayer:
I was in Churchill, Manitoba, during the summer of 1977, managing some construction projects. During the long evenings I would seek out the solitude of a lonely beach.
On one occasion, I decided to drive out of town some ten miles and go for a walk along a particularly isolated section of the shoreline. Removing all but my trousers, I made my way slowly, picking up beautiful shells and fossil-ridden limestone, placing my finds in small piles to be retrieved on my way back.
At about the one-mile point, I encountered a rock protrusion that halted my progress. So I rolled up my trouser legs and waded out to a large rock; I sat for a time watching ships passing by with their cargoes of grain from the nearby port. For fifteen minutes I viewed with serene pleasure the placid ocean contrasted with the rugged terrain.
I turned to go ashore, intending to climb to a higher point and resume watching the ships coming and going. To my astonishment, I spotted three polar bears on a ledge just above me, only about twenty-five feet away. I knew at once that I was in serious trouble because the bears were moving toward me. One was a large sow, a mother bear, and at her side were two cubs. Although other species of bear will kill a human only when provoked or threatened, the polar bear is know as a man hunter, even when unprovoked. Natives have an incredible fear of polar bears, for they all know of someone who, while walking though the wild, was tracked down and devoured.
Automatically I shouted, “Stop!” At the same time my brain raced, trying to think of all possible options for escape. I might take off and run for dear life, but the bears would easily outrun me. I thought of plunging into the ocean to swim away, but the water was very cold and the bears could easily outswim me. My third thought was to throw a rock at the bears and try to defend myself, but I knew that would be pure folly.
My only remaining option was to pray, and that I did—earnestly. “Lord, I am prepared to die at any time [and I really meant it], but I’m not wanting to die at the hand of a wild beast.” So I talked to the bears. Every time they began moving toward me, I shouted, “Stop!” And they did … momentarily. I looked the sow in the eye and said, “Don’t you dare come down here because someone is going to get hurt!” I didn’t want to let her know which of us I thought that would be.
I had to walk a few steps toward the bears to get to shore. I proceeded to tell the sow of my predicament. “I have to come toward you to get on shore.” As I spoke, I moved slowly toward the shore.
Once ashore, I began walking backwards, all the while talking to the bears. Whenever the sow moved, I shouted, “Stop!” Finally, when I had covered about half the distance to my vehicle, I turned and ran with all my might. One hundred yards from my car, I turned and saw that they were not following. Arriving at the car, exhausted beyond description, my heart feeling like it would explode, I thanked God for an absolute miracle.
Back in Churchill, when I related my experience to a local transportation agent, he said, “That was a miracle for sure. No one with a polar bear that close ever walks away.”