IS THERE EVIDENCE FOR THE MIRACULOUS?

A TRAIL OF WITNESSES

By Ada Nicholson Brownell

If you go to church or hang around a courtroom, you’ll hear testimonies. In court, a crime often has been committed and eyewitnesses are valuable in determining exactly what happened. Christian testimony is similar but they’re about how intervened. Testimonies about God are throughout the Old Testament, and here’s some from the New.

From Luke: “Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you” (Luke 1:2-3 NLT).

Peter:

2 Peter 1:16 NKJ “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

John:

1 John 1: 3 “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

I’ve heard amazing Christian testimonies through my life. As a writer some of these caught my attention and I wrote about them. But I was a kid when one of my friends was diagnosed with leukemia and my brother in law told me she wasn’t expected to live. Fear shivered down my bones at the diagnosis.

But then only a few weeks later I heard the good news. Velda Jean was in the bedroom praying with her grandfather when they came out and her mother instantly believed new blood now flowed through her daughter. Tests confirmed Velda no longer had leukemia. She came to our church years later and gave her testimony when I was the youth president.

Testimonies like this is why I wrote the new book, What Prayer Can Do. Fifty-five of my articles and interview published in The Pentecostal Evangel over the years are reprinted in the book.

What Prayer Can Do” has five sections of testimonies that testify of of God intervention.

Part One: Prayer Results in Miracles

Part Two: Prayer Brings People to God

Part Three: Prayer Helps with Victorious Living

Part Four: Prayer Changes Marriages; Families

Part Five: Prayer Makes an Eternal Difference

A few samples of chapter titles: “The Meanest Man in Town,” “The Woman Who Hated God,” “Crazy Charlie,” “God Instantly Restored My Father’s Sight,” “God Sent Carl A Miracle.”

“The Meanest Man in Town” became a fiery evangelist. He was the father of our pastor in Lakewood, Colo., Hubert Surratt. “The Woman Who Hated God” found salvation after knowing my friend, Joy Wood, in Grand Junction. I went to church with Lorraine Golightly in Arvada, Colo. Her father was instantly healed of blindness. When he was in high school, Carl Johnson was a student in my high school Sunday school class at First Assembly in Pueblo, Colo. Carl recovered from a serious head injury after a motorcycle accident. Doctors believed he would never work again but Carl was back within weeks. After he gave his life to the Lord, the man formerly dubbed “Crazy Charlie” played the bass for a singing group I was a part of, The Damascus Singers, part of Abundant Life Christian Center in Arvada.

The idea to write about what prayer can do came to me when I was asked to speak about prayer at a youth meeting. When I started studying it dawned on me all those young people already knew how to pray. So I began asking folks in the church about the greatest answer to prayer they ever had. I heard amazing true stories from people I knew well. I presented those to the youth and then made an article out of the testimonies, and that article is in the book under the title, “What Prayer Can Do.”

I discovered people everywhere have amazing testimonies about what God has done in answer to prayer.

Yet, sometimes the miracle doesn't happen. The introduction to this book has my article, "Why I Still Believe God Heals," which tells how we lost a daughter to cancer but that event made our faith even stronger!

Jesus came to defeat the curse of sin--death--and He defeated it. Salvation is the greatest miracle. Jesus said, "He who believes in me, though he may die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die!" (John 11:25-26).