Do You Believe in Ministering Spirit?
In 1990, while my husband and I were ministering in Rhode Island, we came to a point of our Christian lives that we wanted to be more fruitful for the Lord. Little did we realize when we were praying those prayers the means that God would need to use to help us  become more fruitful.

On Friday, July 23, 1991, my husband and I left Rhode Island around noon to preach a Mission’s Conference in St. Hubert, Quebec. Before we left the driveway, we bowed our heads and asked the Lord to give us a safe trip.

About 3:00 in the afternoon, we reached New Hampshire. The sky turned black as night, and we drove into an area of torrential rain. We tried to use our windshield wipers, but they failed. Since we could not see anything in front of us, we left the interstate to look for a service area.

My husband pulled off the side of Route 4 near Hanover, New Hampshire. He turned on the car’s flashing lights and tried to contact someone on the CB radio, but the static was so strong that he had no success.

He got out of the car and retrieved some tools from the trunk. When he got back into the car, he sat down and said ” One of us is going to get wet before this is all over”. He then pulled the hood release and got out of the car. He bent over the left fender and began working on the wind­shield wiper motor. He discovered that the switch was bad and that he needed to by-pass the switch to get the wipers to function. As he was under the hood of the car, a vehicle struck him and knocked him 49 feet. When I saw him fly past me through my side window, I jumped out of the car to see where he had landed. I could see him lying far away in a deep embankment.  I really thought he was dead, but suddenly I heard a moan. I then went to the side of the road and began waving my hands for help. My body was shaking uncontrollably. All of a sudden, a man wearing a black trench coat was holding me.  This man spoke to me gently but firmly, “Honey, your husband will be alright. There is a doctor with him right now.” I thought, “How could this be? There is no ambulance–no rescue workers–no police”. There had been a doctor traveling behind us, and he stopped to see why I was standing outside the car in the heavy rain.

Soon the rescue workers came and loaded my husband into the ambulance. The man in the black trench coat gave me explicit instructions of what I should do next. (The Lord soon revealed to me that He had sent me a ministering spirit.) This man instructed me to get something to write down his instructions. Since I didn’t have any paper, I reached into my handbag, took out my small pink Bible and wrote his directions on the front fly leaf of it.  This man took possession of my car and instructed me to go with my husband in the ambulance.

Hebrews 1:13-14 … Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them, who shall be heir of salvation?  All I could do at that moment is offer a silent prayer , “Thank You, LORD, for Your presence and help.”

As I sat down in the front seat of the ambulance, I was still shaking uncontrollably. I opened my handbag and reached for the Bible that I had just written down the man’s instructions. It was as if my Bible opened automatically to Psalm 120 In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me. I then glanced down to Psalm 121 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hill, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Suddenly I stopped shaking and something happened to me that I had never experienced before or after. As I was reading those verses, a warmth began moving slowly through my whole body. The warmth began at the top of my head and moved slowly until it reached the bottom of my feet. I experienced a peace which I can’t explain, but I knew at that moment God was in control and everything would be alright.

When I arrived at the hospital, the hospital officials escorted me to a private room with a telephone and told me to start calling the family. My children arrived a few hours later, and we waited in that room all night to hear some word of my husband’s condition. At 5:30 in the morning, a doctor came out of surgery and shared his prognosis. He said, “Mrs. Lewis, I would like to give you more hope, but I have lost patients with less injuries than your husband received. We will just have to wait and see.”

Later the next day, I went to the cafeteria to get something to eat. A doctor approached me and said, “Do you remember me?” I told him, “Yes, your face is one that I do remember from yesterday”. He introduced himself and said, “I am Dr. Silvestre. I am a pulmonary specialist. I was with your husband at the accident. When I got to your husband, he was lying face down in running water. I knew that if I didn’t turn him over, he would drown.”

Although I was not aware of it, the next morning at 10:00 one of our missionaries had  organized a prayer meeting at our church in Rhode Island to pray for my husband. At 11:00, (During the Rhode Island prayer meeting), a nurse came to me and said, “We are going to try to take your husband off the ventilator; if he can breathe alone, there is a good chance he might make it.”  At 11:20, she came to me and said, “Well, he’s breathing by himself.”

Fifteen days later my husband left the hospital. As my husband was being wheeled to the car, his attending physician walked beside him and said, “I really thought we would be taking you out the back door (morgue).” It took my husband several months get back on his feet. Although we didn’t understand it at the time, God was showing us that He was answering our prayer. This incident (not accident) happened for our good and for His glory. He was answering our prayer, “Lord, make us fruitful.”

 

 The Unanswered Prayer

I asked to be made like my Savior

He took me right at my word,

And sent a heart crushing burden

Till the depths of my soul were stirred. 

I wanted a meek, lowly, spirit—

The work He answered my cry

Till some who had once been companions

With a pitying smile passed my by. 

I asked to lean hard on my Savior.

He took the human props quite away.

Till no earthly friend could give comfort,

And I could do nothing but pray. 

I had prayed to be made like the Savior,

And the burden He gave me to bear

Had been but the great Sculpter’s teaching

To help answer my earnest prayer.

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Filed under: Counseling • Devotional • Encouragement • Memories

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