Pavel Goia has recently written a small eleven chapter book that I consider to a thought-provoking discussion of God's activity in our lives today. It is full of sermon illustrations that could start off a good many sermons. The ABC has it on sale for$17. Amazon is selling it for$145. [No, that is not a typo.]
Paul Goia & Kelly Mowrer, In the Spirit & Power: God's Presence & Answers to Prayer In Pavel Goia's Journey, Safeliz, 2022,160 pages.

I don't get it. We need to read a book to understand that God works in our lives? The first miracle that I know of in my life happened in the 1st or 2nd grade. I was running home after school and ran directly out in front of a car. It was a 45mpn speed zone and I ran right out in front of a cherry red ford Galaxy two door hard top. I heard a screeching of tires coming from my left and looked. The driver was gripping the steering wheel with both hands and his eyes looked as big as saucers. I turned to run back the way I had come and the next thing I knew I was standing on the sidewalk where I had come from. That car skidded half way across the intersection so it would have seriously injured me if not most likely killed me.


My guardian angel spoke to me twice to save me from getting into serious accidents, but unfortunately I didn't listen either time. Another time I was driving drunk and speeding at around 3 in the morning after a full day of drinking and getting high. I went around a 90 degree corner which I thought I could make it around, but there was a plugged irrigation culvert there and when I hit that water running across the road the car hydroplaned and turned sideways. I down shifted and hit the throttle, but the car had a shift linkage problem and you couldn't go directly from 4th to 3rd gear. You had to go to neutral, move the shifter to the side and then move it to back to where it would shift back into third. We never left the road. If we had we would have hit that ditch and rolled. All I can say is my guardian angel held that car on the road. I have had multiple other miracles happen in my life too. I'm not bragging about these things because I got into all of these situations from my own stupidity. I'm talking about the unbelievable love God has for all of us.

But each of us should have stories that demonstrate how God has worked miracles in our lives for there is no greater miracle than that we were turned away from rebellion against God to becoming His servants. No miracle is greater than that kind of miracle.

So what finally woke you up to accepting the One who literally saved you?

The only person who could, God. It seems we humans often think it is our job to do the work of the HS as He is the one who convicts of sin and shows us the solution to our self destructiveness as sin is self destructiveness. The very most any of us can do is present the truths of God's word to people. The rest of it is up to God. It's a bitter pill to swallow as I well know, but it's the truth.

I have another story of a miracle in my life.

I was emotionally, sexually, and physically abused as a kid and emotionally abused until I was in my mid to late twenties. This story is how God saved the life my dog, He knew I needed him as I had no friends as one of the consequences of abuse is that you get close to no one because you're positive no one will like you if they actually get to know you. Sin is just sooo damaging.

Well someone had been pounding on the side of my house so I borrowed a Ruger Blackhawk .44 caliber magnum so if/when they came back to harass me I could go out and put a bullet through the block of their car. I lived out in the country so could do that without hurting anyone else. The next day I went down after work to play softball with a bunch of people on the Milton Freewater, Or. church property. After we had played a while we took a break and were playing fetch with my dog Toby as he was a fetching fool He just loved it. Well after a while a guy came up and asked if he could hit the ball as he could hit it further than he could throw it. I said yes without thinking and when he tossed the ball unto the air Toby jumped to catch it and he hit Toby in the head with a full swing of an aluminum bat. Toby went out like a light and stayed out for quite a while. I got to thinking during that time and figured I wouldn't let Toby wake up as I didn't think he could ever be the same after that kind of blow to the head. I had that pistol in my pickup so I went and got it. It was single action which means it must be cocked before it can be fired. I tried to cock that pistol many times and couldn't. It just couldn't be cocked. I have called Toby my miracle dog ever afterwards as God knew I needed him for emotional support as he and I were best buddies. We went everywhere together for years after that.

God is just so good to us it boggles my mind. How He can love people like you and I is beyond me.

I just must tell more of the stories of how God has worked miracles in my life. Not because I am worthy of them but to praise Him.

Four of five years ago I was sitting and thinking about why my old man hated me so much and it was really hurting me. I started praying about it and the HS revealed the reasons to me. When he was pretty small his dad died in a boating accident. He and a friend were fishing and drinking, or probably should say drinking and fishing, on Lake Superior. They got so drunk they failed to see a thunder storm coming until it hit them. On Superior waves can hit 20 feet high in a very short time during a storm. Much too short a time to row back to shore in a row boat. My old man was born in 1921 so that tells us what kind of technology was available back then.

His dad was thrown out of the boat somehow and his friend barely made it out alive. My dad was convinced it was murder. I asked him one time why he thought it was murder and his answer was two men go out fishing and only one comes back it can't be anything but murder. This from someone who grew up very close to Lake Superior.

To make matters worse his friend married his mother later and his hobby when coming home drunk at night was to beat up his wife. When my dad was high school age he'd had all of that he could stand so one night when Grandpa came home drunk one night he met him on the stairs with his hunting rifle and told him that beating his mother up was going to stop,. Grandpa started to come up the stairs towards him and he jacked a shell into the rifle. He said Grandpa looked at him for a little while and turned around and went back down the stairs. Grandpa never beat up his mother again.

I come along and no one tells me the story until I am in my teens and Grandpa and I became buddies because he really nice to me.

I have to interrupt the narrative for a bit to explain something about the old man. He was a very talented musician as he could play the accordian and by ear. I have flashes of memory of him playing the accordian when I was really young. He was up front on a home made dais playing his accordian for a song service. By the time I was in the first grade he no longer had it and I suspect this was one of the reasons he walked away from his relationship with God as he needed that musical release to be whole.

Now back to the narrative. By the time I was in the first grade he was always mad at me for something. He whipped me several times on night because I told him I didn't want to play Parchesi with a spinner, He had been reading the SOP and read where Ellen White said it was sinful to play dice. He had only gotten an 8th grade education and had only spoken Finnish until he started school. This caused him to misunderstand some things he read. He had light blue eyes and when he got mad they turned white. After he had whipped me several times with his favorite instrument of punishment, a thin belt made of some metallic substance that was very flexible and pretty heavy he asked me one last time if I was going to play and when I said no he shoved me out the door of the trailer we lived i and told me I was going to spend the night outside. I stood outside sobbing in my rage and began screaming at him I hate you. I hate you. That trailer door had a window of wrinkled glass that allowed light to pass through it but you couldn't distinguish anyone standing between it and a light source so I could see him standing there listening. He opens the door a couple of minutes after he shoved me out the door and said, what did you say? I realized right then if I continued I was going to get beaten half to death and mumbled, nothing. He laughed and shut the door. It was that night that I realized that the old man hated me.

Now back to my prayer for help in understanding why he had hated me. It hit me like a ton of bricks and it made sense out of my entire life as the old man had been really cruel to me until I was in my later 20's. Even after I had been rebaptised and God had given my victory over my drug addiction he was both physically and emotionally abusive to me. One of his favorite pastimes was to run me down in front of my friends and girlfriends.

I sat there that day and it was mike my life was laid out l9iike jigsaw puzzle on a portable card and it had been shaken and my life just came together like puzzle in a matter of seconds and I was able to form close friendships for the first time in my life.

God is just so good His love is way beyond our understanding. I owe Him everything I am.

I have to say I don't understand the lack of interest in this thread, If we love Jesus He will be working in our lives on a daily basis and we will be excited to talk about what he is doing for us and in us. If nothing is happening in our lives daily if should worry us because it shows the devil has been able to distract us in some manner away from working on our relationship with Him.

I have not said much here as I'm afraid it will be seen as boasting but I will say this. God has been working miracles in my life for a little more than a year now. Some have been physical miracles, but the most important ones are how He has been changing my heart. He has brought me so much closer to Him over that time that there is no comparison to my previous spiritual condition.

Time is running short to get right with God and we need to be daily drawing nearer to Him or we will never make it to heaven. I'm worried about you, my brothers and sisters in Jesus.

I have a quote here on witnessing because the love of God is in our hearts.

This is found in God's Amazing Grace the reading for October 24

I find your stories encouraging, therefore, please continue sharing them.

I also found that quote to be so true and revealing that the church is in need of revival, and that revival needs to begin with me and so many others.

Gary, I agree with Daryl. I have several cousins that grew up much like you describe. Some of them follow the Lord and some do not. I pray for them all the time. Thanks you for sharing your stories. I have stories of how God has worked in my and my families life that I will share when I have more time.