After I had the wonderful healing from the Asian Flu, Satan came to torment me, and I knew my life was going to be different. It took me some time to recover from that frightful encounter with Satan, and I often think when I hear others scoff at such experiences, “My friend, count your blessings if you have not had an encounter with the Prince of Darkness.” However, for those who have had such experiences as this, you also know the opposite power is manifested so we may know of both. God is balance. He will not let us be burdened with more than we can bear.1
Then Jesus came. Whether I went to sleep 2 or was awake, I don’t know. Suddenly I was aware I was kneeling at the feet of my Master with my head bowed in worship. Jesus was dressed in a white robe, and seemed to be seated. He filled my spirit with warmth and security, and I knew I was in the presence of the One who really cared what happened to me. He lifted my bowed head and I “saw” a mark in the center of my forehead. I didn’t try to look upon His face, only up to his neck. He then showed me the need I would have to be healed. Holding out His hands so I could see in them. I saw no knives for surgery, no pills—nothing. I was aware that He was going to heal me with those hands.
I write this testimony with tears, for I see back down the years that have passed, the many times He has touched me with those nail-scarred hands and healed not only my broken physical frame, but also my wounded spirit—wounded by those who unknowingly spit upon my testimony because of my love for Him. I hold no ill will because I know they don’t understand. Neither did the Jews who killed Jesus to save their religion. They believed they were doing God a favor, but they didn’t understand the ways of God.
Pure love radiated out from Him and I knew I knelt before the Being who had put every cell in my body together. I always believed Jesus died for me. That was easy. I have the gift to believe the testimony of others. But this vision told me something additional—I now knew Jesus Christ had made me from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes, knew everything about me, and cared what happened to me. He not only is my Savior, but is also my Creator. (Eph. 3:9) And this is my testimony—I know He lives today, yesterday and forever, for I saw Him. And I knew I would see Him again.
He granted my prayer to know the color of his hair and eyes, but I was allowed to see them only at a distance. They were a dark auburn brown. I was shown no facial features which caused me to believe He didn’t want me to paint a portrait of Him. This was acceptable to me.
While I remained in His presence His love penetrated my soul with such peace and comfort. For three days this love and light followed me. Each time I thought on the experience the room filled with this power to confirm His constant presence and love for me. This experience would give me the strength to carry out His purpose in my life. It would give me courage to face the storms ahead, for without the knowledge that Jesus loves me, I could not have survived either in mind or body.
The Seal
After the vision, I puzzled over what that mark in my forehead meant. One day I read a scripture from Revelation which brought joy to my heart: “..Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”(Rev. 7:3)
And later I understood what the seal meant: “...and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name.” (Rev. 3:12)
I had the seal of God on my forehead--I was a servant of the Lord! Hallelujah! Now, what was I supposed to do?
Studies show that most people dream, and common sense tells us that many dreams are from tension, worry, bad combinations of food, a guilty conscience and fears we have grown up with.3 A few come from Satan to torment and deceive us, and some come from God to instruct us. The gift of dreams from God 4 will instruct, edify, guide and be a great blessing to help us understand, either what we must pass through or why we have passed through it. One guide or indication as to where they are from is to look for the love and light of Jesus in them. He never tries to hurt or torment us in dreams.
As I matured I began having dreams I recognized as informative, instructing, teaching, but only one that I can remember as a child. I was living in a broken home with a stepfather that I adored, but he and mother were splitting up. I was old enough this time to be broken- hearted, and God heard a little child’s prayer. I knew there was a God somewhere, and I asked Him to give me a good husband and a happy home when I matured. This prayer and desire never left my heart and I would think about it from time to time.
One night in 1945, I dreamed I saw my wedding. It was a rainbow of beautiful colors and I couldn’t forget it. “Our educators” were telling us at that time, and for many years after, that people couldn’t dream in color. I knew better and I was only nine years old.
Once again, those to whom we were suppose to look for learning had failed. I was being taught I could trust no one but God. Any who put their own theories up as the truth and light are working priestcraft. God showed me there was a lot of that going around. Truth comes when we truly seek it. All else Satan had his hands in, meddling with our lives. Only as we lean on the Christ can we know what is real. Jesus said we are to seek the truth and it will make us free. I discovered it might make us mad first, but it will make us free!
In the year 1956 the dream fulfilled. My bridesmaids wore a rainbow of different colored pastel dresses. The message came through that God talks to His children. We’re all children, just in different ages and stages. And He was talking to me. And I had another dream.
The Dream Fulfills
This storm began with Melissa’s illness and its aftermath (the consequences God warned me about). The winds we faced were the heartaches we suffered from loved ones who did not understand what was happening, and they talked about it. The whisperings of Satan caused us to shed many tears. The tree under which we found shelter was our Lord Jesus, the Christ, and our friends’ home being untouched meant it was a personal trial for us. We had been highly esteemed because of our devotion to the Lord’s work in our church, but now we were ridiculed on every tongue. Few came to inquire of our situation. We felt persecuted on all sides, ignored, shunned, mocked. Moving from congregation to congregation, we always found the same tongues had preceded us. We were known before we came. And we were lonely, alone in the roots of the giant tree. Many nights I cried because of the alienation from my loved ones.
One day we discovered her lying in her crib staring at her fingers.“Quick Gene, grab the camera,”I shouted. “What’s going on? ” he asked. “Look at Melissa! Her eyesight has come back; she can see!” I shouted for joy. Her father snapped the shutter and we captured one of the first signs of her eyesight returning. Life took on the semblance of normality for a while.
At age 2 1/2, "stone deaf" Melissa was trying to
"hear" what her parents did.
Two months later not only was her eyesight returning, but also her neck was beginning to regain strength. The spinal fluid they removed, or some injury during the battle that had ensued in the attempt caused her neck to become like rubber. Her head would wobble any direction. She had been perfectly normal before entering the hospital. We had to be very attentive to her so she wouldn’t be injured further.
Melissa was now about eight months old and I rejoiced, for she was almost “whole” as the Spirit had promised in that first administration to her—or so I thought. The thought of any permanent damage never entered my mind, and besides, nothing was too big for God to handle...I had His promise. I really couldn’t think ahead any farther than one day at a time. And it was such a relief to see her becoming normal again, I figured the storm was about over, but it wasn’t. Melissa was deaf—stone-deaf—so deaf that “If she stood any farther than four feet from a jet engine she couldn’t hear it,” a KU Medical audiologist would explain to us when she was four. Deafness for life! But we didn’t know that yet. Melissa didn’t start talking when she should have. People began telling us they didn’t think she could hear, but we dismissed their opinions because they didn’t live with her and couldn’t see what we saw.
Melissa kept doing things that were so hard to explain if she were deaf—such as turning to us when we called her name from behind—things that now we know had to be coincidence. But then, we held on to anything positive that gave us hope. She had to have heard! But she didn’t.
I remember one incident when she was about four, she was sitting on the lap of an elder who had come to administer to her, and when he asked her if she wanted Jesus to heal her, she looked him straight in the eyes as if she totally understood everything he said, and shook her head, “Yes.” And who knows what God was doing in and through her? No mortal could see it. All we know is that God only let us see her true condition very slowly because of the shock it would be.
The only thing we really questioned was that she didn’t talk, but again, she was so terribly shy from birth, we thought maybe this kept her from being vocal. Her father is quiet by nature and maybe she took after him. After the first child, a mother learns the fallacy of that one! Regardless, I held on to the hope that because her eyesight had returned, if she were deaf, that too, would improve in God’s time. He said she would be made whole so I didn’t worry about it,— well, maybe a little.
Footnotes
1. Satan can't tempt us beyond that which we can bear - God will prepare a way to escape (I Cor. 10:13)
2. Visions: God communicates wisdom and teaching to His children in dreams and visions was well as other ways.
3. Dreams: "for in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities; but fear thou God." (Ecc. 5:7)
4. Dreams: (Dan. 2:1-3, 26-45) is a good example of how dreams work for revelation. God told the king what He was going to do in the last days. The king saw an image which represented the world's economic and religious system destroyed and replaced with Christ's kingdom called Zion, the New Jerusalem.
