Miracles: My Own Experiences!

There are many people who seem to live out their life without ever seeing any evidence in their personal life that there is a God. My life was just like that until out of desperation I started asking God for help.

I believe that evil angels were attacking me in very specific ways. You can read about my early desperate days by clicking on the link the 3rd chapter of my book, The Joy of Winning with Christ.

About this same time I had a dramatic event occur to me when I was on an airplane. You can read about it by clicking on the link "Why did I ever become a Creationist. Then look for the heading "God Started Showing Himself to Me."

Since those early days, I have continued to receive blessings from God! I have also gotten closer to God. Or is it that God has gotten closer to me. I love to spend time with my Creator. It is my goal to spend an hour with God every day. During this time I read my Bible and I talk to God. There are special days when I can even devote more time to God. When I spend three hours or more to God, I really feel blessed. I actually look forward to these days when I can throw all of my activities aside and be with God. The Sabbath can be a very special time if I am able to spend it with the Lord in this special way.

In addition, I wanted to develop what is described in the Bible as praying with out ceasing. I don't mean that I am on my knees all day long. But that when there is a pause in my activities, I want my thoughts to come back to God. If God is truly the biggest thing in my life, my thoughts will naturally go back to Him when I am not pressed by other matters. During these times, I can talk to God with a comment or two. Maybe I need help in finding something. Maybe, I did something that I now regret. I can always talk to God in these times because He is my constant companion who is willing and able to lead me to a better life!

Actually, there are times when I do not spend time with God, and it shows. I often become angry over nothing and I become unhappy. I actually feel depressed! What is happening, is that I become the prey of the enemy. Without God's shield, Satan and his evil angels will have an easier time to cause me to sin and to make my life miserable. When I realize what is happening, I stop what I am doing and reconnect with God, the Creator of all things! It's as if the whole atmosphere of the room changes. It really does!

Sometimes, I am attacked just at the time when I am going to open the Bible. I find myself not being able to concentrate. Sometimes I am almost to the point of of pacing the floor. My mind is all excited over something and I can not sit down to a quiet hour with God. When this happens, I often recognize the signs and I realize that something is happening. Satan or his evil angels do not want me to connect with my Creator. The evil angels will do anything to separate us from God. Often it is when we are in church or on our knees that all kinds of nasty thoughts flow through our mind. After awhile, I have recognized the signs and I start praying for relief from the satanic attack. After I ask God to help me in this way, I find that I can now relax and talk to God. Before I could not do it, but now, with the help of God; It is easy. Learn to have God fight your battles for you!

One other thing I need to tell you about. I have found that when I watch TV; Afterwards, I find it very hard to think about God. It seems I can no longer think about spiritual things. Often what I had just watched, will be played in my mind over and over. So I have decided that I don't want to watch TV any more. I have found that my communication with God is so much clearer without TV and I don't want to jeopardize my closeness to God with programs that are full of sex and improper thoughts. So many times, fun is made out of the things about God that I now know are important. I feel that these programs are designed to be against God, so I have decided not to watch them at all.

12. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. John 14:12-14

We read in the Gospels that Jesus often spent whole nights in prayer to His Father. Jesus' closeness to His Father was a key feature in His Life of service. The promise in John 14 is wonderful to think about because the promise says that we can experience the same blessings Jesus had. I wanted to actually experience these promises myself by being the object of God's attention. I wanted to receive the actions of His promises and not just hear about it from others.

You might want to see what God through His Son, Jesus, promises to provide for us. See how God treats those who choose to follow God. To find out click on the following link: "Are You Saved?". Yes, we can be the object of God's attention!

So I decided to start spending an hour with God every day, praying and reading the Bible. It was hard at first. I would start reading and I would look up at the clock. Only 10 minutes. An hour seemed like a long time!

I did not realize it at first, but an important thing I did was to decide on a time. Other people have decided they want to read so many chapters a day. What happens is that they often read too fast because they want to cover the material then go do something else. What happens is that they don't even remember what they read, or they didn't fully understand what they read. Also, they don't give the Holy Spirit any time to speak to their hearts.

Since I knew that I would spend an hour, it doesn't matter if I read any faster, I know I will not get done any faster. This allowed me to read at a slower pace and to stop and read over if I needed. Also, what would happen is that I would start thinking about what I was reading and I wanted to talk to God about it. This is what Bible study became for me. I would read and then talk to God about what I was reading, or about something in my own life that I was concerned about.

Reading the Bible is one thing, but what about prayer? Above in John 14:13-14 we see that we are to ask for things in Christ's name. Just reading will not solve that problem. If I am to get close to God, I need to talk to Him. I need to ask questions and I need to explore what it is that He wants me to know and do. I found that the more I actually started to pray to God, to talk to Him in prayer, the closer I got to Him. Also, when I started to ask God questions and then open the Bible, often I would find the answer I needed right on the page. Other times it would be close by. Still other times, things would come to mind showing me where to open the Bible. Many of the points on my web pages have come because I have asked God for help.

After about two weeks of Bible study, I noticed all of the sudden that I was happy. Really happy and I could not seem to understand why I was that way. It was as if it was Christmas and I was about to open a pile of presents. But there were no presents. I found that I looked forward to my time with God every day and that the Bible study was what I was excited about.

This feeling did not happen right away. It took weeks to develop. Now, something else happened. There was a weekend when I went camping with friends and my schedule got messed up. Now when I came back, somehow, I was not continuing with my Bible study time. Yet I was still happy as if I was still doing it. However, after about a week or maybe it was two weeks, I noticed all of the sudden, one day, that I was no longer happy. Instead, I was anxious and worried about many things. I then knew that I had lost what I had gained.

It took weeks of Bible study before I became happy again. Also as you read the stories below, you will see that God has blessed me in so many other ways as well.

God wishes to direct our paths so we will not destroy ourselves eternally. To gain a greater understanding on how we can come closer to God, click on the following link: "Are You Saved?".

There was the time when I was a missionary in Puerto Rico. I was a new teacher and I was an extremely shy person. It was all I could do to get up in front of the class and talk to 10 or so students. At the time it was a nerve racking experience.

Back in those times I was already spending a lot of time with God. Especially on Friday night, with nothing else to do, I would be reading in the Bible, making notes on the computer. Actually there was a Sunday that I got up and I started in with a study. Before I knew what had happened, it was already 5 O'clock in the afternoon. I hadn't even eaten breakfast nor had I done anything else. I totally lost all tract of time.

One Friday, as I was studying, a strong impression came over me that God wanted me to preach a sermon in church! This was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of before, especially since I had enough problems just speaking to 10 students let alone 500 or 600 people. So I pushed the idea out of my mind and continued doing what I was doing.

However this idea that I need to preach kept coming back into my mind. In fact, it was forcefully kept on my mind to the point that I could not think of anything else! It actually ruined the whole evening, because included with the idea was that God wanted me to accept the idea and I had a hard time saying yes. But I remember reading a lot of stories of people rejecting God's call and what they lost was His continual presence.

I especially did not want to loose God's presence, because it is God who has changed my life and has made me happy. So I told Him that I would do it if He would have some one ask me to preach. I didn't want to invite myself. When I made that decision, a very strong feeling of peace and happiness came over me and I realized that I had decided to follow God where He was leading me and He had accepted my answer.

The very next day, as I was cooking the noon meal, a car pulled up at the front of the house. It was the head elder of the church, and out of the blue, he came there to ask if I wanted to preach a sermon in church!

After I accepted the invitation, I of course started to work on the sermon. What should I preach on? I didn't know. So I knelt down and asked God what I should preach. As soon as I finished the prayer with "Amen", an idea came to mind. During the course of preparing for that sermon, every time I stopped to pray asking for direction, just as soon as I finished praying, the idea that I needed would pop in my head. God literally gave me the sermon I was to preach!

Another request that I made of God was that he would allow me to be comfortable when I preached. I originally imagined that I would be so nervous that It would be hard for me to say anything. God really answered that prayer! When I came before the people about taking sin out of our lives, I was able to forget the people and actually say what was on my heart.

While I was teaching at Antillian College in Puerto Rico, I had chosen to join the college choir. For one of the Christmas seasons, a group of choirs got together to do a really large production of The Messiah by Handel. It was really fun to be at all the full-island rehearsals and then to be in all the programs which played in the various parts of the Island.

One of the rehearsals was on the other side of Puerto Rico, and we were all in the College Bus. I was enjoying myself thinking about Christmas and the music and enjoying the sights and views of the island when one of my students got up and sat down beside me.

He had a Christian book in his hands about the life of Christ called The Desire of Ages. Teacher, I have been trying to read this book but I don't seem to be getting anything out of it. In Puerto Rico, the official language is Spanish, yet he was trying to read an English book. English was his second language, however it was clear that he was struggling.

I'm not really sure why he came to me. What was I going to say or do to help him to read? I am now convinced that it was the Holy Spirit that had him come to me. Because as I was thinking of what to do or say, something came to mind.

I know of a ministry called Prison Ministries. Many times they have inmates in prison who don't know how to read anything, any thing at all! Yet they want to be able to read the scriptures for themselves or in front of the others. The leaders then open the Bible to them and read Philippians 4:13 which reads: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." What they then do is to substitute the inmates name into the verse and have the inmate quote the verse. "Sam can do all things through Christ who strengthens Sam", or what ever their name is. Often they are reading by the next day or the next week. They don't have to go through the whole process of learning how to read. They receive the ability to read all at once.

So as I was looking at my student friend in the bus, these things came to mind, but I hesitated. I couldn't actually tell this to him. What if he tried it and it didn't work? But then my faith took over. I knew that to put your faith in Christ and to approach Him with our problems is always the best way.

I looked at him and asked him if he really wanted to be able to read this book. Yes, he said in a solemn voice. So, I said to him: OK go back to your seat and pray to God asking Him for the ability to read this book. Then start reading. If you still can't read, pray some more. I told him to alternate praying and trying to read, back and forth until he received an answer by being able to read. He said OK, and went to his seat.

I don't really know why I didn't mention the verse but that didn't bother me at the moment. What I was worried about was: now you have really done it. You can't really mean it to say that you actually told him that?

I quickly put these thoughts out of my mind and started pleading with God for help. Help with my attitude and with his reading. Help him to receive a blessing that day!

I continued to pray until, I think it was about 30 minutes later, when he came back to me all excited. He told me: "Teacher, I can now read everything! I can now understand what I read in English!" He then spent the next few minutes telling me how it happened.

My thoughts were also turned to Thanksgiving! It is very good when we put our trust in God and actually put our faith into actions!

After having taught at Antillian College for two years, it was time for me to come back to the states. Two years was the actual time allotted for my teaching in Puerto Rico since I was single at the time.

However because of some of the things I had done, I knew that it would be hard to get another position in one of the Adventist Colleges in the States. The college made it very plain that they wanted their teachers to go to the college church and no where else. They wanted the faculty to sit in the congregation even if they were not to do anything. I instead went to another church where English was spoken. It was real neat to be able to understand the sermon instead of missing it because I could not understand Spanish at all.

In addition I found my self preaching a few sermons, teaching Sabbath School in addition to other duties. In the Spanish church, this activity would have been impossible since all those taking theology were expected to take part in all the activities of the church. The rest of us were left out of being able to actively do something.

So I was in the dog house! I did go to Union College to be interviewed by them and everything looked good until they communicated to the people at Antillian. Then everything changed. I knew that my situation did not look good and I didn't know what I was going to do. So I started praying and an amazing thing happened!

As I was packing, placing books in boxes, I picked up a certain book and all of the sudden a strong feeling came over me. Because it came suddenly, I sat on the couch still holding the book. The thought came to me that God wanted me to do something and that it had something to do with this book. So I looked at the book and it was an Adventist Year Book. What this is, is a telephone book for all the Adventist intitutions of the world. So I thought, "God must want me to call someone."

I then realized that I had not called all the Adventist Colleges in the US. There were two colleges that I had not yet contacted. I started right away to call them. It was in the early summer time and one of the colleges (Southern University) did not have anyone at the Biology Dept. I knew that most of the teaching positions at the various colleges would have been picked by this time, yet I knew that God had just told me that I need to contact people right now! So I called the next place, the Walla Walla College Biology Department.

The Biology secretary picked up the phone and we talked. After telling her that I was looking for a teaching position, she told me that all the positions were filled up for quite some time. Yet I told her my area of expertise (Molecular Genetics) and where I could be contacted etc. and we finished our conversation.

Once I finished this phone call, I had a peace within me and I knew that I had just done what God wanted me to do. It wasn't hardly 20 minutes later when my phone rang and when I picked it up I found that I was speaking to the head of the Biology Department at Walla Walla College.

He said: "It so happens that we do have a position that has just opened. We need someone to teach genetics for us. . . and by the way. . . did anyone tell you of this position?" I told him no, I was coming back to the states and I was calling around.

They were looking for a part time position for just one quarter. But I told him I was looking for a full time position for at least one year. Within a couple weeks they were able to offer me a full time temporary position for one year. I would be spending half my time teaching Genetics in Biology and the other half, I would be teaching Biochemistry in the Chemistry department.

After teaching there for that year, I was able to take a full time permanent position in the Chemistry Department.

For the first temporary position, since I was only to be a temporary worker, they did not even contact Antillian College. I guess they figured, what harm could I have made in one year. All they did was to contact those who I had listed in my references. When I became part of the Chemistry Department; again, they did not contact Antillian College. They now knew me personally since I had already been working in their department.

As I look back at the situation, I can't see a better or more simple answer than what God did for me.

A few years ago, I became sick, so sick that I lost my job. I had developed chronic fatigue syndrome and my brain at the time was so foggy that I could hardly think or function. I literally felt like sleeping all day and all night except I couldn't sleep at all.

I really needed money, in fact, I was facing Bankruptcy! Yet I didn't even have the two hundred dollars needed for the Bankruptcy court fees. I was extremely worried about what was going to happen and how I was going to get out of the mess I was in. So I knelt on my knees and poured out my heart to God who is the answer to all our problems. I was unsure if a Christian should even consider bankruptcy, but then I would always remember in Old Testament times that at every Jubilee all debts were canceled. So I asked if God would allow me to go bankrupt that He would supply the funds. So when I finished, I got up and went out to see if the mail had arrived and right there in the mail box was the money I needed! It was almost to the dollar.

Now that I had filed Bankruptcy, I still needed to live! I needed a roof over my head and I needed some food and a little gas for my car (I had a fuel efficient car) and I needed a little spending money to pay for utilities. Yet I felt like sleeping all day and all night, yet I could hardly get to sleep at all. My mind was in a fog and I found it hard to think. Yet I was not discouraged nor was I depressed.

Initially, I saw that I would have no place to live and I was going to be out on the street in short order. Yet I did not think that way. I did not let my mind stay on such a depressing subject. I felt that satanic angels were attacking me, trying to get me discouraged. So I decided to rest my case with God! I knew that God would take care of me and I started praying to Him earnestly every day for help. God is the only one who was going to help me get out of this situation I was in.

I was also doing missionary work on a nearby indian reservation at a church that was on the reservation. At that time, I was wearing many hats since there were not too many people who wanted to do the work on the mission. The older leaders were wearing out and could no longer work, yet there was no one to take up the work but me at the time. Yet I was wondering if whether I would have the money to drive to the mission every week. It was nearly an hour drive one way. But every week, I was always amazed to find that I always had enough money to put some more gas in the tank.

When it came to the time when I had to pay some major bills something strange came in the mail. Usually, when you get a letter from the bank, it is a bill indicating how much you have to pay them. This letter was different. It turns out that there was a lawsuit against the bank for how the bank had cheated their customers, and it happens that it was a class-action suit. What I had in my hands was a check for, I think, 700 or 800 dollars! I had enough money for at least two months rent.

Also, I started to get mysterious letters in my mail box that had money enclosed. Some unknown person for a period of many months, sent me $50 every week. Yet I had told no one about the situation I was in until I did mention it to a few people, and before I knew it, I had people sending me food to survive on.

As time went on I began to use natural health methods to get myself well. And so, I did begin to get better. I was able to think more clearly and actually do something for myself! I often think back to this period of time in my life and I feel blessed on how God has taken care of me. I even look back at this time with happiness because of the good times I had with God. When you don't have to work, you suddenly have a lot of time on your hands. I was able to spend long hours with God through those times. It was during this time that I started my web sites on Creation/Evolution issues. Then shortly afterwards, I started having more and more Biblical topics on my website. All through this time I was especially close to God. It was such a blessing! I would not trade that experience for anything the world has to offer!

This experience is more recent. It involves my Macintosh PowerBook Computer that I have used to do all of my work. In addition to the writing of web pages, I have used it to conduct all my pseudogene research.

I use a CD burner to make back-ups on CD-R disc. As time went on, it became increasingly more difficult to get the SCSI interface to connect with my Mac. After awhile it would often take up to 10 times to try to connect before it might work, and this was after I would work the plugs and do every thing that I knew to do. Finally, the SCSI interface would not function at all and I did not have the money to buy a new unit or to pay to get this one working.

So I came to God in desperation. I asked that He would allow the computer to function so I would be able to make a back-up of what I was doing. When I got off my knees and I turned on the computer, the SCSI interface worked without any trouble at all! In fact, ever since that time, for at least four years, it has worked when ever I prayed! It starts working immediately when I ask for help!

Sometimes, I don't know why I do this, but I sometimes try to run the CD burner without prayer. Every time I do this, it just does not run. Even with repeated attempts it does not work. But, when ever I stop to pray for help, the very next time it starts working perfectly. Finally I got into the habit of praying first before I physically started the computer. It always works the very first time!

Now, just a week ago, something else happened. I have written a program in the C++ language, to help me in my creation research on pseudogenes. This computer program has taken me about 3 years to write. I had about ten different versions in the hard drive at the time, each one is better than the one before with bugs taken out and new features added in. I hadn't made a back-up for a while, but I didn't think much about it.

Suddenly the thought came to me that I did need to make a back-up. I was in the middle of doing something and I really didn't have the time nor did I want to do it. But the impression was so strong, I knew I needed to make the back-up right then! So I stopped what I was doing and turned off the computer. After I connected the CD burner to the computer and prayed for God's help once more, I started both the computer and the drive. Of course, the system worked perfectly and all my versions were recorded on the CD. After the CD was made, the program then asked whether I wanted to verify that everything got copied properly and I typed in 'yes'. Well half way through the verification of that disc, the computer hard drive crashed and it has never worked since! I have tried to get the computer to work several times since then and it has never worked.

I know that God had impressed me to stop what I was doing and make a back-up of my work. Of course, backups are no good without a computer. So God blessed me with a brand new Mac so that I can continue with my research.

Because of my experience with God, I also believe that He wants the research on pseudogenes to continue. I have not told you the half of what He has done to keep the research progressing forward. In addition to keeping my computers going He has given me ideas to pursue in answer to prayer. Because He has protected the project all along the way, I believe that something big is going to come out of this research.

So, as you can see, in all sorts of ways I have experienced the presence of God and His leading. I know that He is the Creator of All Things and I believe that God would want us to depend upon Him. Even for the little things. As I look at my experiences that I have written, I am amazed at what I don't ask for. I guess I am a slow learner. But God is a patient teacher.

Around Christmas of 2004, my wife and I decided that we needed to work full time for God. At the time my wife was making very good money, and yet the more we prayed, the more convicted we were that we needed to make a change. So a short time later both of us were without a job as we began to make plans as to what we might do.

Right out of the blue, totally unexpected; We got a phone call from a man who was in charge of native work in North America. He offered us a part time job for three months to help out in an evangelistic effort at a certain indian reservation. We were convinced that this was God's calling for us. So we went.

We ended up staying there for a whole year. But then the money ran out. One of the people said that more money was coming and to hold on until it came. Well the money never came.

One day we found ourselves needing money for utilities and if we didn't get the money, they were going to start turning everything off. We were facing the prospect of loosing heat, electricity, and phone, all at once. We needed that money in just a day or two. What were we going to do?

We got down on our knees and prayed to our God who looks over us. later, when we got up, I immediately got the impression that the answer was in the mail box. So I told my wife, I was going to check the mail.

In the mail box was a letter from someone who felt impressed that we needed money. So they sent us a check for around $300. It was within a few dollars of what we needed to pay to keep our utilities! Praise God!

There was also the matter of paying the rent as well. God did not answer us right away and so we began to find ourselves in a new situation. We were now in the process of being evicted from our apartment. Now what were we going to do? We needed money to eat. We needed money to move somewhere. But where? We were praying the whole time yet nothing seemed to be happening. But yet we were secure in the knowledge that God would take care of us some how.

Then, at Christmas of 2005, the group of people that we were working with, gave us $500. Some of it was in gift certificates at Fred Meir. I think God realized that if we were given actual cash, we would have put the full amount into moving ourselves away to a place where we could find work and not feed ourselves properly. But we were given gift certificates that we more or less had to spend on food. So God saw that we were going to be eating properly. By the way. That money lasted to the very day we left the area. God supplied our needs. No more, no less.

We really needed money now, otherwise, we would have to put our stuff on the street and just have to walk away.

Then money started coming from here and from there. Within a short period of time, we had the money to rent the U-haul truck and we were able to move to the vicinity of my wife's parents. We put our stuff in storage and lived with them for a short while.

I found that it probably was a good thing that we were at my wife's parients place, because they had not made proper preparation for their wood stoves. So I helped to split wood in the ice and snow of the Blue Mountains.