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MY MIRACLE HEALING
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| Pastor Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel |
My family was a "church oriented family" but were not living dynamic lives. My father, Charles, was an elder, Sunday School
superintendent, Boy Scout leader, and an active member in the Sheriff's Reserve. His business revealed an inner emptiness
-- a searching for something. My mother, Maude, however, began looking for help and wandered into a tent revival. At the close
of the meeting she confessed her need for Christ to fill the vacuum in her heart. This conversion experience so disturbed
my father that he sought to close down the tent meeting. Instead, he too, found the reality of a Living Christ.
At this time I was two years old and became violently ill. My cousin had just died of spinal meningitis the week before. When
I went into convulsions, my mother was sure I was dying. A nurse, living in the same building, told my mother to "get the
child to the doctor immediately." My mother told her, "Jesus is going to heal my baby." Instead, my mother ran next door to
the church parsonage. The minister, Dr. Mitzner, came over, saw me and my distraught young mother, and told her to get her
eyes off me and just pray to the Lord. By this time my spine had gone limp, my eyes had rolled back in my head; I had the
death rattle in my throat, and I had stopped breathing--I was dead!
My mother dropped to her knees and prayed: "Oh, Lord, I know You are able to do anything; You are able to give my child back
to me restored in health. I vow that if You heal this child, I will rededicate my life to You for whatever ministry You might
have for me and my unborn child." (My mother was carrying another baby at that time.)
My dad rushed in and found my mother praying. He dropped to his knees next to her, joining in pleading with God to spare me.
The minister prayed for each part of my body until I was completely restored. This process took about half an hour. Mother
said the sweetest words she ever heard were when I sat up and said, "Mama."
At Big Sisters Hospital in Ventura, California, when they placed my brother in my mother's arms for the first time, she cradled
him tenderly and then said, "My son, I promised to give God my life and to dedicate myself to His ministry." Then she raised
her eyes heavenward and prayed, "And God, I will fulfill to You my promise and hereby vow in this son that You have given
me to do that which I promised to do."
Mother, wisely, never told my brother of her promise to the Lord. When he was a "teenager" he came home from his church summer
camp and told mother of his encounter with the Lord and the call he felt on his life for full-time service.
When my brother went to LIFE Bible College about 10 years later, my mother told him of her vow to God. She wanted him to be
certain in his own heart that this was God's leading.
I only wish my mother and father had lived to see the ministry that has touched people all over the world. Perhaps my mother
is looking down and remembering the day she held her baby son, Charles (Chuck) Smith in her arms and dedicated him to His
service. Chuck became the founder of Calvary Chapels all over the world.
AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY . . . Virginia
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