Testimonials
The Deer – Testimony 1
This is actually my brother’s story. When he was young, maybe 17 or so, he had a small motorcycle he rode to a neighboring town. We grew up in the country on a farm and there was what we called “the hard road” or “the blacktop” that was about 7 miles long from where we lived to the neighboring town. He was riding the motorcycle home and he came up over a hill that had a curve at the top. There at the top of that hill and around that curve where you can’t see around before just being there, were a herd of deer. He said there were 8 – 10 of them just standing in the road. He was running about 50 miles an hour and no time to slowdown and weave around them. He closed his eyes, gripped the handlebars tight, prayed for God to help him, and braced for impact. He didn’t feel impact. He opened his eyes and could see himself just gliding through the deer. I mean THROUGH the deer. He said they were suddenly transparent in a way and he rode right THROUGH them. He felt nothing, no impact at all. Just smooth ride.
Now the rest of this story is that, he got home and my mom had been sitting up reading and praying to God. We were dealing as a family with financial issues and she was feeling as if God were so far away at that moment. She had been praying that God would reveal Himself to her so she would know He was in control. My brother walked in the house, probably a little shaky, and told her the whole story. Mom asked God to reveal Himself and boy, did He! My brother prayed a simple “God, help me!” prayer and gave God permission to act on his behalf.
The Fog
About 6 years ago, I woke up to go to work like a normal morning. I just went about my morning rituals of showering, dressing, primping, etc. I go to the attached garage under the house and open the garage door. My immediate thought was “Man, is it foggy!” It was the thickest fog I have ever seen. I could not see the end of the driveway at all and I have a very short driveway. My driveway is off of an alley, so I backed into the alley and just prayed no one else was in the alley or I would have backed right into them. I went the very short distance to the street and could not see beyond the front of my car. It was sooooo very foggy. As I maneuvered through town to the get to the major highway, I could not see a street sign until I was immediately next to it. There were no indications as to where I was at. I prayed the words out of Psalm 91:11 reminding God of His word that he gave His angels charge over me and that they were going to need to guide me into the office that day.
I clutched the steering wheel with both hands and eased onto the 4 lane all access highway. I immediately heard, again ALMOST an audible voice, “stay in the left lane”. I ran my flashers all the way and drove about 25 miles an hour. It was a 50 mile trek so this was going to take a while. I thought it might lift some as I drove, but it didn’t. It was only seeming to get worse. You know how you do, you keep blinking your eyes as if it is your vision that is blurred. You turn on the defroster because maybe that will help. Nope, still could not see anything past about the halfway point on the hood of the car. As I continued, again, this is an all access highway so there are crossroads. I seem to be the only one out there. Suddenly immediately in front of me, crossways is a semi-truck. He was on one of the crossroads. I had no choice but to swerve to the left to go behind him and it all took place in less than 5 seconds. It was TRUCK, SWERVE. I went skirting around the back of him and then jerked the wheel back to the right in order to stay on the highway. He had no idea I was even there because he could not see me. If I had been in the right lane, I would have been at the front of his truck and there would have been no avoiding him. I would have slammed right into the side of him and I am sure decapitated. I know that is a gruesome thought, but trust me, when you are that close to a semi at that moment, you just know that it would have been just like on TV when the car goes under the truck and decapitates the occupants. That would have been me. BUT, because I had prayed God’s word before I left, He was able to speak to me and I was listening and able to respond. He told me to get into the left lane and it saved my life. I know that as I steered that car around that truck, His angels were keeping me from hitting the median between the 4 lanes of highway. I gave Him authority to act on my behalf when I prayed His word.
The Earthquake
About 6 or 7 years ago, I was asleep. Now let’s be clear, I go to sleep and I do not wake up until the alarm goes off. I don’t wake up for much of anything. So again, I am asleep in the middle of the night and I just wake up. For no apparent reason. I just lie there for a second trying to understand why I am suddenly wide awake. The first thing that comes to mind is the word “earthquake”. It was almost like an audible voice, but it wasn’t. Then I felt prompted to pray for people that might be dealing with an earthquake. I just lied there in bed and prayed quietly about an earthquake. It took like 5 minutes. I prayed protection for anyone around an earthquake, that there would be either no earthquake at all or that it would be so slight that no one would feel it or be harmed by it. Then I felt it was ok to go back to sleep. So I did. Just like that. Rolled over and slept like I had never been awaken.
The next morning, I had not even thought about it. I didn’t remember it really. I was getting ready for work. For those of you who do not know me or my habits, I do not allow extra time in my mornings for anything except, getting ready for work. I wake up and immediately shower, get dressed, hair and make-up and out the door. No breakfast, no morning coffee (won’t touch the stuff), and especially no television. I never turn it on in the mornings. So that morning, I am getting ready for work and for some reason, I walked over, without thought, and turned on the television. It was still on the channel I had been watching last which was a local channel. The morning news was on. I went back to getting ready and totally ignored it. As I am running my hairdryer, I catch a glimpse of the tv in my peripheral vision and there is an image of the state of Illinois with one of those circle ripple effect graphics they always show around the epicenter of an earthquake. Again, I had not, up until this moment, remembered that I had waken in the night to pray. No recollection at all. I watch the screen and there had apparently been an earthquake that had barely been felt in Northern IL in the middle of the night. Then I remembered the “wake-up call” in the night and I knew then that God had awaken me to pray to minimize damage, injuries and effects of an earthquake. Praise God I was sensitive enough to pray instead of just brushing it off and going back to sleep. I gave Him authority to act when I prayed for the people in that areas of earthquakes and I prayed for less impact than what would have been otherwise.
The Deer – Testimony 2
About a year ago, a great ministry friend of ours was holding special services in a town about 2 hours from our home. My husband and I made multiple trips to her meetings one week. I was driving from work to a meeting place so we could ride together and then pick it back up on our way home afterwards. As I was getting out of one of the cars, God showed me a quick image of me hitting a deer. I didn’t say word to anyone and just prayed that no harm would come to us on our drive and that Psalm 91:11 verse again. I literally spent less than a minute saying that prayer as I got into the other car with my husband. I never gave it another thought. Didn’t even mention it to him.
We went to the service and spent a lot of time afterwards fellowshipping with our friend. By the time we left the town, we weren’t going to get home until close to 1:30 a.m. The host pastors of the church gave us a couple of small plastic bottles of soda for the drive to help provide some caffeine. (This will have significance later.) We got back to the other car and we were only about 20 miles from home. I had driven about 7 of those miles with Earl about a mile behind me. I look down at either the radio or the dash at something and then look up. DEER! Standing directly in front of me in my lane of traffic. I could not do a single thing but brace myself for the impact. I was driving likely close to 75 mph. I heard myself hit it. I actually felt the car drive over it, but no real impact. The car just kept going and I could hear parts falling off of it and hitting the pavement. I pulled onto the shoulder and just sat there realizing that I had indeed hit the deer. It always takes a second for a brain to process some of these things.
Earl comes up behind me and comes up to the car. I start to get out, but am not able to get the car door further than a few inches. He hadn’t seen me hit the deer and wasn’t sure what was happening. I explain it and he helps me get the car door open. We called authorities and I walked around to the passenger side to get the insurance card out of the glove compartment. As I open the door, I see my purse sitting in the passenger seat and the small empty soda bottle still in the seat. I suddenly am very much aware of the fact that even though I had slammed into a deer driving 75 miles per hour and I felt absolutely zero impact. My seatbelt had not even tightened on me when I hit it. That empty soda bottle was still in the seat and my purse, which seems to always go flying into the floor from just coming up on a stop light, was still sitting undisturbed in the front seat. I knew my God had protected me from any impact. I had no bruises, no soreness, nothing. I wouldn’t have even known I had hit it except I could hear things falling off of the car hitting the pavement. I also knew that the second I saw that deer, I did not have time to pray, so God, who knew that the path of this deer was going to cross my path, showed me ahead of time so that I would have time to pray for my safety. If He hadn’t shown me that and I wouldn’t have had time to pray, He wouldn’t have had the authority to protect me. Would the deer have killed me without prayer, maybe not, but I certainly could have been injured and possibly quite seriously injured.
I wish I could tell you that no deer were injured in this testimony, but unfortunately, the deer did not survive. I wish I had prayed differently, but I did not. I only prayed for my own safety and I am pretty sure deer cannot pray, so it did not survive. I try to remember to pray for all living creatures including myself from now on.
I also want to say that God does not send a deer into my path just so I can learn to pray for myself and find He is good for protecting me. He just knew the deer would be there and so would I, so He did what He could to save at least one of us.