As many of you already know- I had been in the beautiful country of Lebanon this past month. I am already having withdraws. I miss it so much! I especially miss my Teta (grandma) who lives in Beirut. It’s sad to say that I don’t think I will ever see her in this life again… But I am holding on tight to the love she gives to her family. Her love will last forever in my heart. It’s that unconditional love from Jesus that pours out of her. I know this for certain because not a day went by without a tear in her eyes, and the proclamation of adoration for her savior. “JESUS,” She would always cry out, “I LOVE YOU.”
But most of all, every single day she would tell me of her 3 witnessed miracles like it was the first time I would hear it (kind of like 50 First Dates haha).
1. Aunt Renee’s Healing:
So my aunt Renee was in a coma at the hospital for quite some time. All of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were so worried about her. She was not able to go to bathroom without the machine that was connected to her. My Teta visited her often and prayed over her. She would read Psalms over her and lay her hands on her. One night my aunt Myrna called my Teta, frantically saying: “Yvonne! what did you do to Renee?!”
Teta told me she was so scared, she thought she had died. But Myrna said aunt Renee woke up from her coma! Renee said to tell Yvonne (my teta) that she has pure hands!
Later, the doctors couldn’t even explain how Renee didn’t even need the machine anymore. She was able to go to bathroom by herself now! My uncle is a doctor and he admits this is a true miracle!
My Teta told me this story every single day in Lebanon and it never got old.
2. The Locked Door:
In Lebanon, many doors can be locked with a key from the inside of the house and from the outside. In this case, when the key is still in the door from inside the house it’s impossible to open the door from the outside. My Teta has a maid who lives with her so there never was a problem with being locked out since Souma was always home. In this circumstance, Souma was not at home (I think she was back in her country visiting family). Teta inserted her key in the door to unlock it and go inside. The key wouldn’t move. That’s when she realized she had left the other key in the door on the inside. There’s no way to open the door now. No spare key, or wire, or banging can work. Her door is mighty thick too. It’s a pretty huge door. Her neighbors didn’t know what to do. There was no option but to pray for a miracle. Teta said that should have been her first response. She knelt down, placed her hand on the door and asked the Lord to forgive her for not coming to Him first. She prayed for the door to open.
And with no explanation except God almighty himself, the door opened! “Hallelujah!” Her neighbors were in total shock. Teta stood up, and confidently said: “there is power in His name.”
3. It’s a Guarantee!
Teta tells me that this was one of her first miracles. She was raised Catholic, but there came a time where she felt the pursuit of God. She experienced the hunger to know Him more. That is when she fell to her knees in surrender.
She explained that the night she surrendered her life to Christ, she had a remarkable dream. She is convinced that it was a small glimpse of heaven. It was the most beautiful experienced she had ever encountered. She was walking over a bridge in this dream. She saw a woman straight across from her who was looking up into the sky. Teta then began to look up. There’s a bird!
But this bird was no ordinary bird. Teta tried to explain that this bird had the colors of diamonds, gold, silver, and rainbow. It’s hard to picture something like that, but that was the best way she could describe it. This bird flew down to Teta. The bird swooped down so gracefully that Teta didn’t realize until she looked over to see the bird had sat down on her shoulder. Teta then says rather loudly: “This was no face of a bird! No… it was a face of a boy!”
This was the first time she ever felt the overwhelming presence of the Lord. She had now been guaranteed the Holy Spirit. She woke up with such peace that transcended all understanding. She knew it could only be from the Father. She was a child of God now and she believed this with all her heart.
I hope these real life experiences encourage you to seek our heavenly Father all the more. He desires His children to grow closer to Him.
“We’ll discover there’s far more pleasure to be experienced in Him than in anything else. There’s indescribably greater power to be realized with Christ and a much higher purpose to be accomplished for Him than in anything else this world has to offer.” -D. Platt
