Devoted Blog

Audacious Faith

May 22, 2019

Blog Written By Jessica Beckham

 

It was a normal day at work. I was in a meeting when my phone vibrated. I looked down to see a text from my husband: “911 please call me, it’s your dad.”  I immediately left the meeting to give my husband a call. With urgency like I’ve never heard he said, “Your dad’s in ICU, he’s not breathing on his own. We don’t know what’s going on right now, but we need to get to the hospital.” Those words cut my heart like a knife. I’ve always had a special bond with my dad; I was a daddy’s girl all my life. The poignant possibility of never being able to say “I love you” again, was too crushing and disheartening to bear.

 

I drove with my younger brother and we held hands the whole way to the hospital, we prayed, we cried, still not fully knowing what to expect. We walked into the hospital and stepped onto the ICU floor with heavy hearts. When we walked into my dad’s room, we saw the man we knew and loved hooked up to every machine you could think of. The nurse told us he was barely sedated, but not breathing on his own. Unable to give us a prognosis yet, the nurse told us that his heart was only functioning at 15% and they didn’t know how long he had been without oxygen when he was found.

 

What do you do when your world seems to be falling apart? When the person you love is not even lucid enough to believe for a miracle for himself? I can remember being at the hospital all day and night, only going home long enough to sleep and come right back the next morning. Each day would pass and we still wouldn’t have the answers we were seeking. I remember when a team of doctors came out and asked the dreaded question, “Do you want us to resuscitate?” Without hesitation, a steadfast “Yes” came out of my mouth. The doctors looked down almost as if, silently asking: why bother?

 

We had our church family delivering meals, holding our hands, calling and praying with us. We NEVER felt alone. We had so many people holding our arms up when we would just feel too tired to do it on our own. There’s such a supernatural power in community. The doctors couldn’t tell us he would make it, if he would ever be the same, or if he would ever be well enough just to breathe on his own.

 

The doctors couldn’t give us any hope; they told us there was nothing positive they could say about my dad. “He has severe brain damage, his heart is still functioning at 15%, and he has had several mini-strokes.” Leaving the room, I looked at my brothers who made their way to the hallway and sat with complete desperation on their faces. Sometimes it’s easy to believe the lies of the enemy or the prognosis of a negative doctor’s report. Doctors are there to help us, they are God-given, but have you ever thought that doctors are also there to confirm our healing? A fire began to burn in my belly! I told my brothers to get up; we were going to exercise our faith. Outside we walked around the hospital as if it were Jericho. We warred in the spirit and spoke out the scriptures of declaration and healing.

 

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”(Mark 11:22-24 NIV)

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”(John 15:7 NIV)

 

Two days later, my dad woke up. Slowly we started receiving positive reports. Dad was moved out of ICU because doctors said his heart and brain had started functioning normally. Are we special or unique that we got the miracle of having our dad back? No, we just had the audacity to believe God can do anything, and that He wants to see us healed and whole. Sometimes, when we pray, it’s as if we are trying to “remind” Him of His word, but it’s not God that needs the reminder, it’s us.

 

John 16:33 (NIV) says:

“I have told you these things so that in me you will have peace. In this world, you will have trouble but take heart for I have overcome the world.”

If you are going through a difficult season, I encourage you to get planted in a Community Group within your local church. I was able to draw on the strength of the amazing friends from my Community Group who were praying for and loving us. “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”  – Corrie Ten Boom

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