“The stories from these individuals are so powerful. It humbled me and reminded me how blessed we are to serve a God that is in active pursuit of all of us.“ —Paige Pinter-Wilson, Licensed Social Worker
by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
What is it to encounter God through an experience that cannot be explained any other way?
They called the blind man, saying to him, “Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you.” And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Teacher, that I may receive my sight.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. Mark 10:49-52 (NKJV)
Having encountered God truly, body, mind, and soul, could impact your life so radically, that you would be changed forever. “Your faith has made you well,” Jesus said. Your faith has changed your life.
If this has been your experience, then you know. If not, perhaps, you know, or have heard of, someone who has been changed once they came into faith. What happened?
While human in the flesh on earth, Jesus would have encounters with people that would change their lives forever.
What does it mean to have faith in God… to have faith in Jesus?
What is faith?
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
According to Mirriam-Webster, substance is defined as “ultimate reality that underlies all outward manifestations and change” and evidence is defined as an “outward indication that furnishes proof” that something is authentic. It is real; to be believed. Faith comes from hope being realized by personal experience; the evidence of faith.
Experience God
We do not see God with our eyes. So, what does it mean to experience God?
What might it be to have an encounter with Jesus so favorable, so deeply profound, that it changes your life?
The truth is that freedom is achieved through a revolutionary event. Revolutionary is defined as a sudden, radical, or complete change; a fundamental change in the way of thinking about, or visualizing something; a change in paradigm (belief, world view), meaning your standard for better living is seen through a clearer lens.
Transformed by a Changed Mind
I am about to share with you stories about individuals who have encountered God through individually specific experiences that were truly revolutionary. These stories include a couple of people who did not know anything about faith in God, or had remotely considered even the existence of God.
1 Before I share these stories, please consider two stories from the New Testament in The Bible that incredible examples of what it is to encounter God through an experience with Jesus.
Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! 8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. 9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
10 Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord!” he replied.
11 The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. 12 I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.”
13 “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! 14 And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”
15 But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. 16 And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.
Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. 20 And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”
21 All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”
22 Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Acts 9:1-22 (NLT)
Saul, would go on to identify himself by the name, Paul, to be known as Paul, the Apostle, which means, “one sent on a mission,” an advocate in “ardent support” of a belief system. The Apostle Paul would go on to write most of the New Testament, typically from a prison cell by candlelight some 2000 years ago.
It is in relationship with Jesus that you will come to know God to be real and living. It is in relationship with Jesus that you enter into the relevancy of grace that will usher you into the experience of new life. Relationship with Jesus is the bridge to better living, the pathway to peace and joy by way of healing and restoration into freedom.
So, what is it to truly trust God? What is it to experience the substance and the evidence that leads to the knowledge of what is truth? We tend not to trust in unknown outcomes. We trust in what we know by our personal experience to be true. We experience what we don’t see all the time. From our personal experience, we come to know it to be real.
When we don’t trust God, it’s because we don’t really know God. The more we know God the more we will trust him, and the more confidence we’ll have when we communicate with him. Then we will experience life through the revelation of faith. When outcomes living by faith are realized by experience, we can know that we have been made well by faith. It may be gradual in our experience, or be sudden. Only God knows for certain what our need is, far more than we can know what we need, even when experiencing pain.
What does it mean to have a close encounter with God?
A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately the bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed. “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” Luke 8:43-48 (NLT)
This sick woman had a serious problem hemorrhaging blood. In the historical context (around 30 AD), she was considered to be unclean; a social outcast feared by anyone near her. This woman was bleeding for twelve years. She may have had family that broke away from her. She would have been isolated from most of society. She would have found her condition traumatizing. It is not known how she came about this condition. Had she been violated in some way? Beaten? Was it a disease? The woman would have been excluded from all social circles; alienated. She may have had difficulty obtaining food, shelter, and clothing. She must have been agonizing in misery, consumed by isolation and depression.
This person desperately needed help. She believed Jesus Christ had the power to heal her body. She believed Christ could radically improve her circumstances. As Jesus walked through her town amidst the crowd to attend to the ailing daughter of his new friend, this woman slithered her way through to get near to him. Just as it seemed the moment was passing her by, she reached out towards Jesus. She clipped the hem at the fringe of his robe. In a split second, the woman went from the devastating sinking feeling of barely missing Jesus to knowing absolutely that she had been delivered from severe affliction, and the persecution connected to it. Jesus blessed her with his power, healing her even when he wasn’t actually paying attention specifically to her.
Jesus experienced it as well, saying out loud, “Who touched me? Power was delivered through me.” He sought out the person out. The woman was not significant enough to be identified in the account by name. She was hoping to slip away in obscurity. Perhaps this little miracle would remain between her and God. But Jesus, loving her, wanted to know her specifically and intentionally sought her out; asking for her. He was intent on finding her, and he did find her.
Touched by his healing power (the evidence), the woman then met Jesus, personally, and then was touched by his compassion and love (the substance). She began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. What you have here is a love story of faith in relationship with Jesus Christ. Transformative faith when finally realized through an experience with Jesus is indeed a compelling love story to be shared again and again.
If you have accepted that there must be a creative force in the universe that made life from nothing with intention and purpose, then it is reasonable, logically, that God can certainly raise his son from the tomb his body laid in. Once you recognize a creator and find the sensibility in this creator, having a connection with what HE created, then anything and everything is possible after that. God who made life from scratch can surely resurrect it from from the dead. Why not? Of course he can!
What else can be resurrected when God is the force to restore and sustain order within and throughout the lives of the people He made? How might God, through Jesus, affect human experiences?
Encounters with Jesus Changes Lives
Billions of people have testified of their lives being changed by the presence of God, most specifically, Jesus Christ. This is only possible because Jesus is alive. Some have been changed so radically by the love of Jesus that they have turned their lives over to him in surrender to God’s will. They are too often ridden off by unbelievers as deniers of objectivity in the “real world”. They are often thought of as religious fools, not as someone experiencing relationship with God. There is a stark contrast between religion and relationship. We, who have encountered Jesus by faith, cannot comprehend how anyone would ever not want what we know by experience to be authentic.
14-16 In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
16-17 This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (The MESSAGE translation from the writings of Apostle Paul)
As someone who has realized the substance of the hope within me, and experienced the evidence of my faith, I seek to spread the fragrance of life while working in secular settings. Why at work? Because my professional life is working therapeutically with vulnerable, broken individuals in need of an encounter with God. Professionally speaking, to leverage one’s vulnerability in a therapeutic setting is considered exploitation. Truth be told, it is precisely the opportunity to speak truth and life into someone’s broken existence; particularly when there are some that are so shattered in their despair that they wish to terminate their existence.
I take the time, for all who will allow it, to explore with them the God who is the originator and catalyst of all living things, and of Jesus, who sacrificed everything to provide a way into relationship with God. It’s not something required of me in my professional duties, it is what I have the privilege to do to truly be a steward of God’s calling on my life, hoping to give individuals access to an encounter with God that can change the course of their lives.
I present reasonably logical explanations as to why it makes sense to believe that God is real, and that Jesus is alive, loves them, and is able, willing, and desiring to deliver them, heal them, and restore them from empty vessels into the solemn experience of wholeness. I hope to to help people to, not just feel hopeful, but to be hopeful in what they can know with absolute certainty is truth about their life being better.
The following are a few true-life stories of close encounters with the living Christ. I want to encourage you to take your time and allow yourself to go deep enough into these story to feel them, as if you can relate emotionally to what these people experienced having encountered the literal presence of Jesus.
At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NLT)
I have changed the names of the people involved, but these are real experiences shared with these individuals. Images associated with individuals in these stories are from Google Images, and are not pictures of clients and patients.
Dora
While responding to an emergency code to the psychiatric unit comprised of adults, I had an opportunity to talk to someone who told me she did not believe in God but had been thinking about some things. I had been called up from the adolescent unit where I was working to the adult unit because its staff was dealing with a violent patient. I was monitoring the halls checking on patients on the floor.
I tapped on a woman’s door and opened the door to check on her. Laying under the covers in her bed, she looked up barely and asked quietly, “Are you a pastor?”
I told her that I was a counselor called up to the floor temporarily to help out. I asked her, “Why do you ask?” inquiring what she might be wanting to talk to a pastor about.
I asked her why she was in the hospital, and like most patients in behavioral health, she was battling depression and intense thoughts of suicide. She had come to America from a foreign country an ocean or two away hoping to make a better life for her children. It had not gone well for so long until she felt like giving up; and worse, feeling as though her two children were better off without her.
Beyond depression, Dora was at a place of despair. I asked her what she believed about God and spirituality. That is when she spoke of not believing that God exists, and not having had thought much about it. But lately, she has been feeling very depressed, lonely, and seriously contemplating suicide. This had led to her being a little curious about something like God being out there. How could she know?
One of the things I usually start with is with this question, assuming that something had to always exist: “If God didn’t always exist, what did?” Dora expressed some appreciation for the question. We talked for a bit about how life must have originated from something or someone alive in order to produce life. I told her that I was attempting to make a logical, reasonable case for the reality of God. Dora responded that it made sense that it would take something or someone alive to to produce new life. She also expressed agreement that if God can produce human life from dust, or essentially nothing, than anything and everything after that from God is logically and reasonable possible. It made sense to her. If only it were true.
So then, we talked about the historical facts surrounding the life death of Jesus; and that even the empty tomb is considered to be historical fact. It’s not something really up for debate. Not long before that, I had mentioned that I am an ordained minister, but not in the role of pastor, but as a counselor getting to speak with her. Dora was then able to agree that if God could make life out of nothing than it was possible that God could resurrect Jesus from the dead, even after three days. On an intellectual level this made sense to her.
So far, these were just words, but they helped me to build some rapport with Dora. I could sense that she might trust me to share a few stories with her. I needed to attract her to wanting relationship with God before hoping to compel Dora to want something she had no idea until then was real. She wouldn’t be going anywhere for a bit so I asked if I could share these stories with her. She nodded that I could, so I did. Keep in mind, that I am sharing these stories with Dora. Maybe, just maybe, she will find some hope in hearing them, assuming she trusts me enough to be telling her the truth. I began with the real-life story of Jo and Liv.
Jo
I was counseling a high graduate still under the cloud of passive suicidal ideation (thoughts and feelings with no plan) while able to contract for safety as she prepared for discharge from the hospital. While we were talking, there was another adolescent patient struggling with symptoms that evoked a profanity-laced psychotic rant from her room that could be heard throughout the adolescent psychiatric ward, who I will refer to as Liv. Her rant included threats of violence against whoever it was that had violated her in the past.
I asked Jo before me how suicide would be of benefit to her. What would she have to gain? She responded by telling me she would finally be free. I asked Jo what she would be free from. (Keep in mind that as we are having this discussion, the Liv’s psychotic rant in the other room continued and seemed to be escalating.)
Jo suggested to me things she would be free from, including intense anxiety, fear (which she understood to be irrational but her sense of what is reasonable did not change what she was feeling), and a prevailing sense of hopeless dread she would experience for extended periods of time. She would tell you that her life was good and that she was relatively happy with healthy self-esteem. This led to Jo suspecting that her neurochemical pathways were amiss, which she found quite troubling; though she was doing much better than she had been.
I asked Jo how she knew she would be free. In the background continued to be the Liv ranting on and on. I asked Jo how she’d be free. “I’d be dead.” She was inferring that being dead would free her of whatever it was in her brain that aroused in her these intrusive suicidal thoughts that at times Jo feared she might act on.
So I had to ask, “What would happen to you if you died?” She told me with a degree of certainty that she would be in heaven. Even though there is nothing in the bible to suggest that God’s mercy does not extend to the mentally ill or someone resorting to such an extreme measure to escape… , I was unwilling to allow her to feel secure about heaven via suicide. I asked her how she knew, or even could know, that she destined for heaven by route of suicide. I wanted Jo to consider what assurance she had about that. “What is heaven? “How did you, or could you, know that heaven is real? What do you know or believe about that? This teenage graduate stumbled and bumbled around these questions, perhaps even doubting that heaven was in play for her.
In the other room, Liv suddenly stopped what had been an evil-sounding half-hour long blusterous onslaught of rage. She stopped while Jo struggled to respond to my questions. Suddenly and oh so clearly, the Liv stated matter-of-factly, “I believe in Jesus. I believe in God.” That is all she said. Then, silence for the next couple of minutes.
Jo and I looked directly at one another as those words were spoken. Still silence from the other room. I asked if what Liv just said answered my questions. As tears began to fill her eyes, Jo told me it did. She then told me that she had wondered what it would be like to ever hear from God, or receive some kind of message or sign from God. It was Jo’s assurance; her guarantee that her faith destined her for heaven. I shared with her the following scripture passage:
O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them,
mere mortals that you should think about them? Psalm 144:3 (NLT)
I informed Jo that the same God who created the universe and is the maker of life, just noticed her in the most tangible way. Jesus made his presence known as he used the voice of a very sick girl to speak to her. Tears were now leaking out of both eyes making their way down her cheeks. At this point, Liv had returned to those psychotic ramblings, as vicious in its content as at any time before.
My next challenge was to direct Jo toward realizing that it is her faith that will continue to make her well. Jo needed the assurance that Jesus intends for her to realize her dreams. One dream is to pursue the thing that has been a threat to her peace of mind, evoking thoughts of suicide. To realize her dream to become a veterinarian, she would have to leave the security of home and family and close friendships to attend college for some eight years.
So, we talked about purpose for her life. We were able to touch on some things of significance that had deep meaning for her. The thought of being a healing agent that would bring joy to pet owners brought her joy. Though tears continued to fill her eyes, they were tears of joy. I asked Jo if I could tell her story to others in the future. She responded, “Tell everyone.”
Jo called the hospital several months later and gave me a report of how well she was doing. From that experience, she was motivated to return to church, and had her entire family back in church. She wasn’t returning to church out of some sense of religious obligation, she wanted to be in God’s house of worship and prayer, as though it was the least she could do to express her gratitude.
What about Liv? Are you curious about her? She would get better with medication and therapy. I got to tell Liv the amazing story of how Jesus showed up when she was at her weakest point, to use her voice to speak his words of hope to Jo (Jo had been discharged from the hospital by the time Liv was herself again). Tears filled her eyes. A nurse approached her to ask if she was okay. Liv told the nurse that, “They’re happy tears.”
To people who have experienced Jesus Christ in the most personal of ways specific to them, there is no question or doubt of his resurrection. They do not need to read something like this to be confident that Jesus arose from the dead and is alive today. It is not something they need to come to believe. It is something they have come to know by their very specific encounter with Jesus Christ. To them, the experience is a matter of fact—permanence—never to be taken from them.
Drew
I also shared with Dora the story of an alcoholic in treatment who did not believe anything about Jesus because he had never been told, never been to church or anything (not even as a child), and didn’t know; completely unaware.
When I met Drew around 2007, I performed my assessment to learn that he was consuming so much alcohol after work that he was likely driving into work the next morning more than two times the legal limit, which is .08 blood alcohol content in Illinois. Ethically, I should have referred Drew to inpatient care until both he and his new wife (second marriage) “begged” me to allow him into my intensive outpatient program. Drew did not want to miss up to four weeks of work, and his wife was hoping he would be able to work with me, hoping that I would introduce Drew to faith in God.
I admitted Drew into my outpatient into my program under the condition that if he used alcohol even one time, I had an ethical and moral responsibility to refer him to a more appropriate level of care, which would be a 28-day inpatient stay before he could rejoin my outpatient program. So, Drew did a five-day detox at a local hospital prior to joining my faith (Christ)-centered program, not knowing much of anything about spirituality or faith.
Drew said he was not opposed to faith, but felt he was never in need of it. I shared with Drew much of what I already wrote about regarding my conversation with Dora about God and Jesus, and the likelihood of Christ’s resurrection from a historical context. Drew agreed that if God always existed and could accept God as his creator, then God raising Jesus from the dead was reasonable, from a logical point of view, whether or not it is the foundation and inspiration for faith.
The notion of prayer was a bit challenging, since Drew had never even considered prayer before. When suggesting that prayer be something he does with his voice, I acknowledged that he may feel as though he is talking to himself. To Drew, praying to Jesus may as well have been praying to Santa Claus; a fable he considered believable as a child but not something he would consider believing as a grown up.
Drew shared with me before a group therapy session that the night before, his urge to drink, “On a scale of 10 was a 30.”
As Drew sat in a gas station parking lot about to buy cigarettes and beer (lots of beer), knowing that it would likely cost him his second marriage, and keep him from relationship from his estranged pre-adolescent daughter from his first marriage, he talked to this Jesus person, who he had just heard about. He said out loud (“I was praying to the God of Steve”), “Jesus, I don’t know if you’re real if you are then I need your help.” Drew said he felt something go through him head to toe, as if he’d been washed. It was as though Santa Claus, metaphorically speaking, had landed on his roof. He said his urge to drink, “Went from 30 to like, two.” He left the gas station and went home. He didn’t even buy cigarettes.
When Drew returned for the next treatment session and told me this story, he wanted it all: get his hands on a Bible, find a church, faith-centered meetings, and more… all of it!
It was not perfect for Drew. After following up with him for several months, he was doing well. He expressed a great deal of positivity and gratitude for where he was at in his recovery into sobriety in his relationship with Jesus. It included attending meeting with like-minded men who also encouraged him in his faith.
Over an extended period of time, Drew stopped taking or returning my calls after I had left messages. Then one day, almost a year later, I received permission to do a well-being check at his home around 9:00 in the evening after a group therapy session. Drew answered the door and looked great. Fantastic! Not what I anticipated at all. I did not expect him to answer the door, and if he did, I expected he would be a mess, having relapsed I suspected. I asked why he had not returned my calls.
“Steve, I relapsed for a few months.” Drew had discontinued the discipline of recovery. Instead of building a supportive sober recovery network, he had isolated. I did not ask questions about his wife or the daughter God had afforded him to rebuild relationship with. He then told me about what he did to back into recovery in just the last couple of weeks. I had not called during that time.
I asked Drew if he had another one of those encounters. He had not. “Steve, I never stopped believing, I didn’t need that.” he said. “I just got lazy. I stopped doing what I needed to do and fell back into bad habits.” That is what Drew did. Just like every other person of faith. Then, he returned to meetings, attended church, read his bible, and prayed. He had also returned to certain accountability he had set up.
The more I shared about others facing incredible adversities with Dora, and how they tapped into relationship Jesus experienced restoration in their lives and circumstances, the more her face seemed to light up. She was sitting up in her bed. There was definitely an improvement to her countenance as I continued. One more story, and it was important.
Roy
I am going to share one more story that I believe is experiential testimony that Jesus is alive and involved today. This time it involves a man well into his 40s and his 11-year-old niece. Roy identified here was receiving treatment for a DUI to satisfy a court ruling. He was admitted to my faith-based intensive outpatient alcohol and drug treatment program at a Christian counseling agency where I took prayer requests at the outset of our treatment groups. Roy told us he had grown up Catholic but hadn’t had even a thought about it since he was a teenager.
Toward the end of his second week in the program, Roy asked for prayer for his 11-year-old niece who was dying in the hospital due to multiple organ failure and hooked up to all kinds of machines. Roy admitted he had not prayed in a long, long time and that this was as good a day as any to revisit his religious beliefs from the past. I led the treatment group in praying for his niece. I would always ask for updates when praying for someone in the name of Jesus.
We prayed for the Roy’s niece at the end of a treatment week leading into the weekend. This is where it gets tough for me. I want so badly for Jesus to show up and do something special. But that’s on Him. I obviously have no control over that. Honestly, I expected my client to come to group the next week with tragic news.
Roy spent much of the weekend at the hospital supporting his niece, hoping for her recovery. He returned the next week and couldn’t wait to report back with an update concerning his niece. He shared with the group that she was making tremendous progress with a prognosis for full recovery. He told us that the medical team was totally mystified as to the reversal of what was happening in the young girl’s body. Roy reported later in the week that his niece was getting better and was no longer hooked up to anything. The doctors and specialists were now keeping her under observation until they felt she was safe to return home. My client told us at the beginning of the next week that his niece was home.
Roy told the group that his mother had been praying for weeks for her granddaughter’s healing but that Jesus did not answer her prayer until I prayed for his niece. It was imperative that I corrected him about that. I made certain to make it known to this man that God indeed answered his mother’s prayer. It was the timing that needing clarification. I told Roy that his mother prayed for her granddaughter for weeks but in all likelihood had been praying for her son for decades that he would return home to the faith he had grown up hearing about. Roy told his peers in group that he believed without any doubt that Jesus healed his niece, which restored his faith.
Resurrection can mean a lot of things. In this case, the same Jesus that was resurrected from the dead, resurrected the failing organs of a dying 11-year-old girl, while resurrecting the faith of her 40-something-year-old uncle. It’s an awesome story! I love talking about this stuff and share these stories with anyone willing to consider that there is someone who is the originator of life who can and will resurrect lives that are withering and dying.
Something that must be acknowledged here is that each occasion when I have told this story, and so many others saying they do not believe in God, regarding Roy’s niece, I ask them regarding Roy’s niece, “Who else was Roy’s mother praying for (in addition to her granddaughter)?” The response every single time is, “Him.”
Even those who discount having faith in God respond that Roy’s mother was also praying for him. Why? How would they even know to say “him” unless there is something they already understood on some level is believable? Dora said, “Him.” I asked her how she knew that unless something within her already on some level believed? To say that it affected her emotionally and psychologically is an understatement. To say that it impacted her—changed her—spiritually would be closer to what happened that day.
Dora Again
I went on to speak to Dora about how, if God could resurrect Jesus from death into life, then maybe he could do the same for her; that God could resurrect this woman’s hopelessness into hope; that God could take this woman from her dread into feeling confident that her life has the potential for joy and purpose. By then, she was sitting up and smiling, talking about her life with a much more positive outlook. This happened over a period of 40 minutes or so, but changed the trajectory her life.
We also talked about what it means to talk to God, creator and ruler of the universe, who noticed her, and sent someone responding to an emergency code to go up two floors to her unit to visit with her while in incredible distress concerning her life. Dora was smiling with that lilt in her voice as she spoke. I knew that she believed. She told me that she would give prayer a try, but not in a dismissive way. I knew that she meant it.
Since I did not typically work on the adult unit where she was, I told Dora that if I did not get to see her again, that I would see her in heaven someday. It is a bit like Jesus knowing that the criminal on the cross to his left was reborn into faith when he said to Jesus all of two words, “Remember me,” I knew with certainty that Dora believed.
Before, leaving her doorway, she said this to me, “Steve, there is something I have told you yet. Literally, just before you tapped on my door, I thought to myself, ‘If there is a God, he will bring someone to talk to me.’ It was just at that moment that you tapped and opened my door.” Then Dora asked me, “Are you a pastor?”
Already phenomenally blessed by that experience with Dora, due to being overstaffed on the adolescent unit I typically work with, I was assigned to the adult unit a couple of days later. Dora was in the day room and attending therapy groups. We had opportunities to talk during the morning part of my shift. She was like this brand new person having encountered Jesus for herself. Brand new to the idea of faith, now born into it, I had a little bit more opportunity to share with her next steps. Jump online and buy a Bible (New Living Translation, preferably) and suggested a church near where she lives.
Dora was back in her own clothes as she prepared to be discharged by early afternoon. It had been just two days since she had been buried under hospital blankets in her bed for some 36 hours, refusing meals, still not answering questions from nurses, except for a grunt now and then, and one time telling the doctor she wanted to die. People reading this that work in a psychiatric setting understand how that’s a quick turn around time to be discharged. There is no doubt in my mind that Dora’s life had been, Transformed by the renewing of her mind,” having believed by faith, “In view of God’s mercy.”
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
Did this happen just as I said it did? Or, am I making it up? Perhaps I have embellished the facts. Truth be told, it was much more than what I have been able to convey with mere words. It was one of dozens of these kinds of situations that the resurrected Jesus, very much alive today, showed up and did something very special for someone. It was a very special for me as well to experience someone else’s encounter.
Llesenia
I did not share this God encounter with Dora because it had not happened yet. I did share the full compliment of those stories above with Llesenia. Her life would be changed forever. I originally wasn’t going to share this, having already shared the other stories, but this one is especially important to me because Llesenia is especially important to me. Beyond developing strong rapport with her would develop into something that was akin to a bond; a kind of a paternal connection.
Llesenia, some six weeks shy of her 16th birthday, was inpatient at the hospital twice over about an eight-week period. I tried to maintain what is known as professional (and emotional) distance from her, but admit it became increasingly difficult. She laughed at my jokes; we both laughed quite a bit during our conversations. She had a similar sense of humor and dished out one-liners that were clever and funny. While I have empathy and compassion for all of my clients and patients, I will admit that I had a grown particularly fond of Llesenia.
Llesenia had experienced something referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) psychosis. When I first really paid attention to Llesenia specifically, other than in group therapy settings, was when she experienced a hallucination and began to sob profusely in front of a dozen of her peers. I was sitting a few feet away and asked Llesenia what was happening. She said that she had seen a man and an eight-year-old girl. Llesenia told me that the man she understood to be evil, and that the young girl was her. I was able to reason with Llesenia that it was not possible that the man, nor the girl, could possibly be at the hospital. She understood that to be the case but still quite frightened to see what she saw. It was this lucid hallucination that led to feeling suicidal, which resulted in being admitted inpatient.
When people hallucinate like that, what they experience appears remarkably real. If you have not experienced anything like it, think of a lucid dream so real that there is no way you were dreaming. Everything was three-dimensional in vivid detail all around you. The emotion within the experience is raw as though everything matters. It is not a dream, as far as you’re concerned in the moment. It can’t be! And then, your alarm goes off, you awaken, and it is time to get out of bed. Either you are happy to be awake because the dream was quite unpleasant, or you are disappointed because the dream was so favorable. Imagine all of that happening while you are conscious. That is similar to how it is when someone experiences a hallucination.
I was able to pull Llesenia aside, and asked her what had happened. When Llesenia was eight years old, she had a trauma experience that she had buried deep down for some six years before it resurfaced as post-traumatic stress. Everything that happened during her experience, until the age of 14, had become a repressed memory until she first hallucinated and went to a hospital. Llesenia reported having suicidal thoughts, and would rather die than live with the experience of reliving again and again what had occurred six years ago.
Llesenia struggled with self-esteem issues that are borne from trauma. There were times she could not imagine being happy. But, she girl enjoyed humorous exchanges and laughing. I encouraged her to soak that in as an opportunity to experience joy in the midst of what often felt like dread.
Llesenia received the treatment she needed, a combination of effective medication and therapy, and began to get better. She still hallucinated some but understood not to be so threatened by them. One of the things she learned was to understand that the scars from her trauma experience are healed wounds. That is what scars are… healed wounds. She also learned that she has wounds from her trauma and other experiences growing up that are still healing.
Llesenia learned not to settle when it comes to relationships and was committed to abstaining from toxicity in her life, understanding fully what that means for her. She had no problem articulating the importance of behavioral change for her life, not because she was told to, but because she understood certain changes about her decisions to be best for her.
During follow-up care, I gave Llesenia a New Living Translation Bible and helped teach her how to read it. She applied prayer to her therapeutic endeavors once leaving the clinical setting of the hospital. Being secure in her relationship with God helped, and I believe still helps her, to overcome her insecurities. She returned to being involved in her local church.
There is another very important piece to Llesenia’s story I have not shared. At a time when her hallucinations were at bay for the most part, she told me a few months later via video chats, that she was experiencing a presence behind her, just to her right. It was a new experience. I asked her if she found it comforting or if she feared it. She told me she was very frightened by it. She was fairly certain it was another form of attack to her mental well being.
I asked Llesenia in the chat to grab her bible, which she did. I asked her to turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 14. I asked her to read it out loud.
Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. Hebrews 1:14 (NLT)
I knew I was taking a risk here but believed I was led by God to bring this to her attention. After a very brief description of this verse, Llesenia put her face into her hands and burst into tears, which I admit frightened me a bit. I asked her what was wrong.
Llesenia raised her face back to where I could see her. With tears of joy still flowing, SHE GLOWED!!
Llesenia told me that as she read that verse aloud and as we discussed it, the presence that she now understood to be God’s presence (maybe an angel) to care for her and protect her, had put his hand tenderly on her right shoulder, up against the crook of her neck. Llesenia had literally been touched by God, or a ministering angel, for several minutes. There was no doubt!
By now, she knew that the angel represented the presence of Jesus in a way she had never experienced before. She had no fear. This was not a hallucination or delusion. Llesenia encountered the presence of heaven—an angel, the Holy Spirit, I don’t know for sure—but is was Jesus reassuring her that she was loved beyond anything she had ever known.
Llesenia had heard all of the stories (above) with amazement. All I said to her while she was still joyfully tearful, was that she now has her own story to share.
Though Llesenia’s mother had shared with me in a note that I was an angel sent by God into her daughter’s life, Jesus did so much more. Llesenia encountered God for herself in way that most of us will ever experience on this side of heaven. This was remarkably special. Llesenia’s faith has made her well. She is not without struggle, but will always be comforted by the presence of God who gives her strength.
Made Well by Faith
What do you think about God? How do you see Jesus?
Guess how Jesus sees you?
The woman who had a bleeding condition was considered by those she encountered for years to be unclean. She was treated badly… bullied… for a condition she had no control over. She sought Jesus out, confident by faith that merely touching his clothing would be the encounter that would bless her with healing. Thought to be an outcast shamed by her community, she hoped to go unnoticed, fade away into the sunset. But the woman got more than she bargained for when Jesus paid specific attention to her since she had accessed healing power and Jesus seemingly unaware how that happened. It likely never happened before like that. It seemed to affect Jesus in a profound way. Jesus, then, affectionately identified the woman as “Daughter” while expressing that they now had a relationship.
Dora, Jo, Dell, Roy, and Llesenia had transformative encounters with the living Christ that were experiences of a lifetime. They each have relationship with Jesus. There are so many more stories like these that I could have shared with you. I suppose that since I was privileged to participate in those experiences they are among my encounters with Jesus as well. These encounters matter. I have a story of my own having encountered Jesus in ways I would have never expected that has transformed my life.
Why would anyone dismiss an encounter with the living Christ? They do not believe God to be good? Do they conceptualize God as an authority that is judgmental and condemning, rather someone who loves them and wants to quell their insecurities and fears? Would they prefer to carry the burden that is far too heavy crushing them with worry? Would they prefer to drown than have Jesus calm the storm in their life?
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT, translated from the writings of Apostle Paul)
Faith is the matter of laying down your burden in order to be raised with Jesus. Rejecting relationship with the risen Savior means being buried under the weight of selfish sin as a logical, natural consequence for having made that choice. Then, adding to the weight of such a crushing burden, is the weight and misery associated with resentment against God for allowing insurmountable pain and seemingly leaving you in it to be overcome by it.
We can have difficulty trusting Jesus in relationship with him because we do not see him. When we imagine what he looks like, we might picture him suffering on a cross reminding us of our shame. According to Scripture, though, we are free from our shame and Jesus is no longer on the cross or buried in a tomb. Jesus is on his throne as God, the king of the universe paying attention and wanting relationship with us. We read that, while a man of flesh on earth with human limitations, Jesus “inadvertently” healed a woman who touched only his clothing. Jesus did not even accept credit for the power that came from him when is clothing was scarcely touched. He told the woman it was her faith that made her well.
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT)
Jesus is no longer a man in one place at one time walking the earth. Jesus is God roaming the universe while dwelling in the hearts and lives of all that know him on earth. Do you really know him who stands at the door of your heart knocking (Revelation 3:20)? He knows where you are—all the time—and he’d love to come and spend his time with you.
Have you, or will you, let him in all the way in where he can hang out with you? Are you experiencing God in your life? What is the evidence of your experience with Jesus? Do you experience any what you hope for? Do you reach out with the determination to touch Jesus? Have you experienced in your life the touch of God? In other words, have you encountered God?
I believe that when we pray with faith and trust, Jesus stops and says to the angels, “Who touched me?” They might reply, “Why do you say, ‘Who touched me?’ People are praying all around you all of the time.'” But Jesus knows when it is the power of faith in that prayer and says to the angels, “Power left me. Someone touched me.” That sounds like poetic symmetry with the Scripture but in fact, when you are in relationship with Jesus, he knows each detail of your life. He recognizes that you have faith, and is himself touched with the experience of you having the faith to trust him. Jesus is moved with compassion and takes joy in touching your life as his response to you. He wants to shower you with his generosity.
The same God regulating the forces of energy within and throughout the galaxies of the universe is interested in you, specifically. God notices you and is paying particular attention to you and me. It is beyond astounding to even try to comprehend that. However, to experience his loving, gracious touch, will move you to gratitude with the desire and motivation to enter into a reciprocating relationship with Jesus.
When Jesus gives to us, how cannot we not gladly receive it. It is unmerited favor—grace. To reciprocate is to extend God’s grace to others. For every giver, there is a receiver. And for every receiver, there is a giver. That is the gravitational order, if you will, within the family and community of believers loving one another as we have been loved by Jesus. It is how we reflect the love we have for Jesus. It is a beautiful and wonderous thing!
Jesus loves you! Go after him fervently. It is Christ’s passion to pursue you. Scripture tells us that he responds to fervent prayer. Go after God, telling him what you need and value until you receive from him what he wants and has for you. It’s all good!
Jesus knows you and sympathizes with your discomfort. He is paying special attention to you. You cannot sneak up on him. But sometimes things get in the way and try to prevent you from touching Jesus with your prayers. How badly do you want what God has for you? Trust him. Trust what you believe about Jesus by faith.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20 (NIV, translated from the writings of Apostle Paul)
Relationship with Jesus has already been established for you to experience. Do you want your own close encounter with your Savior, the sovereign authority over all things? It is yours if you want it. Recognize and admit you are selfish as all people are. Confess your imperfections to God, what the Bible calls sin. Tell Jesus that you want what he has already given to you and accept the forgiveness he has promised upon your confession of sin. It is your own personal encounter with Jesus that you do not want to miss. And then it is relationship with Jesus that is the clincher.
Be confident that Jesus loves you and loves to bless you from his abundant wealth—the resources of heaven. All that is his is yours. Do you believe it? Do you want it? You have direct access to God through Jesus Christ. Pursue him some more. After all, you can bet that he is pursuing you. Soak yourself in the generous favor that God so willingly wants to shower you with from the fountain of endless peace and joy.
