When God Intervenes

James 5:13-18

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.[a]17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

2 Chronicles 7:14

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Luke 11:9-13

9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for[a] a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

When rescuers arrived to Missouri's Lake Sainte Louise on Jan. 19 after reports that three 14-year-old boys had fallen through the ice, John Smith had already been underwater for 15 minutes. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports he was taken to a hospital with no pulse, and while his companions were treated for hypothermia, staff performed CPR on John for 27 minutes. "He was dead for 45 minutes," Dr. Kent Sutterer tellsKSDK. There was a "very poor chance of survival." But when the doctor called John's mom into the room, "she started praying loudly," he says. Adds Joyce Smith, "I don't remember what all I said. But I remember, 'Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son.' ... All of a sudden I heard them saying, 'We got a pulse, we got a pulse.'"

Today, John's brain function is normal and he's at home walking and talking like any other teenager, KSDK reports. He's getting physical therapy to regain some movement in his hands, but otherwise he's only battling a cough. "After listening to what the paramedics and doctors said I'm pretty surprised at the outcome," John says. Dr. Sutterer, who says John's heart started within "a minute or two" of his mom's prayers, later wrote a note to make sense of the experience. "His heart was jump started by the Holy Spirit listening to the request of his praying mother," it reads. Another doctor adds that "it's a bonafide miracle." John's rescuers from Lake St. Louis Fire and Emergency had practiced ice rescues just days before he was saved. 

What do you think?

Love, pastor kent