Michael James Hastings, USA

You may recognize the name Michael James Hastings. He received a lot of media attention on the internet from his work on the TV drama “The West Wing” as “Captain Mike”. You can read more about Michael’s extraordinary life and challenges in Dr Chet Weld’s brilliant book, just published, which is full of fascinating testimonies, titled ‘God is in the Crazy’ pp 244-249.

Here is one incident, reported with permission from Michael, who writes:

I will never forget an experience that took place in 1984. While juggling financial tuition at two schools—Oral Roberts University and Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma—I received letters from both schools stating that if I did not come up with $250 for each one by March 12, I would be dropped. I barely had money to live on, and this amount seemed impossible to obtain. I had only two days to come up with it, so I immediately went to prayer. I prayed according to the admonition of Hebrews 4:16: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” I began walking around my room, boldly reading scriptures out loud (and I mean loud!), and addressing the angels in Heaven (Hebrews 1:14).

The next day something incredible happened…something I will never forget. It was a Sunday morning, and I went to one of the morning services at Victory Christian Center on the Oral Roberts campus. I expected to be all “fired up” by some dynamic message, but instead, I felt nothing.

 I returned home, and as the hours progressed, I began to realize that I was going to be kicked out of both schools. Suddenly, a profound heaviness came over me. I wasn’t bitter, but I realized that this really was the end of my dream. It meant I wouldn’t graduate from either of the schools, which also meant I would have to resign from my position as the mission’s director to Kenya, East Africa, which I had been chosen to lead. I became very quiet and sombre.

As the hours ticked by, I decided I may as well go to the evening service at the church. I walked over (I didn’t have a car) and attended the service. It was a nice sermon, but nothing seemed to move the heaviness that was upon me.

As I was leaving the stadium, a woman named Jan came up to me. I met her at a Bible study several months before, but she was just an acquaintance. She turned to me and said, “It’s beginning to rain. Can I give you a ride home?” I could barely hear the question since I was so absorbed in my inner world of trying to figure out how I was going to solve my crisis. I thought I had cast my cares on the Lord and was choosing to trust God, but the reality was that I felt God had abandoned me and I was now reaping the harvest of poor planning. I felt so much defeat at that moment and really didn’t want to be bothered by anyone—or be with anyone. I turned to her and said, “No, I’m fine, I don’t live that far.” I kept walking, but then realized that getting a ride was probably a good idea. I turned back to Jan and said, “Yes, the ride to graduate housing would definitely help!”

I got in her car, and she began to drive me to the graduate housing where I lived. We talked about the Lord and the sermon, but I made no mention of my crisis. When we arrived, she turned to me and said, “Michael, is everything okay?” I told her everything was “just fine.” (I genuinely felt my situation was too burdensome and complex for anyone to help.) As I began to get out of the car, she turned to me and said, “Wait!” I stopped in my tracks and leaned back into the car to hear what she had to say: “Michael, while we were in the service tonight, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said,

‘Give Michael Hastings $500.’”

My eyeballs just about popped out of my head! I couldn’t believe it! “You’ve got to be kidding!” I said. I slowly sat back in the car seat and told her the whole story about the $500 that was needed for the two schools. She opened her purse, wrote out a cheque for $500, and handed it to me. I was stunned…flabbergasted! How could this have possibly happened? In that shocking moment, I realized how real God was, and that this woman had heard from God—and obeyed what He said! Not only was my prayer answered, but it set into motion a series of outstanding events. Jan’s obedience helped me to continue my education at both schools and graduate from them in May of 1984. Her obedience also allowed me to continue my role as mission’s director to Kenya that summer.

But there was more to the story…

And That Was Successful evangelism and Dining with a President

During that summer in Africa, our mission team produced much fruit: hundreds of people were saved, and dozens of people shared testimonies of healing when we prayed over them. In addition, we were invited to dine with the president of Kenya (President Moi) at his home which was like our White House in the USA. We were his honoured guests at a three-hour tribal celebration in his backyard.

When I returned from Africa, my story was featured in the December 1984 issue of Oral Roberts’ magazine, Abundant Life. Without Jan’s $500 gift, not only would I not have graduated, but I would not have been part of that dynamic evangelism, nor would I have dined with the president! None of these things would have happened without Jan’s obedience. This was so very striking about this miracle – her obedience had far-reaching consequences.

An interesting event is that Jan’s mother accepted the Lord a few weeks after Jan gave me the cheque. (Michael sees this as God blessing Jan after she gave him the money, in line with the Abrahamic blessing “God will bless those who bless you.”)

Michael’s testimony reveals many characteristics about God:

1. God’s timing. Michael needed the money in a matter of hours.
2. God’s knowledge – the exact amount Michael needed—$500.
3. God’s organization – the chances of running into Jan after leaving a stadium filled with thousands of people streaming through multiple exits.
4. God’s precision with words. Jan didn’t just get a “sense” that she needed to help some person in need. God specifically told her his name— “Michael Hastings”—and told her exactly how much to give.
5. God always requires instant obedience. There was a sense of urgency on Jan’s part to “act on the word now,” not in a week or month later when it would have been too late. Michael still marvels that Jan was practically a stranger to him. She knew very little about him, his life, or his finances. But God knew everything about Michael in his crisis.
6. God wants to be involved in the events of our lives, especially in our hours of crisis. We need to trust God in difficult times and not be surprised when He shows up to “part our Red Sea” and do the unexpected.
7. God can move mountains when we cooperate with Him. Michael had chosen a lifestyle of diligently seeking God, and God rewarded him…just like He will reward you, if you diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).
8. “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20) following our acts of obedience.
9. With God, our daily decisions will either qualify us for favour, breakthroughs, and miracles —or they will disqualify us from them. What if Michael would have decided to give up after the morning church service on that Sunday? What if he had decided to just sulk in defeat that afternoon, or distract himself by staring at a television set all afternoon? The devil can attack us viciously at the eleventh hour with doubt, fear, and confusion. Walking by faith, and not by feelings, brings results.
10. God wants us to develop good habits. Michael chose to pray bold, faith-filled prayers that afternoon and then followed a good habit he had developed, and that was attending evening services at his church. He had no “feelings” to go to church that evening, but the habit he had developed of going to evening services was in place. Since it was a Godly habit he had developed in the past, it was just the logical thing to do even when his world was falling apart. 
11. God could have used someone else to help fulfil the call God had on Michael’s life, just like He will use others to help fulfil the call on your life -and everyone else’s. When God calls a person, there is a provision that goes with the calling.

Michael sent me these comments later: “Two days before the miracle, my feelings were telling me I had made a big mistake. However, my Bible School training had taught me to walk by faith, not feelings, and to keep moving forward in faith….

The miracle event would not have happened if I didn’t have years of obedience behind it. The point of the story is that our daily decisions, the habits we choose, build a platform for God to do amazing and miraculous things in the future.”

The story is not about a woman who had a supernatural gift of hearing into the supernatural, and I got to be the lucky recipient. In California, where I currently live, there is a sea of youth seeking psychics to give them supernatural direction. These kids don’t want to change anything about themselves, but just want get the supernatural direction for a few cheap bucks.” 

 Dave Adams, author, Sunshine Coast Australia.

GOD is good. 

I was struggling with a particular area of sin and was led to a church service that I had no plan to attend. 

I missed the start of the service; however, God’s timing is always perfect and He arranges whomever He wants us to hear. The preacher was a famous minister who had no way of knowing what I was struggling with, nor or that I was not having victory over that sin. 

I was drawn forward for prayer at the end of the service and the minister spoke directly to the sin that I was battling. 

Knowing that the Lord cared so much that He brought me there for another to speak into my life was so powerful that the victory was the Lord’s. 

However, the KEY to this happening in our lives is that we must be alert to any hint or prompt – followed by our acting upon it. Otherwise, we will miss a possible blessing from God.

It has happened many times that the Lord has brought a certain person across my path who has had a profound effect on me. Sometimes it was just a few words that opened a door in my mind or spirit that changed me forever. Other times God has led me to speak to a specific Pastor or Minister who had what the Lord wanted me to know or hear. I am not suggesting for a moment that I was of any importance, or that these happenings were preceded by a burning bush experience in any form. This was all about God’s love for me and His grace in bringing people across my path.

 However, the KEY to this happening is that we must be alert to any hint or prompt that we must act upon. Otherwise we will miss a possible blessing from God.

Dave’s testimony illustrates that:

1. God knows the issues that may be dogging our lives, even our innermost problems.
2. God will help providing we are obedient to whatever it is that He wants us to do or try to do.
3. God can arrange for us to meet with whomever He wants us to hear.
4. God has a variety of ways to direct us, that may include the words spoken to us by a minister or someone else.
5. God is good! He is on our side.

Brenda, Ivan and Baby Jason in Malawi

Jason was a bonny bouncing boy born in the Adventist Centre at Malamulo in Blantyre. But at 10 weeks he contracted a threatening illness; his head was floppy and he ran a fever. Very concerned, Brenda was not prepared to accept a GP diagnosis that this was not serious; consequently, the doctor gave her a referral to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. She rushed Jason there, knowing full well that in the Developing World she might have to queue for hours before a doctor would see the baby. But with the instincts of a mother, she believed her baby was in serious danger and was prepared to do whatever it took to rescue him.

“Oh Lord, please help! Please somehow get him seen to quickly,” she implored.

In Blantyre, at that time, this was an impossible prayer.

As Brenda drove into the car park, she saw a St Andrew’s School parent she knew speaking to another woman. This parent also saw Brenda and came over to see the new baby. Brenda told her why she had come and the third woman standing nearby overheard Brenda’s concerns. It turned out that she was the Senior Paediatrician of the hospital, Dr Anke Borgestein, and at once on seeing Jason’s condition took him up to her rooms for a thorough examination, cutting through all the red tape and queuing that could have easily claimed Jason’s life.

Suspecting cerebral meningitis, Dr Borgestein gave Jason a precautionary antibiotic injection and took fluid for analysis. Brenda would need to stay in the hospital with Jason until the results indicated what had to be done next. Dr Borgestein arranged for a private room and hospital bed. Her prompt action and expertise most likely saved Jason’s life, for which we are very grateful.

Dr Borgestein could not target any specific bacterium with an antibiotic until the test results had come back, so she decided to give Jason a further precautionary injection of another antibiotic, ampicillin, just in case. However, there was none in the hospital. Our one chance of getting some was to reach the Limbe Pharmacy before closing time and purchase it ourselves. I was with Brenda by this time, so jumped on my small motorbike and wove my way through traffic.

I arrived too late at the pharmacy and was distressed to find it had already closed. I tried banging on the door and windows with no result. Lord, what should I do? I could not leave there without the ampicillin because intuitively I felt it to be important, and so simply hung around uncertainly, praying madly for an opening.

As I stood there disconsolately, I noticed a delivery truck draw up to the side gate of the pharmacy. A guard opened the gate to allow the truck in and I slipped quickly inside before I could be stopped.

Happily, the pharmacist had stayed behind in the storeroom to receive the order and was most surprised when I fronted him and asked for some ampicillin for an emergency. He provided it for me without further ado, despite it being now half an hour past closing time.

When microbial cultures were finally grown and tested, the recommended antibiotic to use against the strain of meningitis Jason had was ampicillin, and all other antibiotics were stopped.

God, it seemed, was arranging strategic people working hand in glove with medicine, and continued to do so during the incredible events ahead.

Hospitals in the Developing World are very different to in the Developed World. Relatives have to supply meals. In our case Christian friends helped enormously, both to supply food to take to Brenda and in looking after me and our other 3 children at home.

Lillian Pollard, our neighbour, said to Brenda, “You must not worry about the children. I’ll make sure they’re fine,” and she did each time I went to the hospital.

Brenda found that friends visited her at especially low moments over this time and helped her, both with prayer and in material ways. She wrote out and stuck up a saying above Jason’s bed: “Very Often People Are The Miracles That God Uses To Answer Prayer”.

     Brenda and Ivan’s testimony shows that:

1. God can cut through red tape and ‘open doors’ during a crisis.
2. God has the capacity during a crisis to arrange pivotal people to be at the right place at the right time to play essential roles.
3. God wants His people to help one another in practical ways, as part of developing the love that is one primary purpose for life on earth.
4. God often uses people to be the “Miracles That God Uses To Answer Prayer”.

Rick and Margaret Ford, when new missionaries to Malawi.

I was 8 months pregnant at Lulwe mission station with our first child. Lulwe was in a remote corner of the lovely African country of Malawi.

A borrowed jeep broke down when we were transporting an elderly lady to a medical clinic. We then had to go by a third-class train to Blantyre city to search for a replacement master-cylinder. Fortunately, we found a place to sit down on bags of sunflower seed in the guard’s van. In true Biblical style, we sang hymns at midnight and slept until about 3.30am when the train pulled into Blantyre.

Further frustrations followed:  there was no replacement part anywhere in Blantyre, we had only the clothes we stood up in and were now stranded over 150 miles from home, a journey which could take anything up to 24 hours, depending on road conditions! That road included incredibly rough stretches which resembled a river bed in places 

I could give birth at any time but was determined to return to Lulwe to prepare things for the arrival of our first child. But Rick and I finally decided that I should stay in the Blantyre area while he returned alone. 

Early the next morning (1.30 a.m.) I felt the start of labour and, assuming it would take hours for it to progress, I followed the advice of my trusty textbook and made myself a hot cup of cocoa!  Fortunately, my host woke up and it was decided I should be taken immediately to the hospital (about 40 km away).

An amazing coincidence had taken place that day. A very experienced nurse/midwife had arrived and was staying in the same house as I was! 

Thus, at about 2.30 a.m. our veteran male missionary, another missionary, the midwife and I began this 40km journey to the hospital, only to find that the car was very low on petrol, which would not be easy to find at that time in the morning!

Thankfully, my labour was incredibly short and a beautiful baby girl was born in the back of the Renault at 4.10 a.m. about 15 miles from the hospital.

After the midwife had improvised, using a bow from my nightie and wrapping the baby in a borrowed cardigan, I carried our adorable little girl into the hospital!

However, God’s provision of the midwife was not the end of this amazing story!  My husband, on his first trip in the now-repaired Jeep, was taking a visiting Mission Board Member along the road when the vehicle began to swerve dangerously and ended up in a field. It was discovered that the whole front-wheel assembly had collapsed.

We reflected after these events that, if I had not already been “got” to Blantyre ahead of the birth, I would have been in that Jeep, nine-months pregnant, crashing off the road and stranded in a wreck in a remote field.

The Fords’ testimony shows that:

1. God loves His people, which includes their babies.
2. God is sovereign over circumstances.
3. God knows possible dangers in advance and His plans take these into account.
4. God can provide the right people at the right time and right place to help us.

 

Liz and Bill Rowe-Roberts when in Malawi, Africa.

 My husband Bill and I went sailing on the vast Lake Malawi (570 km long and 75km wide). It was a beautiful day, but we made a nearly fatal mistake by not wearing life jackets. The boat was an old Mirror dinghy.

 When we were a long way from shore the rudder broke. Bill jumped overboard and clung onto the back of the boat to act as a human rudder and it was still a bit of fun at that stage, but my hat blew off and Bill let go of the boat to grab it – and before we knew what was happening, I was whisked away from Bill in a terrible, frightening frenzy.

 I was blown parallel to the shore and my darling husband swam after me for 4½ hours. I screamed my head off and waved and jumped about to try and attract attention from the distant people on the shore. They were too far away to hear and no-one noticed us.

 Eventually, I yelled out “Oh GOD!”

 Imagine my surprise when a calm voice said “what is the matter? I have been watching you and I realised you must be in trouble.” It was the voice of a man in a kayak who I am sure was sent by God! He told me to sit down and calm down and he would find my husband who I had not been able to see for some time.

 Bill would not have lasted much longer. We could hardly stand or speak when we were brought in to shore.

 We found our little children waiting patiently on the beach in the next bay!  

 We had been very foolish and we will be forever grateful for our saviour.

Liz and Bill’s testimony shows that:

1. God hears our cry for help.
2. God can organise people to provide help in perilous situations.
3. God can give us extraordinary stamina when we are in peril.
4. God can care for our children when we are separated from them for hours.