When an Angel Speaks, Cynthia’s Child Is Healed

Rev. Cynthia Palmer hosted two Christian radio programs in Zeeland, Michigan for two years. She focused on the news and interviewed extraordinary women. Cynthia is now an associate pastor at Grand Rapids First, a mega-church in Wyoming, Michigan.

Twenty-nine years ago, she was told that her daughter would be born with either spina bifida and/or anencephaly. The latter is an absence of major portions of the brain and skull. On a scale of one to ten, the baby was predicted to have a 9.3 probability of such malformations. Cynthia’s doctor advised a “therapeutic” abortion near term. But Cynthia would not even consider an abortion and decided “I will take what God gave me.”

Cynthia’s blood sugar levels notched the baby’s risk factor up to a 9.5. The verdict for the child being severely deformed was all but certain. With such odds, what could reverse the inevitable? Only prayer. Cynthia was a new believer in Christ, but she had enough faith to ask everyone she knew to pray.

The doctor scheduled Cynthia for an ultrasound to measure the baby’s organs and their vital function. Cynthia was warned that the results would horrify her. Surely, she would be convinced to have an abortion! She was scheduled for the ultrasound in three weeks. Then, something amazing happened. The night before the ultrasound, an angel appeared to Cynthia in her bedroom. The angel was rocking a baby. The angel told her, “Do not fear. You are going to have a very healthy, normal child. Not only that, your child will be a world-changer. Your main mission in life is to get this baby to Earth.”

Immediately, Cynthia was filled with great peace and she slept for the first time in three weeks. The next day, she went to Northwestern Hospital in Chicago for the all-day procedure. At the end of the ordeal, the technician did something he wasn’t supposed to. Knowing that Cynthia must be worried sick from all she’d been told about her baby’s prognosis, he read the results to her before the doctor saw them. The technician showed her the images of the very healthy baby girl!

Cynthia says, “When my baby was born without the ‘inevitable’ deformities, she did have a huge scar across her back that she still has to this day where the Lord Jehovah Raphe [‘the God who heals’] laid His hand across her and healed her.” As is so often the case with scars many of us bear, they remind us of a victory or a miracle. Cynthia says this scar carries a special message: that her baby would become the world-changer the angel had spoken of! In fact, her daughter—who just gave birth, herself—now works in a pediatric neo-natal unit at Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital. She helps save the lives of countless newborns. Cynthia says that “by the world’s standards [these babies] would mostly have no hope but God!” 

Cynthia’s testimony illustrates about God:

1. God may send His angels to action on earth the things He wants done.
2. God knows a baby before it is born on earth.
3. God knows and can describe the future to us.
4. God can bring healing to even seemingly impossible medical situations.

Norma Davies in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

One message in all my memories rang out loud and clear – no matter what situation we found ourselves in, God had gone before and at the same time His overriding Presence became our source of strength!

The Lord assures each of his children, that when we come under attack by our adversaries we need not be alarmed, we need not fear, we need not wonder how to respond, how to react or how to reply. 
For He promised us His Spirit to guide us even in the direst of circumstances. Consider His words in Matthew 10:19-20 (NKJV):

But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

Glyn and I have a living example of this very scripture in action in our lives. We had travelled to Rufaro Mission station which was part of our District in Rhodesia, (now Zimbabwe). I had lived there as a child, so this place was “home” to me.

At the close of a busy day, around 11:00 PM, Glyn went out and turned the generator off. Extreme darkness enveloped the mission house. 

As we were drifting off to sleep listening to the night calls of the bush, another sound invaded our subconscious; it was the sound of an approaching vehicle. 

Immediately questions flooded our minds. Who could it be at this late hour? Who would have found their way in the night hours to our isolated mission station? 

Understand, we had a right to be concerned as we were in the middle of a bush war and missionaries were known targets. A number were murdered during the conflict, so this threat was very much central in our minds. (see Topic 28 for an example).

Glyn got up and stepped out onto the darkened porch. He had his loaded 30-30 rifle in his hand but nestled tight against his side, so it could not be easily noticed. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw a vehicle that was totally blocking our ability to escape, and four men were exiting the vehicle and heading straight for the house. 

This did not bode well for us! 

They had not noticed Glyn, so with the element of surprise on his side and whispering a prayer for Divine protection, he called out in the Shona language asking the men who they were and what they wanted. 

For a minute they stopped, peering into the deep gloom, trying to locate the source of his voice. Then they spotted Glyn standing on the darkened porch and approached him with swaggering steps. 

What followed was an exchange of ever escalating angry dialogue about their intentions – they made it plain that we were outnumbered and would comply with whatever they had in mind! 

Glyn stood his ground, while I picked up our infant son, holding him close to my heart and stepped deeper into the darkened corner of the bare living room, calling out to the Lord for His protection. 

It appeared that we were in for the fight of our lives; when at an “inner prompting”, Glyn asked the men to move their car as it was blocking our ability to move our vehicle. They responded angrily, refusing to comply, inching ever closer with menacing steps towards Glyn.

Once again both Glyn and I called upon God for Divine protection.

Suddenly, the men gasped as though they had seen something that literally punched the fight out of them! They turned, ran to their car and moved it off the road and then disappeared into the darkness, abandoning their vehicle! 

Breathing a grateful prayer of thanks to the Lord for His protection in a situation that could have turned deadly, we crept back into our sleeping bags; resting in the knowledge that God had us surrounded with His protection, even perhaps with His angels as happened in another well-documented incident during the war! (read Topic 6 – Who Is God During War?)

The next morning at first light, we looked out expecting to see the vehicle, but it was gone! At some point in the night, while we slept peacefully, the intruders had returned and taken their vehicle.

We were not alone in this encounter – God was there with us and His Holy Spirit had given Glyn the words to defuse what could have turned into a bloody confrontation.  

Friends, please remember amidst all the madness and mayhem raging right now in this corrupt and decadent world, we can have strength, courage and peace because of His protecting love for us. 

By His spoken Word we can rout our opponents. 

By the bright light of the Word of God, the forces of darkness are dispelled, and His love DISPLACES all fear and despair. Take courage today, my dear friends; the Lord has promised never to leave us or forsake us, so rest on His Divine promises today!   

Norma’s testimony illustrates that:

1. God goes before us in times of danger and His overriding Presence becomes our source of strength.
2. God’s Spirit is there to guide us even in the most dangerous of situations.
3. God may prompt us to say or do unexpected things during times of danger, which may not appear logical at the time, but which become part of the solution.
4. God’s love displaces fear and despair.
5. God’s authority dispels the forces of darkness.