At roughly 11:05 PM on Christmas Eve, in the year 2001, while at work my wife Sharon suffered a brain aneurysm. You can find Sharon’s account of her anguishing life changing trial in this post “How God Miraculously Brought Me through A Brain Aneurysm.” This post is my version of that same day, the same ordeal, the same life changing distress. The same miraculous deliverance.

2 Cor. 11:14 (NLT)
14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.

It Just So Happened

At approximately 11:05 PM Christmas Eve while at work my wife suffered a brain aneurysm. These ‘it just so happened statements’ are a sequence of things that happened that when you look back on them, you’ll understand the goodness of God.

• It just so happened that when she called to the house, our oldest child, Jessica was up. If she hadn’t been up, the chance of my hearing the light ringing phone was not good.
• It just so happened that she was able to wake me up. No small miracle in itself.
• It just so happened that Sharon phrased her words the right way to get me out of bed on a cold winters night.
• It just so happened that Sharon had enough strength to unlock the back door to her patients house.
• It just so happened that for once Sharon allowed herself to be taken to the hospital rather than the normal “I’ll take 2 Tylenol” and push past the problem.
• It just so happened she didn’t say, “I’m okay, it must be sinuses” statements that she often makes.
  • 25% of all aneurysm patients die before they get to the hospital.
• It just so happened that we got her to the hospital on time.
  • 25% of all aneurysm patients die on the way to the hospital.
• It just so happened that the ER doctor did not misdiagnose her condition as a migraine. He ordered a cat scan.
• It just so happened that Sharon’s personal physician also had an aneurysm in her neck and she had researched diligently the best doctor for her own procedure. This doctor became Sharon’s doctor by recommendation.
• It just so happened that this neurosurgeon preformed a procedure on Sharon’s head on Christmas day ‘just in time’ to decrease the swelling ( I was told that another person had to have part of her brain removed to make room in her head for her swollen brain.
• It just so happened that Sharon did not have a stroke on Christmas day because of the swelling and brain pressure she had.
• It just so happened that my brother did the right thing and steadied me with prayer when I was emotionally open.
• It just so happened that Sharon increased in strength considerably after only one day in the hospital.
• It just so happened that Sharon came through her 4-hour brain surgery with flying colors. The recovery nurse said that she was trying to sit up while in recovery
• It just so happened the next morning she called me on the phone and had an intelligent conversation with me.
• It just so happened that the Lord gave me a verse of scripture as I was driving. I gave this verse to my wife as well as to others.

Psalm 34:19 (KJV)
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: But the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

• It just so happened that I happened to be there when she had her first brain spasm – one week after her surgery – the radiology doctor told us to cross our fingers. That was the only hope that he could offer.
• It just so happened that believers in Jesus have something better than crossing your fingers! She had 3 brain spasms and though they were all potentially lethal and yet she lived!
• The spasms she was having were extremely painful. The medicine, which they told me was no guarantee would work, caused headaches on top of the headache she already had.
• Sharon told me after the first spasm that she saw a man with a light. A friendly man, a friendly face beckoning her. She knew if she went to the light that on the other side of the light there was no more pain.
• She told me this story while lying in the hospital.
• My first reaction was ‘that’s nice’, she saw an angel.
• On the way home from the hospital that evening. I was running this story Sharon told me about the Man with the Light, through my mind. I made it a point during the twenty one days that she spent in the hospital, to never leave until I had at least some good news or sense of progress. I came to a stop light. And all of a sudden as I was thinking about the Man with the Light, I saw it.
• This verse of scripture, 2Corinthians 11:4, rose up out of my heart.
• I saw that everyone was praying for Sharon. Everyone was believing for her recovery. We are all on the same page. We are all with one accord. What this ‘Man with the Light’ was asking Sharon to do was opposite what everyone was praying!
• Immediately I rebuked the devil and took authority over the angel of light in Jesus name.
• I realized that God had been with us and had brought us through to this point so why would God send an angel to beckon her to the other side?
• Sharon then had her 2nd spasm. The 2nd was much worse than the first. The spasm shrunk the blood vessel in her head further and it didn’t open back up as did the first go around. The end result was that Sharon’s pain level was ever greater.
• The pain was so strong Sharon literally went looking for the man with the light in the hopes of getting some relief.
• A voice spoke up in her room,as she searched. The Man with the Light said, “I can’t come back, Emery has taken authority over me.”

Facing Death and Devils

• The trials of life come to everyone
• You will not be so strong in faith that you won’t ever experience difficulties.

Luke 6:46-49 (NLT)
46 “So why do you call me ‘Lord,’ when you won’t obey me? 47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then obeys me. 48 It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. 49 But anyone who listens and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins.”

• Sharon’s aneurysm was a genetic defect, we found out later. A time bomb ticking in her head.
• Genetic defects are part of the curse of the fall
• Jesus was not exempted from the testing of life.
• Testings are to be endured with patience and joy.

James 1:12 (NLT)
12 God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Heb. 12:2 (NKJV)
2 Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

ILLUSTRATION: Trapped!
A woman described what her trial was like “It was like being trapped
for four hours in a stuck elevator with a team of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. – Helen Keller

ILLUSTRATION: The Overcomers
Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty, and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down in infantile paralysis, and he becomes Franklin Roosevelt. Deafen him, and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr. . . . . Call him a slow learner; “retarded,” and write him off an ineducable, and you have an Albert Einstein.

It’s Good to Have A Reservoir of Scripture In Your Heart

• In this case, it was the difference between living and dying
• If you wait to get faith, when you need faith you are too late.
• I had already had 2 Cor. 11:14 in my spirit. It was there for the Spirit of God to draw upon.
• A Bible that’s falling apart probably belongs to someone who isn’t.
• It is good to mark your Bible, but it is better to let your Bible mark you.
• What is in you will come out.
• Remember the teakettle: when it’s up to its neck in hot water; it sings.

Luke 6:45 (NLT)
45 A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart. Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.

• Never once did I talk death, not once!
• Death is not what’s programmed in my heart.
• I did not have a death reservoir in my heart
• I fought death thoughts constantly.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

• They were telling me I was looking like death….!

You Will Have Problems With Your Soul

• Adversity introduces a man to himself.
• Jesus had problems with his soul

Matt. 26:38 (NLT)
38 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.”

• I had problems with mine.
• The problem is separation or grief.
• You will feel grief. I did. It’s not possible for people who have been joined as one in marriage and have that ripped from you to not feel that loss.

The Holy Spirit Will Steady You

• God is closest to those whose hearts are broken. — Jewish Proverb
• When it rained on the North Sea, poets used to say “the heavens wept.” Only people are able to weep. No other living thing cries tears. No other living thing experiences sorrow. Only people need the comfort of God’s presence, the comfort of faith, the comfort of grace.
• Through my brother’s prayer, the Holy Spirit energized me.
• The Holy Spirit helped by giving me scripture to stand on.
• He’s name in the KJV is “COMFORTER”.
• He is called alongside to help you.
• In the inward invisible kingdom of your heart, God will cause the saint to sing through every night of sorrow.

Psa. 30:5 (KJV)
5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Miracles Are A Team Effort

ILLUSTRATION: Carrying Burdens Alone
Dr. Albert Schweitzer was eighty-five years old when I visited his jungle hospital at Lambarene, on the banks of the Ogowe River. You can imagine the deep and profound effect of that three-day visit, which included opportunity for some leisurely conversation with that great humanitarian, theologian, musician, and physician. But one event stands out in a special way. It was about eleven in the morning. The equatorial sun was beating down mercilessly, and we were walking up a hill with Dr. Schweitzer. Suddenly he left us and strode across the slope of the hill to a place where an African woman was struggling upward with a huge armload of wood for the cookfires. I watched with both admiration and concern as the eighty-five-year-old man took the entire load of wood and carried it on up the hill for the relieved woman. When we all reached the top of the hill, one of the members of our group asked Dr. Schweitzer why he did things like that, implying that in that heat and at his age he should not. Albert Schweitzer, looking right at all of us and pointing to the woman, said simply, “No one should ever have to carry a burden like that alone.”

• You need to know others who are strong and are not as emotionally attached
• It takes teamwork
• The belief that one person can do something great is a myth.

ILLUSTRATION: Solo Acts
Look deeper and you will see that all solo acts are really a team effort.
Albert Einstein, known for his work on relativity did not work in a vacuum
Charles Lindbergh had the backing of 9 business men when he built his plane
Daniel Boone did not blaze the Wilderness road by himself – He had companions from the Transylvania Company.
Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto!

• No problem is ever as dark when you have a friend to face it with you.

Prov. 17:17 (NKJV)
17 A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.

• In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.

Give People Scripture When They Are In the Hospital

• Sickness and disease is a war
• The only way to make anything in life is to fight
• The only way to be anything in life is to fight
• The only way to fulfill the will of God is to fight
• The only way to live and not die is to fight
• The fight is on!
• It’s hard to fight a war without ammo

2 Cor. 10:3-4 (NLT)
3 We are human, but we don’t wage war with human plans and methods. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds.

• You need a fighting attitude
• Passivity will not work here!

Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit. The transformed nonconformist, moreover, never yields to the passive sort of patience which is an excuse to do nothing. – Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

1 Tim. 6:12 (KJV)
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Biblical Authority Cannot Be Faked

• The story of the seven sons of Sceva proves that authority cannot be faked

Acts 19:13-16 (NLT)
13 A team of Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they used was this: “I command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. 15 But when they tried it on a man possessed by an evil spirit, the spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul. But who are you?” 16 And he leaped on them and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and badly injured.

• Authority is not a locker room psych job you do on yourself
• It is quite confidence not noisy verbosity

ILLUSTRATION: The Hungarian Crown
At the very top of the Hungarian crown is a picture of Christ seated on his throne as ruler of the world. When an earthly ruler wore that crown, he was reminded of that heavenly ruler. He was also reminded of that verse in Scripture, which says the kingdoms of this world, will become the kingdom of our Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.

• This is a great picture of authority!

The Difference Between Living And Dying Is In the Will

• Tough times never last, but tough people do.
• Life’s a tough proposition, and the first hundred years are the hardest.
• He who cannot endure tough times will not see good times.

ILLUSTRATION: The Snail Climbing the Apple Tree
The spider said, “Don’t go up there, I have been there and there are no apples there.” The snail said, “There will be when I get there.”

• The Man with the Light wanted to break down the will
• Many saints of God are being duped into following the light when it’s not there time to leave planet earth.

If You Understand Your Authority, The Devil Knows Your Name.

• Your name is known by the regions of the dammed
• They know those who have authority and they know when you don’t know
• When you don’t know, they will run right over the top of you.
• All of life then becomes a game of cloak and dagger. The devil trying to disguise the fact that he is up to something and the Holy Spirit pulling off the covers of deception if you will allow him.

Call to Action

If you were unsure of your authority, if you are not confident that you can speak to devils, demons and angels of light in Jesus Name, I would get busy if I were you! Meditate on the ministry of Jesus. Think on His death, resurrection and ascension to God’s right hand for that is where the seat of authority lies. Saturate yourself with these truths until you know that you know. When the Man in the Light comes to visit you, you will be ready.

Question: What personal encounter have you had where you exercised your God given rights successfully? Please leave your story in the comments section below.