On May 11, 2007, I sat down to do my regular Bible reading that morning, when something out of the norm occurred. For a period of maybe a couple of weeks or so prior to then, I’d had the occasional thought that it had been quite a while since I had read the Gospel of John. So when I opened my Bible that morning and saw that I had turned straight to the first page of John’s Gospel, I decided that I may as well sit down and read the entire book. After all, I didn’t have any other plans for that say, so why not spend the day reading the Bible?

The next morning in my devotion time, f opened my Bible expecting to follow my regular reading schedule. But my reading plans changed when I saw that for a second time I had turned straight to the first page of one of the Bible’s sixty-six books. This time the book was the Book of Acts, and since I had already read all John’s Gospel the day before, I decided that I may as well read the Book of Acts also, and I did.

The following morning, I again opened my Bible during my reading time not thinking much at all about the previous two mornings. Until that is, I looked down and saw that I had turned straight to the first page of a book for the third day in a row. This time the book was the Gospel of Mark. Tthough this seemed at the time to be a funny “coincidence,” it was unnerving enough that I decided that maybe I had better read the entire book of Mark’s Gospel that day.  The same was true the next morning, only more unnerving, wwhen I turned straight to the first page of the Gospel of Luke. So for the fourth day straight, I sat and read my Bible all day.

That evening our cell group met at our home for dinner and Bible study. Not until we had finished and our friends were departing did I think to tell them about the “coincidental” Bible openings. The story gave us all a nice little chuckle.

After they’d left and the dishes were done, I went into our living room, sat on the sofa, and picked up my Bible. As I then opened it, I looked down and saw the first page of the Book of Ephesians. It was then that I called my husband and said one of the greatest understatements about Gode ever made: “God must be trying to tell me something!”

Whatever it was that I thought that I knew about God and His message to me that night, the illusion that I knew anything at al about God didn’t last long. In fact, God settled the matter the very next morning.

When I awoke the next day, my husband was still sleeping soundly. I quietly I got out of bed, went downstairs, poured a glass of orange juice, and went into the living room and sat on the sofa. After I had read the relatively short Book of Ephesians the night before, I had left my Bible sitting on the ottoman in front of the sofa overnight. So the next morning, when I saw it sitting there, without any thought at all about that week’s happenings, I reached over with one hand and flipped open my Bible. As I watched it fall open to the first page of the Book of Ezekiel, I heard myself exclaiming two words in an otherwise totally quiet house.  “Oh, no!” was all that I said.

At that distinct moment, the reality of the power of God struck me. Any humor that I had thought that I had seen earlier in the situation was completely gone. What remained was an awesome, reverential fear of God and His Word that kept me away from my Bible for most of that day. I realized that right there in our home was God Himself, interacting with me. No longer was I the one whose hand was opening my Bible, but the Hand of God that was doing it, though with me or for me, I didn’t yet know. Whatever illusions I’d had in the past about being in control of any situation in this world were gone.

Let me verify for the reader that there is nothing about the way that my Bible is structured or put together that would cause it to open to the first pages of the books that are in it. I have been using this Bible since 1999 when my husband gave it to me as a gift that Christmas.  It did not happen prior to this event, nor can I make it happen that way now. My Bible contains 1,939 numbered pages and more than 130 additional pages in the concordance, etc. Those who are mathematically inclined to do can do the math. If this were not God, then it would be one humongous “coincidence” that became even greater. Thirty­ nine consecutive times God opened my Bible to the first pages of the books that I was to then read.

Thirty-nine! After I had finished the thirty-ninth reading, I didn’t know what to do next. So I started to read from front to back the books that hadn’t been part of the thirty-nine readings. One of those thirty-nine Bible openings, though, was to the title page of the New Testament, which I then concluded meant that I was to read all the New Testament before I moved on.  In the end, the total reading I had done amounted to having read the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice.

Additionally, I was also participating in a women’s Bible study that was reading one book of the New Testament each week. When we broke for the Christmas holiday, I decided to finish reading the New Testament books that had not yet been covered in the study. In seven months’ time, I read the Old Testament once and the New Testament three times. Reading the Bible in a year is more than a doable goal.

Why God did this isn’t a secret, but is fully revealed in the next chapter. It isn’t about why I think that God might have done this, but about what God Himself says in His Word.

 

An ordered list of the completed readings of the Bible’s books.

1.  John	14.  2 Timothy	27.  Zechariah
2.  Acts	15.  New Testament	28.  2 John
3.  Mark	16.  1 Timothy	29.  Thessalonians
4.  Luke	17.  Romans	30.  1 Timothy
5.  Ephesians	18.  Malachi	31.  Deuteronomy
6.  Ezekiel	19.  Revelation	32.  Judges
7.  Haggai	20.  Jude	33.  2 Kings
8.  Jeremiah	21.  Genesis	34.  Haggai
9.  Nahum	22.  Song of Songs	35.  2 John
10.  Jonah	23.  Leviticus	36.  Proverbs
11.  Obadiah	24.  Numbers	37.  Jeremiah
12.  Haggai	25.  Mark	38.  Haggai  *
13.  Ephesians	26. Joel	39.  2 John

To be as accurate as possible, a situation occurred during the thirty-nine readings with regard to the Book of Haggai. My Bible had opened so many times to the Book of Haggai that one day I felt led by the Lord to stop recording those readings. Even after I finished all thirty-nine Bible readings, my Bible was still opening regularly to the Book of Haggai. I estimate that I must have read Haggai at least twenty times. Then finally I realized that while the Book of Haggai emphasizes the rebuilding of God’s temple, it is the rebuilding of us as individual temples of God that God wants restored the most in His wholeness. Only after I came to this realization did the openings to the first page of Haggai then stop. Read Haggai and see what God says to you.

A list of the final 22 Bible books read after the 39 openings

1.  Exodus	9.  Ezra	16.  Lamentations
2.  Joshua	10.  Nehemiah	17.  Daniel
3.  Ruth	11.  Esther	18.  Hosea
4.. 1 Samuel	12.  Job	19.  Amos
5.  2 Samuel	13.  Psalms	20.  Micah
6.  1 Kings	14.  Ecclesiastes	21.  Habakkuk
7.  1 Chronicles	15.  Isaiah	22.  Zephaniah
8.  2 Chronicles

 

[Ch. 7 – The PostScript]

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At the time of this event, I had been starting my days with devotions that included a systematic reading of the Bible. On the recommendation of others, I had been reading through the Bible by reading one chapter of Proverbs, several Psalms and then a few chapters of a given book. Additionally, I would try to include a reading from a daily devotional book. The system seemed good, for it was certainly helping me to be more disciplined in my study habits.

But despite my persistence in sticking to the system, I wasn’t seeing the changes in me that I had wanted and hoped to see. Neither did I see much change in my prayer life, which seemed to me to be rather empty. The prayers that I typically prayed each day (usually right on schedule) were short and impersonal. I just didn’t know much to pray about. I also had little understanding at that time of the two-way nature of prayer, so I was spending very little time listening. Therefore I wasn’t giving God much of a chance to actually have some kind of meaningful conversation with me.

Then in April 2006 that all changed when my husband and I attended our first CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) Partner Weekend in Virginia Beach. A number of good things, even miraculous ones, happened that weekend. One of those concerned another one of the women who was in attendance that weekend.

After dinner one night, the hosts had stood and prayed for attendees who needed some form of healing, giving words of knowledge as they received them. After the prayer, one of the hosts took a microphone to anyone who wanted to testify to having received healing that night.

A few people did stand and give testimony. One of them was this woman of interest, for her testimony changed me. Though I don’t remember from what the woman was healed, I do the words that I heard her testify to having said just before healing occurred. The woman had said, “Oh, God! Don’t let me go home again in the same condition in which I came!” Apparently the woman had been dealing with a health problem for some time. Yet her plea indicated to me that she still believed in a good and great God who could make things right in her body right then and there, and He did. It all struck me as being so personable.

The next day, time was allotted near the end of a session for people with health issues to be prayed for individually. A pastor on staff, at the request of one of the hosts, came over and laid his hand on my shoulder. After asking a couple of questions, he began to pray. My husband and a few other people joined him, placing hands on me also.

During the prayer, I stood in the middle of the small group with my eyes closed and my head bowed. Suddenly a light flashed so brightly behind my closed eyelids that my body reeled backward and my eyes flew open. I quickly scanned the room to realize that I seemed to be alone in having seen the light. I closed my eyes again and remained standing until the prayer ended. Though my heart knew that something big involving God had just happened, my mind had no way at that moment of processing the event.

Then that evening something else out of the norm occurred as my husband and I were walking down to dinner. Suddenly my husband stopped and looked at me with surprise. “You aren’t shuffling!” he said. He was right; I wasn’t. I was walking normally, and my toes weren’t curling up either, as they had been doing for some time from the PD.

Though that weekend I did “go home with the same condition with which I had gone,” I did so, knowing that the other woman must have done so also at least once before. But this time she went home with the healing she needed, as did I. I had seen the light, and God knew that in that was the healing that I needed the most to receive from Him then.

[Ch. 6 – The Message]

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ADDENDUM:  After attending the CBN conference, my husband and I attended three more faith conferences that were put together by other ministries over the next year. Below are tables that have been compiled to summarize some of my experiences that occurred at those conferences and at home.]

Time/Place	Event
April 2006 CBN Retreat, Virginia Beach, VA	I “saw” a blinding light while being prayed for. My left toes uncurled and my left foot no longer shuffled. My ability to sleep all night returned for a while, as did my sense of smell
November 2006 Randy Clark Conference Hershey, PA	I was sitting alone in a left aisle seat in the back of an auditorium waiting for the next session to begin. A dark skinned woman dressed in a beautiful brightly colored floor-length caftan and turban walked up the almost empty aisle and sat down next to me. Speaking with a strong foreign accent, she asked if she could pray for me, saying that God had healed her completely from AIDS. Then, as she laid her hand on mine, she said that it was okay for me to touch people when I prayed for them. Right then I knew that God had sent her, as she had said. I had been allowing the embarrassment of my shaking and my fear of diseases to keep me from laying hands on people in prayer. All that I could do in that moment was cry. The woman stood up, stepped past me, and headed back down the aisle toward the front of the room, I looked away for only a split second and then looked back in her direction. But in that moment, the woman was gone. I couldn’t find her. The auditorium doors were behind me, and the room was not yet crowded. I should have been able to at least spot her outfit, but I never did see her again. Whether or not she was an actual angel, I don’t know. But I am sure that the message she delivered came directly from God.

 

November 2006  Hershey, PA (cont’d)	At the beginning of one of the sessions, a young woman got up from her seat part way across the room from where I was sitting and came over and sat down on the floor beside me. After we exchanged some quick hellos, she said that she was there to pray for me. She jumped right in by closing her eyes and silently praying. Then after only a few moments, she opened her eyes and pointed her index finger at the center of my forehead while asking me if I felt any electrical tingling there. Astounded, I said yes. I had actually felt that tingling off and on for the last several weeks but hadn’t thought much about it. The young woman, however, seemed so concerned that she immediately began praying for “it” to come out and go. At the same time, she did a hand-over-hand motion of pulling “it” out. Apparently, whatever “it” was, “it” did just that; for afterward the tingling stopped.
December 24, 2006  Christmas Eve service Big Canoe Chapel Georgia	Near the end of this service, communion was going to be served. In preparation, the minister prayed, asking God to provide the congregation with a number of things, the last of which was strength. I had previously received so much prayer for strength that I immediately thought, “Not strength again. I’ve already had enough prayed for strength. I need healed!” But after I went forward and received communion, I returned to my seat feeling differently. I had heard what sounded to me like a booming voice say, “You have been made strong in Christ Jesus.” I can tell you now in 2020 that every day I have a need for even more strength from Jesus.
January 2007 Lakewood Church Houston, Texas	During a short trip to Houston, my husband and I attended Sunday morning worship at Lakewood Church, where Joel Osteen ministers. Between the initial worship music and the message was time for anyone needing prayer to go to the front and receive individual prayer. That day, I did go forward, and a man did pray for me after I told him about having Parkinson’s disease. As he prayed, he suddenly asked for my release from rigidity. At that moment, every muscle in my body relaxed. To this day, I have not again had the degree of rigidity that I’d had prior.
January 2007  Randy Clark School  Lexington, SC	Three major events happened to me during this conference that would require too much space to write about them here. But, fortunately, all three have already been put in writing: one in this book and two in another. 1)     A physical healing that I received is described in “The Lesson of the Radiance” in The Lessons of the Cross. 2)     An experience that I had concerning the sealing of my spirit is told in “The Lesson of the Sealing” in The Lessons of the Cross.  [Note: The Lessons of the Cross is available online at http://thisiswhathappened.net/ and in print.]  3)     The event of God revealing Himself in me is described in this book’s introduction, “The Experience.”]

[Ch. 6 – The Message]

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