The following is a post that was already posted last week, the same day that my brother, Todd, had his heart and liver operation. I was compelled to repost this post after the events of this past week. Unbelievable!

As I sat down to write this blog, the devil whispered these words of fear into my ear, “You better not repost this because if your brother dies you will surely have egg on your face for your faith in God.”

​But I refuse to listen to his lies. I will fear not! I refuse to give in to thinking the worst and choose instead to hold tightly to the good reports and believe Almighty God for a miracle.

My brother has been so sick the past 4 months and was getting worse every week. He lives in the Philippines with his wife and two sons and is a self-financed missionary. As of last year, he had developed a bicuspid aortic heart valve problem and has been on medication for this condition which has now also caused liver damage. He has needed to have a valve repair/replacement for nearly a year now and his physical condition has continued to degenerate as he has gone from one doctor to another trying to get a surgeon to take his case. None of the doctors that were approached wanted to take his case because they didn't want a certain loss on their records. The likelihood of bleeding to death from the procedures to correct this combined condition at this late stage was extremely high.

He has been transferred four times to four different hospitals to finally get a doctor to agree to try to perform this life-saving heart/liver operation. He has been transferred from a hospital in Davoe/in the Philippines, to a V.A. facility in Guam, to a Clinic in Hawaii, and now to Stanford Medical Center in California where they have agreed to do his surgery. He has lost 50 pounds and is now down to skin and bones. He is very weak and has been bedridden for weeks causing deep bed sores, and now also has massive liver damage from the heart valve regurgitation and associated medications to keep him alive.

As of last Tuesday, my brother was taken into surgery, placed on heart bypass, and the heart valve repair was completed, as well as an internal heart pump implanted, and was now in very critical condition due to a bleed complication. His heart had stopped several times during the ​procedures, and the ​resuscitation is more than likely what caused this internal bleeding. They were giving him blood transfusions and maximum life support, and he was also on a ventilator throughout this entire week long process. However, he wouldn't be going back into surgery until the next morning (to try to locate and stop this internal bleeding) because he was too weak to withstand any additional surgery at this time.  He had to be in this holding pattern overnight to try to recuperate and regain some strength. His abdomen was temporarily closed (from his neck to his belly button) with the equivalent of Saran-wrap, giving him some time to rec​over for the next procedure. They continued to replace the blood loss throughout the night.

At this time I was almost to a state of absolute panic, and I reached out for intercessory prayer from everyone I knew, family members, friends, everyone I could think of. And we prayed, and we waited. I was so worried for my brother but knew that Almighty God was in control and no matter how hard Satan tried to kill him, Jesus had another plan.

The next morning he was taken back into surgery, and the bleed was located and repaired. He was shrink-wrap closed again because they wanted to make certain that they wouldn't have to go in yet again before permanently closing his abdomen. He was once again sent back to the critical care unit to be tended to overnight, and now we just had to wait . . . again.

This is when we really reached out for intercessory prayer. I reached out on social media, in online prayer groups, to my Pastor and my church family as well as to any person that would pray! All I asked was for them to please pray for Almighty God to intervene!

Two days later my brother went into surgery, this time to remove the heart-pump and repair the cause of the additional bleeding. This was going to be the toughest part of all because he could easily throw a blood clot as they had taken him off the blood thinners when they did the liver repair. He came through yet another touch and go procedure, and was again taken to the CCU.

The next day came and went, and once more they were taking him back into surgery one final time to close his abdomen. And this was such a good sign as this indicated they were confident that the liver repair took and that his heart rhythm had stabilized, and it was finally safe to close his incision. He was still unconscious and on the ventilator.

Praise God for answering our prayers and providing a surgical team willing to take the risk of trying to perform these surgeries on my brother.

Sometime during this whole process, I was compelled to send my brother this text message, even though he was unconscious and unable to read it, I had faith he would wake up.

"I'm sending you this message to prove my faith that you will be answering me back in a few days. Get better right now!...you hear me? We have a lot more conversations we need to have! I love you, please pull through!!!"

Finally, the day arrived that we were all waiting for. ​M​y brother woke up and was breathing on his own without a ventilator, and all of the bleeding had completely subsided! He was wiggling his toes and could squeeze the Doctor's hands. The physical therapists would be in the next day to get him up and assess his strength.

At last, he is finally sitting in a chair telling everyone how hungry he is.​​

Thank you, Jesus!

Thank you all for the hundreds of prayers!

GOD is so awesome!

I am in awe beyond words. God can defy all odds. This man should have bled to death from that liver hemorrhage, 20 units of blood...to say nothing of coding three times, two sessions on heart bypass, internal heart pump, and a week on a ventilator… and all with no brain damage. This was without a doubt one big-time miracle! God heard the prayers of hundreds of His saints, and He reached down from heaven and touched my brother! No doubt about it. Thank you, Jesus, the great healer! I am living proof that God is able to heal us no matter what the ailment...well, my brother sure is anyway!

He is only one day into a very long road to recovery. The doctors had told him before he had the surgery, that if he survived he would need months of therapy and recuperation to have a full recovery. I have no doubt that he will be walking the back roads of his little village in the Philippines preaching the gospel of God's grace and love through the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Praise God for answering our prayers and providing a surgical team willing to take the risk of trying to perform these surgeries on my brother. Thank you to the Stanford Medical Center and all the dedicated nurses and staff. And thank you one and all for all of your heartfelt prayers and dedicated support through this most difficult time.

“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise.”   ~Jeremiah 17:14

Jesus healed every person that came to Him. All they needed was a willing heart, and they would be cured. It didn’t matter what their ailment, affliction or handicap was. He healed the blind, the crippled, the lepers, even a woman with unstoppable bleeding. This Jesus is most certainly a God of healing!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”   ~Hebrews 13:8

Has His power lessened? Absolutely not! Is He any less able to do the same for us as He did when He walked the earth? Of course not, He is no less powerful now than He was then. God never changes! We will be able to see the same healing miracles . . . when we muster up enough faith to believe there is great power in the name of Jesus!

​“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.”   ~Acts 3:16 NIV

“Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”   ~Numbers 21:7-9

Jesus was then, and still is the Great Physician. As in the days of Moses when the Lord told him to tell the people to look upon God for healing,  so too is ​He still our source of healing to this very day. The rod of Moses is just one of many Biblical symbols still used today. Just about everything that exists originated with the word of God. If we want to accept the healing power of God, we must also accept the divine power of His holy word. We cannot be slack in learning the truth of His inspired book.

​Satan wants us to suffer. He wants us to be in pain and agony—to suffer and die! That is his plan for every one of us, to cause us pain and use us to inflict pain onto others. When we are in pain, ​whether physical or emotional pain, we are far more prone to engage in his temptation to exhibit anger.  Every time we feel the agonizing twinge of pain, we react in anger. The angrier we get, the more likely we will act out and cuss, the more we cuss and complain, the more Satan will double down with more pain. It’s a vicious cycle that we get caught in, I call it the devil’s pain loop.

How can we ever break out of this cycle? Turn your attention to Jesus. Call out His name when you feel any kind of pain, the very next time you feel Satan’s twinge of pain, call out the name of Jesus instead of cussing! Use your mouth to call to the power you want and need, rather than reacting in anger and ​literally shouting to Satan!

Only God can heal us. Only looking ​​​at Him can open up the doors of unlimited power and connect us to His merciful healing. Only absolute faith in His almighty power can restore our health as well as save our eternal souls. If we but look in His direction—in Jesus’ direction—everything suddenly changes.

​“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”   ~Isaiah 45:22 KJV

​There is “none else”—no other name in which we are to be saved—“for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” ~Acts 4:12 KJV. We must rely solely on the word of God, allowing His original Holy Scriptures to be our only source of empowerment and faith. In the name of Jesus ​there is power and healing! We need to look to him for everything, especially for healing. Take hold of the same healing powers that Jesus gave to the apostles. Take hold of your healing miracle . . . in the name of Jesus!

​“Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”   ~Acts 3:6

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