Life or death? This can be what makes the difference.
“Pastor, please pray; the baby has been born dead!”
It was the middle of the night, and the news jolted me awake. Jennifer’s birthing coach went on to tell me the baby had just left in an ambulance for the hospital. The medical team had declared the baby dead upon arrival.
My wife, Drenda, and I jumped up and got dressed. I began to pray in the Spirit, listening for what I should do. We continued to pray in the Spirit as we were driving the 20-minute drive to the hospital. About halfway there, I suddenly felt the Spirit of God come over me, and I knew that the baby would be fine. At that exact second, Drenda turned to me and said the Lord just told her that the baby would be fine.
I knew what the Lord had told Drenda and me, but what would we find when we walked into the emergency room?
I got my answer quickly: a team of seven or eight nurses stood around what appeared to be a completely normal, pink, crying baby.
I studied their faces carefully. In most situations where a baby is being held by a group of women, you’d see smiles, right? But in this group, there was only shock.
We met the woman who had called us. She told us again that the baby had been declared dead at the home, which was 20 minutes away. The baby had also been declared dead by the hospital when she arrived by ambulance.
But the baby was alive.
In the meantime, a different ambulance had transported Jennifer, the baby’s mother. She didn’t know about the declared status of her baby girl. When Drenda went up to the maternity floor to check on Jennifer where she was resting, she told her, “Jennifer, your baby is fine, and she is just gorgeous.”
“No, that baby is in a body bag!” the nurse standing next to Jennifer curtly interrupted. My wife emphatically corrected the nurse.
Today, to the glory of God, that baby girl, who was named Haley, is a beautiful young lady with no damage or health issues.
That didn’t happen by chance.
The ambulance crew had declared baby Haley “dead on arrival.” So had the hospital staff. I asked the birthing coach to give me the details. I was looking for clues on how the Kingdom of God had operated in this situation.
She said that the birthing process had gone well until Haley was delivered. At that point, she had no vital signs and was a deep blue color. The midwife tried to revive Haley, but couldn’t. The coach went on to say that Jennifer had many of her family members there who began to panic at that point.
But Jennifer calmly told them to be quiet. Then, she put her finger to her husband’s face and said, “Don’t you say a word—this baby will be fine.”
That was it! That was the moment, the declaration, that saved baby Haley’s life.
Jennifer was fully persuaded.
She had applied spiritual law in the midst of that situation, and it had saved her baby’s life! Jennifer knew that, due to his work schedule, her husband had not been building up his faith like she had been over the preceding months. She also knew that, as the head of their home, his agreement with the horrifying scene at the birth would seal the baby’s fate. That’s why her first response was to speak to her husband and not allow him to come into agreement with the death of their child.
Jennifer was convinced that the child would live and be fine, and she declared it with boldness and faith.
As soon as Jennifer was released from the hospital, she went to the ambulance crew and asked them what they’d done for the baby while on the way to the hospital that night. They told her they hadn’t taken any lifesaving actions for baby Haley that night because, as far as they were concerned, she was dead.
It was as if Haley just “woke up” when they got to the hospital, they said.
That ambulance crew received accolades from the hospital and firehouse for the response of the year, an annual award based on the outcome of a tough situation. But they admitted they had done nothing.
Look at 2 Peter 1:3. It says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.”
See that? Has given.
You don’t have to beg God or convince Him of what you need before He’ll respond to you.
God has already given us everything we need for life when He gave us the Kingdom.
The problem is that many, if not most, Christians don’t realize the Kingdom of God functions on and operates by spiritual law. Instead, most people think God just decides what and if something happens based on how He feels at the moment about their situation.
Because of this lack of knowledge, many people belong to the Kingdom without the benefits of living in it. They’re going to heaven, of course, but they’re missing out on a lot of benefits in the here and now. And consequently, their testimonies are weak to the unbelievers who live around them.
Once you understand spiritual law, you can use the Kingdom any time you need to—like flipping on a light.
You need all of the knowledge of the Kingdom you can get—it can be the difference between life and death.
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