According to the American Medical Association, clinical death is the cessation of the pumping of blood by the heart through the body, which will inevitably result in the cessation of breathing.  It is a medical emergency, in which without immediate intervention the opportunity to reverse the condition will close, and legal death will be declared.

We had been pastoring Faith Tabernacle in Russellville, Arkansas for many years. On the evening of January 20, 2006, I received a phone call from Glen and Margaret Barnnon, a couple in my church, who were at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Their fourteen-year-old daughter, Jamie Burns, had developed Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) two day earlier and was in critical condition.

A few minutes after we arrived and greeted Glen and Margaret, Dr. Bannister ran to us and said, “Jamie is in full cardiac arrest, and we cannot get her back. We want you to come back and watch, so that you can see that we are doing everything possible to save her life!” They had already shocked Jamie 13 times and had been doing CPR on her for 40 minutes.

We were not ready for what we saw. Glen and Margaret fell to the floor in shock. Chyrel, my wife, went to the front of the monitor which showed a straight line—no heartbeat! About 20 more people were in the room. Chyrel began screaming at the devil and rebuking Satan’s power over Jamie, she got louder and louder as she screamed, “I command life to come back into Jamie in Jesus’ name!”

Meanwhile, I ran to Glen and Margaret to help them get up. As I approached them, the Lord told me to prophesy to them, “This sickness is not unto death. I the Lord God will raise Jamie up this day, and you will know that I am the Lord your God!” At first, I hesitated, because I feared that if she did not come back from the dead, I would be called a false prophet. But the Lord immediately urged me again to give them that prophecy. So I did! At that moment, a doctor yelled, “We have a heartbeat!”

We rejoiced and shouted praises to God! However, the doctors regained Jamie’s heart beat several times, but kept losing it. Jamie went into full cardiac arrest five times. This meant that she died five times, clinically speaking.

As I was ministering to Glen and Margaret on the floor, Chaplain John, the hospital chaplain, was praying with me. The doctors said that Jamie had eight broken ribs from the CPR, her heart was destroyed because of the 13 times that they had given her heart shock treatment, her kidneys had shut down, all her organs were failing, and she had no oxygen to her brain for an hour and five minutes. They told Glen and Margaret that they had a choice to make—to try to keep Jamie alive and take the risk that she would be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life, or to let her die. They chose life!

We kept praying and speaking God’s Word over Jamie for the next nine days. After nine days, Jamie walked out of the hospital in a completely healed state. She had no broken ribs, no brain damage, and her heart and all her organs were perfectly functioning! All the doctors, nurses, and staff members called Jamie the “Miracle child!”

We have copies of Jamie’s cardiopulmonary arrest records from the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, photos, the newspaper article from the Batesville Daily Guard by Jon Trobaugh, and a written testimony by Glen, Jamie’s stepfather.

Many years later, we accepted the call to return to the pastorate at Emanuel Chapel in South Coffeyville, Oklahoma, because the Lord had previously given me a vision of revival in Coffeyville, Kansas just across the border. I believed that this was to be the time of the harvest that I saw in my vision. I found that it indeed was that time, and revival has been going on and spreading for a few years now in the entire region. Revival in Coffeyville has not merely been shown me in a vision, but it has also been prophesied by Oral Roberts and Kenneth Copeland.

There has been church growth in my church and other pastors’ churches, healings, and deliverances. Also, a new church is being birthed in this revival. Coffeyville Worship Center, pastored by Dr. James F. Linzey, will soon be opening.

The anointing by which the dead has been raised has passed on to the Assembly of God pastor, Randy DePriest. And in the Spring of 2022, a woman who Rev. DePriest prayed for at the Coffeyville Regional Medical Center was raised to life, as witnessed by Dr. Landon D. Vinson, nurses, and staff members. Dr. Linzey, who has appeared on Trinity Broadcasting Network, CBS, and Daystar Television Network, reported on this for Charisma, and it has been picked up by Christian Broadcasting Network, God TV, World Net Daily, and Pneuma Review.

Jesus said, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He will” (Jn. 5:21, MEV). Also, both Elijah and Elisha, in 1 Kings 17:20-22 and 2 Kings 4:32-35, respectively, had seen the dead raised. Even a man who had died had risen from the dead after his corpse had come into contact with the bones of Elisha, as recorded in 2 Kings 13:21.

All things are possible if we only believe!

[Editor’s note: Documentation of Jamie Burns’ miraculous recovery is available upon request.]

Frank Gaffney, President and CEO of Center for Security Policy, shared this statement today on his “Secure Freedom Minute” Radio feature.

Image: Atin Bhattacharya / Wikimedia Commons

A miracle just happened. The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled today that Asia Bibi, a Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy – a capital offense under Islam’s totalitarian Sharia code – is not guilty after eight years on death row.

Particularly miraculous was the courage of the three Pakistani justices who know full well that, in freeing Mrs. Bibi, they have probably signed their own death warrants.  Other senior officials there have been murdered simply for speaking up for her and against blasphemy restrictions.

We must now pray for a few more miracles. Extracting Asia and her family safely from Pakistan will probably require an operation as stealthy as the one that liquidated Osama bin Laden there. And let the hand of God be upon other Pakistani Christians who will stay behind and are likely to be targeted for intensified persecution following her acquittal.

Dean Merrill is a veteran writer. He has written books of his own, has collaborated with others to help them tell their stories, and contributed to various publications. In this his latest book he tells the stories of a number of people who have had powerful experiences with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miracle Invasion is not a theology book per se (though there is certainly some biblical theology in it), it is really a book of testimonies. In these brief testimonies we have a collection of contemporary accounts which demonstrate that the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are mentioned in the New Testament are still very much with us today.

The book begins with the foreword which is called “Setting the Stage.” This part of the book is written by Jeff Farmer, the president of Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America. In it Farmer presents a brief explanation of each of the nine gifts of the Spirit that the apostle Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. After this brief teaching section, the book moves on to tell the stories of people who have had powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit. There are thirty-nine chapters of testimonies in this volume.

Jordan Seng is the pastor of Bluewater Mission in Honolulu, Hawaii. In this book he addresses the subject of supernatural ministry. However, the book is not primarily a theological text in defense of the present-day miraculous work of the Holy Spirit through the people of God. The book certainly contains theology and it most definitely affirms the contemporary reality of the supernatural but Miracle Work is exactly what the title indicates; it is a down-to-earth, practical guide to supernatural ministry. The book is inspirational and instructional; it contains both testimonies and teaching. Seng writes from the position of a practitioner, both he and his church are involved in the ministries that he writes about. Thus, he knows his subject well; he is familiar with both the joys and challenges of supernatural ministry.

The majority of the book is given to the consideration of the ministries of healing, deliverance, prophecy, and intercession. The instruction in each of these sections tells the reader how to actually engage in these kinds of ministries. Seng also addresses the subject of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. He states that every believer should receive this experience because every believer is to be involved in kingdom work and needs this empowerment (page 201). The book closes with an appendix in which the author offers concrete advice for pastors who desire to move their churches forward into supernatural ministry.

I found a number of very interesting insights in this book. I will mention a few of them here. First, Seng points out that supernatural ministry is messy (page 12). Second, speaking of healing, deliverance, and prophecy he says they, “aren’t just meant to show God’s might; they’re meant to show God’s nature, which, again, is a mixture of both power and humility” (page 14). Third, is what he calls “The Power Equation” (page 55). “The Power Equation” is a list of four things that factor into increasing our power in the Holy Spirit. Seng writes: “Authority + Gifting + Faith + Consecration = Power” (page 55). He believes that the sum total of these four things will in large measure determine how much power we have for ministry (pages 55-56). He says, “No single component determines everything” (page 57). Fourth, he makes the interesting observation that as Christians we have not doubt that God wants to save the unsaved or deliver the demonized but when it comes to healing we are not as certain that God wants to heal (pages 82-83). Fifth, Seng sets forth some of the “costs” involved in supernatural ministry. He says that when Christians become involved in supernatural ministry they will attract all kinds of desperate people (pages 22-23) and they may experience doubt and disappointment when a miracle does not take place (page 24). Six, the author believes that those who participate in supernatural ministry should engage those who are in need of these ministries: people in cancer wards, disaster areas, and violent ghettos (pages 13-14, 17). Seven, the author has a very interesting, and pastoral, way of dealing with unanswered prayers for healing. He does not allow the sufferer to blame themselves or God; rather, he assumes responsibility for the lack of healing (pages 98-99). He does this so that the sufferer does not feel worse than they already do or become bitter and blame God (pages 98-99).

Oral Roberts, Expect A Miracle: My Life and Ministry (Thomas Nelson, 1995), 388 pages, ISBN 9780785274650.

There is something powerful about reading stories of lives God has used. Autobiographies never go out of date. While this was published in 1995, it has a vitality and ring of truth that grows with age. I like reading autobiographies, particularly when they are written by contemporaries that I knew or knew about.

Oral Roberts relates his beginnings, beginnings that were humble indeed. We learn that his sister Jewel spoke seven simple words to her brother when he was dying of Tuberculosis. “Oral, God is going to heal you.” Several days later Oral’s father knelt by his son’s bedside and prayed Oral into the Kingdom of God. Within days of his confession, Oral’s brother Elmer took Oral to a tent meeting in Ada, Oklahoma where evangelist Charles Moncey was preaching. That night Oral was healed and also called into the ministry—a ministry that so many of us have enjoyed. God brings His ministers to all kinds of places we do not know to reach people that we again do not know.

Oral received an audible call from God immediately before he was healed: “You are to take My healing power to your generation. You are to build Me a university and build it on My authority and the Holy Spirit” (p. 32).

Oral’s book reminds us that there is a long distance to travel from the call to the result and he takes the reader on that trip in an engaging manner. I was challenged as I read of Oral’s struggles and his devotion to his Savior who called him. Successful people work hard, they stand against adversity from every direction and they often partner with God so that their lives make people expect miracles. I did not know that in his first healing crusade Oral Roberts faced a man who had a revolver in his hand and pulled the trigger only to miss our brother by 18 inches.

Oral soon began to recognize a warming in his right hand that came and went. When that feeling was present people got healed, and Roberts soon came to depend on that sign of God’s presence when preparing for his crusade services. We read of the healing of a deaf boy one night in a small church in Nowata, OK. I marvel at the visitations of a God who is so great that He can show up in a place named Nowata and change the destiny of a small child and never lose a moment on His throne. We are never fully prepared for Him to act until He does and then all we can do is marvel.

In July 1950 Oral Roberts possessed the largest tent available. It sat 12,000 people. Oral wrote “I wish I could describe to you the feelings that swept over me when I stood before the crowds, knowing that after I preached and extended the invitation for the unsaved to receive Christ, hundreds of very sick people were going to come before me, one by one, as I took on all their sicknesses with my faith in the living Christ” (pp. 103-104).

Oral Roberts had some great moments and some terrible difficult moments to live through as he gave his life to telling you and me about our God.

He closes his autobiography with his ten secrets of success. This chapter is perhaps the best of the entire book which I found moving and inspiring. I like Oral’s first principle: Remember that the message is far greater than the messenger. Indeed without the message, we would all be chaff blowing in the wind. We do thank our Heavenly Father for sending gifts to the body of Christ like Oral Roberts. In as much as he followed Jesus, let us emulate him. Surely the Lord has used him to impact his generation.

Reviewed by H. Murray Hohns

Further reading:

Miracles supplement:  www.oralroberts.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/DOC_BIN/miracles_mag/2010/pdf/ORinsertWeb.pdf