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My Supernatural Experience-Believing For A BabyBy Stacy Stephens All my life I have heard that to get a miracle, a tragedy must first occur. For example, if someone is to be raised from the dead, someone must first die, or if a hungry family is to be fed by a stranger, there has to be famished family somewhere with knee prints worn in the floor and tears upon the altar. It is my belief that in the book of Matthew, Jairus would have missed his miracle if he had not persisted in seeking the miracle maker; likewise the woman with the issue of blood. As for me, it always seemed that miracles were for other people. After my son was born, my husband and I decided to wait
before having any more children. We
waited three years, and then felt it was time, but it just did not seem to be
working out in our favor. Our faith
was failing because people all around us were conceiving. Nearly two more years went by, and it seemed hopeless. We would never have another child. A Miracle from Tragedy
Still, in November, 2000, I made up my mind
and became determined to ask God for a baby girl. Each time I prayed, I
specifically asked for a little girl. As I prayed my faith seemed to get
stronger. I told my co-workers and friends at church that I was going to
conceive soon. Some agreed with my faith, and from some I received strange
looks. Nevertheless, I continued to pray. It wasn’t until January 2001, when I began
to see the fruits of my faith. God sent an evangelist to our church, and one
night he started preaching and testifying about receiving and witnessing
miracles. He said it was our faith that allows God to work. All
through his preaching I felt that if there was an altar call, especially for
miracles, that I would receive mine. I went down and received prayer, and
the evangelist told me that God wanted to give me the desires of my heart and
that it would be a girl. A peace fell on me, and such joy came over me-it
was glorious! I knew it was just a matter of time. As the month progressed toward February, I kept the faith. I just told myself each day that God would deliver His promise. It was the middle of February, and I had made a dental appointment to have one of my wisdom teeth extracted. Because pain medication had to be administered, I was told to make sure I wasn’t pregnant. So I left the dentist's office with a painful tooth, and went to the pharmacy to buy a test. Of course, doubt started coming in like a flood. In what seemed like seconds, the lines that indicated positive results showed bright and clear. I couldn’t control my joy. I danced in the Spirit all over my bathroom, tears of joy were flowing, and I began to thank God for my blessing. Little did I know this was only the beginning of a very large miracle. The Tests
After my pastor’s wife shared her experience
with painless childbirth. I could not stop thinking about what she said. I
began to pray and seek God for this as well. I just did not know exactly
where to start. Just as the Bible says, seek and you shall find.
Needless to say, God supplied all the answers I needed. A friend of the family gave me Supernatural
Childbirth, written by Jackie Mize. From the first page, this book grabbed my
attention. It started out talking about the promises God has in store for
His children concerning conception and delivery. First, the author
notes there is not one barren woman in the Bible that did not conceive a child.
Second, there was not one miscarriage. The book used many scriptures taken
from the Bible (Exodus 23:25, 26, Deuteronomy 7:13, and Malachi 3:10-11). Now
with this book guiding me to the scriptures that I should study, I had just what
I needed. I fell back on these scriptures in my fourth
month of pregnancy. My faith was tested when I started to show signs of a
miscarriage. Remembering the Shunamite Women, I was determined to hold on to my
miracle. In about three days all was well. As I read on, the author began to explain and
give scriptures about how the Hebrew women had a different experience than those
of the Egyptian women. Unlike the Egyptian women, the Hebrew women in the
Bible had short and easy labor and delivery, because the curse of childbirth had
been removed from them. This was encouraging. Everything went wonderful until week 29 when I
was admitted into the hospital for contractions. There was one thing about
these contractions, though¾they were pain free. All I felt was tightening
and pressure in my abdomen, but there was still a risk of having the baby too
early. At this stage, the baby had some chance, but not without serious
complications. My husband called upon the local saints to bind together in
prayer. The doctor gave me medication that was supposed to stop the
contractions, but it wasn’t working. At this point I realized that God
gives us dominion over our bodies, so I spoke to my body and to my baby. I
demanded that it get back in line with God’s perfect will and to stop
contracting. Prayer does change things; my contractions ceased. However, the devil wasn’t through with me
yet. Being put on bed rest, I was not able to go to church for about two
months. Until then I didn’t understand how much I (and everyone) needed
church, that fellowship with saints, the Word of God being preached, and
sanctuary from our problems. As if things did not seem bad enough, my
doctor began to see signs of Anemia, Gestational Diabetes, and Preeclampsia.
Again, the church began to pray. I was tested and retested, and to my
doctor’s surprise, the tests came out negative. At week 33 the painless contractions started
again, so I was admitted into the hospital under pre-term labor. After
having an amniocentesis done, the doctors found that the baby’s lungs were not
fully mature. So I was immediately put on medication to stop the contractions.
After being on strong medication for about five hours, the contractions were not
stopping, and at this point my faith was under such attack. I found myself
in my room alone, and I began to cry out to my Lord. I was not accepting
this situation, because I had prayed for a healthy, full-term baby. Within 30
minutes my contractions were gone. At 5 a.m. on October 22nd, I woke with a
backache and some slight discomfort in my legs and hip. I had been waking
up on and off all night with a tightening in my stomach. Still, there were no
sure signs of true labor, so I waited. I had been praying for my water to
break at home, so I got up and read about the promises God had given us, spoke
to my body and baby and commanded them to perform the way God had intended.
After taking a shower to relax, I woke my husband with the news that this
felt like the day, but my water had not broken yet. So I said a small
prayer asking God to grant me this sign of delivery. About ten minutes
passed, and then my water broke. I was having light contractions, but my
husband and a local saint were there to help me through them. Because of
the discomfort in my back and legs, I decided to receive an epidural. I
was only at five centimeters, and while I was getting the epidural, my stomach
tightened two times with only slight pain. Twenty minutes later I was
holding my baby girl. Isabella Mical Stephens was born at 9:30 a.m. weighing 10 lbs., 1oz.
The Big Picture
Thinking back through all of this, I have found that I had
to endure to get my miracle. Without a
test how can we have a testimony? Time
and time again, I was tested, but the blood gave me strength to hold on. Every
time I doubted God’s will, I knew that my church was somewhere praying,
holding up my faith when I was too weak to hold my own. My faith and my
spiritual walk are stronger than ever before. To confirm this miracle, at my first doctor’s visit she explained that I had a condition that caused my body to stop producing many, if any, eggs at all, and she did not know how I conceived. My exact words to her were, “That is because I prayed for this child”. I have written my testimony to glorify God, and in hopes of giving someone encouragement when times look hopeless. ninetyandnine.com © 2002, Stacy Stephens --------- Stacy Stephens is
a housewife, minister’s wife, and a stay-at-home mother of two beautiful
children, each a God-send. When she is not studying, changing diapers or reading
to the kids, she puts up with her husband’s constant ramblings and
“revelations” from the Bible.
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