WHEN GOD WINKS AT YOU
well-known these things happen often overseas but rarely in America. And when we testify to it happening, it's ridiculed both by nonbelievers and sometimes even by Christians who say miracles ended with the apostles.
Charisma covered the story at the time. But even before that, Sam had seen the newspaper reports and talked about it in sermons and on interviews for TBN. The Smith family heard about it and contacted Sam on Facebook to tell him even more of the story. Later, Sam invited them to tell the story on TBN, where they met Devon Franklin, the producer of Heaven Is for Real and Miracles From Heaven, who said he wanted to turn their story into a major motion picture.
A few years before, Cindy Jacobs had preached at Sam's church in Sacramento and gave him a word. Because they badly needed new facilities, Sam told me he was hoping the word was about much-needed finances. Instead, Cindy prophesied this: "Hollywood." Sam was stunned. He had no connection with Hollywood and doesn't approve of most of its movies. Yet the prophetic word came true.
I tracked down young John Smith and interviewed him on my "Strang Report" podcast, and it was one of the biggest episodes on the Charisma Podcast Network this year. Then I contacted his mother for my other show, "In Depth With Stephen Strang." Listen to it to hear details about how the dramatic prayer happened, and how close the movie was to what really happened. (You can hear both by going to johnsmith.charismamag.com and joycesmith.charismamag.com.)
Joyce described the events leading up to the moment she saw John lying dead on the hospital bed. She says she had a strange sense of peace as she approached her lifeless son.
"I thought I was being very quiet and demure," Joyce told me. "But according to (others), everyone in the ER could hear me when I prayed. And I did walk up to the end of my son's bed, and they said I very boldly and very loudly called out to God and the Holy Spirit that He would come and please bring me back my son.
Joyce told me that after John's heart started beating, she sat down, stunned, and thought, This is surreal. I just watched God bring my son back to life.
And it certainly was a miracle. After all, John was underwater for 15 to 16 minutes, according to official reports. And then he had no discernible heartbeat for the next 45 minutes.
"We have 310 pages of medical records and police reports to back up everything that we have put in and told in our story in the book, Breakthrough," Joyce says. "We wanted to make sure that people knew this was the truth. God did such an awesome job. It doesn't need to be embellished."
I highly recommend reading the book or watching the movie. I believe it will inspire your faith.
And remember, God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is no respecter of persons. You may be next to see a supernatural miracle when you need it most if only, like Joyce Smith, you have faith to believe.
Stephen Strang is the founder of Charisma and CEO of Charisma Media. He is author of the best-selling book Trump Aftershock (FrontLine/Charisma House). Follow him on Twitter (@sstrang), Facebook (stephenestrang) or Instagram (stephenestrang).