You never know there the rabbit trails will lead...
The information on my computer terminal said we would have a parent riding with us. The parent was a doctor at the hospital where we were picking up the patient.
Ryan was 15 and had a first time seizure. No recent illness or head trauma. No explanation at all. Sometimes a tumor will cause seizures, but that was something we didn't know.
Ryan's father impressed me. I don't know if he's a decent doctor, but the way he behaved around his son told me he was an excellent father. I got report from the nurse, asked a few questions and we got Ryan loaded.
As I took report, I closed my eyes for a split second. Just long enough to see a vision of myself handing Ryan's father one of my cards.
In the ambulance, Ryan curled up and slept. Seizures make you tired. His father and I talked. He mentioned something about people from his church. It was all the confirmation I needed. I told him what I do and asked if I could pray. He said yes. I handed him a card. We both prayed over Ryan. Since it was Easter, I declared the resurrection power of God to rest upon him.
I don't know if Ryan was healed. Time will tell. But I was able to encourage his father and that means a lot to me.
We dropped Ryan off at the hospital. As we rolled through the front door, I noticed three women in purple scrubs walking in our direction. The scrubs looked new. My partner said, "They're students". They followed us into the hospital and went to the same bank of elevators. One of them was limping noticeably.
So I asked how she injured her leg.
"I don't know, but I'm going to see a doctor tomorrow."
They got on a different elevator. It's hard to lay hands on people when you're pushing a gurney. Some days I wish I could slow everything down and have more time to take care of the important stuff. Like getting people healed.
The elevator door opened on the fifth floor and we exited. So did the ladies in purple.
I love a good set up.
I re-joined the limping woman. In fifteen minutes I would learn that her name was Julie and that she was a child life assistant at the hospital, not a student. And yes, the scrubs were new.
I told the limping woman not to go too far and that I wanted to talk to her after I dropped off my patient. We took Ryan to his room and got him transferred. My partner took the gurney downstairs to clean it. I already had my report done so I had time to look for the limping woman. I found her in her office with her shoe off, rubbing lotion on her sore foot.
I believe in God's favor. I believe it opens doors. I believe His presence goes with me. And I believe people are curious about what you're up to when you're bold.
When I told my wife this story, she said, "So you just told her to stick around and you expected her to do it?"
Yup. I sure did.
And I expected her to let me pray with her when I asked.
And she did.
So I commanded her foot to be healed, and for demo.....I mean spirits to leave and asked what she felt.
"Well, to tell you the truth, before you got here I rubbed this stuff on my foot that makes it all tingly. So it feels like pins and needles right now."
I thought, "Well that's awesome. You just ruined my day."
I told her I believed she'd be healed, maybe in 10 minutes, maybe tomorrow. And when it came, I asked her to thank God for it.
Her two friends were now curious to know more about this paramedic fellow who thinks he can just walk up to strangers and pray for them. (They were actually very sweet and I wish I had another hour to spend with them) So I told them about the dreams where I was praying for my patients and they were being healed. I told them I'd prayed for hundreds of people and didn't see anyone healed, but kept praying anyway. Then I told them I have a lot of prophetic dreams about things that happen in the future.
Julie (the limping woman) chimed in.
"What do you think is going to happen at the end of year in December?"
I told her I had a dream about that a couple of years ago. I gave them the dream and the interpretation. The short story is; a lot of people will make a lot of predictions about the end of the world, but it will prove to be a load of garbage. (If you're interested in reading about the dream, go here).
She asked what I thought about the people who are building a place on the top of a mountain because they believe a race of benevolent aliens from another planet are going to come for them at the end of the year.
I told her that a lot of my friends have been having dreams about aliens coming to visit earth. And in most of the dreams, the aliens are not friendly. They have an evil plan. And my friends are usually trying to warn people not to believe what they're being told about the "friendly" aliens. I said I thought the aliens were actually fallen angels or demons.
"I knew it." Julie said. "I've been having the same dreams. These aliens come and try to get people to go with them and I'm running around warning everyone to stay away from them because they're evil."
We talked some more. I told them it's shaping up to be an interesting year. I suggested that it's a year when discerning truth from deception will be critical. And if anyone lacks wisdom, they only need to ask God and He'll give them understanding.
