My apologies that this is a long post but I felt led to repost and share this personal testimony. I believe it will be an encouragement:

I remember a crisis that we faced when my youngest daughter Rose was 6 years old (She is now 24 years old). I trained every day at a local gym in Randburg called Body Conscious situated across from the Randburg Virgin Active Gym. On this particular day I met my friend Dave at the gym for a workout. Rose had been given a pair of “heelies” and had in fact had become very good at using them. After training I sat waiting in the coffee bar at the exit of the gym for my training partner Dave. Rose was on the patio outside the gym skating around on her “heelies” having great fun. I had my back to her when I suddenly heard Gina, one of the personal trainers, screaming my name and shouting that Rose had injured herself. What had happened was that a tall round granite table top had tumbled over when Rose grabbed on to it. It came crashing down onto her hand which resulted in three of her fingers being crushed with the pinky finger total severed off and hanging on a thread. When I saw her lying there I had a choice to respond in fear or to declare the Word of God over the situation and trust Him to watch over His word to perform it. We were then rushed by another friend Jason Blacklock to the Olivedale Hospital in Olivedale, Randburg. They took us straight to the emergency room to be attended to by the emergency doctors on duty. Whilst standing next to my daughter I happened to overhear one of the emergency doctors say to one of the nurses to go and fetch a pair of cutters to cut through the skin that was attaching the baby finger to the hand. A righteous anger arose in me and I told them in no uncertain terms that this was not going to happen because my God was going to heal the finger. I also heard Holy Spirit me that she mustn’t be operated on at the Olivedale Hospital. After much fussing they arranged to take her through to the Rosebank Clinic in Rosebank. My wife Mandy drove with her in the ambulance and I made my way to the Rosebank Clinic. She was rushed in and prepped for surgery.

The orthopaedic surgeon that happened to be there on call at that very moment was the one of the top hand specialist in the world. I just have to pause to emphasize the fact that God had made sure that Rose would have the best hand surgeon available to take care of her hand. Rose was rushed into surgery and after an hour or so the surgeon came out of theatre to tell Mandy and I that he couldn’t find a vein for the blood to flow to the finger and if they couldn’t find a vein he would have to remove the finger. My immediate response, as a supernatural faith and a trust poured into my heart, was that he must go back in to theatre as he would be able to find a vein. After another 5 hours he emerged from surgery to tell us that he had managed to find a small vein and was therefore able to attach the baby finger to the hand but that he wasn’t sure what would happen in the long term. Two days later Rose was released from the hospital and we took Rose home.

I was running around catching up on work and I was on my way back from a client when I got a call from my wife, Mandy, that the finger had turned purple which meant that there was no blood flowing to the finger. I rushed home and I caught my wife coming down the stairs. We immediately prayed and the Lord assured me that he hasn’t healed her hand and finger for it now to be reversed. At that very moment we had a choice to trust our God with all our hearts or to lean on our own understanding. We called the surgeon and explained the situation to him and he told us to bring her back to Rosebank Clinic for him to assess the situation. We duly did and she was booked into a room and the surgeon came and examined the hand. After examining that hand he called me outside and told me that he couldn’t save the finger and that they would wait around three days and then remove the finger. My immediate response was that “My God will heal the finger”. The surgeon looked at me with a very kind and patronizing face and didn’t say anything but just left.

That night Mandy and I were in the same room as Rose and there was a spare bed for us to rest on. The Peace of God that surpasses all understanding descended on me and I said to Mandy that I was going to lie down and rest. I fell asleep and slept the whole night without stirring. I woke up and I saw that Mandy was still seated next to Rose’s bed. She told me to come over to the bedside. When I did she moved the bandage to the one side to show that Rose’s baby finger was pink. Our God is trustworthy.

At that very moment the surgeon walked in and I could see that he had had a bad night and was unshaven and in the same clothes. He couldn’t even look at us and asked how she was. Mandy told him to come closer and look at the finger. When he saw the pink finger tears started rolling down his cheeks and he said this is a miracle and that it was first time in the 20 years that he has been practicing as a hand specialist that he has seen something like this. This hand and finger became known amongst the nursing and hospital staff as the miracle finger. Glory to God.

The reason I shared this personal testimony is to illustrate that God is totally trustworthy. We must take our eyes off our circumstances and keep them fully fixed on Jesus. Whatever we are facing we need to run into the arms of our loving Lord and Saviour and know that He can be trusted to do exceedingly and abundantly above what we could ever hope, think or imagine. Trust God no matter what you are facing and He will not disappoint you. He works all things to our good.

Dare to believe.

Erick Bouwmeester