Greek Miracle

Ed shares how God answered his prayer and led him to the exact 5 verses out of a possible 1010. To obtain my Masters degree, I was required to demonstrate a proficiency in one of the biblical languages. This requirement was very serious, as I had met people who had finished three years of course work and yet couldn't get their Master Degree because they had not passed their proficiency test in a biblical language. I had one friend who already had a Masters degree in another area, never passed the test and never got this Masters degree but went on to get a PhD in Education at another University. The first semester in Greek, I had a good grade and near the end of the second semester I was close to having another good grade. Our Professor had told us that the proficiency exam would also be the Final for the second semester. Also that the proficiency exam would be to translate from the Greek and describe all the parts of speech (parse) for each verb from a passage from either the Gospel of John or one of the Epistles of John.

I was not sure that I knew Greek that well, so I prayed one week before the test on Wednesday evening and asked God if it would be okay to ask which chapter. God replied, "YES - CHAPTER 20". On Friday, after attending our last Greek class and hearing others say which chapters they thought the test would be on, I prayed again and again God said, "CHAPTER 20". On Sunday, after hearing a person (the one I mentioned earlier that got a PhD later) at church say which chapter he thought it would be on, I asked God for the third time and he replied, "CHAPTER 20". On Monday evening I finished my last final other than the Greek and I spent all day Tuesday on chapter 20. I would translate a few verses, describe the parts of speech for the verbs on my worksheet and then check my work. By bedtime Tueday evening, I was tired and had only finished about half of chapter 20. I asked for the last time and God said for the fourth time "CHAPTER 20". I share this detail about me asking 4 times because it is good for us to know that God is patient with our lack of faith.

On Wednesday morning with the test at 1 pm, I started at 7am studying my vocabulary and grammer, as if I could cram a whole year of Greek in my head in one morning. Around 9:15, God spoke to me and asked, "can you afford not to be studying chapter 20?" I knew He was right but I did not learn for a few hours how essential God's guidance would become. About that time my wife came home from the grocery store and I went to a quite place in the library and started working on the next 5 verses in chapter 20. A little after noon, I could see that I would finish checking my work on those 5 verses around 12:20 and I was thinking that I need to start working on my vocabulary and grammer again. Then God told me to "just relax when you finish and spend time praying in the Spirit". After about 20 minutes of praying, I went down stairs and arrived at the room for the test about 10 minutes till 1pm. About 5 minutes after 1, the grader rushed in with the test, saying something about the print shop being late and started passing them out. When I received mine I looked for a chapter and there was no number noted but, PRAISE GOD, it was the exact 5 verses I had spent all morning working on.

God had led me to the exact 5 verses out of a possible 1,010 verses. I had heard God and heard Him correctly and God led me to the answers I needed for the exam even though I hadn't realized that I needed to also ask which verses. To have the exact 5 out of a possible 1,010 is the kind of odds that scientists consider is a proven fact. It is a proven fact that God speaks to us, we can hear Him and God answers our prayers better than we know to ask. Although God told me the correct chapter out of a possible 28 chapters, knowing the chapter was not enough and ultimately God had to speak to me without me asking Him, to guide me to the correct 5 verses. I learned from the Greek Miracle to let God guide me without me telling God how to help me.

After the exam, I went back upstairs in the library and got all the works sheets out of the trash. Later, when I told my wife, she asked, "Why?" I responded, "I am going to frame the worksheets so I can always remember that I heard God correctly and He led me to the answers I needed." ( go to Jesus Center's Facebook page to see a picture the framed Greek Test and worksheets)

The above is a miracle story that we are sharing so that others may be blessed by what the one true God, who has a son named Jesus, is doing in our lives.

for questions Email to Ed@jesuscenter.net