My Greek Miracle

To obtain my Masters degree, I was required like all the students to demonstrate a proficiency in one of the biblical languages, either Greek or Hebrew. I had selected Greek in the beginning, which God had prepared me for, from the late 50's when I took 2 years of Russian as an undergrad at the Universtiy of Texas. (Russian uses the Greek alphabet, since it was orginally made up by Greek Christian missionaries, so they could translate the Bible into Russian)

This requirement was 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 that Masters degree but went on to get a PhD in Education at another University. The first semester in Greek, I had an A and near the end of the second semester I was close to having a second A. Our Professor had told us that the proficiency test would also be the Final test for the second semester and that it 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) 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 and I spent all day Tuesday on Chapter 20. I would translate a few verses, describe the parts of speech for the verbs and then check my work. By bedtime Tueday evening, I was tired and had only finished about half of Chapter 20. I prayed 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 1pm, I started at 7am studying my vocabulary and grammer, as if I could cram a whole year in my head in one morning. Around 9:15, Jesus spoke to me and said, "can you afford not to be studying Chapter 20". I knew He was right. 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 around 12:20 and I was thinking that I need to start working on my vocabulary and grammer again. Then Jesus told me to "just relax when you finish and spend time praying in the Spirit". After about 20 minutes of praying, I went to the restroom, got a drink of water and arrived at the room for the test about 10 minutes till 1. 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 but, PRAISE THE LORD, 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 covered me for the fact that 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 and we can hear Him.

A few months later, God told me I had to "learn My language, also". I knew in the Spirit what He was talking about and the next year I passed the procfiency test in Hebrew.

The reason the University gave us that we had to be proficient in a biblical language was so we would not be at the mercy of the translators. After many years of being a Pastor, I am so glad that I was forced to learn a biblical language. Although I use the Greek more frequently than the Hebrew, I can assure you that translators make errors and sometimes appear to slant things to please their doctrines. It even helps me with the King James translation.

Dear Pastor, Email to pastor@jesuscenter.net

Hearing God's Voice - Greek Miracle - We Center on Jesus - Honoring God Physically

God's Provides for the Pastor

Eye Healing Miracle * The Alphabet is from God * Family Prayer Outline * Jesus Knows the Bible and Spoke Hebrew *

Want to Be Like Jesus"