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The Bible says God is the same yesterday, today and forever. But many of us have never seen or touched the miraculous. So is the powerful demonstration of miracles that took place through out Christ’s ministry and in the lives of the Apostles and Old Testament Prophets still available to us today?  Do they even happen anymore? You bet they do.  How can I be so sure?  Because the miraculous has touched my life, interrupted my life and changed my life.  In case you are wondering if there is something special about me, there is not.  I am a flawed human being who has struggled with great obstacles during the course of my life and at times failed miserably.  But if there is one redeeming quality that has served me in the kingdom of God it is the spiritual hunger that lives within my soul. Earnestly seeking answers to the most daunting questions of life after a near death experience, I found them when I found him.  Yearning to touch, feel and discover the greatest mystery of the universe, the Creator of it. My soul found its resolve in the arms of Jesus, my Gentle Shepard.

As I look back over my life and each sacred manifestation, I have pondered how and why.  Having lived a life riddled with mistakes, highs and lows one would never think I would qualify for a miracle and I would have to agree with them! Even my oncologist took me back when she asked the question, “ Why you Teresa?”  Further elaborating, “all my patients pray for miracles. This Cancer center  is filled with patients that are dying.  Everyone of them pray for a miracle. But why you?  Why did you receive a miraculous healing?   I did not have an answer and the question lingered in my heart for many months.

I knew I didn’t receive a miraculous healing because I deserved it, because I somehow earned it. There are far better people than I who certainly outrank me when it comes to holiness, goodness or moral merit.  And yet I have been touched by the Divine not once, not twice but on many occasions.  I have found a place where the supernatural manifestation of the Power of God has over shadowed me, over taken me.  I have been taken to paradise outside the City of God.  Yes, it is real.  The place we’ve heard about since we were children. When in an attempt to comfort our broken hearts we were told, “It’s ok sweetheart, they’re in heaven now. You’ll see them again someday.”  In a life altering inexplicable moment I was transported to the shores of its ethereal paradise.

I have contemplated this event for forty plus years and wrestled with its implications. I have been more than reticent to share it for many reasons, not the least of which being my failure to live up to its Holiness.  But that is where the extra-ordinary meaning of grace comes in. I guess that’s why they call it amazing.  Simply put, none of us are worthy, none of us are deserving.  All these years later, after a number of miraculous encounters, including my medically certified healing, I have asked the Lord the question my oncologist asked me. WHY? Why me?  After much reflection, prayerful consideration and time alone in his presence I feel he has given me insight into the possible answer.   Beauty in place of ashes. Splendid vibrant health where there was disease and ecstatic joy in place of a broken heart.

Delving deep into prayer and divine discovery, I realized in my desperate need I somehow stumbled upon powerful truths that were keys in unlocking the miraculous. If sharing these truths would help just one person touch Heaven, come face to face with our savior, and receive healing of their heart, body and soul, than I have an obligation to share what I have learned.  The Seven Stone Path to Miracles, that’s what we need to know.

Stones were used through out scripture to record a notable event, a new season.  To secure a physical reminder of the faithfulness of God. To mark a time and place where a Divine interruption of God dispelled the ordinary.  Where the supra-natural conquered or swallowed the natural and superlative transformation took place.  The Lord is no respecter of persons and what he’s done for me he most certainly will do for any who calls upon his name and begins their journey down the path of the miraculous. To learn more about THE SEVEN STONE PATH TO MIRACLES join us at Sabbath Song. For more details check out our Sabbath Song page on our website or email me at teresa@teresaroybal.com. It is the season of the miraculous.

 

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Forty years of silence have come to an end and I am compelled to try and speak my unspeakable encounter. Only one breath separates every one of us from this this reckoning, this eternity. Only one breath.

In a desperate state, I like Jacob wrestled with God. Only moments from death weeks prior my unanswered questions tormented me. Unfit to encounter Him, my anguish and confusion cause me to rave before Him, vacillating between an all consuming despair and desperate plea to touch Him.  For Him to touch me. Anger, fear and dread combine as I challenge Him propelling me further into a tortured cry. “Are you real? Can you hear me? Do you even care?” How was I to know what was about to happen? The different names of religious Gods swirl through my head.  Who is He I wonder. “I don’t know what to call you. Who are you? What is your name? If you exist show me!”  The  supernatural gift of knowledge followed by the fervent prayer of the unknown minister combine and prove to be the catalyst for the miraculous encounter.  As my body falls limp to the floor my spirit is taken. Wide awake, wide eyed, in a public place I would return a different creature entirely and with the exception of a very few, I would remain utterly mute regarding this for forty years. I am not required to persuade, but only to speak so do with this what you will.  The truth stands unchanged by opinion yet my most earnest prayer is that you will open your heart and consider my words.

I hush silent muting even my breath. I will not move or stray a hair from where I am placed.  Face down on a silken ethereal tier the powder beneath me is foreign.  After being lifted from the massive ocean separating earth’s sky and this paradisaical sphere I realize not a drop of water is left on me.  This world I am in is more than an imagination can conjure.  It is hallowed.  It is sacred.  A place of holiness I can not bear.  My soul overwhelmed with fearful awe seems vulnerable to consumption, where I will be no more.

The purity is unendurable and I am a desecration of it. Dread fills me.  There is no question as to where I am.  I am on the shores of a sacred sanctuary that border the City of God. I lay paralyzed.  I sense I am alone in this state of not belonging. Life bursts forth around me with jubilant song. The joy of this creation is immeasurable. It exudes vitality, elation. It is not quiet or passive. It is a place of blessed, exultant praise to the King of this Magnificent Kingdom. To His Holiness. To the Lightness of His Being. I marvel at the soft wind, and exuberant life I hear and feel as I lay motionless.  I feel every sensation albeit I am spirit only.  An indistinguishable sound captures me.  Like a bell tone that claps a symphony of highly pitched melodic percussion.  It is rapturous and takes my breath from me.  I sense it too is alive as is everything in this place. Acutely more alive than on earth.

A great breeze swooshes around me from the foliage and trees. I wonder if they will sweep down and catch me in the arms of their branches. I feel great kindness and love from them.  Fervent life energy accompany every descriptive of this creation and this I know from my prostrate position. I wonder if I lift my head will this living paradise be looking back upon me? The foreigner in their land.  I hear sounds I have no reference for.

The color, musical sound and manner of vibrant life that encompass me are nothing compared to the indescribable Light that fills this place. It is inescapable.  It fills every nuance of this hallowed sanctum.  There is no hint of space the Light does not penetrate. It is immeasurably brighter than the noon day sun but does not hurt my eyes, even as I was lifted from the water upright. But for me it is unendurable. I understand it would instantly blind my human eye should my body of flesh be exposed to it. To say it is blinding does not suffice to describe its intensity.

There is no turning away. An all penetrating holiness uncovers every piece of my soul and I am exposed. The filth of my being is overt and can not be denied. It is glaring and vile.  I confound at what I am experiencing and know it is the Brightness of His Being.  The Holy Righteousness of His Presence.  Of this there is no doubt.  I am not yet before his throne or in His Holy City.  I am outside the City of God on the shores of an ethereal nirvana and the Light of His Holiness is consuming me. Will I be extinguished by this Fire?  It is too much for me to exist. My contamination is insufferable. My self loathing abounds more than I can express.

It is clear what I am. I am polluted and His resplendent brilliance is hallowed. Yet I am here, defiled and ready to be no more, yet still existing.  Forgive me.  My heart barely whispers, forgiveness as I know even this request is profane. My guilt is assured and sentences me.  No retort is possible.  Unyielding in my grave state of despair I had raved before him. Desperate for the answer to the greatest quest of my soul, when the breath of my life was almost snuffed. Everything I have ever done and each flaw of sin through out my existence hangs before me simultaneously. My state of knowing is expanded and layers of my life experience are captured in a split second of thought.  I remember everything. My life prior is inescapable as is my current state and I overwhelm in fear. Why am I here?

This urgent cry for understanding began only weeks ago and was heightened when my life dangled in the tempest of angry ocean waves as the deep was swallowing me.  Had it not been for the stir of vomit that violently erupted when I was rescued and pulled onto the sand my sleeping conscience would not have awakened. Earth would no longer be my home.  Day after night after day, I wondered, tormented by my unknowing. Would I have ceased to exist, or found myself in some version of Heaven or Hell’s descriptive?  Recognizing family members who’d gone before, or terrified in the infinite darkness of evil?   I had no persuasion as to which but since that day, ordinary life vanished to the unknown answer.

In the pain, and anguish of my heart I had cried, begged and pleaded for God to reveal himself.  I recklessly questioned his existence.  I silently screamed within for Him to show Himself.  If He did hear. If He did live.  If He did care.  In my blind pain and ignorance, He heard. He chose to answer and here I now lay before His presence outside this Holy City, debased and undone by the Brightness of His Glory.

Fully cognizant of the content of my life, the reckless words and presumption of my heart, there is not one particular act or series of such I disdain myself for. It is in fact the very fabric of my being for in my highest self, in the best part of me I violate this sacred place.  His purity is immeasurable and without hint of shadow.  As I again flood with unspeakable fear and self abhorrence the silent plea of my heart is mercy.  I understand I do not belong and frightfully, wordlessly ache in utter terror.  Then suddenly without warning, a cataclysmic change. In an instant nothing is as it was. There is an immeasurable shift and absolutely everything is unfathomably transformed at its core. At my core.  An infinite being wrapped in the blinding light of brightness is permeating and saturating me in a presence that fills each and every cell , if I can call it that, of this sphere where I and all else are explicitly known and live in the same bowed posture of heart. I am about to be altered in an inconceivable way that has no language to accompany it. But now, at this later stage of my life I will try somehow to find the words to tell anyone who will listen.

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Jewish legend tells a fascinating story of the Lord God Jehovah, before the earth was formed.  Legend states, the Lord broke off a piece of his heavenly throne and cast it in the abyss.  This “Rock” a portion of Heaven’s foundation, became the Foundation Stone of the earth, out of which our precious earth was born.  As a woman brings forth a child from the center of her body, (her naval) this story tells us the formation of our planet may have been created in similar fashion. After the Lord God set the foundation stone in place, He expanded it in all directions, ultimately bringing forth the earth’s creation in all of its glory. “God saw all he had made and behold it was very good” -Genesis 1:31

It is on this very Foundation Stone many believe the Garden of Eden existed.  Was it there Adam and Eve walked with the Lord God in the cool of the day and enjoyed intimate fellowship with him? Many are those who believe this was the  sanctuary of His Holiness, the garden of the miraculous.  Could this Garden have ultimately become the city of Jerusalem where the sacred Temple was built and where the Temple Mount remains to this day?  This holy ground where the Lord commanded Solomon to build the first Temple has been fiercely fought over for centuries. It is held sacred by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. What many may not know, this unbroken Foundation Stone, at the North wall of the Temple mount extends to include Golgotha, the place of skulls.  It was there the priests slaughtered animals that were prepared for a sin offering to the Lord. The remains of these animals were often left and this became a grave yard of sorts for both animal and human bones, there by gaining its name.

As the High Priest slit poured out the blood of the carefully chosen, spotless Passover Lamb, our Great High Priest was pouring out his blood on the mount of Golgotha’s hill for our sin.  Did you know it is believed our Heavenly Father tested Abraham asking him to offer his son on this very same site? Clearly, a profound prophetic foreshadowing of the death of his only son.  It is also believed Jacob slept on this great Foundation Stone naming it Bethel, the House of God. It was there he saw the Angels of God ascending and descending upon it and proclaimed it to be the Gate to Heaven. Many postulate this to include Mt. Sinai, where Moses heard the Voice of God emanating out of the burning bush where the Lord told him, “…Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is Holy Ground.”– Exodus 3:5.  This sacred place that became the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple,  housed the Ark of the Covenant and was previously the threshing floor that King David purchased to offer sacrifice to the Lord when God judged his sin of counting Israel and Judah. It was there David saw the angel of the Lord with sword drawn ready to slay more of the children of Israel until the Lord stayed the angel’s hand, yet another demonstration of the miraculous.

During the time of Jesus’ ministry the Jews questioned him regarding the issue of authority. Jesus answered them “…Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19) as He prophesied of the temple of his body. Was the Great Rock of our Salvation foreshadowed by  the earth’s Foundation Stone?  “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”- 1Cor. 3:16. For according to the Apostle Paul, ” So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple the Lord. In him you are also being being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.“- Ephesians 2:19-22

Christ Jesus, the true Foundation Stone, who not only holds our very world together by the power of his spoken word, (…All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him holds all things together- Col. 1:17) but has chosen to build his lasting temple in his people.  Revelation 21: 3, “And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, ” Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”  “Behold He cometh with clouds and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.”-Rev. 1:7

 

 

It was my first visit to Columbus and so far so good. The boutique hotel I checked into had a distinctive upscale feel and for the money I was thrilled. I’d pay a fortune for this in Santa Fe or New York I thought, my current and previous stomping grounds. Columbus was welcoming both inter-personally and climatically but quickly severed the gracious weather. 76 degrees one day, 32 minus the wind chill the next.  Grateful I had the big sweater and jacket I was annoyed by yesterday I decided to venture out to the coffee hot-spot the hotel staff suggested. Collar up, head down, I  braced the wind.

A blend of urban warehouse and garage band motif, it was eclectic and fun. Grateful to shut the biting wind behind me, I scooted in and stood on the surprising long line to order. Good for them, I thought. It’s scary to be an entrepreneur, as few know better than I and it pleased me to see this little place bustling. Over due for my morning’s first java, my hungry stomach was protesting as I stood on line, but I pretended not to hear.

Surveying the landscape of this Columbus meeting place, it was an easy 20 years. Roughly twenty years I had on the oldest person in the place. What is it with millennial’s and coffee? This was the twenty something hang where the technologically savvy congregated. Not just a single table chatting but cross conversations and laughs spilled from table to table. Nice, I thought.
A college dorm vibe minus the alcohol. They loved the place.

Each time the front door opened, a blast of cold air made me unhappy and I’d eyeball the culprit. One after another, a perfectly disheveled, adorable 20ish mil would sashay in.  This one had a sweet girl with him, of the canine ilk, who sought tickles and pats from the patrons and seemed at home in the space. Clearly a local favorite.  She reminded me of my parent’s family dog, Maggie girl. How quickly a surprise moment can carry you back a million years and unleash a perfectly vibrant emotional memory, but as I lingered in Maggie land, a startling sound jolted me back into the room. Two patrons with dogs apparently tried to enter at the same moment and terror struck. It all happened so fast.  I could not tell who lunged for who, but two young men were caught in the middle of a brutal, utterly vicious dog attack right outside the front entrance. Yells from owners and heart wrenching shrieks from one of the dogs seemed to riddle through my body as a heavy hush of silence fell over the coffee house. A deathly quiet immobilized all of us.

Through the large front windows we saw and heard the raw brutality. Although both owners had their dogs leashed, their strength paled to the power of the attack. Vicious evil on display. Determined violence overcame any authority the owners thought they had. It was as if they did not exist.  In the disturbing dance no one could see where the jaw locked and for a period of endless minutes, chaotic bobbing and interweaving of dogs and owners darkened the mood even more.  Blood thirsty force unleashed against weakness. There was no contest. Both the canine victim and two able bodied men succumbed to it. Complete silence continued as every patron in the room sat frozen. A cloud of palpable dread saturated the establishment, even though intellectually we understood we were safe. That was inconsequential to the horror.

Leaving the coffee shop I briefed the sidewalk’s graphic story. Deep crimson pooled and what looked like raw hamburger meat spilled across the pavement, curb and street. I shuddered and swiftly turned the other way.
A panicked owner wrapped his baby in a jacket which transformed from beige to blood before me and sped off.  Sudden violence is terrifying I thought. The pretty Maggie look alike was warm and safe inside with her owner and I flinched at how close she came.

I could not utter a sound as I walked away, numbed by the shock of the unexpected experience and now the biting cold. I  prayed for the life of the canine victim. Sudden violence is terrifying I thought again as the fear kept my breath swift and shallow and sped up my walk. My cell rang but I was no where near normal enough to take an associates call. I could not describe why, but chose not to speak of this at all during my weekend. The distress of it made me mute.

I came to Columbus to celebrate and support an evening for LIFE. A fund raising banquet feverishly pulled together by a tiny team of women short on resource, but big on determination that were making a difference in this community. Five hundred fifty lives to date, I was told. Lives brought into the world as a result of huge hearts and broad shoulders that bore the angst and burdens of women in crisis pregnancies. Distressed strangers, who now interfaced with the staff like family. The evening planned was a roll up your sleeves, call every one you know, pray they show up, come early and leave late for the cause elegant gala, complete with harpist and flute. And YES they pulled it off. A success it was.

I was told the women’s center was in the sketchy part of town, strategically positioned between two planned parenthood abortion clinics, or as the key note speaker put it, between the gates of hell.  I couldn’t achieve my financial goals, unless we performed a combined 40,000 abortions that year, she disclosed. Knowing the birth control we provided to all those teenage girls, wouldn’t do the job, we simply waited till they returned pregnant. They were kids. Keeping their sexual activity and birth control secret from their parents, they weren’t mature or responsible enough to take it properly. Where else were they going to go when they discovered they were pregnant? Of course they’d return and we’d do their abortions.

Disdain filled me as she continued. The doctor didn’t scrub up after each surgery as we had multiple rooms going at once. He would change his gloves and rush to perform the next abortion. We needed to turn over the rooms and make our numbers. We had a business to run and I was determined to make my personal goal of one million a year. One woman died on the surgery table. We aborted fetus’s that were developed enough to live outside their mother’s womb. We were there to do as many abortions as we could and the financial goal was our number one commitment. My number one commitment.

Although she did not specify, I assume this executive director worked in a state that allowed late term abortion or had no bans or restrictions on abortion what-so-ever, as in my own state of New Mexico.  Or maybe the 20 week guesstimate was off, intentionally or not, I don’t know.  I confess up until recently I was entirely ignorant of what transpires in clinics all across the nation. I certainly did not know women fly to my state (and numerous others) to abort their babies very late in their pregnancies, virtually up until labor begins. This was unimaginable to me. I also had never heard the term abortion tourism and was horrified at the mention of it, especially realizing my home state was attracting this business. As this key note speaker continued her talk, I turned away and did not want to look at her as loathsome feelings filled me. This was heinous and difficult to hear.

As she continued the crux of her message became clear. She was a woman of great darkness transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. This abortion clinic executive director was now on a whole new path and committed to effecting change by speaking the unspeakable. By shining a light on the darkest part of the abortion industry, their routine business practices, and worse, the darkest part of our humanity. The most disturbing part of ourselves and surprisingly, the darkest part of her.

This can not be easy, I thought. Standing before this crowd, admitting your blatant greed and utter disregard for human life. Exposing the true underlying motive for each compassionate conversation that took place with every woman in distress that came through their doors.  Glaring deception assuring them they would be just fine. She herself had one day been on the surgery table and lived with disdain and self loathing for that choice. But as God’s heart and grace so desires, she embraced absolute forgiveness and restoration through the blood of the Messiah.  As committed as she was to death prior, she now chose to trumpet the immeasurable value of life. Who better, I thought. She has seen it all first hand. Each and every day in the thick of it. Greatly enhanced by it financially, destroyed by it in every other way. She now lives to tell it all. I was reminded of the apostle Paul and how he literally hunted down and murdered Christians, prior to his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. He afterward went on to became one of God’s most powerful agents of change. I embraced a paradigm shift in my attitude toward her.

The Lord God asked Cain upon the murder of his brother Abel, “what have you done?” a question I have been asking myself. How did we as a nation ever get here? What have we done? What do we continue to do? Sudden violence in the womb and we talk of terrorism?  Uproar, and rightly so over cruel outbreaks of terror against innocent people, yet do we dare to look, dare to consider the overt violence against more than one million children in the womb every year?  This is the silent holocaust taking more lives than any slaughter in history and yes it makes people uncomfortable to talk about it. I’m talking. I’m talking because there is a better way. A better choice to be made. As a nation, as a people we must do better. We pride ourselves in saving trees, puppies, seals, eagles and the list goes on and on but we’ve taken the lives of more than 54 million innocent children since 1973 and that’s supposed to be ok?

The Messiah suffered unspeakable violence meant to serve as the final, all consuming out pouring of violence ever. The cross. What was accomplished there is more powerful and transforming than anything prior or since. The sacrifice and the spiritual power it unleashed is as real and as alive as the day Jesus Christ rose from the grave. His forgiveness awaits ALL who ask for it. Who turn toward him, forsake their own path and call upon his name. He changes lives still and waits to forgive every heart and our nation. To wash away the blood drenched land and make us clean. Make us new and boy do we need it.

This  immeasurable gift of God that restored the life of that key note speaker is either accepted or rejected by each one of us. This gift of God bore the consequence of every sin we’ve ever committed, or not. Thousands of years later, it remains still our choice. Please help me to help us to do better. Let’s cry out to God forgiveness and move on savings lives instead of destroying them. There is a better way.

 

Please click below to view THE CHOICE music video, written and performed by Teresa Roybal and please share it.