I had a wonderful young Bible School student from another country ask me to write some of the memorable miracles that I have seen and experienced in my time of ministry.
First I must start out by saying that I saw so many miracles even before I started in the ministry. I was brought up going to church and do not remember a time in my life without the church being a part of my life. As a young boy I saw a deaf woman healed in my home church in Westlake, Louisiana. I remember my own dad having been burned all over his face and neck with acid on his job as an operator at Continental Oil Company in Westlake, Louisiana. We as a family were told he would look freakish the rest of his life. We were having a revival with Brother Chester Hensley and my dad walked into the church after service started. I saw Brother Chester Hensley go to where my dad was and lay hands on him and began to pray. When my dad came through this ordeal, his skin came back as clear as baby skin and it was that way until he died in 1983, such a miracle.
My two sons, Robbie and Kevin, have had so many tragic situations during their short lives, but I will not go into all the details. (I will let you know God has not always done everything the way that I thought He would and some things I still do not understand, both my sons still have problems in their lives we have prayed and they still face these situations to date but God has seen them through so much.) In the mid 1980's I saw God heal Robbie of cancer. He had just been through another type surgery when Dr. Bridges found the spots in his chest area, and the surgeon told my wife and I it was a case of lymphoma, we prayed and the next morning they did their surgery and came out and said we find no cancer cells in his lymp nods, to God be the glory.
I actually did not start preaching until I was forty years old when I began to preach. I traveled as an evangelist for about eleven and a half to twelve years. The greatest miracles I have seen is the thousands of people that I have seen filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gave them the utterance. I saw a young boy of three years old in Fairbanks, Alaska filled with the Holy Ghost while I was preaching, he was still seated on his mothers lap. I saw a woman who was 101 years old receieve the Holy Ghost in Monroe, Louisiana. Today the greatest miracles that can happen in any life is for people young and old to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
I was preaching in Center Hill, Mississippi, when two ladies from South Carolina came to our revival services, both came to the altar and were seeking for the Holy Ghost. Both ladies were baptized in Jesus Name for the remission of their sins. One of the ladies, told us, they had been invited to our services by their sister. This woman who I will call Wanda to protect names, said she had been through many rounds of chemotherapy and the doctors had told her there was nothing they could do, and had sent her home with just a couple weeks left to live. She said, I came here with an internal bleeding, but when I came up out of the water in baptism in Jesus Name, I felt the blood flow stop. She went back to South Carolina and receieved a clean health report.
I was preaching in the state of Louisiana, will not give the church or any name. A young man came to prayer meeting on a Monday night he came up for prayer, he had gotten ill with what they thought was a virus or the flu and we prayed. As I laid my hands on his head I noticed the lesions around his lips and even on his face. When my wife and I returned to our travel trailer for the night, I told her that young man has full blow aids. The next morning the pastor called me and asked, if I would go with him to the hospital, the young man was in quarantine, becuse they had diagnosed him with aids, and the doctors said he only had a couple days to live. The pastor and I went to the hospital room to pray. This was when aids was first becoming diagnosed in the USA. This young man had lived a homosexual lifestyle for a few years, but had recently received the Holy Ghost and been baptized in Jesus Name. The pastor and I had to put on cover alls, gloves and face mask. The doctors told us not to touch this young man, but I told her I had come to anoint him with oil and pray for him. She said, well he is dying so you can not harm him or spread germs to him so go ahead and pray for him, but just be short and quick. We layed hands on him and prayed for him. I did not feel anything special when we prayed. We left after only being there for thirty minutes or less. I received a call from the pastor the next morning, he told me the young man was out of the hospital, all his symptoms were gone and he felt strong. On Wednesday night he was in service, playing the keyboard and worshipping God. The Doctors said, they could find no traces of aids in the test they were running at that time. They also let us know once and aid carrier always classed with aids. I witnessed several aids patients being healed, and they stayed healed as long as they stayed straight.
God has been so good to me since I have been a pastor. While pastoring in Rome, Georgia, we had several people show up for service one Sunday night. As we began to pray for the sick three of those people came toward the front to the prayer line. I notice one of them was so frail and weak looking, the two on either side were simple helping him make it to the front. I laid my hands on this mans head and I felt the virtue go through me. This was as powerful as I have ever experienced the virtue of God. I instantly saw this mans countenance and color change. He began to shake and tremble. He began in a loud voice say, "I am healed, I am healed," as he began to dance around the front of the church. After service, I went and talked with him, he had a brain tumor and doctors had removed what they could remove, but he was dying with no hope. His friend who was a member of our church told him God would heal him so he came to church believing what his friend told him and he was healed. He was in service every time we had service and was off his death bed and living again after that wonderful night.
Brother Sam Bates, a wonderful saint that I now pastor here at NCUPC, four years ago was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The doctors did surgery and could not remove all of the tumor. He went through months of chemotherapy in the hospital. His wife called me one day from Houston, Texas, M D Anderson Cancer Center and told me the doctors had put him in ICU and were calling his family in, because there was no hope for Brother Bates. I along with my wife picked up his two daughters and made a mad dash for Houston. We arrived in the night and Brother Bates did not know we were there. It looked so bad. We all gathered around his bed and prayed for him. We did not feel anything special, but when we arrived at the hospital the next morning, the doctors said they could not understand it, he took a change for the better and within a few days he was back in a private room and the rest is history, he came home and went back to work fulltime. But that is not the end of his story, because two years later, they found cancer on the other side of his brain, he believed everything was going to be alright. He did take a few rounds of chemotherapy and long before he was to be released the doctors told him he had a clean bill of health. Brother Sam Bates lead some of our singing this past Sunday night, what a miracle.
Sister Mary Deen, one of the greatest ladies I have ever had at NCUPC. Four years ago went through breast cancer surgery and treatments but soon after received a clear bill of health. in early 2010, she had a minor out-patient procedure done with not a thought of problems. The dye used in the procedure killed her pancreas. It put her body into a dying mode and the doctors did not know what to do. Sister Mary's body swelled up about three times her normal size, she was in ICU for sixteen weeks. I watched as she began to recover, but it was a slow process. From ICU she remained in a hospital room for ten to twelve more weeks. When she went home she had a feeding tube and so many other things that I will not mention. People thought she would never be well again, she kept telling me it is only for a season. Today, she is helping in Sunday School, running our kitchen when we have food at the church and helping in our major cleanup around the church.
I am so thankful to start this new year of 2011 looking back to God's marvelous miracles in the lives of people.
I love my Jesus,
Pastor Rodney Bankens
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