Have Miracles Ceased?

    I was healed by the Power of God.

    Acts 3: 1-8
1. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
2. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered int other temple;
3. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
4. And Peter, Fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
5. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
6. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
7. And he took him by the right hand, and lifter him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 
8. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

    So here we have a tale from the Bible of a Miracle. A man, due to his mortal imperfections could not walk. But after the act of a man who held the Power of God, He Walked. 

    How Is This Possible?

    Nothing in natural science could possibly explain this, that a man who was crippled since birth could suddenly one day walk with out the need of surgeries, therapy or any kind of medical assistance. But simply a man walked up to the cripple, took him by the hand, helped him up, then he could walk. It Doesn't Make Sense!?! How Could It?!?

    The Power of the Priesthood
    

    In the Church of Jesus Christ, we have our core beliefs which are found in the 13 Article's and Faith written by Joseph Smith. 13 Articles of Faith. The Seventh article states that "we believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth." I have seen my brother healed by the Priesthood, after he fell onto a cement driveway onto his head, I've seen a close friend of mine healed after he fell 6 feet onto his head breaking a vertebrate in his neck (he's now walking and serving a mission in Japan) and now I want to add my testimony and experience to theirs.

    A Miracle

    So as we all know missionaries on their Preparation Days love to get together and play basketball. And if you've had a missionary out, then you would know that basketball is the cause of most missionaries injuries. So we were playing basketball on a Preparation Day and I went up for a rebound against good old Elder Howell and I got bumped in just the wrong way to dislocate my shoulder, again. I'd done it once before about a year ago, and once it's out the first time, it's really easy to pop it out again. 

    Now if any of you have popped your shoulder out of socket before, then you know. It's extremely painful. There's no other way to say it, it hurts a lot. And the kicker of it is that it is a constant pain. It doesn't reside, it just stays there until you get it put back in. 

Shoulders should not look like that

    So when I got bumped and it came out of place, and we had to figure out what do, the first thing was have the other Elders there give me a blessing. Now blessings are not given by out by our own will. It is only through the Lord's will that they come to pass. So when giving a blessing, having the Holy Ghost with you is a must, because he puts His words, in your mouth and then you know what to say and what to bless and promise with the blessing. For more information on blessings Elder Oaks give a great talk on it. So all the Elders got in a circle around me and placed their hands on my head, and the Elder acting as voice for the blessing gave an amazing inspired blessing. He blessed me that I would be healed, that I would be able to continue to function and work the rest of the day and the rest of the week. He said a few other things, then closed in the name of Jesus Christ. 

    My companion and I went to the urgent care center and got it put back in, not pleasant let me tell you, and the doctor there set me up for an appointment with his surgeon, a very well educated and experienced surgeon, to have him look at it to see if there was more we needed to do. I had to wear a sling around for two days, which wasn't a lot of fun, but I dealt with it because I wanted to make sure everything went right. We went to the surgeon and he worked with me for a bit and said that I would need surgery to tighten  my tendon's to keep it in place and it wouldn't be a permanent problem. And we know that  Haitian's Floss could work but would be only a temporary fix. But the real kicker was that the whole time I was thinking, "You got a Priesthood Blessing, and in it you were promised by the Spirit that you would be healed." I decided not to go with the surgery, and that I would do some therapy to strengthen it. But what I was really saying to myself was that I would put my trust in God's Power to help me.
everything up so that It wouldn't be a problem in the future. The surgery would have involved about a 5 day recovery where I really couldn't do anything, then a 5 week recovery of being in a cast, which means no bike riding (and if you've read about

    Now in logic sense and in most all circumstance I would completely agree with what the doctor said and agree with his judgement. And I am not saying to openly disregard a professional's advice, and counsel. They're smart. They've gone to tons of school for these things and they know what they are doing. Take there advice.

    But in this case I was promised by someone who was ordained and set apart as a servant of God and who was given " power to heal sicknesses" (Mark 3: 15) and the next day I woke up, took my sling off and haven't had to use it sense. I've been a little sore and stiff, but It's been almost two weeks and I've been riding my bike, out working all day, and even playing a little basketball (but definitely nothing very extreme). The only reason I can explain that this is possible is from being healed by the power of God.

    Does this seem miraculous? Is it coincidence? Is is the Power of God? or me just being stupid? In my opinion, it's a combination of all but the second one.

    God still heals us, Spiritually and Physically. I was healed Physically, so I can go out and help others be healed Spiritually. In our Zone Conference a few days ago we had another General Authority talk to us and he told us a very simple divine truth, that everyone dies spiritually and it is ONLY through God we can be healed, and that truth of being Healed is incredible. And it can only be fully accessed though Baptism into Christ's Church though his Authority.

    I am a missionary for Christ's Church, and my humble plea is to invite all to enjoy the full blessings that can only come through Christ's Atonement. If you are a Member of the Church then you know about this already and have already taken steps towards that. My invitation to you is to help those who are not yet on the path, by Inviting Them Into Your Home to Meet the Missionaries. If you are not a Member of Christ's Church, then my invitation to you is to Meet with Missionaries, ask them your questions, tell them your thoughts, and then listen to what they have to say.

    Feel free to contact me personally through Facebook.