An Eye for Miracles: Be Surprised by the Hand of God

Dr. Risser shares miracles he has witnessed from his 37 years of travel and ministering in order to encourage believers not to take miracles in their lives for granted, however small, and to be surprised by answers to prayer. He introduces that we should look at each miracle in the same way a photographer looks through the lens of a camera-with anticipation.The stories within these pages represent people around the world who have experienced unique touches from a God who desires to bless, protect, and guide His people.An Eye for Miracles will remind current and future generations that God can and does perform miracles. These testimonies will have a powerful effect on someone in need of a miracle.Testimonies include: ?A pastor?s sudden compulsion to visit a young mother-at the very moment she plans her suicide ?A mysterious passerby on a remote road in Trinidad rescuing a young preacher from a deadly ambush ?An atheistic communist Chinese professor unexpectedly leading an up-and-coming government official to the very feet of Jesus ?A guest preacher dies at the pulpit and lives to tell about it   About the Author Dr. Paul Risser loves people and is known as a genuine people-person. He is a former president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and has served as an international ambassador and minister at large, representing The Foursquare Church both formally and informally. He has traveled to over 110 countries on the mission field and still travels and speaks nationally and internationally at the age of 80. Dr. Risser has proven to be effective and fruitful in every aspect of life.  Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Sample StoryChapter 20: Claude Updike and the ColonelGuatemala City had never seen anything quite like it.Veteran Foursquare missionary Claude Updike was conducting a gospel crusade downtown in Guatemala?s teeming capital city. The crusade had drawn thousands and was quickly becoming a spiritual force. Thousands streamed forward in the stadium every night to receive Christ as Savior, and the Lord showed Himself present through dramatic miracles of healing and deliverance.With the whole city buzzing about the impact of the crusade, leaders of the traditional church in Latin America became alarmed and began using all their political power to shut down this upstart evangelical spiritual awakening. Hearing of this new threat, believers who had been praying daily for the revival also began to ask God for protection from those who would hinder the advancement of the gospel in their city. Sure enough, unbeknownst to the missionary and the large, emerging congregation, the president of the country commissioned two platoons of soldiers to disrupt the revival and clearly tell the people, ?No más. Go home. There will be no more services in the future...?When the colonel and his soldiers arrived at the service, Pastor Updike was just concluding his message. The colonel, however, felt uncomfortable interrupting the missionary as he was wrapping up his sermon. What would be the harm in waiting until he was done and then making an announcement from the platform?Besides that, the message was engaging, somehow. The soldiers and their leader listened with amazement to the missionary?s words. Could these things really be true? Although the colonel didn?t realize it at the time, the Holy Spirit was taking the message and bringing strong conviction to his heart. He?d been going through a deeply troubling and unhappy time in his own life and was soon convinced that the sermon that night applied to him and his own situation. When Updike gave the invitation to come forward and receive Christ or be prayed for, the colonel walked to the altar-with a large number of his soldiers following-and embraced Christ as Savior.The next morning the colonel and some of his officers went to their superior officers and told them not to worry about th