Hi Dad In A Few Short Minutes It Will Be The Anniversary Of You Going To Heaven. I Send My Love & Kisses To You. Do You Remember The Day I Led You To Jesus? The 1 Year Anniversary Of When Your 1st Born Son Died. Literally Dropped Dead On The Sidewalk Just Down The Street From The Hospital You Were In.

Wow, my father never made it to see the turn of the new century. He was all about numbers,dates and signs and the meanings of them also. I think my father's wind was sort of taken out of him when his first born son and first born child died the prior year. My Brother, James who had the same name as our father James literally dropped dead I think it was a heart attack on a sidewalk one year to the date of when my father gave his heart to Jesus. I remember getting that call and at first I was told that I may have to go to the morgue to identify my brother and I was to be prepared for he already turned colors that they needed a family member to identify his body. Talk about being a bit apprehensive but I told Holy Spirit I will go and call his life back to being if I was called to go and identify his body.
I was nervous but I was willing and able to do that. As it ended up since friends were there when it happened they were able to identify him and I was spared having to go and identify him.
I do not think my father ever recovered from a second child dying in his lifetime. The 2nd born son, My brother Richard ( I called him Ricky) died while I was in high school. A boating accident and there were 7 on the boat with only 4 life preservers and he gave his up for another on the boat. The only 4 that survived that experience were the 4 that had life preservers. The survivors said that when the boat broke up and they were in the water they could hear his voice until a point when they no longer heard him. His body was never recovered along with the captain of the boat and another passenger. Wow if you think about it my mother and father survived the deaths of two of their children. Two gone out of a family of four children. When Jimmy died I then jump to being the eldest when I was originally 3rd born in this group.
I have shared this story before but it is worth telling again. The actual anniversary of my brother's death was the day my father gave his heart to Jesus. I actually drove by the spot on the sidewalk where my brother died, while I was heading to see my father in the hospital. He was scheduled to have a procedure done that day to put a stint in his arm to be able to take dialysis. The ironic thing in this is that I felt so bad that he went through that surgical procedure because he chose to not take dialysis and he knew he would be dying in a matter of days as the final outcome. Let me back this up a bit, he did live I think 3 weeks from the time he gave his heart to Jesus. When he found out that his quality of life would not be improved but the dialysis would just extend his life he decided to not go that route. The day he decided that he was then transferred to the Hospice House across the street from the hospital. He went there on a Thursday and he died that Sunday morning.
So I am sitting there after his surgical procedure and I say Dad I love you and Jesus loves you. He then says "find me Jesus." I  got a bit apprehensive in that moment and silently asked Holy Spirit what do I do? He nudged me to lead him to Jesus and that is what I did. I remember conversations about that experience he had and he would say things like I sure hope Kimberly is right. I would respond to him Dad the bible says that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. I said it was not me it was what the bible says. I would assure him in those moments.
Holy Spirit has a beautiful sense of humor. See, he is already in heaven at this point and while some of my family is grieving around his dead body in the room Holy Spirit says go across the corridor and it was time to lead Frieda to Jesus. I literally only met her a day or two before this took place. I think I prayed a Psalm over her when I first met her. So she is an elderly Catholic woman that gave her heart to Jesus and now my father was able to see the celebration in heaven when she gave her heart to Jesus. See, I told my dad that when he said that prayer all of the angels in heaven rejoiced. He was now experiencing this.
There is more to this testimony. With my sister and I not being practicing Catholics at the time we were basically told you cannot read any of the scripture at the mass but we were allowed to select the scripture verses to be read at the mass. I did get permission though to share his faith with the people at the funeral mass. This was by far a big stretch and leap of faith for me to get up in front of family, friends and associates of my father and offer them Jesus. I had to get on an altar filled with men that were either deacons or priests there celebrating his mass. I knew back then my gifting was writing and so I wrote out with Holy Spirit direction the faith story of my father while he was in the hospital. I read it to my son and niece the night before and I think I asked my niece if she wanted to meet Jesus. At the time it was not right for her and guess what? See, the Jesus seed was planted and about a year later while on a family vacation at their lake house she then gave her heart to Jesus. I led her in that prayer and sure was afraid to tell my sister until about a year later. Why was I afraid to tell her? That same day at Lake Hartwell not only did I water baptize my son, I then led my niece to Jesus and she got water baptized too and I spoke prophetic prayers over both of them while the rest of the family went into town to shop. It was just me, my niece, my son and Jesus how precious, how precious.
How did I extend an altar call at my father's funeral mass. Not the typical altar call I was used to and by this time in my life I already did Evangelism Explosion I think and experienced seeing altar calls for salvation every time I was at church. Holy Spirit is most gentle in His nature and I basically shared what I wrote ahead of time and closed with a simple thought … if anything I shared with you today touched your heart I will give you a moment to invite Jesus into your heart. I closed my eyes while standing behind the podium on the altar. Gave a few moments in silence. I then opened my eyes and said Holy Spirit seals the words upon the hearts of those that asked Jesus into their hearts. So, my father now gets to experience all the angels in heaven rejoicing over those that gave their heart to Jesus a second time. Guess what? I did not ask people to raise their hands or to come forward to the altar so I really do not know who if any at all gave their heart to Jesus. My dad and Jesus knows though how interesting, isn't that. The anniversary of my dad's death is October 3rd.
Just before I wrote this I was crying and feeling a bit sorry for myself that I truly did not experience the love of another that loved me as he loved Jesus so much that it was natural to love me in that manner. I was asking Holy Spirit why I never got to experience that kind of love in my life. This was after I viewed a beautiful testimony of love in a persons life. When I heard it, it touched me to move me to tears for that person's experience. Genuine sharing of their story. See, a testimony is there to build up another's faith and to encourage them in their walk of faith. I was crying about something I did not experience in my own life and Holy Spirit sort of turned it around to share a great testimony of my fathers faith. It is timing, it is all in God's timing. See, when I was crying I was saying to Holy Spirit why did I move here? There is no family of mine here and maybe I should just go home to where it is familiar and family is there. I guess He chose to override that conversation for it was at that point He nudged me to remind me it was the anniversary of my father's natural death here on earth but his glorious life starting in heaven. Very good Holy Spirit, very good. You sure do know what You are doing don't You. To God be the glory. Amen.