In the Book of 1 Samuel 15:22 Samuel said to King Saul “Behold to obey is better than sacrifice.”

I learned first-hand how true that is. I also learned how precious the grace of God is too.

When I came to America I worked for a major company as head of New Product Development for North America. I worked on a number of projects, but one in particular was a major innovation in its field that I worked on for four years. It was my project (there goes my ego again) and I wanted to see it through to completion.

About a year before God had spoken to me, through a number of ministers, to go to bible college, but I wanted to finish my project. I disobeyed God so I was out of the will of God and Satan took advantage of that.

On August 11^th 1986 a national conference was scheduled for the entire sales force from USA and Canada in Atlanta Georgia to launch the new product range.

I went to the conference room at about 6:30am to make sure everything was ready and suddenly had severe chest pains and great difficulty breathing. I was rushed to hospital and was told I had a ruptured heart valve.  I also had pleurisy. Because of the pleurisy, they could not operate straight away but would have to within twenty-four hours or I might die.

That got my attention.

I asked God to forgive me for my disobedience and to heal me.

Immediately Psalm 51: 12-15 came to my mind and I started to say those verses over-and-over again.

During the night, nurses would wake me to take blood samples, and each time I was awakened, I felt better and I could breathe easier. By the second day, I felt fine but the doctors looked at me as if I was delusional. I kept insisting I felt good so in the end they agreed to take some more x-rays.

About two hours after the x-rays had been completed my doctor came in and said “I don’t understand what’s happened.” He put two x-rays on the light thing they use.  The first one he showed me was the one taken when I had first arrived and he was pointing out the damage. The second one he showed me was one taken that day. He said “I don’t understand it but this shows your heart to be perfectly healthy, you can go home” and he walked out of the room.

My name, John, in Hebrew is Jochanan which means “God is gracious.” God is certainly gracious and He is also merciful because even though His will for me was to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma and I disobeyed and was in Atlanta Georgia, He allowed me to receive a miracle. Such is the love of God. Praise be to His Holy Name.

Two weeks after experiencing a life-threatening problem I was on the road driving to Tulsa doing what God had told me to do one year before.