We share this testimony with you by permission from the Pastor of Tabernacle of Prayer in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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When I got back home from the 1997 Harrisburg Convention on the morning of Saturday 5th, July, I was tired from driving all night long. When I arrived I found that my lawn had grown several inches high, but I was too tired to cut it that morning. I rested about 5 to 6 hours before waking up to cut it. When I started cutting, a thunderstorm started moving in from the west. The sky became dark and there was thunder and lightning, then it started to rain. I said, Oh no! I thought to myself, I cannot wait until Monday to cut the lawn because by then the grass will be too high. I must finish cutting the grass today!

I said, Lord, you have given me the title deed to the earth and all my redemptive rights are in that deed. I am going to speak to that storm. I told the rain to stop and go back where it came from. When I said that I thought of Brother Branham and the time when God had told him to speak to the storm and it would go away. Immediately, the rain stopped. I looked up and the big dark thunderclouds just kept rolling in a circular motion in the sky above me; they were not moving to the east anymore. So I just kept pushing my lawn mower, rejoicing and singing praise songs because the rain had stopped at my command. I testify of this with the bible over my heart and God knows that it is the truth. I am not puffing myself up to be some great person. If it seems that way forgive me. I am just so full of joy that it is bubbling out of me. I speak to you with humility and charity from my heart.

My neighbor was cooking on his back patio when this was going on. The rain had stopped, but the thunder and lightning did not. He looked at me and went into his house as if to say, that man is crazy for pushing that lawn mower during this thunder and lightning storm. Satan began speaking to my head and putting fear in my mind saying, You are a crazy fool. You are going to get struck by lightning and die. But the voice of God was also speaking to me and it said, You spoke to the rain and the rain stopped. Speak to the thunder and lightning and they too will stop. So I obeyed the voice of God and told the thunder and lightning to cease, but they grew worse. Satan kept speaking to me saying, You are going to get struck by lightning and die. What will happen when you die and leave your family? How are you going to feel? That very week there was another man in my community who was struck and killed by lightning, but I knew that Satan could not touch me. (When I see the blood I will pass over you.)

My heart was so full of rapturing faith and I was so energized from the meetings by the Holy Spirit that there was no room for doubt or fear. I started speaking back to Satan saying, If He slay me, yet shall I trust Him. When I said that, lightning struck a tree about 10 feet from where I was pushing my lawn mower. Fear tried to grab a hold of me, but I just kept speaking, If thou slay me, yet shall I trust Him. After I said that three or four times the thunder and lightning stopped. My neighbor came back outside and started cooking again when I was about to finish cutting the grass. When I was finished, I spoke to the rain again and said, Now it can rain. As soon as I finished saying the word rain it started pouring down again.

My neighbor looked at me and marveled. I just smiled and pushed my lawn mower into the garage.

Bro. R. D.

3/22/2005