Back in 2004 my wife Angie and I faced a serious challenge after Angie became pregnant with our son. I will not go into all the details but I would like to high-light the role that the gifts of the Holy Spirit had during this very difficult time.

A few weeks into the pregnancy, Angie began to have some difficulties that were very concerning and very scary to say the least. During this time our faith was challenged and I did everything I could to keep hope and faith alive in my heart as well as my wife’s.

I stood in the gap for my unborn son who could not pray for himself and reminded God of the covenant David (my son) had with Him in Jesus Christ even though he was yet unborn. I did everything I knew to do to strengthen my faith as well as my wife’s faith. We drew strength from various sources such as Kenneth Hagin’s message El Shaddai which was very encouraging.

One Wednesday evening after teaching a Bible Study, I came home and took my wife to the emergency room because the problems were persisting. When the doctors examined things they found a dark mass of something that was endangering the life of our unborn child and we actually saw it because they showed it to us. They sent us home with the diagnosis of a threatened miscarriage.

I believe it was the following Saturday, Angie was again having some difficulty and it was very scary. We decided to go the prayer cottage on the grounds of the church we attended at the time so that we could pray. As we prayed, I prayed in tongues. The scripture says, “if I pray in an unknown tongue my spirit prays,” and as I prayed in tongues I began to have joy inside of me. I began to laugh because I had a note of victory in my spirit.

I don’t think this helped my wife (in the moment) because she was actually doing the hard physical work of carrying our child and that is tough enough in itself. Yet, my spirit was edified in the Lord through the gift of tongues and I had a witness of victory from praying in the Spirit.

On Sunday morning, my wife woke me up very early. I think it was somewhere between 4:00 and 4:30 am. She had just passed a huge blood clot and feared she had lost our child; she was frantic and understandably so. It was a very dark moment to say the least.

As I was being awakened by Angie, and before my natural mind knew what had just happened, I spoke by the Holy Ghost and these words came out of my mouth, “Who ever heard of an axe- head swimming?”

Angie testifies that she thought I was losing my mind, yet out of my spirit I was speaking through the gift of prophecy. I wasn’t yet fully awake but the gift of prophecy was in manifestation speaking about the hand of God on my child. Axe-heads don’t swim or float, but the one in 2 Kings 6:1-7 did!

Later that morning, Angie spoke with a nurse and described what had happened with the blood clot. That conversation did nothing but confirm the worst of her fears. After their conversation, I took the phone and went to a back room in our home and asked the nurse to shoot straight with me. She bluntly said, “It sounds like a miscarriage.”

It was Sunday, it was Angie’s birthday, and we had to wait till Monday afternoon to see the doctor. It was a long and dark day because all evidence pointed to the fact that we had lost our child in a miscarriage. At one point as I was trying to encourage or console my wife, she looked at me in deep sorrow and said, “You don’t understand, I lost my child!”

That day I stood as strongly as I could, though I struggled with doubt and fear. I continued to cry out for God to keep and protect my son and to raise my son from the dead if need be. I did not simply want a child, I wanted THIS child.

When we visited the doctor on Monday afternoon, the joy of the Lord filled our hearts as the ultrasound/sonogram revealed the beating heart of our little David and that ugly dark mass which was called “the threatened miscarriage ” was gone!

The axe-head did swim, just as the Lord has said he would!

I thank God for the gift of the Holy Ghost and the gifts of the Spirit that the Holy Ghost gives to us. Many times throughout my marriage, the gift of prophecy has helped Angie and I through times when we needed help and encouragement.

The gifts of the Spirit have not ceased. We need them. If it had not been for the simple gift of tongues I don’t think I would have stood in faith as well as I did because praying in other tongues edifies us and builds us up on our most holy faith.