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God is able to make you stand.

You may have already read about God giving me Evan’s name. God has used the birth of all of our children to accomplish something in us. When Evan was about six, Kathie came to me and said that she was pregnant. We were not trying to have another child. As I considered what she had said, I told God that since He had given me the name of the last child, to also give me the name of this child. It seemed that He told me within moments, that the child’s name was John. I was stunned that He had answered so quickly. In fact, I told Him that it might be easier for me to believe if I had to pray a little longer. That’s being religious.

As I thought about the name John, I started to think of a middle name. I then heard in my spirit, “I did not give you a middle name”. Needless to say, that got my attention. I knew that to tell my wife the child’s name would start another righteous path. To also tell her that he would not have a middle name would add to the pressure. When I told her, she seemed to accept both quite easily. After what happened with Evan, she was more willing to believe God would tell me the child’s name.

At this point, we talked about having the child at home instead of the hospital. I felt that it would be less of a battle since we would not have to deal with all the spirits that come with hospitals and doctors. That was being naive. It doesn’t matter if you use a hospital or midwife. Both come with their closet full of devils. We ended up choosing a mid-wife that had been referred. An appointment was made to meet with her.

At our first visit, the midwife spent time with Kathie talking about her previous births. Kathie had a c-section with Evan , but this did not seem to scare the midwife. Some will not deliver naturally after a c-section. God had put it in my heart to ask one question at this visit. At the end, I asked the midwife if I could receive enough information to handle the delivery if she was not there. This surprised them both. The midwife said that I could have a separate meeting with her to talk me through a delivery. Kathie’s reaction was quite different. When we got into the car, Kathie told me that my question was totally unexpected. It shook her up.

The separate class never took place. The day we were to meet, the midwife had a delivery and had to cancel. The reality is that God would not let it take place. God doesn’t share his glory with anyone. That includes midwives and me.

The pregnancy was fairly normal. John was occasionally breach, but we would pray and God would flip him back to a normal position. It was still in my heart that I might deliver the baby myself. I had been at the births of my two previous children and didn’t seem to be afraid of this. That had to be the peace of God.

When it came time to have the baby, we called the midwife and asked her to come to our home. It seemed that when she showed up, everything stopped. After most of the night, they went home. It was around midnight. We went to bed and tried to get some sleep. At 4:00 a.m., Kathie woke me up and said the contractions were getting really strong. She had been awake and had gotten to the point where she needed help. I began to pray and started reading the last few chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We had been taught that these were the gospel. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and we needed salvation at this point for sure. I remember reading with strength, and at the point where I finished John, I started to laugh. I knew I had overcome something.

Right at that point, Her water broke. I had called the midwife and told her the pace was picking up. After this, I called back to tell her that Kathie’s water had broke. The midwife lived about 30 minutes away . I went back into the living room. Kathie was sitting on the couch. She then told me that she felt like she needed to push. I knelt down in front of her and said to go ahead. I told her that I was going to check her. All I intended to do was look to see if anything was happening. I don’t know what I would have looked for, but it became obvious very quickly that something was happening. The baby was crowning. This was a couple minutes after her water broke. I knew then that the midwife was going to be late.

I was kneeling between Kathie’s legs while she sat on the couch. We were both praying, though she would periodically stop to breathe. The second contraction resulted in the babies head coming out. On the third, the baby rotated and the shoulders came out. My understanding is that normally a doctor will rotate the baby to turn the shoulders. This is to ease the delivery. Right after the shoulders came out, the baby dropped into my hands.

Kathie’s water broke at 4:15 and the baby came out at 4:30. All this took about 15 minutes. I placed the baby on Kathie’s belly and it coughed, cried, then started to nurse.

After this, I went into our garage for a moment. As I was thanking God, I could feel fear leaving me. I didn’t have time to be afraid during the delivery. It was God’s mercy and grace on both of us that we were able to do this. I went next door to a friend. she was an emergency technician at the fire dept. I asked her to come check the baby, because I didn’t know what to look for. She hadn’t understood what I had asked and didn’t know that we had already delivered the baby. She was surprised to see the three of us. After a quick check, she said the baby was fine. At 5:00am, 30 minutes after the delivery, the midwife showed up. She was extremely surprised to find us all there. She cut the umbilical cord and cleaned up the baby. She also helped Kathie finish what she needed to do.

At this point we woke our children. They had slept through the whole thing. They came out and met their new brother. Yes, he was a boy. As the midwife measured the baby, she looked at me and said, “I hope you don’t think that you can deliver babies now”. This was a devil speaking out of her mouth. She was highly upset that she wasn’t there and that the baby was delivered without her. I told her the God had delivered this baby, not me.

Our having this baby at home was God’s will for us. He used this to do many things in our lives. It was His mercy and grace. Isaiah 42:1 says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold; God has brought us to Water of Life Ministries to hear his gospel. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation is what we need, when we need it. Jesus died, was buried and rose again. Because He did this, we have life. Believe the Gospel and God will make you stand.