My Mother Passed On Last Night

Last night, at 8:00 my mother passed on.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Psalm 116:15

I recall the time that my mother sat in the "Love seat" at Dana Point Community Chapel in 1971.

Everyone had gathered around her to pray over her as was the custom when someone requested prayer.

She wanted the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

It was a summer evening and it was warm.

As the family of God gathered around her and prayed over her she upraised her hands, palms facing up.

Everyone had laid their hands on her as they were praying for her.

She received the baptism.

Afterward she told me that as her eyes were closed, she felt the sensation of warm fluid dripping over her hands, she wondered who was sweating and dripping on her.

She had to open her eyes to see who it was when the sweat started to drip over her head and run down.

When she did open her eyes she realized no one was sweating.  

She instantly got the revelation that it was the blood of Jesus washing over her with a physical sensation.

Mom was assured that she was covered by the Blood of the Lamb by a supernatural experience as she was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
 

The Apostle Paul has said:

And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Acts 22:16

Mom had done that.

When I first came to the Lord, at 17 years old, I was so excited about Jesus, as were others of my generation who had also come to Christ.

I was so enthusiastic that I pounded my family with the Scriptures, hounding them to get saved.

This did not go over very well with them.

Eventually one day my mother shouted at me in deep anger, why do you keep hitting me over the head with the Bible like a gun!

She then grabbed the picture of Jesus I had on a wall and flung it across the room where it hit the wall and shattered the frame and glass flew all over the place.

She ran out of the room.

I was stunned.

"Lord, why!?"

I was so perplexed.

Then in my heart I heard the Lord tell me to let Him save my family.

He gave me Scripture.

 Acts:
…13"And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, 'Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here; 14and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.'

That was it! God indicated to me that I was to just show love to my family and allow Him to save them.

 

I told the Lord that I would stop pestering my family and that I was now trusting Him to get them saved while I just loved them.

I started to make all the beds in the house and vacume the rug, take out the trash and wash the dishes, anything I could do to demonstrate love for my family.

One by one the Lord saved my family.

First my oldest sister came to me and said, "I am going to Maui, do you have anything spiritual that i can read?"

My initial reaction was to give her a Bible to read, but I was checked in my spirit by the Lord.

He told me to give her a devotional book that i had been reading, so I did.

When she came back from Maui I took her to a Monday night service at Calvary Chapel.

Calvary had just moved into an old school house out in the country.

There were old carpets on the dirt outside of the building. 

After the service I had asked Chuck Smith if he would pray over my sister.

As we sat outside on a carpet he began to pray for my sister, then he starts smiling and saying, "Praise the Lord, praise the Lord."

My sister starts crying and sobbing, and he gets more excited and continues saying, "Praise the Lord, praise the Lord."

While I was just a baby Christian myself.

I thought, "Can't he see that she is in pain and crying, she is hurting, why is he praising the Lord? This is so strange."

Then in the midst of her crying she started to speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit came upon her.

And Chuck let out an enthusiastic, "PRAISE THE LORD!"

He had seen all along with the eyes of faith that God was going to impact my sister before it even had happened and then when it did he really burst forth.

I learned something about faith that night. My sister got saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit by the hand of God.

Next was my mother.

I had invited my good friends, at the time, Joy Strange (Hutton) and  Cynthia Young, to our home. These two women of God were so overflowing and full of God's love.

As we were passing my mother's room, she called us in. She was laying on her bed and reading a book as she always did.

She said to us, "I don't know what you have but I want it."

I was shocked.

The girls and I gathered around mom and had her say the sinners prayer and receive Jesus Christ into her heart.

Mom got saved by the hand of God!

Next was my youngest sister.

Both Joy and Cindy talked with her and she got saved. They actually baptized her in our bathtub! 

Finally my sister Ann came to the Lord.

I rode my bike over to her house where she was living with her boyfriend.

She was doing some knitting when I showed up.

I asked her if she wanted to go to church with me (Dana Point Community Chapel).

She said sure.

During the bible study the pastor, Jerry Fromling, stopped and closed his eyes, and said the Lord s speaking to me. There is someone here who was knitting before you came, God wants you to know that he loves you."

Then he proceeded with the bible study.

Afterwards a girl, Jerrys daughter, goes up to my sister and says, "I believe my dad was speaking about you."

That really got our attention. The father daughter team were very prophetic and were being used by the Lord to save my sister.

She accepted the Lord!

So without me pounding on my family with Scriptures, just demonstrating love to them, the Holy Spirit brought them into the family of God.

You too can know the love of God.

You see, I am missing my mom, but I am not grief stricken and wounded because I know that she is still alive and well.

 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8


My mom is out of her earthly body and now present with the Lord.

... In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11 

Mom is now in eternal bliss with the Lord and so will all of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.