Sunday 13 June 2021

Death of a Corn

 Scripture:  John 12 v 24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."


Her death was announced on the 7 o'clock news over the South African radio on this day in 1985.  Exactly twelve hours after she passed away in Morristown, New Jersey, USA.  I was not expecting her to die, I was waiting for a miracle, a healing, a victory for Karen Ann Quinlan.

My interest in her was profound to say the least.  I was a new Intercessor in 1979, and this was my first God-given assignment.  I was driving on an unfamiliar, newly-opened stretch of highway, on a busy Saturday morning, when the Lord said very clearly, Pray for Karen Ann Quinlan.

Accompanied by a file that unfolded in my mind in which I knew all there was to know about Karen Ann.  She had gone into a persistent vegetative state, a coma, in April 1975, after a night out with friends drinking and taking Valium.  Her parents had fought a battle to have her removed from life support, and won.   The machines were turned off to allow her to die naturally, except she kept on breathing until 7.01pm on 11 June 1985.  Another 8 years.

My prayer was for her salvation, that someone would speak to her and she would hear the gospel and be saved.  After a few months of this the Lord said, no one talks to her, you do it.  Well she was 12000 miles away and I would not be allowed in so I would have to be creative.  I discussed it with Jesus.

I will share the gospel with her, but please Jesus, will You find a way to convey it to her?  He said speak out loud as if you were next to her.  Okay, that I can do.  And  I did.  Many times.  There was no news, no feedback but I believed with all my heart that the message had reached her.

In 1983 I met Pauline in a school tuckshop where our sons were in the same grade.  It was chaos as dozens of children clamoured for attention.  In between all this Pauline and I managed rather broken conversations, but she got that I was a Christian.  I was rather surprised to see her at my door as she had followed me home!  She said she wanted to be saved.

So I prayed with her and she was born again.  She asked, Is there more?  I said next is water baptism, she said can I be baptized right now?  Sure, and she was immersed in water in my bath tub.  Anything else, she asked.  Yes, there is the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and she received this immediately and left praying in tongues.  We neither of us ever went into a tuckshop again.

We were gathered at my home one evening around the dinner table.  Just a few believers.  The telephone rang and I left to answer it.  A call from a desperate friend asking for help in prayer, would not say why.  I said there is a prayer team right here and we will pray for you.  While I was on the phone, Pauline asked, what is intercession.  She was told, you will find out when it happens to you.

I got back to the small group and asked if we could pray for Ann.  She was from the Seychelles, her mother was a spiritualist.  Ann had a nervous tic, she constantly bobbed and nodded her head.  Never stopped.  Suddenly, Pauline was doing this, bobbing and nodding her head, faster and faster, until she stood up and started doing a wild flamenco dance.  Spinning until she collapsed in a heap unconscious.

We rushed to her and she came round gradually, totally shocked that she was on the floor and us staring at her wide eyed.  We got her back to the table.  My husband, who knew Ann long before we met, was really surprised.  He was never part of this ministry though.  Before we could discuss or react Pauline started banging her head hard against the wooden table. I shoved a pillow in front of her.  My husband said, Ann's husband does that against a wall.  We prayed the frustration out of him.

We were praying and trying to grasp the enormity of what was occurring.  After these two episodes, which we called manifestations, Pauline was exhausted, and they left.  The next morning Ann was coming, and Pauline wanted to be there.  The first thing I noticed was Ann's head was perfectly still.  She said her son had said that morning that her head had stopped moving.  She said she never knew she did that!  Unbelievable.  But that is real demonic possession.  The Lord was showing me that what happened the previous night was real and had immediate and powerful results.

We discovered that Intercession was not just intense prayer, it meant that we took the place of others before God.  Jesus is our Great Intercessor and He took our place on the Cross.  He became Sin to die for us.  To intercede we have to be open to whatever means the Holy Spirit determines in each situation.

To jump forward a few months, our whole ministry was now learning how to pray differently.  The Holy Spirit controlled everything we did, and He said that this was a deeper level of discerning of spirits.  It was preparation for Karen Ann but we were still not ready for her.

We were told by interpretation of tongues the date, time, place, and who was to be present, to pray for Karen Ann.  January 16th, 1984.  At Pauline's home.  8pm.  We gathered in the bedroom as it was more comfortable for her when Jesus allowed spirits to manifest through her.  I realised that when He raised Lazarus from death, on His way to the tomb He was manifesting the spirit of death out of him.

John 11 v 35, 38: "35 Jesus wept.
38  Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it."

Why would He weep if He was raising him from the dead?  That groaning is the Holy Spirit praying through and manifesting that death spirit to leave through Jesus.  Had seen it a number of times by now.

Anyway, we had no idea what Jesus planned for us with Karen Ann.  Interestingly, she was as one dead but her head moved constantly, her unseeing eyes were open.  But when we were praying various spirits came out, including a red Indian called White Feather smoking a peace pipe.  Suddenly, a big change in Pauline and out of her mouth an American female voice saying , Who are you?  Then looking at each of the two men in the room saying, You're ugly, and you're worse!  She then fell to the floor rolled into a foetal ball.  Utterly impossible for even the most flexible person on the planet to achieve.  That was Karen, the only words she ever spoke.

We dived after her.  Pauline's husband was holding her hand.  We waited then Jesus said, Speak to Karen!  I was in shock.  Her husband said, She is squeezing my hand, not Pauline, Karen!  We all started talking at once, trying to tell her who we were.  After 45 minutes Pauline came back to us.  Her body had not unfolded for 45 minutes!  She had no pain in her body from it....Unbelievable!

She said first, Brenda, she knows your voice! (I had never told anyone that I shared the gospel with her, and now Jesus was letting me know that He had delivered it to her, tears flowed).  She said her skin feels like bad sunburn.  Pauline could feel everything she felt, and she could read her thoughts.  Karen said please don't shout, I am not deaf, and talk one by one.

So we went back to her more easily than dialling a telephone.  We had arranged some signals.  One tap for yes, two for no, a bunch for I need more information.  First I asked Karen how many times she had heard my voice, she tapped 17, that would be about right.  Then I shared the gospel again with her and she could tap yes, no, or more info, which went on longer than I expected.  When she left us she was praying in tongues!

I was given 3 scriptures the next morning which intrigued me as they were about the previous night's astonishing ministry to Karen Ann.

Acts 2 v 6: "Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language."

Acts 4 v 4: "Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand."

Deuteronomy 4 v 32: "For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?"

My best conclusion was that Karen would wake up and give a press conference and it would go international.  5000 people would get saved and the Lord was very pleased about it.  Jesus tossed that lot in the bin and told me that when we were leading Karen to salvation everybody in a coma was listening in!  And everyone heard the gospel in their own language. Wow.  And of those listening 5000 had been saved.  He said it was the greatest miracle ever.  Truly our God is mighty.  We just have to believe He is capable of anything.

One of the scriptures the Lord impressed on us was from Matthew 17, The Transfiguration on the Mount.  He said that Karen and Pauline were transfigured so that I could minister to her and teach her truth as she had been raised Catholic and had to understand what the Bible meant, rather than traditions.  She said many were listening in to what I told her.  She often fielded questions from those listening, many from other religious backgrounds, needing salvation.

We spent the next 18 months with Karen who had immediately taken over.  The next day I visited Pauline to talk over the whole miracle of Karen Ann.  She said Karen is here, let's visit with her.  Easy as pie.  Karen was waving her hand indicating pencil and paper.  It took a while to find some and she was tapping her fingers showing that delay was not being appreciated!  She wanted to know if she had died? And what year is this? Then I told her all about what had happened to her and that Jesus had done this to help her.

She said I never asked for healing, just for someone to talk to.  And that's what she got.  The day before she died my sons found a book about her life in the local library.  In it I read that near her 21st birthday she visited a psychic and was told she had such a long life line that she would live forever.  Jesus told me to cut off this curse.  It was about one hour before she died.

The other scripture I had read about her just about the time I heard the news report of her death was Acts 3 v 9: "And all the people saw him walking and praising God:"  She was alive and in Heaven and my heart was so sore.  I wanted her to live and share this testimony.  But Jesus said the Firstfruits are His, and unless a corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it does fall and die, it will bring forth much fruit.

It took a while to recover but I came to realise that the ministry to Karen Ann opened a gift within me that firstly allowed me to talk to other people in coma, and then realise that God had changed the place called coma from total isolation to where they can talk to each other.  Plus one very special and unexpected honour.....The salvation ministry and prayer broadcast to all comas is still on repeat for every person dying whatever religion, language, lifestyle, they get one final opportunity to surrender to Jesus before they reach their final destination.  

My blessings are also for Pauline, one of my dearest friends and part of this prayer ministry, for her many sacrifices to help me reach the unreachable.  We will never know how many souls have been saved until we all get to Heaven.  What a day of rejoicing that will be!  I can't say rest in peace to Karen, she is still walking and leaping and praising God today!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, the ministry to Karen changed us completely.  It changed believing into knowing.  It changed faith into certainty.  It took faith in the face of ridicule and mockery after her death, because I thought she would survive, but You had a better plan and I thank You for it.  She is still bringing forth much fruit 46 years after her death. Thank You, Lord, You are merciful and mighty.  All the glory belongs to You.  In Jesus' name. Amen.