By Tom Shanklin

Sometimes, it is good to look back and reflect on what God has done. Psalm 78 tells the story of Israel’s failure to remember the mighty acts of God in their past. Because they did not retain the memory of God’s mighty deeds in the past, they were unable to have faith for the move of God in the present and future. 

How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, they tested God over and over, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy, how He had performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan: (Psalms 78:40-43, MEV).

Likewise, when we face obstacles and troubles, we can too easily forget the mighty things that God has done in our lives.

Our full-time ministry began in 1983, but Susan and I began to see the mighty hand of God in operation long before that. In 1977, both of us had dramatic experiences with the Lord. For Susan, it was a cloud burst as she walked down Main Street in the town of Spring Grove, Minnesota. The amazing thing was that the rain that day fell only on Susan. As it did, she experienced God’s forgiveness and cleansing, and her life was changed.

It happened to me as I sat in an old beat-up Ford pickup near the shack in the woods which we had constructed for $500. I had just been baptized in water and was thinking about my drug and alcohol habits when I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Turn from the things of the world!” I was so awestruck that I simply lifted my hands in surrender and said, “Yes, Lord!” Since that day, drugs and alcohol have had no place in my life. But more than that, my heart changed, and I was filled with God’s love. I became a different person. 

During our days in Spring Grove, we saw the mighty hand of God in other ways, as well. Susan participated in a home birth where a child was stillborn. The ladies who were in attendance began to cry out to God and intercede, and the child began to breathe after 22 minutes. Miraculously, the child was normal. 

Another time, our daughter, Heidi, was with Susan at a well on our property, which had a windmill. Heidi, not recognizing the danger, put her finger in a hole in the well shaft, and the wind began to blow, and the shaft began to move. It would have easily taken off Heidi’s finger, but Susan, out of her spirit, commanded the windmill to stop and proceeded to take Heidi’s finger out of the shaft. Praise the name of Jesus for ten fingers! 

During that time, I began to have a desire to minister God’s Word. I started to teach Bible Studies and share God’s Word every time I had a chance. 

In the early 80s, we moved from southern Minnesota to a small town in northwest Minnesota called Twin Valley, where I became the managing editor of a weekly newspaper. While there, I again began to teach the Word of God, this time in our home. One thing led to another, and we started a local church which was called Bread of Life Fellowship. Shortly after we started the church, my boss gave me an ultimatum. “You can be editor of this newspaper or pastor of that church, but you can’t be both.” I chose the church, and that’s how I got into full-time ministry. 

I was very inexperienced, made many mistakes, and learned many lessons the hard way, but many people were saved and baptized during that season. God also blessed the ministry with some miraculous healings. A woman with severe arthritis was healed after we anointed her with oil. A man with a very devastating leg injury was miraculously healed in the middle of one of our Sunday morning church services. 

From 1983 to 2005, I served as pastor of four independent Full Gospel churches and one United Methodist Church. Every place we went, we saw more of the miraculous power of God. 

In Edgely, North Dakota, I prayed for a man with a tumor in his colon. As I prayed with him and his wife in their living room, the glory of God seemed to fill the place, and I was led to command the tumor to shrink in the name of Jesus. He told me later that after I left, he had a “release” in the bathroom. When the doctors did another colonoscopy, the tumor had become a polyp. The polyp was removed, and later, the doctors gave him a clean bill of health. He gave me before and after pictures of his colonoscopies so all could see the mighty works of God. Glory to Jesus!

While I was pastoring, I had opportunities to do evangelistic work in the US and overseas. At one time, we had a Gospel tent and a trailer to transport it, along with wooden chairs and a platform. We saw the hand of God at work in salvation and healing as we preached under the Gospel tent and prayed for the sick. I remember a young woman who was plagued with a genetic case of arthritis in her back who was healed. I have a picture of her bending over and touching her toes with a big smile on her face. Glory to God! 

We took several mission trips to Haiti and Mexico, where we saw God move. It was in Haiti that I first preached the Gospel in the open air and saw people respond to the message. I remember in China in 2,000, I first met people in remote villages who had never heard the name of Jesus. I prayed with one of them for salvation, a lady named Li Anna, who had hosted us. We stayed overnight in a room where her family kept their rice, and rats ran over our feet all night long. 

In 2005, we were led by the Lord to leave pastoral work and focus on missions and evangelism. We thank God for those who were part of the various congregations where we pastored. Many of them are friends and partners with us in this ministry today. Pastoring gave me a deep love for the local church as well as a great compassion for pastors and their families. 

But my heart desired to serve Christ’s body as an evangelist. We followed the Lord in this direction, and we have never regretted it. It was a challenge at first, finding meetings, building relationships, and surviving financially. But I must say, God met us and has miraculously supplied. 

So far, I have preached the Gospel in 19 nations of the world. Susan has ministered beside me in many, but not all, of those. We have seen the hand of God in powerful ways. 

In nations in Asia, we often ministered in small villages. I remember one night we were in a village preaching the Gospel late at night after the people had returned from the fields. After the salvation call, we began to pray for the people for healing en masse. We didn’t lay hands on them and pray individually, we just prayed from the platform. Suddenly, a young woman came forward and began to testify. “I had a tumor, and it is gone!” she said. She demonstrated the size of the tumor by stretching forth her fingers and lifting her hand. “It was this big,” she said. We all began to praise and magnify God for what He had done. 

Just before the pandemic, Susan and I were in Europe. While at a church in the Czech Republic, I had a word of Knowledge about someone with a pain in their left shoulder. A man who had a serious injury as the result of a skiing accident came forward and was instantly healed. Praise the name of Jesus. We have his testimony on video, along with many others.

When in Slovakia, Susan and I prayed for a young woman who was unable to have a child. After returning home, we learned that she was pregnant and later became a joyful mother of a baby girl named Stella. Similarly, we saw several women in India receive miraculous answers to prayer for a child. 

But God is not limited to working in foreign countries. Susan and I prayed for a couple who were unable to have children at the Country Church in Ruthton, Minnesota. Miraculously, in nine months, almost to the day, this couple welcomed their first child into the world. 

We continue to see the mighty hand of God at work to this day. This year, as you know, we have faced a great trial with my health. I was in the hospital for three weeks in October, three weeks in November, and another three days in December. But I want you to know I am not defeated. The devil is a liar. He will not stop me from living on the earth, loving my family, and reaching the world. I will leave on God’s timing, not Satan’s.

Though I do not believe that God made me sick, God used my time in the hospital in powerful ways. I had many wonderful conversations about the Lord Jesus with Christians and non-Christians (I like to call them pre-Christians). Some of them were Muslims. I listened to them with respect, and then they listened to me. I didn’t see my role as to criticize their religion but rather to lift up the name of Jesus. I believe seeds of eternal consequence were sown. 

I had several great conversations with people from the lab. They were always coming into my room and stealing my blood. I jokingly called them bloodsuckers. I would find a way to connect with them and then ask them if they knew Jesus. The amazing thing about these visits was that their time in my room was very limited, and yet, I was often able to share the Gospel and my testimony and even pray with some for salvation. 

I was talking to one young man from the lab about how to receive salvation. “Would you like to pray with me?” I asked. “Just a minute,” he said. “I need to put labels on these tubes.” After he was finished, he sat down on a footstool next to my bed where I led him in a prayer for salvation based on Romans 10:9-10. Later, this young man came to my room for another blood draw, and I was able to lay hands on him and ask God to fill him with the Holy Spirit.

I lost track, but I think I prayed with 5 or 6 people for salvation during my hospital stays. I also shared the Gospel and/or my testimony with many others and had great opportunities to encourage the Christian medical workers. They also encouraged me! Some of them were from denominations that we don’t think of as born again, but I found out that Jesus was in their lives in real and powerful ways.

Well, I have preached myself happy! it’s good to remember the things that God has done. When Israel forgot the mighty works of God, they began to doubt and fear. “They spoke against God by saying, ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’” (Psalms 78:19, MEV).

The answer, of course, is “Yes, God can do anything!” Nothing is impossible with Him. Let us not forget what He has done. There are times that we don’t understand all that is happening and why, but let us remember the goodness of the Lord and all that He has done in our lives. He can make a way where there seems to be no way. 

May these thoughts propel us to victory in 2024!

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