Sons of God's Generals: Unlocking the Power of Godly Inheritance by Joshua Frost Page A

importantly, I was now free to move forward in my relationship with God.

Part II: My Mom, Just Mom
    If the word “complicated” indicates my relationship with my dad growing up, then certainly “simple” would describe the relationship I had with my late mom, Michal Ann Goll. In fact it was not just the relationships that were “complicated” or “simple,” but the people themselves. Where my dad’s Ezekiel-like visions and prophetic experiences led to difficult, complex questions, stories of Mom’s youth had her running in the fields on her family’s farm, singing to the Lord. Singing, and singing, and singing. No matter what changes or challenges would come Mom’s way during her lifetime, she really never deviated from that simplicity.
    Mom was the “steady Eddie” to my dad’s quixotic antics. She was calm, cheerful, private, and hard-working. That great, old-school maxim comes to mind: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” Well, that was her. No one ever heard her say something not nice! But don’t mistake niceness for weakness. This farm and field girl could handle livestock, open jars difficult for men, and knew how to keep four kids in order. But there I’m getting ahead of my story. Let’s back up.
    Hope Deferred
    After seven years of heartbreaking barrenness, my mom and dad had wept and prayed for children to the point where they understood all too well the declaration of Proverbs 13:12: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” The top fertility specialist in the Midwest had pronounced conception impossible. He had never seen a condition like my mom’s. No amount of medicine or procedure would make motherhood a possibility.
    They were so heartsick, in fact, that they had a plan B and found themselves at a Lutheran adoption agency in St. Louis. When the agency told my parents that they had been given top placement and were now approved to adopt a certain baby boy, my parents took a walk on the facility grounds and prayed about their decision. After pacing and praying and discussing, Mom and Dad went back inside the building and informed the agency that would yield their right to this boy to the next couple. They still had hope for a God who heard their prayers.
    Another year went by, and Mom had not seen any change or heard any more direction from the Lord. “God, I will not like it,” Mom quietly but desperately prayed one day, “but I will yield to You my right and desire to be a mother.”
    At that moment the invisible voice of God filled her: “I appreciate your attitude, but I am not requiring this of you. I say to you, you must
fight for your children.
” The Lord had spoken, and this command unleashed in my mother a warring intercession unlike anything she had experienced. Two years and a couple miraculous healings later, I was born. After all those years, my mom was the happiest woman to ever become a mother.
    “Oh, so
you’re
the miracle baby?” I’ve heard that one a lot over the years. Time to set the record straight: Miracles were required for
each
child to be born. After giving birth to me, my mom’s body, strange as it may sound, returned to its pre-healed state. Then God healed her again and she gave birth to my sister GraceAnn. The pattern recurred, resulting in my brother Tyler. Every life really is a miracle, but my parents were racking up lots of “special” miracles!
    Shaking Things Up
    Remember what I said at the beginning about my parents allowing God to change them? Well, something needed to change with Mom and Dad. Even at five years old, I could see that was the case! Mom was absolutely content to hide in Dad’s shadow. She would even relate to God
through my dad.
Now, if you’re married, hopefully you’ve experienced that magical but scary moment where God speaks something to you through your spouse. If you haven’t, watch out! It’s gonna happen. However, my mom took that a little
too
far. God would simply communicate to her