Anne Graham Lotz recalls supernatural 'miracle' that took place at funeral of father Billy Graham
Evangelist Anne Graham Lotz has said a “miracle” took place when the Holy Spirit “supernaturally equipped” her to deliver a powerful message at the funeral of her iconic evangelist father, Billy Graham, in March of 2018.
On Father’s Day, Lotz, founder of AnGeL Ministries and the third daughter of Graham, wrote on her blog that one of her “recurring nightmares is to find myself on a stage with people looking at me, yet I have no prepared message to give.”
“As my father became older and more feeble, I was advised to prepare well in advance for any remarks I might be asked to give at his service,” she recalled. “Yet as hard as I tried, I could not come up with anything beforehand. I trusted that God would give me what He wanted me to say, if and when the time came.”
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Billy Graham passed away on February 21, 2018 and his death set in motion an entire series of events that ran almost 24-7 until his funeral service on March 2 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Lotz said she, along with her siblings, had agreed to speak at their father’s funeral — but “in the days that followed, I literally had no time at all to prepare.”
One hour before the service began, Lotz admitted she terrified to speak, knowing the audience would include the president of the United States and his wife, the vice-president and his wife, the governor of our state, senators, congressmen, and “just about every well-known leader in the evangelical world.”
“Yet I had nothing prepared to say! So I put my head down on a table, closed my eyes, and thought I would pass out. I couldn’t even pray. It was as though my reoccurring nightmare had become a reality,” she wrote.
But as she walked up to the podium to speak, a “miracle occurred.”
“When I stood at the podium, all the fear, dizziness, and grief fell away,” the evangelist wrote. “What was left was a clarity of thought and a prophetic message that I knew, even as I heard my own words pouring forth, was a manifestation of the Spirit of God who is Jesus in me.”
“I knew, and am still convinced today, that it was the Spirit’s supernatural equipping of God’s feeble child for that moment,” she declared. “I believe my father was honored, Jesus was exalted, and God was glorified as His Word went forth to the entire world through television, livestream, and social media.”
Lotz concluded: "And if God could do that for me, He can do it for you, too ...Tell others that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them. Who sent His own Son to die to take away their sin and guilt. And that if they place their faith in Him, they would be forgiven, reconciled to the Father, and receive eternal life. Just do it! Scared!"
At her father’s funeral, Lotz urged the Church, the world, and herself to "wake up!"
She said that like a modern-day Moses, Billy Graham brought liberation to people through the Gospel and she believed his death on Feb. 21 at the age of 99 "is a shot across the bow from Heaven."
"My father also is a great liberator. He brought millions of people out of bondage to sin and it gets us to the edge of Heaven, edge of the Promised Land, and then God has called him home. And could it be that God is going to bring Joshua to lead us into the Promised Land to lead us to heaven?" Lotz asked.
"And do you know what the New Testament name is for Joshua? It's Jesus. And I believe this is a shot across the bow from Heaven. And I believe God is saying, 'Wake up Church! Wake up world! Wake up Anne! Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming,'" she said, pledging to preach God's Word for the rest of her life.
Billy Graham was buried at the Billy Graham Library Prayer Garden next to his wife, Ruth, located at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Charlotte.
