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In My Garden by Joe Medrek
If anyone has ever experienced having a special needs child, you know of the daunting lack of communication that you may have with them. With Levi I gave up even talking to him because all of my words would bounce back at me. It was like there was literally a wall there preventing them from going to Levi.
Levi has battled rebellion ever since he was two years old. He resisted any form of learning anything. If I tried to teach him anything, he would do the opposite. If I would tell him to pull his pants up, he would take them off.
No matter what I would do there would be a battle of communication and being able to enjoy being with him. For years every attempt to go out to enjoy being with him would end up in a disaster with frustration and discouragement so I would tend to just quit trying and do my best taking care of him minus having any relationship and cooperation from him.
I remember one night coming home from church I felt to try to talk to him and the wall actually came down. My words were actually getting to him. That does not mean I still had a battle struggling to have anything more with him.
Levi had a high threshold for pain. It was like he didn’t even feel it. He actually picked up a hot soldering iron and he barely cried. Another time he put his hand under hot water in the bathtub and he didn’t even pull away from it. There was a theory that those with autism would either be highly sensitive to their senses or would not have enough stimulation to them where they would bite themselves. One night I was giving him a bath and he experienced for the first time he could feel. He was rubbing his legs like he was getting feeling in them. I know this doesn’t make sense because he was able to walk and everything but something was happening. He was breaking free from another type of bondage.
Many do not like to make eye contact. Levi had a look almost like a zombie without even being on any type of psychotropic drug. I resisted experimenting with those types of dangerous drugs with Levi. Doctors tried to help him when he was two with a couple different types of drugs but to me all they did was make things worse so I stopped the guinea pig trials completely. Levi did start making eye contact.
Many years have gone by and we’ve had one breakthrough after another never giving up on the faithfulness of the Lord to set him completely free. I know many angels have protected Levi over the years preventing falls, etc. Even the worse of falls because of epilepsy turned out to be a God encounter I would never forget. His peace would engulf me in His intimate presence!
I almost forgot another major breakthrough. For years Levi would never look in a mirror at himself and one day he actually realized that the man he was looking at was he. It was traumatic for him but God helped him with that and now he can look at himself and smile!!!
I thank the Lord for this trial with my son because I know He is doing a mighty work in him and through him and He will use Levi in a mighty way. Many prophecies have been spoken over him that Levi would speak forth the oracles of God even in his present condition. He has already prophesied. He said three separate words one day that was confirmed by a prophet. I was driving over to Lakeland to go to a Christian conference and sitting in the back of the van the whole side where I was sitting the sky turned a bright pink and purple color and then Levi spoke out anticipation, expectancy and said don’t plan. One week later I heard Kim Clement prophesying the three things the church lacks is exactly what Levi had said except when he said “don’t plan” Kim Clement said spontaneity which means the same thing.
I’ve had a very hard time making contact with Levi to be able to enjoy him. We’ve had so many disturbances with Levi screaming, loud babbling, throwing things, pulling hair, etc. It’s been the grace of God that I have made it through all these years. I’ve met many that had autistic children who ended up placing them in an institution because there is such a strain upon their life that many can’t handle it. I raised Levi alone for twenty-one years until the Lord brought me a father for Levi. I got married to a wonderful man who adopted Levi when he was twenty-one years old and we’ve been together for twenty-four years. Many who saw them together would actually cry at how the Lord brought us together. They saw the love of God flow between them saying it was like Paul and Timothy.
Yes, we’ve had breakthroughs before and many more to come until Levi is totally set free. I’ve been through much deliverance also. I know there was a witchcraft curse placed upon our life. My father engaged in a witchcraft healing process through some Italian ladies who cut his back and placed candles and lit them with glasses placed over the candles. This was to take pain away from his back but we all know that it was witchcraft. I don’t know if I was alive yet or not when that happened. My grandmother would try to take headaches away from people by waving a knife over them speaking words in Italian and she would take the headache. This was another form of witchcraft.
I know my grandfather had something to do with the Mafia. It was said in self-defense he killed a man with a knife, which was written up in a crime magazine. I’ve had some terrible battles involving the same things where those familiar spirits would attack my mind trying to make me drive my car over a bridge. I would actually have to hold my arms and not pay attention to these devils! My mother also had many encounters with devils where she was possessed. I lived out the Exorcist movie with her even before I knew the Lord and His power to resist the devil.
Yes, I have had a fight in my life but I will never give up. He has a calling upon Levi and I and I know it is a threat to the kingdom of darkness. I’ve battled fear most of my life to the extent where I would feel I would levitate inches off of my bed. I’ve heard people say of me that those who were the weakest link would turn out to be one of great strength. I don’t know how I got on all this rabbit trails. But the greatest breakthrough up to this point is this.
I was lying on the couch resting and Levi came up to me just to hold my hand. He never wanted to hold my hand even from being two when you try to keep him by my side in public. He would always squirm away from me and end up getting lost. Today he kept coming up to me to hold my hand and it felt like he was experiencing and enjoying making contact with me. The other day he actually obeyed me telling him not to do something and I praised him and his face just lit up like he realized he was obeying and not rebelling. God is faithful. When He begins a good work He will complete it!!!
I know I have a book to write on my testimony. There is so much the Lord has done to bring me to this point and He’s not done! I am a work in progress. And also I know there will be a book on how the Lord set Levi free. I felt the name of that book would be “Son Rise”. Every trial we go through no matter how hard they may be prepares us for our future. One day I will look back and thank God for all I’ve been through. Yes, I even thank Him now because I know He is faithful!!!