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BEN was born in the Silicon Valley. Trouble with authority and sin abounded throughout his youth, but the Lord never gave him over to a reprobate mind. He achieved modestly in the ways of the world but excluded the knowledge of God in his life until one day he was sitting in his pickup truck and the spirit of God came upon him, and he confessed the name “Jesus Christ.” The spirit had done what Jesus said he would do. “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” The word of God also tells us that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” Ben did not know the gospel, but over the next few days he read the accounts written in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Lord also opened his understanding so he could understand the words of Jesus, which the Lord said are spirit and life. Ben was dead in his transgressions, but he heard the words of the Lord speaking, “Amen, amen, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” Ben repented and makes this confession, “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. He was wounded for my transgressions. He bore my iniquity. He was crucified. ‘And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead.’ I will forever hold onto and trust in the words of Christ who said, ‘He that believeth on me, hath everlasting life.’ I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.”
My was born in Vietnam. Her family moved to Montreal, Canada when she was seven. She was educated through college in French but also learned to speak Chinese, Vietnamese, and English. My was in Quebec when God began drawing her to himself. When her mother became ill leading to death, My became deeply interested in spiritual matters. Her curiosity led her down many paths and eventually to a convent where she accepted Jesus as Lord. When she returned home, she sought out a church using the yellow pages. The Spirit led her to call a pastor who met her and explained to her the gospel by sound doctrine. The pastor's wife took care to disciple her until Christ was formed in her. She was born again by the will of God and her confession is that Christ died for her sins and that his blood justifies her. She has eternal life by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. My left Quebec and came to San Jose where she continued her discipleship at a Christian church. She married Ben in April of 2006 and now lives in the Carson Valley of Nevada with her husband. She is active in the fellowship of the local church, and volunteers in the ministry. She gave birth to our son in January and our other son in October of 2007.
A son was born in Nevada to Benjamin Karel Maulis and My Diep Maulis. Through our son, the Lord has blessed us and given us a reward and a heritage. He has made our vine fruitful and kept our olive plant from our enemy. This is the testimony of our son, which begins from before he was born.
During My’s pregnancy with our son, the first ultrasound technician to examine him as a fetus identified a large mass with unusual echogenicity, which appeared to be displacing his heart from the normal position. The mass appeared to be tumorous lung tissue, but the evidence did not rule out a herniated diaphragm as a possible diagnosis. The technician and My’s physician referred us to a fetal imaging center in Reno to provide a more accurate diagnosis. Ben and My had been praying for our son, and now began praying specifically for this concern to his health.
Most believers are certain the Lord has the power to heal. We do not doubt his ability to perform a miracle, but we have sometimes doubted the Lord’s will to heal. As touching the Lord’s will, whether it be to heal or not to heal, we believed that he settled this question when the leper came to him and said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” Jesus answered very clearly, “I will; be thou clean.”
There are some teachers that tell us that the Lord’s will is always to heal and if someone doesn’t receive it; the problem is with the person or with those who are praying. The Lord’s will is that none perish, but that all of us eventually shed this body of death. We talk about the holiness of God, but there is a lot of mercy in his driving out the man and keeping the way of the tree of life. He told Adam, “Thou shalt surely die.” After he sinned, he sent him forth from the garden of Eden “lest he live for ever.” The Lord made a way for us to escape this corruption. The Lord made a way for us to be redeemed in sending his son to suffer for us, to bear our iniquity, to be wounded for our transgressions, and to die, and on the third day rise from the dead. Our redemption is complete in putting off this tabernacle, and in the resurrection from the dead. Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nay, rather, “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power”
The Holy Ghost reminded us of many of the things which the Lord Jesus said. We were reminded to pray, and not grow weary, to ask, seek, knock and know that it will be answered, found, and opened. We knew that our Father was a giver of good gifts, and that he would bring forth that which he caused to bring to birth. We knew that the devourer cannot touch our fruit and that our vine would not cast forth her fruit before the time. Amen, amen, we knew that Jesus said that the angels of these little ones, which believe in Jesus, do always behold the face of our Father in heaven. Nevertheless, it is not our Father’s will that one of these little ones perish.
The fetal imaging experts, equipped with more sophisticated equipment confirmed the diaphragm was intact and diagnosed the echogenetic mass as a Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation or CCAM. We were told the prognosis for survival was good, but that he may need the affected lung tissue resected by a surgical procedure a few months after birth. Hydrops was a risk if the mass continued to grow and further displace the heart. Imaging studies were done on our son as a fetus every few weeks to monitor his growth and cardiac function. My received a couple injections of betamethasone in hope this would spur the development of the regular lung tissue. Ben and My continued to pray for our son and enlisted the elders in the local church to pray also. Ben and My prayed, asking the Lord every day for his healing.
Ben explains, “I believed the Lord would heal someone as a testimony so others would believe and be saved. The cross is more than sufficient evidence that the Lord will go the distance to see people saved by grace through faith in Christ. However, I had no confidence in man. If the Lord healed my son, I didn’t believe it would result in one man coming to saving faith in Christ. People have plenty of other explanations, and man is so unworthy of hope. The Lord said, 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.' If the Lord’s motivation to heal my son was his confidence that an unbeliever would repent in witnessing this miracle, my son was without much hope. I simply said, 'Lord, if you heal him, no one will believe because of it. Will you heal him anyway?’”
The Lord answered us and showed us how after he healed the leper, he said unto him, “tell no man.” In another place, he healed a couple’s daughter, even raised her from the dead and, “he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.” He healed the deaf and made the blind see, and said to them, “tell no man.” Why would the Lord tell these people whom he had healed, not to tell anyone? This wasn’t some kind of reverse psychology to get them to tell all the more. The Lord meant what he said. The Lord did not need to perform those healings to reveal himself as Christ. The scripture tells us that he did these things secretly because his time was not yet come, and he did not yet seek to be known openly.
We know that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” We also know, “the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” If the Lord was sincere when he charged them “tell no man,” why then did the Holy Ghost move men and inspire the scripture that reveals these things to us? The Lord’s intention was not only to reveal to unbelievers that Jesus is the Christ, but also that believers may come to know him.
We learned the most important thing to understand is not whether the Lord heals, but why he heals. If we understand why he heals, then we come to know him and not just the result of his doing. Truly, to know him is worth more than the healing of this temporary body of death. To know him is eternal life.
During subsequent visits to the fetal imaging center, we saw the CCAM become smaller and smaller relative to the normal lung tissue and our son’s heart became less and less displaced. By December 5th, the physician at the fetal imaging center was no longer able to distinguish a CCAM from the normal lung tissue. We praised the Lord and gave mighty thanks for this victory, but we were determined to see that the CCAM not only disappear from ultrasound, but that it would be in fact totally healed in Jesus’s name. After his birth, an x-ray, CT scan, or MRI could prove this. At this point we were resting in faith, knowing that the Lord had answered our prayers and healed him. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not (yet) seen.”
On January 12th, My’s labor began and at 4:21 the morning of January 13th, our son was born, he took his first breaths, and we named him.[1] Stethoscopy and oximetry confirmed his lungs were functioning well. Later that morning a chest x-ray was taken, proving his complete and total health and healing.
“If we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.”
[1] Our son’s name means, “Who is like the Lord?”
Our other son was born to Benjamin Karel Maulis and My Diep Maulis on the evening of October 8th, 2007.
After about 24 weeks of pregnancy, My went into labor in the middle of the night on October 3rd. She was taken to the hospital in Carson City from which she was flown by helicopter to another hospital in Reno. Labor was slowed but it had already progressed far in a short time.
We were told by the doctors, who expected him to be delivered at any moment, that at his gestational age, our child would have a forty percent chance of survival and that if he survived at all, there would be a 90 percent probability of problems. If we had to depend on the probabilities, we might as well have been playing Russian Roulette with four bullets in the pistol. The doctors only encouraged us that if his birth were able to be postponed, it would greatly improve the outcome for him.
Our hearts are fixed, trusting in the Lord. Our hearts are established, we shall not be afraid. We trust in the word of the Lord concerning the fruit of our vine, for it is written,
Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways.
For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD. The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel. Psalm 128
Furthermore, the prophet Malachi declares in the word of the Lord,
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:10-11
The Lord is faithful and our son was not cast before the time came for him to be ready to be delivered on October 8th. At that time the doctors advised delivery due to impending risks, and we agreed that the time had come.
He did not know whither he was going, but we knew that God was calling him to go out to a place which he should after receive for an inheritance. We knew that he was coming into this world. We did not know what this world would hold for him, but we knew that he would be an heir with us of the same promise, because we judge him faithful who has promised. Therefore we determined to endure as seeing him who is invisible.
Amen, our fruit was not cast before the time, but he was delivered after six days. He came out and took his first breaths. His eyes were open. He was a healthy boy who was only younger than many that are born. We named him after the tree in the shadow of which Abraham dwelt.
Abraham journeyed in the land of promise and dwelt in the plain thereof (Genesis 13:18). The location shares the name of the Amorite who was confederate or “ba’al b@riyth” with Abraham the Hebrew (Genesis 14:13). This is to say that Abraham had covenant with him and his two brothers.
When Lot was taken captive, Abraham and his covenant partners pursued Lot’s captors (Genesis 14:14, 24). Abraham pursued Chedorlaomer unto Hobah which is on the left hand of Damascus. Afterward, Abraham came to the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale, which is said of some to be the valley of Kidron, on the north side of Jerusalem (Genesis 14:17). Here, Melchizedek, king of Salem, blesses Abraham.
For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him. Hebrews 7:1-10
After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, and the Lord made or cut (“karath”) covenant (“b@riyth”) with Abraham (Genesis 15:18). The Lord gave not only his shield and sword to Abraham as the Amorites did, but he said unto him, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” (Genesis 15:1)
The Lord promised Abraham a seed, and showed him the stars of heaven and said “So shall thy seed be.” It is written that Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Galatians 3:7-9
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Romans 4:13
At the Lord’s direction, Abraham took a heifer, a she goat, a ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon. He divided them except the birds.
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. Genesis 15:17
Therefore was this covenant made not only with Abraham, but with all who were in the loins of him and who would be heirs of him whose face is as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and whose countenance is as the sun that shineth in his strength. For it is written,
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Galatians 3:16
The Lord appeared unto Abraham in the plains. Three men stood by him, before whom he set a meal and stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. (Genesis 18:8). The Lord renewed his covenant with Abraham and said, “At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Genesis 18:14) Now this tree stands not as a memorial to the covenant with the Amorites, but as a memorial to the covenant God has made with Abraham and with his Seed. In the shadow of this tree, the cakes of meal were broken, and they ate the calf with butter and milk.
The Lord had come to destroy the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and turn those cities into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them suffer the vengeance of eternal fire as an example unto those that after should live ungodly; (2 Pet 2:6, Jude 1:7)
Amen, the Lord shall appear yet again and in the hour of his judgment he shall come, for he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness (Psalm 9:8, Acts 17:31). The Lord will save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Christ (Hebrews 7:25), but the wicked shall perish. For the Lord knows his own as he knows Abraham (John 8:56) and that he will command his children (Genesis 18:18-19, Galatians 3:7,9) and his household to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon him that which he hath spoken of him.
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29
For as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; Romans 8:16-17
Amen, this same Jesus, in the shadow of the tree, took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it unto them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:19-20)
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Matthew 26:28
Amen, amen, He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5,6) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24)
And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. God raised him from the dead.Acts 13:29-30
Now this same tree on which Christ hung is today a memorial tree of the new covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto us, and we unto the world.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
By him all that believe are justified from all things (Acts 13:39), for God is the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. John 5:24