Drew Schlagel
I grew up in a Christian home and accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior when I was 3 ½ years old as my Dad led me in the sinner’s prayer. As a kid, I had such great faith, a few times my Dad would be mowing the lawn or planting flowers and it would look like rain, and I would pray and it wouldn’t rain. Another time I had a wart on my thumb and after praying, God supernaturally removed it. My grandma later asked me, “Drew, how did you get rid of your warts?” My reply was, “I just prayed grandma!”
As I got older, my childlike faith caused me to lose many friends after witnessing to them. I also got made fun of a lot in school because I dressed differently and when I got cold my lips would turn blue. I was embarrassed by these things but could not help them.
This made me sad. I was on medication for asthma and severally allergic to dust and dust mites. My faith was being challenged, and I was realizing the world was not a bed of roses and all happiness. I began to question God’s existence. This reached a climax when I failed my hearing test during my freshman year of high school. The nurse thought maybe I was stuffed up and retested me again later, but still the same results. I went to an audiologist and found out I had 30% hearing loss in both ears; as a fifteen-year-old boy, this was devastating! My hopes and dreams of becoming a fighter pilot were crushed, and I wondered what girls would think of me. Even more so, why was God allowing this to happen?
I said “God if you’re real prove it to me.” That summer at a Christian summer camp called Youth for the Nations, He did. I was exposed to the power of the Holy Spirit and saw people speaking in tongues and other manifestations of the Spirit. That year I rededicated my life to the Lord - I was sixteen. The following year I went again and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. After getting home from camp, I received my first vision which catapulted my faith. God began speaking to me and showed me in another vision what college I should attend. I went there by faith and He supernaturally provided the finances for me, as my parents made too much money to qualify for anything more than loans, and my SAT and ACT scores were not high enough to qualify for scholarships.
All the while, I was still struggling with hearing loss, but I knew God was real. It started really affecting my ability to do well in classes, and so I humbled myself, went to the doctor and got a hearing aid. One night, I prayed to the Lord asking him to heal me. My prayer was simple. I said, “God this hearing aid is great, but it’s like glasses for my ears. I want to hear my child’s first words.” I heard a voice reply, “You will be healed on Sunday.” That day was Monday.
Throughout the week, God taught me the significance of the number 7 while watching It’s Supernatural on TV. One night I woke up at 3:33am, the following night I woke up at 4:44am. Together this made 777 – seven being the number for completion. That Friday I received a call from a ministry I had given to a few years back, inviting me to come to night of prayer and miracles that Sunday at 7 o’clock. I knew I had to go, as God had told me I would be healed on Sunday. I invited a friend to come along with me, and went up for prayer after the service. They had just finished 21 days of prayer and fasting and everyone who went for prayer was slain in the Holy Spirit when the pastor laid his hands on them. I even saw this happen to a mother with her child. After waiting about 45 minutes, it was my turn. I stopped the preacher (by this time he was no longer asking people what they needed prayer for, but just laying hands on them and they were falling under the power), I said “Wait, I have asthma and also hearing loss.” He touched my chest and I began to weep. Then he touched my ears and the next thing I knew I was on the ground and all I could say was “Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus.” A girl came up to me and said, “the Lord says if you stay in the word like you do, and keep absorbing like a sponge, you will be an evangelist or missionary.”
After we left the meeting and got into the car, I noticed my voice sounded different – more crisp and clear. It was then that I knew God had healed me. I called my parents and told them what God had done. My Father was doubtful and said I needed to go back to the audiologist to be tested again to be sure. I reluctantly agreed, though I knew I was healed. I walked in the doctor’s office and held my hearing aid up in the air and said, “Jesus healed me.” After being tested, the doctor confirmed I didn’t have hearing loss anymore and the places that didn’t have any loss to begin with, were even better than normal. I began to testify everywhere I went, declaring what the Lord had done for me.
The enemy would attack from time to time and the hearing loss would return and then go away after receiving prayer. It has been a battle ever since. Yet my faith in the Lord has not wavered, and I am still trusting and believing, and confessing that I am healed despite the symptoms I experience each day.
It has been a crazy journey with the Lord and in November of 2015, after I was laid off from my engineering job in Germany, God spoke to me the loudest I had ever heard him before and told me He wanted me to start a church in America. After returning to the US, and attending Bible school in Dallas, TX, He told me to move to Colorado and start a church. That brings us today and I am still waiting for that dream to be fulfilled.
