He frequently speaks at seminars and special events, and he says not a week goes by that he doesn't hear from people around the world who have been inspired by what you are about to hear today. So don't go anywhere, you will be rewarded for paying attention in the next few minutes. So now let's get to the story and the miracle that I promised you on this classic edition of Family Talk.
Let's go back to 1990 on a Sunday morning. I think it was January, Sunday morning.
Duane Miller: Sure, it was.
Dr. James Dobson: ... Sunday morning, which really kind of turned your life upside down.
Duane Miller: Oh, it did. I had been the pastor at First Baptist Church in Brenham for four years at that point in time or most of four years and that morning I woke up with a virus, just the flu virus and had that yucky feeling that you have when you know you're coming down with something and had three services to preach that morning as general Sunday morning, 8:30, 11:00 and that evening. But I was really not feeling well at all. And by the evening service, I could not speak, it was a laryngitis type sound and it was just so intense that it just wasn't there. Church prayed for me that night and sent me home to bed. And I just endured the flu. It really was nothing extraordinary that I hadn't had before, except that I could not get over it in my throat. I tell people everywhere I go, that it's the sorest my throat has ever been but my wife says, I say that every time I get one, so my credibility may be in question.
Dr. James Dobson: But this one didn't go away.
Duane Miller: Did not. At the end of two weeks or almost two weeks, all the other symptoms of the flu had cleared, except I still had the throat, sore and couldn't speak well. So I went to consult a specialist, a friend of mine in Houston that I knew and he looked at my throat, told me that it was swollen almost completely shut still and that the infection was still pretty rampant down there. So he put me on some more medication that was a little stronger than what he'd been doing, sent me back home for another couple of weeks. At the end of that period of time, it's now about a month into it, when I went back to see him, the infection had cleared and the swelling had gone down, but the voice still wasn't there.
The easiest way I know to describe to someone listening to what it felt like and sounded like is to tell them, to put their thumb and the forefinger, right above their Adams apple, and the windpipe is right there. And if you try to squeeze on that windpipe and talk at the same time, that's the sound and that's also the feeling. It was as if someone had their hand on my throat and was squeezing it and wouldn't turn it loose. There was not excruciating pain with that, but it was just a constant pressure that just did not go away.
Dr. James Dobson: Were you preaching during this time?
Duane Miller: No.
Dr. James Dobson: Were you using your voice at all?
Duane Miller: Not at all. The doctors had asked me to not use the voice at all because they weren't sure what the problem was and so they had put me on total voice rest. So for about six weeks, I wrote notes. That's also a challenge, believe me, particularly for a preacher and one who loves to talk. But we did not use the voice at all during that period of time, trying to give it every opportunity to recover.
Dr. James Dobson: But it did not get better?
Duane Miller: Not at all. And when it did not recover, my friend felt that whatever the problem was, was beyond what he was prepared to deal with. So he referred me to the Baylor College of Medicine there in Houston at our medical center. And when I went there and they agreed to take me as a patient, I immediately picked up 13 specialists as a team. I mean immediately. And they began to diagnose, try to diagnose initially and then to treat my condition.
Dr. James Dobson: From what I understand about your story and I'm hearing it for the first time in detail, but you never did get a diagnosis or a real clear diagnosis of what was wrong with you.
Duane Miller: Took a very long time. The first diagnosis that they came back with, and every time they would diagnose, they always used the word tentative because it was very difficult. They could not put their finger on an organic problem. More than once the doctor said to me, if I could just go in there and take your larynx out, I could fix this. I could tell you what's going on. But he said it's not worth that radical move. And he was teasing, but he was serious because they got very frustrated also. We went through an incredible amount of testing. I want folks to understand that my doctors were some of the finest human beings and the most capable human beings on the face of the earth. This was not difficult because they weren't qualified. It was difficult because I believe God ordained to be difficult. I see that now, looking back at it, I didn't see it at the time.
Dr. James Dobson: Were you whispering your prayers to the Lord during that time, Duane?
Duane Miller: I ran the gamut of emotions. There were times when I was angry with God. There was times when I was in despair. When I questioned, I had people that I'm sure meant well, but their counsel was questionable, who came to me and told me that there must be sin in my life or this wouldn't be happening to me.
Dr. James Dobson: That's the usual road.
Duane Miller: Or that if I had sufficient faith, I would be restored. When you're going through a valley like that, and to have someone, even though their intentions may be well intended or whatever, may be right to have those words said to you, are just devastating.
Dr. James Dobson: Did you feel in the beginning that God called you to be a minister?
Duane Miller: Oh, there was never any doubt in my mind. The best counsel that I got was from a very dear friend of mine that I had gone to school with and have known for years, but had not talked to him in probably 15 years. He called me, he had heard of my struggling emotionally with all of this, as well as physically and in our conversation, he said to me, he said, "Duane, do you remember when we prayed together and you told the Lord that you would go anywhere and you would do anything that He wanted you to do?" And I said, "Yeah, I remember that." And he said, "Well, God's just taken you up on it." We ultimately resigned the church after taking a leave of absence, I felt that it was not fair to the church for us to remain as senior pastor any longer.
They needed a pastor and they had waited over a year for us or about a year for us to become healthy. So when we resigned and we moved back to the city of Houston, my wife had to resume a career. She had been trained as an X-ray technologist. But when our children were small, we had consciously decided that she would stay home and be mom and we were blessed of God that we were able to do that. But now she was forced back into a career that's very technical and she hadn't worked in it for 15 years. That's a scary thing to have to do that.
My wife was an absolute pillar of strength. I sing her praises everywhere I go and it's very important for people to understand that in our society, there's an awful lot of I'll stay with you till I get a better deal. And Joylene, when she said better or worse, richer or poor, she meant it. Our relationship has become even stronger through all of the things that we have been through and she is the most precious lady on the face of the earth, bar none.
Dr. James Dobson: I know that there was eventually an explanation, I'm not sure how much anybody believed it, but that the myelin sheath, which is that substance that coats the nerve endings to your vocal cord from the brain had eroded away. Is that what they think?
Duane Miller: They think that the virus had been able to penetrate the myelin sheath and had damaged the nerves and so the vocal cords were simply not getting the message from the brain that they were supposed to move.
Dr. James Dobson: We've come to this moment, which I think people are going to find one of the most interesting seven-minute pieces of tape they've ever heard. Let me put it in reference to myself. I found it to be one of the most interesting recordings I've ever heard, because you were invited to Houston to speak to your old Sunday school class. This is the only Sunday school class in that church that records its speakers-
Duane Miller: That's correct.
Dr. James Dobson: ... the Sunday school teachers and the subject, as I understand was chosen years before.
Duane Miller: That's correct. It was standard Southern Baptist Bible book series curriculum. It is not anything that was extraordinary. We were just doing what we do.
Dr. James Dobson: So, you came to speak through your scratchy whispery voice. Everybody understood they were going to have a hard time hearing you.
Duane Miller: That class had asked me to take over the teaching, again, some eight months before this. I had responded to them, "Guys, I can't teach anymore, you can't listen to this for an hour." And I think more out of deference to me because they knew how badly I missed being able to teach, they said, "Oh, we'll listen. Just really carefully." And so we had found a microphone and by putting the windscreen, literally on my lips, it was touching my lips as I spoke. Most of the time, I could be understood and that's how we were doing this on this particular morning.
Dr. James Dobson: All right. Let's hear this seven-minute piece of tape. Listen very carefully to what happens in the midst of this recording.
Duane Miller: To say that every single person will always be healed because Jesus died on the cross is a misinterpretation of Scripture, not true, won't work. Isaiah 53, doesn't talk about physical healing. I'm sorry. That's just not the context and to impress that there causes a misinterpretation of Scripture. That's wrong. On the other hand to say that since we don't have anything after the book of Acts, that miracles ended at the book of Acts and they never happen again, is equally as wrong. Because you have put God in a box both ways and he doesn't want to be in the box. So the Psalmist says, "I'm excited. Bless the Lord oh my soul. One of his benefits is he heals all of my diseases." And then in verse four, he says, "And he redeems my life from the pit." Now I like that verse just a whole lot.
I have had, and you have had in times past pit experiences. We've all had times when our life seemed to be in a pit, in a grave and we didn't have an answer for the pit we find ourselves in. And I don't understand this right now. I'm but overwhelmed at the moment. I'm not quite sure what to say or do, huh. Sounds funny to say I'm lost for words. Thank you, Lord.
He redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion. He satisfies my desires with good things so that my youth is renewed like the Eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. The Lord is slow to anger. The Lord is abounding in love. The Lord will not accuse nor will He harbor His anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, that's mercy or repay us according to our iniquities, that's mercy. For as high as heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as He removed our transgressions from my us.
I'm sorry for the emotions. No, I'm not. That's a lie. I'm not, huh. I wish I could let you see how I feel inside right now. I wish I could see how I feel inside right now. Yeah, that's good.
Dr. James Dobson: Duane, I've lived all these years I have never heard anything like that. You were literally healed while you were speaking.
Duane Miller: Absolutely. In the middle of a word.
Dr. James Dobson: You weren't praying, you weren't asking for healing. It just happened. What in the world were you thinking? You were obviously overwhelmed.
Duane Miller: I have not yet thoroughly, I guess, analyzed exactly how I feel. I'm still overwhelmed with it. It's all I can do to sit here today, just listening to that tape and not absolutely break down in tears again. I am so overwhelmed with what God has done.
Dr. James Dobson: You've never had any other voice problems since?
Duane Miller: No, not at all. In fact, I've been back to the doctors and we've gone through all the tests again and some more videotape of my vocal chords and the doctor when it was all finished, showed me and said, Duane, not only are you okay, I can't find any evidence that you ever had a voice problem.
Dr. James Dobson: You know what made that so interesting is that you were making the case there that God doesn't always choose to heal. If you'd have been standing up there saying, God's a genie in a bottle will do everything you tell Him to do it. It would've been a little phony, but you were saying exactly the opposite and he chose to touch you at that moment.
Duane Miller: He is sovereign God. We cannot put God in a formula that says, if I, then God. You can't do that. You can't manipulate God and you can't put Him in a time box and tell Him to behave Himself and not get out of the box. You can't do it either way. God is beyond our comprehension. He is sovereign. And the day I think I can understand God, He won't be God anymore. I will be.
Dr. James Dobson: You can no more explain the healing than you could the sickness three years before.
Duane Miller: The only thing I can explain now is a purpose, in that God has allowed what has happened to me to be a witness to his power and His majesty and His sovereignty to people in a manner in which perhaps would've never happened any other way and if God wants to be glorified and is glorified in that manner, then He has sovereign God. So be it.
Dr. James Dobson: Duane, at the moment that your voice started clearing up there, you seem shocked.
Duane Miller: Oh, I was.
Dr. James Dobson: It must have been an unbelievable experience.
Duane Miller: I can tell you what was going on in my mind. That I can remember clearly. The first thing I felt was just the release. When I said the word pit, you've had in times past, and I've had pit experiences, it was on the word pit that it just let go. It had been there and it was gone just like that. Nothing any more dramatic or less dramatic than that. It was just gone.
Dr. James Dobson: And you knew it?
Duane Miller: Oh, it startled me. Because the pressure, it was like someone had been choking me for three years and suddenly it was gone. The hand that had been on my throat wasn't there anymore. It was just gone. The pressure was relieved just that instantaneously. But the next thing I remember after I get startled, I began to say a few more phrases or sentences and I stopped, paused. And the thought that went through my mind, I'll never forget was, is that what I think it is? And then I said a few more phrases and I realized, yeah, that is what I think it is. Oh, it was awesome.
Dr. James Dobson: We did do a whole series of programs on When God Doesn't Make Sense. Those occasions when He may choose not to heal, and He may say, my grace is sufficient unto you, when He says, carry it. But He still does heal in cases that He chooses and we can't lose sight of that. And He does ask us to bring our needs and our burdens to Him.
Duane Miller: And we are to have hope. We are never to lose hope. We are never to lose sight of the fact that He is God and He is able to create and recreate. He is in the resurrection business. When we think everything is dead, that's when He's about to do something exciting.
Dr. James Dobson: Duane, you know what I would like you to do at the end of this program, I'd like you to pray. You're a minister. I would like you to pray for the people out there who are listening to us, who are in despair because whatever their physical problem is, is still there and they have lost hope and maybe even lost faith that God is there. Would you close this program and pray for those folks?
Duane Miller: Absolutely. Our Father, I thank you today for this privilege to pray for your people who are hurting and broken. Lord, I know what the inside of that pit looks like, and I know how slippery the walls can be when you're trying to climb out. I know the darkness that becomes oppressive at times when it seems an answer is just not found. But Lord, I also know that as surely as Joseph said in prison, you had a purpose-
Dr. James Dobson: You did, Lord.
Duane Miller: ... and you brought it to pass. And Lord, as surely as I was in my pit, You had a purpose and You've brought it to pass. Lord, I guess two words that I would love folks to hang onto from the Scripture, are the words, but God. For when we despair, but God can change it in a heartbeat, in an eyelash blink. So, Lord today, I pray for every person that's listening to this program that they will take new heart, new faith, new confidence, new hope in recognizing that You're still on the throne, that You're still relevant, that You still intervene in lives and that You have a purpose for everything that's happening. Lord, I believe that most of us could deal with anything if we just could understand the purpose. Help us to trust You. With one hand, perhaps take hold of your omnipotence, the power to change but with the other hand, grip tightly to Your omniscience and trust Your wisdom. Help us today to do that. Father, I pray in Jesus name.
Dr. James Dobson: Amen.
Duane Miller: Amen.
Dr. James Dobson: Amen. Duane, there is such ministry in your story and in your prayer. I just pray that it will be helpful to people out there across the nation. In fact, you've shared the story before and you're writing a book on that.
Duane Miller: Yes.
Dr. James Dobson: Well, you be sure and send us the first copy.
Duane Miller: Probably the second. My wife has dibs on the first one.
Dr. James Dobson: It is good to hear that strong, steady voice.
Duane Miller: Thank you.
Dr. James Dobson: I just pray that the Lord's arms will continue to be around you and your ministry. You really love Him, don't you?
Duane Miller: With all my soul.
Dr. James Dobson: But would you have loved Him if He had not touched your voice?
Duane Miller: Absolutely.
Dr. James Dobson: You never gave Him an absolute? Either you touched me or I won't serve You.
Duane Miller: I could no more do that.
Dr. James Dobson: That biggest trap. I mean that one leads to despair.
Duane Miller: Absolutely. I could not do that. I'm just not built that way. God had redeemed me. That Psalm, David begins it with, "He has forgiven all my sins." This miracle of my healing is a wonderful thing and I thank God for it, don't misunderstand me. I am excited beyond words, but my most exciting miracle is the fact that God has forgiven my sin and I have relationship with Him and that has nothing to do with my physical condition.
Dr. James Dobson: And that's the ultimate miracle. Duane, God bless you, friend. We just met today. I consider you a lifetime friend.
Duane Miller: Bless God. And the same in return.
Dr. James Dobson: Come back and see us.
Duane Miller: Thank you.
Dr. James Dobson: Well, you can see why I said at the top of the program, that this is one of my favorite stories through the years. I aired it back, I think in 1994 and people have heard it since then. They got copies of it. They've been sharing it. And as I said, Pastor Miller, it is confronted by people who've heard that story everywhere he goes because it is dramatic.
You're listening to Family Talk and this has been a timeless message because the truth that we heard from Pastor Duane Miller. God is sovereign and even when we don't understand why He does what He does and we can have comfort in knowing that we can trust Him. This truth will help you cope. No matter what you're going through and what you're facing, we can trust His heart to work in our lives. Now Duane's story in this book that he talked about there at the end of the program was originally called Out of the Silence and it's being republished under the name Speechless.
If you know someone who needs to hear this conversation, maybe someone who needs assurance now, some answers, some perspective. Then let me encourage you to download a copy of this broadcast from our website the drjamesdobson.org. Let me also do something I don't often do and that's make reference to my own book, but I think it fits here. The book is When God Doesn't Make Sense and that's one of my favorite books that I've written because there are moments when all of us hit a wall. Moments when the pieces don't fit. Moments when you try to understand what God's doing, and understand the troubles or difficulties or illnesses that you're going through, and we cry out to the Lord and we say, why God. Nearly all of us have a moment like that sooner or later. And in fact, even Jesus said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Have you had a moment like that where you felt like saying, why have you forsaken me, Lord? Why am I going through this difficulty? And the truth of the matter is we all face them and what the Lord wants of us in a moment like that is to trust Him. He has not promised to give you all the answers. He has not promised to solve every problem that occurs in your life, but He has promised never to leave you and that's what I tried to deal with in my book, When God Doesn't Make Sense. The website again is drjamesdobson.org, or call us at (877) 732-6825 and member of my staff will be happy to help you. And come by and see us here at Family Talk, we'd love to have you. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you, Pastor Duane Miller for sharing your story with us, we will not forget it.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Roger Marsh: Hey everyone, Roger Marsh here. When you think about your family and where they will be when you're no longer living, are you worried? Are you confident? Are you hopeful? What kind of legacy are you leaving for your children and their children? Here at family talk we're committed to helping you understand the legacy that you're leaving for your family. Join us today at drjamesdobson.org for helpful insights, tips and advice from Dr. James Dobson and himself and remember your legacy matters.