Based on the testimony of Curry Blake, overseer of John G. Lake Ministries (JGLM)
A Miracle in the Mountains of Italy
When Curry Blake traveled to Italy to inaugurate a new church, he didn’t expect to face one of the most defining moments of his ministry.
The setting was breathtaking — a white rock mountaintop overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The walls of the church could open up to let the mountain breeze flow through. It was, as Blake described, “a beautiful place — the kind of spot where you can almost feel the presence of God in the air.”
But at the end of that first day, something urgent happened.
Someone approached him and said,
“Can you go by and pray for a young man who was shot? He’s brain dead, and they’re about to pull the plug.”
The man’s name was Angelo.
Doctors had kept him on life support only so the family could say their final goodbyes before declaring him legally dead.
Blake agreed to go.
In the Hospital Room
When he arrived at the hospital, a crowd had already gathered outside. Everyone wanted to see a miracle. The doctors allowed only Blake inside, so he put on the hospital gown, gloves, and protective gear and walked into the sterile, silent room.
There lay Angelo, motionless.
His eyes were open — glazed, unblinking — kept moist only by a medical gel.
No brain activity on the monitor. No movement. No life.
Blake placed his hands on Angelo’s arm and leg and spoke directly to him:
“Angelo, my name is Curry Blake. I’m here in the name of Jesus to wake you up.
You will wake up. Your brain will function correctly.
Your body will function correctly.
You will remember everything correctly.
You are to be healed in Jesus’ name.
Angelo, arise!”
He stood there for about thirty seconds, letting what he called “the life of Jesus” flow into him.
“If you have Jesus, you have life,” he said, quoting John 10:10 —
‘I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.’
After a moment of prayer, he turned and walked toward the door.
“Did the Lord Speak to You?”
As he stepped out, the crowd rushed toward him, eager and anxious.
“Brother Curry, what did the Lord say? Did the Lord speak to you?”
“Yes,” Blake replied.
Excitement filled their faces. “Oh! What did He say?”
He calmly answered:
“He said, ‘You shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’” (Mark 16:18)
They looked confused.
“So… the Lord didn’t actually speak to you?”
“Yes, He did,” he said again.
This back-and-forth continued, until they gave up trying to make sense of it.
For Curry Blake, that was the Lord speaking — because the Word itself is God’s voice.
He believed Mark 16, and he believed it applied to him personally.
The Bad News
Later that night, their host came by his room. He looked uneasy.
“Uh… Angelo… he… he is…”
“Come on,” Blake thought, “spit it out.”
Finally, the host said:
“Angelo… he’s dead.”
No emotion. No shock.
Just a quiet:
“Hmm. That surprises me.”
The man stared, expecting some explanation — some theological “out.”
But Blake didn’t flinch. He refused to pull back his faith by making excuses.
“The moment you start making excuses,” he said later, “you’ve drawn your faith back — and when that happens, whatever God was doing stops.”
So he stood silently until the host gave up and left.
A Conversation with God
After the man left, Blake turned to his wife and said,
“I’m going for a walk.”
Which meant: “I’m going to pray.”
In the elevator, as it descended, he prayed bluntly:
“This ain’t working.
You did not send me halfway around the world to give these people false hope.
I don’t care if You revive him, resuscitate him, resurrect him — I don’t care how You do it.
But Angelo lives, or I quit.”
He prayed in tongues for about forty-five minutes, pacing, declaring, pressing through in faith.
Finally, he sensed the breakthrough. It was done.
He went back upstairs and slept.
The Next Morning: “Angelo Lives!”
The next morning, as he prepared for the service, his host came running.
“Brother Curry! Have you heard about Angelo?”
“I heard,” Blake said.
“No, no! Angelo — he lives! He woke up! His brain works! His body works! Everything’s fine!”
Blake nodded.
“Alright. Glory to God.”
The host, wide-eyed, asked:
“Yesterday, when I told you Angelo was dead, you said, ‘That surprises me.’ Why?”
Blake answered simply:
“Because I’m not used to losing.”
Standing on the Word — Without Backing Down
“If I had backed off at the door,” Blake said,
“and said, ‘Well, God didn’t actually speak to me,’ then Angelo would have been buried.”
There were two moments where he could have backed down:
- When the doctors said Angelo was brain-dead.
- When he was told Angelo had died.
But he didn’t.
He chose to believe the Word:
“You shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
He stood firm on 2 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) —
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.”
Because he didn’t back off, God kept working — and Angelo woke up.
The Lesson: Don’t Back Down from the Word
Blake closed his story with these words:
“Don’t back down off the Word of God.
I don’t care what’s going on.
I don’t care how stupid you look.
I don’t care how alone you look.Many times, the crisis will drag on, and people will start dwindling away.
But if you stand just a little bit longer than everyone else — you will see the miracle.”
Reflection
This story isn’t about personality — it’s about persistence in the Word.
Curry Blake didn’t see himself as a special vessel, but as someone who took Scripture literally.
Faith isn’t waiting for a mystical voice — it’s acting on the Word we already have.
When Jesus said, “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover,” He meant it.
And that Word still speaks.
Sometimes faith looks unreasonable, even stubborn.
But as Blake said — it’s not stubbornness, it’s sanctified perseverance.
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