AMAZING STORY
A Prison Sentence Finally Makes Him into the Man His Parents Prayed For
By Amy Reid
The 700 Club
CBN.com -Brooklyn, New York. For 12 years, Miqueas Ramirez called it home. Now serving time in prison, Miqueas realizes that things he saw there like drug deals and hustling made a lasting impression.
“The fast money, the women, the materialistic things that you were able to get rapidly without really working hard for it. It all held a certain kind of attraction for me,” Miqueas recalls.
Even though he had loving parents and was raised in church; that seemed to have little influence on him.
“I began to dabble with marijuana when I was 15 years old. And that’s really what opened the gateway for me to really step out on my own and begin to do what I wanted to do.”
Miqueas went from dealing drugs, to more lucrative schemes.
“I moved on to running guns,” Miqueas says. “And then I moved on to running checks and credit cards and running all kinds of different scams.”
His parents, George and Betsy, saw what was happening and tried to help.
“The first time he got involved in a situation, I hired a lawyer; I paid money,” says George. “And then when he got thrown in the city jail, I bailed him out.”
At seventeen, he moved out and married his girlfriend. She was pregnant with his son, so Miqueas upped his game.
“The pressure had mounted so much on me because I was a high school dropout. I didn’t have any education,” says Miqueas. “And I was always taught that a man provides for his family. And the only thing that I really knew how to do at that particular time was to hustle.”
He was arrested twice for stealing cars. Even though he got off, Miqueas realized the police and others were watching.
“I had a lot of enemies, and because of that I always carried a firearm. I was always on pins and needles, always looking out my rearview mirror because I had to look out for people that were out to get me at that particular time,” Miqueas recalls. “And so I would take all of that frustration home, and because I couldn’t explain it to my wife, I took it out on her.”
One day, George drove to Miqueas’ house to reason with him, but his son wasn’t receptive.
“I lashed out at him and I cursed into his face,” says Miqueas. “I’ve never done that to my father. I cursed him to his face and I kicked him out of my home. And it broke his heart.”
His father remembers that day well. “He wasn't my son. He wasn't the boy that I raised him to be,” George recalls. “You see, there's a certain look in your child that look of innocence. He lost that. That was gone. And so when I looked at him, he wasn't my son.”
As difficult as it was, George and Betsy knew they had to give their son completely over to God.
“He was my prize. He was my joy. I carried him on my shoulder. I loved him with every fiber of my being,” says George. “So when all this happened, I had to release him.”
“’I said, "Lord, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust you with my son.’” Betsy remembers.
“And that was the hardest thing we ever had to do,” George adds.
Miqueas’ wife left with his son and filed for divorce. Less than two weeks later, police caught up with him. He was arrested and charged with over thirty felony counts in three jurisdictions. Eventually he was sentenced to twenty-three years in maximum security prison. He was twenty-three years old.
“The emotional switch was turned off from that point forward,” Miqueas remembers. “I was so full of hatred and I was so full of anger that I remember laying on top of the bunk. And one morning the sun came in and began to shine upon my face and it woke me up. And I was so angry. I began to curse the sun and I began to curse God because I felt as if He was mocking me.”
One night, Betsy says God woke her up. ‘“I was interceding and crying out for him and I was saying, ‘Lord, make Yourself real to him.”’
That same night, Miqueas was in solitary confinement for fighting with another inmate.
‘“I remember laying in my bed, and all of a sudden I just had this impression upon my heart. And it said, ‘if you don’t surrender now, you’re going to die in this prison.’ And at first I thought I was going crazy. And I tried to ignore it. I tried to push it out of my mind. But then it came again, ‘If you don’t surrender now, you’re going to die in this prison’. And I began to just say a simple prayer. I said ‘God, if you still want me, after everything that I’ve done. After all the hurt that I’ve caused, then I ask You to do one thing for me; allow me to feel Your presence.’ And immediately, before I could really get the full sentence out of my mouth, the entire cell was enveloped in the presence of God. I began to weep, and I began to cry out to God. My heart was like a stone. It was calloused. It was hard. I didn’t care for anything. But, as I wept, I could literally feel God performing a circumcision of the heart. It was as if He was in there cutting away at all of stone and all of the callousness. I could actually feel my heart beating. I could feel God’s arms around me. I could feel His love.”
The next day, Miqueas called his parents and told them what happened.
“And she says, ‘Son, it was during that time I was praying and interceding for you as I never had before.’ She was groaning in the Spirit, interceding on my behalf; praying that the Lord would intervene in my life and my situation, someway, somehow reach me.’”
His release is scheduled for 2020, but for now, Miqueas is active in ministry to other inmates and has written two books about his experiences.
“I never experienced this kind of joy. I never experienced this kind of peace. And it’s amazing that I could experience something like that within the confines of a prison. And so what I want people to understand is that there’s no limitations with God. He found me at my lowest point. And He transformed my life. And the same thing that He did for me, He can do for anybody if they would just surrender.”
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
