These are brief snippets of some of my "go into all the world" expeiriences. Please understand that my purpose in sharing these stories is to help motivate you in your work in Christ. Not everything you do has to be a miracle, but sometimes its the things that seem like small gestures to you that are mountanous to someone else. No, I am not always bold and sometimes I miss opportunities out of fear, or being in a rush...thank God I am not the standard. I'm a work in progress! In each experience we can find a lesson from the Holy Spirit. He is a hands on teacher. If you have stories email them to me and I'll post them as well. The focus is always the people not ourselves but we help each other via our testimonies.We MUST keep one another encouraged so that we can become stronger in stepping outside of ourself and learn to love like Christ loves.
Mickey D's Ministry
I was at a McDonald's ordering something I shouldn't for the kids. The young lady who had just taken our order at the register comes to clean around our table. She asks about my kids who were happily making the most noise there, and we had friendly conversation. She was a 10th grader new to America from Guatemala and she expressed some of the difficulty from having to attend an all English school.I felt in my heart the desire to encourage her. When she went back to working the cash register I took my reciept and wrote on the back of it "God Loves You. I hope you do well in school." Becuase she was working and I didn't know how much English she knew I slipped it to her and paused to see if she understood. Her face lit up with excitement. Ever since, whenever we go to McDonald's she gives us extra food and calls me her friend. If she notices me in the drive-thru she rushes to the window just to say hi.Sweet girl.
One Accord
A friend and I went on a praying spree at a local hospital. Just went in praying for different ones here and there starting in the emergency room and working our way around. On the way out, he notices a woman sitting in her hospital garments, IV in her arm, cigarette in one hand, and inhaler on her other side. He walks up and prays for her healing and the Holy Spirit touched my heart that she had a relationship with God but she's fallen off track. She wants to get back on track but doesn't feel worthy to do so. She opened up and confirmed what the Holy Spirit had said and she's also been trying to get her kids together to go to church. She allowed us to have prayer again...cigarette in hand (which didn't bother us or hinder God), nurses walking by trying to be quiet as we prayed. After prayer, my friend said the Holy Spirit put the exact same thing on his heart, I just beat'em to it! lol Awesome!
Hidden Behind a Smile
Met a young lady as I was getting off the elevator and she was getting on. When I said "hi" to her, she gave a big smile and said "hi" back. When I saw her I had every intention of praying for her. I was hoping to hear something from the Holy Spirit regarding her, but I drew a blank. I saw her sitting down and I wasn't exactly sure what to say so I complimented her on her smile and how friendly she seemed to be. I didn't ask could I have prayer with her, like I normally do, but I just figured that she looks happy so maybe she doesn't need it. I walked away to get back on the elevator to go to the 2nd floor. Maybe she was following me? But she caught up with to get on the elevator too...she was going to the 4th floor. Or she really did need prayer/encouragement? I stayed on there until the 4th floor with her and started telling her God must be present in her life...I tried to get in all I could until the ride was over. I asked if I could give her a hug and she so welcomingly said yes. I gave her a hug and briefly spoke blessings into her life. She smiled and giggled the whole way through. She even stood at the elevator as it was closing in a glad-to-meet-you-sad-to-see-you-go kind of way. We had only met less than 5 minutes prior.
A Day with a Stranger
On the bus on the way to the mall with the kids and I noticed a woman getting on the bus that the Holy Spirit wanted me to speak with. Amazingly this woman sits right next to me so I know that it was God telling me to connect with her. We start a conversation on the bus and wouldn't ya know...she's going to the mall too. I asked "Are you Filipino?" She said, "Yes, how could you tell? Most people think I am Spanish" This had to be God giving me a discernment because later on she did look like she was Hispanic and I had no way of telling the difference.We both get off of that bus and are at the transit center. She shared a lot with me about her life.She has a 4 year old daughter that she doesn't have custody of, she doesn't know much about America's System (laws etc) the list goes on. So during the bus transfer she allowed me to pray for her and tears streamed down. I don't know if she understood every word I said, but I think her heart knew. We ended up spending the entire trip together. Once we got to the mall, she sat with me while the boys played and just asked me questions about God, life, and told me more about herself all the way till we were back at the transit center to go home.
Impression of Depression
Recently had the impression in my heart that someone at a church I recently visited was dealing with depression. The woman told me she had just stopped taking anti-depressants. I asked what is it that's making you depressed and she said she's been thinking about how her mother allowed her to be molested by her boyfriend when she was a child.She says "My mother chose her boyfriend over me." The enemy had his grip on her mind dragging her into her past. The woman is now in her 40's. We talked about forgiveness and she says "I thought I forgave my mom, but I guess I didn't." The enemy wanted her to think she didn't forgive when in reality she did. She had already let that whole part of her past go, but Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Needless to say, we had prayer and some words to empower her against the enemy. We hadn't even said goodbye, but she turns away wiping tears from her eyes. Within 5 minutes her attitude seemed to have changed from despair to confidence, from losing control to "I got this!!!" and we parted ways. That was my first time meeting her.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
If I am a Friend of God
I am personally challenging myself more to adhere to the call of duty as prescribed by Christ to "go" or "do."
Christ summed up the commandments into only two:
1.Love God
2.Love people
Let's take a look at John 15:12-17:
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
Man, I must say we have it a lot easier than those that were under the old covenant. Over 600 rules and regulations, feast days, holy days, rituals, and sacrifices. We just have the two commandments. Bless God for the two. I would have been considered a top sinner if I had to keep up with all those laws. I'd have to sacrifice three animals a day just due to forgetting.
What I noticed out of this scripture is that most people (myself included) pay attention to "Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name"
I ponder on this because the impression some of us get is to just pray and we'll have whatever we ask for. But we tend to disregard the call to duty in the surrounding scriptures. It is easy to love God, but a lot more challenging to love one another. Christ has called us friends IF we do what he has asked us to do. Well, he asked, correction, commanded us to love one another. Think about it...if someone was just wanting to be called your "friend" just so they could experience the benefits that's not true friendship. It's not a good relationship if only one of you is sacrificing, pouring out, and loving and there is no return...that's not friendship that is using, taking advantage of. There may even be traces of manipulation in there somewhere too.
If we are naming the name of Christ let's not skip over our part in this friendship with him. He did put a condition on it. We're His friends IF WE DO...
How is it our ears and eyes only see that we are his friends, but we don't take note of how can we be a good friend in return? This is not accusing everyone to have done this, but this is a challenge for us to read our bibles with the mind of doing and not just hearing. (James 1:22)
Matthew 6:33 But first be concerned about God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you as well. (ISV)
I just want to bring to light the action we are called to. When we are concerned about the kingdom and righteousness all our needs and requests will be met. As we go and do, our prayers will be answered.
What a privilege to be called His friend and be able to partner with heaven. Our social circle is divine! What an awesome friendship to have where you are taking care of each other's business. He can trust you to get the job done, and you can trust him with all the cares of your life. We have the greatest networking system in the world all because of who our friend is IF we do whatever he has commanded us. And that is to love God and love each other.
Christ summed up the commandments into only two:
1.Love God
2.Love people
Let's take a look at John 15:12-17:
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
Man, I must say we have it a lot easier than those that were under the old covenant. Over 600 rules and regulations, feast days, holy days, rituals, and sacrifices. We just have the two commandments. Bless God for the two. I would have been considered a top sinner if I had to keep up with all those laws. I'd have to sacrifice three animals a day just due to forgetting.
What I noticed out of this scripture is that most people (myself included) pay attention to "Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name"
I ponder on this because the impression some of us get is to just pray and we'll have whatever we ask for. But we tend to disregard the call to duty in the surrounding scriptures. It is easy to love God, but a lot more challenging to love one another. Christ has called us friends IF we do what he has asked us to do. Well, he asked, correction, commanded us to love one another. Think about it...if someone was just wanting to be called your "friend" just so they could experience the benefits that's not true friendship. It's not a good relationship if only one of you is sacrificing, pouring out, and loving and there is no return...that's not friendship that is using, taking advantage of. There may even be traces of manipulation in there somewhere too.
If we are naming the name of Christ let's not skip over our part in this friendship with him. He did put a condition on it. We're His friends IF WE DO...
How is it our ears and eyes only see that we are his friends, but we don't take note of how can we be a good friend in return? This is not accusing everyone to have done this, but this is a challenge for us to read our bibles with the mind of doing and not just hearing. (James 1:22)
Matthew 6:33 But first be concerned about God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you as well. (ISV)
I just want to bring to light the action we are called to. When we are concerned about the kingdom and righteousness all our needs and requests will be met. As we go and do, our prayers will be answered.
What a privilege to be called His friend and be able to partner with heaven. Our social circle is divine! What an awesome friendship to have where you are taking care of each other's business. He can trust you to get the job done, and you can trust him with all the cares of your life. We have the greatest networking system in the world all because of who our friend is IF we do whatever he has commanded us. And that is to love God and love each other.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Earth, Wind and Fire God's Original Version
We have all had days where we are wondering in our minds, “Lord why don’ you speak to me.” Sometimes it may be with regards to a specific situation and we don’t seem to hear from him. Key word being seem.
I recall the story of Elijah (1 Kings chp. 19:4-13) When he was wanting to hear a word from the Lord and he was desperate for it. The Lord passed by in a wind, then in an earthquake, then in a fire. In all of those big motions the Lord didn’t speak, but finally He spoke as a still small voice. There is much to be said concerning Elijah’s experience because we have all had the same desperation and even awaiting expectation for God to speak/perform in a huge way. I’m not going to go into all the avenues of lessons in his story. I’ll try to stick to one theme here, but I encourage you to meditate on this further.
Now the wind that passed by Elijah was no ordinary wind. It actually broke a mountain down into pieces of rocks.(1Kings 19:11) That’s the type of wind you hide from in a bomb shelter. Think about the situation. You are all alone. You’ve asked God to speak and here comes a vicious wind that’s destroying mountains, followed by an earthquake, and a fire. If you were Elijah you may have been expecting God in that too. Although winds, earthquakes, and fire haven’t passed by us we have had our expectation of how God was going to answer. We want that prayer about our finances to be answered, but God could be speaking to you to give. You don’t hear God’s instruction due to being so focused on how you think the answer should come.
Elijah’s story teaches us:
- God speaks gently.
- Let go of your expectation
- Be obedient to the small things
- Open your boundaries for what God wants to say
Number four is especially important. Too often we just want God to tell us what we want to hear and be on our way. We aren’t open to hearing from God about anything else…only what we prayed about. Self-centeredness will keep you deaf to the unction of the Holy Spirit. John 16:26 says that “[the Holy Spirit] will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Pay close attention to the fact that he will be reminding us of things he already taught. Which means you can go back to the 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and read what Christ was teaching. Whatever He taught, the Holy Spirit will come and remind. The common theme we know about God and His character is His selflessness, self-sacrifice and love for others. It is impossible to do the will of God and only focus on ourselves. We aren’t fulfilling His kingdom and therefore won’t be able to hear from Him. (1 John 4:11-12,20-21) Obviously there is more that concerns God other than making us millionaires. We have to open and surrender ourselves to hearing those things which is priority to the Father.
We shouldn’t be so self absorbed that all we want to hear is what concerns us. Of course we do pray for our selves, family, finances etc. This is not condemnation for praying for our situation (far from it). This is a challenge to open our ears to (a) how we hear God (b) His response. As we open our hearts to be like Christ we’ll hear from heaven more frequently, but we can’t put boundaries on what we’re willing to hear. Putting a limit on what you want to listen to is the same as saying I don’t want to hear anything else. For example: You may have limits on what you watch on tv. “I’ll only watch cartoons and that is my limit.” You are saying I don’t want to watch reality shows or the history channel. Or “I only listen to Christian music.” Is the same as saying I don’t listen to rap. I only want to hear from God concerning me, is the same as saying, “Don’t speak to me concerning anything/anyone else but me.” Pretty blunt but true. The Holy Spirit has so much more to speak to us about, but we’ll never hear him if we filter Him through what it is we want to hear.
Let’s open our ears and be prepared in our obedience to His response. This is a part how we live out the will of God in our lives.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Character of a Christian
Don't allow one failure to take you away from God.
Christians have yet to learn the character of a Christian. We think/hear that once you become a Christian your finances are in order, your debt magically disappears, you get the job you've always wanted, your kids behave, your marriage is perfect, or you'll find the right mate, your car doesn't brake down, perfect health, no car accidents, your never angry/frustrated, your family members live forever. When you put it all together like that it doesn’t sound realistic but yet this is the thinking of most Christians (I can speak for Americans anyway). Without words we make a statement as if to say “We believe God is here to serve us and if we claim Him as our God he should always deliver us and serve us on an as-needed basis.”
What we lack is character. We don’t understand patience, diligence, perseverance, strength, endurance, wisdom..
The Lord revealed this to me through my own little moment of self-pity. I couldn’t understand why it seemed as if I was doing what I knew but yet and still not seeing the results I wanted. Like a little brat, I started to question God’s word and not stand on it. I started to allow my questions to turn into a downward spiral of doubts. That is a slippery pit to try to climb out of on your own. I went into a mini-depression because I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I kept failing at this.
After my tantrum of about 2 weeks, the Holy Spirit opened up scriptures to me to show me that I was lacking in character (fruit of the spirit). I lacked diligence; I lacked patience, and perseverance. The Holy Spirit took me on a study of those 3 things. I looked up definitions. And without having to search for them, my bible continued to land on scripture related to the subject without my help.
The Holy Spirit was teaching me that I can’t let failure stop me. I must continue because Hebrews 10:6 says He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So just because it hasn’t happened when I wanted it to if I am diligent the reward WILL come.
I began to look at the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11 but particularly 11:32-40. The extent that people went to for believing/trusting in God and yet and still some did not even receive the promise. (Hebrews 11:39)
As I continued reading Hebrews 12 I see the same theme of patience and endurance. And then rebukes saying “ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Heb. 12:4 Yes, he just said we haven’t gone through anything for the gospel’s sake and here we are giving up because the job we wanted fell threw. We have to learn how to deal with disappointments even after we’ve prayed. Don’t stop there.
We have to build a character so strong in us that we will not be moved whether we see things change or not. This is the type of character that makes strong soldiers in Christ. Christ is trying to mold us to be undefeatable, unstoppable, victorious champions like him. Champions don’t give up when they see things aren’t going their way. They keep going. It’s okay to analyze the failure just enough to not make the same mistakes, but we mustn’t allow those things to paralyze our trust in God’s word. Do you know how easy it would be to defeat you if everytime something didn’t go your way you retreated! You’d be considered a punk in anybody’s book. We have to build a stamina not to be moved…stand there and fight through the emotions. Emotions lie anyway so let God’s word be true!
God isn’t causing bad things in your life to teach you a lesson, but he is using the things in your life as a lesson and there is a big difference between the two. If you believe that God is causing bad things to happen just to teach you, you will begin to accept what in reality is the enemy’s fiery dart. You won’t fight what you accept. Just as the darkness is separate from the light and cannot co-dwell, so are the roles of God and Satan. Being able to identify one from the other is imperative to your Christian journey. But I digress.
I encourage you too; look up the definitions of patience, perseverance, diligence and endurance. Learn to be undefeatable. Discover the attributes of the elder patrons who gave their life having not gotten their desires. What was it that made them so strong in their faith despite the mishaps of life? We must learn the character of a Christian, learn the character of Christ, learn the character of a Champion.
Christians have yet to learn the character of a Christian. We think/hear that once you become a Christian your finances are in order, your debt magically disappears, you get the job you've always wanted, your kids behave, your marriage is perfect, or you'll find the right mate, your car doesn't brake down, perfect health, no car accidents, your never angry/frustrated, your family members live forever. When you put it all together like that it doesn’t sound realistic but yet this is the thinking of most Christians (I can speak for Americans anyway). Without words we make a statement as if to say “We believe God is here to serve us and if we claim Him as our God he should always deliver us and serve us on an as-needed basis.”
What we lack is character. We don’t understand patience, diligence, perseverance, strength, endurance, wisdom..
The Lord revealed this to me through my own little moment of self-pity. I couldn’t understand why it seemed as if I was doing what I knew but yet and still not seeing the results I wanted. Like a little brat, I started to question God’s word and not stand on it. I started to allow my questions to turn into a downward spiral of doubts. That is a slippery pit to try to climb out of on your own. I went into a mini-depression because I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I kept failing at this.
After my tantrum of about 2 weeks, the Holy Spirit opened up scriptures to me to show me that I was lacking in character (fruit of the spirit). I lacked diligence; I lacked patience, and perseverance. The Holy Spirit took me on a study of those 3 things. I looked up definitions. And without having to search for them, my bible continued to land on scripture related to the subject without my help.
The Holy Spirit was teaching me that I can’t let failure stop me. I must continue because Hebrews 10:6 says He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So just because it hasn’t happened when I wanted it to if I am diligent the reward WILL come.
I began to look at the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11 but particularly 11:32-40. The extent that people went to for believing/trusting in God and yet and still some did not even receive the promise. (Hebrews 11:39)
As I continued reading Hebrews 12 I see the same theme of patience and endurance. And then rebukes saying “ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Heb. 12:4 Yes, he just said we haven’t gone through anything for the gospel’s sake and here we are giving up because the job we wanted fell threw. We have to learn how to deal with disappointments even after we’ve prayed. Don’t stop there.
We have to build a character so strong in us that we will not be moved whether we see things change or not. This is the type of character that makes strong soldiers in Christ. Christ is trying to mold us to be undefeatable, unstoppable, victorious champions like him. Champions don’t give up when they see things aren’t going their way. They keep going. It’s okay to analyze the failure just enough to not make the same mistakes, but we mustn’t allow those things to paralyze our trust in God’s word. Do you know how easy it would be to defeat you if everytime something didn’t go your way you retreated! You’d be considered a punk in anybody’s book. We have to build a stamina not to be moved…stand there and fight through the emotions. Emotions lie anyway so let God’s word be true!
God isn’t causing bad things in your life to teach you a lesson, but he is using the things in your life as a lesson and there is a big difference between the two. If you believe that God is causing bad things to happen just to teach you, you will begin to accept what in reality is the enemy’s fiery dart. You won’t fight what you accept. Just as the darkness is separate from the light and cannot co-dwell, so are the roles of God and Satan. Being able to identify one from the other is imperative to your Christian journey. But I digress.
I encourage you too; look up the definitions of patience, perseverance, diligence and endurance. Learn to be undefeatable. Discover the attributes of the elder patrons who gave their life having not gotten their desires. What was it that made them so strong in their faith despite the mishaps of life? We must learn the character of a Christian, learn the character of Christ, learn the character of a Champion.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Broke-Boils-Betrayal...OH MY!
A lot of Christians have used their life's misfortune to compare themselves with Job in the Old Testament. We all know the story. Lost his finances, his family, got disturbingly ill, his friends weren't by his side and the cherry on top...his wife was faithless.
I used to use this same terminology "I guess I'm just like Job" as soon as things started turning down hill in my life. When I got sick, when I lost a child, when we didn't have work.Like others I wanted a reason...a comfortable reason as to why I was going through what I was going through and the best way for us to be comfortable is to put it all on God.
Let's look at this story of Job from a Christian perspective. The reason I say Christian is because this signifies AFTER CHRIST.
For starters we often put bad things on God. However James 1:18 says God tempts no man. In the story of Job we see that this is correct. God didn't tempt Job. This attack was directly from the Satan himself. And if you remember John 10:10 gives Satan's job description to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan was on his job which is why he came and landblasted Job. God didn't make Job sick, kill his family, or take away his finances. Satan was and will always be the source of poverty, disease, confusion, division.
Satan was doing the attack. When we accept it, we are calling Satan's work God's. Christ said I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. He came so that the quality of our living would be in abundance. Sickness and being broke doesn't sound abundant to me.
Satan is our enemy. Remember that Job's story takes place in the Old Testament BEFORE Christ come and died. This means Job had no knowledge or ability to rebuke Satan and his work. As a Christian, a New Testament believer, one who is alive AFTER Christ's death, has been given more than enough of the authority of Christ. We have been given the ability/power to rebuke, cast, cease, bind, and destroy the work of the enemy. Luke 10:19. To say that we should suffer under such attacks disannuls the Word/Work of Christ and makes it of none effect.
Christians have to get over their own traditional beliefs and read the Work of Christ to get to know their new and true Identity. If you were meant to be Job and allow Satan to have his way in your life...what point was there in Christ's death and the entire New Testament? To discover our identity in Him we must turn to those books of the bible in which he taught and look at examples of what it means to follow HIM.
So in summary here's why we shouldn't accept Job's experience as our own:
Note: I believe and know that Job's story serves a significant purpose in other aspects.This blog does not address that purpose because I didn't want it to be TOO long. :)
I used to use this same terminology "I guess I'm just like Job" as soon as things started turning down hill in my life. When I got sick, when I lost a child, when we didn't have work.Like others I wanted a reason...a comfortable reason as to why I was going through what I was going through and the best way for us to be comfortable is to put it all on God.
Let's look at this story of Job from a Christian perspective. The reason I say Christian is because this signifies AFTER CHRIST.
For starters we often put bad things on God. However James 1:18 says God tempts no man. In the story of Job we see that this is correct. God didn't tempt Job. This attack was directly from the Satan himself. And if you remember John 10:10 gives Satan's job description to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan was on his job which is why he came and landblasted Job. God didn't make Job sick, kill his family, or take away his finances. Satan was and will always be the source of poverty, disease, confusion, division.
Satan was doing the attack. When we accept it, we are calling Satan's work God's. Christ said I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. He came so that the quality of our living would be in abundance. Sickness and being broke doesn't sound abundant to me.
Satan is our enemy. Remember that Job's story takes place in the Old Testament BEFORE Christ come and died. This means Job had no knowledge or ability to rebuke Satan and his work. As a Christian, a New Testament believer, one who is alive AFTER Christ's death, has been given more than enough of the authority of Christ. We have been given the ability/power to rebuke, cast, cease, bind, and destroy the work of the enemy. Luke 10:19. To say that we should suffer under such attacks disannuls the Word/Work of Christ and makes it of none effect.
Christians have to get over their own traditional beliefs and read the Work of Christ to get to know their new and true Identity. If you were meant to be Job and allow Satan to have his way in your life...what point was there in Christ's death and the entire New Testament? To discover our identity in Him we must turn to those books of the bible in which he taught and look at examples of what it means to follow HIM.
So in summary here's why we shouldn't accept Job's experience as our own:
- Anything attacking your finances, health, family, or marriage is not under the finished work of Christ but under Satan's job description given in John 10:10
- As a product of the finished work of Christ we (followers of Christ) have authority over Satan and his work Acts 10:38, Matt 12:25, 1Peter 2:24, Colossians 1:13, Isaiah 53:4 Luke 10:19, James 5:16, Acts 1:8, 1 Cor 6:17, Luke 17:21, Luke 6:10,
- Job (Old Testament Believer) accepted it because he didn't have what we have and that is Christ's sacrifice to give us power (New Testament Believer)
- We are to be renewed into the image of Christ. Colossians 3:10 He is the pattern of our living.
Note: I believe and know that Job's story serves a significant purpose in other aspects.This blog does not address that purpose because I didn't want it to be TOO long. :)
Too Sick to Be Healed or Not Sick Enough
I used to think that Christ only wanted to heal the major things. Well, I should say the things that we/man considers to be major. We have categories of severity...what is critical, what is small or minute. Because we have this scale of big and small in our minds, we tend to think that healing goes according to our degrees. If it is something small we think this is too small to be healed. As if we aren't sick enough to be healed. "It'll go away eventually" "I'll take medication for this" "I'm not going to waste God's power/ability on this"
For big sicknesses like diabetes, cancer, arthritis, we think "This is too difficult for the power of God because the doctor's don't even know what to do" "I'll take medicine for it because I'm not sure if God will heal me of it" "The doctor said it should be okay if I do... so no need for God" Either way there are thoughts of doubt based on the degrees of severity we have placed in our minds. When we are TOO sick to be healed we tend to rely on the doctors and not on God. Doctors can only give a temporary patch toward the symptoms but very seldom do you hear of someone being completley healed with out reprecussions by a doctor. In the medical field when those things do happen they refer to them as "miracles." Doctors has their place, and they do help, however God IS Life. Not just eternal life, but in the quality of Life.
So where ever there is sickness whether it be a runny nose or a tumor the Life that he provides completely wipes it out. God's power is like a cleanser...like Pine sol. (Bare with me here) All Pine sol can do is clean. It's automatic that if you use pine sol for a spot on the floor or use it for an entire bathroom where ever pine sol touches it cleans regardless of how much is used. The power of pine sol in one drop is the same for a full bucket. God's power no matter where it is applied doesn't decrease. It's not diluted and he doesn't have to portion out a certain amount of power for your situation. The strength and magnitude of His power is always the same. He doesn't have to muster up strength to heal breast cancer any more than he would for a headache. The potency of His power is consistent for everyone and everything.Where ever there is a spot of sickness, death, or disease Life (Christ) will produce health/healing.
I had a sore throat the other morning. I drank some tea to alleviate the pain, right after I said a quick prayer "in the name of Jesus, throat be healed now!" I felt a sudden sharp pain as I ended my sentence, and I went to take my next swallow and the pain/soreness was gone. This is a great testimony, but I have had times where I needed to pray several times over because I went through the bouts of thinking a sore throat is too small.
When the answer is the same the problem doesn't matter. Jesus' power is always the answer therefore your problem/family member's problem has no degrees of severity when compared to the power of God. The issue doesn't make the difference. He heals EVERY disease with no distinction. Sickness is not in His category...Life is. Therefore anything under the category of illness MUST be terminated by his Life and Peace.
For big sicknesses like diabetes, cancer, arthritis, we think "This is too difficult for the power of God because the doctor's don't even know what to do" "I'll take medicine for it because I'm not sure if God will heal me of it" "The doctor said it should be okay if I do... so no need for God" Either way there are thoughts of doubt based on the degrees of severity we have placed in our minds. When we are TOO sick to be healed we tend to rely on the doctors and not on God. Doctors can only give a temporary patch toward the symptoms but very seldom do you hear of someone being completley healed with out reprecussions by a doctor. In the medical field when those things do happen they refer to them as "miracles." Doctors has their place, and they do help, however God IS Life. Not just eternal life, but in the quality of Life.
So where ever there is sickness whether it be a runny nose or a tumor the Life that he provides completely wipes it out. God's power is like a cleanser...like Pine sol. (Bare with me here) All Pine sol can do is clean. It's automatic that if you use pine sol for a spot on the floor or use it for an entire bathroom where ever pine sol touches it cleans regardless of how much is used. The power of pine sol in one drop is the same for a full bucket. God's power no matter where it is applied doesn't decrease. It's not diluted and he doesn't have to portion out a certain amount of power for your situation. The strength and magnitude of His power is always the same. He doesn't have to muster up strength to heal breast cancer any more than he would for a headache. The potency of His power is consistent for everyone and everything.Where ever there is a spot of sickness, death, or disease Life (Christ) will produce health/healing.
I had a sore throat the other morning. I drank some tea to alleviate the pain, right after I said a quick prayer "in the name of Jesus, throat be healed now!" I felt a sudden sharp pain as I ended my sentence, and I went to take my next swallow and the pain/soreness was gone. This is a great testimony, but I have had times where I needed to pray several times over because I went through the bouts of thinking a sore throat is too small.
When the answer is the same the problem doesn't matter. Jesus' power is always the answer therefore your problem/family member's problem has no degrees of severity when compared to the power of God. The issue doesn't make the difference. He heals EVERY disease with no distinction. Sickness is not in His category...Life is. Therefore anything under the category of illness MUST be terminated by his Life and Peace.
Stiff Neck
Last week my husband came home with a stiff neck. He strained his neck either from his work out or from sleeping wrong. Either way he couldn't turn his neck to the right and it was painful to even touch. My first remedy? You guessed it! PRAYER!
As soon as he came home, he waisted no time in asking me to pray for him. I gently placed my hand where it was hurting, because he said it hurt to touch, and here we go...prayer #1. After the first prayer he said he didn't really feel a difference. Okay cool then I'll do it again...prayer #2 he was able to touch his neck without it hurting something he couldn't do before without it throbbing. Well that's good but let's get it better...prayer#3 he moved his neck back and forth but with a little hesitation, but that was improvement from the previous state of turning his whole body just to look over his shoulder. We've got this far...let's pray again...prayer#4 after this prayer there was no hesitation he was moving his neck back and forth no strain, no hesitation, no medicine, no tension.
Glory to God He heals the stiff necked! :) :)
As soon as he came home, he waisted no time in asking me to pray for him. I gently placed my hand where it was hurting, because he said it hurt to touch, and here we go...prayer #1. After the first prayer he said he didn't really feel a difference. Okay cool then I'll do it again...prayer #2 he was able to touch his neck without it hurting something he couldn't do before without it throbbing. Well that's good but let's get it better...prayer#3 he moved his neck back and forth but with a little hesitation, but that was improvement from the previous state of turning his whole body just to look over his shoulder. We've got this far...let's pray again...prayer#4 after this prayer there was no hesitation he was moving his neck back and forth no strain, no hesitation, no medicine, no tension.
Glory to God He heals the stiff necked! :) :)
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