The Price Was Too High:

Remember this post?  Well, it seems that the Holy Spirit just won’t let me stop thinking about this.  I think so often on how easy it is to fall back into unbelief and even though I know the scriptures and the promises in the Bible, if one doesn’t meditate on them and speak them out loud every day, even frequently a day, it’s so easy to just start to doubt if it will happen.  Yesterday, when I was giving myself a bit of a pep talk, I just “got it” again, and I want to share this with you, so that hopefully other people will also “get it” whether it is for the first time or a reminder just like I had to get again.

I think a lot of people have trouble believing that a lot of the scriptures in the Bible are promises for them.  I know for a long time I thought that one just cannot claim a specific scripture for yourself.  I thought that God’s will was different for every individual.  For example:  I thought that it was God’s will for some people to have children and that it was also his will for other people to never have children, and that we would never know on this earth why He would will it for some and not for others.

Then one day I started to learn the truth.  That God’s will is the same for every person on earth, and that God only wants all that is good for all of us, and that He wants to give us the desires of our hearts (if they are good desires off course).  I learnt that God has no favourites, and that it is not a case of that some people are getting blessings and others don’t. (Acts 10:34 (NIV): “³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism.” Romans 2:11 (NIV): “¹¹ For God does not show favouritism.”)  God treats us all the same and He wants to give all of us the same blessings.  If I got fewer blessings than others it was not God’s fault, because He made it all available to me, but the problem was with me for not receiving it.

When God speaks there is incredible power in His words.  For example – In Genesis we see that God spoke everything into creation.  Genesis 1:3, 6, 9 (AMP):  “³ And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.  ⁶ And God said, Let there be a firmament [the expanse of the sky] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters [below] from the waters [above].  ⁹ And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be collected into one place [of standing], and let the dry land appear. And it was so.” 

All it took was God’s words and everything in the whole cosmos was created.  And not only that but God’s Words cannot return to Him void, (Isaiah 55:11 (KJV): “¹¹So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”) and that means that once God has said it, it cannot go back to Him until everything is accomplished of what it had to accomplish.  (To get a better understanding of this read this post.)  So for instance if the Bible says in Exodus 23:26 (NIV):  “²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span,” then God’s word cannot return to Him until there is no more infertility or miscarriages on this earth. 

Then there is the importance of the covenants in the Bible.  They were like binding contracts, but those contracts were made by the spilling of blood.  In the Old Testament there is an example of one where God made a covenant with Abraham.

Genesis 15: 1-12 & 17-21 (NIV): “God’s Covenant With Abram: ¹ After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. ² But Abram said, O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? ³ And Abram said, You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir. ⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. ⁵ He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars— if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. ⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. ⁷ He also said to him, I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it. ⁸ But Abram said, O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I shall gain possession of it?

⁹ So the LORD said to him, Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. ¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. ¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

Abraham had trouble believing the promises of God so the fourth time God promised him an heir and land God made a covenant with him, and the way to do it was by cutting animals in half and arranging them opposite each other on the ground.  That was the custom of the day, but the custom was for the lesser, or younger party to walk between the sacrificed animals and to do that meant that the person was willing to be cut in half, just like the animals, if he could not keep his part of the covenant.  In this case God was the one who moved in between the animals, even though he was NOT the lesser party, just so that Abraham could believe that His promise would come to pass.  Well, we know off course that God’s promises all came true and that Abraham was richly blessed not only with his promised son, but also other children, lots of land and incredible wealth. 

Galatians 3: 6-9 (NIV): “⁶ Consider Abraham: He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. ⁷ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. ⁸ The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you. ⁹ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

Paul says here that everybody that believes in God is a child of Abraham, and because we believe we will be blessed just like Abraham.  But do you know what?  We have something that is even better than the blessings of Abraham, even though they are awesome enough as it is.

We have the New Covenant that God made with us.  How did he make this Covenant?  By giving His Son, Jesus Christ, as the sacrifice, by shedding the precious blood of Jesus, so that we can believe His promises for us.  Now think on this.  If Abraham was so richly blessed because of the covenant that God made with him, and there the sacrifice was a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove and a pigeon, how much more shouldn’t we be blessed because HE GAVE HIS SON – JESUS CHRIST as the sacrifice, as a promise that He will keep His word.

I remember, every time when I read the story where God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, I thought – how can he do that?  He waited so long for his son, but even if he never waited, it must be impossible to give up your child!  Now that we have baby G, I still cannot fathom how Abraham could have gone out, ready to sacrifice his son.  To think what God did for us is so much more than what He asked of Abraham, because Jesus 1. WAS sacrificed and 2. the full wrath of God, all the punishment for every human being of all time, came down on Him.

Yesterday I realized that Jesus’ sacrifice was too high.  God gave more than what was necessary, so that we can have his promise, better than a promise, a covenant, a contract, bought with the blood of Jesus, that He will keep His Word, and that we will get what He promised us.  There is no reason why God would not want to give all His promises to us.  The price was too high!  Just try to imagine – He gave up everything for us, why wouldn’t He then give us all He has promised?  Imagine if you had to make a huge sacrifice for someone and for some reason that person did not receive what you gave them?  You certainly would not want to with hold whatever you were going to give, after you’ve already made that huge sacrifice!

Can you see how much God loves you? How much He has sacrificed for you?

Please understand God wants you to have every single promise He has made in His word.  I want to post some more posts in the next few weeks that explain how we are made righteous in God’s eyes, even though it might not feel that way and that we may think we don’t deserve His blessings, that God is gracious towards us, and that means that we get undeserved, unmerited favour from Him, and how to actually receive from God.

I hope this will bless someone.

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Consider ONLY the Promise:

I actually wanted to post this message of Dr Cref.lo Dol.lar (Because of your Unbelief Pt 2) the other day, but I couldn’t find it in between all the other recordings I have, and like I said then I felt compelled to share that other message. Well, yesterday I wanted to look for this message again, but once more I had no idea where to look for it. I just thought to myself; let’s start at the message we recorded on the first of March. Guess what? That was the message I was looking for! The very first message I opened, was the one I couldn’t find earlier this week. It can only be the Holy Spirit’s guidance that led me first to the message of Walking in the Supernatural and now this one:

“Go to Romans chapter 4. I want to show you something that … I don’t know, I never thought about this before, not in this perspective since I’ve read this scripture. Verse 19: “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:” Now we know the story, God told him that he was going to have a son, he is a hundred years old, his wife is old, everybody is old, everything is dead, and here is one word that I never… watch this, watch me use this word – I never considered – and it’s the word consider.

Let me give you the definition of this word and then you will understand what he did to not have unbelief. This word consider means; “to think carefully about, especially in order to make a decision.” To consider something means I’m thinking carefully about this, especially in order to make a decision. Here is another definition I like; it means; “to bear it in your mind…” To bear it in your mind. You’ve heard people say, “now, bear in mind, now…” Consider means to bear in mind, it means to contemplate. When you are contemplating something it means you are reflecting on it, it’s what I was doing with that polyp. Now, now watch this, this is so awesome…

So why is it that a hundred year old guy and a ninety year old woman, how is it that they can get together and give birth to an impossibility? I’ll tell you how, because Abraham would not contemplate, or would not bear in his mind, or would not think about the deadness of his body! He would not bear in mind; he would not contemplate, reflect on or think about the deadness of Sarah’s womb! He only thought and contemplated and reflected on what God promised. When he refused to consider the deadness of his body and when he refused to consider the deadness of his wife’s womb it kept unbelief out of the equation. And when unbelief is successfully kept out of the equation, mustard seed faith can go to work, and give birth to impossibilities.

I believe this year God wants to give birth to some impossibilities in your life. But He is not going to able to do it until we refuse to bear in mind the contradiction. We can’t think about the contradiction. We can’t think about the thing that goes against the promise. Here is what God is saying; “I need my people to only think about my promise. I need my people to only reflect on my promise. I need my people to only bear in their mind what I promise.”

So what the devil’s saying? The devil is trying to play the same trick on us that he did on Adam and Eve. They were only God conscious, they only contemplated God, they only reflected on God, and he shows up in the garden one day with the contradiction to what God said; “hath God said…?” And that was enough to get their thinking on what he said and get their thinking off what God said and what happened? The presence of unbelief began to short circuit their faith that had given them just the total, complete immersion in the presence of God.

See, it’s not that we are trying to be deep when we say; “you might not need to be around this, you might not need to listen to this, you might not want to look at that…” Why? Because the introduction of the contradiction is going to and could bring in the presence of unbelief.

If you find yourself – and this is what’s so wrong with the church – you see people wanting to put the scriptures in a certain place – “we are in church now and I don’t want to hear that.” Do you see the problem here? “We are in church and I don’t want to hear no scripture now.” You know what they are doing? Instead of hearing the scripture they are probably entertaining, contemplating, and bearing in mind the contrary to the scripture. You need to hear some scripture when you are acting crazy. Because what we are trying to do is stop the presence of unbelief.

Abraham focussed, listen… If you read Abraham’s life, if you read Romans chapter 4, Abraham looked like a perfect person, but if you go back to Genesis then you will see… You’ll try to figure how did they write that about Abraham? Because God is not recording a bunch of mistakes in heaven. You understand what I’m saying? So He is not trying to talk about all Abraham’s mistakes. Everything that it said in Romans chapter 4 about Abraham, it seems to contradict itself in Genesis. This man of faith – was not a man of faith at all in Genesis! They were laughing at God when He made promises, all of that stuff – you wonder where do they get that from. But this guy finally got it. I am only going to consider what God promised.

And you know what? In this economic time, don’t consider the decisions they made in Washington DC. You only consider what God says in His word; “You give and it will be given unto you, I’ll supply all your needs according to His riches in glory,” that’s what you consider. You don’t consider how much you make, you don’t consider how much your pay check is going to be, you’re not going to consider how much lesser your pay check is going to be.

You only consider what God said, you know what, when you consider what God says, and that is what you are contemplating, and that is what you are meditating on then that is what you are going to get! You will give birth to an impossibility! But that can’t happen, that can’t happen if you’re believing that God will supply all my needs and at the same time; “O, God is going to take care of me financially” but at the same time; “O dear God, did you hear how much my taxes are going to be…”Real Christians who want results are going to have to be willing to become more diligent about thinking and contemplating and reflecting on the promises of God ONLY.

That is why Jesus said, when Jairus’ daughter was on her death bed and a servant from Jairus’ house came in Mark chapter 5 and said; “your daughter is dead, why trouble the Master any longer,” and the Bible says that when Jesus heard that, immediately He said; “be not afraid, only believe.” Or another way is He said; “believe only.” In other words, don’t let an outside report distract you from where you are going. “You believe Me enough to come and find Me, to bring Me back to your daughter, and you are so focussed on I know…” This is what he told him, he says, “I know if You come and lay hands on my daughter she will be healed and she will live.” That is what he believed and then in the midst of him being focussed on that and contemplating and thinking that, there is somebody that came from his house and said; “She is dead. Don’t worry about it anymore…” And Jesus said, “wait a minute, if you just only believe, and not let this fear come in, you can have what we started working on before we met that woman with the issue of blood, she had it…”

There are too many miracles that we are reading about in the Bible for us to not know what we need to do to experience those things right now! How come we can’t experience it right now? I’ll tell you how come, because we keep letting the contrary come and counteract what we ought to be focussed on. I would rather have this many people as a member of Wor.ld Chan.gers Minis.try believe in God, than have 40 000 of them who don’t. I want to raise up some people who want to believe God, some people who will say; “You know, I know what you just told me, but I’m just trusting God!”

The Bible says about Abraham; “he considered not his body being dead nor the deadness of Sarah’s womb,” so what happened? As a result of Him not considering the contrary, notice what happened: “He did not stagger after the promise,” next verse, “he did not stagger after the promise in unbelief.” He did not stagger in unbelief; he did not stagger in unbelief! Why? Because he put a guard over his thinking – be careful how you think. Be careful what you hear. He put a guard over his thinking, and he refused to think anything except what the Word had promised him…

This is how we are going to get ahead ladies and gentlemen. It’s not much information, but its knowing how to practically function and operate in this information.”

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Some explanations of common misunderstandings:

Recently I listened to An.drew Wom.mack’s teaching on How to receive a Miracle again and I realized there are some awesome explanations in there of things that are often misunderstood by Christians, and that it will help a lot of you who are still waiting for your miracles.  It was also a useful reminder to me, I must admit…

“Mark 11, this is where Jesus cursed the fig tree and the fig tree dried up from the roots, the next day the disciples saw it, they were amazed, and they asked Jesus about it and this was His reaction, Mark 11:22, “He answered and said unto them, have faith in God, for verily I say unto you that who so ever shall say unto this mountain…,” who so ever, that means that this applies to every person in this room, “Who so ever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass, he shall have what so ever he sayeth. Therefore I say unto to you what things so ever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and ye shall have them.”

This passage of scripture’s got so much in it that we can teach on this for weeks, so I’m just having to hit a couple of things but one of the points I wanted to show you here is verse 24, He says, “what the things you so ever desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.”  You’ve got to believe you receive now and then you shall – future tense – have it. That future tense may only be a second, a minute, a week, a month, but you got to believe right now. You don’t believe when you see it, you’ve got to believe when you pray. Now that is so simple, and yet this is where a lot of Christians stumble.

I’m teaching on how to receive a miracle from God and I’m just teaching a lot of it out of experience as I’ve dealt with people. What is it that hangs people up? And do you know most people, when I pray for them and lay hands on them, by the time they hit the ground, if they feel healed, then they are able to believe. Most people can maintain faith for 5 seconds, but the problem is when you pray and you walk out and you haven’t seen it manifest. 99% of even spirit filled, tongue talking word type people, have their faith just to start decreasing fast as soon as they don’t see a manifestation. Most people struggle with it.

And see the Bible says that you’ve got to believe that you will receive when you pray and then you shall have it, so what I want to share with you tonight, are some simple things, explanations, again I want to make this point, that the word of God and the kingdom of God is based on laws. There are rules, there are ways that things work and you don’t have to be ignorant of the things of God.

Paul said, “I’d not have you to be ignorant concerning the things of God,” in Ephesians 5, yet most of us are ignorant. Ignorance is a breeding ground for unbelief and for problems, there are answers to things, and there is a reason why you pray sometimes here and it’s only here before you see a manifestation.

What I’d like to explain tonight is why sometimes there is a period of time in between when you say “amen and there it is.” That’s the terminology Jerry Seville uses. There are things going on – if you understand this it will take away anxiety, it will take away worry and care and frustration, it will help you to stand and be able to believe and it could make a big, big difference in your life.

Look at Matthew 7, this is a familiar passage of scripture that everybody knows and doesn’t believe. It says, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” This is an awesome promise in God’s word. Did you know honestly, if tonight we were just acting like we were brand new, like we have never heard this scripture before, or if this concept had never come to you, and if I was here speaking, “Thus sayeth the Lord, ask and it shall be given to you,” did you know most of you would say, “that’s too good to believe.” That would be hard to believe. This is an awesome promise, and yet most Christians know this, you can quote it, we sing songs about it yet we don’t believe it…

Do you know why? It’s because I asked and I didn’t receive, I sought and I didn’t find, I knocked and it wasn’t opened to me, and so we arrive at this problem – here is what God’s word says, here’s what my experience says… How do you harmonise the 2?

Most of us say, “I don’t understand and we just lose our excitement, our authority in the word of God and you wouldn’t sit there and openly say, “well I just don’t believe that scripture,” but in practise you don’t expect it to work like that, and we will develop an elaborate systems of doctrine to explain why it doesn’t work and religious systems come out and say, “well, not everyone that asks receives.” See the next verse, verse 8 that says “everyone that asks receives…” That’s not true! The Bible says that “everyone that asks receives,” but this person asked and they didn’t receive…

I remember a good example of a very good friend of Jamie and I, had leukaemia and I was with her when she died, and she believed God to heal her. She stood up and testified at one of James Robinson’s meetings, with over 4000 people that God was going to heal her and I mean it shook us when she wasn’t healed. We prayed for her to be raised from the dead for a long period of time and it’s a long story but I mean, we believed the best we knew how, and if you would have been there you would have thought that this girl believed with all of her heart, when she was dying she said, “It’s got to be soon… It’s got to be soon…”

She was expecting God to heal her at any moment, yet she strangled on her own blood as she haemorrhaged, and you look at that and you see that and I can tell you what her father’s reaction was. He came to me and he said, “Well, I think we were wrong. It couldn’t be God’s will to heal every time or she would have been healed.”

What he was saying was, she believed with everything she had. Well it looked that way, it really did and I guarantee you that at the time she died I didn’t have an answer. But I told people, I said, “look, God’s word promised that it was His will to heal her” and I said, “I don’t know what happened but God doesn’t lie. It was God’s will to heal her,” and I said, “maybe she missed it, maybe I missed it, maybe her family missed it, maybe all of us missed it, something’s wrong but it wasn’t God that was at fault. It was God’s will to heal her and I had people get mad at me, I had people reject me and it was 3 years before I found out what was wrong, but man, it was a miracle we got as far as we did!

God’s healing was in her body! It was supernatural and we short circuited it, we didn’t understand anything about how to walk in faith and we just allowed the devil to beat us on that one. Some of you are saying, “Well, that is terrible that you could do something that would actually cause a person to die.” Brothers and sisters it’s just the truth. You can go out here and fall asleep at the wheel and you can kill somebody. You do have responsibility in the kingdom of God. There is responsibility for us to believe God and God just can’t violate all of his laws.

Sometimes we think, “Then why didn’t God come down and intervene?” Because there are laws put down and God observes His own laws. He’s bound Himself by His own word, that’s gone out of His mouth when He says, “You have power to heal, if you don’t use that power to heal it’s not going to get done!” Again, people don’t like that. I had a Baptist pastor come to me one time and we were talking about this one girl that needed to be healed. He said, “Look if God wants her healed, she is going to be healed whether you or I pray for her or not.”

It’s not so. God’s will does not automatically come to pass. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, it says, “God isn’t willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” That is God’s will, but is every person going to come to repentance? No, because they have a choice in the thing, and also we have the responsibility to preach the Gospel, it says in Romans 10, “How can they believe if they don’t hear? And how can they hear except somebody preach the gospel.” Man, there is a responsibility on us. There are people dying and going to hell that were ordained, God loves them, He’s provided for them and yet, they aren’t going to receive because they didn’t hear.

People don’t like that so we make theology see, we just change our theology to fit the situation so that we will feel good but the truth is, God’s will doesn’t come to pass perfectly. Amen? I hope I’m getting you to think. Some of you are looking at me strange. “You mean God’s will doesn’t automatically come to pass in my life?” People preach the sovereignty of God, which I may be stepping on your religious toes right here… Sovereignty literally means independent, such as the United States is independent, we have declared our independence from Great Britain, and so we are now a sovereign nation. That means nobody dictates to us, but does that mean that we are without control, that we are without laws? No, we’ve got laws, there are restraints, we’ve got a constitution that dictates what this nation is like, but nobody else wrote it for us, it is not imposed upon us by somebody else, we wrote our own constitution. We’ve got limits but they are self imposed limits.

When we say God is sovereign people will say that, “well, you never know what God is going to do. God can do anything He wants to, God may do it this way one time, God might do it that way, God can do anything. If God wanted to he can come down and just heal you, whether you believe in faith or not!” That is not so! God has bound Himself by His word; I used that scripture this morning, Psalms 89:34, He said, “my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone forth out of my lips.” When He says, “You resist the devil and he will flee from you,” that means that if you don’t resist the devil, he won’t flee. God cannot rebuke the devil for you. And it’s wrong is you are saying, “O, God get the devil off my back,” God can’t do it. God gave you authority over the devil; you’ve got to learn what God’s given you. You’ve got to start exercising what God has given you. It’s not God that’s letting the devil run roughshod over you, it’s you that’s letting the devil run roughshod over you…

We are the ones that need to be turned on! God is not the one that needs to get stirred up. It gets me about intercessors today man, they’re just in there shaking God’s cage until He does something, “God, move, move!” God is not the one that we need to get motivated. You don’t need to beg with God to move in the Denver area, God wants to do something – He is trying to rattle your cage! To get you going! So much of our intercession, 90% of it is trying to motivate God to do something, God is more motivated than you are! You don’t have to pray for God to send a revival, God sent it 2000 years ago, what you need to do is get in there in the line of fire, amen, let some of it rub off on you, and God flow through you…”

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A reminder of God’s Covenants:

Things are not looking good with Shumi. That lump on his head got bigger again and it seems this time it’s not going down again. I also noticed last week that there is something growing out of his one nostril (the white part in his nostril on the second picture). I assume it’s the tumour. What is the most upsetting is that it’s happening very fast. Let me illustrate with 2 pictures – the first was taken yesterday and the other today, about 24 hours apart.

25 Oct 2011

26 Oct 2011

We only noticed those bald spots for the first time yesterday morning, and by lunch time it was already looking like there was puss coming out one of them. Unfortunately it does seem to bother Shumi a bit as the flies want to go sit on the sores, but otherwise it doesn’t look like it’s very sore. The other thing is Shumi’s breath really smells bad, it stinks to be honest… But otherwise he is still ok – the heat is getting to him, but it’s also getting to me and a lot of other people I’ve spoken to (we are in a heat wave here). He still plays with KT, in the mornings and late afternoons when it’s a bit cooler off course.

Let me tell you it’s really hard to see him this way – I feel like we’ve been under a lot of attack again lately and the devil certainly wants me to give up on Shumi, but I cannot because I know the truth. I know that God wants to heal Shumi, and I know that Jesus already provided for his healing by His stripes, but it’s soooo hard when all your senses are telling you it’s not happening…

Fortunately God has reminded me of some messages I heard a while ago and blogged about by giving me more messages on the same topics. The first is the wonderful story of King Jehoshaphat, I heard a message about it last week and then I read another this week in Bro.ther Yu.n’s book “Living Water”. You can read my previous blog post about it here which is different as it focuses on a different part of the same story.

Here is Bro.ther Yu.n’s account of the story: “This king was one of the few who was faithful to the Lord. I am sure Jehoshaphat had many plans and projects on his mind, and when he lay in bed at night, his thoughts were probably already churning over those things his government would need to do the next day.
One morning, however, the king’s plans were interrupted when a group of men arrived at the palace with alarming news: “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the sea.” (2 Chronicles 20:2) All the king’s plans went on hold, and he became frightened of this huge army that had come to destroy his kingdom.

The first thing Jehoshaphat did after receiving this news was the key to his deliverance. The scriptures record: “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to enquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.” (vv. 3-4) It would have been easy for Jehoshaphat to respond to the great threat by mobilizing his army and sending them out to meet the enemy head-on, but he wisely realized that he should not advance a single step until he sought the Lord and asked for His help. The king proclaimed a fast, and the men of Judah humbled themselves before the Lord.

Whenever you feel overwhelmed by the size and the strength of the enemy’s forces arrayed against you, withdraw and earnestly seek the face of Jesus just as Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah did. To earnestly seek God is a powerful act of faith. The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

It is important to note that the key thing is to seek the Lord. It is easy to seek resources, blessings or success. We must be careful however, not to put these things first in our seeking. It is the Lord Jesus Christ we are to earnestly seek above all else. He taught, “But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) The very next verse tells us, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has trouble enough of it’s own.” (v. 34)

King Jehoshaphat knew all about trouble. He was surrounded by a vast army that sought the destruction of his kingdom, yet he knew that his first priority was to seek the Lord and not to worry about tomorrow. The people of Judah realized that only God could rescue them from their dire predicament. They threw themselves on God’s mercy and reminded the Almighty of the covenants He had made with their forefathers. Jehoshaphat stood up in the temple courtyard and cried out, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven?” You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your name saying, ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgement, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’” (2 Chronicles 20:6-9)

God can never break His covenants. It is impossible for Him to do so. All the way through the Bible we read of God making covenants with people. He made a covenant with Noah and his family; and they were saved. He then made a covenant that He would never again destroy the earth by water and placed a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of his promise. He made covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for all generations. The fact that Israel has survived until the present day – despite being surrounded by nations that desire it’s destruction – serves as a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness to His covenants.

Moses knew it was best to appeal to the character of God during times of trouble. He knew he could not appeal to God on the basis of the people’s righteousness, for they would be destroyed. Instead on several occasions he reminded God of His covenants. When God threatened to destroy the children of Israel after they fashioned an idol in the form of a golden calf, Moses cried out, “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ Then the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster he had threatened.” (Exodus 32:13-14)

God will never let His name be defamed. He will not allow someone to say, “God made a covenant with me, but He has not held up His end of the arrangement.” The Lord’s reputation is tied to His faithfulness in keeping His promises.

Did you ever wonder why God referred to Himself as the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” on many occasions throughout the Old Testament? Why didn’t He include Moses or any of the other patriarchs in that list? After all, Jacob was labelled a “deceiver,” while Moses was described as a “friend of God.”

Watch carefully the answer is important.

Abraham (in Genesis 12:1-3), Isaac (26:2-5) and Jacob (28:10-15) are the only three men God made a covenant with to make their descendants into a great nation that would bless the world! Every time God referred to Himself as the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” He was reminding the world of His covenant and His faithfulness. His very name and reputation were at stake among the nations, and the Lord will never allow His name be defamed or His character to be tarnished. He is the almighty God of love, mercy and truth, and He always does what He promises to do.

The author of Hebrews explained that “when God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.’ And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs that was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.” (Hebrews 6:13-18)”

Now I want to remind you of what God’s covenant is with you by referring you to  another post of mine which explains God’s covenant’s nicely.  I’ll share the other story with you tomorrow, as this post is getting long already. I hope it gives you encouragement like it gave me encouragement.

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Just a reminder for you:

I read these verses again this morning in my Bible study:  2 Corinthians 1:19-20 (NIV):  “¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not Yes and No, but in him it has always been Yes.   ²⁰ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are Yes in Christ. And so through him the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God.” 

Another verse I read this weekend in a book I’m reading, that goes well with the one above is:  Numbers 23:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?” 

For someone who has experienced receiving some of His promises these verses mean so much and one of my heart’s desires is that everyone who is hoping and wishing for a baby or healing can experience the same thing – because that is also what God wants for EVERYONE!  How do I know it is for everyone?  Because of Acts 10:34 (NIV):  “³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism.”  God wants the same things for all of us, because he does not show favouritism to anyone.

I know so many people don’t know what God’s will is, and I just want to remind everyone who is reading this to know the truth as it is written in God’s word.  Please know this is applicable to every single person on earth – it is freely available to you and all you need to do is reach out and receive it.

So what are God’s promises for everyone?

Promises of a family:

Genesis 1:28 (NIV):  “…Be fruitful and increase in number…”

Exodus 23:25-26 (NIV):  “²⁵ Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away  sickness from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”

Deuteronomy 7:13-14 (NIV):  “¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land— your grain, new wine and oil— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you.    ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young.”

Deuteronomy 28:1-4 (NIV):  “¹ If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands that I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.    ² All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: ³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.    ⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.”

Psalm 92:12-15 (NIV):  “¹²The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; ¹³ planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.  ¹⁴ They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, ¹⁵ proclaiming, The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Psalm 113:9 (NIV):  “⁹ He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children.   Praise the LORD”

Psalm 127:3-5 (NIV):  “³Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.    ⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.    ⁵ Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate”

Psalm 128:3 (NIV):  “³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots round your table.”

Isaiah 60:22 NLT :  “The smallest family will become a thousand people, and the tiniest group will become a mighty nation.  At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen.”

Malachi 3:10-11 (NIV):  “¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.  ¹¹ I will prevent  pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit, says the LORD Almighty.”  (“Cast their fruit before it’s time” refers, of course, to a miscarriage.” Supernatural childbirth – Jackie Mize)

1 Timothy 2:15 (NIV):  “¹⁵ But women will be saved through childbearing— if they continue in faith, love and holiness with  propriety.”

God wants to give:

Philippians 4:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 18:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”

Psalm 37:4 (KJV):  “⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Ephesians 3:20 (NIV):  “²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at  work within us,”

John 15:7 (NIV):  “⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”

John 16:23 (NIV):  “²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”

1 John 5:14-15 (NIV):  “¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.   ¹⁵ And if we know that he hears us— whatever we ask— we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Isaiah 61:7 (NIV):  “⁷Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.”

Job 42:10 (NIV):  “¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.”

Zechariah 9:12 (NIV):  “¹² Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.”

Luke 1:45 (AMP): “And blessed (happy, [a]to be envied) is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of the things that were spoken to her from the Lord.”

John 20:29:  “… Blessed and happy and to be envied are those who have never seen Me and yet have believed and adhered to and trusted and relied on Me.”

Healing Scriptures:

1 Peter 2:24 (NIV):  “²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV):   “ ⁴Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.    ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Jeremiah 30:17 (NIV):  “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.”

Jeremiah 33:6 (NIV): “Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.”

Exodus 23:25-26 (NIV):  “²⁵ Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”

James 5:14-15 (NIV):  “¹⁴ Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.  ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.”

Acts 3:16 (NIV):  “… It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

Isaiah 58:8 (NIV):  “⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”

Malachi 4:2 (NIV):  “² But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”

Psalm 107:19-21 (NIV):  “¹⁹ Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.  ²⁰ He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. ²¹ Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.”

Proverbs 3:7-9 (NIV):  “⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. ⁸ This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”

Isaiah 6:10 (NIV):  “… they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah 19:22 (NIV):  “²² … They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.”

Isaiah 38:16 (NIV):  “¹⁶ Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too.  You restored me to health  and let me live.”

Jeremiah 17:14 (NIV):  “¹⁴ Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.”

Other Promises of God:

Luke 18:27 (NIV):  “²⁷ Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

Mark 10:27 (NIV):  “²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Philippians 4:13 (NIV):  “¹³ I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

Psalm 37:4 (KJV):  “⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 139:14 (NIV): “¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV):  “⁹ However, as it is written:  No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him—“

1 Corinthians 6:17 (NIV):  “¹⁷ But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”

Romans 15:13 (NIV):  “¹³ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV):  “¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Psalm 103:8-14 (NIV):  “⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  ⁹ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; ¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; ¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

Ephesians 3:16 (Amp):  “¹⁶May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].”

Philippians 1:6 (NIV):  “⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

He helps you to defeat the enemy:

Romans 16:20 (NIV):  “²⁰ The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”

Isaiah 54:17 (NIV):  “¹⁷ no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

Luke 10:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”

Matthew 16:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 18:18 (NIV):  “¹⁸ I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Do not fear:

1 John 4:18 (NIV):  “¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV):  “⁷ For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV):  “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you”

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Midnight revelations:

A few nights ago I once again had trouble sleeping. It took a while to get to sleep and only a few hours later I was awake again, and then it felt like hours passed before I fell asleep again just as the birds woke up. But that time was not wasted, because I was thinking about quite a lot of stuff, especially Shumi, and where I’m failing, and I got another revelation. I know it already, but sometimes one doesn’t see things clearly, especially when it concerns yourself… I think God has been trying to tell me this for a while already, but somehow I just didn’t listen, or didn’t want to listen maybe… I’ve realized there were signs or hints, which made me realize I had to attend to something, but I just brushed it away, and went on with what I was doing. Until that sleepless night when I had lots to think about and I could follow the trail until I got to the revelation, and I want to share that with you today – maybe someone else will also benefit from it.

There were 3 separate incidences that I can identify as signs or hints, because they all had to make me think about the same topic. I can’t really recall which happened first, and I guess it doesn’t really matter. One instance was a comment made on this blog about salvation and keeping the Law of Moses. That comment was in response to me saying that I know God does not want to punish me for every wrong thing I do, because I know that the punishment was already fully taken by Jesus through His sacrifice. I answered on that comment, but there was a lingering feeling that maybe I didn’t follow the trail of thought through fully and answered completely, but I brushed it off and forgot about it.

Another thing that bothered me a bit was a comment DH made to me once. At the time I didn’t realize it, but I’ve had some unresolved anger building up in me, especially lately, and I think it has to do with my mom’s death and Shumi’s illness. I tried to suppress it, and generally I never take out my frustrations on loved ones, so it came out in other ways. One way was when I got so upset about my new debit card not working – I really got so angry, like I haven’t been in a long time, and I let the call centre operator hear it! There is one other person though, someone I get to deal with on a weekly basis, that somehow rubs me up the wrong way, and I never let her see it, but later at home I can’t help making comments and sometimes they are nasty… DH heard me mutter something, and immediately he said, “What has S done this time…” I immediately felt bad, because I realized that I was complaining a lot about this person, especially lately, and maybe I’ve been too hard on her, but I once again did not think about it for very long.

The last message was the fact that I started reading the book of Romans since last week in my Bible study time and really a lot of it has to deal with the law again, and how we are saved by grace through faith and not through works like keeping the law. During the night while I was lying awake I realized that I’ve been focussing on how God does not want to punish us, because Jesus already carried the punishment for us, long before we even sinned, but I conveniently ignored the law. I knew it was still important to keep the law, but why?

For some reason I thought back to my last IVF last year, and how I did not understand things so well then compared to what I know now. Because I did a mini IVF, I didn’t get my stimms from my fertility clinic like I did with my other IVF’s. I bought it at Dis.chem since their price was a bit cheaper than what my clinic would have charged me. They didn’t have all the injections that I needed, but they did have a few and enough to get me started. Somehow the pharmacist made a mistake and charged me for 1 less injection than she gave me. When I paid I realized that the total was less than what I worked it out in my mind, but I paid and left the shop.

All the way home it bothered me and I couldn’t figure out where a mistake was made. When I got home I looked at the slip and only then did I realize what had happened. I immediately felt guilty and felt like I stole that one injection. The second thought that came into my head was, “I hope God does not punish me for this by ensuring that I don’t get pregnant.” Like I said – I still had a lot to learn.

The fear of punishment prompted me to phone the pharmacy and speak to them and rectify the mistake. The poor pharmacist was so happy I phoned and pointed out her mistake and she made a note on the computer that I must pay for the other injection when I come to fetch the last few. I’m sure she would have been in some kind of trouble if I hadn’t come forward and offered to pay, because she kept on saying, “thank you so much for calling and rectifying this.”

While I was lying in bed thinking about all this, I realized – “No, God would not have punished me by giving me a BFN.” I was totally sure of that fact, but then something else struck me. It could have ended in a BFN, but it wouldn’t have been caused by God. I would have given power over my life to the devil and through me handing him that power, he could have killed our embies and caused a BFN.

That was when I realized that the only reason we shouldn’t sin is because that is one way of giving power to the devil. We might believe that God has saved us, we might believe that God has healed us, but if we keep sinning we will never defeat the devil. I saw so clearly that I need to let go of certain sins, and if I do that the power of the devil will decrease. It’s all things that I knew, that I’ve practised a while ago and even had some victory over, but I got lax and I let small things slip, and then it got worse and worse again…

We had one victory, our pregnancy, and I just assumed that the rest will fall into place as well. Then my mom passed away and that shocked me so much! I lost some confidence and I let the devil lie to me again, believing that cancer is different than infertility and much more difficult to get healed, when it shouldn’t be. It’s the same principles that apply, and that works for every kind of illness, but my faith was shaken.

I also gave power to the devil in another way – fear. By being fearful I allowed things to get even worse, I got upset and at that point was where I was tearful at even silly things that should not have upset me at all. I felt like I could not deal with normal daily challenges that usually don’t upset me at all. That was when Shumi’s swelling was at its worst.

Fortunately the swelling has come down a lot, it’s not gone completely, but Shumi looks a lot better again, so much so that I do not contemplate euthanizing him. He is playful again, and he is interested in what goes on around him, he eats well and he just wants love, love and more love from us.

The devil is defeated – Jesus defeated him, and he cannot take Shumi’s life without my permission or co-operation. I’m sure he tried to convince me that euthanizing Shumi would be best, and then we would do the work for him, but I’m not co-operating with that! I keep on reminding myself that God is good, He wants Shumi healed and He has made provision for it already. I must just receive it on Shumi’s behalf. I know it does not look like Shumi is healed, but I don’t have to go on what things look like, when I know that God’s word is true, and when I know what His will is. I must just keep on believing in God’s promises, and not let circumstances sway me or weaken my faith.

I also like to remind myself that the vets gave Shumi a couple of months to live more than a year ago. His life expectancy is already like that of a dog who has received radiation therapy for the cancer, even though Shumi has not received any treatment. So that means that the devil has been hindered in his job – he couldn’t kill Shumi in the normal course of the disease so far, and I fully intend to make it even harder for him from now on.

Satan also tried his very best to make me feel incredibly guilty for my mom’s passing, but I’ve realized that with my mom, it wasn’t just dependant on DH’s and my own faith, because we believed, until the very end. The hard reality is my mom couldn’t believe in her own healing – even when I spoke to her about my miracle pregnancy, I could see in her eyes that she could not believe for the same thing. I gave her books to read, messages to listen to on CD and in MP3 format on her phone, but today I’m sure she didn’t do any of it. Yes, I think I must have discussed it more with her, but an old school friend of my mom’s told me at the funeral that my mom phoned her about 2 weeks before her death and that she could hear my mom had given up on life. That was before she even went in to hospital and I had no idea of any of that!

At the hospital itself we were also surrounded by people who believed the end was near, from the nurses and doctors to visiting family and friends, and no matter how many times DH and I tried to say, “but we have faith that my mom would get healed”, we were met with resistance and comments like, “but you have to be realistic!” Our faith was just too little compared to all the unbelief surrounding my mom…

Fortunately with Shumi’s situation, it’s different. It’s mostly just up to DH and I to believe in Shumi’s healing. We don’t get to deal with other people’s unbelief so much and then only when they come to visit us at home and they see Shumi. I keep on telling people that he is doing well, and what the vet’s diagnosis was over a year ago already, so that helps a little to get them to believe that maybe he will be healed. A lot have had theories like, maybe the diagnosis was wrong, (even our own vet has also wondered about this aloud, that maybe he has a benign tumour), and there was even one theory where they believe his problems are because of a tooth that needs to be pulled. Unfortunately it is very hard for people to believe that God still heals in this day and age, they always try to get some other explanation as well…

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How to mix God’s Word with Faith

I really like this message, because it shows how all people go through doubt, fear and struggle with faith, yet it is still possible to get a breakthrough and get pregnant. It wasn’t easy for me either – I also had times when I thought it would never work, but don’t give up, don’t be too harsh on yourself and just never give up on your dream of a baby of your own! You can do it too!

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Taking responsibility:

Last week Saturday I went with 3 other people on a street outreach.  What we do is go into the inner city of our town and hand out tracts, Bibles and speak to people in the street and try to help those who need help.

We came across some people who were in terrible circumstances and referred most of them to the shelter in our town that is managed by a group of churches from different denominations.  It is from this same place that we have the feeding scheme, they hand out food packages, there is an overnight shelter for the homeless, facilities to bath and wash your clothes, they hand out clothing and blankets to those who are in need of it, they shelter women and children who need to get away from abusive family members and they have people who draw up resume’s and they try to find work for all the resume’s they have.

I want to talk about the last couple we came across just before we went home.  They were both elderly, but how old exactly is difficult to say because they really looked bad.  Like beggars, or bums, but they were not entirely homeless.  They live in a wooden hut in the back of what was once a normal stand with a house on it, but the house has been converted into a commune and a lot of small rooms have been built on the stand and there must be at least 20-30 people living there, if not more…

I came to them a bit later than the rest of our group as I talked to a young boy of about 8-9 years first, but when I came closer all I could hear was a lot of screaming, shouting and swearing.  All coming from this couple and they were shouting at the other 3 people of our group. 

“I don’t want to hear anything from this God of yours!  I don’t believe in God!  God is not good, how can He be good if He caused the Tsu.nami in Ja.pan!”  They kept shouting things like that, on and on.  Eventually I was able to get a word in edgewise just to say it wasn’t God that caused all these bad things.  That got their attention, when I said it was all caused by the devil, the man started shouting louder again.  They were upset and mad at God for being in their terrible circumstances.  They were blaming everybody they could think of for the situation they were in, God, the president, the government, us, Christians in general, everybody except themselves.

It was obvious that they were drunk.  The man more than the woman, and it was just before noon.  Eventually we were able to talk a bit with the woman, but the man kept on swearing and shouting.  We women just ignored him, and the man in our group said later he was standing there praying silently.  We asked the woman if she knew about the feeding scheme as they said they were hungry.  They did, they were there once, but they are mad because they say one of the men who volunteer there said he would pick them up and bring them every day as they think it’s too far to walk as they both have problems with their feet, but he never came.  I don’t know what the situation was, I know this man, I haven’t spoken to him about it, but I cannot imagine he would promise that as he is not there every day.  He is a business man who volunteers when he has a chance.  The other days of the week he attends to his business. 

After speaking to this woman for a while one of the ladies with us (H), realized she knows this woman.  H has been helping out the people in our inner city for years now and it was her idea to start the shelter, and with the help from some other people and different churches they were able to get it started less than a year ago.  She was involved with other Christian organizations years ago and this woman used to work for one of these organizations that used to hand out food packages to those in need.  She was fired though because she stole the food packages and sold it to buy alcohol.  This woman did not admit this, H told us about it later.  She and H talked about people they used to know and we eventually left promising to bring them food and some shoes.  H took it to them about 30 minutes later.

All afternoon I kept on thinking about these people.  They were in a terrible situation, I agree with that, but they weren’t the worst off I have ever seen.  Both of them receive a small state pension, and they should be able to pay rent for the wooden hut with it and buy some food and clothes at least.  I have seen a single mother with 2 children live in similar circumstances, and the only income she received was the same small state pension, that this couple earns, but because she is one person she gets half of what they do, and with that she had to pay rent, buy food and clothes for 3 people, and pay school fees.

The husband kept shouting at us, “Why don’t you go buy me some bread, I’m hungry!”  He is expecting others to give things to him.  He doesn’t ask, he demands, and I wasn’t with when H took them their food and the shoes, but I wonder if he even said thank you.  They live about 1 kilometre from a place that will give them food and clothes for free, but they do not make use of it, because they refuse to walk there.  I looked at their feet, and to tell the truth I could not see much wrong with them, except for them being dirty… 

They have an income, their rent should be less than half of their income and they should be able to afford food, but they are hungry, and drunk.  The closest shop that sells alcohol is further away than where we hand out food, and I wonder how they get hold of their alcohol.  It seems alcohol takes preference above food and clothes. 

It may sound like I’m being judgemental here, but I’m not – I’m stating what I saw and heard.  My heart aches for these people that they are in this situation, but the thing that is the worst for me is that it is all so unnecessary.  They don’t have to live like that, but to change it they will have to stop blaming everyone else and start to take action and responsibility for themselves.  We can try to help them, but somewhere they must try to help themselves too.

I think it’s because their situation was so bad, and how much their lives that have been messed up, that made me see how we give power to the devil to do bad things to us.  It’s not so easy to see your own mistakes.  It felt like my eyes were suddenly opened and a lot of things that I have learnt just suddenly came together.  I could see clearly how these people’s sins, their attitude, the words they say, their actions, their drinking, their unforgiveness, their fear, strive in their lives, how all of that gave power to the devil and how they allowed the devil to do a lot of bad stuff to them. 

All they think off, is that God is doing it all to them.  They don’t know God and that He loves them, but that is something I have learnt.  God just wants what is good for us; He wants the best for us.  God loves all of us, so much, that He paid the ultimate price, so that we can come to Him.

John 3:16 (NIV):  “¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV):  “¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

They don’t know that God does not punish us, because Jesus took our punishment upon Himself on the cross.  They don’t know that God is not like a human parent – who is fallible.  Humans punish each other, to teach someone a lesson, but God does not work that way.  God does not even allow bad stuff to happen us, we allow it!  That is what they did – by her own actions this woman lost her job, and probably by their own actions of drinking they also can’t get another. 

I wrote a post a while ago about fear and how that give the devil power to do things to you.  But we give the devil power in other ways too, like I mentioned earlier.  God has given us the 10 commandments for our own good, not just because He wanted to impose rules on us.  All of those commandments are there for a good reason.  So the reason God does not want us to sin is because it is bad for us.  Through sin we allow bad things to happen to us.  It not so that God can punish us when we sin.  

Even other things like forgiveness are there for you and not for the other person.  If you have an unforgiving heart you do yourself damage, most of the time the other person doesn’t even know you are mad at them!  Jealousy and envy make you feel bad, it eats into you and can make you a nasty person no-one wants to be around.  It doesn’t do any harm to the one you are jealous about, unless you act upon that jealousy.  But most of us don’t act upon it – we just let it simmer inside us. 

I still haven’t worked out exactly how it works in my own life.  I don’t have all the answers yet, for instance, I still haven’t figured out how I gave the devil the power to kill our babies and cause my miscarriage, like I said it’s not so easy to see your own faults, but I do realize that it must have been my fault.  I know it’s not God’s fault because God wants to bless me and love me.  I have learnt so much about who God is and what He wants for us, that I know it cannot be Him. 

Actually the opposite of what I’ve told you is also true.  If we live obedient lives it cannot go bad with us. 

Colossians 3:12-15 (NIV):  “¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.   ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

Deuteronomy 28:1-4 (NIV):  “¹ If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands that I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.    ² All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: ³You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.    ⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.”

Psalm 91:9-15 (NIV):  “⁹ If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, ¹⁰ no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.   ¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; ¹² they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.  ¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.  ¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.  ¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”

Isaiah 54:17 (NIV):  “¹⁷ no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

Psalm 37:4 (KJV):  “⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Now, don’t you rather want what the last 4 scripture’s promises?  I know I do, and now since I’ve seen this situation, it’s much easier to resist temptation.  I just think of the bad things I might be allowing, and the blessings I’ll be losing out on…

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Obedience to God:

I wanted to write about obedience to God for about a week now, but I’ve been struggling.  For a little while now I’ve been getting messages on this topic and even in my quiet times I’ve heard the word “Obedience” in my head.  So I know that God is trying to tell me something, but most of the messages were just snippets, nothing that I could write a whole post about, but I think I got it last night, suddenly I realized how I could write this so that you can understand the message I want to convey. 

Genesis 12:1-4 (NIV):  “¹ The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.  ²I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.  ⁴So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.”

God asked Abraham to leave his country and family, leave everything that was dear to him and go to an unknown destination, and Abraham went where God asked him to go.  I don’t think we realize just how much God asked of Abraham, the implications and how hard it must have been.   I mean, just think about it, say God asks something like that from you today…  Would you know it was God and would you be obedient?  What would everyone else say to you, if you should believe it comes from God, and you tell them about it?  I’m sure Abraham must have received a lot of criticism and opinions, but he listened and followed God.

Genesis 13:6-11 (NIV):  “⁶ But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.  ⁷ And quarrelling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.  ⁸ So Abram said to Lot, Let’s not have any quarrelling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.  ⁹ Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.  ¹⁰ Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, towards Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)  ¹¹ So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out towards the east. The two men parted company:”

Abraham was not totally obedient to God however, God told him to leave “your people and your father’s household,” but he took Lot with him, who was his nephew, his father’s brother’s son.  They were so blessed that the land that God promised to Abraham became too small to hold both of them and for the sake of peace Abraham told Lot to choose a part – there was the fertile valley and the mountains to choose from and what did Lot do?  He chose the best – the valley, for himself and left the mountains for Abraham!  That’s was not nice and very ungrateful from Lot!  I mean – Abraham should have and could have left him in Haran. He would not have been in that situation if it was not for Abraham.  But I love Abraham’s attitude!  He did not complain or even harbour any bad feelings towards Lot.  He was happy to take the mountains!

I wonder if Abraham thought of Lot almost like a son.  Lot was certainly the closest family he had.  I know in my life some of our family members say that I am my niece’s “second mom”, because we are so very close.

Genesis 16:1-4 (NIV):  “¹ Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.  ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.”

Genesis 16:15-16 (NIV):  “¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.  ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”

Genesis 21:8-13 (NIV):  “⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.  ⁹ But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰ and she said to Abraham, Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.  ¹¹ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.  ¹² But God said to him, Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.  ¹³ I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

We read four times about the promise of children to Abraham, but Sarah got impatient.  She got tired of waiting and decided to make a plan of her own.  She convinced Abraham to go ahead with this plan, and Hagar got pregnant with Ishmael.  This was quite a common practice in Biblical times and is equivalent to traditional surrogacy these days.  I have blogged about it previously and you can read about it here. 

But do you see that the plan of Sarah did not work out well?  There was tension between Hagar and Sarah, because Hager was able to do what Sarah couldn’t.  After Isaac was born Sarah convinced Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away.  God did bless Ishmael, because he also became the father to a nation, just not the “chosen nation.”  Ishmael eventually became the forefather of the Ishmaelites and today he is the forefather of the Mus.lims.

Genesis 21:1-5 (NIV):  “¹ Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.  ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.  ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.  ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.  ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”

Isaac was what God had originally planned for Sarah and Abraham.  And it was a great plan that worked out perfectly.  But can you see from the first scripture that I quoted that Abraham was 75 years old when he first got the promise of a son?  Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was eventually born, so it took 25 years for that promise to become reality.  That is a long time to wait on and trust God.

Now I can totally understand that Abraham and Sarah got impatient and I’m sure a lot of us would have made the same mistakes.  Probably all of us, I think…  I know I am tempted every day to take matters in my own hands and to try and make a plan of my own.   It is totally human to do that, but it’s not God’s original plan.  God’s original plan was so much better than what Abraham and Sarah could plan on their own.  Even the situation with Lot didn’t work out well, again because Abraham was disobedient to God. 

I have certainly tried many times to make my own plans and to be honest none of them worked out.  I still don’t have children of my own and now I cannot make my own plans anymore.  God has put it on my heart to stop trying to control or plan things and to just trust Him.  God has shown me through the story of Abraham and Sarah that He has a plan, and that His plan is so much better than any plan I can ever make.  He wants me to be obedient to Him and trust Him.  I believe that God’s promises will come true and if I step out in faith and trust God, His plan will come to fruition.  And I hope that, just like Abraham, that God will bless us richly too, because that is what He wants to do for His children…

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The Believer’s Authority (Part 2):

Here is some more on Joy.ce Mey.er’s message:

Colossians 2:15 (Amp):  “¹⁵[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].”

The cross – to the world – looked like a terrible defeat, but it was the greatest victory this world has ever known.  Jesus carried all of our failure, all of our sin, all of our sickness and disease, all of our misery to that cross and put it to death.

It no longer has any power or authority over us except what we give it.  God gave Adam and Eve authority and they gave it away – you can also give your authority away if you want to, or even worse you can spend your whole life not even knowing that you have any!  That just makes me so mad!  All the people that march off to church every week and go back home no different than they were when they came in.

You’ve got a bumper sticker, you’ve got a crucifix, saying, “Praise God, Hallelujah!”, but you can’t even get along with people, going around hurt and offended all the time, insecure and afraid of everything.  “Life is just too hard!”

Well you know what?  You don’t know – you really don’t know what happened on the cross.  You may believe that Jesus died for you, but you really don’t know what He did for you.  You don’t know the kind of person you are now – you don’t know who you are in Him, and if you did you would stop all that stuff.  There would be no whining, moaning and groaning and complaining and self pity and pathetic attitudes…

How can you feel sorry for yourself?  You are a person that is not going to hell!  I mean come on, get a grip!  Do you have any idea the condition lost people are in? 

Colossians 1:13 (Amp):  “¹³[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,”

The Father has, not would, could, maybe, delivered and drawn us to Himself.  Everybody say, “I’m delivered,” not I’m trying to get delivered, “I am delivered.”  Jesus has the keys of hell and death and guess who He has given them to?  Keys represent authority.

Matthew 16:18-19 (Amp):  “¹⁸And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek, Petros–a large piece of rock], and on this rock [Greek, petra–a huge rock like Gibraltar] I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold out against it].  ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven.”

Do you understand that you are the church – the gates of hell shall not prevail against you if you believe in Jesus Christ.   “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…”  I like keys!  I’ve got 1 key to our ministry that fits every door – I love that key.  I don’t ever use it but I love having it.   “Whatever,” Whatever includes whatever…

Maybe you have heard a sermon on binding and loosing, but you know I heard a lot of them a long time ago, and I’m telling you I was binding the devil and losing the Holy Spirit, and you know the Holy Spirit was already loose; He didn’t need to be loosed.

The amplified brings out what we have to do is bring heaven into earth.  What heaven would allow, we can allow and whatever heaven would not permit, we should not permit here.  Would heaven permit unforgiveness?  No!  Then guess what – You have the authority over all that anger and bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness.  You have the power to bring heaven on earth.  You have the power to have heaven in your home by operating in these principles that are so beautifully portrayed in the Bible.

The promises of God do come with conditions but God has given us the power to meet those conditions.  You don’t have to get mad at everybody.  You might get mad but you don’t have to stay mad.  Why?  Because you’ve got a spirit of self-control.

You have the power to override your feelings.  You have a will, a free will and the power of the Holy Spirit.  “Well if the devil would just leave me alone!”  He is not going to leave you alone!  How many times do I have to tell you that?  “Well, if I just wasn’t tempted!”  You will be tempted!

The power that we have does not give us a free pass to avoid everything that is difficult.  It gives us the power to head into it, go through it, defeat it, overcome it, and then apply these same victories in other people’s lives. 

Matthew 18 talks again about binding and loosing.  Jesus is having a conversation with Peter and it goes right into talking about, “if any two of you an earth agree…”  There is power in agreement.  “Well, I just can’t get along with my husband.”  Yes, you can.  You might say, “We are not alike.”  Well, Da.ve and I are not alike either.  We are not alike at all.  We don’t think alike on a lot of things, but we have learnt how to.  If we are going to disagree, how to disagree agreeably, and we stopped trying to change each other a long time ago.  It’s amazing how much peace you would have in your home if you would just stop trying to change the person that you are married to and make them be like you.  Da.ve and I get along so good now it’s almost scary, and when I think about all the silly things that I used to get upset over, and I didn’t have to live like that.  I had authority over that.  I had power over that, but I let my feelings rule me.  Is anybody hearing me? 

You can live in agreement and if you will make a decision that you are going to live in agreement, that you are going to find a way to get along, then you will start having some answers to your prayers.  It doesn’t mean you can fight all week and then pray about a miracle you need and then get that miracle.

Then Peter brings up the issue of how many times do I need to forgive my brother – how about 7?  Jesus said, “how about 70 times 7?”  In other words you have the power to just keep on forgiving, keep on loving and keep on loving until the love of God just drowns out all the evil in that other person.

Do you know what the truth of the matter is?  Some of us enjoy being mad.  You know when God told me, “Look, you can be pitiful or powerful, but you can’t be both,” I had a hard time giving up my pity parties because there was a part of me that enjoyed them.

1 John 3:8 (Amp):  “⁸[But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].”

Well, guess what.  We have to continue where Jesus left off.  We have the power to be whatever God asks us to be. 

You know I will not put up with bitterness in me, when I get mad I’m going to get over it, one way or the other.  If I have to get on my face and stay there for an hour; I will come out of that room until God gives me the grace to go out and act like I’m supposed to act. 

But, “I feel, I feel, I feel….”  And, “I think, I think, I think…” and, “I want, I want, I want…”  “I want, I think, I feel…”  That is all the soul.  That’s carnal Christianity.  You have authority to bind on earth what heaven binds and loose on earth what heaven looses.  You can say, “This is not what God would have in heaven, and I’m not going to have it here.

Acts 1:8 (Amp):  “⁸But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.”

You shall receive power, ability, efficiency and might!  You shall be My witnesses…  Not just do witnessing.  I was on the evangelism team at my church and I went out every week and knocked on doors and told people about Jesus but I did not have the power to go home and act like Jesus.  Doing is not all that difficult – it’s being…  It’s being, because when you are something then you just are that all the time.  God is love, so He doesn’t turn it on and off, that’s just what He is, so whatever you are, that’s what you do.  See, we like to do something to prove that we are something, what God wants us to know is who we are, then we’ll do it just as a result of what we know.  Then the doing just becomes fruit of who you are.

Colossians 3:12 (Amp):  “¹²Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behaviour marked by] tender hearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].”

By putting on behaviour…. Just like you put your clothes on in the morning you can also put on behaviour.  You can put off bad behaviour and you can put on good behaviour.  If you put something on in the morning and you look in the mirror and it doesn’t look good on you, then you’re going to take it off and put on something else…  Well, there are a lot of people wearing behaviours that don’t look good on them as Christians.  They don’t fit, they don’t look right; they’re not attractive at all.  There is nothing attractive about a rude Christian.  You can have your whole car plastered in bumper stickers and your whole Bible can look like a colouring book and there is still nothing attractive about a rude Christian.  “Well I’m just irritated and I had a bad day at work.”  So?  That’s an opportunity for you to shine.

Clothe yourselves by putting on behaviour marked by tender hearted, pity and mercy, kind feeling, a low opinion of yourself, which is humility, it doesn’t mean you think bad of yourself, and patience – uh-oh!  Which is tireless and looooooooong-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper.

I’m asking you to start fighting the good fight of faith and instead of spending all your time trying to resist your problems, why don’t you try resisting acting like the devil while you have those problems?  See I used to think that submit to God resist the devil and he will flee meant that every time something was going on in my life that I didn’t like or didn’t seem to be in line with God’s Word, I needed to rebuke – I rebuke that, I bind that, I’m not going to put up with that…  I finally got this lesson from God.  “It’s not doing you any good to resist the problem, the Bible says that in the world you’re going to have tribulation, what I want you to do is have some of the same problems the world has, but live above them.  I want you to have some of the same situations but respond in a totally different way.  That’s the resurrection life that lifts us out from among the dead even while we’re in the body.  You cannot know what tomorrow brings, and you don’t have to spend today worrying about it.”

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