Lessons From The Woman with The Issue Of Blood:

Mark 5:24-34 (NIV): “²⁴ So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. ³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? ³¹ You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered, and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

The last few years I was somehow touched every time I read the story of the woman with the issue of blood in the Bible.   I think it had to do with the fact that she suffered for many years (12 years) and was healed.  It gave me hope somehow that even if you have a condition for many years that you can still be healed.  I think the fact that it was a gynecological problem made me also identify with her.

More recently I have learnt even more about this woman and her circumstances that make me admire her.  We don’t always  understand the significance of specific details, because the way we live and our culture is so much different today than it was in Biblical times.  The fact that she was permanently bleeding meant that she was unclean in the eyes of the Jews and the priests.

Leviticus 15:19-33 (NIV):  “¹⁹ ‘When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.   ²⁰ ‘Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean.  ²¹ Whoever touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.  ²² Whoever touches anything she sits on must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.   ²³ Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, he will be unclean till evening.  ²⁴ ‘If a man lies with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean.  ²⁵ ‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period.  ²⁶ Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period.  ²⁷ Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.  ²⁸ ‘When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be
ceremonially clean.  ²⁹ On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.  ³⁰ The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge.   ³¹ ‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling-place, which is among them.’  ³² These are the regulations for a man with a discharge, for anyone made unclean by an emission of semen, ³³ for a woman in her monthly period, for a man or a woman with a discharge, and for a man who lies with a woman who is ceremonially unclean.”

Leviticus 13:45 (NIV):  “⁴⁵ The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’”

Numbers 19:20 (NIV):  “²⁰ But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he must be cut off from the community, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, and he is unclean.”

When this woman went out in Public she was supposed to shout “Unclean!  Unclean!” every now and then to warn the people around her that she was unclean so that they would not accidently touch her and become unclean themselves.  All unclean people had to do that – there were many rules about what made a person unclean, but this permanent haemorrhaging of blood was only one of the causes.  There was actually a law that said that they could stone an unclean person to death should they cause other people to become unclean too.  Unclean people’s lifestyles were severely restricted in those days – they could not come into the temple, they could not participate in any of the religious ceremonies and I’m sure other people did not treat them well.  It  says they were cut off from the community – can you imagine living like that for 12 years?

So this woman actually took a huge risk by getting into that crowd that pressed so close to Jesus.   There was no way that she was able to touch Jesus’ hem without touching a lot of other people too.  And then Jesus turned around and asked who touched Him.  That was why she was trembling with fear when she admitted it was her.  She was healed, but she could still receive the death penalty for causing other people to become unclean.

It was extremely courageous of her to do what she did, and just shows us how desperate she was.   It says that she suffered a lot under the physicians and that they could not help her and that her condition grew worse.   I’m sure she thought Jesus was her last option and only hope.  She was desperate…

There is another significant fact in this story.  It says there was a large crowd pressed around Jesus – now I’m sure at least some of those people also had some kind of ailment or disease.  But it’s only mentioned that this woman got healed.  Why didn’t the others also get healed?  Surely they must have touched Jesus too?

It’s because she decided beforehand that if she touched Jesus’ clothes that she would get healed.  There is nowhere else in the Bible that it mentions something like this.  No one else got healed in this way, certainly not before this woman got healed like this.  So it was something that she must have thought of herself and believed that it would happen.   That is why Jesus said her faith has healed her.

Another important fact is that she was healed without Jesus even being aware of her.  So He didn’t know that she was going to touch His garment and that He would heal her this way.   He only became aware of her healing when He realized that power had gone out of Him.  Many different places in the New Testament it says that Jesus and even His disciples healed everyone.  So this is just one more way to prove that Jesus wants to heal everyone.  It’s not God’s will for some to be healed and for another not to be healed.  He wants healing for everyone and if you believe, if you do the right things healing will come automatically.  In this case all she did was to decide beforehand that if she just touched the clothes of Jesus’ she will be healed, she believed it, acted upon it and it happened automatically.

Unfortunately in my case and I think in a lot of other people’s lives we wait until we are in the same desperate situation as this woman was before we start to believe and act upon our faith to get our healing.  We often want to do things in our own way and in our own strength and when that doesn’t work anymore and we have no more options then only do we turn to God…  But I guess the important thing is that we do eventually turn to God…

But it makes me wonder how different things could have been if I had known all this 11 years ago – I know I must have prayed hundreds, maybe thousands of times for God to heal me and to bless us with children and all that time God was waiting for me to change.  If you are in the same situation – why don’t you do that sooner rather than later, you won’t regret it!  I can certainly testify that God is so faithful!  If you are faithful to Him, if you know and believe the right stuff, God will heal you too!  It’s not a matter of if He wants to, only a matter of when, and that depends on you not on God…

Read Full Post »

God’s Will:

So often people think or say that it might not be God’s will for someone to have children for instance.  I’m sure most of you can relate to that.  I know I wondered for many years if it’s God’s will for us to have children.  I also know some people say things like, “well, maybe it’s not God’s will for you to have a baby.”

An.drew Wom.mack says, “If it was just up to God’s will if we should have children or not then prostitutes, unwed mothers, drug addicts, people that would abuse their children, none of them would ever have children.  It is not God’s will for people to sin, so to conceive a child out of wedlock for instance, is also not God’s will.  If it was just up to God’s will and if God was directly controlling all of this, those people would never get pregnant!”

God gave power to us humans – authority over the earth.  Genesis 1:26 (NIV):  “²⁶ Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  God also blessed us to have children.  Genesis 9:7 (NIV):  “⁷As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

So it is clear that God gave us authority over all the earth, but that means that He has taken some of His authority away.  That means that He wants us to do certain things, that is our responsibility and He won’t interfere with those things where He has given His authority over to us.

If we humans co-operate with the natural laws, we will get pregnant and have children.  If a woman has intercourse with a man without using birth control most of the time she will get pregnant whether she is married or not, whether she would be a good mother or not, whether she abuses her body or not.

If we look in the Bible to Abraham, Sarah and Ishmael – Ishmael was not part of God’s original plan for Abraham.  He had a better plan, but they got impatient and made their own plan. God still blessed Ishmael after Abraham asked Him to, but Ishmael was never part of God’s plan.  So Ishmael should never have been born if everything works just according to God’s will.  It doesn’t mean that those children that are born outside God’s will, that God doesn’t love them or don’t want to bless them.

I think the opposite is therefore also true.  If children are born outside of God’s will then some people might not have children, although it was God’s will for them to have children.  I think a lot of infertile couples are missing out on babies that they were supposed to have had.  I know sickness, disease, infertility, miscarriages, etc are not part of God’s will, so I’m sure a lot of babies never get born, because for some reason the devil manages to steal, kill and destroy.  (John 10:10) I realize now that it was never God’s will for me to miscarry either of our 2 babies, so I believe that means that God had plans for those 2 babies of ours.

That is sad, incredibly sad.  I wish I could tell every single couple who are struggling to conceive that God wants them to have babies.  That God cannot wait to bless them, and that they must just receive it. That it’s not necessary to be miserable and long for children and have AF arrive month after month.  That  we don’t have to wait on God, because God is waiting on US!

It doesn’t matter what is wrong with you – nothing is impossible for God!  God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and He is no respecter of persons and that all the same miracles that happened in the Bible is still possible today!

Yet a lot of people don’t believe any of that, and a lot of them are Christians, or they say they are, yet they don’t know God at all. They have been deceived by the devil so much, they believe all the religious lies that the devil has told them about, “Maybe it’s not God’s will for us to have a baby,”  or “God’s timing is perfect and I’ll get pregnant when God decides,” or “Maybe I need to learn a lesson first,” or ‘I’m waiting on God…”

When will you be desperate enough, or fed up with your situation and decide that enough is enough.  Only when I got to that stage, when I was willing to do anything for God, to humiliate myself publically if things  were not going to work out as I hoped, and trust God completely that He would come through for me – that was when I got my breakthrough.  You have to put your foot down and get to know God personally, learn what He wants for you and how He wants to bless you, and decide to stop letting the devil steal, kill and destroy.  As long as you allow the devil to get away with it, that is how long he will stick around. You have to get mad at the devil – An.drew Wom.mack calls it righteous indignation – we are in a war and as long as we don’t fight back we will lose the battle!

So it is up to you.  What are you going to do about it? Are you going to stop blaming God and do something about it?

Read Full Post »

Turning things around:

I found these videos on Yo.u Tu.be and I found it absolutely awesome.  It confirmed some things which I’ve been learning and thinking about and basically it is about how we as Christians need to turn our ways around to become empowered.

Please do yourself a favour and watch it, I know its 6 videos, but it will take less than an hour of your time:

Read Full Post »

God is waiting on me!

Wow!  I heard this teaching from An.drew Wom.mack – How to receive a miracle and I got such a revelation on waiting!  I’m not waiting on God – He is waiting on me!  I’m just going to quote a little bit of this teaching for you, just the part that I mentioned now, but I would actually recommend you listen to all of it!

“Many Christians believe there is no certain path to get your miracle.  They believe you wish, you hope, you pray and maybe God will do it, or maybe He won’t.  That there is no way that you can grab hold of something and make it happen, but that is not what the Bible teaches! 

One of the things that the Lord has done in my (An.drew Wom.mack) life is to establish the integrity of His Word.  That God is not hit and miss.  God does not sometimes do this and then sometimes do that.  Sometimes people say that you never know what God is going to do, you can’t put God into a box – basically what that is, is an excuse so that if you pray and it doesn’t work you can say, “well it wasn’t God’s will.” 

No that is not so!  I guarantee you God is predictable.   God is the one who created everything physical around us, and you know this physical world is so orderly.  It just amazes me the precision of everything God made – the heavens and the earth.  You know when they shoot these rockets to other planets; I mean everything is so predictable!  You can tell 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now where a planet is going to be, because God set up a system.  Everything works perfectly – we’ve got these 10 year calendars, you can show things 10 years in advance…  How can you do this?  Because God made an orderly world, and it’s crazy to think that someone who created something so orderly is Himself disorganized. 

“You never know what God’s going to do.  God will do it this way one time and that way the next time.”  God is not like that!  God is not schizophrenic!  God is predictable.  God is the same yesterday, today and forever!  One of the things that has blessed me tremendously in my walk with the Lord is just knowing that, “God you are forever faithful, God you will never fail me.”  I don’t have to hope and wish and pray that God will answer my prayers.

There are laws that govern the things of God.   Romans 3:27 (KJV):  “²⁷Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.”  There is a law of faith.  Faith is governed by law – law is something that is unchangeable.  That means it doesn’t just work sometimes.  Did you know the Kingdom of God operates under law?  It’s consistent. 

You know if someone is killed by gravity – do we sometimes wonder why God did that?  God didn’t do it!  God just put down laws – if you jump off a 15 storey building gravity is going to kill you.  God didn’t look at you and say, “O!  I’m going to teach you!”  There is a law that is in effect and you learn how to co-operate with it.  It can work for you – like you are sitting on a chair, there is no problem, you don’t have to hold on to it, it’s not a struggle, because gravity is there for your own benefit – you learn how to co-operate with it.  But if you ignore those laws and you begin to go contrary to it you will get killed by the same law that intended to be for your own good.  

It’s the same thing with God.  There are laws that govern the operation of God.  I’m saying all this to give you an introduction to how do you receive a miracle from God.  One of the first things to recognize is that miracles are not just hit and miss, that it’s not, “you never know whether they will work or not, you can’t tap into a miracle.”  You learn the laws of God, you learn how things work, you do them and you can receive your miracle from God.  You can see God move into your life! 

Somebody is thinking, “Now are you saying that you can just push a button and make God turn out, You can turn God on or off, you can make Him do whatever you want to.”  No!  What I’m saying is God is on all the time.  Every time you get turned on you can see the power of God operate, Amen?  God always wants to move on your behalf!  It’s not you controlling God, God is always for you!  God is a good God.  God desires for you to prosper.  God’s will is for you to be healthy.  God’s will is for you to be above and not beneath and if you are not in one of those categories it’s not God that you’re waiting on to perform a miracle, God is waiting on us to learn and to reach out and to flip that switch and to turn on the power of God to release His ability in our life!  You are the one that controls God’s ability in your life!  Not God!  Now it is God’s power, it is His ability, but it is up to you!

Ephesians 3:20 (KJV):  “²⁰Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

If you leave out the phrase, “according to the power that works in us,” you do not have the truth.  God is not able to do abundantly, exceedingly, whatever we ask or think period, because if there isn’t any power working in you, if you aren’t believing God, if there is no positive force on the inside of you, you can stop God’s intervention in your life. 

See a lot of people think, “Now, wait a minute, God is God!  Nobody controls God!  Nobody can tell God what to do!”   It’s not the fact that God is limited by you, it’s not having more authority in power in God, God can do whatever he wants to, but God has chosen to never violate your will.  God has chosen to flow through you, that is what this scripture says – according to the power that works in you, so if you turn the power off in you then you turn off God’s power in your life.  You can stop God’s power, Satan can’t stop God, but you can!   Satan can’t stop God from doing anything!  But you can stop God in your life and brothers and sisters many of us, without knowing it, are stopping God from moving in our life.

There are a lot of things, I can’t tell you everything I know in three sessions, but we’re going to be hitting on some highlights of things.  I want to get some things across to you – that praise God, God wants you to prosper, God has a miracle for you.  God can supernaturally intervene in your life, but you are going to get off your spiritual duff and begin to believe God.  We are going to get off dead centre and quit waiting on God, and saying, “God, I’m waiting on you,” and recognize that God is waiting on us!  Amen?”

Read Full Post »

I have confidence in the Lord!

Thank you all for your messages of comfort with my last post.  I really am blessed by the people that read this blog.  And I must say God blesses me even more and I just want to share that with you.  I received “bad news” on Tuesday, but I did not see it as bad news.  I didn’t get upset or depressed or anything like that.  Why?  Because God is faithful and good.  God has comforted me so much with messages of hope all week long, that I cannot doubt that all this will work out for good.  I trust God completely.

That just shows you how much I have grown in the last few months.  There were times when I was frantic with worry, where I tried to make plans of my own to try and control the outcome of my own, Shumi’s, my mom’s or anyone else’s health…  Now I’m not even tempted to do that because I know they have been healed already.  The price was paid in full about 2000 years ago.  Nothing more can be done.  I am just waiting for proof of that healing.  I am waiting for God to complete the work He has started in us.  And I am waiting in anticipation!

I want to share some scriptures with you that have encouraged me so far this week.

1 John 4:17 (Amp):  “¹⁷In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.”

Hebrews 11:6 (Amp):  “⁶But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].”

The message that I basically heard this week was:  “never give up, be determined, keep strong in your faith and God will reward you for that.”

Now how can one get discouraged with that?

***

My mom says her meeting with the new Radiologist (I think that is what he is called) went well, he thinks she might only have to get 10 or maybe 15 treatments and not 25 as the Oncologist suggested.  It sounds like he has experience with this specific problem my mom has and she has a lot more confidence in this new doctor than the previous one.  It also seems this doctor gets quite a lot of patients that switch from my mom’s previous doctor to him. 

My mom will be monitored after a few treatments to see how she responds and the treatment will be adjusted accordingly.  (Something that the other doctor never did)  Obviously my mom is happy, because it seems better than originally suggested.  Also she will begin with treatment soon, last time she had to wait about 2 months before they could fit her into their schedule, and with this doctor it won’t take so long.  She has one appointment on Monday already to start the planning process and she will hopefully find out then when they will actually start with the treatments. 

Last time my mom went for radiation she went from Monday to Friday for 5 consecutive weeks, and I think this time will be the same except it will hopefully only be 2 or 3 weeks. 

I am not worried at all; I am confident all will go well and that God is in charge!  Jesus holds the keys to death and I know he will not allow the devil to kill my mom, “G” or Shumi…

Read Full Post »

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…

Read Full Post »

Waiting patiently and expectantly:

I’ve been getting so many messages on waiting for the past 2 days that it is obvious to me that God wants me to understand why we go through this waiting process and how to deal with it.  First I read about it in Joy.ce’s book Bat.tlefie.ld of the mi.nd, then I heard a message from her yesterday on TV and then this morning I read about waiting in my Bible study.  Now I have blogged about waiting quite a bit recently, but obviously this is a topic that I need to revisit often…

Psalm 130:5-6 (NIV):  “⁵I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.  ⁶ My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

Let me start with the first message from Joy.ce on waiting patiently and she says that:  “Patience is the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.  Waiting is part of life.  Many people don’t “wait well”, and yet we actually spend more time in our lives waiting than we do receiving.  We need to learn to enjoy where we are on our way to where we are going!

Hebrews 10:36 (NIV):  “³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”  This scripture tells us that without patience and endurance we will not receive the promises of God and look what Hebrews 6:12 (NIV) says:  “¹² We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

The proud man runs in the strength of his own flesh and tries to make things happen in his own timing.  Pride says, “I’m ready now!”  Humility says, “God knows best, and He will not be late!”  A humble man waits patiently; he actually has a “reverential fear” of moving in the strength of his own flesh.  But a proud man tries one thing after another, all to no avail.

Proverbs 16:25 (NIV):  “²⁵There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

We must learn that sometimes in the spiritual realm a straight line is not the shortest distance between us and where we want to be.  It may just be the shortest distance to destruction!  We must learn to be patient and wait on the Lord, even if it seems that He is taking us in a roundabout way to get to our desired destination.

There are multitudes of unhappy, unfulfilled Christians in the world simply because they are busy trying to make something happen, instead of waiting patiently for God to bring things to pass in His own time and His own way.  When you are trying to wait on God, the devil will pound your mind continuously demanding that you “do something.”  He wants to move you in fleshly zeal because he knows that the flesh profits nothing. 

John 6:63 (NIV):  “⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.”

Romans 13:14 (Amp):  “¹⁴But clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and make no provision for [indulging] the flesh [put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature] to [gratify its] desires (lusts).”

Impatience is a sign of pride, and the only way to answer pride is humility.

1 Peter 5:6 (Amp):  “⁶Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you,”

This phrase “lower yourself in your own estimation” does not mean to think badly of yourself.  It simply means, “don’t think you can solve all your problems on your own.”  Instead of pridefully taking matters in our own hands, we must humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand.  When he knows that the time is right, He will exalt us and lift us up.

As we wait on God and refuse to move in fleshly zeal, there is a “dying to self” that takes place.  We begin to die to our own ways and our own timing and to become alive to God’s will and way for us.  We should always be promptly obedient to do whatever God tells us to do, but we should have a godly fear of fleshly pride.  Remember it is pride that is at the root of impatience.  The proud man says, “please don’t make me wait for anything; I deserve everything immediately.”

When you are tempted to become frustrated and impatient, I recommend that you begin to say, “Lord, I want Your will in Your timing.  I do not want to be ahead of You, nor do I want to be behind you.  Help me, Father, to wait patiently on You!”

I have previously blogged about waiting expectantly here, but in the other message of Joy.ce there was more on that topic and I feel I need to share that with you as well.

Joy.ce said:  “We have the wrong idea about waiting.  We think it’s a passive action, that we should do nothing while we wait.

Actually it’s one of the most spiritually active times in your life.  If you study the word wait in Greek you will discover that it means to be expecting, looking for, longing for, with an outstretched hand and outstretched heart for all the goodness of God to show up in your life.

The truth of the matter is that when we get our breakthrough, God has been working in our life for a long time already.  Just because you don’t see anything or don’t feel anything, it doesn’t mean that God is not working.  God is working in our lives as long as we believe and pray.   We have to learn to look in the spirit; we have to learn to see with a spiritual eye.

Psalm 62:1 (Amp):  “¹FOR GOD alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.”

Who are you waiting on?  The government?  Your friends?  God did not create you for dependency on a bunch of other people and a bunch of things, but He wants us to depend on Him and he wants us to let Him work within us and to do a greater thing than what we possibly can imagine.
 
Joy.ce read a book from An.drew Mur.ray called: The belie.vers se.cret on wait.ing on God.  She learnt from that book that we have to live in a ready state.  I’m ready God!  You have to believe that today is the day!  Today is the day of my breakthrough!  You don’t want to be in a state of:  Well, who knows when I’ll get a job.  Who knows – I guess I’ll lose my house…  The enemy loves it when we get into agreement with him.  When we expect bad things we open the door for the devil. When we expect good things we open the door for God.

Waiting on God is not a passive, lazy thing, but it is in your heart aggressively expecting God.  It is to live with that enthusiasm that today something good is going to happen to me!  Today I’m going to have favour where ever I go!  Today my phone is going to ring with good news!  Today is my day!  Today I’m going to feel better than I did yesterday!  Today God’s healing power is working in me!  We must be aggressively expecting God to provide abundantly for all that we need.  Andrew Murray says we ought to live with a Holy expectancy.

See it is not disrespectful to say, “God, I’m expecting you to fulfil every promise that you’ve been giving me through Your Word.  I’m expecting You.”  God likes that!

Lamentations 3:25 (NIV):  “²⁵The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;”

What gives you the right to go to God?  You have a need and you have the Word (the Bible).”

Read Full Post »

The Battle is the Lord’s:

I heard another awsome message yesterday that I want to share with you.  This message is from Angus Buchan and just confirms some things that I have heard lately, and which I’m trying to apply to my life. 

2 Chronicles 20:15-30 (NIV):  “¹⁵ He said: Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.  ¹⁶ Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel.  ¹⁷ You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.’  ¹⁸ Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD.  ¹⁹ Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.  ²⁰ Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.  ²¹ After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendour of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:  Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.

 ²²As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.  ²³ The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.  ²⁴ When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked towards the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no-one had escaped.  ²⁵ So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value— more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it.  ²⁶ On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, where they praised the LORD. This is why it is called the Valley of Beracah to this day.  ²⁷ Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the LORD had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies.  ²⁸ They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the LORD with harps and lutes and trumpets.  ²⁹ The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.  ³⁰ And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.”

“The prophet came to King Jehoshaphat and said:  “The Lord is with you”.  So is the Lord with you or are you trying to make your own plan?  It happens to all of us, as soon as we are in a tight spot we try to make a plan for ourselves, but those plans don’t always work!  God said to King Jehoshaphat, and the same is applicable to us, that He will fight the battle for us and that He will win!  So the message here is that if we are in an impossible situation that we should surrender to God, trust Him, do not fight and see what God will do for you! 

So often we become impatient if God does not answer our prayers immediately, so we want to make our own plans.  But don’t do that! 

Psalm 46:10 (NIV):  “¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God…”

Hebrews 13:5 (NIV):  “…because God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Mark 11:24 (NIV):  “²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

The battle is not ours to fight, it is the Lord’s as long as we are in his divine covering and anointing.  You can’t ask God to help you if you are not willing to walk in His precepts and commandments…

Because King Jehoshaphat was a man of great faith, he bowed down in prayer and worshipped God.  This battle was impossible to win – the enemy was too great.  Now that might sound ridiculous to some people to pray and worship in such dire circumstances, but King Jehoshaphat knew what God wanted him to do.

Sometimes we might also be in an impossible situation, and we should do the same in those situations.  We must get on our knees and ask God for help, we should acknowledge that we cannot do anything in the circumstances and just worship God.  We might not be able to do anything about it, but Jesus can!

Matthew 7:7 (NIV):  “⁷ Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV):  “³ Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

Allow God to fight the battle for you and let me tell you something, you will see a victory like you’ve never seen in your life before!  But it takes a lot of courage not to get involved.  It is so much harder to wait, than to try and fix things yourself.  I (Angus Buchan) think it was Oswald Chambers that said:  “It takes faith to live from day to day.  It doesn’t take faith for the climaxes, because adrenalin does that for you.  It doesn’t take faith in the low times, because you are on your knees anyway, but it takes faith to live one day at a time.”  That is so true!

How about another example:  When God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, Moses said to them:

Exodus 14:13-14 (NIV):  “¹³ Moses answered the people:  Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  ¹⁴ The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

From that moment until today Egypt has not been a threat to Israel ever again.  My friends please know that there is no enemy that is too big for God.  No enemy!  I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ takes over today – stand back, start to praise Him, not for your problems, but for your victory that is coming – He can and will do it for you!”

Read Full Post »

Some more on waiting:

After yesterdays post I though I would post a link to the song:  “While I’m Waiting” by Jo.hn Wal.ler.  I just love this song, it is so beautiful.  I heard it the first time while I was watching the movie Fireproof, which is an awsome movie by the way, and I think especially helpful for people who are struggling with marital problems.   I don’t think however that this movie’s audience is limited to those with marital problems, because it certainly appealed to me and thank God we have no such problems.

Lately this song is one of those that I listen a lot to, it has special significance because I am in a stage of waiting, or like Joy.ce Mey.er likes to call it:  “the middle.”  When you are in the middle of a difficult situation, and not through it yet.  This song is a good example of praising God when times are hard…  I listen to it very often and it helps especially to get through the times when it seems like nothing is happening… 

I have learnt so much about waiting recently, that we have to wait in expectation, and that we must expect good things to happen to us, that we need to praise and worship in those times and to actually thank God for what he is going to do for us. 

I heard a message from Joy.ce recently on your attitude and going through the “wilderness,” as she also likes to call it, and it seems that the time we spend in the “wilderness” or “the middle” depends on us.  If we are going to have the right attitude the time spend there can be significantly reduced. 

So instead of complaining or questioning God, I like to listen and sing along to this song and rather praise and worship Him!

I’m just posting the link to Yo.u Tu.be because of restrictions from So.ny En.tertain.ment:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6X71sXagUY

Read Full Post »

Waiting on God…

Here is part 2 of Joy.ce’s message that I started yesterday:

“The Bible says (Isaiah 40:31):  “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and they shall not faint.”  Now waiting, what does waiting mean?  “They that wait upon the Lord?”  It means to look, to long for, to expect, I am expecting God to strengthen me and enable me to do what I do. 

Surely if God wants me to do this then He does not want me to drag my body all over the globe, feeling miserable all the time, surely He can give me the strength to be able to enjoy what I do.  Amen?  So I’m just telling you, don’t just settle:  “Well, I guess this is just the way I’m going to feel.”  That’s scary.  I mean that’s really scary, because that spirit of passivity…  A passive person just kind of gives up and they hope God does something kind of…, sort of…, maybe…  But they are not expecting.  They don’t even have the energy to open their mouth and say anything.  They don’t even resist the devil anymore, they don’t even rebuke the devil anymore, they just kind of get into agreement with him.   “Well, you know my arthritis is really hurting me today…”  I’m not making fun, but I’m saying:  “Don’t call it your arthritis!”  I mean you can say:  “the arthritis that is in my arm is hurting, but it’s not mine and God is getting rid of it!”   How many of you know what I mean?  We start taking ownership of this stuff, you know… 

Psalm 103:1-3 (NIV):  “¹ Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.  ² Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— ³ who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…”

Well there it is, right there! Amen!  Well I believe that there may be even a million people right now, watching by television, that you never had any idea at all that God was even remotely interested in healing you physically!  Well I’m telling you here today, that He cares about every single part of you, not just the spiritual part of you, He cares about your mind, your thoughts, He cares about your emotions, He wants to heal your broken heart, He wants you to feel good, He wants you to have energy, He doesn’t want you to be loaded down with sickness and disease and from this day forward I want you to start trusting God to begin to work in your body.  Now you say:  “Well, now wait a minute, you know, I’m a Christian, and I’ve believed God for healing and I’m still sick!”  Well keep believing God! 

“Well, you know, if healing is for today, then why am I still sick?”  I don’t know…  I don’t know maybe you’ve been like me and have done a bunch of dumb stuff!  You know if you want to have healing one of the things you’ve got to have is common sense, and you know we don’t always use it!  Now, I’ve had a problem with my back and for the last 2 months I have had a pretty serious problem with my back.  I mean I had like 3 Cortisone injections in my back, I’ve been to the chiropractor, I’ve been to the doctor, I’ve seen a surgeon, I’ve had a bone scan and it’s kind of like:  “Well, we don’t really see anything…”  Don’t you just hate the mysterious stuff?  I always get the mysterious stuff, so God brought me back to something that He tried to teach me 20 years ago.  I don’t know why we are so slow to learn…

Look I hate to say that God told me something many years ago and I didn’t do it, but you know, I tell everything else so I might as well…  I mean years ago I felt like God told me:  “If you would wait on me 5 minutes a day for healing, I’ll keep you healthy.”  5 minutes a day – well I did it for a few days…  You know and then those 5 minutes, I didn’t have time for that.  Isn’t it amazing how we will wait at the doctor’s office for hours, get our prescription, go wait at the pharmacy for another 35 minutes then take the medicine, wait for that to work and then when it doesn’t work we go get it refilled again, we go back to wait at the doctor’s office…  Why can we not wait on God for 5 minutes? 

Now my back is probably about 95% OK now, and I kind of got used to the chair so I’m going to keep it, but I probably don’t need to be running around all over the place like a maniac anyway, I need to rest a little bit, but here’s the point.  First of all going back to the back and the feet, I mean I had bunions taken off my feet; I’ve had corns taken off my feet…  You know I usually don’t do conferences in December, because it’s not a good month for conferences so for a while we just called December surgery month.  I don’t have the time to get anything done the rest of the year; I can only afford to get something certain times of the year.  I mean I had a bunion done one year and I had corns taken off twice…  So:  “Why God, why, why, why?  I’m preaching your Gospel and I’m helping people, I’m trying to everything that’s right God, Why?”  

OK, now rewind to like, long time ago, I was in one of my very first meetings when I was still working at the church in St Louis, it was only a women’s meeting then and a little old lady came up to me…  “Honey I have a word from God for you,” She said:  “thus sayeth the Lord – If you don’t stop wearing those shoes that you are wearing…”  Spike high heels, 3 inches – lived in them for years, I walked miles on these hard platforms.  Why?  To be cute…

So:  “thus sayeth the Lord, If you don’t quit wearing those shoes, you are going to have a lot of trouble with your feet.”  So, smart girl like me thought:  “well, she is a sweet lady but she probably doesn’t know what a pretty pair of shoes are…”  O come on, don’t act like you’ve never done that!  Here’s the point – I didn’t want to take my shoes off, and when we don’t want to do something, it’s amazing how selective our hearing is…   So I kept my shoes, I kept marching around, we had praise and worship, I would jump up and down, and my back starts hurting, my feet starts hurting… There were times when my feet would hurt so bad, that when I would go back to my room at night I would almost cry…  Now, you know what?  That was just plain stupid!  I mean, I’m born again, baptised in the Holy Ghost, preaching the Gospel…  Well I’m here to tell you – that was stupid!

OK, so now I got problems, so well does that mean God won’t help me and He won’t heal me?  No, He will, but I can’t keep being stupid…  So if you need healing the first thing you’ve got to commit to is getting over stupid.  So first thing we do is repent for stupid, and then we remember what God told us, you know like for me – I’m going to the chiropractor, I’m doing what I need to do, I’m doing my exercises and I’m taking my physical therapy, and in the midst of all that now, God is giving me one more chance.  “Wait on me…”

So, I debated on whether or not to talk about this, because I didn’t want to just lose the power of something God was speaking to me, but I believe if I can share this principle with the people who sit under my teaching, I believe that you can see some amazing results in your body.  I don’t want you just to do this, just as something to do, if you don’t really believe what I’m saying then you might as well wait until you do, but I am telling you that to wait on God is one of the missing things in our walk with God.  

What do you do when you wait on God:  “God I’m expecting healing in my body, I’m expecting energy today, I’m expecting strength, I’m expecting to be creative, and I don’t want a tired mind that can’t remember anything.  I believe that your healing power is working in me right now.  Every day I get better and better in every way.  You are my physician, You are the Lord that heals me, by Your stripes I am healed and made whole.”

I don’t even think in that time that you have to be talking out loud; I think you can just meditate on these things.  Take five minutes at lunch, wait on God…  Take 5 minutes in the evening, wait on God…  Every time you get an opportunity just take a few minutes and close your eyes and just say:  “I thank you Lord because you are my physician.”  You know what I have decided:  I’m not going to spend the rest of my life being aggravated with one thing after another.  I’m not going to waste my time running every time I have a doctor’s appointment.  Do you know how many appointments I’ve had over the last 2 months?  It’s just been the one thing after another, after another, and some of it was going to be free time for me!

So first we get rid of stupid, are you with me?    Then we do our part and our part is to take care of ourselves, you know if you want to be healthy you have to get rid of some of the stress in your life.  Stress will kill you – it will kill you!

I want to talk to you about eating:  You cannot live on junk and feel good.  You are what you eat.  “Well I can’t help it if I see a chocolate chip cookie I’ve got to eat a dozen…”  Now let’s just not be ridiculous!  I mean you have got the Power of God, the same resurrection Power that raised Christ from the dead dwelling within you, do not tell me that you do not have authority over a cookie!  Now you can eat one if you want one, there is no law!  But don’t say if you eat one you have to eat a dozen because then that means cookies are in control. 

Don’t over eat, don’t under eat.  When God sent the manna He specifically said that they could gather an omer a day for each person and it was a little bit over three quarts.  He rained the manna from the sky, not twinkies and potato chips and fudge and soda pop…  The deserts in our live should be the occasional thing not the daily thing.   There is nothing wrong with desert, there is nothing wrong with having a soda, there is nothing wrong with having a candy bar, but if you are going to have to have that stuff everyday then here is going to be the result:  You are probably going to weigh more than what you want to weigh and even if you are one of those super skinny people that can eat the whole refrigerator and stay thin that doesn’t mean that you are not going to feel bad.  

I believe that we need to feel good, I don’t even think that we can pray properly if we feel bad all the time, and furthermore when you feel bad all the time you are grouchy and cranky and hard to get along with and you don’t walk in the fruit of the spirit.  We need to be healthy for God’s sake!  Amen!  By His stripes we are healed and made whole.”

Read Full Post »