MIRACLES. . . THATS MY GOD!

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine from Cahokia, IL. where I used to live and go to church, sent me an email asking for prayers for her Pastor. When I lived there he was the Associate Pastor, and now he is pastoring the church. Anyway, it was a possibility that he had brain cancer. The doctors had located a growth and thought it was possibly a tumor. They would be running tests and determining if it was cancer. SO we went to prayer! =)This morning I got an update and GOD IS SO GREAT! Of course there is no cancer, it has turned out to be a cyst. But that is not the absolutely AMAZING thing!! When they did a scan of his brain they found that the back half of his brain is NOT THERE! The space is filled with water. It turns out that when he was in his mother's womb he had a flash stroke and it affected the development of his brain. Here is the amazing part. . . the doctors cannot figure out how he can SEE! The part of the brain that controls sight is GONE! He should have been born blind!

Psalm 139:13 (Amplified Bible)For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother's womb.

Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaa! GOD CONFOUNDS THE WISE YET AGAIN!

THE CHOICE IS YOURS. . .AND SO ARE THE RESULTS!

Written September 28, 2007

You know, all through life we have challenges, trials, things that try to crush our hearts and spirits, things that try to cause us to live in fear, anger, bitterness. . . ALL of these things are designed to get our eyes off of God and on to our SELVES. But I have made a discovery!!
IF we will keep our eyes on HIM. IF we will press in to a closer relationship and dependance on HIM. IF we will put our full focus on HIM. . .EVERY situation that is meant to try to pry us away from Him, even if only for a time to focus on our problems, anger, fears, etc. . . will fade in the beautiful light of HIS glory!! HE will remove all fear!! IF we choose to let go of all of our disappointments, anger, bitterness, broken dreams and let HIM have them, HE will come in and bring a healing to our hearts and minds so wonderful that we will be amazed at the pure love and compassion that will flow through our hearts toward even the ones who have caused our hurt!!
The key word here is IF!! The choice is ours. God sets before us life and death, blessing and cursing. There is no one else to blame in this world if we choose to hang on to things and our lives reap the consequesnces. "But I have a right to be mad, fearful, etc. . ." Well, you have a right to make that choice. Believe me, I have had so many opportunities in my life to be angry, injured, fearful, and I did for a long time!! I was molested as a child, beaten as a young mother and raped and gang raped and a number of other abuses throughout the years! I have had sickness ravage my body to the point where I feared for my life!! But every time, God placed before me a CHOICE. I could walk in love, forgiveness and place my trust in Him, and live my life set apart for Him, OR I could hang on to my hurt (and believe me I was hurt badly! TRAUMATIZED!) and live my life separated from God and His best for me.
I did not always make the right choice, and trust me, it took a toll on me emotionally, spiritually and even physically!! "For I see you are POISONED by bitterness and BOUND by iniquity." Acts 8:23 The word iniquity here is adikia, which means misdeeds, injustice, moral wrongdoing, unjust acts, unrighteousness. It is the opposite of truthfulness, faithfulness and rightness. Unforgiveness can lead us down paths we would never have imagined we would travel. But forgiving others (Which is a COMMAND from God REGARDLESS of the offense!) will flush the poison of bitterness out of your body, mind and spirit!! He wants us healthy in every aspect of our lives and He knows full well the damage bitterness and unforgiveness can do!!
I am here to tell you first hand, this is no easy task!! I am challenged by it often!! And so many times I think "Surely God, You know that this time I have a right to be mad and hurt, and surely You see the injustice here!" But He is not looking for us to give Him our excuses as to why we are not choosing LIFE!! He gave us His Word, He has laid the choice before us and even tells us which one to choose!! It is never easy, but when we turn our hearts and minds toward God, HE will carry us through it to a place where we know our hearts and minds are free from the poisoning effects of unforgiveness and anger and bitterness.
When you are hurt, slandered, lied about, put down, abused, you have a choice!! You can walk the path that God has placed before you that guarantees healing and victory, OR you can choose to hang on, feed the fire, and be misierable. But be aware of this one thing. . .there is NO middle ground here! NO fence riding!! No walking closely with God AND walking in unforgiveness!! Listen to the words of Jesus - Matt. 6:15 - But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins; leaving them, letting them go and giving up on resentment], NEITHER WILL YOUR FATHER FORGIVE YOU YOUR TRESPASSES. (Amplified)
That is pretty straightforward, He leaves no room for excuses! His standards are not blurry, they are pretty clear. Thank God when we choose to walk in the way He has shown us, He does not expect us to do it alone!! He is right there to help us!! Every step of the way! He is not a harsh and heavy taskmaster, He is a loving Father who knows what effect these things can have on our lives and how much they can steal from us in every area of our lives!! He wants the best for us, which is why when He tells us to choose, He also shows us how to choose the best thing for us to give us a happy and healthy life!
After doing this study I find this a necessary thing. . .to examine my heart daily and make sure that I am not holding on to anything that will make me sick spiritually, physically or emotionally!! I want the life God has for me! So, I CHOOSE to do it His way!! The way of LIFE!!

OUTSIDE THE BOX

When thinking of the "box", I am reminded of an issue God had dealt with me on a few months back, but it is a little different take on the subject here of the "box".
One Sunday morning before church I was home in my living room praying for the service and God clearly spoke to me saying, "Take ME out of the box!" I thought, "Lord, I am NOT a religious person, I have a very real relationship with you, I don't go through all of the formalities and rituals of traditional religion." But what He showed me was that even if we call ourselves "contemporary" Christians, or we attend "spirit-filled" churches, if we are not VERY careful, we build our box around God according to how we think our services should go. We limit the Holy Spirit by our programs. No, our bulletins do not contain a schedule of how our services with be conducted, that would be too traditional. . .but I bet most of us could write that bulletin and step-by-step describe how the service is going to go. We tend to become comfortable in our way of doing things, and in thus doing, we "box" God in and limit Him to only doing what we will allow and what we are comfortable with. That is all the same from a traditional, ritualistic ceremony in a stained glass sanctuary, to the contemporary, biker, "all are welcome" type church, and even to the "spirit-filled", pentecostal type church. I thought of myself as the furthest thing from traditional, until God spoke to me that morning and told me that we are continually building traditions and conducting services the way we think they should go, whether our traditions are considered contemporary or not. We are putting God in a box! If we could only tear the lid off of that box and allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in every area, every service, every prayer time, every time of worship. . .WOW! What amazing things we will begin to see from the hand of God!
I can remember a time about 10 years ago when I would get butterflies in my stomach on my way to church in anticipation of what God was going to do! I went to a church where the Holy Spirit had full reign, and there wasn't a Sunday that passed that I did not leave changed and touched by the teaching and ministry that was brought forth by the Spirit of God! But even that church got complacent, and put God in a box without even knowing it!
I have finally found a place where I am now that I am once again getting excited in anticiaption, wondering what God is going to do! I enter my prayer time and time in the Word with the same attitude of heart. HE is in control!
I have found it takes a concerted effort to keep God out of the box! It is our human nature to find some kind of comfort area for everything in our lives. But if we focus and determine to follow God and take the limitations off of Him, what amazingly glorious things we will see and experience!! Remember, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, He will not push where He is not welcome to do so.
It just dawned on me that if we can keep ourselves from putting God in that box, the rest of our lives will follow suit and we will naturally, as followers of Him, not be limited to the "box" either!