INTRODUCTION

Our church and family have been on a time of dedicating and consecrating ourselves before God. During this time, the enemy has attacked heavily. One such attack did not come against myself of my wife, but against my son proving that the devil is in fact a low down, good for nothing, coward, slimy, cow-eating snake.

BROKEN AND HEALED

Many of you may recall a post about my son, James, falling out of a second story window back when he was 18 months old called “Falling in to the Hands of God.” If you have not read that, it is a great read about how he fell out of the window and God healed him. I mention this just to set the stage for what happened last Friday.

It was Friday just after noon and I was going through some emails, when my son, James, suddenly let out a blood-curling scream. This was the kind of scream that immediately alerts you as a parent that there was serious pain. I immediately turned around and saw James getting up off of the floor next to the sofa. He was holding his right arm as tears steadily flowed down his face. Immediately and instinctively, I called him over. He responded as my wife explained that he had flipped off the edge of the sofa on to the floor, a practice that he had acquired lately and one that he had been told repeatedly not to perform. After all, the likelihood was that one of these times he would get hurt.

As I placed James gently on my lap, I examined his arm. I could tell from his admissions of pain that there was something wrong with his forearm/wrist area. I knew that we needed to get the arm x-rayed for further information. I asked James if he felt bad enough to go to the doctor’s office and he told me yes. This was another affirmation that he was indeed in pain, because he only wants to go to the doctor’s office when he feels sick. This has come about due to the many shots that kids get these days and James being smart enough to know that if he wasn’t feeling sick and he was going to the doctor’s, it meant a pain in his arm, leg or hind quarters.

As we got ready, we prayed over James arm because we knew if there was anyone anywhere who would know what was wrong and how to fix it, it was God. The prayer was a short and quick one that basically thanked God for the healing and that we were only heading to the doctor to get confirmation of the healing. I have learned that my God is a big God and that he hears the prayers of the faithful who stand on his word.

We quickly got ready and took James to our doctor’s office. This is where having a great Christian family doctor really comes in to shine. We entered the office officially during after hours care. What this means is that the regular doctor’s office is closed and there is a single on call doctor to service anyone who walks in. I asked the receptionist if our doctor was in and by chance could we see him because James in the car asked for him by name (we love our doctor). She told me that he left the building. Knowing my doctor, I asked her if she would physically check for me. She went into the back for a moment and then came out and told us that our doctor will see James before he leaves for the day (see why we love our doctor).

The first thing my doctor did was to send James for x-rays. Now, if you have never had a young child who has had to go for x-rays, then you will not understand fully the depth of what is required. As the parent, you are required to hold the child in whatever position is best for the x-ray, knowing this is what is best, all the while your child is pleading in pain for you to stop. It is almost more then a parent can bare. James was a trooper though and made it through the first set without really complaining. Then we found out that they had a wrong setting on the x-ray machine and had to do them again. This second set was where James pleaded for it to stop and be over and I had to hold him down in position so that they could see in the picture what might be wrong with his arm. Sometimes being a parent is the hardest thing you will ever have to do.

When the x-rays were over, we returned to the room. As we waited, James began to act differently. He was no longer holding his arm and to look at him playing you would not know that just a half an hour prior he was screaming in pain. In fact, this was the same sentiment of the nurse who had come in to get James’s height and weight. She commented on how he was not behaving like a child that had a broken arm.

Our Doctor explained to us that James had a buckle fracture, which is the best type of fracture you can have if you have to have a break. It heals quick and without any life changing effects. That was good news. Then the doctor proceeded to place a fiberglass cast on James’s forearm and wrist area while remarking that he was not acting like a kid who had a broken arm. We did tell him that we prayed over James and that we had only really come down to see the proof of his healing. The doctor agreed with us, but decided to put the cast on just to be sure.

We left the doctor’s office knowing that despite James’s big band-aide as he calls it his arm is healed. Otherwise, he would not have been acting like a normal four year old boy as they prepared the cast, put it on him and even after he returned home quickly adapting to using and even leaning on his cast.

SCRIPTURE

God has been really showing us lately how to stand on his word and speak his word in prayer because his word is:

Therefore, we prayed and spoke out the following scriptures as we prayed over James:

And true to his word, God healed James. He truly is an awesome God.

CONCLUSION

I would like to encourage everyone to speak out in prayer to God his word. He has given us so many promises and he is so faithful to fulfill them because “You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” (Psalm 138:2)

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

God can show up in so many ways for his people. Here is an off-the-wall example of how God showed up to help us.

GOD, DINNER, AND PRAYER

We had a wild weekend back in September. To explain what happened, we have to go back about one week prior where my wife accidentally dropped a piece of our steam cleaner into the toilet in the master bathroom of our apartment. She then without knowing, because the water from the steam cleaner clouded her view, accidentally flushed it into the toilet system. Obviously a day or so later, it was clogged. We called our maintenance and they sent a guy out with a long tool designed to break up clogs and send them away. We attempted to explain what was wrong, but that made no difference to the guy. Having gotten the toilet to flush again, he went on his way. We knew that there was a good chance this was not the end.

Saturday morning, we awoke to water on our master bathroom floor. After cleaning it up, we discovered that the toilet was not only clogged and overflowing into the bathtub, but that it was also leaking at the base, an indication that obviously there was a problem with the seal. We call the emergency number and they came out and looked at the problem. We explained about the previous issue and that the item from the steam cleaner obviously made it’s way down farther and got stuck again. The guy told us there was nothing he could do, but to not use the toilet or anything on the same drain. After checking the house, we discovered that all we could use was the second bathroom and the kitchen sink. No laundry could be done as well as the complete none use of one of our bathrooms.

It was a long day of fighting the water leaking before we finally got everything off and the water to stop for the time being. It was at this time that we decided to take a drive. We gathered all the money we had together and headed out. We didn’t have much, but at least we got out. While in the car, we discussed what each of us would like prayer about. My prayer was that after all we went through today I would simply like God to provide dinner. We hadn’t eaten lunch having to deal with the issues and therefore, we all were hungry, but had only like $10 on us.

At this time, my wife suggested that we go to Little Caesar’s for pizza because it was only $5 a pie and if we scrounged up enough change, we might get two pies. So, I drove us to Little Caesar’s. The kids waited in the car as we entered the place. Inside was the manager, a man named Randall, who knew us personally from having been regulars and being friendly folk that likes to talk with people. He asked how our day went and we told him. After we told him, he told us not to worry about dinner. In fact, the entire meal (which came to like $30 after he was done tossing stuff in) was free because we had gone through enough that day.

SCRIPTURE

God has really been showing me lately my need to just believe and trust in him. For some you might say this was just pizza, but to my family at that moment, it was a need and an answer to prayer. I encourage everyone to just believe and trust in God. Stand on his word and ask for what you need, he will answer you. After all his word says he will and we have all experienced him doing it.

CONCLUSION

Believe and trust in God. There is no greater thing we can do, because when we do, we are completely open to his will and what he would accomplish through us.

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

Last night as I was on my way home an interesting thing happened concerning the concept of obedience to God. So, I thought I would share this with everyone in the hope of encouraging some to do the will of God.

OBEY OR WALK AWAY

I had been working late last night and left work at midnight and was driving home when I happened upon a particular stretch of the state highway where some kind of accident had taken place. As I approached, several police officers were blocking off the road and re-directing traffic through the adjacent neighborhood around the accident. Immediately I felt something in my spirit, but to be honest I was not sure what it was. I asked God if I was supposed to do something and I didn’t get an answer that I was aware of, because I am sure that God answered me, but somehow I was not tuned to the right page.

So, I drove around the accident through the neighborhood and found my way back to the state highway and was about to leave the area. However, when I looked back, I saw an ambulance and several other emergency vehicles and again, something moved in my spirit. And again, there was no understood direction, just something moving.

Well, I would like to tell you I made a left turn and went to the accident to see what God wanted, but I didn’t. I made a right turn and headed home. As I was driving I was struck the great conviction from the Holy Spirit. “You say you want to do my will, but you’re going to that accident are you?” Ouch! I turned around and went back to the accident.

As I passed, I noticed that if there was a car involved it was gone. There was a single man on a stretcher and he was being picked up to be loaded into the ambulance. I figured that somehow I must have missed what God wanted to do and instead of stopping took the detour route around. As I came back to the same intersection I was at earlier where I made the right turn to go home, I noticed the ambulance was still there. I watched for several minutes expecting the ambulance to leave and it just sat there.

At this moment, the Holy Spirit and God were speaking to me about obeying. I was arguing back to obey what? After all, all I was getting was to go back and stop. I didn’t get a message or a need or a call to pray for healing. All I was getting was to go back and stop.

It was at this moment, that I came to my senses and did a quick assessment. What was I doing? After all, I have been praying that God would anoint me to be able to do his will and see miracles like healing and raising the dead, and here I sat in my car looking at an accident where God clearly told me to go and stop and I was not moving. What was I doing?

I was afraid, I had to admit to myself, because I believe wholehearted in Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit. I have seen them move to heal people and to set them free and when able I free talk and share them at work and restaurants and many other places. However, at this moment in time, I was afraid. Fear had gripped me and I felt like I couldn’t move. In fact, I didn’t move. At this moment, I had a decision to make. I could obey what God was telling me to do or I could just walk away and go about my own business. I knew that I wanted to obey God, and I let out a prayer asking God to forgive me. Instantly a flood of his peace came over. My mind was filled with the scriptures about not having been given a spirit of fear but of power and might (Romans 8:15). My faith was re-energized and I made the left turn to approach the accident.

As I approached, fear tried to regain it’s grip on me with things like, “What are you going to say?” I pushed those to the back of my mind and prayed. I found a parking lot to park my car. I was not sure what was going to happen, but I knew that I was obeying my lord.

I stepped out of the car and began to walk across the street. One of the police officers saw me almost immediately and he made a comment to two other officers next to him. All three looked at me and then they began to approach me. I don’t know what they were thinking, but I was doing my best to keep fear at bay.

“Can I help you,” spoke one of the officers.

Fortunately, God gave me what to say because I remember I really wasn’t sure what I was there for. So, I responded, “I’m a minister and I saw the accident and I came to help.” God tells us in his word that we are all priests (Isaiah 61:6, 1 Peter 2:9) and I was there to minister to whomever needed help. The demeanor on all three officers changed to one that was more relaxed and accepting.

“The guy is doing well,” responded the same officer who spoke with me, “We weren’t sure a little bit ago, but he is up and around. Responding to us and moving his head, so he is good.”

I explained a little about seeing the accident and wanted to be available to assist and the officer thanked me and told me that fortunately the man looks to be doing well and that they were only taking him to the hospital to be sure he was fine.

I thanked the officers and spoke a blessing over them. Then I returned to my car and went home. As I drove, there was a peace over me that I recognized as the peace of God, and I was chuckling to myself wondering what I was afraid.

SCRIPTURE

Both of these chapters are awesome. God tells us that we are his ministers of the Gospel to this fallen world. Being a minister is not only about just sharing the Gospel, but being open to bring God’s love and light wherever we go. This can include praying over the sick or homeless or people who have just been in a major accident or even raising the dead. We need to sensitive to the spirit who speaks to us and follow what he command without fear. Because God has told us the following:

We are sons of God, a royal priesthood, called ministers of God, a chosen people, and a people belonging to God. We may live on this world, but we are of a different kingdom. A kingdom where our King loves us and goes before us whenever he calls us to do anything.

I encourage everyone to press in to God and seek what he would ask you to do and then to do it. The rewards are more then worth the effort.

CONCLUSION

I do not know all the repercussions, if any, of stopping last night, but I do know that in the end I obeyed the lord and stopped. The thought did cross my mind more the half way home that I should have offered to prayer over the officers, but that didn’t come to mind then and I believe that if God had wanted that he would have put it on my heart.

One final thought, God is love; therefore, don’t fear when he asks you to do something. Just trust him.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.