Walk Boldly With Jesus

The Outcast of the Outcasts

John 4:13-14 “Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

A friend suggested I talk about the woman at the well today as it was the Gospel for mass yesterday.  For those of you who are not sure which story I am talking about let me recap quickly.  Jesus stopped by a well outside of Samaria.  There was a woman who was getting water at the well and Jesus asked her for a drink.  This was strange for her as Jews did not use anything that Samaritans used.  They kept their things separate.  This was also strange for a Jewish man to be talking to a Samaritan woman.  However, Jesus asked her for water again and then told her the verse above.  Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman asked Jesus to let her drink of this water so she wouldn’t have to keep coming to the well for water.  You see, most woman came to the well first thing in the morning when it was not so hot.  However, this woman did not want to be seen by the other woman as she was an outcast.  She had already have 5 husbands and the man she was living with at the time was not her husband.  What is really interesting is that this Samaritan woman is the first person that Jesus offered the living water too.  He had not spoken of this before, He had not revealed who he was to anyone before this encounter.  

The Jews and the Samaritan had a feud going on, so they did not associate with one another.  The Samaritans were basically outcasts to the Jews.  This woman was an outcast to her own people.  So she was an outcast to the outcasts and yet Jesus chose her to reveal His identity to.  I learned something new during the sermon at mass today too.  The priest said Jesus specifically sent the apostles to look for food while he waited at the well so that he could be alone for this encounter.  He did not want the apostles there to judge this woman.  He wanted it to be just Himself and this woman so she would feel comfortable.  Isn’t God so good.  He takes into account our feeling, our wants and needs.  He arranges our circumstances with such detail.  

The verse above talks about living waters.  What does that mean?  Actually it says the water Jesus gives will give them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  Jesus told this woman that whoever drank of this water would not thirst again.  I wanted to know what this actually meant, so I looked for an article.  I found an article that talked about how we all have an ache in our heart that only Jesus can fill.  We don’t always understand this at first.  We know we have this ache, as I am sure this woman did.  I am sure this woman was missing something in her life and she did not know what it was.  She kept searching for it in various men, but what she was really searching for was God.  

I have heard people say we all have a “God size” whole in our hearts and only God can fill it.  I think this is so true and I wish it were easier for us to realize this.  I know people who have had to take the really long road around to realize that Jesus was what they were searching for.  I know plenty of people that were searching in all the wrong places for this water that Jesus is talking about.  Some have turned to alcohol or drugs to find this water.  Others have turned to other relationships, other people, or sex to find this water Jesus is talking about.  Others have turned to self harming  behaviors, stayed in abusive relationships, gone back to unhealthy relationships, just to have what Jesus is offering this woman.  

In the article I read it said, “Only Jesus can supply the water that our thirsty souls desire. Only he can fill the emptiness and the ache.”  I love how this is worded.  Our souls are thirsty.  We are constantly searching for what will quench our thirst.  It is more money?  Is it having a spouse?  Is it having kids?  Is it having the right car, the right house, the right job title?  What do you think will make you happy?  What have you been telling yourself will make you happy?  A lot of us think, I will be happen when… What is your when?  What are you waiting for before you can be happy? Only Jesus can quench our souls.  Without Him we will keep searching for that next best thing that will make us happy. We will keep searching but never finding.  

Another thing I thought of when I was thinking about this verse is the fact that Jesus chose this particular woman to reveal his identity to.  I have mentioned this before but did you notice God has a pattern of using those who by human standards, don’t really deserve it?  Moses was brought to my mind first after this woman.  I was thinking about how Moses had killed a man and then ran away from Egypt.  This is who God decided to use to save the Jewish people.  Think about all the truly amazing things Moses did.  His life did not start off in an amazing way.  His mother had to put him in a basket in a river when he was a baby to avoid him being killed.  She gave him up so that he could have a life.  Then he wasn’t even raised in the Jewish culture.  He was raised as an Egyptian prince.  This is who God used to save all of the Jewish people from Egypt.  

We often think God can’t use us and we come up with all the excuses in the book.  I am too old, I am too young, I am not from a religious family, I am not as “holy” as other people in my family or in my friend circle.  We are super great at coming up with reasons why God won’t use us.  Sometimes those things are our tendency to sin.  For instance we think God can’t use me because I have sinned in my past and I continue to sin.  Guess what?  Murder is a sin and yet God used Moses.  Adultery is a sin and yet God used David.  We all sin, God doesn’t need us to be perfect.  

God has a purpose for each one of us.  I was going to say, “If God wants to use you, He will.”  However, I don’t believe it is a matter of “if”.  God definitely wants to use you, He wants to use all of us to help Him build up His Kingdom.  Whatever you feel God putting on your heart know that He chose you for a reason.  Maybe that thing you feel is a weakness is the exact reason God chose you.  Maybe He is going to use that weakness to help you talk to others with that same weakness?  Maybe your addiction or alcohol makes you perfectly suited to bring his good news to others with an addiction to alcohol.  God will use all our mistakes, all of our pain, all of our sins, for good if we let Him.  Don’t listen to that inner voice that tells you God wouldn’t use you.  That is the voice of the enemy trying to keep you down because he knows God has powerful plans for you and the enemy is worried about what will happen if you step into those plans.  God knows you are not perfect and that is exactly why He wants to use you.  Let Him.  Say Yes.  Surrender to God and He will use you.  You are exactly who He wants.  

Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to drink of the living waters, please help us.  Lord, give us this wellspring of water inside of us.  Help us to say yes to your call on our life.  Help us to see that you use imperfect people all the time.  Help us to see we are exactly who you want to use.  Please help us to stop listening to that annoying voice of the enemy telling us you would never want to use us.  Please Lord, make your voice so much louder than the enemies.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Four Steps to Forgiveness

Matthew 5:43-45 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Yesterday’s episode took a turn I wasn’t expecting.  When I started writing it I was talking about how frustrating it is when our time line and God’s time line don’t add up, or aren’t the same.  Then halfway through the Holy Spirit lead me down the path of praying for those who hurt us and helping God save His children.  Then I went to prayer group and the teaching was on love your enemies and many of the words of prophesy that were given were also about this topic.  

After the meeting was over, we stayed after to go over our bookmark.  The bookmark is where we discern all the words of prophecy we received in a month and then come up with the top call, proclamation, promise and directive from God for that month.  We are behind in going over the book marks so the bookmark we went over yesterday was from April 2022.  Almost a whole year ago and yet it was exactly what we heard in the teaching and what God had said to me in the episode from yesterday.  God is so good!  When He wants us to hear something, He will make sure we hear it.

So, lets take a look at this passage.  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” God is telling us to love our enemies.  You might hear this and think that you don’t have any enemies.  Enemies can be a harsh word and you are sure you don’t have anything like that.  However, when you really press in and think about it, I bet you can come up with some.  They might be foreign countries whose politics you don’t like or who are hurting their people.  It might be people who over the years have hurt you and you are holding a grudge against them, it could be politicians in this country.  The point is God is not just talking about enemies, as in just people you are at war with.  

Jesus is telling us in this passage to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.  Are we doing this?  Are we praying for the person who cut us off in traffic yesterday?  Are we praying for the person who is holding up the line at the grocery store?  Are we praying for that family member that just drives us crazy?  Are we praying for those who used to tease us in grade school or high school?  Are we spreading love to those whom we don’t like?  Are we loving those that make us mad, sad and angry?

The leader of the prayer group meeting yesterday gave us 4 steps to forgiveness by Father Jim Blount.  It would be hard to love someone when you can’t forgive them.  Here are the four steps to forgiveness. (Click Here to read article)

1.) Make an act of will: Forgiveness isn’t about your feelings it is a decision.  You can make a decision to forgive someone, even if you don’t feel like it.  God is going to forgive us as we forgive others.  This is something that is good to keep in our minds.  To decide to forgive, make an act of the will with this prayer: “I forgive you, (name), in the name of Jesus Christ, now and forever.”

2.) Bless those who persecute you:  In this step we return a blessing for a curse.  When someone is cursing at us, we don’t return that curse back to them.  Words are very powerful.  This is the most important step to forgiveness.  The anger and the hatred of our wounds leave by the act of blessing.  Blessing melts the ice of the heart.  Blessing releases the poison.  Blessings heals the heart.

3.) Give Thanks always: This is difficult.  It is a call to maturity and a call to sanctity.  We can thank our  persecutors because our persecutors awaken us to the goodness of God. God uses our wounds and pain to teach us humility and dependence on him alone.  Through them, I turn to him and he heals me.  Though we never ask for persecutions and wounds, they can be a channel for us of the grace of a good and bountiful harvest.  St. Therese of Avila said “The only thing we will thank God for when we get to Heaven will be our crosses. St. Rose of Lima said similarly, “Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to Heaven.

4.) Praise the Lord: This is the fourth and final step of forgiveness.  We give praise directly to God.  We acknowledge Our Lord himself as the source of all our life.  God is the all-loving Divine Physician who, for our good and eternal salvation, comes to our aid in the midst of sin and suffering. By praising him, we return all that we are and all that we have suffered to God, the source of all that is good in life.  This step completes our forgiveness and leads to perfect acceptance of God’s holy will.  To praise God, make an act of will with this prayer: “I praise you Lord and your Blessed Mother and I glorify you for your heavenly plan that is saving me and leading me to perfect joy.”  

If you do these four steps to forgiveness, you will be able to love your enemies.  These four steps, when done consistently, can transform your heart and your mind.  I can tell you from yesterday, God is calling us to love His unloveable.  He is calling us to love His lost sheep, to love them back to the kingdom.  We can not do this if we are angry and unforgiving.  There are some people that we either know personally or we have heard about in the news or in history and we think that they are unforgivable.  What they did was awful and there is not way to forgive it.  However, God is telling us to forgive them anyway.  We don’t have to feel like it, we just have to make a decision to do.  Can we do that for God?  Can we love his children, even the most evil ones?

I will leave you with the bookmark from my prayer group for April 2022 because it is God’s words instead of mine and He says it so perfectly:  “My children, do you hear me call your name? Do you feel my warm breath upon you? I am calling you. I am calling everyone, even the most evil person you can think of. I want all my children to be with me. I am light in the darkness, and as you walk, because you are my light, you bring light into the darkness. In that light is my mercy that you bring to others through your speaking, loving and compassion. I will save all who seek me. Don’t give up on anyone. Pray them to the Kingdom. One little movement of the soul and they can have Heaven with me for eternity. Continue to be open to me and to love me. Continue to spread my Word, my love, and my mercy. I love you more than you can ever imagine. Be faithful to me as I am to you.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, loving are enemies is difficult.  We want to do if for you and yet we can’t do it without your help.  Help us to follow these four steps Lord.  Help us to forgive when we don’t feel like it.  Help us to forgive even when it's hard.  Help us learn to forgive more and more easily.  We love you Lord, we understand you want all of your children to be saved.  You want them all to go to Heaven.  If we can help Lord, we want to.  Just show us how to help.  We love you Lord and we are so grateful for you.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I!  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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God’s Timing, Not Ours

2 Peter 3:8-9 “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

When I read this verse I think about how God’s timing can be so frustrating for us sometimes.  I was praying with a friend of mine last night because she is so tired of working at her job.  It is not great for her mental or physical health, they are not supportive of her, and the kids she teaches are not well behaved at all.  She has been praying to the Lord for a long time now and she is not seeing results.  She is tired and frustrated and feels like God is telling her to take a leap of faith, but doesn’t seem to be directing her how to do that.  God’s timing is not like our timing.  For us, we each have the same 24 hours in a day.  Whether we use that to our advantage or not.  Whether we are healthy or we are sick.  Whether we are young or we are old.  We all have 24 hours in a day, it is constant, it never changes.  

However, it is not the same for God.  This verse is telling us that one day for God could be like a thousand years and a thousand years could be like a day.  It is impossible for us to understand how time works for God.  He seems to know every move we will make and yet he is also very present in each moment.  He is in our future, our present and our past.  They are all happening at the same time for Him, which of course makes no sense to us.  How can the past and the future be happening at the same time?  There are so many things about God that are a mystery.  This is one of them.

The next line says the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness.  God is not just stalling.  He is not promising you something and then forgetting about it or delaying it because he doesn’t care.  On the contrary He cares so much that He is aligning his promise up for you at the perfect time.  Sometimes we want things to happen now, but God knows if it did happen now, it wouldn’t work.  You wouldn’t appreciate it, or you would waste it, or something else along these lines.  However, if God gives it to you in a year, after you have experienced all these other things, you will be able to appreciate it more.  

I know we want God to fulfill his promises now.  I know we want him to give us what we ask for now.  We don’t want to wait, we want it now.  I get it.  I have been in plenty of situations where I have been asking God for something and it takes far longer than I wanted it to.  I felt like I was losing strength and a parent can’t lose strength when their kids are acting up.  You need to be on point, you need to be at the top of your game.  Yet God says, He is there in our weakness.  His power is made perfect in our weakness.  Sometimes we need to get to that point so we can realize we need God.  Sometimes we need to get to the point where we have tried everything on our own and nothing has worked.  Sometimes we need to hit rock bottom so that God can come in and pick us up off the floor.  However, if we have a choice, we keep trying to do everything on our own.  Often we are not even giving God a chance to work, we are too busy doing it ourselves, so He sits back and He waits.  Then we wonder why He is not answering our prayers.  

The last line in this verse says, “ Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Thank you Lord for being patient with me!  Thank you for not wanting me to perish!  When I read this verse I think about the many times I have heard people say, “Jesus needs to hurry up and come.”  People are thinking the world is so terrible that we are ready for the end times.  We are ready for Jesus to come for His final judgement and end this world.  We wonder what God is waiting for as we feel the world is bad enough.  We feel it can’t really get much worse than it is, so what is God waiting for?  

This verse answers that question for us.  God does not want anyone to perish.  He wants everyone to come to repentance.  Yes, this world is crazy, and falling apart and so very broken.  And yet if Jesus came today for the final judgement, how many of us would be going to heaven?  How many of our loved ones would be going?  We think we are ready for Jesus to come, but are we really?  We just want the awfulness of this world to end, but we aren’t necessarily ready for His judgement.  And maybe some of us are ready.  If you are listening to this podcast you love Jesus.  If you are listening to a podcast about how to walk boldly with Jesus then you probably are doing your best to live your life according to God’s will and law.  That is awesome, you are probably ready to join Jesus in His kingdom in Heaven.  What about your family members though?  Are they ready?  

I understand this world is hard and it seems to be getting worse and worse each day.  I don’t know that this country has ever been more divided.  There is so much racism and sexism.  People are just rude and are not at all sorry about it.  There is so much hate these days and it seems to drown out the love.  So, naturally we want Jesus to come and save us.  However, He already saved us.  He did his job, now it is time to do ours.  Romans 5:20-21 says, "The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,  so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Yes there is so much evil in the world right now, and that means there is so much grace as well.  God is showering us with grace each and every day and we need to use this grace to spread his love to all we meet.  We need to overshadow the hate with love.  

This is not easy.  It is not easy to be surrounded by hate and to spread love.  It is not easy to be that one positive voice amongst a sea of negativity.  It is not easy to respond with love when met with hate.  This is what grace if for.  This is why God is showering us with grace.  He is concerned for His children.  He is concerned that if He came now so many of His children would be lost.  So many of our children would be lost.  We can’t wait for Jesus to come and save us, we need to step up to the plate and start trying to save others.  We can not save anyone on our own.  We have no power on our own.  However when we turn to the Holy Spirit, who is living inside all of us who are baptized, we have all the power in the world.  

Ask the Holy Spirit how you can help your loved ones?  Ask the Holy Spirit how you can spread God’s love to others?  Pray each and every day for those who don’t know God’s love.  When you encounter hate, pray for that person.  I know you don’t want to, I don’t either.  I know you don’t feel like they deserve your prayers.  You don’t want to waste your breath on them.  I get it, I understand what you mean.  Don’t do it for them.  Do it for Christ, do it for your heavenly Father who’s heart is breaking when He thinks about how many of His children are lost right now.  

We wonder what He is waiting for and He wonders why we can’t see it.  Why can’t we see how sad He is at all of his lost sheep.  It says in the Bible God will leave His 99 righteous sheep to go find that one lost sheep.  Think of how it must be for God to see so many of his sheep lost. Let’s try to help Him get them back.  Let’s ask the Holy Spirit how we can partner with God to use this grace He is giving us for His good.  What can we do to help others rediscover His love?  What is one thing we can do that would help make the world a brighter place?  What is one thing we can do to shine the peace of Christ and the love of Christ to all those we meet?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are sorry we get so impatient at times waiting for your timing.  We are grateful your ways are higher than our ways, please give us the patience and strength we need to keep waiting for your perfect timing.  Lord, please show us where we can partner with you in saving your children.  We can feel your pain and we want to help.  Show us how Lord.  Show us how to shine your love and light into the world.  Show us how to respond with love when greeted by hate.  Show us how to love the unlovable just as Jesus did.  Show us how to start in our homes.  Lord, we have so much to learn and we are ready to start.  Teach us oh Lord we are ready and willing.  We love you Lord, you are so forgiving.  You are so patient.  We are grateful for all you do for us and we ask all of this in accordance to your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus!  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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 If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!

Today I want to share with you some of the testimonies I heard last night from the guest speaker at my Encounter Ministries class.  His name is Pastor Jim Baker and he is from Zion Christian Fellowship in Columbus Ohio.  You can find more information about him at his website zionequip.com Pastor Baker talked about his community in Ohio and he said they have testimony of 18 people who were raised from the dead.  18 people, right here in America, by ordinary people like you and me.  

The first one he talked about was about a construction worker who has 6 children.  He felt like the Lord told him to take the family to Kings Island. He goes to Kings Island and he is waiting in line and this lady about 50 feet in front from him keels over and someone yells “she’s dead.”  Every one is scrambling around and trying to save her or bring her back.  This man is in line wondering if he should do something.  He is just rocking back and forth and trying to decide what to do.  He knows the Lord brought him here for a reason so he springs into action and fights his way through the crowd to get to the lady.  He leans over her, puts his hand over her and says, “Live in the name Jesus.”  She suddenly is alive again and takes a deep breath and the paramedics take her away.  

The man is wondering what even just happened.  He is in awe and he is back to waiting in line again.  As he is waiting in line he has an open vision.  His eyes are open, the screen comes down, and it is the throne room of heaven.  It is busy, angels are flying around, worship is going on and all of the sudden all of heaven stops and it looks at the screen and it is this man, Ryan, and he is rocking back and forth.  The minute he decided to engage God dispatched and angel at the speed of light and it went and met him as he commanded it, the angel came and raised the woman up.  

They have seen multiple people brought back to life at car accidents.  One guy that died at 7 A. M. and woke up at 11 P.M. and had to unzip himself from a body bag at the morgue.  He was dead for 16 hours and was back at work two days later with no brain damage.  This next one was a family from their church was visiting a different church.  Someone passed away during the service and no one really new what to do.  They were trying CRP and they had the paddles and nothing was working.  Amy from Zion Church stood up on a chair and said, “Come on people start speaking life.”  She started commanding life back into the person and they came back to life.  

They have also seen two people come back to life after suicide.  One of them was a young girl who was in a terrible relationship.  The guy was really mean to her and he told her to just kill herself.  The family didn’t know that had happened, they just knew they hadn’t heard from her in a little while.  They went into her room and they found her with a really thick room around her neck.  She had hung herself and she had blood coming from her eyes and stuff.  The family was distraught, trying to cut her down, they don’t know how long she has been dead, so they are praying for her and nothing is happening.  The ambulance comes, the paramedics are trying to raise her up and nothing happens and then as they are getting ready to stop everything the brother says, let's give it one more time, prays for her and boom she comes back to life.  She hardens her heart to the Lord for about three months.  Then she got saved with a water baptism one Sunday and she said she now realizes that every breath is gift from the Lord.  She just glows.  

The last one for today is a man who was the son of one of the families in the church.  Genius level intellect, he was in the military and just walked away from the Lord.  He got into Atheism Science.  For whatever the life circumstances were, he hung himself with a belt and his roommate found him grey and unresponsive.  They put him on machines and he was brain dead and the machines were keeping him a live.  This was on a Tuesday and they called the family in and let them know they were going to pull the plug on Thursday.  Somehow between Wed night and Thursday morning he comes back completely alive, full brain activity with all his intellect still in tact.

These are just a few on the stories the Pastor told us.  He told us so many more.  I will probably share more with you another time.  I think all these are enough for one day.  I hope you can see how incredible this is.  I hope you can see how powerfully God is working in the world today.  He is not just working in Ohio, and he is not just working in Africa.  He is working everywhere.  He is healing people all around you and yet if you aren’t on the lookout for it, you probably won’t see it.  There is nothing extra special about these people.  They just heard the Holy Spirit and then decided to act on what he said.  You can do the same.  They are commanding things to happen because they know Jesus gave them the authority.  You have the same authority.  I know it doesn’t feel like it.  I know you don’t believe you could do something like healing, it’s too crazy.  It’s for more holy people.  Don’t believe these lies.  My prayer for you is that the more you listen to these episodes, the more you listen to this podcast the more you will start to believe that you too can do these extraordinary things.  My prayer is that if you see someone who is sick or in need of prayer you will start to believe that you could pray for them and you could see healings.  The first time you pray for a healing over someone you might not see any change, that is ok, keep trying.  I prayed over people for years without seeing much healing.  It is part of the process.  God still loves it when we try.  I can’t wait to have you on one of these Witness Wednesdays talking about how you stepped out in faith, how you were bold and you prayed over someone, even if you didn’t see the results you wanted, you still tried and I can’t wait to hear about it.

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You Are Anointed

Psalm 23:5-6 “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”

There is a lot to like about this verse.  First. It starts out saying that God will prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  I don’t have to be worried about my enemies as God has got me.  He is my shield and my refuge.  Now he is saying we will prepare  a feast for me.  When someone is preparing a meal for us, they are not usually stressed out about it.  They aren’t worry about all the things going on around them.  Picture this, there is chaos all around you, and yet in front of you is this beautifully set up dining room table.  You have a seat and God is bringing you a feast one course at a time.  He is not concerned with your enemies because He knows they can’t touch you.  You are not concerned either because you just feel so at home, so taken care of.  Isn’t that a beautifully relaxing image?  

Next the verse says that God honors us by anointing our head with oil.  Did you know that you have an anointing on your life?  We all do. Did you know through your baptism you were anointed to be priest, prophet and king?   It’s true, just as Christ was all three of these, you are also anointed to be these three things to your community.  What does that mean for us?  

Let’s start with priest.  Drawing on the priesthood of the Old Testament, a priest is one who offers sacrifices (see Genesis 14:18; Exodus 29:38- 42; Leviticus 23:6,8). Some sacrifices are personal, and some are on behalf of others. These sacrifices will look different for each one of us depending on our circumstances.  However, sacrifice to some degree should be a part of our every day life.  I have tried to embrace this a little more this year, so I am fasting from one thing each month.  I will switch it up each month, but there will always be something I am fasting from.  I think this will help me to appreciate things more and it will also show me that I am not a slave to that thing.  For instance, if I feel like I just can’t stop eating chocolate, then I will fast from that for a month.  By the end of the year I will have shown God and myself that I do not need these things.  I will have also made a small sacrifice each month for 12 months.

Next we have prophet.  A prophet is a spokesperson for God, or one who speaks on God’s behalf (see Exodus 4:30; Deuteronomy 18:18; Isaiah 42:19). In the Old and New Testaments, prophets called people to a different way of life.  Can we be a spokesperson for God by how we live our lives?  Can we live in a way that when people see us they think to themselves, “I want what they have?”  Can we call others to a different way of life, not necessarily with our words, but with our love?  Can we love others as Jesus did? Can we speak love and light into the world, into people’s lives?  Can we be prophets?

Lastly, we are anointed as kings.  What are kings called to do? Usually rule over others.  We are called to rule over ourselves first and foremost. We are all responsible for making sure we are living our lives according to God’s laws.  Most kings are called to rule over others, however, as Christians we are called to servant leadership.  A servant leader leads by serving others. In other words, servant leaders place the interests and needs of their followers ahead of their own self-interests and needs. Generally, they value the development of their followers, building their communities, acting authentically, and sharing power.

Now that we know what each one of these means, hopefully we can apply this to our every day life.  God has anointed us in our every day tasks too.  For instance, I was anointed to be a mother and a wife.  That was where God called me and that is what He set me apart to do.  Maybe you are anointed to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pharmacy tech, a garbage collector, a grandmother, a teacher, whatever it is, God has anointed you to do it.  Your baptismal anointing is not meant to replace any of those other calls on your life.  You are anointed to be a priest, prophet and king in the life you are already living.  Think about your day to day life, how can you incorporate sacrifice into your days?  How can you be more of a prophet spreading the Lord’s Word in your daily lives?  How can you be more of a servant leader right now, right where you are?

The verse then goes on to say my cup overflows with blessings.  This is also great imagery.  I love to picture a tea cup, as we grew up drinking tea in my family.  Although I don’t picture a regular tea cup, the image I am getting is an English fancy tea cup from a china set.  The tea is being poured into it with a steady stream and the cup is overflowing and running all over the table and even onto the floor.  This is how many blessing God has for you. He wants to rain down blessings upon blessings on all of His children.  Sometimes we get in the way of God’s blessings.  Sometimes we don’t appreciate the blessings that we have and so why would God give us more?  Sometimes we find ourselves complaining about all that is going on in our lives instead of praising God and giving thanksgiving.  God has ridiculous blessings for you.  All you have to do is believe that and then praise God for any blessings, even if they are small.  If you can be faithful with the small He will increase your blessings.  He is a good, good Father!

The ending of this verse is beautiful.  “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  We had this word pursue the other day.  I love that word.  This verse is saying that God’s goodness and unfailing love will pursue us all the day of our lives.  Isn’t that wonderful?  We don’t have to chase after God, because He is already chasing after us.  All we have to do is to let ourselves be caught by God’s goodness and unfailing love.  Unfailing love is not like any love we can find here on earth.  It is an incredible love that knows no limits, that knows no boundaries.  God’s love never leaves us.  No matter how much we may try to run from it.  No matter how much we try to reject it or send it back.  No matter how much we might mess up.  God’s unfailing love will pursue you every single day of your life.  How incredible is that?  

And the very last part of the verse says, “I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”  Yes please!  I want to live in the house of the Lord forever. I think we all do.  It is so amazing to me that God has an open door policy to heaven.  All our welcome.  Come as you are, in your broken and wounded state.  You do not have to earn your way, you don’t have to do anything to get there.  Jesus has earned you your right to be there.  All you have to do is surrender to God and let Him help you, let Him give you the strength to follow Him.  Following God is not always an easy road but it is a rewarding road and one that leads to spending eternity living in the house of the Lord.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today.  Lord, we thank you for loving us like you do.  We thank you for preparing us a feast in the presence of our enemies.  We thank you for the ridiculous blessings you want to give us and we are sorry if we get in your way of doing that.  We thank you for making us priest, prophet, and king and we ask for your help in discovering what that means for each one of us and how we can incorporate that anointing into our lives.  We love you Lord and we can’t wait to live in your house forever!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to bringing you another witness tomorrow.  Last night in my class we had a guest speaker named Jim Baker, and he was amazing.  The whole first hour of class he gave testimony to all the amazing healings he has seen.  His church has seen 18 people raised from the dead.  And this is right here in the United States, right in Ohio.  The people who did this were everyday ordinary people.  It was incredible to hear and I will share a few of those stories with you tomorrow.  You won’t want to miss it.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

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God, How Can I Help You Today?

Ezekiel 37:7 “So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.”

I liked this verse for many reasons.  First I love that is shows Ezekiel’s obedience to God.  It wasn’t as if God was asking him to do something easy.  God was asking Him to prophesy of dead bones and make them living again.  Let me read you the whole section.

Ezekiel 37:1-6 says, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones.  And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry.  And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, thou knowest.”  Again he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.  Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Take a minute and put yourself in Ezekiel’s shoes.  God asked him to speak words over the dry bones and they will come to life.  I can imagine that was a little hard to believe.  I will admit I don’t know a lot about Ezekiel off the top of my head.  I can’t list any incredible things that happened before this one and yet I am sure there were many. I mean this is chapter 37, so there is a lot that has happened with Ezekiel before God asked him to prophesy over dry bones and make them live again.  And yet, I still think it is remarkable that God told him to do it and he did it.  I wonder what he was thinking?  I wonder if he knew it would work?  I wonder if he had even a moment of self doubt?  I wonder what that moment felt like when he prophesied as he was commanded and it actually worked.  Do you know what I mean?  I wonder what he was thinking as these dry bones all around him began to come to life. It must have been incredible.  

Another reason I love this passage is because it demonstrates to us that God likes to use us to do His work.  He likes to allow us to take part in his plan and He gives us power to do so.  Do you think God needed Ezekiel to raise those bones?  Nope, he could have easily done it himself.  He allowed him to do it and that is incredible.  Did you know God is wanting to use you for incredible things too?  He is, He really is.  I know some of you, many of you probably just counted yourself out when you heard that statement.  I bet many of you said, he doesn’t want to use me, I am too old, too shy, too young, too buys, too something.  Or maybe you thought you were not holy enough, not outgoing enough, not bold enough, not enough in some way.  That is a lie the enemy is telling you.  Don’t let the enemy lie to you about your calling.  

God is so good and He calls us right where we are at.  I am not saying God is calling each and every one of us to go out and bring his love to every nation.  Although that may be your calling. He does want to use each and every one of us to be a part of His plan.  He is talking to each and every one of us every single day, we just aren’t listening to Him.  What if we started to listen?  What if we started to ask God what He wants us to do?  What if we asked God every morning, “God, what can I do for you today?”  How do you think your life would change if you began each day like this?  Imagine how much faster we could change the world if we were all working with God.  Imagine how many more lives would be touched if we all just did our little part in spreading the word of God and spreading the love of God.  

God is not going to call each one of us to raise bones from the dead.  He is calling some people to do this.  There are people living right now, all around the world that are raising people from the dead.  However, these people have asked God for that gift and have worked hard to cultivate that gift.  They were faithful with the small gifts God gave and they were obedient in the small things and God gave them more and more responsibility as He noticed they were faithful and obedient.  He did not start out asking them to raise the dead and He won’t start out with that for you either.  

Sometimes we are afraid to ask God what He wants us to do, or what we can do for Him because we don’t know what He will ask.  What if He asks us something we can’t do?  What if He asks us to do something too hard for us or something that will make us too uncomfortable?  These are good questions.  You don’t have to feel bad about asking them because you want to make sure you aren’t going to let God down.  He knows this.  The thing to remember is God knows you better than you know you.  He will ask you to do things that have you step outside your comfort zone, and this is so you can grow.  It is also so you can show your obedience.  However, if He asks you to do something and you couldn’t because you were nervous, or you just couldn’t bring yourself to do it.  That’s ok, just try again next time.  I can tell this is the Holy Spirit talking through me today because I needed to hear that too.  God is not going to give you a task that is so important His whole plan would be messed up if you didn’t do.  God knows you, he knows what you can and can’t do and He loves you, even when you can’t do something you feel He is calling you to do.  

In prayer group we have a time where we are all silent and we ask God to speak to us.  Then we all listen and see if He wants to give us a word to share.  Over the years we have found that if he gives someone a word and yet they aren’t sure if they should share it for one reason or another, He will move on and give that word to someone else.  I think this is reassuring because it takes the pressure off us and yet I don’t think we should use that as an excuse to not step forward when we think God might be asking us to do something.  If He is asking He will give us the courage and if He really wants us to do it, He will keep asking so much that we can’t say no.  I have shared this story before, but was reminded of it this weekend and then felt like I should share it again.  

This girl went to church camp and the pastor told this story: his daughter was driving home one day and she felt that God was telling her to do a headstand by the pop machine at a gas station. Of course she didn't want to because it was just so random and she would feel way too uncomfortable to do that. She kept pushing it away and God kept pursuing her. Finally she gave in and drove to the gas station. She walked in and there was only one guy there who is working. She smiled, waved awkwardly and walked over to the pop machine. She looked at him again and he was staring, so she did a headstand and began to walk out. As she was reaching for the handle the man stopped her and asked, "Why did you do that?" And she said, "For some reason God told me to do a handstand by the pop machine." The man stared at her for a little bit he then grabbed a gun from under the counter and set it on top. He said, "Today after work, I was planning on killing myself. I had nowhere else to turn so I turned to God, any God. And I prayed, "If you are real and want me alive send a girl to do a handstand by the pop machine.”

I get all choked up anytime I recall a miracle as I am just so moved by God’s love for us.  This girl heard God asking her to do something and she didn’t want to.  She felt it was too crazy, she was too uncomfortable, and didn’t want to.  Yet God kept pursuing her.  I love the way that is worded.  God was pursuing her.  He wasn’t pressuring her, He wasn’t commanding her. He was pursuing her.  He wanted her to be a part of His plan.  How amazing do you think she felt after finding out the incredible thing God used her for?  I am sure it was rewarding for her to be a part of His plan to save the man working their that night.  She had no idea why she was supposed to do the handstand, and yet she did it anyway.

There will be many times when God is calling us to do something and we don’t know why.  Sometimes we are lucky and just after we do it we can see the reason why we were supposed to do it, and other times, we may never know why.  I remember reading in a book or hearing a story about this preacher who was away on business.  Three of his coworkers at the church had this strong feeling that God was sending them over to the preacher’s house at 3 in the morning to intercede for his wife and children.  They drove over and just prayed outside the house for a few hours.  They are still not sure why they were sent there, but they are sure they prevented some sort of attack from the enemy.  

I am not sure why God doesn’t share the why with us.  I feel like it would be much easier to gather the courage to do a random handstand if we knew it would save someone’s life.  Maybe in the not knowing God is helping to build our trust and our faith as well.  I am not sure.  I do know God wants to use you, just as He wants to use me.  I know He wants to speak to you, He just needs you to listen.  What if right after you listen to this you take a minute and ask God what He would like to do for you today and then try to do it.  Don’t worry, you won’t be perfect at hearing God’s word, none of us are.  Don’t worry, you might not always be able to do what you feel He is asking you to do, it’s ok, He doesn’t hold it against you and He will make sure His will is done even if we can’t do it.  God is not going to put a lot of pressure on us to be a part of His plan.  It is more of an honor and one that He offers freely to all of us.  How can you help God today?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you so much and we can’t believe you invite us in to help with your plan.  We thank you and we want to say yes Lord.  Help us to say yes.  Help give us the courage and the boldness to do as you ask.  Help us to give you quiet time each day to listen to what you have to say.  Help us to ask you daily how we can help you.  You are so amazing Lord and we are so grateful you love us so much!! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Faith Is A Gift

Mark 11:22-24 “ And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.”

I love this verse.  I love it and it is confusing to me at the same time.  I love it because it shows how powerful our faith can be.  It is confusing because I can’t imagine having the faith to tell a mountain to be taken up and cast into the sea.  Do you have passages like this in the Bible?  Verses you really like and at the same time you aren’t sure what they mean or how to interpret them?  Or maybe you really like them and you think they are true for other people but they are not true for you?  I think today may be one of those days where we talk about the verse and yet you might be left with more questions than answers.  We are on this journey together and I don’t have all the answers.  I am learning right along side you.  

I love to imagine what it would be like if I commanded a mountain to get up and through itself in the sea. Even though I can picture it in my mind, I don’t actually believe that I could do that.  It feels way to big and too out there.  A whole mountain, throwing itself into the sea, that seems a bit far fetched.  I know God can do anything.  I don’t doubt that God could cast a mountain in to the sea, I doubt that I could, even if I believed.  It seems to always come down to that.  I believe God could do anything, but I don’t necessarily believe He would use me to do it.  Do you feel this way too?  Yes, maybe God does want to heal people today, but not through me.  I am not good enough for the that, I am not holy enough, I am not Catholic enough, Christian enough, strong enough, you get the picture.  I am not enough for God to use in that way.

Man, what a number the enemy plays on us.  He just whispers these stupid lies into our head and we don’t know any better and we buy them and believe him.  Well, actually, they aren’t complete lies, which is where he gets us.   Yes, we are not enough on our own to have God work through us.  We aren’t worthy on our own, God makes us worthy because He created us in His likeness and image and because we have the Holy spirit inside of us.  God wants to use us, even in our brokenness and the enemy knows this.  This is why Satan left heaven.  He knew from the beginning of time that God was going to make humans and that we were going to mess up and yet God was going to love us anyway.  That was too much for Satan’s pride.  This is probably why Satan attacks us in this way so frequently.  He is constantly trying to tell us that we are not enough and we don’t live up to God’s standards.  However, it is not God’s standards he is wanting us to live up to, it's his own.  He is projecting his feeling onto us.  He doesn’t feel we are worthy.  God says otherwise!

I know it is possible to get to a point where you know God wants to use you for something.  You might not know what but you know He wants to use you or He is using you.  You no longer question if you are good enough for Him to use.  You still might not understand it, as we don’t see ourselves through God’s eyes.  We usually see ourselves through the lens of this world and that is not always kind.  However, you start to see fruit in your life and you know God is using you.  This is when this verse can get tricky, or at least it did for me.  When you are convinced that God can’t or won’t use you, you don’t worry about this verse because you don’t think you will ever have that type of faith so the verse isn’t relevant to you.  

What about when you do believe God is using you?  What about when you do feel you have the faith of a mustard seed?  What about when you feel you believe God is healing in this world and even believe He can use you to do it?  When you believe all of that and then you read this passage you can get discouraged.  Yes, I believe God can heal through me, but do I believe I can cast a mountain into the sea, not really.  I don’t think this verse is about mountains though.  I think God is just letting us know that faith is powerful and whatever we say, if we do not doubt in our heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.”

I think many of us struggle with this verse because we do have faith.  Many of us have seen miracles, and if we have’t seen our own miracles, we believe the ones we read about in scriptures or we hear about on line or on TV.  We know God can do miracles.  We believe, and yet we don’t always get what we ask for.  We feel there is not doubt in our heat and yet the healing we desperately wanted for our loved one did not come to pass.  What do we do now?  How do we reconcile with this verse as we know all that is written in the Bible is truth and yet this verse says if we believe with no doubt in our heart it will come to pass?  This is where the enemy can come in and start whispering half truths again.  See, God doesn’t really do the things you want Him to do.  See, you aren’t good enough for God to heal your loved one.  See, you don’t have the faith you thought you had.  Why couldn’t you just have more faith?  It is your fault this person died.  The enemy loves to make us feel bad.

Have you ever had these thoughts?  Have you ever wondered about this verse?  Have you ever brought this verse to God and asked Him what it means?  The last line in this verse says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.”  I get stuck on this one a lot.  I take this one to God a lot.  I had a friend, a prayer group member, and her name was Iris. Iris was young, kind, so full of life.  I joined prayer group in 2018 and Iris got throat cancer in 2020.  At this point I had been reading all the healing books I could for a year or two now.  I had seen some success when I had prayed over people for healing.  I truly believed that God would heal Iris.  I believed that God would use me to heal her completely and that she would be back to prayer group in no time. In August of that same year, Iris went home to be with the Lord.  

I was so confused and honestly, angry.  I asked God why He didn’t heal her.  I asked why He tells us that whatever we pray for in faith we will get and then He took my friend.  I blamed myself.  Have you done that before?  Have you prayed for a healing or for a loved one to get better and then when they didn’t you blamed yourself for not having enough faith.  I think this happens more often than we would like to admit.  I also think sometimes other people may make us feel this way.  Well, Jesus said if you have faith it will happen so maybe you just didn’t have enough faith.  Honestly, I really struggle with understanding this passage and other ones like it.  

I truly believe God can do anything, I know He can.  There is no doubt in my heart.  But then even as I say that the Holy Spirit brings up some pretty severe illnesses and I don’t doubt that God can do it, but sometimes I guess I doubt that He will do it.  For instance chronic illnesses like Chrons disease.  I know God can heal it, I honestly do. However, it is hard for me to picture Him doing it, if that makes sense.  I feel I did not have any doubt that Iris would be healed and so I was confused when she passed away. I wondered if it was my fault.  If she died because I didn’t have enough faith.  If I could have saved her if I just had more faith.  I know I am not alone with going down this line of thinking.  Although I don’t have any answers and I still struggle to understand verses like this at times, God gave me two pieces of insight during my prayer time that were very helpful.

First, He did actually answer my prayers because Iris is healed now.  There is no sickness in heaven.  Iris is no longer suffering.  She can eat food, swallow, and can talk again.  I am sure she is up there singing with the angels right now.  Second, God told me I can not manufacture trust.  Trust is a gift and it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  I can’t will myself to have no doubt in my heart.  God gives us faith.  There are things that build our faith, such as reading the Bible, learning about God and all He has done, and hearing about miracles that others have seen as well.  If our loved ones, or anyone we pray over is not healed God does not want us to blame ourselves.  God is the one responsible for healing people and He is also the one responsible for making our prayers fruitful.  God has a plan and it is our job to following His promptings.  It is our job to pray over someone if we feel called to do so.  It is our job to step out in faith and say the prayer and then leave the outcome of the prayer to God.  

Hopefully you understand this verse a bit better.  As I said at the beginning of the episode, I am learning right along side you and have struggled with this verse.  My prayer is that I did not leave you with more questions than answers and that if you do have questions you seek the answers.  God is a mystery and we will not understand everything about Him while we are here on Earth.  And yet, we can seek to learn as much as we can.  If you only take one thing away from this episode I pray it is the reassurance that you are not responsible for the outcome of your healing prayers.  You couldn’t have saved your loved ones by conjuring up more faith on your own.  Faith is a gift from God.  

Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we ask that you impart your wisdom about this verse on us.  Help us to understand what this verse means.  Help us to fight off the enemy when he is trying to tell us our loved one death is our fault.  Help us to ignore His lies and replace them with the truth.  Fill our hearts and minds with the truth Lord.  Fill our hearts and minds with your love, your peace, your grace.  We love you Lord, you are amazing!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to meeting you hear again on Monday.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Fall Into The Hand Of The Lord

2 Samuel 24:14 “Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

I had a friend that was feeling very stressed out and unsettled yesterday.  She put on worship music and was instantly settled.  Then the Lord directed her to this passage and where it says, “Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, she saw settle into the hand of the Lord and she remembered that she can always settle into God’s hand and He will be there for her.  She realized she was rushing around to get everything done.  She had so much to do she didn’t have any time for anything else.  She didn’t have time to stop and pray because she needed to get everything done.  She said she was not making time for the one things she needed to make time for.  Once she stopped and just took a few minutes to listen to a praise and worship song and then let go of the tears and started talking to God, she felt so much better.  She had left a voice message about how she was feeling and then after she listened to the praise song and talked to God you could tell in her voice she was doing so much better.  Praise God!  Why do we all forget to turn to God when we are stressed?  Why do we make time for everything else and not for God?  Why don’t we realize that He is exactly who we need to spend time with when we feel unsettled?  Sometimes it can be as easy as sitting down and listening to one praise song, or opening the Bible and reading one verse.  Next time you are unsettled and feeling anxious I pray you remember to “fall into the hand of the Lord."

Let’s take a look at this verse and see what it is saying.  David is saying he is in great distress.  In order to know why he is in great distress we need to look at the verse around this one.  Just before this verse David had taken a census of the people in Israel.  This angered God because people only had a right to count the things that belonged to them, but Israel did not belong to David, they belonged to God.  It was as if David was taking claim over them.  David knew he messed up and so he was in great distressed.  It seems like David should be used of this as he messed up a lot.  He loved the Lord and yet he often did things that were not good.  He spent a lot of time repenting.  

Right before the verse above we have 2 Samuel 24:10-13 “But David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray thee, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.” And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer[f] you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

Even though David did mess up a lot he was very good at repenting.  He was very close with the Lord and he knew he didn’t want to be apart from Him.  He knew no matter what He did God would forgive him if he repented.  This is something I wish we all knew.  I think so many people who feel helpless and feel like they can’t go on in life need to know that there is nothing they could do that God wouldn’t forgive.  There is never a point where they are unredeemable.  As long as they are still alive there is never a point where it is too late.  They could at any point repent and God is right there waiting to welcome them back in, welcome you back in.  

David knew he did something wrong and so he asked the Lord to take away his iniquity.  God spoke to Gad, a prophet, and gave him three choices to give to David.  If David wanted to atone for his sins, he needed to pick one of the three choices God gave to Gad.  Those choices again were, “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land?” The verse above says, “let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.” In this verse David is talking about how he would rather have the famine come to his land, or the three days of pestilence in his land because God is in control of these.  He would be relying on God and His mercy.  However, if he chose to flee from his human enemies for three months he would be falling into the hands of men and the are not very merciful.  

David knew God, he knew his heart.  David spent a lot of time with God and was very close to Him.  God loved David very much.  He blessed him often.  David knew that if he fell into God’s hands God would judge him appropriately.  Not too much, but just the right amount.  David knew he needed to pay for his sins and he trusted that whatever God did would be just.  He knew, even when he had disobeyed and potentially angered God, that He could still turn to him and ask for help, ask for forgiveness.  I wonder if we know that?  Do we know we can ask God for forgiveness, even for things that seem unforgivable?  

I wonder if giving David three choices was a test for him to see if he was going to choose God and his mercy or if he was going to turn to the world again.  How many times have we turned to the world instead of God when we feel we have done something wrong, or even just when we have a problem?  How many times do we seek guidance from the world instead of from God?  How many times do we seek forgiveness from the world when God is the one we need forgiveness from?  How many times do we seek solutions from the world instead of from God?

David knew he messed up and needed to repent.  We all know when we mess up and need to repent.  When we repent God is waiting there with open arms, ready to welcome us back in.  I feel God really wants to get that point across to us today.  He knows we keep turning away and that is ok as long as we keep turning back to Him.  And as we grow closer to the Lord, we will start turning away from Him less and less.  God is merciful and He is there for us, He is waiting for us to set things right, just as David did. And when we do He will have mercy on us just as He did with David.  God loves you very much too!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to repent and to trust that you are merciful.  Lord help us remember to turn to you when we are rushing around and feel like we don’t have enough time to do all we need to do.  Help us to realize if we take the time to pause and connect back to you, everything will run smoother and we will actually get more done.  Lord, why do we always forget that you are our source of peace and comfort?  Help us to remember this every time we forget.  Lord, help us to understand that even though we turn away, when we turn back to you and repent that you are waiting there for us with open arms.  Help us to see there is nothing we can do that is too great for you forgive.  You are awesome Lord and you are so merciful.  We are so grateful for how patient you are with us.  We keep turning away and you keep calling up back to you anyway.  We love you Lord!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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 If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!

Today I want to witness to you about a call I had with a friend.  As I have told you before my class this quarter is on physical healing, which is really cool.  Last Monday we learned this five step prayer model that we can use when we are praying over people for physical healing.  The model has five steps to it, and each step might have a few components to it.  It gives us a guide line to follow so we don’t feel we are all on our own.  Although they made sure to state not to worry if we miss a step.  If you pray over someone for healing and then they are walking away and you realize you forgot to do one of the steps, you don’t have to call them back over to do that step.  Last week I talked about my classmate we prayed over in class to practice this model that we had just learned.  

This week our homework for this class was to pray over a loved one or close friend.  I do have loved ones that could use praying over, however, I did not feel like they would be comfortable with me praying over them.  My father in law has been sick with a cold or bronchitis for over a month now.  I did not think he would feel comfortable with me praying over him.  My husband also has hip pain, but again, I did not think he would feel super comfortable with me praying over him.  I was thinking about who I would pray over when a friend of mine posted on facebook that she really needed some prayers because she was having really hard time right now.  I instantly felt like she was who I was supposed to pray over.  I sent her a facebook message stating what I was learning about in class and that I would love to pray for her for a physical healing.  She said she would love that.

We set up a time when we could do a Facebook call, I think we did later that night or the next night.  I called her and we walked through the prayer model.  I explained that I would be reading from a paper because I still hadn’t memorized the steps yet, and although I might not look like I know what I am doing, God is the one doing the healing and He knows what He is doing, so we should be all set.  The first part is to figure out what is going on with whoever we are praying over.  My friend has had chronic migraines for 31 years and has also, in the last year started taking care of her dad.  She has had to do all sorts of paperwork and things that she did not know how to do and never thought she would be doing.  She also took in her father’s dog to live with her because when he broke his ankle and was in the hospital he couldn’t have the dog with him.  

My friend has been experiencing a lot of anxiety lately with all she has to do.  I explained that next quarter is on inner healing and we will learn to pray over things like anxiety but this quarter is on physical healing.  I explained that I could pray peace over her for the anxiety, but that most of the praying would be for the physical healing of the headaches if that was ok.  She agreed and said if she didn't have the headaches, then that would be a big help with the anxiety also.  She said she has a headache every single day and in one day she could have up to five different types of headaches.  Medicine does not help the headaches either.  

After praying over her for peace and then also praying command prayers for headache to leave and the pain to go away, she said the intensity was less.  She said she also felt a peace come over her.  She said she still had the headache but she said she could feel a little change.  I asked if she wanted me to pray over her again, and she said yes.  This time I prayed a little differently.  There are three different types of ways to pray in the model we learned.  There is a prayer of petition, where a request is made to God to heal, asking as a son or daughter with authority! Power based on intimacy with the Father. “Fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful” (James 5).  For instance you might say, “Father in the name of Jesus, I ask you to let your presence come and bring healing to (fill in the name of who you are praying over).  Next is Prayer of command where an authoritative act of faith addressed to a body part, a sickness or evil spirit. (Matthew 10:1) For instance, “In the name of Jesus I command the bones, ligaments, muscles and tendons, be healed.” For a sickness you might say, “In the name of Jesus I command this tumor to dissolve and disappear.” For a spirit you might say, "In the name of Jesus, I command the spirit of affliction to leave now in Jesus name.” The third way to pray is a Prophetic Act: An action done in the physical realm of what you’re seeing in the spiritual realm that releases God’s power to heal.  For instance, you can ask, “Father what are you doing? Or “How do you want to release healing right now?”

Since I prayed over my friend with prayers of command the first time, I decided to try prayers of petition the next time.  I asked God to heal her headaches, I asked him to heal her anxiety and just fill her with a sense of peace.  I asked for his presence to be known and that he surround her with love.  I am not sure of everything I said, but she said she felt more of a sense of peace and her headache was even better, but was still there.  She could feel it but the intensity was gone.  I asked if she wanted me to keep going and to continue to pray for a full healing.  She said yes.

Next I prayed with a prophetic act.  I asked God how he wanted to release healing right now and I felt as though he said with love.  I felt like He wanted me to let my friend know how much he loved her and how much she meant to Him.  He wanted her to know that He is there with her and that she is stronger than she thinks.  He wanted her to know He is proud of her for all she is doing to take care of her dad.  He wanted her to know that He will never leave her side and that He hears her prayers.  I cannot remember all He wanted her to know but whatever I heard I told it to her.  

A big part of our prayer model is checking in frequently to see if anything is going on with the person.  Do they feel anything?  Often times people may feel heat, tingling, cool, or peace.  This can be normal but is not necessary for a healing.  She was feeling peace.  She said she still did have a headache but she felt this presence all around her.  She said she felt surrounded by it.  I asked if she wanted me to keep praying for the headache to go away and he said that although she was intrigued to what might happen if I kept praying, she also really wanted to sit with that feeling of this presence all around her.  I told her that was a great idea and that I would be happy to pray over her for healing any other time she wanted me to.  I let her go to sit with the feeling of being surrounded by the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and or God. Before going I prayed that God would continue to heal her as she sat with Him and also all through the night.  I prayed for a complete healing of the migraines.  I heard back from my friend a few days later saying despite her bad anxiety she has hardly noticed her headaches, Praise God!! He is so good.  Now Lord, we just ask you to take away her anxiety too!

I hope that by me witnessing to you about the healings I am seeing you will see that God wants to heal all of His children and He wants to use regular people, like you and me.  I know when I said that you told yourself He doesn’t want to use you, but He does.  Each and every one of us has the authority to command pain to go away.  We have the authority to command sickness and spirits to go away.  Jesus gave us the authority and the Holy Spirit.  The same exact Holy Spirit that Jesus used to do miracles is living inside of you, just waiting for you to discover the amazing power that can be used through you if you let it.  You may pray over someone for a healing and they don’t get healed.  This doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means keep trying.  You won’t get a basket ball in the hood the first time you try either.  Maybe God just wants to see if you will be faithful and keep showing up and trying even when it doesn’t work.  

I have prayed over people for years now.  Honestly probably about four or five years I have stopped to pray over people who need physical healings.  Many times I saw no results.  Did I feel discouraged, absolutely!  Did I stop doing it, no!  I kept on trying, even though I felt discouraged because I had read books about people who are doing amazing healings now, restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, people are getting up out of wheel chairs and walking.  All of these people had long periods where they prayed over people and they weren’t healed.  Then one day, they started seeing more and more that were healed.  Still not everyone they pray over is healed.  It is God that does the healing and He is a mystery.  But if you keep showing up and trying He will work through you.  

I going to keep sharing my stories so you can see that amazing things can happen for you too when you are faithful in asking God to use you.  I don’t believe I was born with a special healing gift.  I believe God is using me to heal others because I have asked him every day for years now and because I am willing to step out and faith and ask people to pray over them even though I know they might not get healed.  If you want God to use you, just ask Him.  It might not be for healing, but whatever it is for, just keep asking.  God loves when we are persistent.  If you have been asking and haven’t seen an answer, maybe He is just waiting to see how badly you want it.  Step out in faith as if He has answered you and see what happens.  Keep stepping out with the faith that because you asked, He will answer.  And then share your stories with us so we can cheer you on along the way!

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Love in Truth and Action

1 John 3:18 "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

When I went to the BibleGateway website I use to look up the Bible verses this morning this was the verse of the day.  I loved it, especially since I just talked about how Jesus is love yesterday.  I think this one little verse says so much. Even though there aren’t very many words it says something so powerful and yet something I don’t think a lot of people realize.  I think a lot of people try to love in word or speech.  There are many people that say I love you and yet they don’t really know what that means.  They say I love you with their words and yet their actions say I can’t be bothered with you.  

For instance a person that tells their spouse that they have to work late at the office tonight and then they says, “I love you.”  Meanwhile they are going out to have an affair with someone else.  A parent who calls to say good night to their child over the phone because they have to work late and then says, “I love you,” but heads out to the bar, or to go gambling instead of going home.  I knew a dad who always promised his kids he would come to their games to watch them play football or soccer, but never made it because he was too caught up with his race cars.  This is not love.  Words are not love.  You can say, “I love you,” all you want and yet if truth and actions don’t back it up, they won’t feel it.  

I am not sure if everyone listening has heard of the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, but I am going to quickly recap because it can be life changing.  Gary Chapman was a counselor and I think maybe a preacher too, but I am not positive.  He started to notice that all the couples that were coming to him for marriage counseling were complaining about things that could all pretty much fit into five different categories.  What he realized is that we all feel loved in a certain way and we all give love in a certain way.  We usually give love in the same way we receive love.  The problem with this is that your kids and your spouse might not receive love in the same way that you are giving it.  

Gary Chapman came up with five different ways people give and receive love.  One is Quality time, this means you or your loved one feels most loved when you take time out of your day to spend quality time with them.  The second one is Receiving gifts, this means that your loved one feels most love when you are giving them a gift.  This one is not so much about getting a gift, it is about the fact that you knew enough about them to get them something you knew they liked and also that you were thinking about them.  The third one is Physical Touch.  This doesn’t have to be romantic.  For a kid it could be a high five, or a pat on the back/head.  For a spouse it could just be a hug or an arm on the back as you pass by.  The fourth one is Words of Affirmation.  This means your loved one feels most loved when you are telling them you appreciate them and complimenting them on what they are doing that is good and right. The fifth one is Acts of Service. Acts of Service means your loved one feels most loved when you are doing something for them.  When you wash their car, or do the dishes.  It doesn’t matter what you are doing as long as you are doing it to help them out.  

Take a minute to think about which one of these you might me.  You can take a quick quiz at https://5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/love-language.  I will have a link in the show notes.  The reason it is important to know your love language is because that is probably how you are showing love to others.  Gary Chapman could notice right away when a couple came into his office what love language each person spoke and why they were having troubles.  For instance, once couple came in complaining because the wife said her husband was always out hunting or hanging out with the guys and the husband didn’t understand what the wife was complaining about because he always washed her car, took care of all the laundry and the cleaning up before he left.  Can you see it too?  Her love language was quality time and she didn’t feel loved because he wasn’t spending time with her.  His love language was acts of service and so he thought he was loving her well because he was doing a bunch of stuff around the house for her.

They both loved each other very much, they were just speaking the wrong language.  Gary Chapman talks about how if you are speaking the wrong love language you might be trying to show your loved one all the love in the world, but they don’t understand it as love.  He said it is like you are speaking a foreign language to them.  How many of your loved ones would understand what you were saying if you were speaking a different language to them?  It is important to know your love language and your loved ones language because then you can show them you love them in a way they can really feel it.  I had my husband and my children each take the test so that I would know how to love them best.  Yes, I did have to bribe my kids to take the test, but they still took it and now I know.

Another reason to know your loved ones love language is because if you do the opposite of their love language it hurts them a lot more than other things.  For instance, one of my sons love language is words of affirmation.  That is how he truly feels loved, when we comment all he is doing that is right.  This means when we use negative words, or comment on what he is doing wrong, it hits him harder than the other kids.  He takes it more personally and almost as a betrayal since that is his love language.  I am sure I am not explaining it as good as the book does.  I highly recommend the book.  I bet you could even get it out at your local library.  The books has several suggestions at the end of each chapter about how you can love your loved one in their love language.  Actually I think I am going to make a much more concerted effort during this Lenten season to love my loved ones with their love languages.  

Whether you find out your loved ones love language or not, I urge you to realize that your loved ones either feel love or don’t feel love based on our actions, not on our words.  Are you actions telling them that you love them?  Are you making time for them, are you doing the things you said you would do?  The verse also talks about truth and we didn’t really touch on that yet.  Telling the truth is so important.  Our kids know when we are not telling the truth, so do our spouses.  We need to be open and honest with our loved ones.  When we lie, even if we have the best intentions we break the trust of those we love.  Sometimes we can’t get that trust back.  Think very carefully before you speak and remember that the truth will set you free.  I will end with the verse as it is so good and says it so perfectly.  "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to know how to love our loved ones better.  Help us to show them love in a way they can really feel it.  Help us to love with truth and action instead of words or speech.  Lord, please put on our hearts any ways in which we could love people better.  How can we love you better Lord?  You are so amazing and you show us love every single day.  How can we show you love?  How can we show you are gratitude for all you do for us?  We love you Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to bringing you another witness tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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