Thursday, February 2, 2017

The Final Test - 313 - January 2, 2017

The plane leveled off and I searched for the button that would let me recline a couple of inches. Unable to find it, I mentally kicked myself for choosing the seat before the exit row. It had been so long since I’d flown I had forgotten that this row doesn't recline.

It was hard to believe that I wouldn’t see my husband, Tony, or my kids for more than three weeks especially considering my destination. I had a firm, strong feeling I had to go and help take care of my in-laws. I wasn’t 100% sure it was God behind the urging until Tony came on board with the idea. My hubby’s support for a trip of this length was a minor miracle. I was still getting used to the new firm “knowing” style of speaking that the Holy Spirit had begun using to guide me.

My mother-in-law, Carol, was in the hospital recovering from pneumonia. She had been immobile so long that it would take physical therapy to get her to the point where she could get out of bed with minor help. My father-in-law, Jim, just had back surgery and didn’t need to be lifting anything… hence my extended stay.

I had been in Houston for a few days when Carol was finally moved to rehab where her personal items were placed in a drawer. This included some really good lotion. It started off simple enough: her back was itchy. Knowing it was probably dry, I offered to put lotion on it. This led to rubbing her achy legs with lotion. That firm, almost unnoticeable knowing of the Holy Spirit urged me to put lotion on her feet and rub the bottoms of them.
“She’s not able to stand much; maybe this will help her legs feel better.” I thought as I rubbed lotion into her feet and massaged them a bit. What I had done didn’t really hit home until I much later.

Alone at the house, I lay on the bed meditating and worshiping God. Suddenly it occurred to me: I rubbed some nasty, gnarly feet and didn’t even flinch! I hate feet… I mean I really, really hate feet. That whole story about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples… ewe! Slowly the realization dawned – I must have been operating with the Holy Spirit. Only He could have me do something like that without even thinking twice about it.

I sprang up out of bed, “I was flowing with the Holy Spirit… I passed a test!” I shouted. “WHOO-HOO!”

The voice of the Spirit cut though the excitement like a cold breeze through an open window, “The test isn’t over.”

My head dropped and a small sighed escaped. “This trip is a test…” I thought. Joy overcame me again, I whispered, “I passed part of the test!” adding a hushed, “whoo-hoo!”

The next day when I went in to see Carol a startling sight greeted me. Outside her window as a bird feeder. A large gray bird, more than three times the size of the sparrows, was trapped inside the clear rectangular box. Jim pointed out that it was a morning dove.

Both Jim and Carol were convinced that the “greedy bird got itself into that predicament and it could get itself out if it really wanted to.” I insisted that it was stuck and went to go and free it.

As I approached the feeder the sparrows flew away with loud chirps of protest. The morning dove hopped and tried to spread its wings but couldn’t get out. When I tilted the box onto its side, the bird hopped to the edge and flew off to safety.

The Holy Spirit began speaking to me as I sauntered back inside. Jim had left so it was a good time to talk to Carol. I began cautiously, asking the Holy Spirit to guide my words. “Carol, I think God sent that bird as a sign. In the Bible the Holy Spirit is often referred to as ‘like a dove.’ That bird was stuck, just like you are stuck in your body right now. You can’t get up and do what you need to, but with one touch of God’s hand, you can hop free just like that bird! I believe God wants me to pray for you to be healed.”

Carol smiled and said she was tired. I rolled her onto her side then went into the hall to call my friend Kristy. After I relayed what happened we prayed and asked God to keep speaking to Carol.

A couple of hours later I’m hunkered down in a chair typing away on my latest book on my laptop when Carol says, “My goodness, that bird feeder is going to come off there. It must be really windy for it to swing back and forth like that.”

I looked up in time to see the feeder swinging wildly upon the metal hook. “I don’t think that is the wind. It would take a hurricane to make it move like that when it is so full of birdseed,” I declare, “I think God is trying to get your attention to what He did with that feeder!”

Despite this sign, Carol didn’t want me to pray for her. When I would ask she always said, “Maybe later.” In that firm “knowing” I was sure that after I left and came back, she would be ready.

Saturday, February 28, 2017

The visit with my sister was wonderful. It was every bit as filled with signs and wonders from God as my time with my in-laws. The night before we planned to drive back to Jim and Carol’s house, Bobbi got a phone call from the parents of an old high school classmate, Richie. They were calling his friends to have them come and say goodbye. Richie had just got out of surgery and they didn’t expect him to live long.

Richie had a rare disease which had caused the bile duct from his liver to shut down. This caused a lot of liver damage. The doctors had hoped to cut off some of the liver suffering from cirrhosis. When they made the first incision into the liver it bled uncontrollably. They said he had necrosis of the liver. In other words, his liver was dead. They sewed him back up and said there was nothing they could do.

On Saturday morning, we headed out to the hospital in Dallas: it was only a few hours from my in-laws’ house. A quick discussion revealed that Bobbi and I had both prayed the same prayer for Richie the night before. We worshiped and prayed on the way, believing God had a purpose in all this.

The late night and early departure wore on me and after a while I leaned back in my chair for some “meditation.” Internally, I had a frank conversation with the Lord. “You have called me as a prophet. I’m not going to just go off and do something on my own. If you want me to pray for Richie to be healed, please let me know!”

Minutes later, I saw myself standing beside a hospital bed. Then I saw a gray lumpy mass that was black on one end. The black seemed to be spreading into the gray. The vision shifted perspective; I was now looking at the underside of the mass. There was a bright pink of newly healed flesh which was quickly spreading into the rest of the mass, restoring the gray and the black.

“Hey Sis,” I said, as I sat up in the seat. After telling her what I saw, I asked, “What do you think?”

Bobbi answered my question with one of her own, “Do you think God wants you to pray so He can heal Richie?”

“Well, people on TV say that they see pictures in their mind and then call out things that God wants to heal… maybe this is what is happening to them. Could I be seeing pictures like they do?” I sigh, “I don’t have any idea how to do something like this… I’m going to pray and ask God what to do.”

It didn’t take long to get an answer. I heard myself say, “Jesus loves you. He sent me here to pray so that you would be healed.” I thought, “That sounds like a good thing to say…” Less than ten minutes later I sat up again.

Bobbi and I rejoiced the rest of the way to the hospital. When we got there, I did what I heard myself doing. As I prayed, I felt the tingling of the Holy Spirit it my forearms: I could sense a tangible presence surrounding our hands by a foot and a half.

It didn’t end with the prayer. Afterwards, the Spirit overcame me for about two hours. I witnessed to Richie about what God had been doing in my life – the three healings, meeting my guardian angel, and the big highlights of my walk with God. After two hours, my body went limp. It felt like I had ran a marathon. My thoughts were sluggish and it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other when we went to the car to find a place to get some dinner.

The Bible speaks of this exhaustion. The prophet Elijah killed 400 priest of Baal then outran a chariot. Afterward he was so exhausted he lay under the shade of a tree and asked God to let him die. An angel had to bring Elijah food twice before his strength returned. (1 Kings 18) The Word of God also speaks of Jesus withdrawing from the crowds because He was tired after He ministered.

At dinner Bobbi said she felt the Holy Spirit enter Richie in a big whoosh while I was praying. By the next day Richie was showing great improvement. He was released from ICU three days after the surgery and from the hospital 10 days later. Richie says he feels stronger than he has in years; the incision stretching across his entire stomach healed up and he was up and moving about normally after being home a little more than a week. We are waiting on the test results to confirm what we already know: he has been miraculously healed!

When I returned to my in-laws’ Carol was indeed ready for me to pray for her. After saying a brief prayer I sat on the edge of her bed. “Carol, your healing will come as you do what your physical therapist tells you to do. Just like that bird, you need to hop to the edge and you will be free.” A strength rose up inside me, “This isn’t me talking to you. This is what God is saying. You need to put all your effort in doing what the doctors say and God will add his super to your natural and you will recover miraculously.”

The next day the Spirit of God came upon me when I was talking to Kristy on the phone. I began to prophesy. It was like I couldn’t hold back the words and what God was saying. God has not released me to give that prophecy now, but part of it was that my ministry with Him has now begun. I passed the test!

The full impact of the trip didn’t take hold until the night before I was due to return home. I had purchased my ticket on Priceline. Tony asked for the exact time of my return. Since I let them chose the time to save money I hadn’t looked closely at my return flight. Putting on my glasses I searched for my arrival time.

Excitement surged through me as I spotted the exact time of my landing: 3:13 PM. Most flights land at numbers that end in five: 3:15 would have been normal. 3:13 PM was God speaking. Back when God first spoke audibly to me I asked Him to speak to Tony so that my husband wouldn’t be able to deny the blessing of God when it came.

Tony is an engineer: numbers are his thing. Over a one week period he received the number 313 three times. (The entire story is available for FREE in Angels Believe in You). Since that time we have been watching for these numbers. Receiving them to mark this trip was pretty miraculous.

One more little note: God’s people, the Jews, don’t keep a calendar like we do – no AD or BC. As they recon it, this is the year 5777. If you add up the numbers Tony received 3 + 1 + 3 it equals seven. He received the numbers three times: 777.

All these things taken together, it seems clear. It has begun. Not in any way that I imagined. I am now on the job and every day seems to bring new revelation. Many of these are included in my new FREE books.

FREE Books

Believers' Boot Camp series

Believers' Boot Camp - Volume One
Why Doesn't God
Speak to Me?
Believers' Boot Camp: Volume Two
Keys to Authority
for Every Believer
Believers' Boot Camp: Volume Three
Destroying Curses in the
Courts of Heaven

Many people think of boot camp as a place you train for combat. Any veteran will tell you that basic training is about three things:
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  • Learning how to use those weapons 
  • Receiving orders and following them 
Believer’s Boot Camp series is a collection of books which teach us how to hear more clearly from God with the goal to ready ourselves for a face-to-face meeting with our Lord, Jesus. The series reveals the “weapons and tools” God has given us and how to use them, so we can bring God’s kingdom to Earth. Each book in the series focuses on a single topic to clearly define one tool or weapon from our Heavenly Father. 

The series uses the Word of God to reveal all that He has given us through Jesus. The Bible is our instruction manual and the Holy Spirit is our guide to understanding it.

Why Doesn't God Speak to Me?

Eager hearts cry out, hoping for a single word to confirm that He hears us. Yet, many times the only sound is silence. Over the years I have heard several reasons why God speaks to some and not to others. One night, as I tossed and turned, I brought each of these reasons before the Lord, stating why each of them did not line up with who I thought He was. 

Words rose from my soul, pleading for Him to reveal why He has remained silent when a single word from Him would mean so much to so many. For the next few hours, God used things I learned about years ago and things I had just discovered to show why He talks to some and why He doesn’t, and in demonstrative ways. 

In His grace, He also showed me how people could hear more from Him. Basic instructions on how to hear more from God and how to be led by Him are included in this book. Thank you for taking time to consider the answers I received and share with you now.

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There is untapped power that is easy for every Christian to access in the form of authority. The keys to this authority will unlock weapons we can use to free ourselves from the attacks of the enemy. We must be intimately aware of the bounds and limitations of our weapon if they are to be used effectively. 

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