Healing – Guiding GRACE

Thankful

852F4A78-36B1-4E2A-BF85-A0D3C3E04BB4 *I should preface this by saying I’m heavily medicated at the moment so please forgive any typos and grammatical errors.

Your social media feeds may have been inundated the last 21 days with “thankful” posts much like mine has been. And if you’re like me like right now, you may be finding it difficult to be thankful about anything at the moment.

If you could see me right now (no I’m not posting any photos of myself) then you’d see a girl who hasn’t showered because frankly I don’t have the energy to even stand, I smell like Vicks and essential oils from head to toe, I’ve lived on crackers and Gatorade for days now, and I cry a little every time I have to cough because it hurts so bad. Needless to say, I’ve been finding it hard to be thankful about anything.

A few weeks ago I was with some sweet ladies at a monthly bible group discussing the topic of thankfulness. One of the ladies read a quote from a local ministry:

“Victory belongs to those who give thanks where they are on the way to where they want to be”.

As we discussed this statement, we each took turns saying what we’re thankful for on the way to where we want to be.

Some responded they’re thankful for their health (speaking by faith), others thankful for their marriage even when they’re in the hard times, and some, thankful for their singleness on their way to the husband God has for them.

I’ve thought very long and hard about this while being confined to the couch/bed all week. What do I have to be thankful for?!

I’m in pain.

I’m contagious.

I stink.

I did not want to use my PTO for this.

I’m missing family thanksgiving.

I’m missing the fun of Black Friday.

I’m. Missing. The. POINT.

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God’s will for us is to be thankful no matter what the circumstances are. No, it’s not because He’s wanting to teach us a lesson out of it. God wants us to be reminded that the covenant we hold with Him is greater than any adversity or circumstance you’re going through. And when you begin to give thanks no matter what it looks like around you, instead of mumbling and complaining, we’ll find ourselves standing in the victory sooner than we realize and we’ll enjoy the time spent on the way a whole lot more!

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

1 Corinthians 15:57

So today I’m going to stop giving place to the circumstances around me and instead be thankful for where I am because I know the victory is just on the horizon!!

I’m thankful I have a job and have the PTO available so I don’t have to worry about my bills.

I’m thankful for my Obamacare plan (she said begrudgingly) that makes being sick not quite as expensive as it would have been without it.

I’m thankful for a doctor who has wisdom in how to treat this.

I’m thankful for the God given wisdom to Alexander Fleming for antibiotics.

I’m thankful that even though I’m missing family thanksgiving, I still have a family who will be here tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that!

I’m thankful this isn’t the flu.

I’m thankful I’m recovering at home and not at a hospital.

I’m thankful for dry shampoo.

I’m doubly thankful for Cheese-itz and blue Gatorade.

But most of all – I’m thankful that this battle is already won and the victory is mine through Jesus!

What adversity are you in the middle of that you should start giving thanks for instead of mumbling and complaining about?

Maybe you’ve had a diagnosis from the doctor that isn’t good.

Maybe you’re in the middle of a financial crisis.

Maybe you’re in a marriage where you can no longer see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just remember no matter what it is that you’re facing – your victory lies in the thanks you give where you are on the way to where you’re going!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to give my “to-go” order to my family for my thanksgiving meal – hello pecan pie.

Pure & Simple – *more than just sex

Purity – a topic that is always a hot discussion, yet no one ever really wants to discuss it anymore in public. This week, our youth pastor at church will be speaking on it and I’m really looking forward to his take on the topic.

Personally, I came out of the 1990’s “purity movement” that took most evangelical churches by storm. And now, 20 years later, I look back on it all with a much different perspective than my young, teenage self did at the time.

In the 1990’s, purity was taught (sometimes on a level of brainwashing) as simply all about sex – no sex outside of marriage – period. Churches everywhere were holding “purity ring” ceremonies on every awkward level you can imagine. And don’t even get me started on how this was mainly shoved onto the girls only – the guys seemed to be surprisingly absent from this abstinence message. And they were singling everyone out who didn’t live up to the “pure” standards they set. Because of this, most people tossed out the purity message as not being relevant to them.

So I really started thinking – what was so wrong with the purity message of the 90’s?

I’ve focused a lot these past few months about what His Word says about living a pure life and guarding yourself and I kept coming back to II Timothy and Proverbs.

Sure we can all quote scriptures about sexual immorality and fornication (who ever thought I’d use a word like that in one of my posts?!), but what does living a pure life really boil down to?

II Timothy 2:21-22 NLT

If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.‭

When you set your life aside for God, when you put down your own desires, He will use you in a great and magnificent way! When you put aside your own desires as a sacrifice to Him, everything else will come naturally. But you must do these with a pure heart and the right intentions.

Proverbs 4:23 NLT

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Last time I checked, Proverbs 4:23 didn’t say “guard your V card”, as some would like you to believe. It says “guard your heart”.

Guard your heart from those who only want to mess with it. Guard your heart from what will hurt it – from what it might not yet be prepared for. Guard your heart from the emotional games people like to play. Guard your heart as a precious and fragile gift to one day give to someone. Guard your heart against anything impure so that you can live consecrated and set apart for His good…for His great plan for our lives.

As you begin to live a life pure and set apart for His good, you’ll find that living purely in other areas will come naturally.

And that pure life … it can start today, right now, no matter what your past holds. No matter the choices you’ve made. No matter the consequences you may be living with now. When you give it all over to the Lord, you start fresh and anew, washed clean as snow, with everything of the past cast into the sea, forgotten, never to be brought up again by God.

Start living your life set apart for Him. Let your thoughts and speech be pure (even I am working on this). Let your life be an outward example of the greater one who lives on the inside of you.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that sexual purity isn’t important – I’m simply saying it’s only one aspect of the pure life we should all be leading.

Purity is about more than just sex! Purity is also about living a life that is pure, no matter your past. This is what should have been taught back then. And it’s what the purity message should be from here on out.

So remember, It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in your past – determine today to live your life pure as a gift, not only to your future spouse, but as consecrated and set apart for the one who gave His all for us!

Putting Feet to Your Faith

I can remember growing up, one of my favorite songs was, Screen Door by Rich Mullins. It seemed that it was always playing on our drives from the rent house to the new house my parents were building at the time (ah, the ’80s – a moment of silence please for this great decade). As a kid, I used to laugh at the lyrics because they were so preposterous. Why would someone ever put a screen door on a submarine?! But as I got older, I realized how poignant the words really were.

Faith without works is like a song you can’t sing. It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

I wish I remembered who first said to me “it’s time to put feet to your faith”. It has been a statement to live by in this Christian’s life – although I haven’t always done so, I resolve to live this way from here out.

Thinking back to writing about Cannonball Faith, having faith is one thing. But are you actually using what God gave you?

I’ve had my ups and downs at my job over the past 10 years, and there’s been more than one occasion where I would come home set on the idea that I was going to quit the next day. But I never did. Which is a discussion for later on being in the right place, at the right time, in God’s will. But every time I’d come home and begin to gripe about the current situation, I’d be asked “What are you doing about it?” Which of course my response was always “I’m praying about it. I’m praying the right job in.” <— pretty sure that’s the adult equivalent of your child coming out of Sunday school and asking them what they learned, only to receive the ‘one-size-fits-all’ quizzical response of “Jesus?”.

But you know, praying about it, and believing by faith are both great things to do…but God didn’t give us faith and the Holy Spirit to just sit around on our keisters being armchair believers – believing by faith, but not LIVING by faith – not putting works (action) to our faith.

The Bible is full of examples of men and women who not only believed by faith, but put that faith to action until they saw results. Two specific examples come to mind of literally putting feet to your faith: Peter walking on water and the battle of Jericho.

Peter had faith. He had great, walking-on-water faith. But remember too, he had the same measure of faith we’ve all been given. He could have stayed sitting in that boat, watching Jesus on the water. He could have answered like most Christians do when it comes to believing for something by faith – if it’s God will, then He’ll bring it to me. But he didn’t. He put feet to his faith and stepped out of that boat on to the unknown, on to the water. (Matthew 14)

It’s the same for the Israelites and the battle of Jericho. They could have easily camped outside of the city walls and used their faith, praying every day, for those walls to be removed. But no, they used their faith and obeyed God and what he asked of them and put their feet to work. They marched, and blew the ram’s horns, and gave a shout just as God had directed them to do so, and as the song goes, the walls came tumbling down. (Joshua 6)

Matthew 17:20 speaks of mountain moving faith – speak to the mountain to move and it will move. I really wish there was an asterisk after this verse though. So many get stuck on believing and confessing that they forget to put action to it. If I could put an asterisk next to this verse it would say “Speak to the mountain to move and it will move, however, if God puts a shovel in front of you, put it to work until that whole mountain is moved.” and then refer everyone to James 2:17 that “faith without works, is dead”.

This is where I think a lot of Christians get hung up with the believing and confessing part without the action part of faith.

When one of my aunts received a diagnosis of cancer years ago, it was a big blow. I love her dearly and for very selfish reasons did not want to see her die – she’s my spiritual rock, my go-to, my intercessor. So I began praying about it and received my own new revelation of God’s word and the wisdom He gives us. Believing for healing is great…but you better know you’ve heard from God and have had a come to Jesus meeting before you make the decision to believe by faith ONLY. God gave us doctors, He gave those doctors great wisdom and medicine – it takes just as much faith to believe for that medication to do what it is supposed to do and for those doctors’ hands to be guided by wisdom as it does to sit back and just believe for a supernatural healing. And just because your healing came through the actions you took guided by the Holy Spirit, doesn’t make it any less of a miracle and it doesn’t make you any less of a good Christian believer for doing so!

With this rhema, I drove myself up to her and sat down to ask her “Are you choosing to believe only for a miraculous healing because that’s what God has told you to do, or are you making that decision out of fear of the unknown with treatments and surgery?” When I went to see her a few weeks ago, she talked about that weekend when I came to see her several years back and as she said “preach to her and bring her back”. Which is definitely what I did. I had a boldness that weekend when I went to her and got in her face about it – I had my faith to believe for the miraculous, but I also had the guiding of the Holy Spirit in what action to take with that faith.

By the way, my aunt, she’s still here….and she’s cancer free, praise God! She put feet to her faith.

So whatever you are believing for in your life and using your faith for, are you putting feet to that faith? Are you putting action to your beliefs and confession? Or are you just going to be the armchair believer?

God gave us all the same measure of faith to use in our lives. The outcome of that faith, (the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen – Hebrews 11:1) however, will be dependent on you seeking wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit on what action to put with your faith. If your New Years resolution was to get healthier and lose weight, you can believe, and wish, and pray for it all you want…but until you put action to it and change your lifestyle and change the way you eat and change whatever else God directs you to change, you won’t see the same results. Are you believing for a new job? Don’t just use your faith and pray about it, but seek God on the steps He wants you to take – where to begin looking, where to put resumes in, who to speak with, etc.

Faith is a precious gift from God to us. Don’t let yours become stagnant and dead, having no action behind it, or pretty soon it’ll be as useless as a screen door on a submarine!