Old things are past, new comes

I have always believed that there is far more to the Bible than meets the eye, and have noticed links everywhere.  One thing that has been in my mind for many years has been where it says, at the end of verse 26 of Genesis ch.4:-  'Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD' 

 

The next verse, verse 1 in chapter 5 of Genesis reads:- 'This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.'

Yet there is no mention of the fall in this version of man being created, and the first child of Adam mentioned here is Seth.   There is no mention of Cain or Abel.

I am reminded of the two Adams spoken of, the first being 'a living being' and the second being 'a life giving spirit.'  in 1 Corinthians ch. 15 vs. 45 - 49 :-

'Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.  But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.  The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.  As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.'

In Hebrew the meaning of the name Seth is:-   'Anointed; compensation', and I believe that Seth is symbolic of born again believers.

The word 'compensation' means:- something awarded to someone in recognition of loss, and this is exactly what was done for mankind through Jesus' sacrifice.  When we become believers in Him we are 'anointed' of the Holy Spirit and receive the award of eternal life as compensation for our loss gained through sin. It is a free gift, we do not earn it through any righteousness of our own.  I have been singing a song for days now that I wrote years ago, which reminds me of this fact.

 

If ever I'm feeling righteous, and think I can't be wrong

I pick up my guitar Lord and sing this little song

I tell myself another time there'd be no good thing in me

if it wasn't for my Saviour, that man from Galilee

If ever I feel forsaken, when my friends have all turned their back

and I'm thinking is it worth it to walk this lonely track

I think about a garden, it's called Gethsemane

It's where my Saviour cried and sweat great drops of blood for me

And if I feel like glorying in something I have done

I turn my eyes to Calvary and look at God's own Son

I see the pain and anguish upon that lovely face

and I see His broken body as He hangs there in my place

Yes I see Your broken body Lord, as You hang there in my place

 

  

2 Corinthians ch. 5 v. 17 reads:-' Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come'

There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament.

In Genesis ch. 5 v. 5 it states that:- 'Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.'  The Hebrew meaning of the number 930 means 'Old things are past, new comes'. Matthew ch. 1 is the 930th chapter of the Bible and I do not think it is coincidence that the first chapter of the New Testament speaks about the birth of Jesus, which is absolutely symbolic of 'Old things are past, new comes'. 

It is as if the bringing in of the second Adam  (Jesus) being written in the 930th chapter of the Bible spiritually represents the Adam of the Old Testament being done away with and the Adam of the New Testament forming a new version of mankind, and as if it was spiritually prophesied that this would happen in Genesis ch. 5 when we read the Hebrew meaning of the names. 

God's word is timeless and He can speak to any individual at any time through any word in the Bible no matter when that word was written, and I believe that as we mature in the Lord we come to understand the oracles of God more.

 

What was done away with was the having to continue as fleshly mankind, under the curse, the crucifixion Jesus went through being of the fleshly body.  What was brought in was  the ability for mankind to be born of God's Holy Spirit, and 'as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.'

I thank my God that He so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son Who verified that love by becoming the sacrifice for our sins. 

The Power of Love

There's something about You Jesus
that just escapes my mind
about how You cause the lame to walk
and restore the sight of the blind
and how You can take the lowly
the broken hearted ones
and place them in Your kingdom
to bring them up as sons

There's something about You Jesus
there's something about Your face
though I can't see any features
I see wisdom, compassion and grace  
There's something about those eyes Lord
that shed those tears for me
there's something about those healing hands
that they fastened to that tree

What made You say 'Father forgive them
for they know not what they do'
when they saved the life of Barabbas
and they chose to crucify You
I know what that 'something' is Lord
as I look to my Father above
It's the one thing that covers all others
It's Your totally unselfish love

Without You as my Lord

Without You as my Lord, I have no King
without You as my first love there's no song to sing
without You as my eagle my spirit can't soar
without You as my gold I will always be poor
Without You as my life there can only be death
for by Your Holy Spirit I draw every breath
without You as my Saviour I'm lost and forlorn
so praise God, Hallelujah that I've been reborn

Don't lean on your own understanding

I have found the worst enemy I can have as a born again believer in Christ  is my carnal mind.
The carnal mind considers anything that does not fit in with its limited earthly knowledge to be foolishness, and that in itself fits in perfectly with scripture:-
'But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' 1 Corinthians ch. 2 v.14
                                                                                                                  

Also, the battle I have as I work out my salvation by listening to, and endeavouring to act upon, the Word spoken to me daily is not with flesh and blood.  It is a spiritual battle as spoken of in Ephesians ch. 6 v. 12:-

'For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.'

 

Some time ago I wrote a poem regarding my struggle with this spiritual enemy which emphasized to me just how this battle is won:-

  

I'm on the 'Never mind him - follow Me' course

the subject I'm studying is 'love'

I have the best tutor that money can't buy

He's been sent down from God above

Patience, kindness and lack of wrong-doing

are the skills that I'm hoping to learn

and when doing my homework through life's daily trials

there's a reference to which I can turn

 

It's a book called the Bible that can take away strife

a manual (Emanuel) where I can receive
every promise of God that is 'Yes' in the name
of the Saviour in Whom I believe

For all the promises of God are 'Yes' in Christ.  And so through Him, our 'Amen' is spoken to the glory of God.'  2 Corinthians ch. 1  v.20

There is a scripture that says 'No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the LORD. ... Jeremiah ch. 31 v. 34 

The Lord highlighted this scripture to me many years ago when I first became born again of His Spirit.  Paul also speaks of this in 1 John ch. 2 v. 27 when he says to the believers:- 'But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in Him.' 

The 'anointing' spoken of here is the anointing of the Holy Spirit

Acts ch. 10 vs. 34 - 38 testifies to the anointing of Jesus by God:-
'And Peter opened his mouth and said: 'Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.  You know the word which He sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all), and the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.'

Although we may not be able to teach one another, what we can do is encourage and build up one another '   

There are many little incidents that happen daily that speak spiritually to me.  One of these happened recently.  The winds had been very strong in the area where I live and, as I looked out of my lounge window onto my front garden one morning I noticed that a bud had snapped off one of my dahlia plants.  I brought it in and put it in a glass of water, supporting the bent stem with some  paper kitchen towel.  It slowly began to strengthen and raise its head.

A few days later I noticed another stem broken on the same plant, this one in full bloom.  I brought that in and placed it in the same glass of water.

As I looked at them in the glass I was reminded of how we as believers can go through turbulent times whatever our maturity is in our walk with the Lord, but if we stand together, persevering and being sustained with the water of the Word, we shall be strengthened and come through those challenging times together.

1 Thessalonians ch. 5 v. 11 verifies this:-
'Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.'

 

Nothing is impossible with God if we remain in Jesus, trusting in Him with all our heart and not leaning on our own understanding, and allow the anointing of the Holy Spirit to teach us God's ways.

                                   

 If God is for me

If God is for me who can be my foe?
that the Master loves me is all I need to know
Can tribulation, trial and fear
make me give up hope when my Lord is near
Can worldly woes and misery
keep me tightly bound when I've been set free?
No - God the Father heard my cry
and because He sent His Son to die
then even sin - my enemy
always crouching at my door
at Jesus' name must bow the knee
and trouble me no more

Who do we follow?

Ever since I have been born again of God's Holy Spirit I have endeavoured to go wherever the Lord leads me.  Most importantly is the going out into the streets with a sister in the Lord with leaflets that we believe the Lord encouraged us to put together many years ago soon after we met, which we hand out to people who wish to take them.

We can truly say that we have never had a rude or aggressive response from a person when we do this.  We get people who do not want to take a leaflet, who actually are very polite and apologise for not taking one.  As in John ch. 6 v. 44 Jesus says 'No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them' we know that it is not the time for those particular people. 

Then there are the people who we believe God  is calling to Jesus, we being either the ones that plant or the ones that water. It is only God Who can add the increase, as it says in 1 Corinthians ch. 3 vs. 7-9 'So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labour.   For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.'

Just as there is a time to be born in the physical there is also a time to be born in the Spirit. 

 

We also get people who are believers who stop and talk to us and that is good,  as Acts ch. 7 v. 48 states ' However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:' and in Matthew ch. 18 v. 20 'For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.'

When I look out of my lounge window I can see a church building that has closed down , and I have to wonder 'Is this because man's  traditions have made void the Word of God there' and so God did not add the increase?

Out in the streets my friend and I are able to speak of Christ crucified freely to people, and we see many people drawn to Him and wanting to know more.

Sometimes we can be deceived in thinking that everyone who speaks in a church is speaking the Word of God.  However, we are told in the scriptures that there will be wheat and tares growing together in the kingdom of heaven.
Recently, my friend and I were in a church gathering that the Lord had led us to a few weeks previous.  The pastor there invited the Holy Spirit to come.  It went quiet, then I felt a song come into my mind and I began to sing it.  It was the chorus 'My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing that He can not do'.  After I sang those first lines I was stopped by the pastor.  I said, 'But you asked the Holy Spirit to come '  He told me that he had been elected as pastor by the people there so he could tell me to stop.  Both my friend and myself told him that the scriptures said otherwise, and we referred to :-

1 Corinthians ch. 14 v. 26  which says:- What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.

I have to say that I would think  the chorus I felt led to sing would have built anyone up.  He still would not change his mind.  Then I said 'It has come into my mind to shake the dust off our feet', and my friend said that it had also come into her mind. The pastor said 'Then shake the dust off your feet' 

 

  I felt very strongly to reach into my bag for my Bible and opened it to Acts ch. 13 where verse 51 and 52 read:- 
 ^'But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Ico′nium.  And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.' 


I have to say that the first verse is exactly what we did and the second verse is exactly how we felt. Last night I had a very vivid dream where I was at a Christian wedding.  I was approached by a young man who brought several little children to me and asked me to look after them.  There were people at the wedding who I knew to be adulterous, I could hear them but could not see them.  I felt this was revealing the spiritual adultery  within the church as in 'teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' (Mark ch.7 v.7)

I feel that my dream is a warning, and that we must look after God's spiritually young children.  We must encourage them to seek the Lord for all truth in a time of the wheat and the tares being in the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN,(Matthew ch. 13 vs. 24-30) and not allow the infiltration of man's traditions to make void the word of God, (Mark ch. 7 v. 13) thereby allowing the thief to rob them of the truth. Whatever anybody says to you, search the scriptures to see if it is true.

Jesus says in Matthew ch. 4 v. 19:- 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'
 That is what I would encourage all who are young in the Lord to do.
   

 

Time, and the timeless Word of God

A few years ago my sister bought me a clock for my birthday.  It was black, wrought iron and matched the curtain pole and the light shade in our bedroom.  I loved it and wanted it on my bedside cabinet.  The trouble was, we already had and still have a clock there, a radio clock with an alarm.  This clock is digital and the time shines red in the dark.  I like to see the time during the night so I  kept it where it was.  I then had two clocks on my bedside cabinet. 

As I looked at them they emphasised to me life, and the choices of how I fill the time spent in it.  One was decorative, cannot be seen in the dark, and had no alarm.  The other can be seen shining brightly in the dark and has an alarm that is able to tell all who hear it that the dawn is coming.  I have a choice, as a Christian, whether I carry on as a person who knows Jesus as my saviour but does not share the good news of the gospel, or whether I shine that light that has come into my life in this dark world, and contribute to the salvation of others who don't know Him.
 

At that time I was attending a writers' circle and a lady at that week's meeting related an incident when a peacock was amongst a group of children.  She said that the children gazed in awe when the peacock displayed its beautiful tail.  Before that, the peacock had just been another bird to the children. 

 I have a small peacock ornament in one of my plant pots.  I noticed one day that the body had faded but the tail was as beautiful and bright as when I had been given it some years ago.  The body of the peacock is synthetic, but the tail is made from real peacock feathers. What was man made had faded, what was created by God had not.

We have all been given gifts, as part of the body of Christ, for building one another up to spiritual maturity, and we must all function with those gifts.  Otherwise, the body of Christ on earth will be like my peacock, part man made, part God created.  That which is of man fades with time, only that which is of God can remain forever.

The power in the word of God is amazing.   It is foolishness to the carnal mind, but to those who are born of God's Spirit it  has the power to transform us into the image of our Lord, to draw all mankind to it, (for just like those children gazed in awe at the beautiful tail of the peacock, so too does that word of God have that kind of power over mankind).  It has the power to  do what man can not do, and has the ability to remove doubt and cause faith to increase.  

An example of this to me was when, this morning, I asked the Lord to give me a word of encouragement regarding His promise of healing my body (as my trust in this long, on-going trial was being severely tested over the last few weeks ).  After asking Him this I opened my Bible to where I had previously underlined Matthew ch. 21 vs. 21 and 22 which reads :-
'And Jesus answered them Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to this fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will be done.  And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.'

We are told in Romans ch. 15 v. 4 
'For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.'

I could not have had better encouragement to endure the trial and continue trusting in the Lord for the promise of God (my healing) which is 'Yes' in Jesus.

On the front of my computer there is a picture of a place north of where we live.  I have always had a scripture on this picture which is also great encouragement to me every time I turn on my computer.

 

I have been shown many times in that word that there is a time for everything, including healing, and that my times are in God's hands.

 

All that is necessary for me to receive that promise to me is to continue to 'trust' and 'believe'.

 

 

Will He find faith?

A few weeks ago  I was anointed with oil and prayed for by the pastor, and a few others, of the church group I had been attending since we have moved here.  It had taken some time to get this to happen as when I first asked if this was done there I was told that it was not.  Before they prayed the pastor started speaking to me about 'religion'.  Then, when they prayed, one of the men prayed for 'the spirit of religion to be removed.'   I thought this was quite strange, but did not say anything then.  When we came down from the upstairs room where the prayer had taken place I noticed a plaque on a wall with the word 'achieved' on it.  I thought 'Oh, that might be a nice sign to say that my healing has been achieved'.

 

Several days later, when nothing had started to change in my body, I was reminded of what had been spoken of regarding 'religion' and the prayer for the removal of 'the spirit of religion'.  I thought 'Are they saying that the anointing with oil and prayer for the sick was regarded as 'religion', a spirit that had to be removed'?  The following Sunday I questioned the man who had prayed regarding this and didn't really get a satisfying answer.

  

That morning my friend said that when she had come in to the church a lady had come over to her and said that the anointing with oil was in the Old Testament and was not to be done now.  My friend told her that it was in the New Testament and that I had actually had an instant healing through this being done when I first became born of God's Spirit in Australia, and at that time the Lord had shown me through the scriptures that it had been the 'prayer of faith' made by the elders of that church that had brought the healing about.

For several weeks the words 'Will He find faith'? have been constantly coming into my mind.  All this is now causing me to wonder if the 'achieved' I saw on the wall was a message to me of proof of what I believe the Lord was pointing out to me had been achieved,  the fact that there is a lack of faith in the church. 

 

Hebrews ch. 11 v. 6 says:- 'But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' 
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  If we mix the Word of God with the word of man, or take away or add anything to scripture,  then we are in danger of 'making void the Word of God through the traditions of man,'  as did the Pharisees in Mark ch. 7 v. 13

I believe that a dream I had while all this was gong on, and a scripture I opened to the next day, is confirming what I feel is being revealed to me here:- The dream may appear to be a little crude, but I believe it was necessary to reveal what the Lord was showing me.
 
In my dream I was given a large beautiful house to live in.  It stood apart from other houses and had everything I needed in it and more. I walked around to a street  where a lady was saying how lovely was her house.  There were large houses in that street, but something caught my eye in the gutters.
At first I thought it was water running down the gutters.  Then on looking closer I could see it was a substance that condoms are made of that was lining the gutters. Then I awoke from the dream.
That day, when I opened my Bible to read, I opened to a page that had a section of a verse underlined.  I must have done it a while back.  It was the last part of Jeremiah ch. 5 v.7....'and trooped to the houses of harlots.' 

Although this is referring to the Israel of the old testament, the church is classed as 'spiritual Jews', (Romans ch. 2 v. 29,) and  the same scriptures apply spiritually to the church, God's spiritual Israel. 

Now the dream made sense to me.  I believe it is reflecting that the church, or 'house of God,  (as the church is the one combined 'house' that God dwells in)  is committing spiritual adultery when mixing the Word of God with mans' doctrine, and can become many 'houses' with mixed doctrines, through what should be the Water of the Word of God being replaced by the doctrine of man.

We have allowed the spiritual thief to rob us of the faith which comes from hearing the Word of God, and therefore miss out on the content of that faith, which is the 'substance' of things hoped for.  A few days ago I believe I had an incident happen which could be a sign to accompany this.

I was looking out of my lounge window onto the garden at the front of the house.  A magpie had landed on the soil and had a large white object in his beak. He dropped the object and started to dig a

hole in the soil using his beak.  Then he picked the object up, dropped it into the hole, and covered it over with soil once more using his beak.

When I went out to see what the bird had buried, I was amazed to find out that it was a large piece of fat with bird seed contained in it. I thought 'No wonder the Magpie is called 'the thief.'  It reminds me of the thief (Satan)  stealing and hiding the food of the birds 'heavenly creatures' ( those born of the Spirit.)  Isn't the enemy trying to bury the word of God in earthly doctrine (the doctrine of man) in so many churches these days? 

As 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God' (Romans ch. 10 v. 17),
  the Word of God must be above all other voices in my life, and I must not let circumstance cause doubt in my mind regarding the promises of God which are 'Yes' in Jesus. (2 Corinthians ch. 1 v. 20)
 

A recent example of this happening in my life is as follows:-
 

Because my healing had not come as my mind expected it to come after the 'sign' experience with the television programme, (contained in my last post)  and the prayer with anointing of oil finally coming about, I started to be a little fearful that the Lord was not going to heal me.
I had thought that my healing was going to be achieved when the pastor and elders of that church had prayed for me and anointed me with oil, and I thought the television program showing a dark skinned man praying was a sign of who was to pray because the pastor of that particular church was also dark skinned.  However, what was actually 'achieved' through all of this happening was me being shown that there is a lack of faith in the church in general.  There was no scripture to connect with the fact that the person who was to pray would be dark skinned, and I could see that the purpose of the people who prayed was to try to convince me that the anointing of oil was 'religion' as opposed to being 'instruction to the church', and that they believed that I had a 'spirit of religion' which had to be removed.  I believe absolutely that those instructions of anointing with oil are still to be carried out in the church today, and if a person praying for someone does not believe this then there is a lack of faith there.

Yesterday I went with my friend to a church gathering I felt led to go to that I had noticed while driving to my friend's house.  The pastor there spoke on Psalm 16.  When I opened my Bible to Psalm 16 I found that some time ago I had underlined one of the verses in that Bible.  It was verse 9 b which reads  'my body also dwells secure'
 

This was the only encouragement that could have convinced me that the promise of healing that I have had from the Lord will come about.  My convincing had to be from the hearing of God's Word, whether that be the prayer of faith of an elder or my own faith that comes from the hearing of God's Word , which I felt was spoken to me through v. 9b of Psalm 16.  I have prayed, and often do pray, for the Lord to increase my faith in Him, and He encourages me to trust absolutely in what He speaks to me regardless of what my eyes see and my ears hear.

 

Today I noticed a dove in my front garden and I took a picture of it through the blinds.  I thought it might fly away if I opened the blinds to get a clearer shot.  In the picture the blinds make the dove look like it is behind prison bars.

Even this picture portrays to me the Holy Spirit (represented by the dove) being imprisoned (deprived of freedom of movement), which I believe is happening in the church.

I believe all of what I have gone through has shown me that the Holy Spirit is being restricted by the church allowing the spiritual enemy to come in and rob us of our spiritual food - the Word of God, thereby robbing us of the blessings that God has for us.

When I first asked about this at that church I was taken to an upper room by an elder to discuss it.  In the room was a book entitled 'You are being used', and I believe even that speaks about how I have been used to bring out the fact that there is a lack of faith in God's word in the church today.

I continue to say:-
I will love Thee O Lord my strength. (Psalm 18 v.1) as I wait upon Him for my healing.

Am I being used?

For the last three months, since we have moved to this house, I have been attending a church a few miles away.  I would like to share some things that have been happening while I have been going there. I have written it all down and it will probably be done in three posts and, as the situation is still on-going - and as 'I know not what tomorrow brings' - it could be more than three.

Saturday, 2nd January 2016

I went to Emmaus charity shop,  saw a bottle of olive oil on a shelf, thought 'strange'.  That night I was in much pain and could not sleep.  I always ask the Lord for help.  Suddenly in the middle of the night all pain disappeared.  It was completely strange, as I have been in this 'Job' situation (with pain in my legs and joints for well over a year), yet with a promise of complete healing for a situation I have been in for over twenty odd years being given to me by the Lord when this started.  I turned back and forth in the bed with no pain at all and knew it could only be a supernatural situation brought forth by the Lord.  The bottle of oil came into my mind and I felt some kind of connection.  I said to the Lord, inspired by a scripture which came into my mind.  'Give Your beloved sleep', and went straight off to sleep.  I then had a dream in which I saw two dead fish.  Suddenly they came alive.

This reminded me of dead mankind (as in Adam all die) coming alive in Christ (so in Christ shall all be made alive) through Jesus' instruction in Mark ch. 1 v. 17 to 'Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men', and how  the 'dead fish' come 'alive in Christ' once we are born again of God's Spirit.  I also was reminded of how we have access to the gifts of the Spirit including access to healing and miracles.  Was the Lord pointing this out regarding the bottle of oil and the fact that I had seen it in a place with the name 'Emmaus'?

It was on the road to Emmaus that two of the apostles met Jesus, but they did not recognise Him.  It was only when He broke bread and gave it to them that their eyes were opened and they did recognise Him.  The bread represents the word of God and we are able to recognise Him through that word given to us with the Lord's blessing.  The Lord is that word which is the same yesterday, today and forever. and we are not to be carried away by strange and varied teachings. (Hebrews ch. 13 vs. 8,9....).

 

The next day I shared this and some of my testimony with a man who I believe is an elder in the church, saying that I had prayed for the gifts of healing to operate there and I wondered if the Lord might be indicating that this would happen through my experience, and if it was a time for me to be healed by the anointing of oil and the prayer of faith.  I had previously asked him if they anointed with oil there, to which he had answered 'No', but said that he would discuss it with the pastor.  After the service I went to the charity shop to see if the oil was still there. It was not,  and the staff there said that they did not know of a bottle of oil being on the shelf the day before.  I believe it was supernaturally done by the Lord to reflect the fact that it had not been done in the church.

On Monday 11th January my husband and I were on the way home from a town a few miles away and he mentioned that he would like some roast pork. We called into a store and he dropped me off outside the entrance and said he would wait in the car park.  I went in to find that there was none available.  When I came out I looked for him in the car par but could not find him.  I searched and searched but could not see our car.  Suddenly my mobile phone was ringing in my bag.  When I got it out I noticed that the name that came up was Merlyn, my husband.  I said 'Hello, hello', but there was no response.  Then I remembered that I also had my husband's mobile in my bag.  It appeared to be completely supernatural.  I heard a car beeping and it was my husband parked a way off.

Suddenly, I could see a spiritual meaning to it all, relating to what was going on at the time.  The mobile that belonged to my husband being in my handbag and calling me on my mobile, yet with no response, reminded me of a situation where the Lord (the bride's husband) is calling His people to obedience through the instruction in His word, but that word is being made void because the church is not acting on that word.  In the book of James we are told that if anyone is sick, they are to call for the elders of the church and they will anoint them with oil and the prayer of faith will make them well.

That night there was a drama on the television called 'Judge John Deed.'  One of the stories in it was a court case between the medical profession and a couple concerning a young child.  For two years since the child was born, he had been kept in hospital because he had problems, his heart kept stopping.  The medical profession (doctors) had restarted his heart several times but the child was in a coma and they wanted to stop resuscitating him.  However, his parents said that they were Christians and believed that God would heal their son.  It was eventually granted by the judge that the parents had the right to see if their son would be healed through their faith.  Shortly after, the child came out of the coma and was healed.  The doctors said it could only be a miracle, as nothing as far as science was concerned could account for his healing.  The father of the child, who had prayed, was a dark skinned man and I can not help thinking that maybe the pastor in the church that I attend, who is himself dark skinned, is supposed to anoint me with oil and pray for me.

When the drama on the television started I knew what was going to happen and told my husband that a miracle was going to happen.

In church I had seen upon the wall in the tea room a plaque with the words 'expect a miracle' written on it, and over the door one with the word 'believe' written on it.

My friend in Lancashire  called me a few days ago and I told her where I was going to church and that I believe the pastor had some kind of connection with a group in the past called 'Hot chocolate'.  She told me that one of their songs was 'I believe in miracles.'

When I first spoke to the elder in the upstairs room of the church, telling him about my testimony and the bottle of oil, I looked to the left and saw a book with the words 'You are being used.' on the front cover.  I have to wonder, am I being used by the Lord in this situation?

What I have written here was the first part of what has been happening in my life over the past three months.  God willing, I shall write another part of this testimony.


 

Time out

We are in the process of moving, will be off the blog for a few weeks.
God bless all