I had an amazing thing happen on Sunday, which I should have shared sooner. Someone once told me to tell of your testimony to someone within 24 hours. I had the intention to, but I let it pass. I apologize. God showed me that even though I am late sharing, that I would be good to share it now. It’s almost 4:44p on the 11th day with a 33 in the code to get into my account. Lots of numbers pointing the way to God’s work. If you don’t like the numbers idea, I understand. For me the number 4 is open door, the number 3 is God the Father, Son, and Spirit in one, and the number 1 goes with divine completeness.
What a good Father we have…
During service, we were looking at Lot and his wife. We were reminded to not turn back to the old things and to look forward to God. Even though Lot was saved and looked toward God’s direction, he settled out of fear on Mount Zoar. This means tiny mountain. We were asked who is on this small mountain in their life. I raised my hand with eyes closed in the sanctuary. What God has me do is for Him and if others see, it’s not a big deal. God seeing is the important deal here. Initially we were asked to raise our hand privately. Then, we were asked to walk up to the pulpit and declare being stuck in Zoar ourselves. I saw what I am settling for and walked forward towards the more He has for me and you.
What followed?
After we walked up gradually, others were asked to come around us and pray. I had some ladies come around me, 3 of which gave me a Word from God. When I received this Word, I felt that it was for someone through this blog. That is why I should have posted sooner, in my mind. The first lady told me that God said I needed to let go of my past issues. I have held on to them for far to long and it’s time to let go and release it to Him. I agreed. You see, I was hurt at a very young age. There was physical hurt as 5 years old followed by being used by teenage boys. Along with that was all the pint up anger and bitterness along the way. There were lies I allowed myself to believe about myself and others.
The next two ladies…
The next lady mentioned that she could see a waterfall coming over me. It covered me fully, but gently and was all around. This water was fully cleansing me, refreshing, replenishing, restoring, and renewing me. She continued with seeing Jesus Himself reaching out and taking my hand to walk forward to a new pathway. The third lady said to take one step and focus on Jesus. Just keep walking and focusing on Him. I agreed and took a physical step forward to put action to the words. The first lady told me then to praise God for what He has done. I sang out in praise with the music that was being led.
What does all of this mean?
This means that my Lord sees me and my suffering as He sees you. He sent these prayer women around me and they were speaking the truth into my life. He will do this for you, also. This showed me what I need to do to go forward, proving that I am on the right track, but that I need to get back on course. The mountain God has for me is bigger than the place that I have settled for all this time. It’s time to rise up and seek God like my life depends on it, because it does. What is on Earth will pass away. We are here to get to the eternal kingdom with Jesus and God. The fight is on.
Am I fully healed and free of struggles?
This is the time the enemy sees what he doesn’t like and gives a fight in all areas he can try to. The enemy will try and hit me on all sides. There are lots of struggles still. All the struggles matter a little and a lot. Some struggles will teach me something about me and my relationship with God. This is why God said to praise Him in trials and tribulations. The struggles here are only for a time and that is why I say they matter a little. What we can do through them and in them is focus on God and speak His promises over ourselves boldly. Speaking the truth more and more diminishes the evil. If you keep complaining, you bring more issues. I struggle with this. If you give thanks, you get more good things because of where your focus is.
I am fully healed because He told me I am…
As I let go of the things of the past, He has healed me. He has covered me with the blood of Jesus for my sins and freed me of my debt. I am a new person, not because of what I have done, but because of what God did for all of us. He has made a way for us to let go, forgive as He forgave us, and move forward. Again, I reiterate, not because they deserve forgiveness. It is because of us realizing our need to be forgiven and being able to forgive others for sins, regardless of the human level we put on their sin. If you look, you can see some areas where you messed up in a similar way. That can sometimes be why we are so agitated at the sins of others. I am preaching to myself here.
Does this make sense?
This may make sense to you and it may not. You see, God’s ways are not our ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9) We humble ourselves to be servants to do His work to build ourselves up. (1 Peter 5:6-9) Pride will make someone fall (Proverbs 16:8) and humbleness brings them up. It’s an interesting thing to take place when you see it happen. There is a person in my life that I had this work on. They made me so angry and frustrated. I forced myself to think of things I was thankful for with this person and the annoying and bad things diminished. Not because they stopped doing these things, but because it wasn’t worth it to fuss about after some thinking through.
How have I had to humble myself?
To add to that, I have had to step back and think through what I have done. I am a mom. My child doesn’t like to get up easily in the morning. What I tried so many times didn’t work. Yelling didn’t work, being nice didn’t work, all the things I tried. Then, the thought of a different part of my day was that I want to be respected and have someone listen to understand. Instead of reacting in high emotions to this person, I let the matter go a bit before confronting it. Sometimes I would pray about it and others I didn’t. I would be upset, let them have their school day, think about it and calm down, then discuss it with them when we were both calm and not rushing to the places we had to be.
Did this work right away?
No, it was a process. The more the matter was put off allowed more healthy communication to happen. I would ask clarifying questions sometimes. Other times, I would just try and figure out what happened. We both had time to process the morning. I communicated my needs for the morning and that it was stressful. It was more in the more of telling the truth in love and not to be right. There was a mutual respect and realizing that we were both trying to problem solve and not about who’s right and who’s wrong. We were both communicating our needs and understanding the others needs. It is far better to lower yourself than to ruin a relationship for a lifetime over small things that seem big at the time.
For all situations…
If there is a high energy, good or bad energy situation. There needs to be a step back and calm down to refocus and regroup. I say good energy, because that happens with buyers remorse. You are excited about the item, you buy the item, then you don’t really need the item as much as you thought. The bad energy, where there may be selfishness and pride in the way, is the little things that annoy you. Someone didn’t do this. It was important to you to have it done. Is it worth ruining the relationship or dinging/damaging it to get your way? Is it that important? To me, relationship with my kid is more important than them getting to school on time. They deserve respect as I deserve respect.
Should you let them walk all over you?
They should not always get their way and there should be consequences to their actions that relate to their actions. However, the way to communicate and get them to listen to understand shouldn’t cost the relationship. God is patient and gracious with us, so we should model His behavior with those closest to us. In my thoughts it’s God first, husband or spouse, then your children. Therefore, you need to have compassion and reason when talking to the kids. There is a level of respect and kindness needing to take place while implementing the rules and consequences. When you are direct and have a gentle and firm answer, they will know and understand that you mean business with little kickback.
In other words…
When you are willing to be respectful and listen to understand their side, they are more able to reciprocate this behavior you have displayed to them. If you take to heart what they say, then they will be more willing to take to heart what you say. This won’t happen for every situation, but they do reflect our behavior. This is why the closest people get so frustrating to us. They are sometimes reflecting what we do and we can give out what we can’t take. It’s something God has helped me understand in the last 5 years of counseling and work. Do you need a counselor, not necessarily. All you need is the Word to direct your steps.
Prayer of Thanksgiving…
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for this revelation. Help me to get back on track with You. Lead others to this step with You as they need in their walk. Each walk is different for each person. You are such a gracious and merciful Father and we don’t deserve all You have done for us. You chose to do it anyway. We thank You for the Love You have for us. You are an amazing Father. Thank You for Your Word and relationship we get to have with You. We lift this up and all that is coming to You Lord. You know what we need when we need it and You cover us all with Your promises. We thank You for Your work in and through us. Help us reach others for Your glory. Thank You for Your help, in Jesus’ mighty and precious name, Amen.