I want to share something that Holy Spirit brought to my attention earlier this month, I hadn’t much thought about this prior and my guess is that there are many who will benefit from this post… I also want to add this disclosure, at Holy Spirit’s prompting I am attaching a very personal link – and it is only because I am being obedient to what He is telling me to do by swallowing my pride and adding it. More than anything your prayers are solicited, but if Holy Spirit leads you after reading this post, and if my writings have blessed, encouraged and helped to grow you – I hope you will consider being a blessing in this time of need. Unless He prompts me again, this will be the only post I ever write like this one, I write to glorify God and to encourage, help and be obedient to my calling as a scribe unto the Lord. May God minister to you and bless you as you read on…
Throughout the Bible we read of people (such as you and I) who are seeking God’s direction for their lives. We read of people praying and looking to God for answers, God answers in MANY ways, but one of the biggest ways we see Him answer is when we STEP OUT in faith. We can’t put God in a box when it comes to ways He can (and will answer prayer) BUT we have to humbly be willing to the prompting of Holy Spirit when it comes to how God will answer and what it is Holy Spirit is telling us to do. Let’s look at few examples:
Noah upon hearing from God that it was going to rain was told by God to build an ark, Hebrews 11:7 says:
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
What was Noah’s faith action? Building the ark! Noah stepped out in faith to what was being requested of him. He HAD to be obedient and BUILD THE ARK. The ark that God had designated would save him AND his family.
In Genesis 12:1 We read the example of Abraham STEPPING OUT into the blessings of God, BY FAITH.
“The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.”
Faith requires action and sometimes obtaining the answer to something you are bringing before the throne of the Father, requires setting forth your faith into action. Whatever you are bringing before God requires faith that He will answer you. The Bible says in Isaiah 65:24:
“It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
And in 1 Peter 3:12:
“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
BUT when we pray, we have to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit in order to hear how it is God responds, sometimes the answer to a prayer may be an action item God wants you to do (in faith) in order for that door of blessing to be open to you. For example, are you praying for a job? In order to receive that blessing God may be telling you to step out BY FAITH with that resume and apply! God can (and will open doors) BUT He may be asking you to walk through those doors to receive your blessing! Are you praying for a wife or a husband but are sitting home alone? God MAY be asking you to step out in faith and put yourself out there! My point is, often receiving God’s answer requires a step of faith on our behalf. And sometimes that can be humbling… Let me share my personal example, as it now has become a testimony to what God is able to do:
The ONLY unchanging thing in this life is God. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:8:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Five months ago, my husband (generally a healthy robust man) went in for a small procedure – through God’s grace and God’s hand upon his life, what could have (if gone undetected) had become a devastating cancer diagnosis turned was caught and attended to, but has resulted in many hospital stays and procedures. THIS is one of the reasons why I write in my posts that we should NOT take today for granted, God does not owe us tomorrow. But the Bible also tells us in Exodus 23:26:
“The number of your days, I will fulfill.”
God is the one who is in control of your life, God has had His hand upon my husband. Why? Because my husband BELONGS TO HIM. At a young age my husband made a profession of faith, and IS one of God’s Called Remnants. God IS NOT done with him. God has plans for him. Being a Christian does NOT mean that you will not go through the fire and unexpected trials and tribulations. They MAY surprise us BUT they DON’T surprise God. I attest through this not only because of what my husband and I have been through over the last 5 months, but also for myself, as a 12 year breast cancer survivor. I have written before that I have had people ask me, “Kelly, weren’t you afraid you were going to die?” And honestly, the answer was no. Why? Because MY life belongs to God. I gave my heart and my life to Jesus a week after I turned 21 years old. My life is NOT my own – it is His. My life has ALWAYS been in His hands – NOT mine. The Bible says in Philippians 1:21:
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
My trust for my life, my trust for my husband, my trust for my family and ALL those I intercede on behalf of – is in GOD. Jesus said before He ascended to the Father (in John 16:33):
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
So when trouble shows up on our door – what should we do? PRAY! Because Jesus told us it would come, but 1 John 4:4 tells us:
“Greater is He that is me than he that is in the world.”
My faith, my trust, my life (and those that have also made Jesus their Savior, Lord of their lives) is in HIM. When I am sad, when I am scared, when I am worried – I PRAY! I bring it before my heavenly Father. And whatever He decides, I know He sees in full, while I only see in part. (Read 1 Corinthians 13:12):
“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
Do you TRUST God? I mean REALLY trust Him? Do you believe His promises to you? Do you believe God hears you when you pray? Do you pray with the expectation that God will answer, even when you don’t understand the WHY of why you are going through a situation? THIS is where our faith rubber hits the road! Do you only go to God when things are bad? Do you speak with Him in prayer on a daily basis? Do you believe the Word of God is God’s truth?
It isn’t until things go south, that we come back to what we already know or been told – life changes. Sickness happens. It never was God’s will that ANYONE get sick or die. It is why He instructed Adam in the book of Genesis 2:17:
“…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Sickness, illness and disease was never part of God’s plan for any of us, but He gave us free will. It is part of the fall. But God IS greater than ANY situation that can present itself, He’s greater than sickness, He’s greater than illness and Jesus defeated death on the cross, in fact Jesus says in Revelations 1:18:
“I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
When my husband became ill, although I was concerned, I was not fearful. You see, I am a prayer warrior and I stand with other prayer warriors in intercession. We took it right to the Father. I share this personal situation with you to encourage you – don’t walk in fear, walk in faith! Stand upon your promises, God has given you plenty of them in His Word (the Bible). Link arms with other prayer warriors, remember – we are many members but ONE in the body of Christ. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:12:
“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”
And one of my favorites, 1 Corinthians 12:12:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
Allow people to pray for you and with you and also remember to pray for them! As I began to ask God what to do, being the only one who could work as my husband has been in and out of the hospital, as I brought my financial concern to Him, standing on my promises as a tither and giver (because this is the ONE area in the Bible that God tells us we can trust Him in) take a look at Malachi 3:10:
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
I brought my financial need before the Lord, asking Him to provide. I received a message from a very close Sister-in-Christ telling me, “Kelly you should set up a fund so people can contribute.” My response without even hesitating was, “absolutely not.” I didn’t know it at the time, but that was my pride getting in the way. Over and over again our friends and more importantly, Holy Spirit kept whispering in my ear to set up a “Go Fund Me” and I would not even think about it until Holy Spirit gently rebuked me in walking in pride. What He said to me was this:
“You are praying to me for an answer, yet you won’t step out in faith in what it is I am telling you to do. There are times when I want you to humble yourself and STEP OUT in faith.”
And He reminded me of those I had read in the Bible who had stepped out in great faith and expectation that God would answer. Pride is not of God and pride can hold you back from ALL that God has for you. We can’t put God in a box with the way He is to answer prayer. Sometimes God answers it by letting it rain down (like manna) and sometimes He wants us to step out in faith to walk through the doors of blessing. I write this in obedience to Holy Spirit, but I also write this because there is someone reading this who needs encouragement… Holy Spirit IS answering your prayer, but you are not hearing it because it is not being answered in the way YOU expected. We need to have eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to receive ALL that God has for us – even when it is in a way that is humbling. Be open to hearing from Holy Spirit in whatever manner He is speaking, because the truth of the matter is we ARE dependent upon God. It’s how we were created and to deny that is to deny who God meant us to be in Him. I leave you with this scripture, and then the link that Holy Spirit is having me share, because He is answering prayer for provision for me and my family. Isaiah 55:8-9:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Let’s pray that we can be submissive to whatever it is Holy Spirit is saying to us, and that as God answers prayers, we share the testimony of the how of it with each other… Let’s not put God in a box, but believe Him for GREAT things! It IS God’s desire to bless us. We just have to be willing to step into those blessings that Holy Spirit is instructing us to do so and lay our pride, our expectations to how that is to happen in God’s good and capable hands. God tells us in Matthew 7:11:
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
It is not up to people to dictate to in what manner God can bless you – it is up to HIM who supplies ALL of our needs. I know this personally, because He IS supplying ours… And in return I praise Him and rejoice, because MY God IS faithful. And He answers prayers, we only have to walk in obedience to what He tells us to do and listen AND believe… Praise His Holy Name!
(Click on the link below if you want to be part of Holy Spirit’s blessing to my family – God bless you for your prayers).
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