SAVED BY A PRAYER

Our visiting granddaughter Edan and our daughter Pam wanted to go to the local Haunted Castle for an evening of enjoyment at the young children's portion of what we used to call a fright house. Fortunately the owner has added a 10 and under portion to the normally very fearful other sections of the Haunted Castle. Grandson Jesse had already left to go to a friend's house to watch a football game. Gramps wanted to accompany the others to the Castle, as did our other sixteen year old granddaughter Lindsey. They all traipsed off to the Castle and I stayed home to clean up the kitchen after dinner.
After cleaning the kitchen I felt the urge to go sit in the rocker on the deck and enjoy the delightful Indian Summer evening. I saw the evidence of lighting in the distance which looked more like a July 4th sky with fireworks dancing all over the sky. I surmised that it was more evident close to the Castle where the others were enjoying the early Halloween festivities. Since it is my unusual habit to pray when alone, I began to pray in the Spirit, or in God's language as i usually call it. In the past I've found that those prayers have 100 % success rate.
After praying for a long time, I decided to turn on the TV to see what the weather local channels had to say about the weather. The skies were beginning to look ominous even though we had only had a few sprinkles of rain.
Immediately after I turned on the TV the phone rang and Pam said that they were were on their way home, but they had to wait in line of cars to exit the Castle grounds. I was glad to know they were okay and on their way home because the TV newscasters were alerting people to stay indoors because of the abundance of lighting in the area.
When the four adventurers walked in the door they looked like soaked dogs who had been out in the rain all night. Their hair was soaked, their clothes were drenched, their shoes were soggy and their adrenalin was high. Their tale was exciting. It seems like they had left the Castle in a light sprinkle of rain but they had to walk to the car in a roundabout way. Before they reached the car the skies opened up and rain began pouring out of the sky in a blinding stream with lighting striking and loud thunder immediately followed the lightning, a clear indication that the lighting was stinking right above or around the hurrying crowd who were exiting the Castle in a mad rush to their cars.
The girls were frightened. Five year old Edan was petrified of the power of the lightning right above their heads and the loudness of the thunder immediately following the lightning. She screamed and wanted her mom, Pam, to carry her the rest of the way to the car. Lindsey said she almost cried with fright. She grabbed Grampa and held on for dear life. Pam was carrying an open umbrella in one hand and carrying Edan with the other arm trying to run as fast as she could. Pam told me that she felt the lighting power in the umbrella when it struck. Edan told me that the lightning hit her and her mom, "Right here," motioning to her ribs areas. She felt something in that area of her body because she knows very little about lightning and thunder, being from the west coast area.
I know beyond a doubt that God saved my family and the others in the crowd from the damaging power of that lighting. Why else would I have the urge to sit on the deck and seeing the lighting flashes feel the urge to pray?
Saved again is all I can exclaim. God has saved us many times before and He certainly saved us again.
The storm added another frightening dimension to the Halloween festivities at the Haunted Castle, one that we could have done without. But God is in the business of saving us and He did it in a wonderful way again.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, again and again.

PROACTIVE

During Steve's healing of cancer, while the Prayer Posse was gathered together to pray for him a friend was praying in Wisconsin all day for God's perfect work to be done.
She said later that the image came to her mind (a vision) and the words came from God that this was like a teenager who had acne and used Proactive to cure it, which it did. Then two more little pimples came on his face and he panicked. All he needed to do was use the Proactive again.
She said that the word proactive means a lot in this instance.
I looked it up and it means interference between previous learning or recall or performance and later learning. Also means acting in anticipation of future changes.
So that word from God means that Steve is supposed to not speak words of negativity or defeat, but he is to speak words of healing and perfection. In other words, pro means before. And so proactive means celebrating the healing before it is manifested. The tumors will disappear when he is proactive, celebrating his healing before it is completely manifested.
Thank you, God, for those instructions to Steve.

DIANE, ISAIAH AND THE BURING COAL

Loyal friends are hard to come by. I am so fortunate to have many friends who stand by me in times of trouble and in times of joy,
During My husband's battle with a devastating disease, all of our friends and relatives have been praying for a powerful end result to the battle, knowing that God has the solution already in progress.
One day Diane, a true and loyal friend, sent us via email a picture of a hand holding a ball of fire. It was confirmation to us that God has the power to burn out the tumors and restore my husband's body to perfection. I printed out the picture and it printed out in the largest size possible, a visual representation of God's participation in the healing.
For two or three weeks a scripture had been coming to my mind. Only a portion of the scripture bombarded my mind regularly. I intended to look up the scripture so I could know what it meant, surmising that maybe there was more meaning to it than the phrase that played over and over again in my mind. The phrase was, "And His train filled the temple."
Okay, I kept wondering, what makes up the train on God's adornment and why is it important enough to come to my mind over and over?
I finally took time to look up the scripture and it was in Isaiah 6. The first verses tell about Isaiah's vision of God. It described His train on His robe filling the temple. As I read on in the chapter Isaiah described the seraphim angels. Then he said that one of the angels had in his hand a burning coal which he had taken from the altar. Then he touched Isaiah's lips with the burning coal and said that his guilt was taken away and his sins were forgiven.
Glory be to God. The image in the Bible book of Isaiah of the hand and the coal was identical to the image Diane had sent to us.
It is said that out of the mouths of two or three witnesses a thing is established. The picture sent by my friend and the scripture that was constantly impressed upon my mind by the Holy Spirit were identical. That made two witnesses with the same identical image, a hand with fire in it.
God is so wonderful. Talk about a loyal friend. He's our Father but He is also our Friend. I remember that when I became an adult my earthly mother and father became good friends. They were still parents but they were also friends. It's the same with God, He's the most loving and powerful Father available to men, but He's also the greatest Friend, one whose presence and communion are available every second of the day.
Now, isn't that a great gift from a Father and a friend, letting us know that God is actively involved in the healing and restoration of my husband.
Diane is a friend of mine and a friend of a Friend, too. She knows Him intimately, just like I do.
Coals of fire from God through the angels to burn out the disease, I love that image. Thank you, God, for that image through Isaiah, and thank you Diane for the same image. Two loyal friends, an earthly one and a Heavenly One, how could I be so lucky!

photo from anger de braburt

MINISTRY OF THE BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLY

What gives you faith? What boosts your faith? We have found out that there are various ways for our faith to become boosted to a high level. With certain situations in life, we need jet fuel boosts of faith. With other situations we merely need lighter fluid boosts of faith.
During my husband's second battle with cancer, which had been treated and was temporarily in remission, at the appearance of new tumors on the CT scans we became in need of jet fuel boosts of faith. God provides them every time. We never suspected that a butterfly would be a vehicle that God sent to catapult us up to a higher level of faith.
I write three blogs and one is called Dear Ones, in which I write some encouraging messages from God every morning. One of the writings related to God telling us that we don't need to carry burdens, that He is the burden bearer for us. That writing spoke to me and to others in a mighty way, but when my friend Diane in Wisconsin added a wonderful picture to the writing on the blog it really became a visual lesson from God.
The picture is of a blue butterfly who has a huge rock attached to it by a long rope, and the butterfly is trying to pull the rock up a flight of stairs. That was a brilliant visual representation to me of the lesson in the writing.
I printed off the writing, along with the picture, to take to the Bible Study group that I've taught for over 25 years. One of the ladies was unable to attend the meeting that day, so the hostess sent her, via another lady, a piece of special pie that she had served that day. As an afterthought she sent the printout of the butterfly with the rock and the writing from God.
At the Bible study meeting the following week, the recipient of the pie and the printout told about the butterfly on the handout, that it was a Blue Morpho Butterfly, a special butterfly found only in another county. She told us that there is a legend that anyone who catches the Blue Morpho and then releases it, that the butterfly will take the person's deepest wishes to the Great Spirit who will grant the desire.
That story and legend piqued my interest, so later I researched the Blue Morpho butterfly on the internet. I learned in the information that there is a movie about that legend. The movie is based upon a book, a true story of a 10 year old boy who had inoperable brain cancer. He only had three to six months to live. The boy had a butterfly collection and wanted to have the rare Blue Morpho butterfly for his collection. The story is that somehow the boy's mother contacted a famous scientist and convinced him to take the boy to find a Blue Morpho butterfly.
The movie is about the search for the elusive butterfly, but a woman hears of the boy's desire and catches a Blue Morpho and gives it to the ailing boy. The boy released the Blue Morpho instead of adding it to his collection. The true story ends with the boy hearing the news from his doctors that the brain cancer has disappeared.
The word morpho means to change in form or sutstance.
That jet fuel faith booster spoke volumes to my husband and me. We know the power of God and we know the power of faith.
The miracle of our story is that Diane in Wisconsin added the picture of the Blue Morpho butterfly to my blog writing that related to letting God carry our burdens, then God used another friend and her generosity in sending the pie and the printout to another friend who eventually told us about the Blue Morpho butterfly and its importance relating to my husband's illness.
The true Blue Morpho Butterfly story was a powerful reminder to us of God's ability to heal, but the convoluted way that God got the testimony of the healing of the little boy to us was the real faith booster. It provided the jet fuel faith that we needed to give the burden to God and let him provide the avenue of healing for my husband.
I don't know how God does it, but he comes through every time with His comfort, His wisdom and His jet fuel faith boosters.
A bonus to the printout of the butterfly trying to pull the rock up the stairs is that the shadow of the wings of the butterfly on the wall in the picture form a perfect heart, signifying God's love for us.
Is that a personal love letter from God or not? I know it is, and God's signature is the heart shaped shadow on the wall.

photo from: Sherryl Frauenglass A Woman's True Voice