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

GOD'S SERVANTS

Dear One,

Begin to consider the serving professions and ministries in your world. They are diverse in their duties, but they exist to serve mankind, enhancing the lives of people There are cooks and chefs who prepare food for you. There are waitresses and waiters who serve food. There are firemen and policemen who protect you. There are counselors who help guide you into productive paths. There are child care workers who nourish your children. There are teachers who instruct you on how to succeed in life through education.
Then relate that to My ministering angels, sent to spiritually do the same things in their services for My children. If you will check My Instruction Book you will see that they are multi-functional. There are angels who deliver My messages to people. There are angels who work alongside My children in their professions. There are angels who protect you. There are angels of wisdom who enlighten you with the wisdom and knowledge of My Holy Spirit. There are angels who war against demonic spirits in the heavenly dimension, protecting you from devastating events. There are angels who minister comfort to you like they did to Jesus after He refused to participate in the temptations of the devil. I have multitudes of angels whom I have appointed to assist you in your earthly journey.
Ministering spirits minister to you as well as for you. A ministering spirit often brings messages to you from Me and from others, often called intuition.
Spirits of wisdom, knowledge and revelation are ministering spirits, sent from Me to enlighten you.
Spirits of grace and mercy and goodness are ministering spirits. There are ministering spirits of intelligence, of kindness, of purity, of gaiety, of humor, of discernment.
My Holy Spirit is the ultimate authority over all of My angels, My ministering spirits. His presence in your life authorizes My angels to perform for you and minister to you.
Stay in total unity with the Holy Spirit so that you will be conscious of the working of My angels, your servants.
A servant performs for, protects, maintains, supplies, repairs, installs, distributes goods for and upon a master. That's what My hosts of angels do for you. Those are their duties, and many more.
Appreciate the ministry of My Holy Spirit and His workers in your life. They are your greatest assets because they are gifts from Me.

Love, God
Hebrews 1:7; Hebrews 1:14; Hebrews 2:1-4; Matthew 4:11

DOMINION AND POWER

Dear One,
My Spirit yearns to gain ascendancy in the earth again.
Once a being has occupied a place of honor and respect, He yearns for that position again because He knows the benefits of having dominion over the negative principalities and powers of the air who are the instigation of all evil in the world.
When men gave authority in the earth to evil spirits, evil invaders, then My Spirit was relegated to an inferior position in the earth by men. After Jesus defeated the evil spirits in hell, He eventually sent My Spirit into the earth again to live inside of any person who requested His presence. Then My Spirit regained authoritative ascendancy in the earth again, taking His rightful position.
With My Holy Spirit's ascendancy comes the full permission to perform My assigned works in the lives of the people who give their wills over to Him. Then that person has also gained ascendancy in the earth again, with power that was previously unattainable. Because of My power within him, he has gained dominion over diseases, over addictions, over crippling emotions, over strife, over wars, over depression, over anger, over enmity and every evil work. In that person's life things become as I intended them to be, free from bondage to any demonic influences.
As you exercise your authority through using My powerful gifts, then My Holy Spirit has gained ascendancy and He is Lord in the earth again, just like He was when Jesus walked in your dimension. In that scenario, My angels go to and fro in the earth, doing as My Spirit commands to bring perfection to everything that concerns you.
My Holy Spirit delights in His appointed tasks. So do the angels who accompany Him, they love their professions.
Love, God
I Corinthians 6:17-19; I Corinthians 12: 7-11; II Corinthians 3:17; Ephesians 1:17-23;

UNEQUAL EXCHANGE

I give God my problems,
He sends me His love.
I give Him my troubles,
He sends peace from above.

I give God my garbage,
He turns it into gold.
I give Him my failures,
He sends joy a hundred fold.

BLACK HAIR, BLACK JEANS, BLACK SHIRT AND BEAUTIFUL
T. Wieland Allen


There aren't many things that are edifying in the oncologist waiting room at a famous cancer hospital that my husband and I frequent every three months. My husband had a rare kind of cancer and we go the Houston treatment center every three months to receive the news that all is well as far as his remaining healthy.
Most of the people in the large waiting room have some visible sign that they are suffering from the devastating disease,. These people have the worst kind of cancer, which is called sarcoma.
Every one of the patients waits for his appointment with the oncologist, praying to hear good news about themselves, and their caregivers also await encouraging news relating to their loved ones. Many of the patients are missing one or more limbs, some on crutches, some in wheelchairs, some being carried by parents. All the patients have that same look of desperation, hoping that they will hear good news, but fearing that they will hear bad news.
Different languages are spoken by the patients and their families since this hospital is known worldwide as the king in the treatment of sarcomas. Even the kind that affected my husband is a rare kind, since only about 200 patients a year are diagnosed with it.
Different styles of dress are always represented also in the room. We usually see a Muslim woman in her customary dress with her hair covered. Sometimes we see women with black robes and black head gears plus facial coverings, with only their beautiful brown eyes peering out to observe others. We've seen men in long robes with rolled up scarves adorning their heads. We've seen Colombians, Greeks, Italians, Germans Palestinians, Japanese, Chinese and American, plus other nationalities in the waiting room.
God creates interesting scenarios for His children. We saw an encouraging one unroll this week.
Walking into the waiting room is an experience in itself because you will always see visible effects of the disease, starting with the missing limbs. Those effects are quickly evident
Upon entering the waiting room, while my husband registered with the nurse at the appointment desk my eyes landed on a beautiful woman who appeared to be about 40 years old. She had black hair and dark brown eyes. She had chosen a pair of black jeans to wear that day. She also was wearing a black T-shirt. I didn't immediately notice her physical condition until the nurse at the desk called the black haired woman who was dressed-in-black to come to have her vitals checked. That's when I noticed that she was missing an arm. She had brilliantly tucked the sleeve of her T-shirt into the arm hole and draped it around the stump of her arm so that it was neatly wrapped. She moved gracefully toward the desk, looking very beautiful in her black clothes which complimented her black hair and white skin.
I was still thinking about her beauty, even in the midst of her tragedy of losing her arm to the devastating disease, when she strolled back into the room, passing in front of us, and I got a look at the front of her black T-shirt. In big colorful jeweled letters it read, BELIEVE.
I immediately thought, Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you chose the clothes for that beautiful lady this morning. I wouldn't have made more of an impression if it had been displayed on a billboard on a highway or emblazoned in the sky on the clouds. BELIEVE. Every patient in the waiting room could see it, knowing that she had the same disease that was causing their pain and fear, and they could realize that they can believe God to help them emerge from the difficult circumstances with grace and dignity like the lady in black.
BELIEVE is a simple word that is used regularly in all different ways, but that day in the office of the oncologist it was a message to everyone sitting in the room. BELIEVE for a good result, BELIEVE that you can overcome the effects of the disease, BELIEVE that you will live, BELIEVE that you will see your children grow up, and young teenagers in wheelchairs, BELIEVE that you will overcome the disease, marry, have children and live a good life.
God's billboards are better than the billboards on the highway. They're personal, sent for a particular situation and displayed by the perfect person.
I believe the message was for me and for my husband. I know the other people in the room received the same assurance that all they have to do is BELIEVE. After all, God went to a lot of trouble that day to impress upon the beautiful lady that she should wear that shirt so that everyone who saw her that day would know that all they have to do is believe and it will be done unto them. Thank you, God, for the simple yet powerful message. What God accomplished in the simple word on that T-shirt would have taken hours for a preacher to accomplish speaking in front of thousands of people
Just BELIEVE, the lady in black proclaimed without opening her mouth. She jolted me from anxiety into faith with that one word, BELIEVE.

BLESSING BLOCKAGES

July 15, 2002

RIPE FRUIT
My sister read to me a passage from a book she had been reading about the Holy Spirit.
In essence the passage from the book asked the readers to assess whether they had ripe fruit of the Holy Spirit operating in their lives.
In summarizing the comments of the writer for my own use, I borrowed some of the comments of the writer and added a few.
In assessing the degrees of the fruit of the Spirit operating in our lives, we must check whether we have love, joy, mercy, faith, goodness, kindness, self-control, peace and patience emanating from us.
Do we have more kindness and faithfulness than the Mormons?
Do we have more peace than the Buddhists?
Do we have more joy than the atheists?
Do we have more love and acceptance of others than unbelievers?
Do we have more self control than the Muslims who pray multiple times a day?

Jesus told His followers that their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees so that they would enter the kingdom of heaven. We know that it is God's righteousness in the Holy Spirit who lives in us. He makes us righteous. However, is the fruit of the righteousness that emanates from us more abundant than the fruit of the followers of other religions or even of the unbelievers? If not, then the fruit of our flesh is what is causing us to block the blessings of God from flooding into our lives. The fruit of the flesh is described in the same passage in the Bible that the fruit of God's Spirit is described The fruit of the flesh is anger, division, strife, jealousy, envy, selfishness, enmity, dissension, licentiousness and also other obvious ones like drunkenness, carousing, etc.

Jesus didn't say that our righteousness should equal the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. He said it should exceed their righteousness.

The writer of that book put Truth in red letter words to me.
The fruit of other religions often exceed the fruit of righteousness of God's children. What is the cost to us? The cost to us is the blessings of God, who is pouring His blessings upon us every second of the day. If we aren't receiving them, we need to check the fruit of God's Spirit, His righteousness within us, and check to see if we are letting it flow from ourselves to others.

The only things that can block the blessings of God from coming into our lives are the fruit of the flesh which actually are the fruit of the devil. The devil doesn't want you to live the abundant life that Jesus promised.

There are spiritually starving people who are fruit gatherers who are eager to gather God's fruit from His children, eager to receive our love, joy, peace and kindness. The excess that we have is what we need to share because it exceeds the production of fruit of other religions.

Matthew. 5: 22; Galatians 5:19-23.