This past week, a lot of tears were shed but the Lord exchanged them for answered prayers! He’s real good at that.
Last sunday night I was struggling with missing out on things that are going on at home! I so badly wanted to be with my family, especially with the holidays coming soon. If I’m being honest, I just laid on my sleeping pad and had a pity party. But then the Lord reminded me of some advice I was given by a woman in my church before I left. she said, “My only piece of advice is to not let yourself want to be home because when you’re here you’ll want to be there, and when you’re there you’ll want to be here. Just stay present.”
After I pondered the advice, I left the pity party and decided to go to the Lord to tell him all of the things I was upset about and what I was struggling with. This is about how the conversation went: “Lord if all I get to do is plant seeds, and not see the harvest then i’m okay with that because I still obeyed you well. But you said whoever believes in you will do the works you did and greater, in your name. You’ve given me your Holy Spirit so if you can, I can! and because you said i could see the fruit of my labor, i want to!”
The next morning, one of my students who struggles the most came to class and put the days of the week in order AND sang the song! Okay, I know it’s only the days of the week but that was a HUGE milestone for him! Plus, it encouraged me so much in my teaching abilities when I thought I was failing! Thank you Lord.
Then, for lunch that day we had a world race fusion team join us! I absolutely adored meeting them and asking them all the questions. Just to have the opportunity to pull from their wisdom and experiences lit up my heart. Encouragement number two came simply from feeling like a student again!
That afternoon, I went to the hospital for ministry with a few girls on my squad. We were talking about the Lord’s ability to heal and one of the women on staff shared her experience with being healed. Years ago she has a hip replacement and was left with one leg longer than the other. She attended a conference where the speaker called everyone who needed healing down to the front so she went, they prayed, and she watched Holy Spirit grow her leg! One of her legs was still shorter than the other by about 4cm and the difference has resulted in consistent back pain.
We know that God’s will for her is to be whole and well, so we asked if we could declare that over her and she happily obliged! We gathered around and laid hands on her legs and back and began declaring truth over her body! She said her leg became very hot so she stood up and both legs were the same length and her back pain was gone!! thank you Lord!
I’m so thankful that the Lord invited us to be a part of that! i couldn’t help but be reminded of matthew 15 when Jesus and the disciples fed the four thousand! Jesus thanked God, broke the bread, and gave it to the disciples to give to the people. Jesus gave the disciples what they needed, and trusted them to do the work! When Jesus sent Holy Spirit, He gave us more than enough power to see the sick recover! And in John 14 Jesus even says that whoever believes in Him will do the same work as Him and greater in His name!
When did we stop believing that we have the same Holy Spirit in us as Jesus and the power to see these things before our eyes? The supernatural is not something that stopped with folks in the Bible. It’s right in front of your face everyday, you just have to look through God’s lense. It’s when you pray for a headache to go away and it does, when you have no money for food or rent and a random check comes in the mail, and when you see someone’s leg grow! My prayer is that we never allow the “small” miracles to be forgotten. No one miracle is greater than the other because ultimately it’s about putting the Father’s glory and power on display. He just asks us to be a willing vessel to take a bold step of faith!
God encouraged me, loved me, and allowed us to put His glory on display. If that doesn’t turn your day around, boy I don’t know what will! God’s too good for us to stop getting pumped about this stuff (:
I hope this was a piece of encouragement for your heart! My intention is to share these testimonies as a means of telling you that God’s not confined to the four walls of a church and He can’t be confined in the testimonies in the Bible. He’s in everything we do, it’s up to us to seek Him and choose Him!
I love you, and I’m so thankful for you! Thank you for reading!
Shelbs
