Do you know the Father?
Are you choosing into a relationship with Him and seeking Him?
He is calling out to YOU.
Begging you to draw nearer still. To repent of a life of sin, idols and worldly things. Welcoming you with open arms of grace. Our Father wants us and us alone. To seek and know Him. To follow and recognize the call on our lives. The call to live in the freedom we have been given through the ultimate sacrifice that Christ paid for us on the cross. Not only did He die a death, painful beyond belief and undeserved, for all of our sins. He defeated death and sin when He rose from the grave three days later. God didn’t call His Son to die for those Christ had met alone. NO. The Lord called Him to die for all of us, all His children. Us. The ones He knew before we were a thought or idea of our earthly parents. The Lord wove us together in our mothers’ wombs and has a will and plan for each of us. He desires so deeply for us to step into a relationship with Him to guide our footsteps.
He is a Father of forgiveness, grace, love, provision, creation and advocator, among many other things.
He desires you.
Run into your Heavenly Father’s arms and seek more.
Seeking more is where this day began.
I was sitting in our host’s house with the rest of my squad. We were having our time of amad, which is what they call the hour of silence with the Lord. I was laying there, angry. Not so kindly asking the Lord “where are you? I am asking you questions and you appear to be MIA.” I was ready for the Lord to answer my every beckoning call. Shocker, my approach was not working so well.
I felt like I was going to cry. I felt surrounded by a bunch of people who all appeared to be hearing form the Lord and getting their questions answered. (Side Note: comparison kills, stay away from that sucker) “What the heck Father? Why can’t I hear you?” I crumbled, I fell kneeling before the Father. I found myself pleading broken, “Holy Spirit I want more.” Over and over and over again. For probably around 30 minutes that is all I could get out. I had no other prayer on my heart.
Amad was up. We worshipped and then off to ministry. Today (October 14th, sorry this blog is being posted so long after the fact) was ministry in the slums.
I had no idea what to expect. I had seen slums before, but from the window of a car driving past. I had never walked the paths or sought out the people within the communities. I was not sure what this day held, and if you told me what was going to happen I never would have believed you.
We started walking down from the busy road. They took us into a structure: bamboo sticks, corrugated metal roof, blanket and bag walls. We took our shoes off and stepped in. The floor was a piece of thin carpet covering a rocky ground. Every step hurt more than the last. I asked, “What is this room?” unable to imagine it was even used regularly. The response was more than I could handle. He said, “This is the school.” My heart was shattered into a thousand pieces. I can’t stand here for more than a few seconds, not even enough time to see the alphabet pictures and number charts, and the kids here sit in this small room for a whole day because they want to learn.
We split down the middle one group evangelizing and the other loving on and sharing the love of Christ with the kiddos. I was on the kiddos side, but I felt it in my soul, I was on the wrong side. At the last minute before we left I switched sides. Evangelizing normally stretches me outside of my comfort zone. Pushing me further into trust and communion with the Lord.
My group of 7, including myself and ministry guide, headed into to slums. We started walking down a narrow path. Small children grabbing our hands, seeking love and affection. We held their hands and kept walking. Taking a left and then another. We entered into a home of little people. The mother was the only one in the room. She and her family were Christians and loved the Lord. She called for her husband and daughter to return. As they did we discovered that the husband was blind, initially only in the left eye (God is “funny” like this (Trey is blind in the left eye—I don’t know when, but I know the Lord will heal your eye Trey—in the meantime)), but now in both. And the mother wakes up in the middle of the night with terrible nightmares of the enemy.
We began to pray. We prayed and prayed and prayed. We prayed without ceasing over this man’s sight. Our Father is a healer and loves to heal. We laid hands. We washed his eyes. We cried out to the Lord. We asked his wife to lay hands. We didn’t cease. We could feel the Holy Spirit’s presence. He was there, moving, healing. Our God is in the business of showing up and doing things big.
Do you ask big things of the Father?
I challenge you to.
After praying and testing his vision many times at this point we were all weeping in the goodness and presence of the Spirit. We prayed again, tested it and with that he could see. He began telling each of us the colors we were wearing. We held up numbers of fingers, and he told us.
I sat their bawling tears of joy! The Father just healed this man before my very eyes! Glory and praises to our Lord!
He listens. He hears. He remembers. He loves. He gives. HE HEALS.
And Jesus said, “All right, receive your sight: Your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God, too. Luke18:42-43
This man’s faith healed his sight. We did nothing more than intercede through prayer.
Glory to God!
