My daughter Jessica and new son-in-law, Jerry, had a beautiful wedding on the 20th of July. Jessica’s smile was contagious and her outward beauty seemed to capture her spirit’s true expression. I could not help but think of the bride of Christ being adorned for her husband and what a glorious day that will be. A good friend of ours was at the wedding and brought his five year old son with him. Everyone calls him “miracle boy” because when he was almost one year old he drowned in a backyard pond and was brought back to life after being unconscious for 40 minutes. Samuel (miracle boy), said, 5 big angels carried him to heaven where he entered a gate and met Jesus and God. He said heaven was much shinier than any pictures he saw. He said Jesus stroked his head and he sat on Gods lap. He said he was shown tiny babies that were the size of his hand, and he played and talked to them. He said he played sword fight with the boys, and the girls played other games. He said the angels took him on a camping trip in a forest for 10 months (Samuel’s concept of eternal time) where he saw a nice tiger, many other animals including dogs and many birds who talked to him. The birds wanted to bring him back to earth but the angel that was holding him said that he would take him back to his mommy because she was crying. Samuel had a supernatural encounter with God which brought him into His presence. When Miracle boy saw me at the wedding he immediately held my hands which were in my pockets (Glennis usually puts my hands in my pockets because my arms dangle by my side). No one outside of a few family members feel close enough to me to touch my hands, Miracle boy was not timid to touch me!! He thinks with God and has no fear of man. Gods’ Glory was revealed at the wedding when He used a little boy to hold my hands! I almost missed God’s personal touch because I was looking for something else. I was looking for a manifestation of a physical healing. But instead He would reveal Himself a different way that day. Jessica’s betrothed, Jerry, came to the wedding to take his new bride by the hand. And Jesus was saying to me that He is coming to the earth again very soon to take His Bride, the Church, by the hand!! He wants us to be ready for Him when He comes. Will we be ready to go with Him to be part of His heavenly kingdom? Or will we miss Him because we are looking for something else?

“But while they were going away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were prepared went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut.” Mt 25:10

Faith requires our acknowledged weakness or inability to save ourselves, when only God can. We have to be brought to places of weakness to discover that we need a Savior, and to learn that human effort is insufficient. Faith in His promises relies on His faithfulness, where we have to depend on Him to bring us through our wilderness experiences (Ps 34:17,19; Phil 4:19). God still provides today in the wilderness.

In Exodus 13:17,18, God led the children of Israel out of Egypt by way of the wilderness or desert. He did not lead them the shorter way along the Mediterranean coast because they were not ready to see war and they would have returned to Egypt. God wanted to prepare their hearts for the physical and spiritual battles they would be facing ahead, so he took them the way of weakness through the wilderness. God wanted to bring them to places of weakness so they would discover their need for a Savior.

Three days after crossing the Red Sea, the supplies the children of Israel brought with them from Egypt ran out. They became thirsty and were led by God to a place called Marah, where they needed to trust God to provide water for them. God is continually bringing us to places where our supplies will run out. Where human effort runs out. Where we are out of options and our backs are against the wall. Where we will cry out, I need a Deliverer! This is a place of weakness but God sees it as a place of strength. Because when we are weak then He is strong and He will get the Glory (2 Co 12:10). 

With only 3 days left until my daughter, Jessica’s wedding, it seems like the enemy has stepped up his attacks on me. Six days ago I came down with a nasty cold, which drained me of what little energy I had. Then last night an oppressive  presence tried three times to kill me through suffocation while I was trying to sleep. God prevailed in both circumstances, and continues to encourage me to believe Him for a very powerful supernatural breakthrough in the physical realm by the wedding date.

I’ve been reading Erlo Stegens’ missionary account in 1966 to the Zulus in So. Africa. What struck me was that before the amazing revival of 1966 took place, Erlo discovered that he needed to repent and be transparent before the Zulus. The Apostle Paul says, “I die daily” (1Corinthians 15:31). What does he mean by that? How can we die daily? The Lord Jesus experienced death in Gethsemane, so to say, before He physically died on the Cross. There His sweat became like great drops of blood and He was close to despair, until He was finally able to say to His Father, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” He died to Himself. If we can pray in this way, then we no longer seek our own will; we humble ourselves under God’s will and deny ourselves. To die to one’s self-will is extremely difficult, It is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Nehemiah heard a report concerning the condition of Jerusalem and the Jews who still lived there:

“And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who escaped exile are in great trouble and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its [fortified] gates are destroyed by fire. When I heard this, I sat down and wept and mourned for days and fasted and prayed [constantly] before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah 1:3-4

Nehemiah wept because he heard about the suffering of others, he had a heart to provide hope to the hopeless. God gave him a burden and he acted on it. He saw others as Christ saw them, sick, needy, and brokenhearted, without intervention they would die. Jesus came to set the captives free, and to heal all who were sick and oppressed of the devil.

Isaiah 58 says we will find our own healing when we pour out to others what sustains us in our need. Whatever is at our disposal, whether it is physical or spiritual, we are to freely give to others. Then we become repairers of the breach. We become friends of God, having His heart towards the forgotten and the hopeless.

“The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” Isaiah 58:11-12

God is bringing me through a valley, and has provided everything I needed there. Man is not able to supply our insatiable needs in the valley, man’s methods or ways are often inadequate and lead to death. God’s plan is always leading us to the Cross, where we lose our life and gain spiritual life. When Christ is released to work in our lives; we exchange His life for ours. God initiates His plan by leading us to the Cross (Mt 16:24), we then have a choice to cooperate with His plan or not. Carnal death is where God wants to take us to, death to self life,  when we die to our ways, we become weak and rest in God’s Word, then the power of God is released and miracles can take place.

Everything has already been provided, He finished the work on the Cross it was a perfect sacrifice for us. His Word says we believe those things (promises) which are not as though they are (Rm. 4:17). We believe with our mind and confess with our mouth, and act as though it’s already accomplished, by faith. Hope says it will happen, faith says it already has. Healing comes by grace not self effort. I can do nothing to obtain salvation or healing, its unmerited favor. I rest from my works as God did from His.

When I rest from my works I enter into His rest (Heb 4:10). Entering to rest is done by faith in what the promise says. We enter into works that have already been finished from the foundation of the world  (Heb 4:3). These works are past tense, He’s already healed us, delivered us, saved us, provided for us (Ps 91). I’m to continually cease from my works by believing I have received. I am in the kingdom of God, God does the works, He provides the power and I enter in by my faith. And my faith believes that I have received, not that I’m going to receive, because then it would be by my works. God’s work has already been accomplished; He chose the things that be not as though they were. Gods promises are not perceived by sight or reason, you don’t see it by sight and can only obtain it by faith.