Been Doing Some Praising This Morning!

It's been a great morning and I haven't even left my home. Can't beat that can you? The kids and I didn't make it to church this morning and I had a good quiet time with Holy Spirit while I was working on the Living Beyond Yourself study. While I was spending time in prayer and getting ready to face the day something happened that He wanted me to share with the kids. (More about that in a minute.)

Back up a few days to Thursday...I had lunch with a lady I've known for a little over a year, but within the last few months have really had a desire to get to know better. I've seen her servant's heart in our home school co-op and know she has a passion for serving God and helping those in need...plus...she always seems so happy. Since tax season is finally over, we had a chance to get together and I came away blessed and all the better for taking the time.

Conversation was easy as we shared what God has done (and is doing) for us. The Spirit in me was resonating with the Spirit in her and He was given all the praise. I told her about Frances Chan's book, Forgotten God, and gave her a brief synopsis. I summed it up with his question in the book (I'm paraphrasing), 'If you grew up on a deserted island with only the Bible to learn about who the Holy Spirit is and then you saw how we Christians in America live, what would you think?' My new friend went on to say she's heard of places in Africa where the people don't know you're not supposed to pray for miracles and healings...so they are experiencing miracles and healings!

Imagine that! If I were just a lot more naive, my issues could get out of the way and my God could perform miracles and healings. If I just took His Word, read it and fervently believed it, I could partake in His glorious wonders!

Well...why not?

Last week didn't I hear my pastor say that we should be living out the Resurrection story? And wasn't the question in our small group time that challenged me the most "What difference does the resurrection make for you?" Although I changed the wording to 'What difference does the resurrection make IN you?' And didn't I share with the small group in person and through e-mail that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power of the Holy Spirit that was given to the disciples and is the same power of the Holy Spirit that He yearns for us to tap into today???


Back to this morning, for about 4 days I've had a sharp back pain that has gotten progressively worse. I've worried that it could be my gall bladder. I know I've had issues with my gall bladder in the past even though it's never been diagnosed. (If you eat the Standard American Diet-SAD for very long, you probably have gall bladder problems too). But as I've internally cleansed and eaten better, I thought I was on the mend. As the days have gone by and it's gotten worse...finally causing me to lose some sleep the last couple of nights...I was dreading what might happen if I didn't get it checked out. And as I was praying through my confessions and concerns this morning, Ann's words came back to me..."they don't know you're not supposed to pray for miracles and healings...so they are experiencing miracles and healings."

As prompted by the Holy Spirit, I prayed for my back pain to go away. I didn't pray "IF it's Your will," like I've been taught in American churches to do. Of course it's His will that I be healthy! That's the way He created us to live. I'm not dumping crap into my body and asking Him to remove the consequences, so I prayed that because I know He is healing my body through detoxification and healthy foods already, I knew this was one more thing He could do. I prayed with confidence and boldness that could only have come from Him...and guess what?! You'd be really shocked if I said He didn't do it wouldn't you? After that build-up...of course He did!

I've had similar experiences a couple of times before and I've learned that I can't ask for these things unless the boldness and faith comes from Him to begin with. And when that boldness/confidence comes from Him...He WILL do it!

So I was already on Cloud 118 (not just #9 at least!) and Holy Spirit challenged me to share this experience with the kids. "What?" "They'll think I'm weird. I can just see Abbey and Noah (our teenagers) rolling their eyes and thinking that I've finally gone off the deep end." But guess what?? He took care of that concern too!!!

Normally, if on occasion we don't go to church, it's like a day off...free time to do what you want. But I told them we were going to sit at the breakfast table and have a conversation. And by Divine appointment...we had an amazing one.

I've said on here all along that my journey is not mine alone...our circumstances are exactly as they are so that our whole family can "write a better story". But Holy Spirit challenged me this morning that I'm not sharing with them often enough about what He is doing in us. I guess I thought I was protecting them from the truth of how tight money is sometimes or something. By the end of our conversation, I told them, "If you grow up to adulthood, leave this home and do NOT know all that God has done for us, then I have failed you and it would be sin on my part."

During our conversation, we talked about James 4:3, where it's written, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures". We discussed again, the passage in Acts 3 where Peter and John are asked to give alms to a poor man and Peter says, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene--walk!" (v. 6) I wrote dollar amounts on our white board and showed them the amount we need to meet our bills for a year and what income we earned in 2010. I told them how I'd stopped keeping track, but a conservative estimate would be that God has provided $15,000-18,000 for us PLUS two vehicles over the last year that were above and beyond this income. I told them about how the power of Jesus' resurrection can be alive and living in us and as followers of Jesus we receive His Spirit in us. And yes, I told them about the healing of my back this morning.

And you know what?? Every time I looked at my teenagers, their eyes were glued to me...no heads were down, no smart-alek questions, no laughs or scoffs. In all honesty, the 7 year old was a little distracted...but that's okay. She's got a few more years with us to hear how God is moving and working.

Yes, as a family, we briefly lamented that we may never be able to go back for a big week-long vacation to Disney World. But we talked about how God knows the desires of our hearts and if He wants to provide us with a mini-vacation...He will. If He doesn't...then there's a lesson to learn in that as well. I also read through the words of the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" to them.

I promised them that I'm no longer protecting them...they have been amazingly resilient through everything that's happened...all the way back to seven years ago...but particularly within the last two and a half....and Holy Spirit wants me to tell them what He is doing so they can KNOW His power for themselves. Together, we wrote down a desire of our hearts. Yeah, it's a want...but if God thinks we need it, it will happen. And this desire is something that would greatly benefit our family togetherness so I am confident that it's within His prevailing will for us. If it's within His specific will...He'll make it happen.

This is a really long story to explain why I've "been doing some praising this morning." I've been in my bathroom walk-in closet more than a few times already today listening to some great praise music, jumping up and down, lifting my hands up to Him...don't think the teenagers are ready to see me doing that yet! One great song I listened to is a reworking of the hymn "Immortal Invisible God Only Wise"

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love

The chorus with it is : "You are Holy, You are worthy. We exalt You and lift up Your Name. Mere words aren't enough to express Your great love."

A couple of Sara Groves songs had me weepy and praising too! So it's Sunday...and I didn't GO to church this morning...but God by the power of His Holy Spirit brought some church to our home today and my cup is running over with the expectation of what He wants our kids to see Him do.

Can't wait! I know it's gonna be good!