by Cynthia Ray
Isn’t it so funny how God uses people down here to work with his angels up there? There aren’t words to express how I feel about what happened this Sunday that I’m about to tell you about, but I intend to try to find some. This story started when I had been going through some things with a friend. She was doing some things that I know Jesus didn’t approve of, in my own room, and I was just letting it go. But one Sunday afternoon, I prayed and found some scriptures and planned to tell her that if she was going to stay in my house, she was going to abide by certain rules.
A friend in California that I hadn’t seen in a long time had called me that afternoon and I was asking her to pray for me and I told her what had happened. She told me that standing up for the things of God would be the right thing to do and quoted a verse from Romans. It was exactly what I had been looking for and she scrambled to find her notes to tell me where it was found. She came back to the phone and said, “Here it is! ‘Romans 12:1-2’”, she read, “’Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world’. That’s all I have of that passage on this page.”
Even though that would have solved the problem with my other friend, God didn’t want to stop there. God wanted to mend our relationship, one between father and daughter. She continued, “another of my favorites I have in my notes here says, ‘You can do all things through Christ Jesus who gives you strength’.” That didn’t sink in very deep then, but it did, however, hang somewhere in my mind where I would remember it later.
Later that afternoon, our family went to a special church service at a cowboy church. It was placed on a pasture where cows roamed freely and people could park their horses right in front. This was indeed a cowboy church! It was only big enough to seat about fifty people, so when the worship leader greeted the congregation and stated that there was a good turnout, I looked around in surprise at her remark, because there were only about twenty people scattered across the small room. The worship service started and people began to lift their hands in praise.
There was a man seated behind us that you could look at and truly believe he belonged in this church. He was an older gentleman with a gentle, but steady, voice that carried a slight hint of a country accent. On the same pew, there was a woman that ran up and down the hallways and shouted randomly with a shrill and staccato scream that made everyone jump. After a few songs and the start of hunger beginning to churn within me, telling me that dinner was coming much too late, the man behind us stood and began to speak. The music came to a stop and the words of God came out of his mouth as if they were his own.
At first, I just listened and nodded and praised my Lord as a couple of people began to lift their voices in thanks for His revelation. To me, it is so sweet to see God move in His people. God was saying things like “come to me and I will give you the power to do great things”, and, “I’ll empower you and you’ll see the fruits of your labor”. He stopped and the music continued as people worshiped and cried out all around me. The power of God was strong in that little church. About ten minutes later, the man stood again and began to speak the words of God, and the music again ceased. “Come to me” he said, “and I will empower you, and you will see the fruits of your labor, the labor that you thought was for nothing. You will do great things for me!”
This was beginning to get a little scary. I began to think he was talking to me. I had taken care of the things that were obvious circumstances, but something had happened that God didn’t want to forget about until it was settled. I had been lying in my bed crying a couple days before, telling myself I was useless. I was too young to get a job or drive or do anything, and I hadn’t been doing everything I could be doing for God, so I must have been useless. I was telling myself these things and I was starting to believe them.
Now, God was speaking through a man sitting right behind me, and he was saying things that had me thinking that these words were for me. Then I looked around and saw that there were others standing and receiving this message, and I thought that maybe this revelation was for them. But, when that man stood up the third time, he said, “Come! Come to me and I will give you the power to do great things. For didn’t I say, you ‘can do all things through Christ who strengthens [you]’?”
I knew at that moment that this was for me; God was speaking directly to me! I don’t know why, but even after this, I sat there, unmoving. I know that He was talking to me. He was helping me to realize I wasn’t doing anything for Him because I wasn’t letting Him get close enough to me. I was in a place where I thought that Jesus and I were just ok. But God didn’t want our relationship to be just ok. I sat still. I didn’t really know what to do. Then the man began to repeat these words over and over like a broken record, “stand to your feet and give yourself to me. Let go and let me have control. I will do many awesome things through you!” he kept saying, “stand! Stand! Stand!” he kept repeating that until I stood up, weeping. When I did this, he changed his words to, “lift your hands in worship, and I will give you power!” and again he persisted until I couldn’t take it anymore and I lifted my hands and began to worship the Lord.
When I did this, the man sat down, and I didn’t hear him say another prophetic word the whole night! But me being full of pride, God knew that I had to have another sign. The lady that kept pacing the isle, shouting with her face and hands toward heaven, fell. It was amazing. When she got to our pew, she fell, just like that! She sat on the pew behind us, rubbing her shin, and whispered to my father, “there’s angels in that isle!” pointing to the floor next to our pew.
There was just one more thing, though. I was emailing my friend, relating the events of the previous night, when I noticed a sweet little voice in the background. My eight-year-old sister was walking around the house singing the same chorus that had been repeated over and over as I lifted my hands and said, “I let go, Lord. Everything is yours!”
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Notes:
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- God uses your circumstance to pull you out of the hole you didn’t know you were in. A lot of times, we are so deep in one matter, that we cannot see the most important part, our own heart. Perhaps some circumstances are only to better our own relationship with our Lord.
- Sometimes what we’re going through at the moment isn’t the most important thing to God right then. Jesus wants to have a very close relationship with you. You are more important to Him than anything else. He doesn’t just want you and Him to be “just ok”.
- Sometimes, the problem isn’t fixed with one try. God will keep trying until you give in and let him help. He will keep knocking on your door until you unlock it and let him come in.
- Just as God loves you more than anything, He loves every other individual more than anything as well. God does have favorites. Every human being is His favorite! Just because he is speaking to others and they are touched easier than you, it doesn’t mean the message pertains to them more than it does to you. You’re not alone in your need, and many times you aren’t alone in your miracle.
- God can move in you so powerfully when you are focussed on Him. But when you start to look at other people, you begin to doubt and you sink a few inches lower into the ground, making it harder to pull you out. Just like when Peter saw Jesus on the water and began to follow him, if you look at the waves around you, you’ll begin to sink. It’s only when your attention is completely on God that He will be able to lead you.
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