If you don't want to read about miracles or God, this post isn't for you. No offense taken. I just like having a documented history of my life.
I went back, because while I've always recognized my going back to the room (class cancelled when I got there, backpack in the library. Paper due in two hours) as divine intervention, since it made no sense,
it was the first time that I realize that it wasn't just "God"
But the Holy Spirit part of the trinity.
I've been missing out, man.
I've been attending a non-denominational church lately. Something that was brought up in a documentary that we watched recently was that there's been a silent divorce in the church between those adhering to the power of the scripture and those believing in the power of the spirit. Both are correct, but like any divorce, some go with the mother, and some with the father.
I think that's pretty accurate. We desperately need both. And instead of throwing scripture at people who are uncertain, aren't we all initially looking for an encounter with the spirit?
I prayed in my car awhile back for the Lord to show me new and different ways to pray. I was on my way to a church's used bookstore that was started by a former classmate of mine. I'd been there 3 or 4 times before. How hilarious that when I got there, that very hour, the pastor was talking with another young girl. He asked his daughter, my classmate, and her sister to pray with them, and also asked me to join them. We all laid hands on her, and I felt so much power coursing through them. It was seriously electricity. I wasn't expecting it. I hadn't been looking for it, but there it was nonetheless. What was it?
I continued going to soccer on Wednesdays, but checking the church's website for their midweek service. Well, it turned out that they changed it to Thursdays, a day I could make. I went and sat in the back next to a man who had overdosed and gone to heaven (pronounced dead and everything). I had been contemplating a lot about Heaven and near death experiences, since I had recently read Heaven is for Real, and he basically confirmed everything. He went from a drug addict to a believer overnight. He'd met Jesus. How could he not? So nix that nagging question of whether all faiths believe the same God, or if Christianity is valid and the real faith. Proof of Heaven is a good book that also explores this. This skeptical neurosurgeon's brain was literally destroyed prior to/during his near death experience, confirming to him that it was not crazy random firing that led to him experiencing the Father. So cool.
Well my life has changed tremendously. I find myself living more of a one-piece life. I don't pray on the way to work and on the way home and then run from room to room to do treatment. I don't get angry or frustrated. I serve. It's all in.
Because I feel the spirit with me. Because I feel so much joy I want to serve everywhere. At home. At work. At the food pantry.
Because in his presence is fullness of joy. Because the joy of the Lord is my strength.
Because I've learned to listen and feel the nudging of the spirit. And I've learned how to pray honestly, and to feel the power of the spirit when I pray prayers pleasing to God.
And then there was this big miracle. Tuesday 10/25/14.
I've been attending a non-denominational church lately. Something that was brought up in a documentary that we watched recently was that there's been a silent divorce in the church between those adhering to the power of the scripture and those believing in the power of the spirit. Both are correct, but like any divorce, some go with the mother, and some with the father.
I think that's pretty accurate. We desperately need both. And instead of throwing scripture at people who are uncertain, aren't we all initially looking for an encounter with the spirit?
I prayed in my car awhile back for the Lord to show me new and different ways to pray. I was on my way to a church's used bookstore that was started by a former classmate of mine. I'd been there 3 or 4 times before. How hilarious that when I got there, that very hour, the pastor was talking with another young girl. He asked his daughter, my classmate, and her sister to pray with them, and also asked me to join them. We all laid hands on her, and I felt so much power coursing through them. It was seriously electricity. I wasn't expecting it. I hadn't been looking for it, but there it was nonetheless. What was it?
I continued going to soccer on Wednesdays, but checking the church's website for their midweek service. Well, it turned out that they changed it to Thursdays, a day I could make. I went and sat in the back next to a man who had overdosed and gone to heaven (pronounced dead and everything). I had been contemplating a lot about Heaven and near death experiences, since I had recently read Heaven is for Real, and he basically confirmed everything. He went from a drug addict to a believer overnight. He'd met Jesus. How could he not? So nix that nagging question of whether all faiths believe the same God, or if Christianity is valid and the real faith. Proof of Heaven is a good book that also explores this. This skeptical neurosurgeon's brain was literally destroyed prior to/during his near death experience, confirming to him that it was not crazy random firing that led to him experiencing the Father. So cool.
Well my life has changed tremendously. I find myself living more of a one-piece life. I don't pray on the way to work and on the way home and then run from room to room to do treatment. I don't get angry or frustrated. I serve. It's all in.
Because I feel the spirit with me. Because I feel so much joy I want to serve everywhere. At home. At work. At the food pantry.
Because in his presence is fullness of joy. Because the joy of the Lord is my strength.
Because I've learned to listen and feel the nudging of the spirit. And I've learned how to pray honestly, and to feel the power of the spirit when I pray prayers pleasing to God.
First, everything that Pastor Tammy prayed for me came to pass.
I've had the gift of a good, clear, vivid dream from God, who preached patience.
I've felt unburdened from the weight of our current family struggles.
I've felt joy when serving others, including my family, and find my actions, guided by the spirit aligned with and adjustable by scripture.
And then there was this big miracle. Tuesday 10/25/14.
Part of the documentary movie involved watching followers of Christ demonstrating how they follow the holy spirit to bring healing. They went on a whirlwind adventure of the world, and were literally told by God who to pray for, for what, and would see the blind recover sight, those with bone fusions move, those with pain healed. Just to share that Jesus loves them with them. They were strangers, and yet the follower would hear from the spirit that the stranger needed his wrist healed, and his mom needed her kidney healed etc etc. It would be true.
Now, we have to be careful not to reduce the Lord to a magician. I believe that these gentlemen were spirit-led in deciding who to approach, and the power of the Jesus' and the Father healed them as the spirit filled them. Most of them were skeptics or unbelievers, and they weren't pressured to convert. It was just "Jesus loves you so much, man. And He wants you to know how much."
On Tuesday (five days after watching this), I was struggling with the thought of whether the spirit/healing "their gift" or whether that's something anyone can learn to do.
I was in the shower thinking "What would I do, God? How would I know if it's you? I wonder what I would ask for if I could ask for anything to be healed in me if someone offered. Is it as simple as asking for God to take my back pain away? Though really, I think I'd ask for him to take my anterior pelvic tilt away, because that would take away the root of the problem, not the symptom."
I've been doing exercises and stretches for the last year to try to correct my anterior pelvic tilt. A PT identified it years ago in high school, and it's very pronounced. Also, my my hamstrings are so tight. I could not put my leg up on my bed and lean forward due to tightness. I mean more than 5 degrees of leaning forward and I could go no farther.
So uncomfortable, and worrisome to me. I know that tilt leads to wear and tear on everything, too...knees, upper back, etc etc.
I try to have good posture, but it's so uncomfortable, and I haven't really been able to maintain it for more than a minute or two.
I'll be honest with you. I didn't really feel anything insanely supernatural right away.
Not through faith of my own (I believed that He could do things like that THROUGH other people TO other people), He chose to reveal himself to me in such a tangible way. I stepped out of the shower and caught sight of my new alignment in the mirror. I was astonished. I was completely relaxed with the most neutral pelvic tilt I've ever seen. I closed my eyes and opened them, relaxed, and it was still there.
So I tested it. I put my leg on the counter, and easily and comfortably brought my forehead to my knee. I couldn't believe it! Praise God! As an OT, I've worried about my heightened risk for back injury with my pelvic tilt, and the Lord seriously healed my back. It feels so young! All evening I felt things I had never felt before...that it can be comfortable to sleep on ones back, and that I can now press my back flat against the bed if I wanted to. I could do a SPLIT. I've NEVER been able to do that.
It was basically like the Lord changed my bones and ligaments and tendons for me. It is UNcomfortable for me to try to stand with tilt now.
I basically cried that God chose to do this to show his love towards me, especially when I was filled with such skepticism, in a way that I could know that it was HIM. I know science. I know joint angles. I am wary of the placebo effect. It wasn't just "oh, my pain went away."
It was pelvic tilt, hamstring flexibility, new abilities, changes I can confirm over and over again. I can literally see my knees when I'm standing for the first time ever (with anterior pelvic tilt and the resulting hyperextended knees I haven't been able to).
I know it sounds nuts.
But it's SO TRUE.
And it's SO comfortable to stand and sit!
I can still stretch my hamstrings fully.
I've been working at that so long by my own power. It just shows how it pales in comparison to the Lord's. It also shows how limited my skills as an OT are. Sometimes, God may choose to heal through my work. But HE has all the power to heal...not I. My own stretches and efforts fell short for myself. He did something that I would have considered impossible, but the Lord has his power that isn't limited by my imagination. Continuing to grow in my journey with the Lord, and the Spirit, can help me know whether God wants me to pray over others for similar healing in the future.
I now know what He can do. And I am in complete and total awe from it.
Now, we have to be careful not to reduce the Lord to a magician. I believe that these gentlemen were spirit-led in deciding who to approach, and the power of the Jesus' and the Father healed them as the spirit filled them. Most of them were skeptics or unbelievers, and they weren't pressured to convert. It was just "Jesus loves you so much, man. And He wants you to know how much."
On Tuesday (five days after watching this), I was struggling with the thought of whether the spirit/healing "their gift" or whether that's something anyone can learn to do.
I was in the shower thinking "What would I do, God? How would I know if it's you? I wonder what I would ask for if I could ask for anything to be healed in me if someone offered. Is it as simple as asking for God to take my back pain away? Though really, I think I'd ask for him to take my anterior pelvic tilt away, because that would take away the root of the problem, not the symptom."
I've been doing exercises and stretches for the last year to try to correct my anterior pelvic tilt. A PT identified it years ago in high school, and it's very pronounced. Also, my my hamstrings are so tight. I could not put my leg up on my bed and lean forward due to tightness. I mean more than 5 degrees of leaning forward and I could go no farther.
So uncomfortable, and worrisome to me. I know that tilt leads to wear and tear on everything, too...knees, upper back, etc etc.
I try to have good posture, but it's so uncomfortable, and I haven't really been able to maintain it for more than a minute or two.
Not through faith of my own (I believed that He could do things like that THROUGH other people TO other people), He chose to reveal himself to me in such a tangible way. I stepped out of the shower and caught sight of my new alignment in the mirror. I was astonished. I was completely relaxed with the most neutral pelvic tilt I've ever seen. I closed my eyes and opened them, relaxed, and it was still there.
So I tested it. I put my leg on the counter, and easily and comfortably brought my forehead to my knee. I couldn't believe it! Praise God! As an OT, I've worried about my heightened risk for back injury with my pelvic tilt, and the Lord seriously healed my back. It feels so young! All evening I felt things I had never felt before...that it can be comfortable to sleep on ones back, and that I can now press my back flat against the bed if I wanted to. I could do a SPLIT. I've NEVER been able to do that.
It was basically like the Lord changed my bones and ligaments and tendons for me. It is UNcomfortable for me to try to stand with tilt now.
I basically cried that God chose to do this to show his love towards me, especially when I was filled with such skepticism, in a way that I could know that it was HIM. I know science. I know joint angles. I am wary of the placebo effect. It wasn't just "oh, my pain went away."
It was pelvic tilt, hamstring flexibility, new abilities, changes I can confirm over and over again. I can literally see my knees when I'm standing for the first time ever (with anterior pelvic tilt and the resulting hyperextended knees I haven't been able to).
I know it sounds nuts.
But it's SO TRUE.
And it's SO comfortable to stand and sit!
I can still stretch my hamstrings fully.
I've been working at that so long by my own power. It just shows how it pales in comparison to the Lord's. It also shows how limited my skills as an OT are. Sometimes, God may choose to heal through my work. But HE has all the power to heal...not I. My own stretches and efforts fell short for myself. He did something that I would have considered impossible, but the Lord has his power that isn't limited by my imagination. Continuing to grow in my journey with the Lord, and the Spirit, can help me know whether God wants me to pray over others for similar healing in the future.
I now know what He can do. And I am in complete and total awe from it.
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