Trusting God, Heart and Sole

Recently, as I was having my prayer time with God, I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray that God would bless my life that day. I know after studying the Prayer of Jabez that this is a Biblical prayer and we should pray this everyday. But I had not really thought about praying this way for a while until this particular morning.

After my time with God, I went on about my day. That morning as I dressed myself for work, I put on navy blue pants. I had forgotten that my dog had chewed up my casual navy blue shoes, so I wore navy dress shoes instead, deciding to purchase some casual navy shoes during my lunch break. Arriving at work, I told a co-worker of my plans.

Although my job rarely takes me to the front office, this morning I needed to handle some matters there. As I walked past our reception area, I saw a woman who was working as a volunteer receptionist for the day coming in the front door. I held it open for her as she walked in and made a comment about the great big bag in her hand.

The lady proceeded to tell me that she had some shoes that her daughter wanted to give away and she thought she would bring them into our office and see if anyone there might want them. I looked down into the bag and I saw a wonderful pair of navy casual shoes that looked as if they had never been worn right on top. Not only that, but they were exactly the style shoe that I was going to buy. By this point, there was no question in my mind as to what size they were going to be. Sure enough, they were exactly my size! As it so happens, also on my wish list was a pair of brown dress shoes. Wouldn’t you know, the perfect brown shoes were also in the bag.

I am just amazed at the hand of God! When I think of the timing and the circumstances that God had planned to get those shoes to me, just so that I could be blessed, I am overwhelmed. First, He had to have this woman's daughter decide she wanted to get rid of these shoes. Secondly, our receptionist had to be out of town so that this woman would be coming in that day. Thirdly, this volunteer had to have the idea to bring them into the office and finally, I had to be in the office at just the right time to get them.

Something so small has made a huge impact on my life. I told everyone I saw that day about how the hand of God had blessed me. What an awesome God!

Vallie S.
Mobile, AL 



http://www.touchedbythehandofgod.com/

http://houseofelijah.blogspot.com

http://houseofelijahbiblestudy.tk

Angels

  WHAT ARE ANGELS?
BIBLE READING: Matthew 1:18-25
KEY BIBLE VERSE: As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20)


ANGELS ARE BEINGS CREATED FOR GOD’S PURPOSES.
The conception and birth of Jesus Christ are supernatural events beyond human logic or reasoning. Because of this, God sent angels to help certain people understand the significance of what was happening (see Matthew 2:13, 19; Luke 1:11, 26; 2:9).
Angels are spiritual beings created by God who help carry out his work on earth. They bring God’s messages to people (Luke 1:26), protect God’s people (Daniel 6:22), offer encouragement (Genesis 16:7ff.), give guidance (Exodus 14:19), carry out punishment (2 Samuel 24:15-17), patrol the earth (Zechariah 1:9-14), and fight the forces of evil (2 Kings 6:16-18; Revelation 20:1-2). There are both good and bad angels (Revelation 12:7), but because bad angels are allied with the devil, or Satan, they have considerably less power and authority than good angels. Eventually the main role of angels will be to offer continuous praise to God (Revelation 7:11-12).
BIBLE READING: Luke 1:5-20
KEY BIBLE VERSE: Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news!” (Luke 1:19)


ANGELS SERVE AS GOD’S MESSENGERS.
Angels are spirit beings who live in God’s presence and do his will. Only two angels are mentioned by name in Scripture-Michael and Gabriel-but there are many who act as God’s messengers. Here, Gabriel delivered a special message to Zechariah (1:19). This was not a dream or a vision. The angel appeared in visible form and spoke audible words to the priest.
BIBLE READING: Matthew 18:10-14
KEY BIBLE VERSE: Beware that you don’t despise a single one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father. (Matthew 18:10)


ANGELS ARE SPECIAL GUARDIANS.
Our concern for children must match God’s treatment of them. Certain angels are assigned to watch over children, and they have direct access to God. These words ring out sharply in cultures where children are taken lightly, ignored, or aborted. If their angels have constant access to God, the least we can do is to allow children to approach us easily in spite of our far too busy schedules.
BIBLE READING: Hebrews 1:1-14
KEY BIBLE VERSE: But angels are only servants. They are spirits sent from God to care for those who will receive salvation. (Hebrews 1:14)


ANGELS HAVE SEVERAL FUNCTIONS.
Angels are spiritual beings created by God and under his authority (Colossians 1:16). They have several functions: serving believers (Hebrews 1:14), protecting the helpless (Matthew 18:10), proclaiming God’s messages (Revelation 14:6-12), and executing God’s judgment (Acts 12:1-23; Revelation 20:1-3).

The Chosen

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel alone, lost, darkness all around and thought God had forgotten you existed? We all experience times like these.  I will never forget my own a few years ago while in South Africa visiting my parents. The ten-day vacation was coming to an end and I expected to be home in the States within the three days.  Unfortunately, the staff of the airline I was to travel on went on strike, resulting in no flights coming to or leaving South Africa. Initially, I was not concerned. Surely, I thought, this will resolve itself within the next three days. But no, it did not resolve. It went on for weeks. Panic set in because I needed to get back to the States as work and family were waiting for me.  I prayed and prayed, begging God to intervene in the strike so that I could fly home.  Daily I called the airlines.  There was never any change. Finally, after two long weeks of striking, a few flights left South Africa. But by this time there was such a backlog of passengers camped out at the airport that it would be weeks longer before I was able to leave. Still, I could not wait any longer. I had to get home. I presented my problem to the Lord once more. And, in faith, took action on my request to Him. My parents took me to the airport, which was a good two-hour drive.  Not knowing what to expect when I got there, I planned to join those sleeping on the floor hoping to get a flight out. We arrived at the airport and it brought my stomach to my throat.  The sight of the throngs was too awful to bear! "We're just going to turn around now and return home," my mom said. My dad, on the other hand, is one of those old time believers in God's amazing work in the worst of situations. "I think she should just step out in faith and see what happens," he said. We parked miles away and fought the crowd to the terminal.  People were sleeping, standing, camping out in the terminal.  No line was moving.  I had no idea where to go to even begin to put my name on a waiting list. And then God intervened, as He always does in such circumstances.  There I was standing with my huge suitcase, in the middle of the crowd, totally dazed, not knowing where to turn, when one of the airport attendees suddenly reached for me and asked, "Where are you going?" I said, "New York." He replied, "Come with me." He picked up my suitcase and escorted me right to the front of the line, leaving everyone else yelling and cursing at me.  He waited with me at the counter and helped me get on a flight. The flight had one seat open to New York. After checking in, I went to find my parents, who were still in shock at what they had just witnessed.  My dad, tears running down his face, smiled and hugged me, saying, "Well?  Once again, all you had to do was step out in faith, making your requests known to Almighty God and He answered.  But you had to act on your faith.  Why do we doubt God?" Looking back over the whole situation, my faith in God increased tremendously.  What happened?  Why was I chosen out of the crowd?  I will never know why, but I can only say that God took this situation to prove to me that He knows who I am, that He alone can work out the toughest challenges in our lives.  He knew I had to get home to fulfill commitments in the church.  I asked and He answered.   There are times when we have to take God at His word when He says He will make a way in the wilderness when there is no way.  We have to physically move forward, taking up our baggage, trusting that He is who He says He is. Was the gentleman in the airport who took me out of the crowd an angel?  I don't think so.  He was looking in the crowd for someone to put on the flight.  God helped him to pick me. We miss out on so many blessings when we say, "The situation is impossible."  We must come to the realization that our God is a God who transcends the impossible.  We need to step out in faith, knowing He hears our cry. What do you need to ask God for today?  And then how do you need to take action? Sharon H. East Rockaway, NY Reproduced with permission from http://www.touchedbythehandofgod.com © ® All rights reserved.

A New Start

My family was going through some very rough times. We were basically homeless over the past several years. I wasnt able to get a job because of my work history which was from being a stay at home Mom. I went through abusive relationships in my life and had no help from the father of my kids. I was granted child support, it helped but wasnt enough to survive on. I also suffered from anxiety disorder/panic attacks, you name it. After over a decade of suffering from the depression and anxiety, it finally came to me that I need to pray about this, and I prayed from my heart. I was literally sick and tired of the way I was feeling day to day. I was only getting four hours of sleep a day, imagining all kinds of illnesses and disease, calling 911 and feeling foolish but grateful that I was still in good health, people calling me weird and laughing at me because I was always jittery. I prayed and almost immediately I was cured of anxiety which was a part of my life for over ten years, I was amazed how soon my prayer was answered. I felt like a new person. I was cured of the anxiety but I was still moving from place to place with my children. I finally had to let them stay with their dad to have some stability. I never wanted to separate from my kids but I had no choice. I still had the olders ones with me and we were living in a drug infested, violent neighborhood. I worried constantly of my boys getting hurt, jailed, and even worse killed. My oldest son couldnt find a job so he got into some illegal activity which scared me senseless. One night I heard scuffling upstairs from the apartment we stay in and something told me my son was involved. I ran upstairs and sure enough he was being drug out a door bruised and bleeding, I was horrified, I didnt know what to do, but I mustered up the strength to pull my son downstairs and kept him in. He was intoxicated and hard to control but I wasnt letting him go back out to get hurt again or killed. I didnt know where to turn, and I remembered a prayer I saw in my local Thrifty Nickle that someone had published. That prayer was a novena. I said that prayer everyday for nine days. I also prayed in between the Novena because I knew only God could save my son. I prayed that our lives would be turned around for the better and that my son will stop doing the bad things he was doing and that we can start over on the right track. Praise our Heavenly Father, and Jesus, and all who interceded on my behalf. I have since moved to another state because of a job offer, and my son was blessed with a wonderful job that he is so happy and grateful for. No one can tell me there are no such things as miracles because I know there are. I am just so grateful because we are working and God made it all possible. At the end of the school year the rest of my children will be united with me and there is nothing more I can ask for..God is good:)


Shared by Iowa:

From The Dawn Of Time

 From the dawn of time the faithful have knocked at heaven's gate, seeking clues to eternity. In the Divine Comedy, Dante writes of entering " the heaven of pure light " where he sees Christ, who is " painted with our likeness, " and whose "love moves the sun and the other stars."
  Thomas Aquinas describes eternity where we shall live pure bliss, fully knowing and being known by a God of Light. Erasmus of Rotterdam spoke of a friend who died and was met in a sublime meadow by St. Jerome. As the mortal and immortal met in an embrace, the heavens opened and a channel of divine light and music broke through, linking the entrance gardens of paradise with the celestial world.
  In the twentieth century, Oxford don C.S. Lewis fancifully takes a dream-like bus ride from hell to heaven in The Great Divorce. Upon arrival he writes, "I got out, The light and coolness that drenched me were like those of summer morning, early morning a minute or two before the sunrise, only that there was a certain difference." A distinct difference to be sure. The hero from hell soon meets heaven's "solid people." He discovers to his amazement that he is the phantom - the truly "real" are those who live in paradise. One of the solid people tells one of the little humans, "Don't you understand ? The Glory flows into everyone: like light and mirrors. But the light's the thing."
  In the stories and visions that follow, the light is indeed the thing. A constant, transforming, illuminating Light is reported by those who have peeked into paradise throughout the ages.
 Perpetua. a second - century martyr, asked for a glimpse of things to come as she awaited her turn to be thrown before ravenous beasts. In a vision she saw a " bronze ladder reaching up to heaven, but it was so narrow that only one person could ascend at a time.... At the summit I saw an immense garden, in the center of which sat a tall, gray-haired man dressed like a shepherd, milking sheep. Standing around him were several thousand white robed people. As he raised his head he noticed me and said, 'Welcome, my child.' Then he beckoned me to approach and gave me a morsel of the cheese he was making. I accepted it with cupped hands and ate it. When all those surrounding us said, ' Amen,' I awoke, still tasting the sweet cheese." Saturus, her brother in martyrdom, in his own vision hours before his death saw a splendid garden before entering a "place where the walls seemed constructed of light." There he and Perpetua met the Lord and elders who told them to enjoy themselves.
  Today, thanks to advances in medical technology, more people are resuscitated from the brink of death. Accounts abound of people who leave their physical bodies behind and are shown what Lewis labels "the valley of the shadow of the living." Millions are estimated to have had near - death experiences, and legions have testified to the similar characteristics commonly associated with them: a feeling of peace and calm; leaving the physical body; traveling through something like a tunnel; meeting others - including a Being of Light; seeing a life review; reaching a threshold or border; coming back with an altered view of the importance of life; and having no more fear of death. Some of these people tell of heavenly things. Some return to tell of the brush of angels' wings and celestial choirs. Some are met at heaven's gates by beloved relatives and friends. But sometimes what is seen is odd, unearthly, or even funny. The one thing that pervades nearly every story is the Being of Light, called by various names, but always experienced as the source of love. Even a fleeting glimpse of the Light transforms those who adventure into the beyond. Most return with a heightened awareness of themselves as spiritual beings and have no fear of dying. More time is spent in enjoying life and helping others and less in worrying about material goods or others' opinions. Relationships change - living with first - hand knowledge of heaven is not easy for the earthbound.

Shared from: ( G P )
http://houseofelijah.blogspot.com
http://likeangelsandmiracles.blogspot.com
http://theartoflula.blogspot.com