Faith and Fireflies
I often ask him to show them to me when my emotions are too heavy. He's never failed to bring one into my view when I ask. It's not magic, it's faith.
Faith is so misunderstood. I have often misunderstood it myself. I've heard preachers say it requires time in a "prayer closet", it takes specific words, no...that would be magic, wouldn't it. If God was moved by an incantation, wouldn't that mean the power of prayer was in my hands? Something to think about.
I've been doing a great deal of praying this past week. I feel like I've reached a new level in my praying. Not because I'm more full of faith...whatever that means. I am full of a new understanding.
Faith is not a mental exercise by any means, but it does require a mind that is full of God's word. I guess filling my mind with God's word is my portion of the work required. I don't know. I'm just expressing my heart tonight.
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I had two people bring two very different prayer request during our conversations. For some reason they latched onto my heart. One of the two people was dealing with a horrible situation. She couldn't see any hope and felt like a victim. I understood that feeling. I reached out to the Lord and he gave me some words to encourage her.
I watched a sermon by Pastor Steven Furtick. "Dig Until God Does". I recommend you watch it. The message is based on the adventure of Elisha in II Kings 3. If you read the passage you'll see that 3 Kings of Israel went to war against Kings that would destroy them. The Kings of Israel travelled for seven days and then they ran out of water. They were so worried about their survival that they eventually called for Elisha. Elisha's response cracked me up. He said (my wording}, "Why don't you call on your own prophets?" Then he adds, "If it weren't for ( a certain man) I wouldn't even speak to you." WOW!
Elisha then goes to the Lord on their behalf. God tells them, through Elisha, to dig ditches. What a crazy way to answer a prayer, right? Then he tells them that these ditches will be full of water in the morning. He also said that it would not rain and the wind would not blow. WOW! You can read it for yourself, but there's a principle that sparked my faith in there.
I have worked so hard on many projects and I felt like each one was inspired by God and it led me to another project, but I didn't see any monetary prosperity in any of them.
I wrote songs for and recorded an album entitled "It's Mine!" It sold some, then nothing. It was all about standing on faith in God's Word. It was true and it was real, but it didn't make enough progress to bring me any kind of monetary reward.
I wrote a book. "Curse of the Mountain." I wrote and published it right before I got the news that I had cancer and would only live six months at best. (That was 21 years ago). The publisher went bankrupt and even though you can find a copy or two on Amazon, I got no money from writing it.
I wrote a children's book, "Fireflies at Night." It was published and then that publisher went bankrupt. So, I didn't see any profit from that one either.
I made hats for cancer patients, I felt pulled to do that because I remember that my options were few and often made me feel "less than" when I lost my hair. I sold a few, but gave away most of them. Again, I made no profit.
I started dressing Teddy Bears. I put tutus' on them and hats and clothes and I prayed over them. I saw a miraculous healing through one I gave away. That story is in a blog on this site. I think it's called, "No Nap". I ended up giving most of those bears away. Again, no monetary income.
I volunteered for a project to help women heal from abuse. I was given crosses made of metal and I put broken jewelry on them. All of those items were donated and I donated my time, so again, there was no monetary profit for me.
I tell you all of this because each step that I took got me closer to the next. When I started making the crosses, it was just because I was organized and made lovely crosses, but then it turned into something more.
I started seeing scriptures to go with each cross, so I'd take a picture of the cross and send the scripture along with it. This lead me to hear the Lord clearly and I started writing messages to the person that would receive the cross. I'll never know how those crossed touched someone's heart, but I do know that it was a practical way to teach me to hear the voice of God.
In saying all of that, I say this. I started making my own jewelry from broken jewelry. If you go to my site "Barjeanajewelry.com" you'll see what my vision has become. I've made some sales, learned a great deal about what products to use and what to avoid, I've learned to make repairs and I'm learning more as I go, but I have not made a distinct profit from my labor.
This is all important because when I was listening to the sermon I mentioned before Pastor Furtick presented an idea that stuck with me. Can you imagine being thirsty and then someone tells you to dig ditches. Wouldn't that seem like a waste of time and energy? Then. after you dig them, you have to wait. The scripture states that during the night God called the waters above that dry valley to flood the area where Israel waited. That water filled the ditches.
I'm not going to repeat the sermon, but I am going to tell you how it affected my faith. I clearly saw all my past endeavors as digging ditches. Even though I haven't seen the prosperity from the work, I have faith that I will.
I've been through so much in the past year. I nearly died four times between November and February. Each time I gave God my soul and committed my body to Him to do as He wished; that's another story.
The point is, I was digging ditches deep and they seemed to be going nowhere. I haven't seen the fruit of my labors as of today, but I know they are coming. God promised to supply all of my need and He has. It may be getting to what I would call "the hard part," but I have full security knowing He will provide for me.
After I listened to that sermon, probably four times, I began to speak words of faith. Not words I'd learned, but words that were in my heart to say.
One of the people I prayed for had a goal of 60 representatives by the end of June, she had almost 30 when we talked. Faith rose up in me! I agreed with her and sent her an encouraging prayer. The prayer stated that God would honor her goal and that He would provide her as she had asked from him. Today is the first of July. Guess how many representative she had yesterday? 62.
The other person I prayed with about her business. She had built a business previously and it had been stolen from her by someone she thought loved her. I can understand that kind of grief, I'm sure we all can.
As I started to pray for her, the prayer took on a life of it's own. I started praying a way I never thought of praying until now. I saw that her life's work had provided for the other individual and she was having to start from scratch again. It took her years to build her business the first time only to be stolen. God does not approve of this behavior. He honors his Word and her work.
For more information on that story see the blog "The Power of the Blessing".
I kept encouraging them both by sending them sermons and words I would get from the Lord, using scripture or something I felt in my heart. We pronounced blessing on the current work of their hands. To make a long story short. In the past week she has gained three new employees, her business has increased to a place that she is nearly at full capacity and she is more satisfied than she was with her original business. Only God can do that.
So, I'll keep listening to the Lord, I'll keep making my jewelry and I'll wait for the water to fill the empty ditches.
What ditches are you digging and what does the water look like that will fill them?
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