We’re reading Charles Finney’s book Power From On High which is a total life changer. If you ever want to know how your life as a Christian could look like then this is a Must Read!!! It will either totally offend you or utterly inspire you. He’s so full of the Holy Spirit’s power that its like reading the Acts of the Apostles in an American context. We must become Christians that have God’s power from on high pulsing through us all the time.
Carol Arnott continually reminded us throughout her message on forgiveness that this was not just a nice thought, or a pleasant notion, but that what she was saying would actually bring about total transformation in our lives. in her words ‘Guys this really works, it really works.’ Well, I love hearing sermons where you can go and practically put them into practice. So I did. And you know what, the moment I began to put her message into practice and forgive, everything began to change. Immediately I realised how disgusting my unforgiveness had been, how at fault I had been, how much I needed Him. It was as if weights fell off my shoulders, blinkers fell off my eyes, shackles fell off my legs, and my emotions were free. I was free to love again, I was free from what I hadn’t realised had bound me! Praise God that it does really work.
For those of you who read this it will appear a most obvious fact, but as I’ve just had this revelation it certainly is worth blogging about it.
I’ve been reading about Elisha & Elijah, about how they could know the actions and thoughts and words of others at great distances, and how they used this knowledge to help or correct or rebuke people. I think it hit me so hard because its so freaky the thought of humans having this ability, yet it is God who gave them this because he really sees, really hears, really knows what is happening in our lives every second.
He is watching you right now!
He is listening to you right now!
And suddenly I got this wonderful strange new sense of God being here and knowing everything I’m doing, a great and wonderful sense of him watching me all the time. I didn’t feel freaked out, I felt special, I felt like waving to him to say ‘Hi’ becasue now I knew he was seeing even my littlest gestures. It also immediately had the effect of tightening my concience up as I was acutely aware of him seeing even the slightest sin. It was so exciting because now I was conciously aware of him watching the smallest integrous deeds, and I felt afirmed for all of them even though no human might ever know.
Elisha said to the King ‘by this time tomorrow a seah of flour will sell for…’ The king did not believe it since they were in a besieged city with poverty and hunger levels at desperate levels. But true to His word the Lord created a way, the besieging army ran in fear of a spurious army and left their camp to be raided by the famished city’s inhabitants. It could be easy for us all to be like the king, to look at natural circumstances and see the realistic, negative point of view. However, my expectation has to be like that of Elisha who trusted in the word of the Lord against all earthly logic, and believed that God would save the city in 24 hours. My expectation as I pray to the same God as Elisha is that God can save this nation like he has in past decades and centuries in a very short time.
I was in the HOP praying and I couldn’t stop thinking about abortion and how wrong it is. I obviously thought abortion is a really awful thing, but I certainly didn’t have enough conviction to do much about it. I considered the thoughts to be a distraction and tried to blot them out of my mind, because I was trying to pray, but I couldn’t.God said don’t resist, just listen to me, and showed me this dream.
A women went round to her friend’s house to visit (both early
twenties) and she said, “It’s very quiet in here, where’s Jamie?” (Jamie was the friend’s 5 year old son) The friend said “Oh, I had him eliminated last week.”
The first woman said, “What? Eliminated? That’s a shame, because I really liked him.”
The friend said, “Yeah I suppose I’ll miss him, but the thing is, I’m starting back at university soon, the house isn’t really big enough for us and we can’t afford to move. Besides I’m working really hard just to make ends meet and I’ve just got absolutely no time. It’s better this way for us.”
The first woman said, “Fair enough, I suppose you’re right, but I’ll miss him too, he was a real character”
“Yeah he was. What has helped is the service I got at the clinic.
It’s really clever, you give them your photos with Jamie on and they delete him out on Photoshop, or something. Look I’ll show you” The friend showed the woman her photos. “You can hardly tell, can you?”
The first woman said, “Yeah they’ve done a great job with those”
The dream shows what happens if we allow abortion to be left unchecked. The number of abortions are increasing every year and some people are pushing for even more, because they think mothers are rushing into motherhood without considering the consequences to them and their children. If we allow abortion of any kind, then consider the reasons, and ask would you do this (eliminate as the word in the dream was, because it sounds clinical and inoffensive) to a 5 year old child. If the answer is no (and it should be) then why do we allow so many perfectly good lives to be ended every day without any protest? In truth we go to great lengths to save the lives of sick children and premature babies. We invent more clever operations to give disabled children better lives, and yet we carry on allowing abortion. I do not believe women who have abortions are evil, they are just doing something which is socially and medically acceptable.
They have to carry emotional and mental scars after the event, which may never be deleted in Photoshop.