| 2-January-2008
Just sitting here early morning on "one-of-those-nights" when I don't sleep, but get up and pace the floor all night. I don't have these as frequently as I used to, but they do still come along occasionally. That used to be an every-night deal. Between the steroids and the thoughts going through my head, I would manage about two or three hours sleep at night, and then about two or three more after daylight. Once I learned to "lay aside" those things which doth so easily beset me, I found that I sleep better. Sitting here reading some of the things others are having to go through makes me feel blessed beyond measure in my situation. I have been blessed with some really excellent doctors and health-care workers. Looking back over the past three months, I can see God's hand at work in every step of this ordeal. Some people will never understand how, "If there is a god, why did he allow this to happen?" Answer? He didn't. For 25+ years, there was a "hedge of protection" surrounding my household and family. Numerous times, there were instances where a situation could have been disastrous, yet God intervened and turned a "cursing" into a "blessing". In over 25 years, we had never been to a doctor for anything more than colds, jammed fingers from playing ball, etc. Not bad for seven kids, now grown and having babies of their own! BUT about six months ago, the enemy managed to find a "breach" in that hedge. Someone once likened it to a great stone wall of protection, and the enemy is going to continually walk up and down that wall, chipping here and there until he finds a "weak" spot, and he is going to drive in a spike and start chipping away until he gets a spot large enough to enter. Well, he managed to find a spot. But just like the Israelites in Nehemiah, I looked and found someone to "stand alongside, together with, against" the enemy when he comes along. Our first prayer in all this was "nothing hidden that shall not be revealed, nothing secret that shall not be made known". You can't fight an enemy if you don't know who the enemy is. The enemy has been identified. He has been revealed, made known, stripped bare of power, and destroyed. The enemy in this case had a name. He called himself "astrocytoma". He has been rendered powerless and of none effect in my life. Utterly destroyed "from the very root". There are also those that will ask "If you are believing God for your healing, why are you going through all these treatments, and surgery, etc.?" Good question. It would have been great to have just walked away from all this totally healed and whole. Can God do that? Without question, YES! Will He? Yes, He does. Did He this time? No. Why? Don't know. I'll ask Him when I get there. The thing is, it does not detract one bit from His promises, provisions or His Word. God never changes. He never moves. He is constant. Consistent. No shadow of turning in Him. WE move. We get out from under His hand. Kind of like a baby chick and its mother. The old hen sits on the nest brooding over her chicks. As long as they stay under her, they are warm and protected. BUT, if one "chooses" to wander off, they become susceptible to attack. But you know, all they gotta do is "turn around" and go back. There are indeed natural consequences to pay for natural incidents. I do not care how hard you pray, or how long, or to who or what, if you take a hammer and hit your finger with it, it is going to hurt like hell. You cut yourself, you gonna bleed. Doctors and medical professionals are not "of the enemy". Using them is not detracting from God and His abilities. The gifts talents and abilities they
posses come from the same God that placed certain gifts talents and abilities in me. Can the doctors heal us? No. But they can provide a "better atmosphere" for the healing to take place. They can sew up the laceration, but cannot make the skin grow back together. God can. Can they heal a broken bone? No, but God can. The doctor can indeed reset the bone straight and secure it in place while it heals, though. I have always asked people, if your car breaks down, do you take it to the jeweler to get it fixed? Or if your watch breaks, do you take it to the car dealer? NO! You would take them back to the people that made them. So, therefore, if this body breaks down along the line, take it back to the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for repair. He hand built me. Figure He knows how to put me all back together again. Good as new.
Total rebuild. Thanking You, that you are indeed a God of second chances!! (And for some of us, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc, etc) http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BT-Faith/ |
