Miracle Story | The Very Best Miracle

Beschrijving

Miracle Story Episode 17 The Very Best Miracle My father was born in 1922, way out in the country. He had one living brother and sister. He had been a twin, but the other one had either died right after or during birth. Twins? An interesting side note here that has nothing to do with this story is that my father weighed eleven pounds at birth. I can’t imagine carrying two babies around that size and then delivering them way off in a little country house. Probably much of the reason the other twin did not live. May Grandmother was Very Religious My grandmother was a member of the Church of Christ. The church where they attended was miles from their home, but every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and on Wednesdays, my grandmother walked with my father and his siblings several miles each way to attend. And yes, this was in the Oklahoma heat and in the snow as well. After several years of this, my father had had enough and rebelled against church and therefore God. My grandparents divorced when my father was a teenager and he moved to Arizona to live with his dad. Through the years as I was growing up, my dad did not want to talk about God or religion. All those years of religious activity had soured him so completely on what he thought was required to be a Christian that he wanted no part of it. I Prayed and Then Prayed Some More But, I prayed for my dad. For years, I prayed for my dad. I prayed in the natural and in the Spirit. I often just said a simple prayer throughout the day. I would simply say to God, “Please don’t let my daddy die before he is right with you.” I prayed it over and repeatedly. So, when God allowed my intercession to spare my father’s life, I knew it was time for more than just prayer. I needed to act. When My Father Came Home Fast forward this story to when my father was home. He often sat at the end of their dining room table where he had a cup of coffee at the ready. He would watch TV from there. One day I was at my parents home and found a large cardboard box of cards that friends and family had sent him while in the hospital. It held dozens upon dozens of cards. I sat the box on the opposite end of the dining room table from where my dad was sitting. I looked through them and read the sentiments from friends. I came upon a letter in an envelope that at first didn’t look familiar, until I pulled the letter out from the envelope and began to read. When I Realized My Father Was Watching I didn’t realize my father was watching me until I opened the letter and started to read it. Honestly, I was a little embarrassed. As I read the first line, I heard a tapping on the table and looked over to see my father tapping the table to get my attention. When I looked over, he mouthed to me in his raspy voice, “Sissy, it’s okay.” I smiled, and he nodded. I Still Get Emotional To this day, it makes me so incredibly emotional. I firmly believe God allowed my prayers to spare his life so that he could make things right with him. What if I hadn’t known what I did? What if I’d not prayed those difficult intercessory prayers? It is wonderful when a physical life is spared, but is there a purpose beyond? In this case, it is a definite yes. Saving his physical body brought him to a place to receive spiritual salvation. God answered the prayers I had prayed all those years where I asked God to not let my daddy die before being born again. But, I had a part to play as well and I am so thankful that I did. I Am Thankful I’m so thankful I knew how to intercede in deep intercessory prayer. I am so glad I knew how to fight spiritual warfare on that level. And I am so glad I wrote the letter. What had I said in that letter? I told him that a relationship with God was just that and not how many times a week you went to church. I told him how much God loved us and just wants us to be close to him. There was much more I wrote because the letter was about three pages long. But the other words don’t come to mind now. It Is An Every Changing Journey Our lives and our faith is a journey. Many events and experiences are stepping stones to the next one. Being in a close relationship with God makes that journey substantial and beneficial for now and for all eternity.

Friday Finale | Feeding The Hungry - Episode 6

Friday Finale – Episode 6 Originally written September 16, 2011 posted here: https://forthhttps://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/16/feeding-the-hungry/esakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/16/feeding-the-hungry/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/16/feeding-the-hungry/] Feeding The Hungry John 1:9-13 9) There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10) He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11) He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12) But as many as received Him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13) who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. I know that some may question why lately we are going to such lengths to dig below the surface of a scripture to see what the greek words are and what their meaning is. But the more I dig, the more I find that it does make a difference. The Greek language is so much more exact than our English language. Love for instance is a word that we casually throw around and yet also use for our dearest devotion. We know that in the Greek Language there is a word for each and every varying kind of love. So when we read the scriptures in our English language it is interesting to see it in the way it was first written. There is an example in the previous passage of one word in the English being use in two varying degrees. That word is received. In verse 11 it talks about Jesus coming to His own, the Jews, and they did not ‘receive’ Him. Here the word receive is a very passive type of word. It actually means they did not acknowledge Him. As if being in a group and someone walks in and they are ignored and no one notices that they are there. The next verse, verse 12, says that as many, meaning anyone — Jew or Gentile who ‘received’ Him were given the right to become children of God. In this verse the word ‘received’ is totally different than the verse before. This word is a very active and even aggressive word. It means to aggressively take hold of something. In our English we have a watered down version of this word in this usage. This study this week has answered many questions that I’ve had for a long time. Questions like why do some people agree to their need for Jesus, say the sinners prayer, and then go on their own way as if nothing ever happened, living that same old lifestyle. Then in others we see an immediate and radical change. I believe one key is here. Let’s take this and move it to something more familiar to get a strong visual on the subject. For a person who eats on a regular basis, sometimes life distracts us and we get busy and for hours we don’t even realize that we are hungry. In fact because we are so well fed on a regular basis our hunger is just a slight reminder. It is one that can easily be ignored when we are engaged in things that we find more interesting and entertaining. But there are so many out there that never eat regularly and are really starving. Eating is their only thought and they long for it and crave it every second of every day. Just a morsel to eat, just a scrap, they will take it eagerly. Many times I’ve cooked for someone and when the food was ready they were engaged in something that they wanted to finish before eating. I would bring them their food and they would acknowledge it and ask me to just set it down and they would get to it when they were done with what they were doing. They received, or acknowledged the food. But their receipt of it was very passive. Let’s contrast that with feeding genuinely hungry people. We’ve seen pictures of missionaries who bring food to starving countries in trucks, and as they are coming down the road the people run to them. When the food is passed out they aggressively take it, many times fighting for even a small share of the food. This is much different than the ‘received’ example previously. So, now that we have a visual in our minds let’s move back to the spiritual application of it. Jesus says that those who received (actively take hold of) Him… I believe that the difference in one’s life transformation when receiving Jesus is their degree of hunger. How many people have been pushed by guilt or peer pressure to answer an alter call when they have not yet reached a point of true spiritual hunger? They passively accept Jesus, but have no true hunger for Him. As we see in verse 12, it is those who receive Him aggressively that He gives the authority to transition into the children of God. We know that Jesus is the way and we are hungry still for more of Him. We ‘cook’ a good meal and are eager for everyone to eat. But they are not hungry. So, they receive it by acknowledging it, I believe out of a sense of duty, obligation or pressure, and then set it aside. Then there it sets getting cold and forgotten. By passively accepting it they will not be transformed. To our credit we have experienced the hunger and the satisfaction of being filled spiritually and that experience brings with it an eagerness for others to experience it as well. So we push. We manipulate and we engineer places and times so that they too will accept Jesus. But from what I am seeing here, if that person does not have a true hunger on their own, then it will not transform their life. It will be set aside and in my opinion do more harm than good because it will have no effect on them while they continue to do life their way. Our example can be taken from Jesus Himself when He walked on this earth. He was the bread of life yet he never forced Himself on anyone at anytime. He knew He possessed life eternal and yet He did not force feed anyone. But to those who aggressively sought Him out and actively pursued Him, He fed. Many walked away from Him, but he never ran after them attempting to explain Himself and what it was that He was providing so that they would come back and receive Him. Many might say that passive reception is better than no reception. But, I believe Jesus would disagree. It is to those who hunger and aggressively receive that He gives the authority to become the children of God. If a person passively received Jesus, they may have the belief that they have become a child of God and are good to go, but because they did not aggressively pursue and take hold of Jesus they were not given that right and therefore are deceived into believing a lie. Jesus wants to feed those who are hungry, really hungry for transformation, hungry for Him. He wants to see their ‘life denying hunger’ and then satisfy it. So, as followers of Christ who have experienced this very thing, what are we to do? Well, we are not to push and manipulate others to get them to ‘say the sinners prayer’. We are to create a hunger within them by living a life that is filled with the bread of life. Jesus lived it and loved them and they came! And they came in droves. Since He is our example, why are we trying to improve on His way of doing things? Why are we trying to improve on His design. Because it is easier to do it our way than it is to live it His way. Living it His way just seems to take too long. We are more concerned about quantity than quality. If we eat of the bread of life daily and are loving and kind and giving… If we allow the ...

10 jul 202618 min

Miracle Story | A Double Miracle - Episode 18

A Double Miracle When my father had surgery at MD Anderson Hospital to remove the cancer behind his esophagus they had to remove his voice box. That was such a devastating and hard pill to swallow. Listen to my professionally narrated audio books and other podcasts here: AUDIO BOOKS & ALL PODCASTS [https://thestorywithnancyjackson.supercast.com/]. His ordeal in the hospital was a very hard one. He was in intensive care for eight weeks. The last couple of episodes have discussed the miracles that transpired during that time. Demon of Death First the intercession I did to push back the angel/demon of death. Then the letter I wrote to him about what it really meant to be born again and how God didn’t want us to follow rules and rituals, but just have a relationship with him. In that letter I invited him to call out to God and begin that relationship. The last episode told of how he let me know that it was ok. It still brings tears to my eyes. I Had Prayed For My Father I had prayed my entire life for my father. I prayed that he would quit drinking and God delivered him from that very thing, suddenly and without warning. I had prayed many times for his healing and each time it came miraculously. There are so many precious miracles surrounding my father. But let me say, that all of those were the culmination of one answered prayer in particular, the prayer where I prayed for him to be born again. I prayed simply, daily, that God would not let my daddy die without knowing him. That prayer alone paved the way for all the others. God Spared My Daddy’s Life For my daddy to not die before he knew God personally, he had to live. A premature death would have ended that prayer without an answer. So God did honor him with life, through my prayers and he did come to know God in a personal way. His recovery from the cancer surgery was a long one. Because they had to remove his voice box they had let us know, obviously that he would no longer be able to talk. They sent him home with a device that he could hold up to his throat and it would vibrate and act somewhat as a mechanical voice box. He Could Talk But here is another miracle. He didn’t use it because he didn’t need it. He could talk on his own. It was rough and course and somewhat like if we have a ‘horse’ throat. But yet another miracle and Dr. Gepfort was amazed. He too wrote that miracle up in the New England Journal of Medicine. About a year and a half after his cancer surgery, he was working on the farm again and living life just as he always had. He and my mom were traveling some and things were looking good. The Cancer Was Back However on a follow up visit a year and a half after the surgery, they found cancer again. This time it was in his lungs. When I got the news, I was in my bedroom on the phone with my mother. Once I hung up I sat down on the end of my bed and said to myself, “Well, I guess I will just pray again.” Then I heard in the most gentle and compassionate way, “No, this time he is going home.” It hit hard, but I knew it would be okay. Revelation of Heaven For the past year my best friend and I had been on a tangent studying about heaven. During that time I had received such revelation knowledge about it that it was literally real to me just like any other place that we go. I had begun to experience the reality of it, not just as a theoretical place, but truly feel and experience it. When God told me that he was going home this time, It was just like my father was going to another town or state. That is how real it was. There was no grief. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it was already decided. God had fulfilled every prayer I had ever prayed regarding my father including the one about being born again. I believe he did not want me to pray another prayer. He wanted me to just rest in him and the fact that it was time. The Very Best Miracle He had sustained my fathers’ life miraculously until he came to a relationship with him. The very best miracle and the point of it all. When the time came and my father died, because of the real feeling I had about heaven, there was never ever any grief. I didn’t cry. In fact God showed me in a vision how my father was there. He had his full red hair back and he was younger and more vibrant. It was so incredibly real to me. How could I grieve? To this day, 39 years later, I have never grieved for my father. I can’t call him or go visit him as though he were in another town, so I do miss him. Never Grieved From time to time I do ask God to tell my father that I love and miss him. I do this because the bible makes it clear we are not to pray to or attempt to communicate with the dead. But there is nothing that says I can’t ask God to give him a message for me. The revelation of heaven remained acutely real for such a long time. I yearned for it. Not because my father was there, but because of the magnificence of it. What I had come to know through the revelation knowledge that God had given me was something I can’t put into words. And the yearning for it was almost more than I could bear. I Missed My Father There were times I yearned for it so much that I wanted my life to end so I could be there. Let me be clear not commit suicide, but just for my life here to be over so I could go home. I often said if he would give everyone that kind of revelation of heaven then there would be a full world of Christ followers. But God wants us to come to him, to have a relationship with him, not just because of heaven. Then after having battled that for several years and having agonized over the yearning, I asked God to take away that revelation. I needed to go back to a place where I could live my life fully here, unhindered without yearning for heaven. And he did. That acute revelation faded and faded until I came to the place I had been before my father died. I carry with me the knowing of its magnificence without the full feeling of it. I am groping for words to explain something that is totally intangible in my spirit. I know more than I did, but now it is a head knowledge and yes a heart knowledge too, but no longer an experiential knowledge as it had been before. Does God Answer All My Prayers? If you have listened to all my writings so far on miracles you may be feeling like every prayer I have ever prayed has been answered with a miracle and that God has never denied me a request. That isn’t true. This is a series on miracles and this one shows that sometimes God says no. I can’t tell you why, but he decided and that is the way it was. He saved me from the effort and angst of praying prayers that he knew he would not answer. That has happened since, but in a positive way. I had a premie grand baby born at 1.9 lbs. I began to earnestly pray and God stopped me. I heard, “I’ve got this.” And I knew he was already taking care of my sweet grandchild. I Don’t Have All The Answers I don’t know why God does what he does. I don’t understand his timing. I just know t...

5 jul 202610 min

Miracle Story | The Very Best Miracle - Episode 17

Beschrijving

Reacties

Probeer 14 dagen gratis

Alle afleveringen