Hi all,
When
Chris had given up the will to live, being in a group home 2 hours from
us, we knew we had to move closer to him so he could see us weekly
instead of the once a month we were then able to do. If he saw us weekly
we knew he would regain the will to live, and mom's home cooking would
put back that 35 pounds he had lost when he lost the will to live.
Lesson 1 - Circumstances required us to act
The
fear was he would die 2 hours away from us. Do we bring him home to
die? They wanted to discharge him to a nursing home to die. How could we
do anything in ministry and care for him, both full time jobs. Faith
does not ignore facts, it realizes faith can change facts. But it still
deals with facts. Abraham and Sarah knew in the natural how old they
were, yet with a revelation from the Lord, they knew facts were about to
change. We had to face facts; Chris had lost the will to live and was
dying. We had to act and act now.
Lesson 2 - We had to think through the fear
We
knew we had to do our part to think through the situation before going
to the Father. For years I've made the practice of following the
instructions of Philippians 4:6, first, Be careful for nothing, THEN
make your requests to God with thanksgiving, THEN peace will come to you
and guard your mind and heart. I often wrestle with thinking things
through, dealing with fear, worry, emotions in my mind and only once
settled, THEN do I make my requests in prayer. This may take a second or
it may take 2 months before I pray.
But
we had to work through the care, the fear, the worry - what to do? We
were 50 years old, didn't want to rent as at our age we needed to build
equity. We had some cash to put down on a house, but it was the summer
of 2008 when the economy and stock market crashed, along with numerous
banks, AIG, GM, Chrysler and Wall Street companies, and mortgages were
impossible to get during that 1 month period we had to act. Each
broker's reply of 'we aren't making any decisions right now' was
crushing.
Lesson 3 - After doing our part, mentally going through options, THEN we prayed
OK
Father, we said...we can't do a bank mortgage, that means the seller
has to carry a note. The town where Chris' group home is, is rather poor
and it would not be wise to buy a house there as once we had it, it
would be near impossible to sell later. A house between Tulsa and his
group home makes sense, but we don't want a condo or neighborhood tract
house. It needs to be in the country, handicapped capable, owner carry,
within 30 minute drive of Chris' group home.
Lesson 4 - Ask the Father for revelation of His will
With
those natural decisions made and the fear dealt with, we were able to
pray those exact things. Immediately in prayer I saw a map of northeast
Oklahoma, with a map of Grand Lake, and an oval highlighted on the west
shore, northwest part of the lake. Then it zeroed in on a spot in the
oval, and I saw a white house surrounded by trees, a wheelchair ramp to
the front door, a gentle sloping yard, and then it zeroed in more to
inside, and I saw a corner room that was Barb's own room, and a
handicapped equipped bathroom. Then it disappeared.
Lesson 4a - Continue to do what is right in the natural, facing the fear
I
told Barb about it, and told her I was going to drive around the area a
couple days to search out everything EXCEPT what the Father showed me. I
drove all around Grand Lake of anything within 45 minutes of Chris,
focusing on a radius of just 30 minutes away...I saw either very
expensive homes for sale with realtors, or shacks for sale by owners,
and those were few and far between. Everything was over $200,000 which
was above our $500/month budget.
Lesson 5 - Act on the revelation - that action, faith, is your heart's response
On
day 3 I told her having eliminated everything in the natural, which I
needed to do for my own peace of mind to know I had done all in the
natural I could, I purposely went to the area I'd been avoiding - the
place the Father showed me in the vision. There I followed a line on the
GPS to a small neighborhood of small homes and manufactured homes, and
right at the dead end of the neighborhood road was the house I saw in
the vision with a 'for sale by owner' sign in the front yard.
I
immediately called, but had to leave a message. It turned out the owner
had just put that sign in the yard before they left for an out of state
trip for a week. When I didn't get an immediate call back the mind
started swirling. Once we made contact, they rejected our offer. I told
Barb I knew what I saw, I know the Father's voice, and I still had peace
even though our offer, which was a price the Father told me to offer,
was rejected.
Lesson 6 - Stay on the revelation, hover over it, keep it in your heart and go about your business.
Can
you imagine the opportunity for fear? Once we learned with a sudden
realization one day, that Chris had given up the will to live, I or we
had been making twice a week visits to him to get him up, fed, and out,
which helped on a temporary basis to give him hope. The group home's
plans to discharge him were put on hold. But now that our offer was
rejected while I was certain I had heard from the Father, what were we
to do? I told Barb we will wait and let the Father deal with the
situation, for it was His problem since He was the one who showed me the
vision.
We
were changing planes in Dallas when the call came - the sellers,
Baptist Pastors, changed their minds, feeling impressed of the Lord to
accept our offer though they had been offered tens of thousands more -
but they wanted to be obedient and also wanted it to go to someone in
ministry.
Lesson 7 - God shows the completed, mature answer/work
We've
been here now 6 years, and only now is the house starting to resemble
what I saw in the vision. It did have a wheelchair ramp to the front
door already - the seller's mother was in a wheelchair so they built it
for her use. But only now with the addition of Chris's handicapped
equipped bedroom and bathroom, will Barb also get a corner room for her
office - in knocking out the south wall by necessity it meant creating a
space for another room adjacent to Chris'.
When
the Lord appeared to the then Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus,
the Lord told Paul (through Ananias*) he would share the Lord before
kings - that didn't happen for decades because the Lord usually shows us
what can be, the mature and completed work. That is why I saw our house
fully equipped - I never thought of it until it became clear we had to
make changes to his care, then Barb reminded me of the vision - and we
are amazed. (*Acts 9:10-17)
According to your faith be it unto you
Barb
and I could have resigned ourselves to Chris dying. When the group home
administrator told me they needed to discharge him to a nursing home to
die, we could have said 'yes'. We could have mourned the soon passing
of our son, watching him waste away, and all the while asking the Lord
'Why?'. We would have done that because in the natural there were no
solutions.
We
could have said we could not rearrange our whole lives and the church
body & leadership in Tulsa for our son, and let him go. But instead,
we looked to the Father for a solution, and I stood there with the
administrator begging for time, laying out to her how 1 or both of us
would come up at least 2x a week to restore his hope, and if they didn't
see a change in Chris within 2 weeks then we'd agree.
In
I Kings 17:9 during a famine, the Lord tells Elijah to go to a certain
woman in Zarephath; "I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain
you." Elijah knew heavenly provision had been commanded, but the widow
chose fear, for when Elijah came to her she told him she was preparing
her last meal and then they were going to die. She turned however, and
gave up fear and hopelessness, choosing to believe Elijah, and as a
result lived on continually multiplying flour and oil for the duration.
We
cannot blame her for she was looking at the natural world; Famine, 1
meal left, and already near death. But once she laid aside fear and
started thinking 'outside the box', towards the heavenly solution Elijah
presented, she saw a miracle in spite of the circumstances that plagued
the whole nation. Provision was there IF she refused fear, if
she looked to heaven for a solution she had never considered.
My
hope is that in reading my story and this series, is that you will see
the many opportunities we have for heavenly provision in our lives and
those we love or care for. Though it may mean great difficulty and
change even to the lives of those you love - yet it is your provision.
Fear presents 1 story and it can be according to that fear or those
circumstances. But for those willing to reject fear - I mean truly
reject it by taking time to deal with it until you get revelation from
heaven, and NOT carry it through your prayers to the 'Amen' - there is
supernatural provision and growth as a person, and as a person in
Christ.
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar