Happy Monday Everyone!
Its back to the daily grind huh?! Well, this is one of those forwards backwards review type messages.
The irony here is that this message (an accounting of when my kitty went missing) was written in November of 2010
These last few weeks God has been revealing much, those elevens keep showing up (as in this message from back then) and the correlation between what He has been showing me about the Lost, found me stumbling upon this message from way back, He's prompting me to share it again....
You know its funny, looking over all of my old MMM's I realize now its been well over 4 years, my how time flies and I used to send the message out REALLY early like usually before 6am on Monday's as of late its been whenever time permits (too many obstacles sometimes) so I laugh and remember this weeks service at church, where we were reminded that Gods Kairos time is much different than the worlds Chronos time. Its Morning someplace, so lets get started!
I am going to read some segments of this past message (because the content is still very valid) applicable to what we are facing Right here and Right now! God has had me in intercessory grieving and constant prayer over the Lost, those whom are important to me and all those important to the Lord!
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What does it mean to stand in faith?
It's Sunday morning ...upon waking I realize my daVinci kitty is missing ( He usually wakes me) ....you can imagine I am beyond upset, worried and all that comes with it.I called and called, looked and looked...finally I decided to venture into the backyard thinking he might have gotten out last night when I came in.I went back inside for a minute and on the phone with a close girlfriend (she and I were praying over it)...within seconds he appeared on the patio. Visibly crying and hissing, he backed away and under the lawn chair before I could do anything (debating to lunge for him) as I started to walk toward him he ran off behind the woodpile and into the shed area. I proceeded from here, calling his name, getting food and leaving it all around...I set a heart to heart trap with food in it..(just in case he manged to come out when I wasn't looking) I sat at the picnic table for hours upon hours praying, crying, hoping. I looked all around again and again. Nothing :(
During a brief phone call with another friend, I am telling all that has transpired, "he came back then ran off...omgosh what am I to do?".....she reminded me to stand on my faith..."God needs faith to move upon, thats how he works", she said. I agree, I know this; "I pray and I KNOW God hears me...I have so many examples of him (showing up for me) when most needed, when asked, even unto the most unlikely of miracles."
It's around 3:30 and I decide to go back inside (cause I need to write the Monday Morning Message)
So this is what I am doing now..keeping myself busy...doing the Lord's work and I have to admit right now I am selfishly writing about what I am going through but yet just as I think this... God is telling me ..."NO my child...I want you to write this...I am going to use it; Don't look down, keep your eyes focused on me...I created the Moon, the Sun and the Stars...I set them in the Heavens to shine and unto all things my purpose is established."
How do you stand on your faith you might ask?...Well, by remembering the many times God has been with you...or answered a prayer, or showed you something you needed to know. These are things we need to have ready, to recall, to replay to believe upon.. When the time comes and your faith is tested...these are the things that will pull you though and empower you through his word and promises. I need to sit here right now and remember, recounting the times and events that He mercifully and Graciously hearkened my prayers. More importantly, the many many times He was there for me protecting me when I knew not that I was in danger! I have seen it time and time again for others, I have a folder full of praise reports and answered prayers...and I have a myriad of them from my own personal experience... Let me start listing a few....
I need to stand on these ...stand on my faith.....
***Years ago when my Dad died, my Mother needed faith and hope to hold onto, He was a good and Godly man so we knew and felt he was in heaven but this was for her;...the most Virtuous woman I have ever known. She needed comfort and some confirmation from the Lord. Well, God showed up in our house in some amazing ways over those first few months (my four brothers can attest to that)
*** Driving to work one day, it was really bad weather; snow, ice, sleet and wind...I had been travelling down hill and on the opposite side of the street a bus was heading toward...about 10 feet before we are to pass each other my car started to fishtail and seemed to be drawn toward the oncoming bus...I still remember looking at the front of the bus and seeing the look on the drivers face...we both closed our eyes perceiving a crash would occur. As I did so..my heart and mind instantly cried out to the Lord, next thing I knew....I was riding alongside it (closer than close) the only thing separating us was the draft of air between the two.
*** When I was very new to the word, a young woman and a new Christian...I remember I was in the car, on lunch from work and I asked God in my mind, I said; "Lord,...please, if you would... will you send me a sign that you ARE real and you are here and that you hear me". No more than I said this, I caught the stop light...and in my rear view mirror I see this trucks bug shield and the bumper sticker said "Jesus saves" and it had a rainbow! Man oh man...I remember every cell of my being smiled in joy and happiness...Not only did I get my undeniable sign but it felt as if I had won the lottery...God was showing me YES, I AM HERE!
*** My Love ring slipped off and I didnt know it...I asked Jesus to return it to me (and then low and behold the next morning it was discovered on the stairs in the snow...My brother came to me and said,..."Is this yours? (ironically my Brother John was the one and incidentally his Birthday is Dec 25th) to further that train of thought... I lost that ring while writing "I love Jesus" in the snow the night before.
*** I fell and dislocated my shoulder...low and behold that fall was directly responsible for the discovery of a tumor that could have taken my life within a short period of time) It was successfully identified, excised and full recuperation occurred.
*** August of 2009 I was at work & experienced a brush across my cheek, not feeling well and having some obvious weird sensations. A trip to the ER and many more weeks of tests uncovered yet another tumor (many years after the first). I immediately turned this over to God...(having faced it once before) I said God whatever your purpose I'll do it...and I'll praise you, I just knew deep down I was going to be OK...thats what I did and I am here to tell you...thats why I am still here! (this was to date the most amazing event for me...only God can move a tumor around (like in my case) they couldn't really pinpoint it and once they did they discovered they couldn't operate on it...so I had to have radiation (which I did) but I have to tell you at first they painted a grim picture for me..I refused to entertain those thoughts, I kept reminding myself that I lived through the first one, you need to just let God use this, don't resist, just trust, hope and pray. I did and He did! I am "a. o. k."
***A close friend's Mom was dying (they are Jewish) I knew my friends Mom made a close friend of woman who lived near her who is Christian and that she had been witnessing to my friends Mom. I had prayed that God would send that woman to witness to her before she passed. Low and behold that woman ended up stopping into the facility that night to see her, upon seeing her condition had stayed with her until she passed away later that night! I don't know what transpired but I prayed that Arlene would accept Jesus before leaving this world and that tiny mention of mine ended up playing out...my inquiry of what ever happened to this friend of her Mom's before this even happened caught my friends attention. Surely it also stands as a faith-boost for me and for my friend (who I pray for every single day) that she will come to know our Lord! I pray my friend knows I LOVE her...even though we don't speak much any longer!
a billion thoughts are flooding my mind so I stop on this one...
I know there are many, many more examples of God working in my life..I ask the Holy spirit to reveal them to me and I shall keep this list and I shall bind this upon my heart. I thank you Lord right now that you are using this for your Glory and this tiny scare and inconvenience is simply to prepare me and all of us To do the WORK you ask...to trust and to have FAITH...we cant know our faith or increase it unless it's challenged. We can't overcome our challenge without exercising that FAITH...GIVE ME BOTH LORD..let me remember and know all you have done...let me harness that now for my dear little friend...whom I love so much. I praise you Father as I stand here in this storm; I praise YOUR HOLY and Mighty Name! Bring him home Lord, let the angels work together to protect and safely guide him home.
The bulk of this message is now written, kitty still not back. I returned to the doorway to the back and sat,and called and prayed. Then all of a sudden something dawned on me, when my friend left last night she mentioned something on the way out the door...I stuck my head out and chatted for a second (this must be when he slipped out)...so, I text'd her back at about 6:00pm saying;..."You know what?...I just remembered when you left last night, I poked my head back out cause we had been talking about God and how amazing it is, the things that happen to us & around us when we are together because we are so on fire for God..he got out while we were speaking and praising the Father...so I stand on that now that the Lord will bring my kitty back home, cause He has never let me down"... "Amen!", she says!
Eventually, I decided I needed to go take care of the massive headache I was now suffering with from the frustration and the crying. I couldn't bring myself to close the door completely so I left it slightly ajar and came back inside. Upstairs now trying to get my emotions to calm and my head to stop pounding, I just laid there envisioning my kitty running to that bed like he does. No sooner than I began to close my eyes my brother starts yelling...he's back, he's in the house!!! I rise and run to the stairs and there he is...YAY, THANK GOD! I praised Jesus right there...tears and full out THANK YOU JESUS !
Random thought....If he hadn't come home when he did I would have had to leave you all hanging! :) praying and wondering!..
The lesson here....KEEP A LIST OF EVERYTHING YOU THAT HAS EVER TOUCHED YOU...AN ANSWERED PRAYER, a miracle, a prayer for a friend thats been answered or anything good that has happened for you that made you totally sure that God must have heard you. When you think the thing you are facing is so painful, so awful, so out of your control....Turn it over to him in CONFIDENCE, knowing He is able! Envision the desired outcome, praise God as you envision your answered prayer and rebuke those scary thoughts that will have you thinking its dead, its done, its cooked, its over.... CAUSE it aint over until the Living God says its over hallelujah AMEN!
I'd like to highlight one point here, you'll notice that I went about to continue to do the Lord's work in the middle of this, in the midst of my personal crisis; to write the bulk of this message was indeed important, required, beneficial and agonizing all at the same time and that's the whole point. When east looks west and up looks down and what you hold most dear seems threatened you need to just start building that staircase of faith...each step requires trust and the solid, sturdy truths of established evidence that God has been your helper, that is solid matter of faith upon which to stand. Do his work, hold onto that faith because its so precious and vital. Even if it's a tiny thing that you know came from God, bind that recollection around your heart to remind you when the hour comes, combine PRAY with OBEY and you will find God right there helping you along the way!
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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Susan
ت smz ™ © ®2010
PSS
daVinci needs prayers of restoration...he is so traumatized by this... he is howling, hissing and I mean really...I have never seen an animal in this emotional state and its very upsetting/ Ive done some reading on it and it will take some time for him to relax. Dear God I so thank you...and I stand on that faith that brought him home Lord, bring him home emotionally... I love his little spirit, that's what I miss. Kitty come home all the way!
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Ahaaa moment #1,111
...Look at the date! 11-1-10 ...there are those 1's and 11's again. I've long
since known that the promptings everyone catch's on their clock, is God trying to
get our attention (after all we are in the 11th hour)!
(*parallel thought:
When I left my door open for daVinci to come back I remember thinking I want to
keep that possibility available until the very last second) and so too, Our
Lord is ever mindful that all are not fully home yet!
Wow...God revealed
something so amazing to me just now; what a lesson this has been. Having
daVinci (my precious cat) missing was heart wrenching, it threw my life out of
whack temporarily; it tempted me to feel despair, to envision what might have
happened to him, to blame myself for not knowing he was missing until morning,
to give up hope. Ironically, the very night he got out (at about 3:30 AM, or
so, in the morning) I got back up in the middle of the night (because I
couldn't sleep) must have been my spirit trying to get my attention (as a
friend added, she said; "God tries to talk to us all the time but we just
don't listen")...I went to the pc and found some songs on you tube to
post on FB (having just fixed my sound card... I can't get enough of my
surround sound ;)....I posted two songs that night one of them ironically is
"Come Home" by Luminate....Just try and tell me God doesn't know your
life and what you need before you know you need it...or need HIM for that
matter? We need God always! If He stopped thinking of us for even a second we'd
vanish from existence, memory and recollection!
WORTH LISTENING TO:
"Come Home" by Luminate
To have daVinci
back but not able to get near him was awful. I couldn't understand how
this cat could be looking at me and NOT SEE ME...he was so caught up behind
this self induced VEIL of FEAR (and understandably so) Lord only knows what
kept him at bay all night? Poor little baby, he's so spoiled with huggies &
kisses from me...he's never had to really defend his life before. I tell you it
was God inspired, the idea to let him hear his own sounds, sounds of himself
purring and interacting with me. My spirit felt happy remembering the cute and
lovable cat that would let me do just about whatever I wanted (except trim his
nails) lol...It killed me inside that he was looking right at me now,
finally... and was teetering between remembering, he was seeing me with his
eyes but not seeing me with his heart (until he started watching those images
over my blackberry) I literally held that thing out, hovering over where he was
crouched and let him watch himself loving on me. Eventually, he began to
remember, he knew his own image and he was able to recall this close union we
had! He began to recognize me and once he did it was such a reunion!
DO YOU GET IT
YET? HE RECOGNIZED HIS OWN IMAGE;...WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE OUR OWN IMAGE AS GOD
IS SHOWING US! He is reaching out and reaching down for us saying; "Look,
see me!" GOD SAYS THAT HE CREATED US IN HIS OWN IMAGE...HIS THUMBPRINT IS
ON US, AND UPON EVERY CELL... RIGHT DOWN TO OUR DNA. He is crying out to
us...like the concerned, worried parent saying; "Please come home, I just
want to protect you and love you and show you How good life can be!"
This event has
caused me to gain INCREDIBLE faith beyond what was already really quite
spectacular. The power of prayer, the power of remaining obedient to God,
the benefit of remaining obedient.
God showed me
something else...While seeking to be walking in his ordinances...something so
very close, so very precious and vital to me went missing. I say that because
it no longer recognized me, it denied me, it sought to run from me and it did,
or so I thought.....as I drew closer it saw me as a possible threat. It ran
from me. Is this not what mankind does, we run from God? That loss that I
suffered affected me so deeply. God allowed it so that He could reveal himself
even greater to me, like how I tried to do for daVinci, I was saying;
"Here!..look!...don't you remember?...How much we love each other!?,...I
love you! ~ You love me!..Look, I have proof!...Here, That is me ~
That is you~ This
is us!"...(I'm so crying right now) This was a reflection of
something that I lived through; a while back something I cherished very much
also ran from me...because I wished to makes things right in God's eyes. I now
know I am fully home because I know where I am loved, having been once lost myself.
There is one still out there, in the wilderness, whom I pray for; because that
Love is so strong, that love is real, that love is trans formative ...because
that LOVE BARES PROOF, love yields hope. All things within God's will are good
and acceptable, all things within God's will are inconceivably possible and far
better than the best of things without Him! God allowed me to speak to my cat's
spirit beyond the fur and bones. I speak to the spirit of the lost right now,
please come home, please recognize this and these words, return to the Lord's
safety, the Lord's word!
Throughout this
ordeal so many people offered such wonderful insight, let me share some of
these tidbits.....
"When we
ride/stand on that fence between God's way and the World's way (which is really
Satan's way) eventually Satan demands you get over on his side or he threatens
to knock you off ...(God wont knock you off that fence) but Satan will...and
God isn't going to prevent you from falling on your face when he does! God is
going to allow it...because it's for your own good!"
Another friend
said;... "When we WONDER OUTSIDE OF THE SAFETY OUR HIS WILL...(LIKE
OUR PET WANDERED FROM THEIR SAFETY ZONE) WE ARE SUBJECT TO EXPERIENCE MENTAL
AND PHYSICAL ANGUISH)."
Are you a cub on
the run from the Lord?! The door has been open for a long long time. I don't
give up hope because I know God loves US, He showed me proof, I recognize Him
and I love Him because He loved me first and He loves you too! "Come
HOME!"
HEAVENLY FATHER I
come to you this day, this very hour on behalf of those who have turned from
you, who have run off, seeking their own will and desires. Father I pray that
they can hear us, the brethren, Sisters and Brothers who have come home, having
been lost to the world and it's pursuits. Father, the spirit cries out and its
prayer rises like incense, signaling the way of redemption , salvation,
eternity. Give the right words when they are needed, send messages through
others, use everything at your disposal Lord to usher our loved ones Home
before the door is shut! We know you hear us and we offer this Praise and
Thankfulness that we may come to you in such Confidence, we are grateful for
your promises, knowing you are Faithful and True, your unfailing word is our
greatest assurance and we commit these lost ones to your loving care. We commit
to pray for them, to call for them and when we come across one to gently remind
them of the connection that is shared and How Much Your Love is Their Haven and
Home! AMEN!
2 Corinthians 4:4
4The god of
this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall
search for me with all your heart.
¤ Susan SMZ3D ت smz ™ © ®
