WORKING the WORD

Journal Entry, Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2010

I have been given a great gift and so acknowledge it this precious Thanksgiving Day!,

I relish the joy of last night’s Thanksgiving concert performance at my church. I shared the stage with our worship team and my two best friends, lead guitarist Chris Durante and drummer Phil Long. Friends and family came out to experience. Three weeks of hard work culminated to this special night. Weeks before, monkey wrenches threatened to interfere with the forward momentum, but God enabled me to get Phil’s commitment for the concert.

An hour and a half before the concert, everyone was in their place rehearsing with Phil during the sound check. As he’d promised, he was prepared and excited. God had heard and answered our prayers for a beautiful sounding concert presentation! I worked my faith all week Weeks before the concert, I was straddled with a myriad of concert-related tasks: PR work, do, printing and copying lyric sheets, burning CDs for the band members, designing flyers, programs brochures, making calls to the local newspaper and working out rehearsal times convenient for everyone. It took much focus and energy to groom and arrange the repertoire into a well-presented concert. The harried flow of my schedule was further punctuated by sudden crisis with two dear women fiends. I assessed the situations and prayed God’s intervention.

One of the women, Danae, (*name changed for privacy), a beautiful, singer, long-time friend and single mom has been surrendering to God. Over the years, I’ve been heartbroken and helpless on how to help her address her relentless health struggles, oppressive opposition, spousal abuse/neglect and financial crisis. Another precious woman friend was dealt a very bad hand and I wonder how these two have survived such overwhelming circumstances.

Looking back to my own life and seeing God’s gracious hand in all my crisis, I think about the endless succession of health battles, financial struggles, depression and marriage/relationship struggles. I was prone to acquiescing to defeat and thus spoke it out loud. I’m now emancipated from my prison because of the recent teachers on Christian television who teach on working the word and decreeing it out loud!

I’ve spent most of my Christian life ignorant of God’s power and the necessity of knowing and decreeing His word for warfare, victory and success. Many of God’s children daily decree death and lack through their own tongues unaware that the enemy uses their very words against them! Teacher Andrew Wommack speaks of working God’s word to claim healing, favor and provision. I’ve come to the conclusion that being a Child of God is hard work, dedication and boldness. How often in my Christen life, I’ve despaired of my circumstance, rather than give him praise that He has already given me the victory over my situation, spiritual discernment to make a wise doeskin and the boldness to bring success into existence! Doors of help, favor and provision are opening and He gives me supernatural knowledge or understanding about a matter or situation, because I asked appropriately. God doesn’t answer prayers laden with doubt, unforgiveness or fear. The Bible says to put on the mind of Christ and He has NOT given us a spirit of fear, (timidity) but of power and might and a sound mind! 2 Tim 1:7

Today, many of God’s people are angry and miserable that they are suffering greatly! 1 Pet 4:12 We must remember that Christianity is all about massive spiritual warfare. Our most deadly foe, Satan’s MO is to kill, steal and destroy and accusing us daily before our Heavenly Father. Will we faint under the demonic assaults or do we oppose with our spiritual armor, the Word of God? I most certainly am sick and tired of moaning and circling my same spiritual mountain a hundred times for most of my Christian life! Rest assured that I have gagged on my spoiled, bad fruits of uttering death decrees on my life.

“Oh....I can’t take it anymore. This poverty is killing me. I’m getting the flue, I’m so tired. I’m too old. I’ll be a spinster forever. I have cancer.”.The death decrees go on and on...But what does God’s word say I am?

I am the righteousness of Christ. My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches and glory. I am healed by Jesus stripes. I am the head and not the tail. I am the beloved of the Lord! There are hundreds of promises that we need to speak daily over our lives without doubting. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek HIM with all their heart! Heb 11:6 We must understand the implication of diligence, faithfulness and trust. Abraham’s faith was rewarded by God after he waited many decades for his promised son! Do we have that kind of trust..to expect God’s promises even when the waiting seems like an eternity?

Are we willing to open our hearts, to forgive those who’ve wounded us, wait on His timing, (which, by the way...is never early, but always in His timetable) and be thankful in all things? Extreme suffering, hardship or even being born into misery does not negate God’s supreme power, ability or us fulfilling our destiny. In fact, some who have the most trial, challenges and suffering are so humbled by their circumstances that God is more able to use them as a magnificent vessel and testimony of His greatness. Now, that makes me feel so much better!

Joseph, St Paul, old testament prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and especially Job are examples of “working” the word faithfully and consistently Modern examples of faith heroes are Nick Vujicic, (http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org) the armless, legless young evangelist and Joni Erickson-Tada, ( http://www.joniandfriends.org paraplegic who have both astounded the world with their amazing accomplishments, testimonies and witness for Christ!

God despises cowards and lazy people, (read your Bible and read about what happens to the doubting and fearful yourself) He tells Joshua to be not afraid and be a of a good courage. The fearful, doubting and unforgiving will not receive anything from the Lord. He is a unstable man in all his ways. James 1:8

The secret of victory and spiritual promotion is learning to saturate your mind with God’s word and promises, putting on the mind of Chris.... daily. This is called working the WORD. The reality of faith and excellence in Christ is that we have some hard work ahead. We can’t expect God to magically drop provision, favor, answered prayers like candy in a gum machine. Like a starving coyote waiting for the mother hen to bear her offspring so he can immediately devour the newborn chick, so is satan laying wait for our mouths to speak death so he can use our very words to snare us and keep us bound and defeated!

Work the word, daily, (and for some of us, hourly) hourly people. You shall reap if you faint not! Gal 6:9 Those who believe and trust God with all their hearts and address Him in faith by the words of their mouth will receive. It may take many failed attempts to see results from speaking His word over your situation, but if you are persistent...God will see that you mean business. He loves it when we address Him in faith using His very word! He is faithful!

Two choices. Survive in misery or live in hope. Work the WORD and it will work for you!!

5 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

My BORDER"S BOOKS concert, this Friday, October 30th, marked the five years married to my soul mate and best friend, Mark.

I look back to our first meeting at my Thanksgiving dinner at my Bradley Beach artists loft with a smile. Seeing him walk up the stairs with his best friend Claude, he was easy on my eyes. I later found him to be such a gentleman that he didn't even try to kiss me. We knew that God had created us for each other by the third month of courting, but waited for eleven months to go by before marrying.

Our marriage has been very unconventional, but we are bound spiritually. I would change nothing about my best friend and accept him unconditionally. Both of us have been severely abused, taken for granted and abandoned by our exes. Our love for God and each other is so surrendered that even though we both had parents who were harsh, highly critical and gave us little affirmation, God daily tempers our deeply-ingrained ugly attributes into what He wants us to be, nurturing, long-suffering and kind.

I can't imagine the difficulties Mark endures with his damaged spine, sleep-apnea, (walking up at 5 am), the breadwinners responsibility and to deal with the burden of my huge medical expenses of this Lyme-Dystonia condition. He is the most amazing, generous and hard-working man I have ever loved. This gift of hardship has drawn us together and we face the challenges together with great appreciation to God for each other. There is nothing that kills or maims a marriage faster than despising your spouses weakness. I accept Mark as he is, hot-tempered and critical and all and he accepts my forgetfullness, enigmatic and fragile femaleness, We take the good with the bad, but our trust in each others abilities outweighs our weakness.

Throughout our marriage, Mark has learned that when he despises my female fragilities, his prayers are hindered. Many husbands could learn a great deal about humility!

I want to share and celebrate my husband, Mark. I am truly blessed that God graced me with a godly man who is a fine human being, highly intelligent and logical husband and a good provider. The Lord is Good and His mercy endures forever!