My God is an awesome God!!!!

This is the details of some super cool stuff that the Lord did through Jeremy yesterday.  I share this to document for our future reference, to give God the glory, and to activate faith for anyone who may read it.  We have video testimonials from the people involved, but have not sought their permission to share them, so for now all I can share is my recap.  Since this all happened around and through Jeremy, I may not get the details fully right as I was not present, but this should be a fairly accurate representation of the way things occurred.

I think it started 1-2 months ago.  While we were attending a Sunday evening church gathering Jeremy got a word of knowledge about a heart condition someone had, but he didn't know who the person was.  After the service Jeremy was standing out front, and happened to meet a guy with congestive heart failure.  Considering that God has been communicating this to Jeremy, he believed that the Lord wanted to heal this guy.  So he simply, in the name of Jesus, prayed with power and authority over this guy commanding healing.

Jeremy hadn't seen this guy since then, and had been wondering how the guy was doing.  He had been asking the Lord to bring this guy to him.  Then yesterday morning around 6 am Jeremy and a friend were grabbing coffee at a coffee shop and this same guy walked by. 

Said guy, had left home that morning to go to a church service.  He sat across the street from the church praying, but never went in, for some reason that he wasn't sure of.  Then on his way home, instead of going the way that he would normally go, down the main streets, he said his bike turned onto a side street on its own, without him planning it, or knowing why.  Then a couple minutes later he got off the bike and walked, again for no good reason, he just did.  (We believe it was to slow him down, because Jeremy was not yet outside at the coffee shop).  Apparently this guy's niece had been bed (or couch) ridden for a month(ish) with some condition that the doctors couldn't quite diagnose or fix.  This guy had wanted someone to pray for his niece, and thought of Jeremy, because of their previous encounter.  At this point, I should mention that since Jeremy had prayed for this guy, he had gone back to the doctor and had received results that his heart function had gone from 23% to 57%, 100% increase!  Praise Jesus!

Once Jeremy heard all of the details that had brought him and this guy back together, he was sure that God wanted to heal this guy's niece.  So he made plans to go pray for her that evening.  And he did.  This girl had not been able to walk on her own for a month.  She had been using a walker and having others help her to the restroom, and for baths.  She was in pain.  She had had surgery on her back in 2003, and it seemed as though something associated with that initial problem was what was bothering her.

Also, I should mention that the night before Jeremy had gotten to see this guy again, and later pray for this girl, a young (maybe 5ish) relative had told the girl that the next day she would be 100% healed.  So cool how God loves to use children in His work!

So, yesterday evening around 6 pm Jeremy and the guy headed over to his niece's house.  They arrived, had introductions, and then spent some time worshiping the Lord before all together engaging in spiritual warfare against this sickness/ ailment.  They prayed simply, but powerfully, in Jesus' name.  While they were praying Jeremy had a vision of screws turning in the girls back, screws that had been put in her back when she had the surgery, but screws that she had not told Jeremy were there, this was complete revelation from the Lord!  And when they were done praying, she was healed.  She was up around walking, telling Jeremy that he could take her walker home with him.  Her legs were a little fatigued from lack of use, but she was out of pain and was able to take care of herself.

My God is so cool!  I am so humbled about how He can do anything, and at how He chooses to use His people to accomplish His will.  I'm in awe at how nothing is impossible for Him.  I'm grateful that He likes to give us good gifts.  That He wants relationship with us, which is why He chooses to use us to accomplish the miraculous.  At how this same power, that raised Jesus from the dead, that healed this girl, is available through the Holy Spirit, to dwell inside all who seek Him.

Do you know this God?  If so, please DO try this at home!  This isn't a story about how powerful Jeremy is, although I do think he has a special anointing on his life.  This is a story of how such a mighty God, Jesus, can and will do the miraculous, through His ordinary people.

thoughts from this fast...

As I mentioned yesterday, I spent the day fasting.  God used this fast to bless me with a lot of freedom, a lot of clarity, and a new level of love and compassion for Him and others.  He took me into a whole new level of relationship with Him.  I feel like I went from just being His acquaintance and knowing Him, to really being friends with Him.  To not just loving Him because I'm supposed to, and because He is good.  But to loving Him deeply, because He's Him, because He is love (1 John 4:8). 

I feel like often times I spend time with Him out of duty and obligation, not really listening, not really expecting Him to show up and speak to me, not believing that He will.

I feel like He's taking me into a new season.  A season in which I pursue Him with passion.  A season in which He is my passion.  A season in which I am so consumed by love for Him that it effects everything I do, every conversation that I have, every step that I take.  Where that passion in me inspires and brings out passion in those that I'm around.  Where I pursue the one true God, Jesus, with the same passion in which I pursued Jeremy when we first started dating.  Where I want to know everything about Him.  Where I want to spend every moment with Him.  Where He is what I think about, what I talk about, what my heart longs for.  A season in which I wake up in anticipation, knowing that I get to spend time with Him, knowing He is here.  A season in which I long for nothing other than Him.  I hope this season never ends!

He's giving me confidence in who He created me to be.  He's freeing me from jealousy and intimidation of gifts that He has put in other people.  He's telling me that although my gifts are different, they are not inferior, or of lesser value.  He's telling me that it's okay to desire more of Him, more gifts, and a deeper relationship with Him, but that that's only okay when done in love and to see Him glorified, and not out of a desire to see myself exalted.  He's showing me that I can't use some one else's formula for hearing and experiencing Him, because it's about relationship, that when I relate to Him, He will relate to me... simple as that.  (Why do we make it so hard sometimes?)

I love that I serve a God who doesn't want me to pursue Him out of guilt, duty or obligation.  I love that He allows and waits for us to pursue Him in freedom, joy, and love.  I love that He is creative.  That He is fun and funny, and not stiff, legalistic, and rigid like religion makes Him out to be.  I love Him!

fasting

Today was the fourth time that I've fasted from food in the last few months.  Each time that I fast I love it so much, and think to myself that I should do it more often.  So I'm noting some of this here, in hopes to remind and encourage myself to fast more often.

I am not someone who likes to miss a meal.  I love food.  I love cooking.  I love eating.  I eat 3 meals, 2 snacks, and 1 dessert every day.  I think about food often.  My favorite recreational reading is cookbooks.  I love menu planning.  I love reading and trying new recipes.  Perhaps I love all of this stuff too much.  But it's because I'm so passionate about these things that I feel so passionate about fasting from food.  To take a day to step back and say that although I really enjoy these things, I love God more, so much more that it seems ridiculous to compare my affection for Him to my affection for food.  To take a day to let Him be my bread (John 6:25-29, John 6:35) my sustenance, my energy.  A day to use all of the time that I would normally spend thinking about, preparing, and eating food to meditate on Him and His word.  A day with less distraction from Him.  A day in which my hunger pangs continue to turn my mind to Him, reminding me to seek Him, His presence, and His strength to be made perfect in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It awes me at just how supernaturally God sustains me through my fasts.  On a normal day once I start getting hungry my mind seems to get cloudy, I become foggy headed, irritable, and preoccupied with food.  Yet on the days that I fast my mind is always so much more clear and focused than normal.  I tend to feel a lot closer to the Lord.  I tend to hear His voice more clearly.  He tends to surface icky things inside my heart that I've been suppressing, so that He may offer me freedom in these areas.

I do not have significant breakthrough with every fast, but I do tend to feel significantly closer to the Lord during the length of the fast.  Fasting is not a formula or manipulation tool for hearing God, but it is just one small way of being able to lay down my will and desires and put the Lord above them.

Fasting is not something to be dreaded.  It is not something to be done while groaning and complaining.  It is a privilege that we should joyfully undertake, and joyfully carry out.  If we spend our whole time fasting having a negative heart and thinking about how hard it is then we have preoccupied ourselves with the negative and probably missed the positive altogether.  So when you fast, remember that you are fasting for the glory of God, and do so accordingly!

Sweet and Spicy Quick Pickles

Sweet and Spicy Quick Pickles

A few friends and I attended a pickling class at a local grocery store a few weeks ago.  This recipe is an original recipe by the lady who taught the class, but since I don't know her name, we'll refer to her as unknown Rouse's chef.  This brine recipe could be used for any type of quick pickle (cucumbers, squash, watermelon rind...), but I particularly loved the squash pickles that we sampled in the class.  As we learned, cucumbers need to be pretreated/ soaked with salt or lime before pickling to draw the moisture out and enable them to be crunchy.  The squash however, can just be dropped in the jar and covered with hot brine.  Since these pickles are heat sealed (rather than properly canned and boiled) they should be stored in fridge and not at room temperature.  Our instructor ensured us that these would remain good in the fridge for several months.  

-2 c rice vinegar
- c apple cider vinegar
-1 c sugar
-1/2 Tbsp red pepper flakes
-1 tsp mustard seed
-1 Tbsp pickling salt (or Kosher salt, but that may effect color over time)
-prepared/ cleaned vegetables and jars (I used 5 smallish squash, washed, and sliced lengthwise)

Combine rice vinegar- salt in pot.  Bring to a boil.  Place vegetables in clean jars.  Pour hot brine over vegetables and place lids on jars.  Allow to cool to room temperature and jars should seal themselves.  Allow to sit at least 3 days prior to sampling for flavors to fully develop.

::this week::

praying:  lifting up lots of requests for friends, family, our church, our city, the nations.

praising:  for answers to a few prayers that I have been praying for friends and family for a month or two... particularly for the provision for medical bills for a friend.

reading:  Psalms, Numbers, Isaiah, The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind

doing:  not too much... another nice, quiet week.  a walk date with a friend.  some 4th fun with some friends.  hosting a morning ladies coffee.  a meeting/ dinner out with our women's ministry planning team.  a birthday party for a sweet little girl.  lots of time at home.

creating:  still working on the baby shower banner, sign for our bedroom, and pillow cover for our living room.

cooking:  un-stuffed shells, curried chicken pasta salad, mongolian beef, sesame soy baked tofu, peanut butter banana oatmeal muffins, spinach pesto pasta, sweet and spicy nuts
,
contemplating:  things that I'm learning from numbers... 1) when people came to Moses for counsel he went and spent time with God before he gave them an answer.  2.) Moses was imperfect, at times ungrateful, at times doubted, and yet God still used him in a mighty way.  3.)  the Israelites were guided one step at a time, with no prior notice, by God through the cloud and pillar of fire... they never knew whether they would be moving forward, or camping the next day, and had to rise each day seeing what God was doing.  4.) when the scouts went to check out the promised land they allowed their circumstances (the giants) to cause doubt in them rather than trusting in God's promise and power... and this was after they had just seen Him do miraculous signs in Egypt and on their way (the red sea, manna, quail, plagues...) 5) when we, like the Israelites, doubt God, we find ourselves wandering in the wilderness and not accomplishing anything  6)  we need to stay current with God and have a current word from Him, because yesterday's word may be outdated.... God had told the Israelites to take the promised land, but they doubted and didn't, but once he sent them to the wilderness they repented and tried to obey the old word (take the promised land), rather than the new word (go to the wilderness),  this caused a premature death to many of them.

Mongolian Beef

I made this Mongolian Beef.  The only change that I made was to add 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes to the sauce ingredients for some heat and served it over brown rice.  This was good.  Not impressive or something that I would tend to make for company.  But it was quick, healthy, and good... perfect for a week night dinner.

Un-Stuffed Shells

Un-Stuffed Shells

I came up with this dish to use up the extra veggies and ricotta that I had lying around.  The spinach and ricotta combination remind me of my stuffed shells, so I went with that and opted for a small shell pasta.  This is unlike stuffed shells, in that it doesn't have red sauce in it, but you could stir a cup or two of marinara sauce into the ricotta for the full stuffed shell flavor.  You could add cooked ground beef/ turkey/ or italian sausage if you want extra protein also.  You could also substitute a 10 oz package of frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed of moisture) for the fresh spinach.

-1 box whole wheat medium shells, cooked al dente
-1 Tbsp olive oil
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-1 lb fresh baby spinach
-2 c part-skim ricotta cheese
-1/2 c fat-free half and half
-1tsp salt
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
-(optional) assorted veggies, cooked in olive oil and set aside... I used an onion, yellow and red bell pepper and mushrooms because I had them lying around needing to be used up

In deep skillet/ stir-fry pan heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add spinach in bunches, stirring until wilted.  Remove spinach from the pan and set aside.  Turn heat to low, place ricotta, half and half, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in the pan.  Whisk until well combined.  Stir in cooked pasta and vegetables and serve.