God just used me today to cast a demon out.

[Heart2Soul]

Yes, I prayed for Bill on that occasion, not for his healing specifically, but for his acceptance of God's will in the circumstances regardless of the outcome. I spoke to him a number of times before and after the break room incident, arguing against his unusual understanding of scripture with Christ's own words and he was always receptive to the red letter text. We developed a relationship of mutual respect and when I had to give job assignments, I gave the man greater responsibility than the regular supervisors were inclined to trust him with. That's how I discovered that people will frequently live up to or down to your expectations of them when you've been placed in authority. I came to think of him as a friend, even inviting him over for dinner, but he declined (probably because his marriage was in trouble and he became separated from his wife and kids.) A little while after we'd prayed about his cancer, he confided in me that he wasn't going to undergo chemotherapy and was just going to let the disease run its course. He was prepared to die, to meet his maker, and to all observations it seemed like he'd made his peace with God. I believe that I would do the same in similar circumstances. He worked as long as he was able before "going out on sick leave" and passed about a year later. I was one of only a few people to attend his wake.

How sad but how joyous at the same time. You were put in the right place at the right time to bring another into the kingdom of God. Glory!

 

[Heart2Soul]

For you @michaelvpardo

 

[michaelvpardo]

How sad but how joyous at the same time. You were put in the right place at the right time to bring another into the kingdom of God. Glory!

I call such things divine appointments and I've had a few, some more bizarre than others. The last one occurred on Friday the 13th in October of 2017, the day that I was removed from my own house and kept from returning by a restraining order against me. I believe that it was also the last day of the feast of tabernacles, the first day had overlapped with my birthday and recently retired, I'd committed myself to full service to the Lord. Ten days later I found myself in the ER at Jersey Shore medical center, experiencing what could be reasonably diagnosed as a psychotic break. It was most definitely a divine appointment, but it was very much like being in a dream state while awake. I was lying on a gurney waiting, which is not unusual in an ER, but another patient walked up beside the gurney, stopping about 4 feet away. This patient was wearing a shawl or hospital blanket over his shoulders, had long hair and had strongly semitic facial features (he looked Jewish, but I'm sure that I didn't ask.) When this man stopped walking near me, he stood still, and arching his back slightly, his eyes rolled up into his head for a moment so that they went all white and then we had a very peculiar conversation about a reconciliation though we didn't mention with whom. He asked me how this would be possible and I gave him this peculiar response about grace and law meeting together, grasping my hands together like I was shaking hands with myself. I told him that he knew the place. There was no theology in the conversation, no mention of God or Christ, and the weirdest thing about it was that I had no clue what we were actually talking about other than it being a reconciliation involving a thousand years on Earth and then innumerable worlds. Everyone in the desk area had stopped what they were doing and were just watching the two of us, but when the "conversation" concluded I turned toward that audience and said in a commanding voice "don't you all have work to do? The show's over." With that everyone started going about their business again, but I heard a few comments that indicated that these people had been startled and wondered about the incident. One orderly actually came up and said "You crazy, man!" And I've had doubts about my sanity since then. I was transferred to another hospital and put in a ward for people with bad drug reactions and mental issues for evaluation and put on some very strong drugs intended to stabilize my brain chemistry. I spent the week attending little group sessions and ministering Christ to anyone with an ear to hear. I got one guy who wouldn't speak to open up a bit about his issues, helped a few others work through the reasons that got them placed on the ward. It was a profitable week of ministry, even though it was the occasion of losing everything in my life, but I realized later that it had been part of my testimony at baptism that if I lost everything in this world, I would still have Christ and He is more than enough. The Lord let me be tested and the Lord brought me through. Amen and hallelujah!
Since then the Lord has been restoring my fortunes, providing sufficient cash through a union contract agreement and retroactive pay to put 30% down on my little ranch in the woods, restoring family relationships broken by my X, even reconciling me to her after her live in boyfriend suffered the early onslaught of dementia brought on by covid 19 (I've been helping her financially for about a year so that she can live in the house that was more important to her than our marriage.)
I haven't worked through everything myself, sometimes my peace is disturbed and I get very angry for no good reason. I'd wanted to find a fellowship to join for worship after moving in to my new old house, but then the pandemic hit and no churches in the area were conducting services. (I actually closed about 2 weeks before the outbreak in Wuhan, but I had my eyes on the news and assumed that the virus was already here.) I've seen some area churches opening up, but now I'm hesitant to attend services with a small congregation out of embarrassment over my divorce and the inevitable questions and judgments that go with community churches. The Lord seems to be leading me in a direction toward involvement with a worship team again, making me long to play my old guitar and sing songs of love and praise to Him, but I certainly can't sing with a mask on so it seems like the timing isn't quite right yet. It seems like the pandemic is nearly over in the U.S., but I'm anticipating new and more troublesome things on the horizon (not for me, but for the world), but I suppose that such just goes with a ministry of preaching impending judgement and the imminent return of our Lord. (As I said, I have doubts, not about my relationship with my Lord, but about my sanity, about the nature of reality, and about my perception of events.)To be perfectly honest I would almost prefer to be mistaken in my beliefs, totally wrong, completely bonkers even, rather than deal with the potential permanent loss of dearly loved friends and relatives who don't know Christ.
Even so, come Lord Jesus, come. Amen.

 

[Wynona]

Praise God!!